RAFAH, Gaza Strip (KI) — Palestinians reported another widespread outage of internet and phone service in Gaza early Wednesday, hours after Israeli airstrikes leveled apartment buildings near Gaza City and as Hamas fighters battled Zionist ground troops inside the besieged territory.
Humanitarian aid agencies have warned that such blackouts severely disrupt their work in an already dire situation in Gaza, where more than half of the population of 2.3 million Palestinians has been displaced and basic supplies are running low more than three weeks into the war.
The Palestinian telecoms company Paltel reported a “complete disruption” of internet and mobile phone services in Gaza, marking the second time residents were largely cut off from the world. Communications also went down over the weekend, as Israeli troops made incursions into Gaza in larger numbers.
Attempts to reach Gaza residents by phone were unsuccessful early Wednesday. Internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org confirmed that Gaza “is in the midst of a total or near-total telecoms blackout consistent with” the weekend blackout.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the communication blackout would disrupt the work of first responders and make it harder for civilians to seek safety. “Even the potentially life-saving act of calling an ambulance becomes impossible,” said Jessica Moussan, an ICRC spokesperson.
The Israeli army has martyred and wounded scores of people in a new “massacre” targeting the crowded Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, the Palestinian ministry of health said on Wednesday.
It is the second attack on the camp in less than 24 hours. Several airstrikes hit the residential area of Faluja in the camp on Wednesday, according to Al Jazeera.
Scores of people killed or wounded were arriving at the Indonesian hospital in Gaza City.
Jabalia is the largest of the Gaza Strip’s UN refugee camps housing people forcibly expelled by Zionist militia and Israel in 1948.
On Tuesday, a barrage of airstrikes leveled apartment buildings in the refugee camp near Gaza City. Rescuers frantically dug through the destruction to pull men, women and children from the rubble. The director of a nearby hospital where casualties were taken, Dr. Atef Al-Kahlot, said hundreds of people were wounded or killed, but the exact toll was not yet known.
The occupying regime of Israel has been vague about its invasions of Gaza, but residents and spokesmen for resistance groups say troops appear to be trying to take control of the two main north-south roads.
An estimated 800,000 Palestinians have fled south from Gaza City and other northern areas, but hundreds of thousands remain in the north, including many who left and later returned because the occupying regime is also carrying out airstrikes in the south.
Gaza has been sealed off since the start of the war, causing shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel.
Israel has barred fuel imports, leading to a territory-wide blackout and warnings from hospitals that their emergency generators may soon shut down, putting patients on life support at risk.
Palestinian fighters have killed 15 Israeli soldiers in Gaza since Tuesday, the military said Wednesday.
Four troops were confirmed dead on Wednesday while the death of 11 others was announced on Tuesday.
At least 14 more soldiers have been wounded, including seven in critical condition, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
A prominent union of Muslim scholars issued a decree calling upon Muslim armies to “urgently intervene” to stop the “genocide” in Gaza.
In a statement, the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) said it was a religious obligation for Muslim armies to protect Palestinians.
“The ruling regimes and official armies are required by the Islamic Sharia [Islamic law] to intervene urgently to save Gaza from genocide and mass destruction,” the statement said. “Leaving Gaza and Palestine to be annihilated and destroyed is a betrayal of God and His Messenger.”
The union added that countries bordering Palestine - Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon - have a greater obligation to act, saying that it was one of the “greatest sins before God Almighty” to leave Palestinians to fend for themselves.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said at least 8,796 people have been martyred since October 7, including 3,648 children and 2,290 women.
Around 2,000 people are still missing, including 1,100 children. The vast majority of these people are believed to be dead and buried under rubble. At least 22,219 people have been wounded.
The war has threatened to ignite fighting on other fronts. Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire
daily along the Lebanese border, and Israel and the U.S. have struck targets in Syria.
A U.S. military base in Syria was struck by two drones launched by militias in Iraq, according to Syrian state media.
Two drones hit Al-Tanf base, a U.S. military outpost located at the intersection of the borders of Syria, Jordan and Iraq. The base has come under attack recently by militias.
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