Israel halts Gaza electricity supply ahead of new truce talks

Israel ordered an immediate halt to Gaza's electricity supply on Sunday in an effort to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages, even as it prepared for fresh talks on the future of its truce with the Palestinian group.

Israel's decision comes a week after it blocked all aid supplies to the war-battered territory, a move reminiscent of the initial days of the war when Israel announced a "siege" on Gaza.

Hamas described the electricity cut as "blackmail," a term it had also used after Israel blocked the aid.

The truce's initial phase ended on March 1 and both sides have refrained from returning to all-out war, despite sporadic violence including an air strike on Sunday.

Hamas has repeatedly called for an immediate start to negotiations on the ceasefire's second phase, aiming to end the war permanently. Israel says it prefers extending phase one until mid-April, and halted aid to Gaza over the impasse.

On Sunday it ordered a cut in the electricity supply.

"I have just signed the order to stop supplying electricity immediately to the Gaza Strip," Energy Minister Eli Cohen said in a video statement.

"We will use all the tools at our disposal to bring back the hostages and ensure that Hamas is no longer in Gaza the day after" the war, he said.

Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas's political bureau, described Israel's move as "a desperate attempt to pressure our people and their resistance through cheap and unacceptable blackmail tactics".

Just days after the war erupted on October 7, 2023 after Hamas's attack, Israel cut electricity to Gaza, only restoring it in mid-2024.

The sole power line between Israel and Gaza supplies the main desalination plant, and Gazans mainly rely now on solar panels and fuel-powered generators to produce electricity.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza live in tents, with night-time temperatures now forecast around 12 degrees Celsius (54 Fahrenheit).

Hamas representatives met Egyptian mediators over the weekend, emphasising the urgent need to resume aid deliveries "without restrictions or conditions", a Hamas statement said.

"We call on mediators in Egypt and Qatar, as well as the guarantors in the US administration, to ensure that the (Israeli) occupation complies with the agreement... and proceeds with the second phase according to the agreed-upon terms," spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP.

Hamas's key demands for the second phase include a hostage-prisoner exchange, Israel's complete withdrawal from Gaza, a permanent ceasefire, border crossings reopening and lifting the blockade, he said.

Former United States president Joe Biden had also outlined a second phase involving the release of remaining living hostages, the withdrawal of all Israeli forces left in Gaza, and establishment of a permanent ceasefire.

After meeting mediators, another Hamas spokesman, Abdel Latif al-Qanoua, said indicators were so far "positive".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it would send delegates to Doha on Monday.

The truce largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza, where virtually the entire population was displaced by Israel's relentless military campaign in response to the October 7 attack.

The six-week first phase led to the exchange of 25 living Israeli hostages and eight bodies for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

It also allowed in much-needed food, shelter and medical assistance.

After Israel cut off the aid flow, UN rights experts accused the government of "weaponising starvation".

At a UN distribution of flour in Jabalia, northern Gaza, Abu Mahmoud Salman, said that with the territory now closed off from fresh supplies, there are "fears of renewed famine in Gaza, where the situation remains dire".

Last week, US President Donald Trump threatened further destruction of Gaza if all remaining hostages were not released, issuing what he called a "last warning" to Hamas leaders.

He also said Gazans who "hold hostages... are dead!"

The threats came after his administration confirmed it had unprecedented direct talks with Hamas, which Washington had previously refused contact with since designating it a terrorist organisation in 1997.

The official who held the talks with Hamas, US hostage envoy Adam Boehler, told CNN on Sunday that a deal could be reached "within weeks" to "get all of the prisoners out, not just the Americans".

Of the 251 hostages taken by the Hamas during the October 7 attack, 58 remain in Gaza, including five Americans of which four have been confirmed dead.

Trump has floated a widely condemned plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza, prompting Arab leaders to offer an alternative that would see reconstruction financed through a trust fund, with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority returning to govern the Hamas-ruled territory.

On Sunday Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that proposal was "taking shape".

Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, while Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,458 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from both sides.