"We are forced to walk long distances and sit here for hours next to the civil defense center to charge our phones to call our relatives and also charge the batteries to light up our homes," Mohammed Ezzadin, a Gaza resident who has taken refuge in Khan Younis, told Rudaw.
"We come here from 7 AM in the morning and sit under the heat of the sun to charge because there is no electricity due to the current war," he lamented.
With access to smartphones and internet connection being necessary for people of war-ravaged Gaza to confirm the safety of their family and friends in other areas of the strip, many are desperately looking for makeshift public charging stations in the vicinity of public institutions.
The courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex, in Khan Younis, is one of the places where people gather to charge their cell phones and batteries.
"We come to the hospitals to charge our cell phones so that we can contact our relatives and friends, and we charge the batteries to light up our homes at night when there is no electricity," explained Abdullah Al-Madhoun, a displaced Gazan, describing the situation in the strip as "very tragic."
Ahmed Salem, another displaced resident of Gaza echoed the same idea, stressing that "Thousands of displaced people and citizens are trying to check on their families and relatives through communications, even though they are poor, and charging here requires a lot of time and effort, and even the electricity available here is also weak,"
In addition to being subjected to a total power outage, residents of Gaza face communications blackouts that hamper their access to internet services.
According to Gaza's health ministry, more than 11,000 people in Gaza have been killed in the Israeli bombardment in retaliation for the October 7 attacks on Israel carried out by Palestinian Hamas militants.
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