Palestinian telecommunications companies say that Israeli military bombardment of Gaza has cut off nearly all mobile phone and internet communications services
Mobile phone and internet services have collapsed in Gaza under Israel’s intensifying military bombardment and “expanding” ground operations. That leaves more than 2 million Palestinians without reliable communication to the outside world.
Palestinian telecom company Jawwal, which provides mobile phone service in Gaza, said that the Israeli military’s airstrikes and artillery shelling had cut off all communications service as of 27 October, in a public statement. NetBlocks, a nonprofit that tracks internet disruptions, shared network data showing “a collapse in connectivity to the Gaza Strip with high impact to Paltel” – the parent company of Jawwal and “the last remaining major operator to supply service as connectivity declines amid ongoing fighting with Israel”.
This communications collapse follows weeks of disrupted internet and phone service in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes have steadily destroyed the offices and infrastructure of Palestinian telecommunications providers, according to Access Now, a nonprofit focused on digital civil rights. Cloudflare Radar, a service for tracking global internet traffic provided by the US internet company Cloudflare, has shared data tracking the decline.
