Cut off electricity to Gaza to pressure Hamas into hostage deal, Israeli lawmakers demand

Security cabinet ministers acknowledge that pressure was bringing “significant changes” in Hamas’ position.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

At a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet on Saturday, lawmakers suggested cutting off electricity to Gaza to pressure Hamas to agree to release hostages.

Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer observed, “Hamas is blinking, military pressure has brought about a change in its position.” Others also noted “significant changes” in Hamas’s position.

“We need to continue the military pressure and not stop,” MK Ze’ev Elkin said.

Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir commended Eli Cohen, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, for cutting the last power line, stating, “Well done to Minister Cohen for disconnecting the electricity. We must dismantle all the power lines in Gaza.”

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) stated, “We are not transferring electricity to Gaza at the moment. There was one line, but it has been disconnected, and now primarily generators are being used. No electricity is being sent to Gaza. If it were, we would inform you. But there is none.”

Ben Gvir asked why there was still any electricity left in the Strip. Major General Ghasan Alyan, the head of COGAT, responded that there were private generators and no telling when the diesel would run out.

Ben Gvir then demanded that the generators be confiscated, along with the internal power lines. “Turn out their lights,” he declared.

“Turn off their sun; we need to darken Gaza, even during the day,” added Tzachi Hanegbi, head of the National Security Council. To which Transportation Minister Miri Regev quipped, “He wants to give them a blackout before Passover,” referring to the plague of darkness in the biblical story of the exodus from Egypt.