Jerusalem: Internet and phone networks were down across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Palestinian telecommunications agency said, in the second such blackout in the besieged territory in less than a week.
“To our good people in the beloved country, we are sorry to announce that communications and Internet services have been completely cut off in Gaza,” the Palestine Telecommunications Company (Paltel) said on X.
Global network monitor Netblocks confirmed that Gaza “is in the midst of a new Internet blackout with high impact to the last remaining major operator, Paltel.
“The incident will be experienced as a total loss of telecommunications by most residents,” it said in a post on X.
An AFP journalist in Gaza confirmed the loss of communications, adding that his phone still had signal because he was using an international SIM card.
Another AFP journalist said only people with Israeli or Egyptian phone lines could still use their mobiles in the border town of Rafah.
Internet and phone networks were completely cut last week but were restored at the weekend.
The government of Palestinian militant group Hamas had at the time accused Israel of causing the shutdown in order to “perpetrate massacres” in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian telecoms provider Jawwal had blamed Israel’s “heavy bombardment” of the territory for the blackout.
Gaza has in recent days seen fierce battles between Israeli ground troops and militants as Israel has pressed its mission to “crush” Hamas after it went on a rampage in southern communities killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians.
Since then, Israel has hit back with a relentless air and artillery bombardment, which the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza says has now killed more than 8,500 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women or children.
Gaza plunged back into a communication blackout
https://arab.news/6pkjz
Gaza plunged back into a communication blackout
- The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 8,525, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza
Lebanese government imposes immediate ban on Hezbollah’s military activities
BERUIT: Lebanon's government said Hezbollah’s overnight attack against Israel were “illegal” and imposed an immediate ban on the group’s military activities, while also demanding its hand over its weapons.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said only the state could decide whether to go to war and called on the Lebanese military to prevent the firing of projectiles and detain anyone involved.
The move comes after Iran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel, provoking retaliatory Israeli strikes. The government convened for five hours and 15 minutes in an early morning meeting on Monday before reaching its decision.
The Lebanese cabinet meeting, chaired by President Joseph Aoun, started at 8am with ministers discussing the repercussions Hezbollah's launching of missiles from southern Lebanon into Israel and the Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
Sources initially told Arab News that ministers were “pushing for a decisive response to Hezbollah’s recklessness, regardless of the consequences.”
Lebanese MP Melhem Khalaf said the priority was to “shelter people that are evacuating their homes in relatively safe places. What happened at dawn on Monday has taken us from one stage to another, and we don't know where they've taken us.”
As US-Israeli attacks on Iran continued, Hezbollah said it fired missiles from Lebanon into Israel early Monday in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and “repeated Israeli aggressions.”
There were no reports of injuries or damage, and Israel said it had intercepted one projectile, while several fell in open areas.
Israel retaliated with strikes on Lebanon, killing at least 31 people and wounding 149 others, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Around two thirds of the dead were in the south of the country.
Lebanon’s government said it was holding an emergency meeting after Hezbollah’s attack triggered the Israeli airstrikes.
Iran has been firing missiles at Israel and Arab states in a counter-offensive since the joint America-Israeli attack Saturday that killed Khamenei and other top Iranian officials. The war has quickly expanded to proxy forces, including Hezbollah firing out of Lebanon.
MP Bilal Abdullah told Arab News: “All the appeals issued by officials in Lebanon not to embroil us in this destructive war seem to have been in vain. We were supposed to protect Lebanon.
“Whoever launched the missiles and drones from Lebanon has slaughtered Lebanon. Displacing people is a major tragedy. We are in the winter season, and the cold is severe.”
