Rabat – A week after Israel cut off all humanitarian aid to Gaza, Israel’s energy and infrastructure minister Eli Cohen announced yesterday, on March 9, that he signed an order to immediately cut off electricity to the enclave.
Cohen confirmed that this decision is another effort to strong-arm Hamas into releasing the remaining Israeli hostages without abiding by the terms of the January 19 ceasefire agreement.
“Enough with the talk, it’s time for Action!,” he wrote on X.
After the end of the initial phase of this truce on March 1, Hamas urged Israel to move to the second phase of the agreement which entails the withdrawal of Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) from Gaza.
However, Israel, with backing from the United States, initially refused, violating the original timeline and demanding that the first phase be extended until all Israeli hostages have been returned. They have also continued pressuring the Palestinian resistance group into capitulation through collective punishment, targeting Gaza’s civilians yet again.
Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, issued a statement calling Israel’s latest aggression “cheap and unacceptable blackmail.”
Hamas had shown readiness to kick off the second-phase negotiations in a meeting with Egyptian mediators in Cairo earlier on Saturday, and has called upon the mediators to ensure that Israel implements its side of the agreement.
“We call on mediators in Egypt and Qatar, as well as the guarantors in the US administration, to ensure that the (Israeli) occupation complies with the agreement… and proceeds with the second phase according to the agreed-upon terms,” said spokesman Hazem Qassem to AFP.
This decision mirrors Israel’s actions in Gaza following October 7, 2023 when Israel cut off electricity to Gaza leaving civilians and hospitals reliant on solar panels and fuel-powered generators.
