Useful information
Prime News delivers timely, accurate news and insights on global events, politics, business, and technology
Israel stopped the entrance of all goods and supplies in the Gaza Strip on Sunday and warned about “additional consequences” if Hamas does not accept a new proposal to extend a high fragile fire, while the key mediator Egypt accused Israel of using “hunger as a weapon.”
Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the high -fire agreement hours after his first phase ended. He called the decision to cut the help “cheap extortion, a war crime and a flagrant attack” against the truce, which seized January after more than a year of negotiations. Both parties did not stop to say that the high fire had ended.
The first phase, which included an increase in humanitarian assistance after months of growing hunger in the territory, expired on Saturday. The two parties have not yet negotiated the second phase, in which Hamas released dozens of remaining hostages in exchange for an Israeli expulsion from Gaza and a durable fire. Conversations should have started a month ago.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty condemned Israel’s decision as “a flagrant and clear violation of humanitarian law”, and requested the immediate implementation of the second phase.
The International Red Cross Committee, which has facilitated the launches of Palestinian hostages and prisoners, said that the high fire has saved innumerable lives, and “any unraveling of the impulse forward created in the last six weeks runs the risk that people despair again.”
Israel described the new proposal as a US. There were no immediate comments from the United States, and it was not clear when the American envoy Steve Witkoff would arrive, visit the region last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that, according to existing agreements, Israel could resume the fight after the first phase if he believes that negotiations are ineffective. He said that the high fire would only continue if Hamas continues to release hostages, telling his cabinet “there will be no free lunches.” He said Israel was “completely coordinated” with the administration of the president of the United States, Donald Trump,.
The war has left most of the population of Gaza of more than 2 million dependent on international aid. Hundreds of aid trucks had entered Gaza every day since the high fire began on January 19, relieving the fears of famine raised by international experts.
But residents said prices doubled as the word of closing.
Look | The Palestinians mark Ramadan with uncertainty: 
Many Palestinians marked the beginning of the Sacred Muslim month of Ramadan in the middle of the rubble where their homes used to be, since the first phase of the fragile made of high fire between Israel and Hamas ended on Saturday. Hamas says that ‘I don’t progress’ has been made in conversations about the second phase of Alto El Fuego. Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/1.7472338
“Everyone is worried,” said Sayed Al-Dairi in the city of Gaza. “This is not a life.”
Fayza Nassar in the Urban Refugee Field of Jabaliya very destroyed said that the closure would worsen the already terrible conditions.
“There will be hunger and chaos,” he said.
‘Humanitarian consequences’ for hostages
Israel said that the new proposal demanded to extend the high fire through Ramadan, the Sacred Muslim month that began during the weekend, and the Jewish Easter holidays, which ends on April 20.
According to that proposal, Hamas would release half of the hostages the first day and the rest when an agreement is reached in a permanent fire, Netanyahu said.
Hamas warned that any attempt to delay or cancel the high fire agreement would have “humanitarian consequences” for hostages. He reiterated that the only way to release them is through the implementation of the existing agreement.
Hamas has said that he is willing to free hostages in phase 2, but only in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a high permanent fire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
An Egyptian official said that Hamas and Egypt would not accept a new proposal aimed at returning to the remaining hostages without ending the war. The official, who was not authorized to a short media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the mediators were trying to solve the dispute.
Dozen killed by Israel during the top fire
Under the first phase of six weeks of Alto El Fuego, Hamas released 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others in exchange for the release of almost 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including some life imprisonment sentences for mortal attacks and other retained with no charge. The Israeli forces withdrew from most of Gaza and Israel allowed a wave of humanitarian aid to enter.
The first phase was tarnished by repeated disputes.
Israeli attacks killed dozens of Palestinians that the military said they had approached their forces or entered the areas in rape of the truce. On Sunday, Israel carried out an air attack on the Palestinians who said they were planting an explosive device in northern Gaza, near the border. Gaza’s Ministry of Health said two men were killed and that Israeli fire killed two other people in other places.
Hamas paraded most of the captives, some of them emaciated, before the crowds in the shows that Israel and the United Nations said they were cruel and degrading. And initially returned the wrong set of remains instead of those of a mother who died in captivity along with her two young children.
Israel sought to restrict public celebrations about released Palestinian prisoners, and some were released with shirts stamped with a star of David and the phrase “never forgive, never forgot” in Arabic. Some people threw their sweatshirts to the ground and burned them.
‘War crime starring strategy’
Israel imposed a siege of Gaza on the days of opening the war and only relieved it under the pressure of the United States. UN agencies and help groups accused Israel not to facilitate sufficient help for 15 months of war.
The International Criminal Court said there were reasons to believe that Israel had used “hunger as a method of war” when it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu last year. The accusation is also central to the case of South Africa in the International Court of Justice that accuses Israel of genocide.
Israel has denied accusations and has rejected both judicial actions as biased. Israel says that it has allowed enough help and blamed the shortage of what it called the UN inability to distribute it. Israel accused Hamas of diverting help.
Kenneth Roth, former Human Rights Watch, said Israel as a occupant power has an “absolute duty” to facilitate humanitarian aid under Geneva’s conventions, and described Israel’s decision “a resumption of the strategy of starving war crimes” that led to the order of the ICC.
The war began when militants led by Hamas broke into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 as hostages, according to Israeli stories. Israel believes that the militants currently have 59 hostages, 35 of them dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. He says that more than half of those killed were women and children.
Israeli bombing hit large areas of Gaza to the rubble and displaced 90 percent of the population.
