The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday misplaced contact with its employees in Gaza as telecommunications had been minimize off, mentioned the top of the UN company.
“We have lost touch with our staff in Gaza, with health facilities, health workers and the rest of our humanitarian partners on the ground,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.
He expressed “grave concerns” for his or her security and the dangers to weak sufferers.
“We urge immediate protection of all civilians and full humanitarian access,” he mentioned.
The publish got here after the Israeli military introduced that its floor forces would increase their actions within the Gaza Strip throughout the night time, a sign {that a} long-feared floor operation could have begun.
Communications and web companies within the Gaza Strip had been fully minimize off on Friday night amid heavy Israeli bombing of feeder strains, towers, and networks, the Palestine Telecommunications Company mentioned.
Ooredoo Palestine, a cellular community operator within the West Bank, mentioned its cellphone companies had been fully minimize off from the Gaza Strip on Friday night.
World leaders “must not” proceed to offer the inexperienced gentle for “atrocities to be committed” in Gaza, a UK-based assist group warned on Friday, including that they’re “terrified” of what may come subsequent within the battle.
“As Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment continues to intensify, and a large-scale ground operation looks imminent, we have lost all contact with our team in #Gaza this evening,” Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) CEO Melanie Ward mentioned on X.
Citing MAP official Mahmoud Shalabi, who has been reporting from contained in the besieged and bombarded strip, Ward conveyed fears that individuals in Gaza would undergo “massacres… done in total darkness,” as Israel minimize off the area’s electrical energy provide.
Tel Aviv additionally fully minimize off communications and web companies within the Gaza Strip on Friday night amid heavy bombing of feeder strains, towers, and networks, the Palestine Telecommunications Company mentioned.
Touching on civilian deaths in Gaza, which embrace over 3,000 kids, Ward mentioned: “With Gaza now cut off from the world, we are terrified about what comes next.”
Calling on the world to “remember their responsibility” to guard Palestinian civilians, she known as on world leaders to not proceed to “give the green light for atrocities to be committed in Gaza.”
“We need a ceasefire now, and an immediate end to these unprecedented horrors,” she added.
The battle in Gaza started on Oct. 7 when the Palestinian group Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood – a multi-pronged shock assault that included a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel by land, sea, and air.
Hamas mentioned the incursion was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and rising violence by Israeli settlers in opposition to Palestinians.
The Israeli navy then launched a relentless bombardment of Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip.
Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been working out of meals, water, medication, and gas, and assist convoys lately allowed into Gaza have carried solely a fraction of what’s wanted.
Nearly 8,800 folks have been killed within the battle, together with no less than 7,326 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis. Some 70% of the deaths in Gaza are girls and kids, based on official figures.
Source: www.dailysabah.com