The announcement comes a week after Israel cut off all supplies to the decimated territory, which needs power for water treatment plants.

Hamas has pressed to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase instead. The militant group on Sunday said it wrapped up the latest round of ceasefire talks with Egyptian mediators without changes to its position, calling for an immediate start of the ceasefire’s second phase.

The new letter from Israel’s energy minister to the Israel Electric Corporation tells it to stop selling power to Gaza.

Gaza has been largely devastated by the war, and generators and solar panels are used for some of the power supply.

The ceasefire has paused the deadliest and most destructive fighting ever between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The first phase allowed the return of 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli forces have withdrawn to buffer zones inside Gaza, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza for the first time since early in the war and hundreds of trucks of aid entered per day until Israel suspended supplies.

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