Aid agencies say they can't send food and other supplies to Gaza because of communications blackout
Source: Associated Press
Aid agencies say they can’t send food and other supplies to Gaza because of communications blackout
BY NAJIB JOBAIN, BASSEM MROUE AND DAVID RISING
Updated 6:17 AM EST, November 17, 2023
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Aid agencies said they had to stop deliveries of food and other basic necessities to Gaza on Friday, warning of the possibility of starvation a day after internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave because of a lack of fuel.
The communications blackout largely cuts off Gaza’s 2.3 million people from one another and the outside world — and paralyzes the coordination of aid, which humanitarian groups were already struggling to deliver because of the fuel shortage.
Israeli forces, meanwhile, have signaled they could expand their offensive toward Gaza’s south even while pressing operations in the north. Troops have been searching the territory’s biggest hospital for traces of a Hamas command center the military alleges was located under the building.
They have shown what they said were a tunnel entrance and weapons found inside the compound but not yet any evidence of the command center, which Hamas and staff at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital deny existed.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-11-17-2023-1811384fac6394329dd71e3aaf461eb5