Israel will cut any remaining electricity supply to Gaza in a clear attempt to increase the pressure on Hamas amid increasingly chaos negotiations over the fragile ceasefire in the region.
The possible consequences of the Israeli decision of the 2.3 million people from the destroyed Palestinian territories are unclear, as most of them depend on the generators supported by diesel for power.
But humanitarian officials in Gaza contacted on Sunday afternoon they said they believed that the darling manufacturers of the two working desalination would have to close, which reduces the already small supply of clean water. Others have suggested that the remaining sewage treatment plant can be affected.
In a video announcement of the guidance, Elie Cohen, the Israeli Minister of Energy, said that Israel will use “all available means … to ensure the return of all Israeli hostages” and that Hamas will not remain in Gaza after the war.
Hamas accused Israel of “cheap and unacceptable blackmail” because of its decision. “We strongly condemn the decision to cut off electricity to Gaza, after being deprived of food, medicine and water,” Izat Rishq, a member of the political bureau in Hamas, said in a statement.
Israel is seeking to force Hamas to accept an extension until mid -April from the first stage of the ceasefire, which entered into force in mid -January, but officially ended at the end of last week. Israel has already cut all the supply of goods to the region, claiming that Hamas was stealing aid and profit from distributing them.
Israel also increased the strikes in Gaza, while military officials informed local and international journalists that preparations for the major attack are under implementation.
There are daily reports on injuries to Israeli warplanes, drones or artillery.
On Sunday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) carried out an air strike in northern Gaza, which a spokeswoman said to the militants “in an attempt to plant an explosive device on the ground in northern Gaza” near the Israeli forces.
A day before that, an air strike in the Rafah of the southern Gaza targeted a drone that entered the region from Israel and a group of suspect militants, according to the IDF Federation.
Israel wants Hamas to launch more 58 hostages to the group and its allies in Gaza. It is believed that less than half is still alive. Hamas rejected any extension and an immediate start in negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire, which aims to put a permanent end of war and was supposed to follow the first stage directly.
The group’s representatives of brokers in Cairo met during the weekend, while emphasizing the urgent need to resume the delivery of humanitarian aid to the region “without restrictions or conditions.”
“We are calling the mediators in Egypt and Qatar, as well as the guarantors in the American administration, to ensure this [Israel] Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told Agence France-Presse:
Hamas’s main demands for the second stage include the additional publications of the Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons in exchange for the hostages, the withdrawal of Israel completely from Gaza, a permanent ceasefire and the lifting of the Israeli siege.
The Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, the Israeli Prime Minister, said that he would send two delegates to Doha on Monday to join talks about continuing the ceasefire in one way or another.
The complexity of the image as well, the unprecedented direct talks between the United States and Hamas aim primarily to liberate five American citizens among the hostages that are still Hamas. It is believed that only one is still alive.
The American envoy participating in the direct talks, which was revealed by the US -based media last week, described his meeting with Hamas “very useful” and said he was confident that a hostage launch deal could be reached “within weeks.” Speaking to CNN, Adam Bouhler admitted that he was a “stranger” sitting face with the leaders of a militant Islamic group that the United States has included it as a terrorist organization since 1997, but it has not excluded more meetings.
Bouhler said he understood Israel’s “panic” that the United States had had talks with the group, but he said he was seeking to start “fragile” negotiations. He added: “I think something can meet within weeks … I think there is a deal where they can take out all prisoners, not just Americans.”
The January truce stopped more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza, where almost all the population was taken off, and the land areas were reduced to ruins, and more than 48,000 people, most of whom were civilians, were killed by Israel’s military attack. The war arose due to Hamas’s sudden attack on Israel in October 2023, when 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians, and took 251 hostages.
The first six -week stage of the ceasefire led to the exchange of 25 alive Israeli hostages and eight others, to release about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel. It also allowed food, shelter, and medical assistance that affects the need to re -enter Gaza.
Since Israel later cut aid to the flow of aid, United Nations rights experts have accused the government of “starving weapons.”
Last week, Donald Trump threatened to further destroy Gaza if not all the remaining hostages were released, which issued what he called the “last warning” of Hamas leaders. The US President caused anger in February when he said that the United States wanted to oversee the mass displacement of the Palestinians in Gaza to allow the rebuilding of lands as “Riviera for the Middle East.” On Sunday, Bizalil Soutrich, the far -right Israeli finance minister, said the proposal was “formed.”
Sotrich said that the government is planning to establish a “immigration directorate” to help Gaza residents who wanted to leave the region permanently.
The Arab leaders have proposed an alternative plan according to which the reconstruction of Gaza will be funded through a reassurance fund, as the Palestinian Authority, which is based in Ramallah, will return to the rule of the region.
At a weekend gathering in Tel Aviv, the Israeli hostages family demanded their government to complete the ceasefire. “The war can be resumed within a week,” Ainaf Zangucker, Matan Zangucker’s mother, told the crowd. “The war will not return the hostages home. It will kill them.”
