LONDON - Journalists unable to report and rescue workers unable to save victims of Israeli offensive hindering all movement and communication, writes the Guardian.
When internet connectivity returned to Jabaliya in northern Gaza after yet another blackout last Thursday, Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif took to his social media accounts to let the world know what happened during the hours the area was offline. Israeli airstrikes had hit several houses on the same street in the al-Hawaja neighbourhood, he said, killing or wounding an estimated 150 people – but no one knew for sure.
The ever-tightening Israeli siege of Jabaliya and several other parts of northern Gaza – enforced by tanks and ground troops – meant that civil defence teams and medics could not come to rescue those trapped under the rubble. No reporters could make it either, other than al-Sharif, who lives nearby. “No civil defence, no coverage, nothing but death and destruction,” he said in a video from the quiet, dark street. “No one is coming to save them.”
Several days later, there are still no official or comprehensive accounts of the strikes on al-Hawaja, a situation replicated across northern Gaza as movement and communication become increasingly difficult after four weeks of a renewed Israeli offensive on the area.
Israel has routinely jammed Gaza’s phone and internet networks during its year-long campaign against Hamas triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s attack on 7 October 2023. Networks are also often offline because of damage to infrastructure or a lack of electricity or fuel for generators.
Civilians, humanitarians, medics and media workers on the ground in north Gaza, however, say the problem is getting worse, affecting efforts to save lives, as well as journalists’ ability to report the news.
Communication between hospitals, health workers and aid agencies is becoming sporadic, and ground fighting has made travel increasingly dangerous, making it hard to coordinate care and treatment and accurately collect casualty data. The civil defence service suspended activities last Wednesday after crews were attacked by Israeli forces and tank shelling destroyed their last fire engine.
The estimated 400,000 people clinging on in the north say that the conditions are the worst of the war to date: Israel has attacked hospitals and shelters, and food and water are running out because of a blockade on aid deliveries and sieges focused on Jabaliya, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun. Several people the Guardian spoke to said clean water ran out more than a week ago, and they were drinking small amounts of wastewater a day to survive.
The Israeli military denies systematically trying to force Palestinians from the area to flee to the relative safety of the south of the strip.
The telecom blackouts and restrictions on movement are contributing to underreporting, or delayed reporting, of the bloodshed and suffering caused by Israel’s new offensive in the north of the strip, concludes The Guardian.
