Internet, Mobile Phones ‘Completely’ Shut Off In Gaza

The Palestinian telecommunications agency said that the phone and internet networks in the confined area of Gaza were unavailable on Wednesday, marking the second time in less than a week that such a blackout had occurred there.

The Palestine Telecommunications Company (Paltel) stated on X, “To our good people in the beloved country, we are sorry to announce that communications and internet services have been completely cut off in Gaza.”

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Global network monitor Netblocks confirmed that Gaza “is in the midst of a new internet blackout with high impact to the last remaining major operator, Paltel.

“The incident will be experienced as a total loss of telecommunications by most residents,” it said in a post on X.

The lack of communication was confirmed by an AFP journalist in Gaza, who added that since he was using an international SIM card, his phone was still receiving signal.

In the border town of Rafah, only individuals with Egyptian or Israeli phone lines could continue to use their mobile phones, according to another AFP journalist.

The phone and internet networks were totally down last week, but they came back up over the weekend.

The Israeli government was accused at the time of instigating the shutdown in order to “perpetrate massacres” in the Gaza Strip by the government of the militant Palestinian party Hamas.

The blackout was attributed by Palestinian telecoms company Jawwal to Israel’s “heavy bombardment” of the region.

Israel has been pressing its mission to “crush” Hamas after it went on a rampage in southern villages, murdering 1,400 people, largely civilians. This has resulted in violent engagements between Israeli ground troops and terrorists in Gaza in recent days.

Since then, Israel has retaliated with an unrelenting barrage of artillery and aerial strikes, which according to the health ministry in Gaza, which is under Hamas control, has killed over 8,500 Palestinians, the majority of whom were women and children.