The telecommunications blackout in Gaza amid Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the Palestinian territory risks providing cover for mass atrocities, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday. This warning comes after internet access and the phone network was completely cut across the Gaza Strip on Friday, nearly three weeks after Israel began bombarding the enclave following a Hamas attack that so far killed at least 1,400 people.
Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip says at least 7,326 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes since the October 7 attack. “Widespread phone and internet outages occurred in Gaza on October 27, 2023, amid a concerted Israeli bombardment, almost entirely cutting off the 2.2 million residents from the outside world,” HRW said in a statement. “This information blackout risks providing cover for mass atrocities and contributing to impunity for human rights violations,” Deborah Brown, the group’s senior technology and human rights researcher, said in the statement.
Dozens 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. “This communications blackout means that it will be even more difficult to obtain critical information and evidence about human rights violations and war crimes being committed against Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” it added.
This development comes as the UN General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution calling for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers. It was the first U.N. response to Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and Israel’s ongoing military response and vow to obliterate Hamas.
The 193-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment to unequivocally condemn the “terrorist attacks” by Hamas and demand the immediate release of hostages taken by the militant group.
(With agency inputs)