Israel announced Sunday it had ordered a halt to electricity supplies to Gaza, reinforcing a total aid blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory a week earlier.
The move has echoes of the earliest days of the war when Israel announced a “siege” that included an electricity cutoff to Gaza.
“I have just signed the order to stop supplying electricity immediately to the Gaza Strip,” Cohen said in a video statement, adding: “We will use all the tools at our disposal to bring back the hostages and ensure that Hamas is no longer in Gaza the day after” the war.
The only power line between Israel and Gaza supplies the territory’s main water desalination plant, which serves more than 600,000 people.
Gazans depend mainly on solar panels and fuel generators for their electricity.
The connection to the desalination plant was cut off after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas incursion before being reconnected in July 2024.
However, the plant was unable to resume operations until December that year, as the power lines had been too badly damaged by the war.
Last weekend, Israel announced it was blocking aid deliveries to Gaza until Palestinian resistance groups accepted its terms for an extension of the cease-fire, which had largely halted more than 15 months of fighting.
The first phase of the truce, which ended on March 1, had enabled the entry of vital food, shelter and medical assistance.
While Israel has said it wants to extend the first phase until mid-April, Hamas has insisted on a transition to the second phase intended to lead to a permanent end to the war.
Hamas on Saturday accused Israel of “committing the war crime of collective punishment” by halting aid and said the move also impacted Israeli hostages still held there.
Of the 251 captives taken during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, incursion, 58 remain in the Palestinian territory, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
