Israel Hamas war: Gaza communications knocked out as strikes intensify & calls for ceasefire ramp up

Communications still cut off in the Gaza Strip

Phone and internet service in the Gaza Strip was cut off by Israeli bombardment late on Friday evening and the issue is continuing into Saturday, with hundreds of thousands of people uncontactable. Services were cut Friday evening, following a heavy round of Israeli airstrikes that lit up the night sky over the darkened territory.

Rights groups and journalists say they have lost contact with colleagues in the enclave and

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organisation, says the agency is still unable to reach its staff and health facilities in the region.

“I’m worried about their safety,” he wrote on X – formerly Twitter.

“Evacuation of patients is not possible under such circumstances, nor to find safe shelter. The blackout is also making it impossible for ambulances to reach the injured,” he added.

Bombings in Gaza: worried, families of hostages demand explanations

The families of mostly Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip have expressed their “concern” and demanded explanations from the government after intense military operations in the Palestinian territory.

“Families are worried about the fate of their loved ones and are waiting for explanations. Every minute seems like an eternity. We demand that Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and members of the war cabinet meet with us this morning,” at the end of “a night of immense anguish”, according to a press release from the association bringing together the families of more than 220 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October.

The Forum expresses its “enormous anger that none of the members of the war cabinet took the trouble to meet the families of the hostages to explain one thing to them: does the ground operation endanger the 229 hostages” identified by the authorities.

Authorities have identified 229 hostages, according to the latest figures released on Friday by the Israeli army.

An American woman and her daughter as well as two Israeli octogenarians were released by Hamas after Egyptian-Qatari mediation.

Erdogan asks Israel to ‘stop this madness’ and ‘end the attacks’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday asked Israel to “immediately stop this madness” and “put an end to its attacks” in a message posted on X (formerly Twitter).

“Israeli bombings that intensified last night on Gaza once again targeted women, children and innocent civilians and deepened the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Israel must immediately stop this madness and end its attacks,” he added.

Israeli army targets Hamas underground network

The Israeli army announced on Saturday that it had targeted the Hamas tunnel network by striking “150 underground targets” in the north of the Gaza Strip, during a night of intense bombardment.

Israel is convinced that the Palestinian Islamist movement directs and organises its operations from this gigantic network of underground tunnels and stores its arsenal there.

“Overnight, IDF warplanes struck 150 underground targets in the northern Gaza Strip, including tunnels used by terrorists, underground combat sites and other underground infrastructure. Several Hamas terrorists were killed,” the statement claimed.

The Israeli army also claims to have killed a Hamas official who was in charge of “paramotors, drones, detection equipment and air defence”.

“Asem Abu Rakaba took part in organising the massacre in the communities bordering the Gaza Strip on October 7… he led the terrorists who infiltrated Israel with paramotors and was responsible for the attacks of drones on IDF surveillance posts,” the statement said.

“We are bombing the Gaza Strip with unprecedented intensity. From the air, on the ground and underground – the IDF will eliminate any terrorists, whether major or secondary, and (destroy) the entire Hamas terrorist infrastructure,” it added.

Global protests calling for an end to the war ramp up

Thousands of protesters across the globe have been demanding an end to the ongoing conflict.

In New York City, hundreds of protesters in black T-shirts filled the city’s iconic Grand Central Terminal during the evening rush hour on Friday to demand a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Many of the protesters were detained by police and taken out of the station, their hands zip tied behind their backs. The NYPD could not immediately say how many were taken into custody.

Inside the main concourse, protesters wore shirts that read “cease-fire now” and “not in our name” chanted, with some holding banners in front of the list of departure times.

In Indonesia, more than 3,000 protesters marched to the heavily guarded US Embassy in Jakarta on Saturday to demand an end to the war and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Waving Indonesian and Palestinian flags, the protesters, many wearing white Islamic robes, filled a major thoroughfare in downtown Jakarta running outside the embassy. About 1,000 police were deployed around the compound, which is blocked off by concrete road barriers.

The protesters, organised by the Indonesian Ulema Council, known as MUI, chanted “God is Great” and “Freedom for Palestine” during the noisy but peaceful protest. Banners and placards proclaimed, “We stand with Gaza,” and slammed the Israeli government while denouncing the staunch US support of Israel.