On Wednesday, the Palestinian telecommunications agency reported a widespread outage of internet and phone networks in the Gaza Strip. In the past 24 hours, the U.N. Humanitarian Affairs Office confirmed that 216 Palestinians lost their lives in Gaza. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres expressed concern over the inadequate level of humanitarian assistance allowed into Gaza so far.
News reports have revealed that foreign nationals and dual citizens who have been trapped in Gaza since the conflict began on October 7 managed to enter Egypt through the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday. Additionally, the first group of injured Palestinians will be transported to Egypt for medical treatment, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to return to the region on Friday.
Gaza is currently facing a complete communications blackout. Paltel (Palestine Telecommunication Company), the enclave’s telecommunications service provider, posted a statement on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, X, late Tuesday, informing residents of the total loss of telephone and Internet services. The company cited the cause as the reconnected international routes being severed once again.
This disruption in communication comes after Gaza experienced a complete blackout for two days starting last Friday, isolating the territory’s 2.3 million residents from the world and hampering the delivery of crucial international relief supplies. Notably, the recent outage coincided with an Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern Gaza city of Jabaliya, resulting in at least 50 fatalities and 150 injuries, according to Palestinian health authorities.