GAZA CITY, Palestine

Telephone and internet services are returning to Gaza after a communications blackout cut the besieged enclave from outside world.

Paltel Group, which provides communications services in the Gaza Strip, said telecommunication services are gradually being restored.

"We are pleased to announce that telecommunication services (landline, mobile, and internet) in Gaza Strip, disrupted on Friday, October 27, 2023, due to the ongoing aggression, are gradually being restored," it said in a statement on X.

"Our technical teams are diligently addressing the damage to the internal network infrastructure under challenging conditions."

Separately, internet monitor Netblocks said "real-time network data show that internet connectivity is being restored in the Gaza Strip."

Gaza had been under a near-total communications blackout for nearly 36 hours following intensified Israeli air attacks on Friday that Palestinian telecoms providers said knocked out communications lines and towers.

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Oct. 7 when Palestinian group Hamas carried out a cross-border attack, killing 1,400 people, and taking many hostages.

The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said the Israeli strikes had killed at least 7,703 people, mainly civilians and many of them children.

Gaza's 2.3 million residents are also grappling with shortages of food, water, and medicine due to Israel’s blockade of the enclave. Only a few aid trucks have crossed into Gaza since the opening of the Rafah crossing point last weekend.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday said ground forces entered the "gates of Gaza," in the “second stage of the war” to destroy Hamas's military and governing capabilities, and bring the captives back home.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi