The Minister of Energy of Israel declared on Sunday that he was immediately cutting the electricity in the Gaza Strip, a move that could have a limited impact on Gaza, already given restrictions, but this is that Israel tries to press the Hamas among the interviews on their fragile respite.
“We will take all the tools available to us so that all the hostages are returned and we will make sure that Hamas does not remain in Gaza on the” day after “, said Eli Cohen, Israeli Minister of Energy, in a declaration of Sunday on his decision.
Both the fate of about five dozens of live and dead hostages that remain in Gaza and the future governance of the Enclave are the main critical points in the interviews of ceased the fire. Israel insists that Hamas cannot play any role in the future of Gaza; Hamas said he could be willing to give up the civil government, but firmly rejected the dissolution of his military wing.
Mr. Cohen’s announcement came as negotiators and mediators prepared to discuss the fire this week in Qatar. The decision of Israel follows at the beginning of this month to interrupt humanitarian aid and supplies in Gaza after the expiry of the first phase of the ceased the original gradual fire.
It is not clear how significant the last pressure on Hamas is, given the serious restrictions that have already been placed on the supply of electricity in Gaza from 7 October 2023, an attack led by Hamas to Israel who lit the war in the Palestinian encycling and to the light of the long dependence of Gazens of alternative energy for the Prewar restrictions.
The clearest effect of the decision was the disconnection, once again, of a waste water treatment plant in the enclave that recently operated on Israeli power.
The Israel Electric Corporation said on Sunday that she was ordered to cut the supply to that system.
Israel will send an al Qatar delegation on Monday to advance the negotiations of ceased the fire, said the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a declaration on Saturday. The candidate of President Trump as a special correspondent for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, participated in talks last week with Hamas officials, focused on the guarantee of the release of Israeli Americans who were kidnapped and brought to Gaza. It is still thought that one of the five Israeli Americans are still alive.
US officials are scheduled in the region of this week to continue the interviews that have also been mediated by officials of Egypt and Qatar. A delegation from Hamas has also met in the last few days with Egyptian mediators.
In mid -January, after 15 months of devastating war, Israel and Hamas accepted a complex truce and gradually understood to free hostages taken by Israel and held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and detained in Israel and to build momentum towards a global cessation.
But after the first phase ended on March 1 without an agreement in the next phase, Israel suggested another temporary extension of the ceasefire and the exchange of hostages.
The Israeli government’s decision to cut the extremely limited electricity offer that he had provided to the Gaza Strip could influence continuous discussions.
Izzat Al-Rise, a member of the Hamas political office, sentenced Israel’s decision to cut electricity in a Sunday declaration, calling it a “waste of time”. He accused Mr. Netanyahu of trying to stop the agreement of the fire and to endanger the hostages, saying that there is no way to go on “but to commit to implementing the terms of the agreement and starting the negotiations for the second phase”.
At present, the Palestinians in Gaza have lived in what is essentially a blackout since the beginning of the war. Before the war, years of conflict and an Israeli and Egyptian economic block imposed to weaken Hamas had left the Gaza electricity network, providing only hours of power limited every day. The territory had entrusted on an improvised system, according to a 2023 report in the Center for Strategic Strategic Studies Begin-Sadat, an Israeli Think Tank at Bar-Ilan University. Half of the electricity was generated in Israel and half in Gaza by various sources, including an electric power plant powered by diesel and private generators, as well as solar panels.
Since the war began, some Palestinians have been able to contact generators or solar energy, but the fuel for generators is also short -term and limited by Israel. Israel said that Hamas has accumulated the fuel that entered the territory for its purposes, also for the launch of missiles.
The relationships that contribute were Rasgon man, Johnatan Reiss, Abu Bakr Bashir AND Liam Stack.