After 2 months amid war, Google starts to reactivate live traffic updates on Waze, maps

For the first time in some two months amid the war with the Hamas terror group, Google is starting to gradually reactivate live traffic updates for Google Maps and Waze in Israel.

“As more drivers return to the roads, we are updating Google Maps and Waze so that users in Israel and Gaza can see real-time traffic conditions along their route as they navigate,” Google says in a statement.

Google, which acquired mapping app Waze in 2013, says that some of the traffic functions on Google Maps are still disabled.

After the onset of the war on October 7, Google temporarily suspended live traffic navigation updates at the end of October “out of consideration for the safety of local communities.”

Users of the navigation apps were still getting directions and estimated times of arrival for Google Maps and Waze, but could not see traffic build-up.

The move, which follows a similar step in Russia and Ukraine last year, was aimed at preventing revealing the locations of large concentrations of people who could be targeted by terrorists, or troop movements.