Ghosts of Gaza Phones flooded with news of dead

Last 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 neartotal communications blackout imposed by Israel.

- Bethan McKernan and Rory Carroll 

Nights in Gaza now are completely dark. At the same time as communications were lost last Friday evening, Israel intensified its aerial bombardment and launched its initial ground operation into the strip.

A fresh wave of anguish swept the territory as communications returned for those with charged phones and news of friends and relatives killed since last Friday arrived all at once.

"It was the worst night of bombing so far, but the worst part was not knowing what was happening. It was like we were blind," said Mohammed Bashir, a 38-year-old accountant from Deir al-Balah.

Bashir, his wife, three children and elderly mother are staying with relatives after an airstrike hit the building next door, killing 26 people, including 11 children, and damaging their own home.

The war in Gaza triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas's massacre across southern Israel, in which 1,400 people were killed and another 230 kidnapped, is now in its fourth week. More than 8,000 people in the tiny strip have been killed, according to the Palestinian health ministry, and the survivors have no safe place to go.