A prolonged communications blackout that severed telephone and internet connections compounded the misery Saturday in the besieged Gaza Strip, where a United Nations agency said hunger levels had spiraled in recent days.
Internet and telephone lines went down Thursday evening and were still inaccessible Saturday morning, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org, hampering aid deliveries and rescue efforts as Israel's war on Gaza stretched into the 11th week.
“The internet blackout is ongoing, and based on our records it is the longest such incident” in the over-two-month war, said Alp Toker, the group’s director.
The United Nations’ humanitarian affairs department said communications with Gaza were “severely disrupted” due to damage to telecommunications lines in the south.
The offensive, triggered by the unprecedented Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, has flattened much of northern Gaza and driven 85% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes.
Displaced people have squeezed into shelters mainly in the south in a spiraling humanitarian crisis.
In meetings with Israeli leaders on Thursday and Friday, United States national security adviser Jake Sullivan discussed a timetable for winding down the intense combat phase of the war.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was also expected to visit Israel soon to discuss the issue.
Israeli forces mistakenly shot and killed three hostages in Gaza City in the north.
An Israeli strike killed Palestinian journalist Samer Abu Daqqa and wounded his colleague Wael al-Dahdouh in the southern city of Khan Younis, both working for the Al Jazeera television network.
The two were reporting at a school that had been hit by an earlier airstrike when a drone launched a second strike, the network said.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Abu Daqqa was the 64th journalist to be killed since the conflict erupted: 57 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese.
The offensive has killed more than 18,800 Palestinians, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said Thursday before the communications blackout. Thousands more are missing and feared dead beneath the rubble.