Telecommunications, Internet Down in Gaza as “Israeli” Strikes Intensify

By Staff, Agencies

Telecommunication services have been cut off in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian telecoms company Paltel has said, as the “Israeli” entity intensifies its assault on the besieged territory.

“We regret to announce the complete cessation of the communications and Internet services with the Gaza strip, as the main paths that were previously reconnected were disconnected again,” Paltel said in a statement on Monday.

Cybersecurity watchdog NetBlocks confirmed that the “near-total internet blackout” would be “experienced as a total loss of communications by most residents”.

The announcement came amid intense air strikes across Gaza as the “Israeli” entity expanded its aggression on the besieged territory that began on October 7 in the aftermath of Hamas’ surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

At least 15,899 people have been killed in the “Israeli” aggression, according to Palestinian authorities, and more than 75 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said at least 50 people were killed in an “Israeli” air strike that hit two schools sheltering displaced people in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, in northern Gaza.

WAFA reported that ambulances were struggling to reach the sites of the strikes to evacuate the victims due to the intensity of artillery shelling.

The “Israeli” entity’s military on Monday called for more evacuations in southern Gaza as it widened its aggression.

The “Israeli” entity ordered Palestinians to leave parts of southern Gaza’s main city, Khan Younis, but residents said that areas which they had been told to go to were also coming under fire.

The “Israeli” military posted a map on social media platform X with around a quarter of Khan Younis marked off as territory that must be evacuated at once. The arrows pointed south and west towards the Mediterranean coast and towards Rafah, a major town near the Egyptian border.

The director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees [UNRWA], Thomas White, said there were no safe places for people seeking to flee the bombardment.

“People are pleading for advice on where to find safety. We have nothing to tell them,” he said on X.

Bombing at one site in Rafah overnight had torn a crater the size of a basketball court out of the earth, Reuters reported.

The apartheid “Israeli” entity’s closest ally, the United States, has called on it to do more to safeguard civilians in the southern part of Gaza than in last month’s campaign in the north. Washington on Monday said it was asking the entity to let more fuel into the Gaza Strip.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appealed to the entity to “avoid further action that would exacerbate the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and to spare civilians from more suffering”, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

“The Secretary General reiterates the need for unimpeded and sustained humanitarian aid flow to meet the needs of the people throughout the Strip,” Dujarric said. “For people ordered to evacuate, there is nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on.”