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The move, which will mainly affect a single wastewater treatment plant, appeared intended to put pressure on Hamas.
March 9, 2025, 4:38 p.m. ET
Israel’s energy minister said on Sunday that he was immediately cutting off electricity to the Gaza Strip, a move that may have limited impact in Gaza, given restrictions already in place, but that comes as Israel tries to pressure Hamas amid talks over their fragile truce.
“We will employ all the tools at our disposal so that all the hostages are returned, and we will ensure that Hamas does not remain in Gaza in the ‘day after,’” Eli Cohen, the Israeli energy minister, said in a statement on Sunday about his decision.
Both the fate of the approximately five dozen living and dead hostages remaining in Gaza and the enclave’s future governance are major sticking points in the cease-fire talks. Israel is insisting that Hamas can play no role in Gaza’s future; Hamas has said it may be willing to give up civilian governance, but has firmly rejected dissolving its military wing.
Mr. Cohen’s announcement came as negotiators and mediators prepared to discuss the cease-fire this week in Qatar. It follows Israel’s decision earlier this month to cut off humanitarian aid and supplies to Gaza after the first stage of the original phased cease-fire expired.
How meaningful the latest pressure on Hamas will be is unclear, given the severe restrictions that have already been placed on electricity supply to Gaza since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel that ignited the war in the Palestinian enclave, and in light of Gazans’ longstanding reliance on alternative energy supplies because of prewar restrictions.
The decision’s clearest effect was the disconnection, once again, of a wastewater treatment plant in the enclave that had recently been operating on Israeli power.
