Israel’s Energy Minister Eli Cohen on Sunday directed the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) to immediately cut off the electricity supply to the Gaza Strip, in an apparent attempt to put pressure on the enclave, where around 24 hostages are still presumed to be alive, while the bodies of 35 more, are still held, The Times of Israel reported.
In a short video statement, Cohen said, “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’s office circulated a letter sent to the IEC directing it to stop selling electricity to power stations in Gaza.
Speaking to The Times of Israel, an Israeli official said that Cohen’s decision is less dramatic than he made it appear. The official said that the supply of electricity from Israel to Gaza was cut off after October 7.
However, in November, Israel said it was renewing supply to a desalination plant near Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. The official said Israel cut the power to that plant.
The plant serves over 600,000 people in Gaza through tankers or the networks of Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis governorates in central and southern Gaza, respectively.
It is one of three such seawater processing facilities in the Gaza Strip, which before the start of the war between Israel and Hamas met around 15 percent of the 2 million-plus people’s need for water.
Cohen’s decision comes after Israel said on March 2 that it was halting the entry of goods into Gaza over Hamas’ decision not to accept a proposal to extend the initial stage of the ceasefire and hostage release deal, and threatened “additional consequences” and a return to war.
