The Israeli military has defended the complete telecommunications blackout on the Gaza Strip, saying that it will do whatever it has to do to protect its forces.
The entire of the Gaza Strip was knocked offline on Friday night before Israel extended its ground incursion into the north of the besieged enclave.
The Israeli Defence Forces refused to comment on whether they knocked out the cellular signals that left civilians facing bombing without any information and ambulances scrambling to get to the injured without guidance. Only a few people with satellite phones or foreign sim cards have been able to get any messages out.
Asked whether Israel had knocked out cellular services at the start of the ground offensive that began on Friday night, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: “We do what we have to do to secure our forces for as long as we must, temporary or permanent, as much as we need to and we will not say anything further about that.”
Palestinian cellular providers said that their services had been taken offline because of the Israeli bombardment.
The blackout – which analysts say may have been designed to stop the location of Israeli ground troops from being shared – has worsened Gaza’s already catastrophic humanitarian situation.
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