Hamas accused Israel of “cheap and unacceptable blackmail” over its decision on Sunday to halt the electricity supply to Gaza in an effort to pressure the Palestinian group into releasing captives, AFP reports.

“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”.