Internet access and the phone network were completely cut across the Gaza Strip on Friday, nearly three weeks after Israel began bombarding the enclave following an armed attack by Hamas militants that Israeli officials say killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says at least 7,326 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes since the October 7 attack, mainly civilians and many of them children.
“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.
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.
Unending waves of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza over the past fortnight have aggravated an already perilous situation for the enclave’s children, who have suffered for more than a decade with no end to the conflict in sight.
Health officials in the Gaza Strip say that more than 2,300 children have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas that erupted following the Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel by the Palestinian militant group.
Some 40 percent of the embattled territory’s inhabitants are aged under 18, with UNICEF reporting that an average of 400 children have been killed or injured daily in the violence. Save the Children fears a further 870 remain trapped under rubble.
Yet what sometimes goes forgotten is that beyond physical injuries, the children of the conflict zone have also had to contend with deep and lasting emotional wounds.
In a recent article, “Child casualties in Gaza ‘a growing stain on our collective conscience’,” UNICEF said that “almost every child in the Gaza Strip” has witnessed distressing events and trauma, with NPR noting that after the 2021 war, 91 percent of Gaza’s children had suffered post-traumatic stress.
“Children with conflict exposure have been found to have higher rates of anxiety, depression and psychosomatic complaints,” said Ayesha Kadir, a senior humanitarian health adviser at Save the Children. “(But) children do not express psychological distress in a single way. Some may act out, others may withdraw.