DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel crippled the Internet and communications in the Gaza Strip with increased bombings Friday evening, leaving its 2.3 million people largely cut off from contact with each other and the outside world and a near blackout of information as the The military said it would “expand” ground operations in the area.
The military’s announcement signaled that it is moving closer to a full-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip, where it has vowed to crush the ruling militant group Hamas after its bloody incursion into southern Israel three weeks ago.
Explosions from continuous airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City hours after dark. Palestinian telecommunications provider Paltel said the bombing caused a “complete disruption” of internet, mobile and landline services. The lockdown meant casualties from attacks and details of ground attacks could not be immediately released. Some satellite phones continued to work.
After most electricity was cut weeks ago, Palestinians had already been plunged into darkness and thrown into isolation. They huddled together in homes and shelters as food and water supplies dwindled.
Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their message chats with families inside Gaza suddenly stopped and calls were no longer possible.
“I was so afraid that this would happen,” said Wafaa Abdul Rahman, head of a feminist organization based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. She said she hadn’t heard from her family in central Gaza for hours.
“We saw these terrible things and massacres live on television. “So what happens if there is a total power outage?” she said, referring to scenes of families crushed in their homes by airstrikes in recent weeks.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said ground forces would “expand their activities” in Gaza on Friday evening and “act with great force … to achieve the war goals.” Israel says its attacks target Hamas militants and infrastructure and that the militants operate from among civilians, putting them in danger.
The Hamas media center reported heavy nighttime clashes with Israeli forces in several locations, including reportedly an Israeli incursion east of Burei. Asked about the report, the Israeli military reiterated early Saturday that it had carried out targeted raids and escalated strikes with the aim of “preparing the ground for future phases of the operation.”
Israel has massed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border ahead of an expected ground offensive. Earlier on Friday, the military said ground forces had carried out their second hour-long incursion into Gaza in as many days, striking dozens of militant targets in the past 24 hours.
According to the territory’s Ministry of Health, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has risen to over 7,300, more than 60% of whom are minors and women. A blockade of Gaza has led to a decline in supplies, and the United Nations warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people is “collapsing” as fuel nears exhaustion.
According to the Israeli government, more than 1,400 people were killed in Israel and at least 229 hostages were taken to Gaza during the Hamas attack on October 7. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people.
The total death toll far exceeds the total of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, which is estimated at around 4,000.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told foreign reporters that Israel expects a long and difficult ground offensive in the Gaza Strip soon. It “will take a long time” to dismantle Hamas’ vast network of tunnels, he said, adding that he expected a prolonged period of lower fighting intensity as Israel destroys “pockets of resistance.”
His comments suggested a potentially grueling and open new phase of the war after three weeks of relentless bombardment. Israel has said it wants to destroy Hamas’s rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel. But how Hamas’s defeat will be measured and what the final outcome of an invasion will be remains unclear. Israel says it does not intend to rule the tiny territory, but rather who it should rule – although Gallant suggested a long-term insurgency could ensue.
The conflict threatens to spark a larger war across the region. Arab nations – including U.S. allies and those that have peace deals or normalized ties with Israel – have expressed increasing alarm about a possible ground invasion that is likely to cause even more casualties as fighting in the cities takes place.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned on X that “the result will be a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions for many years to come.”
With no electricity, no communications and no water, many of those trapped in Gaza had no choice but to wait in their homes or seek the relative safety of schools and hospitals as Israel expanded its bombing campaign early Saturday.
Explosions throughout the night shot orange flames from the horizon over Gaza City and briefly illuminated clouds of white smoke that hung in the air from previous airstrikes. Some of the explosions came in dense clusters and appeared to hit the same location, with fireballs followed seconds later by a loud bang.
Lynn Hastings, UN humanitarian coordinator in the occupied territories, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that hospitals and relief operations could not function without phone lines and internet. The Red Crescent said it could no longer contact medical teams and residents could no longer call ambulances, meaning rescuers had to chase the sound of the explosions to find the wounded. International aid organizations said they could only reach a few employees via satellite phones.
The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern, saying the world was “losing insight into the reality” of the conflict. It warned that the information vacuum “can be filled with deadly propaganda, disinformation and misinformation.”
The loss of internet and phones is another blow to a health and aid system that aid workers said was already on the brink of collapse, overwhelmed by wounded people and running low on supplies under Israel’s weeks-long seal. More than 1.4 million people have fled their homes, with almost half crowded into UN schools and emergency shelters. Aid workers say a trickle of aid Israel has allowed in from Egypt over the past week represents only a tiny fraction of what is needed.
Hospitals in Gaza are scrambling for fuel to power emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment.
Gallant said Israel assumed Hamas would confiscate any fuel that came in. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometers (miles) of tunnels that originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial photos of a tunnel shaft that he said was being built right next to a hospital.
“They need oil for air. They need us for oil,” he said.
Late Friday, the army released photos purporting to show Hamas facilities in and around Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza. Israel has made such claims before but has refused to say how it obtained the photos.
Little is known about Hamas’ tunnels and other infrastructure. Claims made by the military and Gallant could not be verified.
Speaking at Shifa Hospital, Hamas media chief Salama Maroof called Israel’s claims “lies” and said they were “a precursor to the attack on this facility.”
“I’m ringing the alarm bell. “Imminent danger hangs over the medical facility and its residents,” Maroof said. The hospital is overcrowded with thousands of patients and wounded, and about 40,000 displaced residents have gathered in and around the site to seek shelter, the U.N. said.
Asked whether the military plans to target Shifa, Hagari said: “We will not be able to allow terrorist activities against Israel from hospitals and we must face this red flag together with the rest of the world.” He said Hamas is using “their own population as a human shield”.
Hundreds of thousands remain in the north of the Gaza Strip and are unable or unwilling to evacuate to the south as ordered by Israel. Israeli leaflets dropped in Gaza said those remaining could be viewed as “accomplices” of Hamas.
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Federman reported from Tel Aviv and Mroue from Beirut. Najib Jobain in Rafah, Gaza, Jack Jeffery in Cairo, Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem and Brian Melley in London contributed to this report.
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This story has been updated to correct the name of Hamas spokesman Salama Maroof.