UN Agency for Palestine has said that 53 staffers have been killed since October 7.
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, October 28: With Israel unleashing its highest ever air power to pound bombs in Gaza in its hot pursuit against the Hamas, there is deepening concerns about the unfolding humanitarian disaster amid a communication blackout. Palestinian telecom operators has said that all international routes have been destroyed, while local media reports claimed that the people are communicating by using mosque loudspeakers.
Local reports also claimed that scribes who managed to send out reports briefly to the outside world described the situation dire in Gaza with bodies being taken out in tuk-tuk and ambulances not venturing out. Israel pressed into action almost 150 fighter jets on Friday to bomb Gaza, said Arab News in a report.
“Reports of intense bombardment in Gaza are extremely distressing. 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. We are still out of touch with our staff and health facilities,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director Genral of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Israel has said that it’s expanding the scope of its ground offensives to achieve the objective of dismantling the Hamas network by targeting their hideouts in tunnels built underneath the city. “Really, really terrible things are happening now in Gaza: the screams of the Palestinian women crying for help in al-Shati refugee camp can be heard from behind the fence. In the darkness of a world cut off without phones, internet, electricity or water, a second Sabra & Shatila, even a second Nakba, become an ever more plausible possibility,” remarked historian William Dalrymple in a post on X, formerly twitter.
His concerns were endorsed by former Indian diplomat Navdeep Suri, who also expressed anguish at the reports coming from Gaza. “The reports and visuals coming out of Gaza are absolutely heartbreaking. How can anyone not be moved,” asked Suri in a post on X.
Paltel, the main telecommunications provider in Gaza, has said that its services have been blacked out. The scaling up of the Gaza bombing by Israel has come close on the heels of the United Nations General Assembly adopting a resolution on Friday on protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations with respect to crisis in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military in a statement has said that “terror tunnels, underground combat spaces and additional underground infrastructure” have been targeted in which “several Hamas terrorists were killed”. The Israeli military also said that the Hamas air attacks chief Asem Abu Rakaba has been killed. Rakaba had reportedly oversaw the paragliders who had launched attacks inside Israel on October 7.
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