Gaza gradually returns online
Internet, phone service restored for many amid heavy bombing
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Two days after cellular and internet service abruptly vanished for most of Gaza amid a heavy Israeli bombardment, the crowded enclave came back online Sunday as communications systems were gradually restored.
The communications blackout began late Friday as Israel expanded ground operations and launched intense airstrikes. A rare few Palestinians with international SIM cards or satellite phones were still able to communicate.
By Sunday morning, phone and internet communications had been restored to many people in Gaza, according to telecommunications providers in the area, Internet-access advocacy group Netblocks.org and confirmation on the ground.
Social media has been a lifeline for Palestinians desperate to get news after the Israeli military counterattacked in response to a bloody cross-border murder spree by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 people.
Afraid her link to the world could drop at any moment, 28-year-old Palestinian journalist Hind alkhoudary said the massive airstrikes that shook the ground exceeded anything she had experienced over the past three weeks or any of the four previous Israel-hamas wars.
“It was crazy,” she said. Mohammed Abdel Rahman, a journalist in northern Gaza, kept track of Israeli airstrikes all night, noticing the raids were concentrated along the strip’s northern border with Israel.
“A new bombing is happening right now as we speak,” he said, as the roar of explosions resounded in the background. “There is an explosion, gunfire, and clashes are heard near the border.”
International aid organizations, whose operations inside the enclave have been limited, said they couldn’t reach their staff nearly 24 hours after the blackout.
Doctors Without Borders said the group had not communicated with its team in Gaza since since 8 p.m. Friday.
“We are not able to send our team to different facilities because we have no way to coordinate with them,” Guillemette Thomas, the regional medical coordinator, said from Paris. “That’s really a critical situation.”