The Gaza media office said 2.3 million people in the enclave would lose access to vital services, including emergency, medical, and governmental institutions.
Ooredoo Palestine announced that its services would be disconnected in Gaza beginning on Thursday due to a lack of fuel as Israel continues its relentless massacres on Palestinians in the Strip.
“It is with regret that we inform you, our people and our subscribers, that our services will be disconnected in the Gaza Strip on Thursday due to the lack of fuel to operate the main feeder lines for all telecom and internet companies in the sector. May Allah protect Gaza and its people,” the telecommunications company said in a statement on Instagram.
Israel has continued to cut off electricity, potable water, fuel, and food supplies to the besieged enclave, resulting in a catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the bombarded Gaza.
The 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza are forced to deal with with extreme shortages in essential resources such as food, water, fuel, and medicine, a situation brought on and exacerbated by Israel’s weeks-long siege.
The entire Gaza Strip is facing what has been described as a “death sentence” after losing the ability to contact ambulance and emergency teams, following Israel’s abrupt severance of communications in the enclave, as reported by the Gaza Media Office on Monday.
On October 27, Israel enforced a 36-hour communication blackout in Gaza before eventually restoring connectivity. The Gaza Media Office highlighted the severe consequences of cutting off communications and internet access in Gaza, stressing that the move effectively hide all war crimes committed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), reports said.
It further stated that millions of people in the enclave would be unable to communicate with crucial services such as rescue, emergency, relief, medical, civil defence, municipal teams, as well as governmental and non-governmental institutions.
The office expressed deep concern over the inability of the residents to communicate with each other, a situation that could lead to “complete execution of Gaza,” reports said.
Describing the move as “a new crime added to the record of violations of international law and various international conventions,” the government office condemned it as a breach of the most basic rights stipulated in international norms.
Founded in November 2009, Ooredoo Palestine is only one of two mobile network operators in the area. It is 48.45% owned by main Ooredoo, 34.03% by the Palestine Investment Fund, and 17.52% by others.The parent organisation, Ooredoo, is a Qatari multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Doha.
Doha News has contacted Ooredoo Group for a comment but has yet to receive a response.
‘Nowhere safe’
Since the start of Israel’s relentless massacres in Gaza, IOF have killed 11,240 Palestinians, including 4,630 children.
Gaza’s health sector officially collapsed last month after Israel cut off all water, fuel and entry of necessities from the Strip as part of its complete siege. Doctors have been forced to treat thousands of patients on the floor without anaesthesia.
On Wednesday, Israeli forces raided Al Shifa Hospital, host to thousands of patients, medics and civilians seeking shelter.
Even prior to the raid, Gaza’s health authorities said Al Shifa Hospital has turned into a mass grave, in which doctors have been forced to bury victims inside the building due to the non-stop bombardment and attacks by Israeli forces around the vicinity of the facility. On Sunday, authorities said “dogs entered Al-Shifa Hospital and mauled the bodies of the martyrs.”
Elsewhere in Gaza, the Al-Quds Hospital ceased all operations as a result of fuel shortages, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced.
On Wednesday, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell warned there is “nowhere safe” for Gaza’s one million children.
“The parties to the conflict are committing grave violations against children; these include killing, maiming, abductions, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access – all of which UNICEF condemns,” she said in a statement after a rare visit to the besieged enclave.
“Many children are missing and believed buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings and homes, the tragic result of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.”
Speaking at the Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh on Saturday, Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani invited the UN to conduct further investigations into the Israeli claims, though he noted that “there is no justification for such a crime.”
“How did bombing hospitals become a normal thing? At first it is denied and the victims are accused, then it is justified by the existence of tunnels underneath these places, then it becomes something that does not need to be justified after feelings become blunted and eyes become acclimated to seeing tragedies,” he said.
