WATCH: Gazans convey messages to family with body gestures after communication blackout

A Palestinian man is indicating to his relatives outside of Gaza that he is safe with face and hand gestures as he stands behind the spokesperson for the health ministry during the first press conference in Gaza following the cell tower bombing.

This is the sole means of communication available to Palestinians in Gaza with their loved ones while telecommunications have been shut off.

Israel's army pounded Gaza mercilessly on Saturday following a night of intense shelling that, according to rescuers, damaged hundreds of buildings, three weeks into a war sparked by the worst attack in the nation's history.

Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Israel to "immediately stop" the attacks, while the families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas demanded a government explanation about their fate amid the army's intensified air and artillery strikes.

The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Saturday that at least 7,703 people have been killed in the war with Israel that erupted on October 7.

More than 3,500 children are among the dead. The overall figure is the highest number of war fatalities in Gaza since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the territory in 2005.

Hamas said all internet connections and communications across Gaza had been cut, accusing Israel of taking the measure "to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea".

Human Rights Watch also warned the near-total telecommunications blackout in Gaza risked providing cover for "mass atrocities".

The Palestinian Red Crescent said the communications outage had disrupted ambulance services.

Lynne Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, also stressed on X that "hospitals & humanitarian operations can't continue without communications".