Photo : Collected
Battles were intensified in Gaza early on Saturday (28 October), as Israel began its ground operations and cut all communications to the Palestinian territory.
"We are confronting an Israeli ground incursion in Beit Hanoun (in the northern Gaza Strip) and east Bureij (in the centre) and violent engagements are taking place on the ground," Hamas's armed wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters on Friday (27 October), "Following the series of strikes of the last days, the ground forces are extending the ground operations tonight."
Hamas said that all internet connections and communications across Gaza had been cut, and accused Israel of taking the measure "to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea".
Human Rights Watch also warned that the near-total telecommunications blackout in Gaza risks providing cover for "mass atrocities".
Lynne Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, also said on X that Gaza "has lost contact with the outside world", cautioning that "hospitals & humanitarian operations can't continue without communications".
Messenger/Sun Yath
