The full effects of the move are not clear but the territory’s desalination plants receive power for producing drinking water – just a week after Israel cut off all supplies of goods
Israel has confirmed it is cutting off electricty to Gaza amid its ongoing war with Hamas.
The full effects of the move are not clear but the territory’s desalination plants receive power for producing drinking water. Sunday’s announcement comes a week after Israel cut off all supplies of goods to the territory of more than two million people.
It has sought to force Hamas to accept an extension of the first phase of their ceasefire – a phase which ended last weekend. Hamas has pressed to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase instead. A total of 59 Israeli hostages remain – Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 34 others – in the region.
Gaza has been largely devastated by the war, and generators and solar panels are used for some of the power supply.
The Times of Israel reported that Israel’s energy minister Eli Cohen ordered the Israel Electric Corporation to cut off the supply.
“We will employ all the tools available to us so that all the hostages will return, and we will ensure that Hamas won’t be in Gaza on the ‘day after’,” Cohen said in a statement.
An FCDO Spokesperson told the Mirror that “Humanitarian aid should never be contingent on a ceasefire or used as a political tool” and it had urged Israel to “lift restrictions”.
They added that the Government is “deeply concerned” by the halt on aid to Gaza. The spokesperson said: “It is vital for everyone that the ceasefire is sustained, all hostages released, and aid resumed.”
A halt on goods and supplies entering Gaza, including basic needs such as electricity, risks breaching Israel’s obligations under International Humanitarian Law”
Israel last weekend cut off all supplies to Gaza and its more than two million people as it pressed Hamas to agree. The militant group has said the move would affect the remaining hostages as well.
Earlier this week, Israel said it will send a delegation to Qatar on Monday “in an effort to advance the negotiations” around the ceasefire in Gaza. It came after Hamas reported “positive signals” in talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators on starting negotiations on the truce’s delayed second phase.
The statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office gave no details except to say it had “accepted the invitation of US-backed mediators”. Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua also gave no details. Talks on the second phase should have started a month ago.
The ceasefire has paused the deadliest and most destructive fighting ever between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023. The first phase allowed the return of 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli forces have withdrawn to buffer zones inside Gaza, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza for the first time since early in the war, and hundreds of trucks of aid entered per day until Israel suspended supplies.
