Energy Minister Eli Cohen has instructed the Israel Electric Corporation to immediately cut off the supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip, in an apparent bid to pile pressure on the enclave where 59 hostages kidnapped from Israel are still held.
“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,'” says Cohen in a video statement.
Cohen’s office circulates a letter sent to the IEC ordering it to stop selling electricity to Gaza power stations.
The move comes after Israel announced it was halting the entry of goods into Gaza over what it called Hamas’s refusal 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.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that he was prepared to raise the pressure and would not rule out cutting off all electricity to Gaza if Hamas didn’t budge on its demands in talks to free the hostages and end the war.
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