Said Amori
09 March 2025•Update: 10 March 2025
JERUSALEM
Israel announced Sunday that it had decided to cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip “immediately,” even though power has already been cut off since the start of the Israeli genocide in October 2023.
According to Israel's official broadcasting agency, Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen ordered the Israel Electric Corporation to stop transmitting electricity to the Gaza Strip “immediately.”
It added that Cohen's decision will lead to a complete power outage in the region.
In response to the decision, Hazem Qassem, a spokesperson for the Palestinian group Hamas, told Anadolu that “in practice, Israel has cut off electricity to Gaza since the first day of its war on the Strip.”
“This action confirms Israel's ongoing efforts to complete its genocidal war against Gaza, using starvation as a tactic and disregarding all international laws and norms,” he added.
Qassem called for the implementation of resolutions reached at an Arab League summit in Cairo earlier this month that reject the siege on Gaza and the starvation of its people.
Last Tuesday, Omer Dostri, spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Israel does not rule out cutting off both water and electricity to Gaza as a means of exerting pressure on Hamas.
Israeli media reported last Sunday that Israel plans to implement an escalatory plan against Gaza, including the cutting of water and electricity, carrying out targeted assassinations, forcibly displacing Palestinians from northern Gaza to the south and resuming the war.
Israel also stopped humanitarian aid from entering Gaza last Sunday, prompting warnings from local and human rights groups of a return to widespread hunger for the Palestinian population.
Last Monday, Netanyahu commented on the decision to block aid to Gaza.
“We decided to stop the entry of goods and supplies into the sector,” he said.
He also threatened Hamas, saying that if the group did not release the Israeli hostages, “the consequences would be unimaginable” and affirmed that Israel was ready, with the support of US President Donald Trump, to proceed with the next stages of the battle.
The ceasefire deal has been in place since January, pausing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed more than 48,450 people, mostly women and children, and left the enclave in ruins.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
