Israel cuts off electricity supply
Photo: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP/TT

Israel cuts off electricity supply to Gaza

Israel announces on Sunday that the power supply to Gaza is being shut off. Save the Children is "appalled by the news". "Children's lives must never become a bargaining chip in the negotiations on ceasefire", says Cecilia Chatterjee-Martinsen, international chief of the organization, in a written comment to TT.

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According to Israel's Energy Minister Eli Cohen, the decision takes effect immediately and he describes it as a way to pressure the terrorist-stamped Hamas.

"We will use every tool we have to ensure that our hostages can return home and that Hamas is no longer present in Gaza after the war," he says in a statement, according to the Jerusalem Post.

It is still not entirely clear what effects the decision will have in practice. However, desalination plants in Gaza need electricity to produce drinking water, reports AP.

Israel has also been blocking aid shipments into Gaza for a week.

"That families in Gaza are once again threatened by violence, stopped humanitarian aid, and now the cutting off of electricity is completely unacceptable. There is no room for more political failures," says Cecilia Chatterjee-Martinsen at Save the Children.

Hamas representative Izzat al-Rishq calls Israel's latest move "a desperate attempt to pressure our people and their resistance through cheap and unacceptable blackmail tactics," according to AFP.

The announcement from Eli Cohen comes at the same time as the current ceasefire is in a fragile state and a delegation from Israel is heading to Qatar for new negotiations on Monday.

The destruction after Israel's attacks on Gaza is extensive. Some energy in the strip comes from solar panels and generators.

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AuthorTT News AgencyEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for our readers
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