Palestine Red Crescent loses contact with its teams in Gaza

RAMALLAH, Palestine

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Monday that it lost contact with its medical teams in the Gaza Strip.

The statement came after the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PalTel) said that all communication and internet services in the Gaza Strip have been completely cut off.

"We completely lost contact with the operations room of the Gaza Strip and with all our teams in light of the Israeli cutting of the telecommunications networks," the Red Crescent said in the statement.

It expressed concern over the safety of its teams in Gaza from the heavy Israeli shelling across the enclave.

It added that the interruption of communications will hinder the work of emergency services across Gaza in reaching bombarded areas and will affect people's ability to reach the ambulance service through the central emergency call line 101.

This is the fourth time since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7 that telecom services in the entire enclave have been cut off.

Israel resumed its military offensive on the Gaza Strip on Friday after the end of a week-long humanitarian pause with the Palestinian group Hamas.

At least 15,899 Palestinians have been killed and more than 42,000 others injured in relentless air and ground attacks on the enclave since Oct. 7 following a cross-border attack by Hamas.

The Israeli death toll stands at 1,200, according to official figures.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar