CNN –
A near-total communications blackout in Gaza, the longest of the war, has now lasted a week and shows no signs of abating, leaving humanitarian aid and emergency services unable to operate effectively in the area.
According to internet monitoring site Netblocks, it is the ninth such outage since Israel's war against Hamas began following the group's attacks in Israel on October 7. The power outage affects both physical and wireless data connections as well as cell phone usage.
“It's almost impossible to do the work we're supposed to do,” Juliette Touma, communications director for UNRWA, the largest U.N. agency working in the Palestinian territories, told CNN by phone from Jerusalem. “It’s hard to imagine these days.”
“When there is a bombing, especially at night, you cannot reach ambulances,” Jamal al Rozzi, an aid worker close to Khan Younis, said in a voice message to CNN. “If you have a health emergency, you can’t move because it’s very, very dangerous.”
Some journalists and aid workers have limited communication options near Israeli or Egyptian borders due to the use of international or electronic SIM cards. CNN has had difficulty reaching regular contacts in Gaza over the past week.
Thursday is the seventh day of the blackout, which began on January 12th.
Israel has been accused in the past of deliberately cutting off communications with the Gaza Strip – allegations to which it has not commented. And while it's not possible to say definitively what caused this outage, signs point to physical damage to the fiber optic lines connecting Gaza to Israel, Alp Toker, the director of Netblocks, told CNN.
“We, like everyone else, have been trying to understand the cause of these outages,” he said.
Oredoo, one of Gaza's largest telecommunications providers, said at the start of this outage that “the main lines supplying telecommunications and internet companies have been repeatedly damaged. This has resulted in the suspension of all our services in the south and center of the Gaza Strip.”
Two telecommunications workers were killed while trying to repair communications lines in Khan Younis when a shell hit their company car, Jawwal, another mobile operator, said in a statement on January 13. The company blamed Israel for the attack. The IDF told CNN it was aware of the allegation and that the incident was being reviewed.
Abed Zagou/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
A Palestinian produces electricity using solar panels in a makeshift tent where Palestinians charge their phones cheaply, in Rafah, Gaza, January 17, 2023.
“Without information and telecommunications, people don't know where to seek safety,” Hisham Mhanna, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross who is in Rafah, southern Gaza, told CNN via text message.
“Humanitarian organizations cannot take action. Since morning, despite great challenges, our teams have been doing their best to deliver some relief supplies to hospitals in Gaza. However, without phone lines and internet, our mission is extremely complicated.”
“When you try to plan a mission during a power outage, you can't predict the surprises or challenges the team might encounter along the way – it's difficult to maintain real-time communication with the team. It’s getting dangerous here.”
Al Rozzi, executive director of the National Society for Rehabilitation, told CNN that he finds it difficult to make even the slightest connection.
“What I use now is an e-SIM that people sent me from abroad and it works, but not always, not everywhere, not in every place. So I have to walk three kilometers to get to a point where we can have a signal.”
CNN has reported in the past on efforts by activists abroad to provide people in Gaza with e-SIMS.
The blackout also means that Palestinians both inside and outside the Gaza Strip have no way of knowing whether family members from whom they have been separated are alive or dead. According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, more than 24,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7.
“My brothers and sisters are not that far from me, but I can’t reach them,” al Rozzi said. “I can’t reach them to know if they’re okay or not.”
Paltel, which owns Jawwal, has alleged in previous incidents (e.g. November 1 and 5) that Israel intentionally shut down communications lines to the Gaza Strip, often coinciding with major military operations. A senior American official told CNN in the past that the US pressured Israel to restore connectivity in the Gaza Strip when it was cut off. The IDF did not comment on these allegations at this time.
In response to this latest outage, the IDF said in a statement: “It is important to remember that the Gaza Strip is an active war zone and therefore temporary disruptions in internet connectivity may occur due to the ongoing conflict.”
Toker told CNN that the outages had many possible causes.
“We also know that such incidents have occurred in the past due to power outages. We know that this is also due to physical damage to lines and fiber optics. So we know that this can lead to such failures. “So we can’t say with certainty, for example, that Israel will flip a switch – even though the means certainly exists.”