Gaza Experiences 3d Communications Blackout since Start of War

Fire and smoke rises from buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled)
Fire and smoke rises from buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled)
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Gaza Experiences 3d Communications Blackout since Start of War

Fire and smoke rises from buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled)
Fire and smoke rises from buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled)

The Gaza Strip on Sunday fell under its third total communications blackout since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Palestinian communications company Paltel announced that all of its “communication and internet services” were down once again. Internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org confirmed that communications were curtailed across the besieged enclave.
Alp Toker, the group’s executive director, said that the blackout was likely to be experienced by most residents as a total or near-total loss of connectivity.
Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, told The Associated Press that the agency has lost communication with most of its team.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Ramon Air Force base in southern Israel on Sunday and reiterated his opposition to a ceasefire in Gaza.
Israeli jets struck a house near a school at the crowded Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday. At least 13 people were killed, hospital workers said.
Dozens of residents scrambled to remove the wounded and dead trapped under the rubble. Young men rushed carrying the wounded to ambulances near the school, which took them to Al-Aqsa Hospital. Hospital workers told The Associated Press that at least 13 people died.
The Bureij refugee camp is home to an estimated 46,000 people. Many Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza have stayed in refugee camps and schools as temporary shelters.



Israel Conducts More Ground Raids in Southern Lebanon, Strikes Beirut Suburbs

Rubble is scattered at the site of an Israeli overnight airstrike that targeted a house in the town of Ablah in Lebanon's Bekaa valley on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
Rubble is scattered at the site of an Israeli overnight airstrike that targeted a house in the town of Ablah in Lebanon's Bekaa valley on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
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Israel Conducts More Ground Raids in Southern Lebanon, Strikes Beirut Suburbs

Rubble is scattered at the site of an Israeli overnight airstrike that targeted a house in the town of Ablah in Lebanon's Bekaa valley on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
Rubble is scattered at the site of an Israeli overnight airstrike that targeted a house in the town of Ablah in Lebanon's Bekaa valley on October 5, 2024. (AFP)

The Israeli military said on Saturday that special forces were carrying out ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, destroying missiles, launchpads, watchtowers and weapons storage facilities.

The military said troops also dismantled tunnel shafts that Hezbollah used to approach the Israeli border.

Israeli airstrikes also hit areas in eastern Lebanon, according to state media. At least six people were killed, according to Lebanon’s state National News Agency (NNA).

Some 1,400 Lebanese, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed and some 1.2 million driven from their homes since Israel escalated its strikes in late September aiming to cripple Hezbollah and push it away from the countries’ shared border.

On Tuesday, Israel launched a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon. Nine Israeli troops have been killed in close fighting in the area in the past few days, which is saturated with arms and explosives, the military said.

Beirut’s southern suburbs was hit by 12 Israeli airstrikes early Saturday, including one that badly damaged a large hall Hezbollah has used to hold ceremonies, said NNA.

Later in the day, more strikes hit the area, from which tens of thousands of people have fled over the past two weeks.