Israel blocks gaza aid while the high fire confrontation intensifies

Emily Rose, Nidal al-Mugchrabi and Jaidaa Taha
| Reuters

Israel blocked the entry of help trucks In Gaza on Sunday as a confrontation on the truce that stopped during the last six weeks he intensified, and Hamas asked the Egyptian mediators and Qatari to intervene.

The Office of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said previously that he had adopted a proposal of us President Donald Trump’s Sent, Steve Witkoff, for a high temporary fire in Gaza for the periods of Ramadán and Easter, hours after the first phase of the The high the previously agreed fire expired.

If it remembers, the truce would stop the struggles until the end of the Ramadan fasting period around March 31 and the Jewish Easter holidays around April 20.

The truce would be conditioned that Hamas released half of the living hostages and dead on the first day, with the rest published at the end, if an agreement is reached in a high permanent fire.

Hamas says that he is committed to the tall the originally agreed fire that had been scheduled to move on to a second phase, with negotiations aimed at a permanent end of the war, and has rejected the idea of a temporary extension to the 42 -day truce.

When reflecting the fragility of the Alto El Fuego agreement, local health officials said that Israeli shots had killed four Palestinians in separate attacks in the strip of the north and south of Gaza.

The Israeli army said the “suspects” were identified near their troops in northern Gaza and had planted a bomb. He added that an air attack was carried out to “eliminate the threat.”

Egyptian The sources said Friday That the Israeli delegation in Cairo had tried to extend the first phase for 42 days, while Hamas wanted to move on to the second phase of the high fire agreement. Spokesman Hazem Qasse said on Saturday that the group rejected Israel’s “formulation” to extend the first phase.

In the first phase of Alto El Fuego, Hamas delivered to 33 Israeli hostages, as well as five Thai returned in an unchanging release, in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian and arrested prisoners of Israeli prisons and the withdrawal of Israeli troops of some of their positions in Gaza.

According to the original agreement, the second phase intended to see the beginning of the negotiations on the release of the remaining 59 hostages, the complete withdrawal of the Israeli troops of Gaza, and a final end of the war.

However, conversations never started and Israel says that all their hostages must be returned to fight to stop.

“Israel will not allow the fire without the launch of our hostages,” said Netyahu’s office, announcing that the entrance of all goods and supplies in the Gaza strip would stop.

“If Hamas persists in his rejection, there will be additional consequences.”

Hamas has denounced Israel’s movement as “blackmail” and a “flagrant blow against the agreement.”

“We call on the mediators who press the occupation to comply with their obligations under the agreement, in all their phases,” he said, added that the only way to recover the hostages would be to adhere to the agreement and begin conversations for the second phase.

When commenting on the suspension of goods, the senior official of Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters that the decision would affect the conversations of Alto El Fuego, adding that his group “does not respond to the pressures.”

Later, on Sunday, Israeli officials said that a delegation would arrive at Cairo in an apparent movement to discuss ways to calm tensions and ensure that the high fire remains in force.

Deadlock

Speaking at a press conference with his Croatian counterpart, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Gideon Saar, said that the Palestinians in Gaza would not obtain free goods and that additional negotiations should be linked to the release of hostages.

He said that the United States “understands” Israel’s decision to stop the entry of goods to Gaza, blaming Hamas for current stagnation in conversations.

In the last six weeks, both parties have accused the other of violating the agreement. But despite the repeated Hippo, it has remained in place, while the exchange of hostages for prisoners planned in the first phase was completed.

But there are wide gaps in key areas with respect to a permanent end of the war, including the way in which it would take a postwar administration of Gaza and what future there would be for Hamas, which triggered the invasion of Gaza de Israel with its attack to the south of Israel on October 7, 2023.

The attack killed 1,200 people, in the worst loss of one day lives in the history of Israel, and saw 251 people taken to Gaza as hostages. The Israeli campaign has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, displaced almost all its 2.3 million population and left. Loop A Páramo.

Israel insists that Hamas cannot participate in the future of the postwar of Gaza and that its military and government structures must be eliminated. It also refuses to bring to Gaza the Palestinian authority, the body established under the Oslo agreements three decades ago and that exercises a limited governance in occupied West Bank.

Hamas has said that he would not insist on continuing to rule Gaza, which has controlled since 2007, but it would have to be consulted on any future administration that has followed.

The problem has been further confused by Trump’s proposal to eliminate the Palestinian population of Gaza and rebuild the coastal enclave as a property project under the property of the United States.

(Write by James Mackenzie and Nidal al-Mugchrabi; reports from Nidal al-Mugchrabi, Emily Rose and Jaidaa Taha; additional reports by Jana Choukeir; Christian Schmollinger edition, Hugh Lawson and William Maclean)