Israel has halted the humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) announced on Sunday, shortly after the hostage-ceasefire deal expired.
An Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post that the move came in full coordination with the Trump administration.
“With the completion of the first phase of the hostage deal and in light of Hamas’s refusal to accept the Witkoff framework for continuing negotiations—which Israel had agreed to—Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided that, as of this morning, the entry of all goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will be halted,” the PMO statement read.
“Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” the statement continued, warning of consequences if Hamas continued in its refusal.
According to Israeli estimates, the 4,200 trucks that entered Gaza on a weekly basis in the last few weeks will be sufficient for the next few months at least.
Later on Sunday, Hamas called the decision to halt the aid “a cheap act of blackmail, a war crime, and a blatant violation of the agreement.”
The terror group called on the mediators “to act to pressure Israel” against the decision. Hamas further noted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “attempting to impose political realities on the ground.”
“We reaffirm that Netanyahu and his government’s actions clearly contradict Article 14 of the agreement, which states that all measures from the first phase will continue into the second phase, and that the guarantors will make every effort to ensure the continuation of negotiations until an agreement on the terms of the second phase is reached,” the terror group claimed.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich characterized Israel’s decision as “an important step in the right direction” in a Sunday post on X/Twitter. He said such pressure should be maintained “upon the cruel enemy, until absolute victory.”
Witkoff’s framework
On Saturday night, the PMO announced that Israel had adopted the US’s proposal for a temporary ceasefire spanning the Ramadan and Passover periods.
On the first day of the framework, proposed by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, half of the living hostages and the remains of deceased hostages will be released.
At the end of the framework—if an agreement is reached for a permanent ceasefire—the remaining living and deceased hostages will be released, the PMO added.
Hamas currently opposes the framework.
The Tikva Forum, which represents some families of hostages and pushes for more pressure on Hamas, called on Israel on Sunday to leave Witkoff’s framework calling for all the hostages to be released together. “We demand to abandon the Witkoff framework and return to the Trump plan—everyone together or unleash hell on Hamas.”
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