Several international organizations have warned that the Israeli regime has imposed a complete communication blockade on the Gaza Strip, which it has brought under a relentless war for the past three weeks.
The World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, Oxfam, a UK-based charity, and Doctors Without Borders raised the alarm on Friday.
Speaking through separate statements, they all said they had lost touch with their colleagues in Gaza as a result of the communication blackout.
“WHO says it lost touch with its staff in Gaza, with health facilities, health workers, and the rest of our humanitarian partners on the ground,” Quds News Network cited the body as saying.
UNICEF chief, Catherine Russell, also said, “We have lost touch with our colleagues in Gaza,” adding, “I’m extremely concerned about their safety and another night of unspeakable horror for 1M children in Gaza.”
We have lost touch with our colleagues in Gaza.
I’m extremely concerned about their safety and another night of unspeakable horror for 1M children in #Gaza.
All humanitarians and the children and families they serve MUST be protected.
— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) October 27, 2023
Oxfam said, “Gaza is facing total communication blackout as on ground and air offensive intensifies,” while Doctors Without Borders said, “We call for the unequivocal protection of all medical facilities, staff, and civilians across the Gaza Strip.”
BREAKING: #Gaza facing total communication blackout as on ground and air offensive intensifies. @Oxfam is deeply concerned about the situation, especially the total loss of communication with Gaza. We demand a #CeasefireNOW to protect innocent lives. pic.twitter.com/tkSd8DKunx
— Oxfam International Media Team (@newsfromoxfam) October 27, 2023
Executive Director of UN Women, Sima Sami Bahous and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) sounded similar warnings.
We have lost touch with our team in #Gaza. I am gravely concerned for them & their families. They have already lived through such horrors over the last 21 days & now face another night of bombardment & fear.
I echo my @UN colleagues; we need a humanitarian ceasefire now.
— Sima Bahous (@unwomenchief) October 27, 2023
The Israeli regime has been waging war against Gaza since October 7, when the territory’s resistance movements launched an operation against the occupying entity in response to its intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.
The death toll in Gaza since the start of Israeli aggression has reached over 7,400 with more than 20,500 wounded.
Tel Aviv has, meanwhile, been threatening to launch a ground invasion against the coastal territory.
Also on Friday, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for the implementation of an immediate “humanitarian truce” in Gaza.
The vote at the General Assembly came after the United Nations Security Council failed four times to take action due to the US’s recurrently casting its veto against relevant resolutions.
The United States and Israel’s other Western backers have supported the regime’s murderous crimes in Gaza as a means of “self-defense.”
