ALL communications services across Gaza are down due to lack of fuel, Palestinian telecoms provider Paltel has said.
This comes as Israeli forces dropped leaflets warning Palestinians to flee parts of southern Gaza.
The leaflets, dropped in areas east of the southern town of Khan Younis, warned civilians to evacuate and said anyone in the vicinity of militants or their positions “is putting his life in danger”.
More than 1.5 million people have been internally displaced in Gaza, with most having fled to the south where food, water and electricity are increasingly scarce.
It is not clear where else they could go, as Egypt has refused to allow a mass transfer on to its soil.
With most of Gaza’s 2.3m people crowded into the territory’s south, residents say bread is scarce and supermarket shelves are bare. Families cook on wood fires for lack of fuel. Central electricity and running water have been out for weeks.
In addition to the loss of communications services, the worsening fuel shortage threatens to paralyse the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Israel allowed a small amount of fuel to enter Gaza on Wednesday, for the first time since the war began, so that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees could continue bringing limited supplies of aid.
The fuel cannot be used for hospitals or to desalinate water and covers less than 10% of what the agency needs to sustain “lifesaving activities”, said Thomas White, the agency’s Gaza director.
The war, now in its sixth week, was triggered by a wide-ranging Hamas attack into southern Israel on October 7 in which the militants killed over 1200 people, mostly civilians, and captured 240 men, women and children.
Israel responded with a weeks-long air campaign and a ground invasion of northern Gaza, vowing to remove Hamas from power and crush its military capabilities.
More than 11,200 Palestinians have been killed, two-thirds of them women and children, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Another 2700 have been reported missing, with most believed to be buried under the rubble.
This is not the first time communications services have been cut in the Gaza Strip.
Communications were cut at the end of October amid a round of Israeli air strikes, leading to essential healthcare services such as the Red Crescent being unable to deliver vital care.
