Israel blocked the entry of Gaza aid trucks on Sunday while an impasse on the truce that has interrupted the fighting in the past six weeks has intensified, Hamas calling on Egyptian mediators and Qataris to intervene.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier that he had adopted a proposal from the envoy of the American president Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, for a temporary cease-fire in Gaza for Ramadan and the periods of Passover, hours after the first phase of the ceased ceased.
If there is an agreement, the truce would stop the fighting until the end of the Ramadan fasting period around March 31 and the Jewish holidays from Passover around April 20.
The truce would be conditional in Hamas releasing half of the living hostages and died on the first day, the rest released at the conclusion, if an agreement is concluded on a permanent ceasefire.
Hamas says that it is engaged in the ceasefire initially agreed which was to go to a second phase, with negotiations aimed at a permanent end in war, and it rejected the idea of a temporary extension of the 42-day truce.
Egyptian sources said on Friday that the Israeli delegation in Cairo had sought to extend the first 42-day phase, while Hamas wanted to go to the second phase of the cease-fire agreement. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said on Saturday that the group had rejected Israel’s “formulation” to extend the first phase.
Many Palestinians marked the beginning of the Sacred Muslim Ramadan in the middle of the rubble of the place where their houses were, because the first phase of the fragile cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas ended on Saturday. Hamas says that “no progress” was made during talks during the second phase of the ceasefire. Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/1.7472338
In the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas presented more than 33 Israeli hostages as well as five Thai returned to an unplanned release, in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and held Israeli prisons and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from some of their Gaza posts.
Under the initial agreement, the second phase was intended to see the start of negotiations on the release of the remaining 59 hostages, the total withdrawal of the Israeli Gaza troops and a final end of the war.
However, the talks have never started and Israel says that all of his hostages must be returned to fight to stop.
“Israel will not allow a cease-fire without the release of our hostages,” said Netanyahu’s office, announcing that the entry of all goods and supplies in the Gaza Strip would be interrupted.
“If Hamas persists in its refusal, there will be additional consequences.”
Hamas denounced Israel’s decision as “blackmail” and a “blatant coup d’etat against the agreement”.
“We call on mediators to put pressure on the occupation to fulfill their obligations under the agreement, in all its phases,” he said, adding that the only way to recover the hostages would be to respect the agreement and start talks for the second phase.
Commenting on the suspension of goods, Sami Abu Zuhri, head of Hamas, told Reuters that the decision would have an impact on the cease-fire talks, adding that his group “does not respond to pressures”.
Egypt, which served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, condemned the closure and accused Israel of using “famine as a weapon”. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Badr Abdelatty, called for the immediate implementation of the second phase of the existing ceasefire agreement.
Large gap on the post-war administration of Gaza
Speaking at a press conference with his Croatian counterpart, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Gideon Saar, said that the Palestinians in Gaza would not get the goods free of charge and that additional negotiations should be linked to the release of hostages.
He said the United States “understands” Israel’s decision to stop the entrance to Gaza, blaming Hamas for the current dead end in talks.
Hundreds of aid trucks have entered Gaza daily since the ceasefire started on January 19. But the residents said that prices doubled on Sunday when the word of closure spread and people rushed to get their supplies.
“Everyone is worried,” said Sayed al-Dairi, a man living in Gaza City. “It’s not a life.”
In the past six weeks, both parties have accused the other of raping the agreement. But despite the repeated hiccups, he remained in place while the exchange of hostage-pourrigue envisaged in the first phase was completed.
On Saturday, the Hamas armed wing published a video showing that Israeli hostages are still under his care in Gaza and stressed that the remaining hostages can only be released by a swap, as indicated under the progressive ceasefire agreement that started in January.
But there are large gaps on key areas concerning a permanent end of war, including the form that a post-war administration of Gaza would take and what future there would be for Hamas, which triggered the invasion of Israel of Gaza with its attack on the south of Israel on October 7, 2023.
The attack killed 1,200 people in the worst loss of life of a day in the history of Israel and saw 251 people taken in Gaza as hostages. Gaza health officials say that the Israeli campaign killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, moved almost all of its 2.3 million inhabitants and left Gaza has a wasteland.
Israel insists that Hamas cannot play any role in the post-war future of Gaza and that its military and governing structures must be eliminated. He also rejects the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, the organization put in place under the OSLO Agreement three decades ago and which exercises limited governance in occupied West Bank.
Hamas said that he would not insist on continuing to govern Gaza, which he has controlled since 2007, but he should be consulted throughout the future administration followed.
The question was still confused by the proposal of American president Donald Trump to withdraw the Palestinian population of Gaza and to redevelop the coastal enclave as a real estate project under the American property.
