TRANSCRIPT:
“I have now signed the order to cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip immediately. 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’."
That's Eli Cohen, the Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure.
He's just made an order cutting off the electricity in Gaza.
It's a decision he says he hopes will pressure Hamas to release more of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
The full effects of the order are not immediately clear, but the territory's desalination plants receive power for producing drinking water.
The decision to suspend electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip has come a week after Israel announced it is cutting off the supply of all goods into Gaza.
Fares al-Qeisi in Khan Younis says people were barely able to relieve their hunger before Israel cut them off again.
"It hasn't been two months since the situation has started to ease. Since the ceasefire began, the situation has improved a little. But before that, the situation was very bad. It was famine, there was no... I swear to God, one could not satisfy their hunger. One could not find bread and we have children who would cry in the morning, saying they want a piece of bread. The situation was very bad, and the price of a bag of flour had even reached approximately $200 or $300."
The electricity suspension is coming during delicate negotiations for a second phase in the ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Hamas says it is time to start negotiations on phase two, which would require Israel to fully withdraw troops from Gaza, the militant group to release the remaining Israeli hostages, and for both parties to commit to a lasting peace.
Israel wants an extension of the first phase - and to embrace aspects of the plan already announced by US President Donald Trump.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says the U-S proposal to relocate the entire Palestinian population of Gaza is already taking shape.
"This is the only realistic plan to realise the war's goal of ensuring that no missiles are fired from Gaza towards the state of Israel. In order for the great costs, and no less than that - the investment and determination and faith and mobilisation of an entire nation in 16 months of war - for all of this, God forbid, to not turn into another round (of fighting). Until the next round, we must take this plan with both hands. I tell you responsibly, we are there, establishing a large immigration administration."
It's unclear what that means for the counter proposal to Trump's plan put forward by several Arab nations and supported by multiple European leaders.
The counter proposal would involve the rebuilding of Gaza without displacing Palestinians and would require an estimated $84 billion in investment.
Palestinian Mohammad Sakak says this is the plan Palestinians support.
"I hope that Arab countries are partner countries that play an active role in every stage of our lives, and I hope that they can help in rebuilding infrastructure for these people, who have been suffering for 50 or 60 years. Why can't we live like human beings? We are also people who understand, we have awareness, we have children, we have girls, we have boys, we can live, and let us live."
Despite the uncertainty, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office says Israel has accepted the invitation of ceasefire mediators backed by the US, and have sent a delegation to Doha in an effort to advance the negotiations.
The Prime Minister meanwhile is still facing considerable domestic political pressure, with families of Israeli hostages gathering outside the Defence Ministry once again to call on their government to end the war.
Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.
Zahiro Shahar Mor is the nephew of an Israeli hostage killed in Gaza.
"We are here to send a clear message to the Israeli government - stop stalling, give a full mandate to the delegation that is going out to the negotiations (in Doha) tomorrow; give the full mandate to stop this ordeal. What we saw, even the U.S. administration is bypassing the Israeli government and even, you know, expresses its frustration with the Israeli government's lack of movement, lack of doing anything, just stalling and stalling and buying more time. So our message is clear - give the negotiating team a full mandate to end the war and get all the hostages back."
