Israel has stopped the entry of all humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, prompting a fierce reaction from the Hamas resistance movement which has called the measure “a war crime” and an attack on a ceasefire agreement between the two sides.
The regime stopped the entry of good and supplies into the besieged territory on Sunday, a day after the first phase of the ceasefire deal expired. Under the first phase of the agreement, which came into force on January 19, Israel and Hamas swapped prisoners, while the regime allowed entry of aid into Gaza.
Days before the expiration of the first phase, Hamas announced its readiness to enter talks over a second phase. Israel however backed an extension of the first phase, following a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
“Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu has decided that as of this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will be stopped,” the Israeli PM’s office said on Sunday in a statement quoted by CNN.
According to the statement, the office said it had cut off the Gaza aid following Hamas’ refusal to accept Witkoff’s proposal, and threatened the resistance movement with “additional consequences” if it continues to reject the proposal.
Netanyahu’s decision to cut off humanitarian aid is “cheap extortion, a war crime and a blatant attack on the [ceasefire] agreement,” Hamas said in a statement in response.
It called on the mediators of the deal, namely Qatar, the United States and Egypt, to exert pressure on Israel in order to prevent its “retaliatory” and “immoral” measures against the population of Gaza.
Hamas dismissed “unfounded” Israeli allegations that the movement had violated the ceasefire agreement, and said that the regime’s insistence on accepting the U.S. proposal is an attempt to break the deal and prevent negotiations from entering a second phase.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press news agency reported an unnamed Israeli official as saying that the decision to suspend aid had been made in coordination with the Trump administration.
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