In a post on X, Cohen said he has signed an order to “cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip immediately”.
“Enough with the talk, it’s time for action!” he added.
Sunday’s announcement comes more than a week after Israel cut off all supplies of goods to the territory to over two million people after reneging on the ceasefire deal that ended the 15-month-long Gaza war. Nearly 50,000 Palestinians have been killed and vast swathes of Gaza have been turned into rubble after non-stop Israeli bombardment.
Israel wants to extend the first phase of the three-phase deal, while the Hamas group wants the deal to move to phase two, as initially agreed by both sides. Analysts say Israel’s refusal to enter phase two shows its unwillingness to withdraw its troops from the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow strip of land that separates Gaza from Egypt.
Hamas has accused Israel of “cheap and unacceptable blackmail” over its decision to halt the electricity supply to war-ravaged Gaza in an effort to pressure the group into releasing the captives.
“We strongly condemn the occupation’s decision to cut off electricity to Gaza, after depriving it of food, medicine, and water,” Ezzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau said in a statement, adding that it was “a desperate attempt to pressure our people and their resistance through cheap and unacceptable blackmail tactics”.
Aid groups and rights campaigners have accused Israel of committing crimes against humanity and violating international humanitarian laws for cutting off aid.
People in Gaza are struggling to get bread and basic supplies as Israel’s total blockade has forced the closure of several bakeries and shops.
Hamas has repeatedly called for an immediate start to negotiations on the ceasefire’s second phase. A Hamas source stated on Sunday that its delegation had now left for Doha, Qatar after talks in Cairo, Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, meanwhile, said it would send delegates to Doha on Monday.
The six-week first phase saw the release of 25 living Israeli captives and eight bodies in exchange for some 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
During the second phase, Hamas is expected to release all the remaining living captives, mostly male soldiers, in return for the freeing of more Palestinians held in the Israeli prison system. In addition, according to the document agreed to in January, Israel would initiate its “complete withdrawal” from Gaza.
The third phase will see the bodies of the remaining captives handed over in return for a three- to five-year reconstruction plan for Gaza to be conducted under international supervision.
On Sunday, United States President Donald Trump’s envoy Adam Boehler told NBC News that direct US meetings with Hamas in Doha on the release of captives in Gaza were extremely “helpful”.
Boehler stated that he believes something could “come together on Gaza within weeks”, but did not elaborate.
Trump had previously floated a widely condemned plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza, prompting Arab leaders to offer an alternative.
Their proposal would see Gaza’s reconstruction financed through a trust fund, with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority returning to govern the territory.
“We need more discussion about it, but it’s a good-faith first step,” Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, told reporters in Washington in response to the Arab plan.
Witkoff will be returning to the region this week as he travels to Saudi Arabia for talks on the war in Ukraine.
Meantime, family members of Israeli captives have demanded the government fully implement the ceasefire.
Hamas has announced that it was ready to abandon its governance role in Gaza but refused to lay down arms.
