“I just signed an order for the immediate halt of electricity to the Gaza Strip,” Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said in a statement, adding that the country would “operate all of the tools that are at our disposal, to ensure the return of all the hostages.” Israel cut off electricity supplies to Gaza following the Hamas’ attacks of October 7, 2023, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, but the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) had since reconnected power to a wastewater treatment facility following a government directive.

A spokesperson for the IEC confirmed to CNN that: “Today, a directive was received to disconnect the (electricity) to the facility, and this was done.” Israel’s decision will intensify the enclave’s existing water crisis, with the cutoff severely impacting desalination efforts, local officials said. “There is already water scarcity, and the position of the Israeli government will intensify this crisis in Gaza Strip,” the mayor of Gaza municipality Asem Al Nabih told CNN Monday. “Cutting off the electricity (to) Gaza will increase the need for water, especially drinking water.”

The last working desalination plant in Gaza had already been relying mostly on diesel generators or solar panels for power before Israel announced it was cutting the remaining power supply to Gaza, but the decision will still have a severe impact on desalination efforts in the enclave, according to the mayor of the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, Nizar Ayyash. But Hamas’ spokesperson Hazem Qassem suggested the move would have little practical effect given the earlier cutoffs. However, he criticized it as “behavior that confirms the occupation’s intent to continue its genocidal war against Gaza, through the use of starvation policies, in clear disregard for all international laws and norms.”

Since Israel launched its war on Hamas in Gaza in response to the October 7 attacks, Gazans have relied largely on generators and solar power for electricity.