Israel's blackout in Gaza indicates intent for war crimes, says Turkish communications director

Israel's blackout of communication channels connecting Gaza to the outside world "clearly indicates an intent to commit war crimes," the head of Türkiye's communications director said early on Saturday.

"Israel's blackout, intended to prevent all international communication channels connecting Gaza to the outside world, clearly indicates an intent to commit war crimes," said Fahrettin Altun on X. "This is an attempt to hide the ugly truth of Israeli destruction of civilian lives".

Altun's remarks came after communications and Internet services in the Gaza Strip were completely cut off on Friday evening amid heavy Israeli bombing of feeder lines, towers, and networks.

The complete cutoff of landline, mobile, and Internet communications in the Gaza Strip signals the "latest stage in Israel's military campaign against Palestinians," Altun said, adding that Tel Aviv's simultaneous effort to destroy communications is a "blatant attack on the most fundamental human rights and values."

"I strongly condemn Israel for ignoring the basic rights and freedoms of the people in Gaza and the rest of Palestine. This must stop at once. The world powers supporting these atrocities have no moral high ground to lecture anyone from now on," he added.

Noting that Western countries' continued inaction in the face of Israel's assault renders them complicit in its crimes, he said reckless disregard for the humanity of the people in Gaza and the collective punishment unleashed upon them are "unconscionable and indefensible."

"Those who oppose any restrictions on Israel's ability to attack indiscriminately and without any consequences must take another look at where they stand. They must realize that their enabling stance in these horrible days will go down as a permanent stain in their history," he stressed.

According to sources in the Palestinian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, there was a sudden halt in services from the Gaza Strip, with the reason yet unknown.

Meanwhile, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said on Friday that it had "completely" lost contact with the operations room in the Gaza Strip and with all its crew members working there.

It expressed deep concern regarding "providing ambulances with services in the Gaza Strip, especially that this outage affects the central communications services and impedes the arrival of ambulances to the injured."

The conflict in Gaza began Oct. 7 when the Palestinian group Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood — a multi-pronged surprise attack that included a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel by land, sea and air.

Hamas said the incursion was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and growing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.

The Israeli military then launched a relentless bombardment of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been running out of food, water, medicine, and fuel, and aid convoys recently allowed into Gaza have carried only a fraction of what is needed.

Nearly 8,800 people have been killed in the conflict, including at least 7,326 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis. Some 70% of the deaths in Gaza are women and children, according to official figures.