Great efforts are being made to hide what’s happening in Gaza from the outside world, both by Israel and its western allies.
Israel’s minister of communications announced on Friday that all internet services in Gaza would be cut off on Saturday; CNN reports that internet services there have already been plummeting for the last week. Electronic Intifada director Ali Abunimah recently said on Twitter that he hasn’t been able to reach any of his contacts in Gaza for hours.
Even before the internet was cut off it had already been getting harder and harder for people in Gaza to get information to the outside world after Israel cut the enclave off from electricity as part of its “complete siege” on the civilian population. The outlet Middle East Eye reports that it lost contact with two of its journalists in Gaza on Friday. One of them, a reporter named Maha Hussaini, posted a video before losing contact in which she said “This might be my last video, as my phone battery is dying while we’re facing an almost complete blackout.”
As usual, Israel has also been targeting members of the press. A Reuters journalist was killed and six others from Reuters, AFP and Al Jazeera were injured by IDF artillery fire in southern Lebanon on Friday. Outlets like The New York Times and even Reuters have refrained from acknowledging the perpetrator of the attack, but Al Jazeera attributes the casualties to “shelling by Israeli forces,” citing witness testimony. BBC journalists were also held at gunpoint and physically assaulted by Israeli soldiers in Tel Aviv, and it’s probably worth mentioning that these reporters were specifically from BBC Arabic and had Arabic names.
Hellbound and Down 