Gaza will not be provided with any electricity, water or fuel until Israeli hostages being held by Hamas are returned home, Israeli energy minister Israel Katz said Thursday. "No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened, and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home. Humanitarian for humanitarian. And no one will preach us morals," Katz wrote on X, formerly Twitter. During the onslaught on Saturday, armed Hamas militants poured over the heavily-fortified border into Israel and took as many as 150 hostages, including Israeli army officers, back to Gaza. Hamas warned that it would start executing hostages if Israel targeted people in Gaza without warning. Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), told CNN's Erin Burnett that the situation with the hostages is an "extremely sensitive and complex topic." Although Israel has "some experience" with hostage situations, Conricus said they have never dealt with an operation like this: "Not in the scope, not in the magnitude and not in the complexity of where our hostages are." Conricus said "reason dictates" that the hostages are being kept underground, to "keep them safe from Israeli intelligence, and efforts to get them out." — CNN
