March 10, 2025 (EIRNS)—Israel cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip March 9. Energy Minister Eli Cohen said he instructed the Israel Electric Corporation to immediately stop selling electricity to power stations in Gaza. “We will employ all the tools available to us so that hostages will return,” Cohen stated. Since March 2, Israel has blocked the entry of humanitarian aid, medicine, fuel, and all other goods into Gaza, a policy reminiscent of what the Nazis did in the Warsaw Ghetto, and today a war crime backed by the so-called “civilized” Western world.
The electricity cutoff will affect the Deir al-Balah desalination plant, the only such plant that provides clean water to Palestinians in the central and southern areas of Gaza. “There will be a big struggle in supplying water,” water authority official Omar Shatata told CBC News on March 9 from Gaza City. “We need a solution. Potable water is the basis of life.”
The Deir al-Balah desalination plant was providing a paltry 18,000 cubic meters of water per day to Gaza. That has been cut by 86% to around 2,500 cubic meters per day.
Phase 1 of the ceasefire reached on Jan. 15, expired on March 1. Hamas and other forces in Palestine have stated that it is time, per the ceasefire plan, to move to phase 2. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused, and called for an extension of phase 1, hoping to block the phase 2 realization.
