The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced on Thursday it had lost all contact with its staff in the Gaza Strip after Israeli airstrikes targeted and destroyed key telecommunications infrastructure.

The blackout, confirmed by the Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, has plunged the besieged enclave into a dangerous silence, cutting off phone and internet access and severing Gaza’s last lines of communication with the outside world.

In a statement posted on X, UNRWA said: “We have lost all contact with our UNRWA colleagues in Gaza, communications have been cut off.”

“This morning, for the first time in months, we did not receive their morning messages to say, ‘good morning’ and ‘we are fine/alive.’ We anxiously await to hear from our colleagues”, added UNRWA.

The blackout follows days of intensified Israeli bombardment across Gaza and comes as grassroots mobilization against the ongoing siege gains momentum across North Africa. A civilian convoy launched earlier this week in Tunisia, known as the Maghreb Resistance Convoy, is currently crossing Libya with the aim of reaching the Rafah crossing in a symbolic and material act of solidarity. Comprising nearly 2,000 activists from across the Maghreb—including Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, and Libya—the convoy has galvanized regional public opinion and renewed calls for Arab governments to pressure Israel to end its blockade.

Organizers say the communications blackout only heightens the urgency of their mission. “Every moment we don’t hear from Gaza is a moment of terror,” a Tunisian activist traveling with the convoy told PRC. “This is not just a siege on food or medicine—it’s a siege on life, truth, and human connection.”

The convoy is part of a growing international effort to defy the blockade by land, sea, and air. But with Gaza now plunged into silence, even basic updates from humanitarian agencies like UNRWA have become impossible, underlining the extreme vulnerability of those trapped in the Strip.