Desperately needed aid in Gaza has been banned by Israel, believed to be a move to pressure Hamas in talks [Getty]
The US will back Israel on any action it decides to take in Gaza if talks on the truce with Hamas fail, President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, warned on Thursday.
The first phase of the Gaza deal, which saw the release of dozens of Israeli captives and hundreds of Palestinian detainees, ended a week ago, and Hamas has rejected an Israeli proposal to extend the initial stage and not move onto the second.
Earlier this week, the US confirmed it was in direct talks with Hamas – which is designated as a terror group by Washington – after this was leaked in news reports on Wednesday.
The talks have focused on the release of American-Israeli captive Edan Alexander along with the bodies of American-Israelis Itay Chen, Omer Neutra, Gadi Haggai and Judi Weinstein, according to The Times of Israel.
Trump has once again issued a severe warning to Hamas to release the remaining captives held in Gaza, threatening “death” both to the group and the people of Gaza if they are not released.
The US feels that Hamas “has not been frank with us”, Witkoff said, adding that “any action against Hamas will be by Israel and will have American support”.
Witkoff stressed that the US desires to “resolve matters with Hamas through dialogue”, but vowed “an alternative option that will not be good” if negotiations fail.
Hamas has reiterated that it has respected its side of the deal, saying Israel will not achieve, through threats, what it failed to achieve throughout its 15-month war on the Gaza Strip.
The war erupted after a 7 October 2023 surprise attack on Israel by Hamas. Israel’s killed over 61,000 people in Gaza over the next 15 months, mostly women and children with the offensive leaving the enclave utterly devastated, and its health system and other critical infrastructure battered. A ceasefire finally came into effect on 19 January.
Trump has proposed displacing Gaza’s inhabitants and moving them to Egypt and Jordan, something that has been slammed by Arab countries as an attempt to ethnically cleanse the territory.
A counterplan by Egypt has been rejected by Trump’s administration and Israel.
China supports plan
However China, which has maintained good ties with the Palestinians and tried to broker a deal between rivals Hamas and Fatah, said it supported Egypt’s Gaza plan.
“Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people, and is an inseparable part of the Palestinian territory,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a press conference, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua. “Changing the status of Gaza by forceful means will not bring about peace, but only new chaos.”
Beijing’s top diplomat said there had to be a permanent solution in Gaza and stressed that Palestinians must govern their own territories. China supports a two-state solution, something Israel’s far-right government has opposed.
Wang also called for an increase in humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. According to USAID officials, Trump’s spending cuts have frozen funds for aid operations in Gaza, with desperately needed aid trucks not entering the enclave in recent days after a ban by Israel, believed to be a move to pressure Hamas.
Hundreds of attacks in the West Bank
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers on Thursday uprooted and destroyed around 100 olive trees in the village of Hares, as part of ongoing assaults on Palestinian civilians and their lands.
Citing local sources, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA said settlers stormed the Abu al-Ela area where they felled trees in an area spanning about 20,000 sqm.
The Al-Baydar Organisation for the Defence of Bedouin Rights NGO documented 187 violations carried out by the Israeli army and settlers against Palestinian Bedouin communities in the West Bank last month alone.
These violations included attacks on residents, vandalism, stealing farm animals, burning and razing of agricultural land, demolitions, and uprooting of trees. The Israeli government has expanded illegal settlements in the West Bank.
An Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank since January has expanded to several towns and camps, killing dozens of Palestinians and displacing over 40,000 residents of refugee camps.
