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Gaza’s Energy Problem: They Want To Keep Tortured Israeli Hostages More Than Helping Rebuild Their Society
Eli Sharabi reunites with his family after his release from Gazan captivity. Photo: IDF spokesperson’s unit
Israel’s Energy Minister, Eli Cohen, has announced the halt of Israel’s energy supply to Gaza. According to major Western media outlets — including The Guardian, BBC, ABC News, and others — this decision was supposed to lead to an apocalypse, if not immediately, then very soon.
Here’s what Reuters reported:
The Israeli government’s decision to cut the supply of electricity to Gaza, including to a crucial water treatment plant, has sparked fresh warnings of a dire health crisis in a population already in desperate need of food and medicine https://t.co/yd9HSgLo4l pic.twitter.com/J4oPUVeJcy
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 11, 2025
Then there’s CNN’s coverage:
“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 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. “In addition to our severed supply line, there will be a 70% reduction in the amount of desalinated water suitable for drinking in the central region and the south,” Ayyash explained.
Or this one in The Guardian:
Hamas accused Israel of “cheap and unacceptable blackmail” over its decision. “We strongly condemn the occupation’s decision to cut off electricity to Gaza, after depriving it of food, medicine and water,” Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said in a statement, adding it was “a desperate attempt to pressure our people and their resistance through cheap and unacceptable blackmail tactics”.
Hamas’ concerns are understandable. After all, for years it’s been the terror group’s exclusive right to deprive Gazans of food, medicine and water.
For anyone with a basic understanding of the situation in Gaza, it’s clear that this depiction is a big stretch from the reality.
Israel cut most of its energy supply to Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 attack. Since then, Gazans have primarily relied on private generators and solar panels. The minister’s latest decision mainly affects the Deir al-Balah desalination plant, which serves more than 600,000 Gaza residents through tankers or the water networks of the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis governorates. The plant was reconnected to Israel’s electricity grid in December 2024 — an event that attracted almost no media attention. Since then, it has produced approximately 16,000 cubic meters of water per day, according to UNICEF.
Simple arithmetic shows that, assuming that the plant works on full capacity, the halt in Deir al-Balah’s operations accounts for approximately 30% of the clean water supply for Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, while CNN and others used the information from Hamas-appointed officials to report a 70% reduction. Also, the media didn’t emphasize enough or failed to mention completely that this cut would affect only a part of Gaza’s population, equating to about an 8.6% reduction in the total clean water supply for all of Gaza.
Thus, while Eli Cohen’s decision does contribute to the existing water shortage, it is far from the catastrophic, total freeze of electricity that media reports suggest.
How Has Western Media Turned This Into an Imminent Apocalypse?
The answer: unprofessional journalism that fails to exercise basic due diligence. Instead of relying on publicly available data, these reports take at face value the statements of Hamas-appointed officials.
Behind the seemingly neutral titles of “the mayor of the central Gaza city” or “municipality spokesperson” are individuals directly appointed by Hamas. Gaza has been under totalitarian Hamas rule for years, making it virtually impossible for officials not to toe the party line. Asem Al Nabih was appointed by Hamas in 2019, and Nizar Ayyash was appointed in 2024.
Eli Cohen’s decision may well be aimed at his domestic political constituency. However, the Western media are far too eager to frame Israel as committing crimes against humanity, war crimes, and sheer immorality — portraying this decision as if Israel had abruptly stripped all Gazans of electricity overnight.
Meanwhile, consider recent Turkish airstrikes in November 2024 in drought-struck northeast Syria. These strikes cut off access to electricity and water for more than a million people, mostly Kurds. A year earlier, attacks on electricity infrastructure in October 2023 shut down the region’s main water station, Alouk, and it has not been operational since. There is an ongoing conflict between Turks and Kurds, yet Turkey has not suffered an attack from the Kurds equivalent to Hamas’ October 7 massacre.
Despite this, no prolonged international outrage comparable to the case of Gaza followed, no humanitarian organizations launched urgent campaigns, and the International Criminal Court did not issue an arrest warrant for Turkey’s President Erdoğan. BBC, for example, merely noted that “experts say it may be a violation of international law.”
