Gaza’s phone and internet connections are cut off again, as Israeli troops battle Hamas militants

RAFAH – Palestinians reported some other fashionable outage of internet and phone provider in Gaza early Wednesday, hours after Israeli airstrikes leveled rental constructions close to Gaza City and as floor troops battled Hamas militants throughout the besieged territory.

The Palestinian telecoms corporate Paltel reported a “complete disruption” of internet and cell phone services and products in Gaza, marking the second one time in 5 days that citizens had been in large part cut off from the sector. Communications additionally went down over the weekend, as Israeli troops driven into Gaza in greater numbers.

Humanitarian help businesses have warned that such blackouts critically disrupt their paintings in an already dire scenario in Gaza, the place greater than part of the inhabitants of two.3 million Palestinians has been displaced and fundamental provides are operating low greater than 3 weeks into the conflict induced through Hamas’ bloody Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israel.

Attempts to succeed in Gaza citizens through phone had been unsuccessful early Wednesday. Internet-access advocacy staff NetBlocks.org showed 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 stated the verbal exchange blackout would disrupt the paintings of first responders and make it tougher for civilians to hunt protection. “Even the potentially life-saving act of calling an ambulance becomes impossible,” said Jessica Moussan, an ICRC spokesperson.

On Tuesday, a barrage of airstrikes leveled apartment buildings in a 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.

Israel said the strike, which targeted senior Hamas military leader Ibrahim Biari, destroyed a militant command center and an underground tunnel network, and killed dozens of other fighters. Military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said Biari had also been a key planner of the Oct. 7 attack, and that the apartment buildings collapsed only because the underground Hamas complex had been destroyed.

Neither side’s account could be independently confirmed.

In recent days, Israeli troops have advanced toward the outskirts of Gaza City from the north and east. Israeli officials say Hamas’ military infrastructure, including hundreds of kilometers (miles) of tunnels, is concentrated in the city, which was home to some 650,000 people before the war.

Israel has been vague about its operations in Gaza, but residents and spokesmen for militant 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 following Israeli orders to evacuate, but hundreds of thousands remain in the north, including many who left and later returned because Israel 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 allowed international aid groups to send more than 200 trucks carrying food and medicine to enter from Egypt over the past 10 days, but aid workers say it’s not nearly enough.

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. Israel says it won’t allow fuel to enter because Hamas would confiscate it to use for military purposes.

The strike in Jabaliya underlined the anticipated surge in casualties on both sides as Israeli troops advance toward dense residential neighborhoods. The military confirmed Wednesday that nine soldiers were killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing the total of military casualties since the start of the ground operation to 11.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas’ ability to govern Gaza or threaten it, while also saying it does not plan to reoccupy the territory, from which it withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005. But it has said little about who would govern Gaza afterwards.

In congressional testimony on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested that “at some point, what would make the most sense is for an effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza.”

Hamas drove PA forces out of Gaza in a week of heavy fighting in 2007, leaving it with limited authority over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinian support for the President Mahmoud Abbas has plunged since then, with many Palestinians dismissing the PA as little more than a security subcontractor for Israel, because it helps suppress Hamas and other militant groups.

Returning to Gaza “on the back of an Israeli tank,” as Palestinians automatically word it, could be a deadly blow to the PA’s legitimacy. The Palestinians have no longer held nationwide elections in 17 years, and the U.S. and Israel are not going to strengthen any vote through which Hamas may just achieve energy, as it did in 2006.

More than 8,500 Palestinians were killed within the conflict, most commonly ladies and minors, the Gaza Health Ministry stated Tuesday, with out offering a breakdown between civilians and combatants. The figure is with out precedent in many years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Over 1,400 other folks have died at the Israeli facet, basically civilians killed all the way through Hamas’ preliminary assault, additionally an unheard of determine. Palestinian militants additionally kidnapped round 240 other folks all the way through their incursion and have persisted firing rockets into Israel.

Hamas’ armed wing stated Tuesday that it plans to unlock some non-Israeli hostages in coming days. Hamas has previously released four hostages, and has stated it might let the others move in go back for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held through Israel, which has disregarded the be offering. Israeli forces rescued a 19-year-old soldier previous this week.

The conflict has additionally threatened to ignite combating on different fronts. Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant staff have traded hearth day by day alongside the border, and Israel and the U.S. have struck objectives in Syria connected to Iran, which helps Hamas, Hezbollah and different armed teams within the area.

The army stated it shot down what gave the impression to be a drone close to the southernmost town of Eilat and intercepted a missile over the Red Sea on Tuesday, neither of which entered Israeli airspace.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen later claimed they fired ballistic missiles and drones at Israel, announcing it used to be their 3rd such operation and threatening extra. Israel stated Wednesday that it had dispatched military missile boats to the Red Sea.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Amy Teibel in Jerusalem, contributed to this document.

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Full AP protection: https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.