Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen has announced that he has ordered the Israel Electric Company (IEC) to shut off its electricity feed to Gaza.
Cohen said on Sunday that he is “acting under the authority of the license granted to the Israel Electric Corporation Ltd. on September 4, 1997”.
The minister’s office ordered the IEC to stop selling electricity to Gaza power stations, effective immediately.
Many people in Gaza, however, have for years been using solar energy and personal generators to supply their homes with electricity — as do many Bedouin Israelis living in loosely-organization, unofficial Negev villages.
The move comes one week after Israel announced the cessation of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza. That decision was made after the Hamas terrorist organization refused to extend Phase 1 of the hostage release and ceasefire brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
The directives are part a set of decisions made by the Political-Security Cabinet in response to Hamas terrorist organization’s unwillingness to release the remaining hostages abducted during its October 7, 2023 invasion and massacre in southern Israel.
“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'” the war is over, Cohen said in a video statement.
Despite the cessation of aid deliveries, Gazans have accumulated enough food and supplies to last from three to five months, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told reporters last week at a briefing.
“Aid that goes to Hamas is not humanitarian aid,” Mencer emphasized. “Hamas has refused to accept the Witkoff framework (extending the ceasefire); Israel has agreed … There are currently sufficient amounts of aid and food and supplies in Gaza.”
Mencer pointed out that Hamas steals the aid, sells it back at vastly inflated prices, uses the money to rearm and then uses those arms to attack Israel.
“Hamas is exploiting the aid that comes into Gaza and using it to rebuild their war machine.”
