Israel-Hamas War News Live Updates: Netanyahu rejects calls for ceasefire; Israeli army frees one Hamas captive | World News
1 min read34 hours of fear: The blackout that cut Gaza off from the world
For 34 hours, the vast majority of the more than 2 million Palestinians who live in Gaza had no way to reach the outside world, or one another.
Palestinians prepare the bodies of people killed in overnight airstrikes for burial at the hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023. (The New York Times)
They had no way to know whether their loved ones were alive or dead. Emergency phone lines stopped ringing. Desperate paramedics tried to save people by driving toward the sound of explosions. Wounded people were left to die in the street.
On Friday at sunset, three weeks into Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza — and as Palestinians braced themselves for an impending Israeli ground invasion — the weak phone and internet service that had allowed some semblance of life to continue inside the blockaded enclave was suddenly severed. Two US officials said the United States believed Israel was responsible for the communications loss, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Panic rippled through the territory. (Read more)