ISRAEL has announced it is cutting off Gaza’s electricity supply after halting deliveries of food to weaponise hunger.
Energy minister Eli Cohen has instructed the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) to immediately cut off the supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip, The Times of Israel reports.
The IEC has been barred by the Israeli government from selling electricity to power stations in the Palestinian territory.
In a video statement, Cohen said: "We will employ all the tools available to us so that all the hostages will return, and we will ensure that Hamas won’t be in Gaza on the day after."
It comes after Israel blocked food from entering Gaza, which is home to around two million people.
Collective punishment, such as using starvation as a weapon of war, is a war crime under the Geneva Convention.
The full effects of the move are not clear, but it could stop people from getting access to drinking water as people rely on desalination plants.
Gaza has been largely devastated by the war, and generators and solar panels are used for some of the power supply.
Israel and Hamas are in dispute about the ceasefire deal, which requires the Islamist militant group which controls Gaza to release the 59 remaining hostages taken on October 7.
Israel stopped food from entering Gaza in a bid to speed up the release of hostages, without beginning plans for a permanent cessation of hostilities.
Hamas said this weekend, before power was switched off, there were "positive indicators" for talks on the second phase of the ceasefire. Israel also confirmed it would send a delegation for talks in Doha, mediated by Qatar.
Asked in the Commons last week whether the UK Government would consider Israel's block on food entering Gaza a war crime, Foreign Office minister Catherine West said only that Israel did "risk breaching obligations under international humanitarian law".
Responding to the latest development, SNP MP Brendan O'Hara said: "It is absolutely despicable to see reports of Israel cutting off the electricity supply to Gaza and this must be called out for what it would be – it is breaking international law.
“This must be condemned in no uncertain terms by all politicians but, particularly, the UK Labour Government which has failed to speak out swiftly when it has been needed earlier in this horrific conflict.
“Cutting off the electricity supply to Gaza is barbaric and would lead to further, unimaginable suffering for the innocent men, women and children of Gaza."
Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie added: "International law is unambiguous: this is a war crime.
“Another in a long list of war crimes committed by the Israeli state against 2.2 million Palestinian civilians – all with the unwavering military and political support of the Labour UK Government.
“This puts the lives of those civilians at risk, and undermines the ceasefire and peace process.
“The UK Government must end its support for these abhorrent acts and finally begin upholding international law and human rights through its actions. It can start by immediately halting the arms sales to Israel that the government itself admits are likely being used in war crimes.”
