Israel blocks aid to Gaza as ceasefire stand-off with Hamas escalates

By Emily Rose and Nidal Al-Mughrabi

JERUSALEM/CAIRO - Israel blocked the entry of aid trucks into Gaza on Sunday as a stand-off over the truce that has halted fighting for the past six weeks escalated, with Hamas calling on Egyptian and Qatari mediators to intervene.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said earlier that it had adopted a proposal by US President Donald Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza for the Ramadan and Passover periods, hours after the first phase of the previously agreed ceasefire expired.

If agreed, the truce would halt fighting until the end of the Ramadan fasting period around March 31 and the Jewish Passover holiday around April 20.

The truce would be conditional on Hamas releasing half of the living and dead hostages on the first day, with the remainder released at the conclusion, if an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire.

Hamas says it is committed to the originally agreed ceasefire that had been scheduled to move into a second phase, with negotiations aimed at a permanent end to the war, and it has rejected the idea of a temporary extension to the 42-day truce.

Egyptian sources said on Friday that the Israeli delegation in Cairo had sought to extend the first phase by 42 days, while Hamas wanted to move to the second phase of the ceasefire deal. Spokesman Hazem Qassem said on Saturday that the group rejected Israel's "formulation" of extending the first phase.

In the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas handed over 33 Israeli hostages as well as five Thais returned in an unscheduled release, in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Israeli jails and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from some of their positions in Gaza.

Under the original agreement, the second phase was intended to see the start of negotiations over the release of the remaining 59 hostages, the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, and a final end to the war.

However the talks never began and Israel says all its hostages must be returned for fighting to stop.

"Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages," Netanyahu's office said, announcing that the entry of all goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip would be halted.

"If Hamas persists in its refusal, there will be additional consequences."

Hamas has denounced Israel's move as "blackmail" and a "blatant coup against the agreement".

"We call on mediators to pressure the occupation to fulfil its obligations under the agreement, in all its phases," it said, adding that the only way to get the hostages back would be to adhere to the agreement and start talks for the second phase.

Commenting on the goods suspension, Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the decision would impact the ceasefire talks, adding his group "doesn't respond to pressures."

STAND-OFF

Over the past six weeks, both sides have accused the other of breaching the agreement. But despite repeated hiccups, it has remained in place while the hostage-for-prisoner exchange envisaged in the first phase was completed.

On Saturday, Hamas' armed wing posted a video showing Israeli hostages still in its custody in Gaza and stressed that the remaining hostages can only be freed through a swap deal as stated under the phased ceasefire agreement that began in January.

But there are wide gaps on key areas regarding a permanent end to the war, including what form a postwar administration of Gaza would take and what future there would be for Hamas, which triggered Israel's invasion of Gaza with its attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

The attack killed 1,200 people, in the worst one-day loss of life in Israel's history, and saw 251 people taken into Gaza as hostages. The Israeli campaign has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, displaced almost all of its 2.3 million population and left Gaza a wasteland.

Israel insists that Hamas can play no part in the postwar future of Gaza and that its military and governing structures must be eliminated. It also rejects bringing into Gaza the Palestinian Authority, the body set up under the Oslo accords three decades ago and which exercises limited governance in the occupied West Bank.

Hamas has said it would not insist on continuing to rule Gaza, which it has controlled since 2007, but it would have to be consulted over whatever future administration followed.

The issue has been further muddled by US President Donald Trump's proposal to remove the Palestinian population from Gaza and redevelop the coastal enclave as a property project under US ownership.

- REUTERS