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.



France's Macron Will Travel to Lebanon Very Soon

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech to French ambassadors posted around the world, on January 6, 2025 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard / POOL / AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech to French ambassadors posted around the world, on January 6, 2025 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard / POOL / AFP)
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France's Macron Will Travel to Lebanon Very Soon

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech to French ambassadors posted around the world, on January 6, 2025 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard / POOL / AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech to French ambassadors posted around the world, on January 6, 2025 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard / POOL / AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Lebanon very soon, the French presidency said on Thursday, after Macron spoke with Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese army chief who was elected president, to congratulate him.
The Elysee said in a statement that it would support Aoun's efforts to form a new government, underlining that it must be capable of carrying out reforms necessary for Lebanon's economic recovery and stability.
Lebanon’s parliament voted Thursday to elect Aoun, as head of state, filling a more than two-year-long presidential vacuum.
The vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking international assistance for reconstruction.