The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says the besieged Gaza Strip is experiencing the longest communications shutdown that has kept the territory cut off from the outside world over the past week.
In a Monday post on X, UNRWA, the largest UN organization in Gaza, said the telecommunication services in Gaza have been down for the past seven days.
It said “disruption of telecommunication services prevents people accessing life-saving information, calling first responders & continues to impede humanitarian response.”
The📍#GazaStrip is experiencing the longest communications shutdown since the war began.
People are cut off from loved ones and the rest of the world, increasing the feeling of isolation.
It also impedes humanitarian response and restricts access to lifesaving information. pic.twitter.com/tiY3uwPxsr
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) January 22, 2024
The Palestinian telecoms provider Paltel confirmed the complete loss of all telecommunications services in Gaza on Monday. “We regret to announce that telecom services in Gaza Strip have been lost,” Paltel said in a post on X.
“Gaza is blacked out again for the 10th time since October 7th due to the ongoing and escalating aggression.”
A near-total communications blackout across the territory leaves the civilians unable to call for help. Aid workers have also been struggling to reach the injured.
Digital civil rights group Access Now said last week that the telecommunications blackout in the Gaza has become a “matter of life and death.”
“It is unconscionable to toy with connectivity amidst unprecedented violence and unfathomable human suffering,” Marwa Fatafta, the group’s policy and advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement on January 18.
Gaza has been under Israeli bombardment since early October. The regime’s troops have also been engaged in ground hostilities in the besieged territory.
Israel has killed more than 25,000 people, mostly women and children, in Gaza ever since.
The regime was caught off-guard by the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm conducted by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas on October 7.