A Media Blind Spot
Returning to Gaza, even international aid organizations estimate that Hamas has enough fuel to run generators for approximately 45 more days. This estimate, however, should be taken with extreme caution, given these organizations’ repeated failures to provide reliable data on famine, their lack of serious efforts to assist Israeli hostages, and their documented links to Hamas.
But even if we assume their numbers are accurate, the real question remains: What would a humane government that genuinely cares about civilians do to avoid the dire consequences of running out of energy in 45 days? And what about the civilians themselves — those who truly care about their lives and the lives of their children?
There is only one answer: They would release the innocent hostages who have now been held for over 500 days. Now think about a government that prioritizes holding 24 live hostages and 35 bodies over providing its own population with food and clean water.
Paraphrasing Golda Meir: The core problem is not that Israel does not care enough about civilians in Gaza. It is that people in Israel care so much about their civilians, they’re ready to release thousands of murderers. In stark contrast, Hamas and its supporters, who constitute a significant part of their population, care much more about destroying Israel than about the wellbeing of their civilians — including children.
And that is how trustworthy media should present it.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Gaza’s Energy Problem: They Want To Keep Tortured Israeli Hostages More Than Helping Rebuild Their Society first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Anti-Israel Detroit Event with Keynote Address from Tlaib Draws Condemnation for Extremist Rhetoric
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaking at a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, March 11, 2025. Photo: Michael Brochstein/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
i24 News – A pro-Palestinian conference held in Detroit this week featuring popular influencers and Democratic lawmaker Rashida Tlaib was condemned for the extremist, antisemitic and anti-American rhetoric of its participants.
“We all know who they are, whether they are in Israel, Tel Aviv, in Washington, in Germany, in Europe. They need to be locked up. They need to be taken out. They need to be neutralized to save children, to save humanity,” said Nidal Jboor, an MD.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) hit out at “genocide enablers,” launching broadsides in all directions, including against the United States, which she said was built on on “slavery, genocide, rape and oppression,” and AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Lawyer Huwaida Arraf said “we will continue to globalize the intifada.”
Of the Congress, where she is serving, Tlaib said that “Outside of the decaying halls of the empire in Washington, D.C., we are winning. They are scared.”
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga. subsequently accused Tlaib of “vilifying her colleagues, endangering the lives of Jewish people, and celebrating terrorism.”
Yet another speaker declared that the word “peace” should not be part of the pro-Palestinian movement’s lexicon as “it is a white word,” in contrast to the “liberation.”
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Israeli Military Warns Gaza City Residents to Leave, Bombs High-Rise Tower
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli air strike from earlier today that destroyed a residential building, in Gaza City, September 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
The Israeli military warned Palestinians in Gaza City to leave for the south on Saturday before bombing a high-rise tower as its forces advance deeper into the enclave’s largest urban area.
Israeli forces have been carrying out an offensive on the suburbs of the northern city for weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to capture it.
Netanyahu says Gaza City is a Hamas stronghold and capturing it is necessary to defeat the Palestinian Islamist militants, whose October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war.
The assault threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering there from nearly two years of fighting. Before the war, around a million people, nearly half of Gaza’s population, lived in the city.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X that residents should leave the city for a designated coastal area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, assuring those fleeing that they would be able to receive food, medical care and shelter there.
The designated area was a “humanitarian zone,” Adraee said.
The military also issued so-called “evacuation warnings” to civilians in certain areas of the city, warning it was about to carry out attacks.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz shared a video on X of what appeared to be the multi-story building collapsing after the strike, sending a cloud of dust and debris into the air.
It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.
The Israeli military said Hamas used the building to gather intelligence and that explosive devices had been planted nearby. Hamas denied using the building for military purposes, and Palestinians said it had been used to shelter the displaced.
“These towers are strictly monitored, entry is permitted exclusively for civilians,” Hamas said in a statement, adding the Israeli allegations constitute “a systematic forced displacement” plan.
