Israel will stop supplying electricity to the Gaza Strip, Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen said on Sunday.
“I have signed an order to immediately cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip. Enough talk, it’s time for action!'” Cohen wrote in a post to X.
“The siege on Gaza could definitely bring Hamas to a better deal or to surrender,” Likud lawmaker Moshe Passal told JNS. “There is evidence that Hamas already wanted to surrender in internal discussions during the siege that began at the beginning of the war immediately after October 7, [2023]. Just before they started to surrender and break down, they were given ‘humanitarian’ aid.
“Everyone knows that the aid that is defined as humanitarian actually goes to Hamas. Hamas controls the aid and uses it as if it were money. That’s how they recruit new terrorists to their ranks in exchange for food and aid,” he continued.
“I am definitely in favor of trying to exhaust all means to bring as many hostages home as possible, as long as we insist that the absolute evil of ISIS and Hamas no longer exists near Israel,” Passal said.
Knesset member Amit Halevy, also a member of Likud, told JNS on Monday,” I think it’s an important step in the right direction. We need to impose an effective siege on our enemies. We are talking about the cruelest enemies in the world of humanity and not only of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
“We need to be very strong at this point, and I think that as you see we are doing it gradually. What we did until now is only stopping the electricity that comes from Israel,” he said.
“What we need to do is when we actually start waging real warfare and not surgical operations to take Gaza Strip, piece by piece, and impose an effective siege on each section of territory,” he continued.
“Those that want to go to humanitarian areas can go; we should have humanitarian paths and areas so that people who want to evacuate can do so, but those who decide to stay define themselves as enemies, and we need to treat them as such. This is the basic rule of every war,” Halevy said.
On March 2, the Israeli government announced the suspension of all humanitarian aid to Gaza after Hamas rejected the ceasefire extension proposed by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that no goods or supplies would enter Gaza until further notice.
Since the ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19, more than 25,000 aid trucks carrying food, water and medicine have entered Gaza, alongside more than half a million tents and 2,100 fuel tankers. Israeli officials estimate that Hamas has stockpiled supplies sufficient for four to six months.
“There is no shortage of essential products in the Strip whatsoever,” said Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, in response to a joint statement by the foreign ministers of the E3—France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
“We call on the Government of Israel to abide by its international obligations to ensure full, rapid, safe and unhindered provision of humanitarian assistance to the population in Gaza,” the E3 said on March 5.
The Foreign Ministry had quoted former U.S. President Joe Biden, who said on Oct. 18, 2023, that if Hamas “diverts or steals” the aid, then “it will stop the international community from being able to provide” it.
“Aid that goes to Hamas is not humanitarian. Enabling the enemy to resupply itself so it can regroup and attack you again is not humanitarian—it is suicidal and will not be allowed,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Stolen humanitarian aid became the economic lifeline for Hamas during the current war, handing it profits estimated at a half-billion dollars, according to Channel 12.
Netanyahu addressed the issue of Hamas exploiting aid at a Sept. 4 press conference, promising that Israel would in time strip the terrorist group of its ability to use the stolen supplies for financial gain.
David Mencer, spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, told the press on March 3: “It is Hamas who is harming the Gazan population. Hamas systematically takes the humanitarian aid and sells it to support their own terror. … Hamas could be humanitarian but they’ve in fact been barbarian.”
With Witkoff slated to travel to Doha on Tuesday to encourage negotiations between Israel and Hamas, the Jewish state confirmed that it will participate in the discussions.
“Israel has accepted the invitation of the mediators backed by the United States,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated, in a translation of the Hebrew, “and will send a delegation to Doha on Monday in an effort to advance the negotiations.”