Israel on Sunday blocked aid flowing into Gaza, where a six-week truce enabled the entry of vital food, shelter and medical assistance, prompting the UN to call for an immediate restoration of humanitarian assistance.
The Israeli decision came as talks on a truce extension appeared to hit an impasse, after the ceasefire’s 42-day first phase drew to a close.
Truce mediators Egypt and Qatar accused Israel of blatantly violating the ceasefire deal by halting the aid, a move which according to AFP images left trucks loaded with goods lined up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing to Gaza.
Early on Sunday Israel had announced a truce extension until mid-April that it said United States Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had proposed.
But Hamas has repeatedly rejected an extension, instead favouring a transition to the truce deal’s second phase that could bring a permanent end to the war.
With uncertainty looming over the truce, both Israel and Palestinian sources reported Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip, whose health ministry reported at least four people killed.
Hamas said the “decision to suspend humanitarian aid is cheap blackmail, a war crime and a blatant coup against the (ceasefire) agreement”.
The Egyptian foreign ministry accused Israel of using starvation as “a weapon against the Palestinian people”, comments echoed by Qatar which said it “strongly condemns” Israel’s decision.
Saudi Arabia, which has rejected any talk of normalising its ties with Israel without a Palestinian state, condemned the aid block as “a tool of blackmail and collective punishment”.
Jordan said Israel’s action “threatens to reignite” fighting in Gaza.
UN chief Antonio Guterres called for “humanitarian aid to flow back into Gaza immediately”.
The European Union condemned what it called Hamas’s refusal to accept the extension of the first phase, and added that Israel’s subsequent aid block “risked humanitarian consequences”.
Brussels called for “a rapid resumption of negotiations on the second phase of the ceasefire”.
Gazans expressed concern over prices they said immediately surged.
“Prices are rising and people are panicking about food supplies,” Belal al-Helou, 56, said in Gaza City.
More than 15 months of war in Gaza destroyed or damaged most buildings, displaced almost the entire population and triggered widespread hunger, according to the UN.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, asked by reporters about the risk of starvation, dismissed such warnings as “a lie”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had “decided that, from this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will be suspended”. Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
It said there would be “consequences” for Hamas if it did not accept the temporary truce extension.
But on a sandy street in Gaza City, Mays Abu Amer, 21, expressed hope the ceasefire can continue “forever”.
According to Israel, the truce extension would see half of the captives still in Gaza freed on the day the deal came into effect on 19 January, with the rest to be released at the end if an agreement was reached on a permanent ceasefire.
Of the 251 captives taken during Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack, 58 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead. Hamas says its attack came in response to Israel’s ongoing occupation and siege of Gaza.
The war killed over 60,000 people in the Palestinian territory, mostly civilians, according to a revised death toll by Gaza’s health ministry.
