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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 fragile ceasefire in the territory.
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 Gaza contacted on Sunday afternoon said they thought the only functioning desalination plant 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, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister, said 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.
Israel is seeking to force Hamas to accept an extension until mid-April of the first phase of the ceasefire, which came into effect in mid-January but ended formally last weekend. Israel has already cut off all supplies of goods to the territory, claiming that Hamas was stealing aid and profiting from its distribution.
Israel has also intensified strikes in Gaza, while military officials have briefed local and international journalists that preparations for a major offensive are under way.
There are daily reports of casualties inflicted by Israeli warplanes, drones or artillery.
On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out an airstrike in northern Gaza, which a spokesperson said was aimed at militants “attempting to plant an explosive device in the ground in northern Gaza” near Israeli troops.
A day earlier, an airstrike in Rafah in southern Gaza targeted a drone that entered the territory from Israel and a group of suspected militants, according to the IDF.
Israel wants Hamas to release more of the 58 hostages the group and its allies in Gaza are believed to be holding. Fewer than half are thought to still be alive. Hamas has rejected any extension and wants an immediate start to negotiations on the ceasefire’s second phase, which aims to bring a permanent end to the war and was supposed to directly follow the first phase.
Representatives of the group met mediators in Cairo over the weekend, emphasising the urgent need to resume humanitarian aid deliveries to the territory “without restrictions or conditions”.
“We call on mediators in Egypt and Qatar, as well as the guarantors in the US administration, to ensure that [Israel] complies with the agreement … and proceeds with the second phase according to the agreed-upon terms,” the Hamas spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, told Agence France-Presse.
Hamas’s key demands for the second phase include further releases of Palestinians held in Israeli jails in exchange for hostages, a complete withdrawal of Israel from Gaza, a permanent ceasefire and the lifting of the Israeli blockade.
The office of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said it would send delegates to Doha on Monday to join talks on continuing the ceasefire in one form or another.
Complicating the picture further are unprecedented direct talks between the US and Hamas aimed primarily at freeing five US citizens among the hostages still held by Hamas. Only one is thought to be still alive.
The US envoy involved in the direct talks, 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 the mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza 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.”
