Does the ceasefire agreement require Israel to supply electricity to Gaza?

No, not in so many words — no clause of the January 2025 ceasefire agreement names electricity — but the deal’s humanitarian terms required Israel to allow the necessities of life into Gaza, so the real question was never “must Israel supply power” but “may Israel cut it off.” Context matters here: Gaza’s electricity has always come from Israel’s own lines, not from Egypt; Egypt’s role was as the ceasefire’s broker, and Israel cut the power on 9 March just as Egypt-mediated talks on the agreement’s next phase were set to resume (Al Jazeera¹).

The pro-Israel framing — that Israel was “only” powering one desalination plant it restored voluntarily in November 2024, and was entitled to use “all the tools available” to free hostages — is incomplete on its own facts. The cut supplied drinking water to over 600,000 Gazans (NZ Herald²), and the UN Human Rights office warned that denying civilians the necessities of life “may amount to collective punishment,” a war crime (The Daily Aus³). Hamas had already released the 33 hostages phase one required; Israel refused phase-two talks, then cut utilities — power and water — for hostage leverage, an obligation no ceasefire term excuses (The Daily Aus³, Times of Israel⁴).