rupting communications — has exposed people people, including telecom engineers and repair crews, to direct attack, with witnesses in Gaza reporting civilian homes with cell towers on their rooLops or in close proximity to neighborhood switchboards or internet access points being bombed. Meanwhile, even just trying to connect to the internet can become a life-threatening action. Reports documented numerous instances where people climbing elevated structures or venturing closer to military checkpoints to find a mobile signal were directly targeted, detained, or killed. K., UNEMPLOYED, JABALIA REFUGEE M. M.A., A., PHARMACIST, SHENDI, SUDAN CAMP, GAZA / SHUTDOWN STARTED: / SHUTDOWN STARTED: FEBRUARY NOVEMBER 3, 2023 3, 2024 “Our main struggle during the communications blackout was our inability to access news and find out about what was happening around us. We did not expect to experience such anxiety. We heard gunfire around us but did not know what was happening. On November 19, artillery shells began to rain down on the area where we live. When a shell hit our house, I was injured. My brothers tried to call an ambulance, but there was no connectivity. They took me to hospital in our neighbor’s car despite their fear of the bombing, but this delayed my arrival and in the end, my right leg was amputated.” “I have no idea what is happening outside. In Sudan, the internet has been completely cut off in all states. We are socially isolated. Due to the war, banking transactions have shiKed to online applications because of the cash shortage. Now, with the internet shutdown, we are on the brink of starvation — we can’t even buy food or medicine.” 2. PSYCHOLOGICAL HARMS In the fog of war, connectivity is a lifeline. It enables people to maintain family and social links, access information, continue to work or study, and make decisions essential to their survival. When this lifeline is severed by internet blackouts or communication disruptions, individuals are plunged into intense psychological distress. This can be marked by, among other symptoms, extreme anxiety, fear of death or bodily injury, confusion, social isolation, powerlessness, sleeplessness, loss of sense of time or self, and the inability to complete daily activities or make decisions. Internet shutdowns terrorize civilian populations. For many of the people who shared their experiences, shutdowns were perceived not merely as technical failures or collateral damage, but as harbingers of danger, looming atrocities, or imminent attacks, which contributed to their terrorization and extreme fear. The testimonies from Gaza and Sudan described the impact of shutdowns as “collective collective punishment punishment,” “psychological psychological torture torture,” or “psychological psychological warfare warfare.” Several individuals in Gaza likened the anguish of internet blackouts to the terror they experienced during direct bombings. Impacted individuals have, justifiably and explicitly, questioned the intention behind these shutdowns, which they could only understand to be a method of warfare aimed at both harming individuals and breaking society as a whole. In both Gaza and Sudan, family members have been brutally separated from one another, with parents not knowing the whereabouts or status of their children, or vice versa, for months. During communications blackouts and intensifying violence, many people also went missing. In contexts of forced displacement, violence, and chaos, losing contact with family members and being unable to find out if they are alive and safe is particularly traumatizing . Furthermore, internet access can enable people living through conflict to continue with their work or education, which helps to maintain a perceived or temporary sense of stability and hope. This is critical for people’s resilience and survival. Students in both Gaza and Sudan expressed their wish to continue studying despite the violence, displacement, starvation, and extreme trauma they were experiencing. Internet shutdowns deprive people from accessing these vital coping mechanisms mechanisms; one