# Israel to cut off electricity in Gaza in apparent effort to force hand of Hamas

Humanitarian officials say move could hit already meagre water supply, as ceasefire talks grow increasingly chaotic

**Jason Burke in Jerusalem**

Sun 9 Mar 2025 18.43 EDT

First published on Sun 9 Mar 2025 13.40 EDT

## Israel to cut off electricity in Gaza in apparent effort to force hand of Hamas

Palestinian children carrying drums of water home in eastern Gaza City this week. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Israel is to cut off any remaining electricity supplies to Gaza in an apparent attempt to ramp up pressure on Hamas amid increasingly chaotic multi-track negotiations over the .

The potential consequences of the Israeli decision for the 2.3 million residents of the devastated Palestinian territory are unclear, as most rely on diesel-fuelled generators for power.

But humanitarian officials in  contacted on Sunday afternoon said they thought the two functioning desalination plants would be forced to shut down, reducing the already meagre supply of clean water. Others have suggested the remaining sewage treatment plant could be affected.

In a video announcing the directive,  that Israel would use “all means available … to ensure the return of all Israeli hostages” and that Hamas would not remain in Gaza after the war.

Hamas accused Israel of “cheap and unacceptable blackmail” over its decision. “We strongly condemn the occupation’s decision to cut off electricity to Gaza, after depriving it of food, medicine and water,” Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said in a statement, adding it was “a desperate attempt to pressure our people and their resistance through cheap and unacceptable blackmail tactics”.

The , which were revealed by US-based media last week, described on Sunday his meeting with Hamas as “very helpful” and said he was confident a hostage release deal could be reached “within weeks”. Speaking to CNN, Adam Boehler acknowledged it had been “odd” sitting face to face with leaders of a militant Islamist group that the US has listed as a terrorist organisation since 1997, but did not rule out further meetings.

Boehler said he understood Israel’s “consternation” that the US had held talks with the group, but said he had been seeking to jump-start the “fragile” negotiations. “I think something could come together within weeks … I think there is a deal where they can get all of the prisoners out, not just the Americans,” he added.

January’s truce paused more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza in which virtually the entire population was displaced, swaths of the territory were reduced to rubble and more than 48,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed by Israel’s military offensive. The war was triggered by Hamas’s surprise attack into Israel in October 2023, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 hostages taken.

The six-week first phase of the ceasefire led to the exchange of 25 living Israeli hostages and the remains of eight others, for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. It also allowed much-needed food, shelter and medical assistance to re-enter Gaza.

Since Israel subsequently cut off the aid flow, UN rights experts accused the government of “weaponising starvation”.

Last week, Donald Trump threatened further destruction of Gaza if all remaining hostages were not released, issuing what he called a “last warning” to Hamas leaders. The US president caused outrage in February when he said the US wanted to oversee  to allow the territory to be reconstructed as the “riviera of the Middle East”. On Sunday Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, said that proposal was “taking shape”.

Smotrich said the government was planning to establish a “migration directorate” to assist residents of Gaza who wanted to leave the territory permanently.

Arab leaders have proposed an alternative plan under which Gaza’s reconstruction would be financed through a trust fund, with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority returning to govern the territory.

At a weekend rally in Tel Aviv, family members of Israeli hostages demanded their government fully implement the ceasefire. “The war could resume in a week,” Einav Zangauker, the mother of Matan Zangauker, told the crowd. “The war won’t bring the hostages back home. It will kill them.”
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