Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the office would carry out the “massive logistical operation” needed to remove Palestinians from Gaza.

Israel ordered all of Gaza's electricity supply to be cut off on Sunday in an effort to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining Israeli hostages held in the territory. Energy minister Eli Cohen's announcement came a week after Israel cut off all aid supplies to the territory, which has a population of more than two million people.

Israel has imposed a total blockade on all goods entering the enclave, demanding that Hamas free remaining hostages without beginning the negotiations to end the Gaza war.

Israel halted its already limited supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip, a move the government called a response to the Hamas hostage crisis and which a liaison officer said would suspend production by a desalination plant in the war-wracked enclave.

Israel ordered an immediate halt to Gaza's electricity supply Sunday in an effort to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages, even as it prepared for fresh talks on the future of