Following reports this morning (Tuesday) that Israel is set to provide the Gaza Strip with electricity again, Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich responded on X: "A serious mistake that must not be done."
Sources in Smotrich's entourage say that "we would expect the cabinet to be updated, discuss, and decide whether to approve it. Minister Smotrich has been demanding a cabinet discussion and a decision regarding Israeli control of humanitarian aid and the establishment of a military government in the Gaza Strip to destroy Hamas for half a year now."
The Tzav Tesha protest movement released a response to the news of renewed electricity to Gaza on X: "after the introduction of supply trucks to Hamas and the release of terrorists, the Israeli government is moving over to the next stage and deciding on connection to Israeli electricity.
"The mass murderer Sinwar is sitting in a tunnel and getting everything he wants without any cost. The levers of pressure are being wasted one after the other in a terrible way. The Nukhba terrorists who committed the horrors and continue to hold onto our hostages will now get electricity and continue to rule through it.
"The people of Israel cannot allow this failure which drives away the return of our children home and blatantly endangers the lives of our heroic soldiers, to continue. Take responsibility and see to it that the spoiling of the terrorists who massacred and raped us immediately stop. No aid should pass until the last of the hostages returns."
For its part, the IDF responded to criticism within the cabinet regarding the decision to allow repairs by saying that "introducing electricity from Israel into Gaza is critical to allow to continue to fight. The eyes of the world and the United States are focused on the Strip and there is still a risk from the Hague court for stopping the war. The desalination plant will provide 20,000 cubic meters of water a day for most of the Gazans living now between Deir El-Balah and al-Mawasi. The move was presented to and approved by the political leadership."