Israel to cut off electricity supply to Gaza, minister says

Israel ordered that all electricity supply in Gaza be cut on Sunday in an attempt to pressure Hamas to issue the remaining Israeli hostages in the region.

Energy Minister Elie Cohen declared a week after Israel cut all aid supplies to the region, with a population of more than two million people.

In a video statement on Sunday, Cohen said: “We will use all the tools available to us to restore the hostages and make sure that Hamas is no longer in Gaza the next day [the war]”

The decision to cut off electricity is expected to affect the operation of water desalination plants, which is decisive to provide clean drinking water.

The government said it had not ruled out cutting water supply.

In his statement, Cohen said: “I just signed the order to stop providing electricity immediately with the Gaza tape.”

Israel cut most of the major electricity supplies to Gaza earlier in the war.

Talking to prolong FiringThe first stage that ended on March 1, is expected to resume in Qatar on Monday.

Israel wants Hamas to accept the extension of the first stage of the ceasefire.

But Hamas wants to start negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire, which will witness the release of the remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of the Israeli forces and a permanent end of the war.

Hamas is believed to have 24 live hostages, as well as the bodies of 35 others.

The armed group – which warned that cutting supplies to Gaza will also affect the hostages – that it has concluded the latest round of ceasefire talks with Egyptian mediators without changes in its location and called for an immediate start for the second stage of the ceasefire.

The coastal area in Gaza and its infrastructure has been largely destroyed by the war, and generators and solar panels are used for some energy supplies.

Israel faced criticism about cutting supplies to Gaza.

“Any denial of the entry of life necessities for civilians may reach a mass punishment,” said the United Nations Human Rights Office on Friday.

Hamas repeated its support for the proposal to establish an independent committee of technocrats to operate Gaza so that the Palestinians will hold the presidential and legislative elections.

This committee will work under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is based in the occupied West Bank.

Israel refused that the Palestinian Authority has any role in Gaza, but it has not played a substitute for the post -war base.

The Hamas attack was killed in October 2023, about 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, inside Israel and saw 251 people. Most of them have been issued in ceasefire or other arrangements.

The military attack of Israel has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them are women and children, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, which does not determine the number of dead.