Iran Press/ West Asia: The near-total telecommunications blackout in Gaza amid Israel's ongoing bombardment of the Palestinian territory risks providing cover for mass atrocities, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday.
Internet access and the phone network were completely cut across the Gaza Strip on Friday, nearly three weeks after Israel began bombarding the enclave following an armed attack by Hamas militants that Israeli officials say killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says at least 7,326 people have been killed in Israel's retaliatory strikes since the October 7 attack, mainly civilians and many of them children.
A number of international agencies and NGOs said they had lost touch with their staff in Gaza on Friday, including the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA.
Its humanitarian coordinator Lynn Hastings said in a statement that UN hospitals and humanitarian operations "can't continue without communications," alongside energy, food, water, and medications.
The NGO Amnesty International said it had also lost contact with colleagues in Gaza.
206
Read More:
Zionists attack leave 3000 Palestinian children martyred
