Phone and internet services are cut despite warnings that communications outages are worsening the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Israel has cut Gaza’s telecommunications and internet services for a second time despite warnings from aid agencies that such power cuts would seriously disrupt their work in an already dire situation in the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
Telecommunications provider Paltel reported a “total disruption” of communications and internet services in Gaza on Wednesday morning.
The disruption comes after Israel imposed a near-complete communications blackout in Gaza from Friday to Sunday, which lasted nearly 36 hours.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, providing sporadic satellite updates from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said Wednesday that the power outage had caused “waves of worry and fear among people and communities.” evacuated from southern Gaza, whose family members still remained in the northern part. and Gaza City.
“This power outage is very tragic for the people here and indicates that something serious is happening,” he said. The lack of communication only intensifies people’s worries “about what will happen to their loved ones and loved ones,” he added.
“The hardest part is the inability to know exactly what is going on. It is becoming increasingly difficult to understand the situation in Gaza City and the northern part as Israeli tanks move to separate the north from the south.
“The outage also jeopardizes the work of humanitarian agencies trying to help people on the ground, as they lose contact with members of their teams. Things are getting very difficult.
In a statement, the Palestinian Ministry of Communications called on neighboring Egypt to operate communications stations near the Gaza border and activate roaming service on Egyptian networks, stressing that “the critical humanitarian situation can no longer bear the loss of communication.
“Potential war crimes”
Israel used the previous lockdown to “cover up possible war crimes as it began its ground invasion,” said Marwa Fatafta, head of policy and advocacy for the Middle East and North Africa at Access Now , a global human rights organization.
Israel is using internet shutdowns as a “war tactic to inflict more suffering on the population,” Fatafta told Al Jazeera.
Even outside of power outages, communications in Gaza are “sporadic and unreliable”, she added, with Gaza’s G2 mobile network “further crushed” by fuel shortages and damage to infrastructure. .
On Monday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council that the United States had made clear to Israel that it was concerned about the communications cutoff in the Gaza Strip.
“A telecommunications outage puts the lives of civilians, UN staff and aid workers at risk and risks exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” she said.
During the previous blackout, Israel’s chief military spokesman refused to say whether Israel was behind the blackout, but said it would do whatever was necessary to protect its forces .
Asked if Israel had neutralized mobile services at the start of the ground offensive that began Friday evening, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari replied: “We are doing what we have to do to secure our forces for as long as we must, temporarily or permanently. as much as necessary and we will not say anything more about it.
On Saturday, Elon Musk said he would offer his Starlink satellite internet service to “internationally recognized humanitarian organizations” in Gaza, sparking protests from Israel.
“Hamas will use it for terrorist activities,” Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said on X, referring to the group that rules Gaza.
“Perhaps Musk would be willing to condition this on the release of our abducted babies, sons, daughters and elderly people. All! Until then, my office will cut all ties with Starlink.
