Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Abdel Razzaq Natsheh, warned that communications services (fixed and cellular) and the Internet in the Gaza Strip will begin to be affected starting from the evening hours of Friday due to the depletion of fuel, which will exacerbate the humanitarian disaster and deprive citizens of their right to communicate with emergency and relief services.

Al-Natsheh said in a statement that with the aggression continuing for more than 460 days, and the escalation of the Israeli occupation’s practices that obstruct the arrival of fuel convoys, the crisis of scarcity in the quantities allocated to relief, health and service institutions has worsened.

He added that fuel is currently the only source of power for communications networks in the Gaza Strip, which exposes these services to the risk of complete cessation.

He stressed that the inability to enter fuel during the past few days has led to a severe shortage in the quantities needed to operate the networks, which will cause the shutdown of many Palestinian communications stations throughout the Strip.

He stressed that widespread outages in fixed communications services will begin this evening, Friday, in the central and southern areas of the Strip, and will later extend to include fixed and cellular services in the rest of the areas within the next two days, if the crisis continues, noting that the North Gaza Governorate has been suffering from a complete outage in communications services for about 100 days, as a result of the occupation preventing fuel from reaching those areas.

He pointed out that the suspension of communications services under these circumstances prevents the communication of civil defense and Red Crescent crews, prevents citizens from reaching them, and hinders the ability of health and international institutions to perform their duties, which further deteriorates the humanitarian situation.

Al-Natsheh stressed that the Ministry's teams are continuing to work in cooperation with international and UN institutions to resolve the crisis, praising the efforts made by the teams of Palestinian telecommunications companies, who are working in extremely dangerous field conditions, based on their national and humanitarian duty, to try to repair the faults and ensure the continuity of services as much as possible.