HEAVY STRIKES
The Israeli military bombed another high-rise tower on Friday that it had also said was being used by Hamas.
On Thursday, the military said it had control over almost half of Gaza City. It says it controls about 75% of all of Gaza.
Many of those in Gaza City were displaced earlier in the war only to later return. Some residents have said that they refuse to be displaced again.
The military has been carrying out heavy strikes on the city for weeks, advancing through outer suburbs, and this week forces were within a few kilometers of the city center.
ALL-OR-NOTHING DEAL
Palestinian terrorists took 251 hostages into the enclave after a Hamas-led cross-border attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023 that killed about 1,200 people.
There are also growing calls within Israel, led by families of hostages and their supporters, to end the war in a diplomatic deal that would secure the release of the remaining 48 captives.
Israeli officials believe 20 of the hostages are alive.
Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that would see all of the hostages released at once and Hamas surrendering.
A video released by Hamas on Friday showed two captives, one of whom said they were being held in Gaza City and that they feared being killed in Israel’s assault on the urban center.
Israeli military officials say they have killed many of Hamas’ key leaders and thousands of its fighters.
Hamas has offered to release some hostages for a temporary ceasefire, similar to terms that were discussed in July before negotiations mediated by the US and Arab states collapsed.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington was in “very deep” negotiations with the Palestinian militants.
Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but today controls only parts of the enclave, has long said it would release all hostages if Israel agreed to end the war and to withdraw all its forces from Gaza.
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Antisemites Target Synagogues in Spain, France Amid Surge in Jew Hatred Across Europe
The exterior wall of a synagogue in Girona, Spain, vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. Photo: Screenshot
Pro-Palestinian activists have vandalized synagogues in Spain and France in recent days, sparking public outrage and calls for authorities to step up protections.
These are only the latest incidents in a troubling wave of anti-Jewish hate crimes targeting Jewish communities across Europe which continues unabated.
On Thursday, the Jewish community of Girona, a city in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region, filed a police complaint and urged authorities to take action after the outer wall of the city’s synagogue was defaced with an antisemitic slogan.
Unknown perpetrators defaced the synagogue’s walls with antisemitic graffiti, scrawling messages such as “Israel is a genocidal state, silence = complicity.”
The city’s Jewish community strongly condemned the incident, urging authorities to conduct a swift investigation, impose exemplary sanctions, and ensure robust security measures.
“Disguised as political activism, [this attack] seeks to stigmatize citizens for their faith — something intolerable in a democratic society,” the statement reads. “Tolerance and respect are values we must defend together.”
The European Jewish Association (EJA) also condemned the incident as a hate crime, urging the Spanish government to ensure the safety and protection of its Jewish citizens.
“This is yet another antisemitic attack, part of a wave we’ve seen daily for nearly two years,” the EJA wrote in a post on X.
This is what members of the Jewish community in Girona found this morning when they arrived at their synagogue to pray.
Antisemitic vandals had defaced the synagogue’s outer wall with the words:
“ISRAEL ESTAT GENOCIDA, SILENCI = CÒMPLICE”
Translation: “Israel is a genocidal… pic.twitter.com/ERj4z1hKOP— EJA – EIPA (@EJAssociation) September 4, 2025
In a separate incident, three pro-Palestinian activists were arrested on Thursday after trying to force their way into a synagogue in Nice, southeastern France, during an informational meeting on aliyah, the process of Jews immigrating to Israel.
According to local reports, several individuals attempted to forcibly enter the place of worship, sparking violent clashes and insults that left a pregnant woman injured.
Shortly after the incident, law enforcement arrested two women in their forties and a man in his sixties, taking them into custody as part of an investigation into aggravated violence.
The charges involve attacks on a vulnerable person, actions carried out by a group, religious motivation, and public religious insults.
Local authorities strongly condemned the act and announced that police officers would remain stationed outside the synagogue for as long as necessary.
Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitic incidents have surged to alarming levels across Europe.
Jewish individuals have been facing a surge in hostility and targeted attacks, including vandalism of murals and businesses, as well as physical assaults.