On Thursday, the Gaza Strip was plunged into a communication blackout, leaving most of the more than two million people in the enclave cut off from the outside world amid an escalation of Israeli ground operations and relentless airstrikes.
Two major Palestinian mobile networks, Jawwal and Paltel, said that “all telecommunications services” in the besieged enclave were down “since all the power sources that sustain the network have been depleted and the entry of fuel is not allowed.”
The networks had repeatedly warned this week that dwindling supplies would shut down their services amid a severe fuel shortage throughout the strip that has worsened an already dire humanitarian situation. The UNRWA, the largest United Nations agency in Gaza, which has been distributing aid coming from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, said it would be unable to deliver assistance on Friday due to the blackout.
Israel has been preventing fuel from entering Gaza, saying Hamas uses it for rocket attacks and has stockpiled fuel intended for civilians, and has cut off electricity there since it began its bombing campaign in the wake of surprise Hamas attacks on October 7.
Communications appeared to fail late Thursday afternoon. In some cases, phones rang unanswered. At other times, those calling heard a recorded message: “Contact with the beloved Gaza Strip was lost as a result of the ongoing aggression. May God protect Gaza and its people.”
This message is familiar to those who tried to communicate with Gaza’s population at the end of last month when communications were cut off three times for periods ranging from 12 to 48 hours after attacks damaged phone lines. U.S. officials also said Israel had disconnected Gaza’s phone networks and had caused some of the blackouts at the outset of the war.
Last month’s blackouts made it difficult for emergency and rescue teams to locate and evacuate the dead and injured in the attacks and caused panic and fear throughout the territory.
“Israel’s current refusal to deliver sufficient fuel and restore power will completely cripple Gaza’s communications network,” Amnesty International said in a statement Wednesday, adding that “civilians in Gaza cannot afford another blackout.”
Even before the fuel depletion and the damaged lines, reaching people in the strip has been difficult since the start of Israel’s retaliatory bombing campaign. Gaza has faced connectivity of less than 30 percent of normal levels since the war’s first week, according to data from IODA and NetBlocks, which track worldwide internet access.