Internet shutdowns a ‘warfare tactic’: Rights group

We’re hearing reports from Paltel that telecommunications and internet service have again been cut off in the Gaza Strip.

The latest disruption comes after Israel imposed a near-complete communications blackout on Gaza for nearly 36 hours, from Friday to early Sunday local time.

Israel used that shutdown to “cover potential war crimes as they started their ground invasion”, said Marwa Fatafta, the Middle East and North Africa policy and advocacy manager at Access Now, a global human rights organisation.

Israel is using Internet blackouts as a “warfare tactic to induce more pain on the population”, Fatafta told Al Jazeera.

Even outside the complete blackouts, communication in Gaza is “sporadic and unreliable”, she added, with Gaza’s G2 mobile network “crushed further” by fuel shortages and damage to infrastructure.