Internet services in Gaza cut off, says Palestinian telecom provider

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Communications and internet services in the Gaza Strip were completely cut off on Friday evening amid heavy Israeli bombing of feeder lines, towers and networks, a service provider said.

The Palestine Telecommunications Company said in a statement that "landline, wireless and internet communications services were completely cut off amid intense Israeli bombing on the lines with the West Bank, and on the towers and networks."

Ooredoo Palestine, a mobile network operator in the West Bank, also said in a separate statement that its cell phone services were completely cut off from the Gaza Strip as of Friday evening.

According to sources in the Palestinian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, there was a sudden halt in services from the Gaza Strip, with reason unknown yet.

Meanwhile, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said on Friday that it had “completely” lost contact with the operations room in the Gaza Strip and with all its crew members working there.

It expressed deep concern regarding "providing ambulances with services in the Gaza Strip, especially that this outage affects the central communications services and impedes the arrival of ambulances to the injured."

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi