Gaza is cut off from communications and the Internet: rumors of the start of an Israeli ground invasion

The IDF is “expanding ground operations” in the Gaza Strip, Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari announced Friday. Intense airstrikes rocked the besieged enclave and lines of communication were reportedly cut.

The IDF is “actively active” on all fronts and will “continue to attack Gaza City,” Hagari said, repeating previous warnings that civilians should evacuate.

Gazans told CNN that Friday night’s airstrikes were the most intense they have faced since Israel began retaliating for the Oct. 7 Hamas attack about three weeks ago.

Speaking to CNN by phone from a hospital in Gaza, one witness, Salem Ahmad Ammar, told CNN that he and his wife decided to separate in the hope that one of them would live to care for their children.

“I don’t know if I’ll live to see tomorrow morning,” Ammar said. “I separated from my wife, and the children went to her parents’ house, and I came here to the hospital in case we die in different places, and perhaps one of us will survive, and our children will live.” We are making difficult choices.”

Following the attacks, a massive ground offensive was expected, during which Hamas killed more than 1,400 people and took about 200 people hostage into Gaza. However, it is not yet clear whether the IDF’s announcement of the expansion of the operation signals the start of this offensive.

Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CNN that the “expansion” of ground operations in Gaza means the Israeli army is “increasing pressure on Hamas.” He told CNN’s Jake Tapper that “this pressure will intensify and will continue to intensify until we achieve our goal.”

This is the third night of Israeli ground operations in Gaza, CNN notes. It came after weeks of bombing and blockade of Gaza, accelerating what aid agencies call a humanitarian crisis.

Hamas has vowed to retaliate if Israeli ground troops enter Gaza. Izzat al-Rishq, a senior member of Hamas’ politburo, vowed that Hamas was prepared to defeat Israeli soldiers if they entered the strip.

Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, told The Associated Press on Thursday that Hezbollah and other allies are expected to play a larger role as the war between Israel and Hamas heats up. “Hezbollah is now working against the occupation,” he said. – We appreciate it. But… we need more to stop the aggression in Gaza… We expect more.”

There were fears that the Israeli army could strike hospitals in Gaza after it said the enclave’s largest medical center, Al-Shifa, was home to a Hamas command and control center – a claim that Palestinian authorities in Gaza and Ramallah, as well as doctors at the hospital, denied .

Hagari accused Hamas of directing rocket attacks and commanding Hamas operations from bunkers beneath the hospital building and appeared to suggest that such hospitals could be on Israel’s list of targets. “When medical facilities are used for terrorist purposes, they may lose their protection from attack under international law,” Hagari said.

Gaza’s health ministry director general, Dr. Medhat Abbas, told CNN’s Eleni Giokos that Gaza’s hospitals are “only used to treat patients” and are not used “to hide anyone.” Hamas also rejected the statement, calling on “the United Nations and Arab and Islamic countries to intervene immediately to stop the madness of bombing and destruction of the medical system.”

Mustafa Barghouti of the Ramallah-based Palestinian National Initiative said Israel was lying. “They continue to lie to justify criminal acts against civilians, now they want to justify attacking people in a hospital,” he told Sky News.

And Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor who worked at Shifa Hospital several times, including during three periods of open fighting between Hamas and Israel, called the allegations “old.”

“We heard these baseless claims during the 2009 and 2014 attacks. We never saw a single sign or evidence, we had no restrictions on filming or photographing in Shifa, and we were never monitored in any way,” he told CNN.

Intensified shelling began on Friday evening local time. A CNN team based in southern Israel, near the Gaza border, reported a series of large explosions rocking Gaza City in the enclave’s north and “unusual, intense and sustained” military activity, as well as the sound of heavy machine gun fire. .

Gaza appears to be largely cut off from the world, with communications in the enclave severely disrupted by airstrikes, according to Palestinian telecommunications company Jawwal. London-based monitoring firm NetBlocks also reported that the region’s last remaining major internet operator, Paltel, was facing damage to its international routes.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh accused Israel of cutting off communications and internet in Gaza on Friday in “an attempt to create darkness so that crimes can be committed” in preparation for an IDF ground operation.

Several humanitarian organizations and UN agencies say they have now lost contact with local staff in Gaza.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization had been unable to contact its staff and “health facilities, healthcare workers and the rest of our humanitarian partners on the ground.”

International news agencies also expressed concern after the Israel Defense Forces said it could not guarantee the safety of journalists reporting from Gaza, Reuters reported on Friday. At least 29 journalists have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas since October 7, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), making it the deadliest period for reporters covering the conflict in decades.

Continuous bombing of Gaza since hostilities began following the bloody attack on October 7 has led to a crisis in the impoverished and densely populated enclave, CNN recalls. More than 2 million people have been affected, the UN Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the main UN agency in Gaza, warned on Friday, adding that amid food and water shortages, sewage was overflowing the streets. More than 7,300 people have been killed and another 18,500 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since Oct. 7, according to figures released Friday by the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah, obtained from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

The ministry says children, women and the elderly account for 70% of the dead. Fifty-three UN staff have also been killed since the fighting began, with 14 killed in the last 24 hours, UNRWA said in a statement on Friday.

Gaza’s hospitals were forced to operate under resource-draining conditions and power shortages; Eyewitnesses at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital reported on Friday that the facility was plunged into darkness.

One witness said Gaza was “left in the dark with no contact with the outside world,” adding that the hospital had received the bodies of 11 people killed and dozens wounded in the intensified bombing. They expect the number of victims to rise.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it had “completely lost contact with the operations center in Gaza and all our teams working there.”

As the intensified bombing began, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called on countries to vote for a UN resolution calling for an end to the fighting, saying on social media that any Israeli ground operation would “result in a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions for years to come.” “Millions will watch every vote,” he said. “History will judge.”

An overwhelming majority of 120 countries voted in favor of the resolution, which calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the war between Israel and Hamas and for the unimpeded flow of aid to Gaza. However, the US and Israel sharply criticized the text of the resolution for not directly criticizing Hamas.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan asked the assembly: “Why are you protecting murderers?”

“Israel has just experienced the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and in the opinion of most members of the so-called family of nations, Israel has no right to defend itself,” he said.

Israel’s expanded ground operation comes as efforts continue to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, CNN notes. Earlier on Friday, a source reported “significant progress” in negotiations.

When asked about a possible deal, IDF spokesman Hagari advised reporters to “not pay attention to rumors.” He denied reports that the hostage deal was close to completion, calling it “psychological terror and the cynical use of Israeli civilians by Hamas.”