WATCH Palestinians tell RT about efforts to keep in touch during blackout

Gazans say a near-total communications cutoff has made phones “useless,” as they struggle to contact relatives

Gaza continues to struggle with communications blackouts as the Israeli bombardment of the enclave drags on. Some Palestinians are being forced to resort to resourceful methods to keep in touch with relatives and the outside world.

“After internet and phone services have been cut off, our phones became toys in our hands. You cannot check on your family or connect with the world, so phones just became useless,” one Gaza resident told RT.

Another Palestinian who spoke to RT said he uses electronic SIM cards sent by relatives abroad. Picking up a signal often involves walking around one and a half kilometers, “raising our hands trying to connect to the internet to call our families abroad and tell them we are still alive, or to know the news and what is going on around us,” he explained.

Gaza has seen nine telecoms blackouts since the Israel-Hamas hostilities erupted in October, according to NetBlocks, which monitors internet connectivity. The latest major power outage began on January 12, and was the longest since the start of the war. It left most of the territory’s 2.1 million people cut off for more than a week amid a humanitarian crisis. Communications services have now been restored, a local telecom company said on Friday. Watch the full video here: