The UK government has accused Israel of risking a breach of international law after it cut off electricity supplies to Gaza.
The shock move by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government came as the international community waited for the second stage of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas to begin.
It provoked a swift response from the Foreign Office (FCDO), with a spokesman saying: “Humanitarian aid should never be contingent on a ceasefire or used as a political tool.“
“A halt on goods and supplies entering Gaza, including basic needs such as electricity, risks breaching Israel’s obligations under International Humanitarian Law.”
Israel says it is cutting off its electricity supply “immediately” to Gaza a week after it blocked humanitarian aid to the territory as both sides in the conflict renegotiate the terms of a fragile truce.
The new letter from Israel’s energy minister, Eli Cohen, to the Israel Electric Corporation tells it to stop selling power to Gaza. The full effects of that are not immediately clear, but the territory’s desalination plants receive power for producing drinking water.
In a post to social media platform X earlier on Sunday, Mr Cohen said: “I have now signed an order to cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip immediately. Enough with the talk, it’s time for action!”
The dramatic new development comes a week after Israel blocked the delivery of food, fuel and medicines to the area of more than two million people, sending prices soaring and humanitarian groups scrambling to distribute dwindling stocks to the most vulnerable.
Israel said at the time the siege aimed to pressure Hamas to accept its new ceasefire proposal, as it pushes for an extension of the first phase of the ceasefire that was brought in in January. Israel had warned when it stopped all supplies that water and electricity could be next.
Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the truce and said its decision to cut off aid was “cheap extortion, a war crime and a blatant attack” on he truce deal.
Following Mr Cohen’s announcement, UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese accused the Israeli government of genocide, posting on X: “Israel cutting off electricity supplies to Gaza means, among others, no functioning desalination stations, ergo: no clean water.”
Under its new terms, Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.
But Hamas has pressed to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase instead, which would see 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 others.
The militant group on Sunday said it 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.
Gaza has been devastated by the war, and generators and solar panels are used for some of the power supply.
The ceasefire has paused the deadliest and most destructive fighting ever between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Hamas’ attack in October 2023 killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, inside Israel and took 251 people hostage. Most have been released in ceasefire agreements or other arrangements.
Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say how many of the dead were militants.
The first phase allowed the return of 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli forces have withdrawn to buffer zones inside Gaza, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza for the first time since early in the war and hundreds of trucks of aid entered per day until Israel suspended supplies.
With Associated Press
