'We've gone back to the stone-age, no electricity, water nor fuel,' Gazan resident
Displaced and cut off from electricity, water and fuel, thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Saturday (October 14), started to lose methods of communication, with internet connections becoming scarce.
Gazan resident, Adel Shaheen, who has solar panels, began providing charging extensions to people who want to charge their phone.
Shaheen said that Gazans were coming to charge their phone in a desperate attempt to keep in touch with their loved ones, some of which were making their way south after Israel instructed residents in the north of Gaza to evacuate their homes.
One Gaza resident said it felt like they had been thrown into the stone-age.
Israel had given the entire population of the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which includes the enclave's biggest settlement Gaza City, until Saturday morning to move south. It announced overnight that it would guarantee the safety of Palestinians fleeing the area on two main roads until 4:00pm.
More than 1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza faced an Israeli deadline on Saturday to flee south, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had only just begun to retaliate for last week's Hamas rampage across southern Israel that killed more than 1,000 people.
Israel has since put the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, under a total siege and bombarded it with unprecedented air strikes. Gaza authorities say 1,900 people have died.
The Gaza Health Ministry reports that Israeli airstrikes in the past 24 hours have so far resulted in the deaths of 324 Palestinians and the injuries of 1,000 more. Among the dead, there are at least 126 children and 88 women."
