Communication blackout in Gaza amid Israeli bombardment

Palestinians over the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israel’s bombardment on Thursday in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. (AFP)

• The war, now in its third month, began after unprecedented attacks by Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7
• Israel’s defense minister has warned the war with Hamas would last 'more than several months'

JEDDAH: Internet and telephone services were cut across the war-torn Gaza Strip on Thursday as Israel’s bombardment took more Palestinian lives.
“We regret to announce that all telecom services in the Gaza Strip have been lost due to the ongoing offensive ... Gaza is blacked out again,” the Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel said.
Israel kept up its barrage of Gaza as a surge in deadly diseases sweeps through displaced residents.
Israel’s defense minister warned the war with Hamas would last “more than several months” as he met US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in Tel Aviv.
US President Joe Biden said this week Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza was eroding international support.
The war, now in its third month, began after the Palestinian group’s unprecedented Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people.
In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched an unrelenting military offensive that has left swathes of Gaza in ruins.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 18,787 people have been killed, mostly women and children.
In Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, smoke rose from a grey landscape of rubble which people combed with shovels and their bare hands after a strike. One man sat on the broken concrete, wiping his eyes.
“Around four people are still stuck under the rubble” after an airplane hit the building “without a warning,” said Hassan Bayyout, 70.
Israeli troops have killed 12 Palestinians in three days of raids in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, including one youth shot dead at a hospital.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said the Biden administration must now “walk the walk” and take specific steps toward what has been an elusive two-state solution, including by applying pressure on Israel.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has rejected statements by Israel’s ambassador in London that her country does not want a two-state solution to the conflict with the Palestinians.
Sunak said: “Our long-standing position remains that a two-state solution is the right outcome,” adding that he is “incredibly concerned” by the suffering of civilians in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israeli artillery shelling intensified at various Lebanese border towns where Hezbollah is active. War correspondents reported “the use of phosphorus bombs by the Israeli army in shelling the outskirts of the town of Khiam.”