The destruction of the Gaza Strip by a possible ground invasion and Israel’s implication for humanitarian aid and medical services, the Gaza Red Crescent, and the Palestine Red Crescent

TEL AVIV, Israel — Ahead of a possible ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military announced that its forces were “expanding” ground activities in Gaza Friday night as the besieged territory was plunged into a communications and internet blackout.

Schwartz said the Israelis have long experience dealing with Gaza — there’s even a mock city, over half-a-mile square, used for training in the Negev desert. But he’s concerned that with the size of the force preparing to enter Gaza, most will be new at this.

In a post on its Facebook page, Paltel stated that communications and internet services within the Gaza Strip have been cut off. All remaining international routes had been destroyed by bombing, claimed the company. The Jawwal, the biggest mobile provider in the region, is owned by Paltel. The Palestine Red Crescent lost contact with its operation room in Gaza and is worried that it won’t be able to care for people with phone, cell, and internet connections.

“The intense bombing in the last hour caused the destruction of all remaining international routes linking Gaza to the outside world,” the company said in a statement on the social media site X.

Aid groups said they had lost contact with their teams on the ground in Gaza, and decried the great risk to civilians, health workers and other noncombatants.

People living in Gaza are unsure if their relatives are alive after being unable to communicate in the days after October 7. Reliable news has become harder to find. Rescue workers don’t have access to mobile networks. Information coming out of Gaza is not showing the conditions on the ground.

“We are deeply concerned about the ability of our teams to continue providing their emergency medical services, especially since this disruption affects the central emergency number ‘101’ and hinders the arrival of ambulance vehicles to the wounded and injured,” the Palestinian Red Crescent Society wrote on X.

In response to the blackout, Hamas accused Israel of an “intention to commit more massacres and genocides away from the eyes of the press and the world.”

The aim of the Biden administration is to hug Israel tight so as to show Israel that America is behind it, but also give it confidence in the United States. And I think should military operations go into overdrive during a ground invasion, the United States could offer suggestions, could to push for course corrections that other countries simply would not be trusted [to give],” said Byman.

“Well, if you want to have any opportunity to try to leverage human intelligence to find out where the hostages are located, you certainly want to mitigate the pain and suffering on the civilian populace and, candidly I think Israel’s failed in that,” said Schwartz.

The U.S. may need to prepare bases in the region for any backlash, and even prepare its own response, as it did this week against Iranian forces in Syria.

“We’re also seeing an array of militant groups, many of which are tied to Iran, attacking not only Israeli but also U. S. forces. “Anything that changes the status quo can be exciting, whether it is an operation that kills large numbers of people or something else,” said Byman.

“The bigger role would be to liaise with Israel to make sure that Israeli military operations are anticipated by the United States,” said Dan Byman, author of A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism.

U.S. military advisers recently dispatched to Israel in advance of a possible incursion into Gaza include a Marine special operations commander with experience in urban warfare, in places like Fallujah and the fight against ISIS in the Iraqi city of Mosul. Both militaries have collaborated in the past.

“The vast majority of those forces that have been activated, they’ve never served in Lebanon, they didn’t serve the last time an incursion happened in Gaza. They’re trying to deal with the urban room clearing and putting their lives at risk. These young men and women are having to make split-second decisions on ‘who do I shoot or do I not shoot’ based on who they find in a room and the threat that they perceive,” he said.

The Israeli Special Operations Forces have a long-standing relationship with the U.S. Special Operations Command. It’s very robust,” said retired Marine Gen. Mark Schwartz, former deputy commander of U.S. joint special operations who served as U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority from 2019 to 2021.

A WIRED review of internet analysis data, social media posts, and Palestinian internet and telecom company statements, shows how connectivity in the Gaza Strip drastically plummeted after October 7 and how some buildings linked to internet firms have been damaged in attacks. Photos and videos show sites that house various internet and telecom firms have been damaged, while reports from official organizations, including the United Nations, describe the impact of people being offline.

Marwa Fatafta is a policy manager for Access Now who is focused on the Middle East and North Africa. If Gaza is taken off the grid, it means there will be something terrible about to happen.