Aid agencies say they can’t send food and other supplies to Gaza because of communications blackout

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Aid agencies say they had to stop deliveries of food and other basic necessities to Gaza, warning of the possibility of starvation. That comes a day after internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave because of a lack of fuel. The communications blackout largely cuts off Gaza’s 2.3 million people from one another and the outside world. And it paralyzes the coordination of aid, which humanitarian groups were already struggling to deliver because of the fuel shortage. Israeli forces, meanwhile, have signaled they could expand their offensive toward Gaza’s south even while pressing operations in the north. Troops have been searching the territory’s biggest hospital for traces of a Hamas command center the military alleges was located under the building.