On Sunday morning, phones belonging to the 2.3 million people trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip slowly came to life again, inundated with updates, messages and missed calls after the lifting of a 36-hour near-total communications blackout imposed by Israel.
Nights in Gaza now are completely dark. At the same time as communications were lost on Friday evening, Israel intensified its aerial bombardment and launched its initial ground operation into the strip. Ambulance drivers described how they decided to just drive towards the sound of explosions as there were no accurate coordinates to follow.
