Smoke rises from a series of destroyed buildings in Gaza on October 29 (Photo: NYT).
On October 27, three weeks after Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza and as Palestinians braced themselves for an impending ground offensive, basic services such as electricity, telephone, and internet were suddenly cut off. Two U.S. officials said Washington believes Tel Aviv is responsible for the incident.
"I feel blind and deaf, unable to see or hear anything," journalist Fathi Sabbah in Gaza wrote on Facebook on October 29.
Since Hamas militants launched a surprise offensive on October 7, prompting Tel Aviv to launch a strong counter-offensive, the people of Gaza say they have been living in a nightmare.
In that context, the Israeli military claimed to have surrounded the densely populated area, cutting off electricity, water, and medical supplies while unleashing a series of relentless airstrikes and artillery bombardments.
On October 29, the Israeli military announced it had expanded a ground offensive overnight and issued increasingly urgent warnings that Palestinian civilians should move to southern Gaza, despite ongoing devastating airstrikes there. Tel Aviv also said it was conducting airstrikes in Lebanon after at least 16 rockets were fired from there into Israeli territory.
Medical supplies were delivered to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on October 29 (Photo: NYT).
In Gaza, 47 aid trucks crossed the border from Egypt carrying water, food, and medicine. This is the largest single-day delivery since trucks were first allowed into Gaza on October 21, but it is still insufficient to meet the support requested by aid organizations.
Ahmed Yousef, a 45-year-old civil servant living in the town of Deir El Balah, said he thought the power and water outages were the worst that had happened. "But the loss of communication was actually much worse," he said. At first, he thought it was just a temporary setback, but then learned that Gaza had been almost completely without electricity. He was forced to use a solar power system to watch Al Jazeera satellite television, his only connection to the outside world .
Abdulmajeed Melhem, CEO of Paltel Group, Palestine's leading telecommunications company, said that connectivity was unexpectedly partially restored around 4 a.m. on October 29. He added that the company had not repaired the problem and did not understand how or why the service had partially resumed.
He argued that the Israeli government was responsible for cutting and restoring these services. Israeli officials have so far declined to comment on the accusation that they deliberately cut off these essential services to carry out the attack. Two U.S. officials said they had urged their Israeli counterparts to do everything they could to restore communication.
Horror and anger spread throughout Gaza.
Bodies wrapped in white sheets lie on the streets of Gaza awaiting burial (Photo: NYT).
The power outage and loss of communication have caused panic and anger throughout the Gaza Strip.
Isolated from the outside world—and isolated from one another—the people of Gaza are facing scenes straight out of an apocalyptic movie.
Mahmoud Basl, a civil defense official, said rescue teams had to try to pinpoint the locations of the airstrikes by observing the direction of the explosions. In other cases, volunteers picked up the injured and transported them to hospitals, while also notifying the teams when they arrived at the airstrike site so they could try to rescue others left behind, he added.
Yusuf Al-Loh, the executive director of a health service agency under the Ministry of Interior, described people running more than 2km to reach the rescue team and cry for help. He said that eventually, when some arrived, they were so angry and felt abandoned that they insulted the rescuers, causing worrying psychological pressure.
"This is a worrying sign that civil order is beginning to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege in Gaza," said Thomas White, Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip. He added: "Tensions and fear are worsening due to the cutting off of telephone and internet lines. They feel isolated, cut off from their families in Gaza and the rest of the world."
Helmi Mousa was one of the few residents with internet access on the morning of October 28th amidst a widespread power outage. However, that didn't ease his anxiety as he still couldn't contact relatives living just a few kilometers away.
Mr. Mousa, 70, a retired writer, and his wife Basma Attia lived in a ninth-floor apartment in Gaza City. "The explosions were happening to our left, to our right – from every direction," he said. "It felt like 100 planes were attacking Gaza – and it felt like there were no limits to madness or what could be imagined."
Yousef, a civil servant, was sitting at home with his two daughters, listening to the sounds of the airstrikes. So far, they were unharmed, although he said he felt as though something had broken in this war, one of the most horrific wars.
"If I survive this war, my family and I will leave Gaza forever. This cannot be our life," he said.
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