Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Gaza remained in digital darkness for a third consecutive day on Friday, unable to share its suffering or access life-saving information, as global attention focused on Israel's attacks on Iran.
The breakdown of mobile and internet services was caused by damage to fibre optic links by Israeli bombardment, but Palestinian repair crews are not allowed to restore services.
“All eyes are on Iran now,” said Nahil Khader, 42, from Gaza city.
“I tried to go to a cafe just to find out what’s happening outside. I heard Israel attacked Iran, but I don’t know if that’s good or bad for us. Maybe it could pressure Israel into a deal with Hamas, or maybe it will make things worse," he told The National.
"The terrifying part is that no one is even paying attention to what’s happening in Gaza any more.”
Mr Khader described the isolation of earlier internet blackouts during the first months of the war, when Gaza city was cut off as Israel attacked in response to deadly Hamas raids on Israel on October 7, 2023.
“When the internet finally returned, I realised how much had happened without us knowing. We were just trying to survive here. I really hope this blackout doesn’t last long, because if it does, no one will see what we’re going through. No one will know.”
Dalia Younis, a Palestinian who fled Gaza for Egypt during the war, said she was consumed with anxiety about her relatives trapped inside Gaza.
“I’m extremely worried about my family. I can’t call them. I can’t hear anything. There’s a fire burning in my chest as long as I remain in the dark,” she said.
“At first, I thought it was just a temporary outage. But now, after the Israeli attack on Iran, I fear this blackout is intentional, to keep attention on Iran while Israel escalates its attacks on Gaza, hidden from the world’s eyes.”
Activists in Gaza and abroad are calling for immediate international action to help residents stay connected. Many are urging support for the purchase of international SIM cards and mobile internet packages.
“With the repeated communication blackouts, it’s become essential to help Gazans stay connected to the world,” said one of activists. “They must be able to document their suffering and speak for themselves, especially when the world’s attention is elsewhere.”
As Israeli attacks continue across the territory and access to food, medicines, and other essentials remains uncertain, many in Gaza fear that the blackout is more than a communications failure, it is a strategy to cut off their voice at a time when visibility could mean survival.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
ELIO
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Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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