The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: On Sunday, November 5, Israel heavily bombarded Gaza with a series of airstrikes, hitting two refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip. The airstrikes killed at least 53 people, according to Palestinian officials.
Earlier Sunday, the Israeli military said its ground troops had reached positions along the coast of Gaza, expanding its ground operations. The military claimed it has encircled Gaza City and divided the besieged coastal strip into two.
“Today, there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters on Sunday, calling it a “significant stage” in the war.
In the midst of these attacks, Israel is reported to have cut phone communications to Gaza again. Humanitarian agencies lost contact with aid workers in Gaza, according to operators.
The World Health Organisation said it is “very concerned” about the reports of this communications outage as well as the heavy bombardments on Gaza, the organisation’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a post on social media.
“Without connectivity, people who need immediate medical attention cannot contact hospitals and ambulances. All channels of communication must be restored immediately,” Ghebreyesus said.
The UNRWA, the main United Nations agency supporting Palestinians in Gaza, has lost contact with the “vast majority” of its team in the territory, it said earlier Sunday.
As airstrikes intensified, Jordan dropped medical supplies to a hospital in Gaza. Jordan borders the West Bank and is home to many Palestinian refugees.
“Our fearless air force personnel air-dropped at midnight urgent medical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza. This is our duty to aid our brothers and sisters injured in the war on Gaza. We will always be there for our Palestinian brethren,” King Abdullah II of Jordan said in a post on X.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also continued his diplomatic tour in the Middle East, arriving in Turkey on Sunday.
On day 31, the death toll stands at over 9,700 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes, with more than 4,000 of them being children and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids. In Israel, over 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 and more than 200 people held hostage by the militant group.
Israeli media has said that troops expect to enter Gaza City within 48 hours.