A near-total communications blackout in Gaza, the longest of the war, has now lasted one week with no signs of abating, preventing humanitarian and emergency services from operating effectively in the territory.
It is the ninth such outage since Israel’s war on Hamas began following the group’s attacks in Israel on October 7, according to the Internet monitoring site Netblocks.
The blackout affects both physical and wireless data connections, as well as mobile phone usage.
“It’s almost impossible to do the work that we’re supposed to do,” Juliette Touma, director of communications for UNRWA, the largest UN agency operating in the Palestinian Territories, told CNN by phone from Jerusalem. “It’s something that is very difficult to imagine in this day and age.”