Gaza Internet and Communications Severed as Israeli Siege Intensifies

Internet and cell service have been cut off in the Gaza Strip as Israeli airstrikes intensify on the besieged territory, where more than 7,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants. 

News outlets and on-the-ground aid groups reported on Friday that their communications with individuals within Gaza have been severed, and the 2.3 million people who live there are now left in a near-complete digital blackout. Jawal and Paltel, Palestine’s largest internet service providers, said Friday that service had collapsed due to Israel’s bombardment of the region, which has intensified in the last 24 hours. “The intense bombing in the last hour caused the destruction of all remaining international routes linking Gaza to the outside world,” Paltel wrote in a statement. 

Rolling Stone reached out to a half-dozen sources throughout Gaza — at major institutions and in private homes. None of the calls went through.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization affiliated with the International Red Cross which provides critical emergency medical aid to the region, said they have “completely lost contact with the operations room in Gaza Strip and all our teams operating there.” 

“We are deeply concerned about the ability of our teams to continue providing their emergency medical services, especially since this disruption affects the central emergency number ‘101’ and hinders the arrival of ambulance vehicles to the wounded and injured,” the organization added. Since the October 7 attack, the Gaza Strip has been placed under an intense resource and aid blockade that has cut off water, fuel, and critical supplies to residents of the territory. The only semi-reliable remaining mode of communication for those on the ground is a limited supply of satellite-based equipment. 

“We don’t have any internet, we don’t have any kind of signals on our phones, we’ve become totally isolated in the territory,” Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported Friday from within Gaza. 

Husam Zomlot, an ambassador and head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, wrote on X that he has “been trying to reach my family in Gaza for hours with no success. All telecommunications and internet have been cut, while Israeli strikes is literally destroying Gaza from air land and sea.”  

The communications blackout comes as Israel prepares to mount a ground invasion on the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli troops have amassed at the borders of the territory. 

“In the last hours, we intensified the attacks in Gaza,” Israeli Defense Force Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Friday. “In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight.” 

Earlier this week, the United States urged Israel to delay the ground invasion. U.S. officials have raised concerns that the Israeli military lacks a clear objective for their ground incursion and that urban warfare in the densely populated region could result in mass civilian casualties beyond those already killed by Israeli airstrikes.