Gazans fear a return to war and Israeli and US plans to ethnically cleanse them [Getty]
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Hamas on Monday with unimaginable consequences if it did not return hostages held in Gaza, while the Palestinian group accused his government of sabotaging the fragile truce there.
The first phase of the ceasefire ended over the weekend, but talks on its future have hit an impasse after six weeks of relative calm in the Gaza Strip that included exchanges of Israeli and Palestinian captives and an influx of badly needed aid.
The dispute came as Arab leaders prepared for a summit in Cairo on Tuesday to hash out a plan for Gaza’s reconstruction to counter a widely condemned proposal from US President Donald Trump that would involve the displacement of its Palestinian population.
While Israel announced early on Sunday it backed an extension of the first phase of the truce until mid-April, Hamas has insisted on a transition to the second phase, which should lead to a permanent end to the war.
Netanyahu, speaking Monday in the Israeli parliament, warned Hamas “there will be consequences that you cannot imagine” if the dozens of hostages still held by militants were not released.
Defence Minister Israel Katz later struck a similar tone, saying if the group did not free the hostages, “the gates of Gaza will be locked, and the gates of hell will open”.
As the truce’s first phase came to a close, Netanyahu’s office had announced Israel was halting “all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip” and that Hamas would face “other consequences” if it did not accept the truce extension.
Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported that the government was considering a scheme that included measures such as displacing Gazans from the territory’s north and halting the electricity supply.
A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, accused Israel of actively sabotaging the ceasefire, calling its push for an extension “a blatant attempt to… avoid entering into negotiations for the second phase”.
Israel “was interested in the collapse of the agreement and worked hard to achieve that”, Hamdan said in a video statement.
Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the terms of the truce, which has largely held since it began on 19 January.
The move to block aid drew criticism from key truce mediators Egypt and Qatar, with both calling it a violation of the ceasefire deal.
Other governments in the region as well as the United Nations and some of Israel’s Western allies have spoken against the Israeli decision.
Germany’s foreign ministry said that denying humanitarian access “is not a legitimate means of pressure in negotiations”, while Britain said aid “must not be blocked”.
