Human rights group, Amnesty International, says that Palestine’s enclave has been plunged into a communications blackout for the ninth time since October 7. 

Amnesty International has decried the prolonged telecommunication blackouts in the besieged Gaza Strip as worsening the humanitarian situation and preventing aid organisations from carrying out humanitarian missions.

On Wednesday, the human rights watchdog said via X that Palestine’s enclave has been “plunged into a communications blackout for the ninth time,” since October 7. 

The Strip’s severe lack of connectivity “puts civilians in Gaza at risk, hamper rescue services and provisions of humanitarian aid, and deprives people of access to lifesaving information,” Amnesty added.

The blackouts also limit the international community from reporting on the war crimes being committed in Gaza by Israel’s ruthless military.

According to Wednesday’s United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs flash update about the crises in the enclave, the lack of internet access has “limited” the humanitarian agency from providing new information.

UN OCHA added that Israeli authorities have cut off Gaza’s supply of electricity and fuel since October 11.

This tactic from Israel continues to “hinder the aid community’s efforts to assess the full extent of needs in Gaza and to adequately respond to the deepening humanitarian crisis,” UN OCHA said.

Aside from low fuel supplies being heavily rationed between Gaza’s 15 partially functioning hospitals, a Wednesday UN OCHA impact report said that the Strip’s medical facilities are also critically low on medicine and blood products.

These shortages are compounded by the sheer scale of carnage wreaked on the enclave by Israel’s relentless aerial, land and sea offensives.

Latest figures from Palestine’s Health Ministry estimated that at least 24,448 Palestinians have been killed since October 7. Overwhelmingly, those killed were civilian casualties.

Despite being crippled, Gaza’s health sector is also withstanding the strain of the 61,504 wounded by the violent aggressor’s onslaught.

In a news release published on Monday by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Secretary General, Jan Egeland said, “This madness needs to stop.”

He also denounced the unlawful killing of civilians and withholding of urgent humanitarian aid as a cruel “bargaining chip,” and urged for an immediate ceasefire to be reinstated.