OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/ WASHINGTON — Israel’s energy minister Eli Cohen on Sunday said he had given instructions to stop supplying electricity to Gaza, a week after Israel blocked all aid into the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“I have just signed the order to stop supplying electricity immediately to the Gaza Strip,” Cohen said in a video statement, adding: “We will use all the tools at our disposal to bring back the hostages and ensure that Hamas is no longer in Gaza the day after” the war.
Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that US President Donald Trump’s plan to remove Palestinians from war-battered Gaza was “taking shape”, despite widespread rejection by governments in the region.
“This plan is taking shape, with ongoing actions in coordination with the (US) administration,” Smotrich told an event in the Israeli parliament, adding that preparations were underway to form a managing body that would oversee displacement.
“This has the potential to create a historic change in the Middle East and for the state of Israel,” said Smotrich, who has repeatedly backed resuming the war against Hamas and has expressed support for re-establishing permanent Israeli presence in the territory.
The plan proposed by Trump would require finding countries willing to take in at least some of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people, Smotrich noted.
“It involves identifying key countries, understanding their interests — both with the US and with us — and fostering cooperation,” he said.
Implementing the plan, which other Israeli leaders have welcomed but Palestinians, Arab governments and some world leaders have condemned, would be a massive logistical operation, said Smotrich.
“Just to give you an idea — if we remove 10,000 people a day, seven days a week, it will take six months,” he said.
“If we remove 5,000 people a day, it will take a year. Of course, this is assuming we have countries willing to take them, but these are very, very, very long processes.”
Experts have said that forcibly removing Gazans would amount to a violation of international law.
Just days after he took office, Trump triggered global outrage when he suggested the US take over Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”, while forcing its Palestinian inhabitants to relocate to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan.
Last week, an Arab counterproposal to Trump’s plan was put forward, with several Islamic nations and European governments endorsing it.
The Arab proposal aims to rebuild Gaza without displacing Gazans, who endured more than 15 months of devastating war before a fragile ceasefire took effect on January 19.
The US envoy who held unprecedented direct talks with Hamas said Sunday the meeting had been “very helpful” and he was confident a hostage release deal could be reached “within weeks.”
Speaking to CNN, Adam Boehler — a Jewish American — acknowledged it had been “odd” sitting face-to-face with leaders of a group that the United States has listed as a “terrorist” organization since 1997, but did not rule out further meetings with the Palestinian militants.
Boehler said he understood Israel’s “consternation” that the US had held talks at all with the group, but said he had been seeking to jump-start the “fragile” negotiations.
“In the end, I think it was a very helpful meeting,” he said, adding: “I think something could come together within weeks… I think there is a deal where they can get all of the prisoners out, not just the Americans.”
Boehler suggested there was a chance of further talks with the militants, telling CNN: “You never know. You know sometimes you’re in the area and you drop by.”
