Total communication blackout in Gaza as Israeli tanks push in

Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes hit the Gaza Strip, leaving behind widespread destruction, seen from the border area, on September 16, 2025. (Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency )

Israeli troops continue to demolish homes and buildings in Gaza City to make way for a ‘real estate bonanza’ in the strip

Reposted from The Cradle, September 18, 2025

Internet and phone lines were cut in Gaza City as tanks continue to push toward the city center, suggesting an escalation of Israel’s ground campaign in the enclave’s capital is imminent, Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported on 18 September.

“The disconnection of internet and phone services is a bad omen. It has always been a bad signal [that] something very brutal is going to happen,” said a Gaza City resident, Ismail, speaking with the Saudi-owned paper.

Ismail was using an e-SIM to connect his phone, which is dangerous because it requires seeking higher ground in areas exposed to possible Israeli strikes to receive a signal.

“The situation around me is very desperate. People in tents and in houses are very worried for their lives. Many can’t afford to leave, but many do not want to,” he said.

The Palestinian Telecommunications Company issued a statement saying its services had been cut off “due to the ongoing aggression and the targeting of the main network routes.”

Israel regularly cuts the internet and electricity ahead of major military operations.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Gaza City since Israel announced it would launch an offensive to occupy it.

Palestinians in Gaza City face the difficult choice of staying in their homes amid Israeli bombing or fleeing to a so-called “humanitarian zone” in the southern territory, where there is insufficient food, medicine, and shelter for the displaced.

“Even if we want to leave Gaza City, is there any guarantee we would be able to come back? Will the war ever end? That’s why I prefer to die here, in Sabra, my neighborhood,” Ahmed, a schoolteacher, told Al-Sharq al-Awsat by phone.

On 16 September, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed to destroy Gaza City if Hamas did not release the remaining Israelis it holds captive in the strip.

“They will pay the price and Gaza will be destroyed,” Katz stated.

However, Israeli troops have focused their efforts on demolishing homes and residential high-rise buildings rather than on fighting Hamas.

Israeli leaders and businesspersons have called for re-establishing Jewish settlements in Gaza and launching and constructing an AI-driven smart city and resort destination in the enclave once the majority of Palestinians have been expelled.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on September 17 that the Gaza Strip represents a “real estate bonanza.”

Speaking at an urban renewal conference in Tel Aviv, Smotrich said there was a “business plan” for Gaza on US President Donald Trump’s “table.”

To make way for the real estate project, Israeli troops have killed or injured more than one in 10 Palestinians in Gaza since the war began nearly two years ago.

Former Israeli military Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi stated last week that “There are 2.2 million people in Gaza. There are in Gaza today more than 10 percent who were killed or injured, more than 200,000. This is not a gentle war.”

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