April 28, 2024
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The United Nations was forced to stop deliveries of food and other necessities to Gaza on Friday after internet and telephone services collapsed because of a lack of fuel.
The communications blackout, now in its second day, largely cuts off Gaza’s 2.3 million people from one another and the outside world — and paralyzes the coordination of aid, which humanitarian groups were already struggling to deliver because of the fuel shortage.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, was unable to bring in its aid convoy on Friday, said spokesperson Juliette Touma. With no immediate prospect for Israel allowing in more fuel, it was unclear how long the situation would continue.
“An extended blackout means an extended suspension of our humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip," Touma told The Associated Press.
Israeli forces, meanwhile, have signaled they could expand their offensive toward Gaza's south even while pressing operations in the north. Israeli troops searching the territory's biggest hospital for a Hamas command center have shown a tunnel entrance and weapons found inside the compound.
The war, now in its sixth week, was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel, in which the militants killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and captured some 240 men, women and children.
On Friday, the military said it found the body of another hostage, identifying her as Cpl. Noa Marciano. Marciano’s body was recovered in a building adjacent to Shifa, the military said, like that of another hostage found Thursday, Yehudit Weiss.
More than 11,400 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to th Hamas-controlled Gaza Helth Ministry. Another 2,700 have been reported missing, believed buried under rubble. The count does not differentiate between civilians and militants, and Israel says it has killed thousands of militants.
Since the war began, Gaza has received only 10% of its required food supplies each day, and dehydration and malnutrition are growing with nearly all residents in need of food, said Abeer Etefa, a Mideast regional spokeswoman for the U.N.'s World Food Program.
“People are facing the immediate possibility of starvation,” she said Thursday from Cairo.
The breakdown of the communications network only worsened the situation since it's needed for electricity generators that run everything from communication systems to water treatment plants and sewage pumps.
Israel has barred fuel shipments into Gaza since the beginning of the war, but permitted a shipment to UNRWA earlier this week for trucks delivering food after the agency's fuel reservoir ran dry.
Speaking from Shifa Hospital on Friday, Dr. Ahmad Mukhalalti told Al-Jazeera television that Israeli troops, who stormed into the hospital on Wednesday, had brought food and bottled water, but that it had not been enough for the number of people in the hospital.
Israel has shown photos and video of weapons caches that its soldiers found in the hospital. The U.S. has said it has intelligence to support Israel's claim that Hamas set up its main command center in and under the hospital, which has multiple buildings over an area of several city blocks.
On Thursday, the military released video of a hole in the hospital courtyard it said was a tunnel entrance. It also showed several assault rifles and RPGs, grenades, and ammunition clips laid out on a blanket that were found in a pickup truck in the courtyard.
The allegations are part of Israel’s broader accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields across the Gaza Strip.
Following the surprise attack by Hamas, Israel has focused its air and ground assault on northern Gaza, vowing to remove Hamas from power and crush its military capabilities.
In recent days, Israel's military has indicated it could expand operations in the south, where most of Gaza's population has taken refuge.
“We are close to dismantling the military system that was present in the northern Gaza Strip,” Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi said Thursday. Israeli forces dropped leaflets Wednesday afternoon telling Palestinians in areas near the southern town of Khan Younis to evacuate.
Halevi said that while “there remains work to be completed” in the north, more and more places would be targeted in the fight against Hamas.
Overall, 35 people were killed in Khan Younis and Rafah, which is farther south, said Mohamed Zaqout, an official with the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Most of Gaza’s population is crowded into the south, including hundreds of thousands who heeded Israel’s calls to evacuate the north to get out of the way of its ground offensive. In all, some 1.5 million people have been driven from their homes.
If the assault moves into the south, it is not clear where people would go, as Egypt refuses to allow a mass transfer onto its soil. The Israeli military has called on people to move to a “safe zone” in Mawasi, a town on the Mediterranean coast a few square miles in size.
As the war continues to inflame tensions elsewhere, Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian gunmen in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, killing at least three. The fighting broke out late Thursday during an Israeli raid.
Israel’s military said five militants were killed. The Palestinian Health Ministry said three people died. The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed the three dead as members and identified one as a local commander.
