Middle East: Israel stops in Gaza stripes after importing ceasefire.

After the first phase of a ceasefire, Israel puts the Islamist Hamas under pressure with a complete stop of the aid deliveries in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed at a cabinet meeting that, given the refusal of Hamas, he decided to accept a US proposal to extend the first phase until the next month. The Hamas accused Netanyahu “extortion”.

“From this morning, all imports of goods and deliveries are stopped in the Gaza Strip,” said a message from Netanyahu’s office. “There will be no free meals,” said Netanyahu at the meeting of his government. “If Hamas believes that it is possible to continue the ceasefire or enjoy the conditions of the first phase without getting hostages back, she is extremely wrong,” said the head of government. Should Hamas insist on its position, this will have “further consequences”.

According to Israeli information, Hamas still has 24 hostages and 35 corpses of abducted violence.

The right -wing extremist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich praised Netanyanhus decision. He demanded that the “goals to hell” now “open” as quickly and fatally as possible for our cruel enemy, until the total victory “.

The approximately two million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip already live under precarious circumstances. At the delivery stop, Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in the radio broadcaster NRK: “This will have enormous consequences, because even if Gaza is no longer bombarded in Gaza, the humanitarian situation is still very difficult.”

Hamas speaks of “unscrupulous extortion”

Ramadan is at the beginning of the Muslim fasting month. The Hamas accused Netanyahu of violating the ceasefire agreement. The stop of humanitarian aid deliveries is “unscrupulous extortion, a war crime and a serious break of the agreement,” said a telegram announcement of the terrorist organization.

The mediators – in addition to Qatar and Egypt but also the USA – and the international community would have to put pressure on Israel to end his “repressive and immoral measures” against people in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli hostages could only be released by the immediate admission of negotiations on the second phase of the agreement, it said.

This second phase of the three -stage agreement provides for a release of the remaining hostages in return for a permanent end of the war. However, Israel insists on the war goal of completely destruction of Hamas. According to Israeli media reports, the country’s army is already training intensively for a possible restart of the war in the Gaza Strip.

According to the health authority controlled by the Hamas, four people were killed in new Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army announced that several suspicious people had approached Israeli troops in the north of the Gaza Strip. They were observed how they had put an explosive device in the area. “In order to eliminate the threat, the Israeli Air Force attacked the suspects,” it said.

Israel agrees with the US proposal for further ceasefire

At night, Israel had, according to its own statements, approved Steve Witkoff’s proposal to continue the ceasefire until mid-April in return for the transfer of all remaining hostages. The Hamas has so far rejected the plan, it said in a nightly message from Netanyahu’s office. If Hamas changes its position, Israel will immediately take negotiations on all the details of the plan.

Witkoff had proposed the framework for an extension of the ceasefire after he had gained the impression that there was currently no way to bridge the positions of both sides to end the war, the Netanyah’s office said. More time is necessary for discussions about a permanent ceasefire.

Relatives of hostages criticize Netanyahu

The mother of two kidnapped brothers, one of whom had been released, criticized Netanyahus. “Every time you stop the aid deliveries, you stop the little that the hostages get,” she told the Israeli news portal “Ynet”.

Since the beginning of the ceasefire on January 19, more relief supplies had come in the sealed coastal strips. The import stop imposed by Israel could not only have dramatic consequences for the Palestinian civilian population, but also for the Israeli hostages.

The war was triggered by the worst massacre in the history of Israel, the terrorists of Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations on October 7, 2023 in Israel near the border to the Gaza Strip. On the Israeli side, more than 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 more were dragged into the Gaza strip. Since then, according to the health authority controlled by the Hamas, more than 48,300 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip. The independently cannot be verifiable do not distinguish between fighters and civilians.