Israel says it is cutting electricity to Gaza

Last week Israel cut off all supplies of goods to the territory of more than two million people

Laundry day in the ruins of Gaza. Latest cuts to power from Israel could affect water supplies to millions in the Palestinian enclave. AP

Israel announced on Sunday it was cutting off its electricity supply to Gaza. The full effects were not immediately clear, but the arid territory's desalination plants receive power from Israel to produce drinking water.

The country last week cut off all supplies of goods to the territory of more than two million people, in an echo of the siege it imposed in the earliest days of its war with Hamas. Israel had warned when it stopped all supplies that water and electricity could be next.

“We will avail ourselves of all means at our disposal to free the hostages and to ensure that Hamas will not be in Gaza on the day after,” Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said in a video statement announcing the electricity cut-off.

Israel is seeking to press Hamas to accept an extension of the first phase of their ceasefire. That phase ended last weekend. Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.

Hamas instead wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which would involve the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35.

The militant group — which has warned that cutting off supplies to Gaza would affect the hostages as well — said on Sunday it had wrapped up the latest round of ceasefire talks with Egyptian mediators without changes to its position, calling for an immediate start of the ceasefire's second phase.

Israel has said it would send a delegation to Qatar on Monday in an effort to advance the ceasefire negotiations.

The White House envoy involved in the US-Hamas talks, Adam Boehler, said on Sunday that a breakthrough could be possible within weeks.

“I believe there is enough there to make a deal between what Hamas wants and what they’ve accepted and what Israel wants and (what) it’s accepted,” he told CNN’s State of the Union.

Gaza and its infrastructure have been largely devastated by the war, and generators and solar panels are used for some of the power supply. The electricity cut also could affect water pumps and sanitation.

Israel has faced sharp criticism after cutting supplies to Gaza. “Any denial of the entry of the necessities of life for civilians may amount to collective punishment,” the UN human rights office said Friday.

Israel has denied collective punishment. It says it has allowed in enough aid and blamed shortages on what it called the UN's inability to distribute it. It also accused Hamas of siphoning off aid.