Palestinians traumatised by Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip in a bid to destroy Hamas were struggling to make contact with family and friends, Reuters reports.

Telephone and internet communications were returning gradually to Gaza, several Palestinian media outlets said. Israeli forces waged ground operations in Gaza in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the second phase of a three-week-old war aimed at crushing Hamas.

Gaza’s besieged residents faced a near-total communications and Internet blackout as Israel’s warplanes dropped bombs and its troops and armour pushed into the Gaza enclave, as Israeli military chiefs signalled they were gearing up for an expanded ground offensive.