Several Arab states and the UN have condemned Israel for blocking the entry of all humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
Egypt and Qatar said the Israeli move on Sunday violated a ceasefire deal, while UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher described it as “alarming”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country acted because Hamas was stealing the supplies and using them “to finance its terror machine”.
He also accused the Palestinian group of rejecting a US proposal to extend the ceasefire in Gaza, after it expired on Saturday. Israel said it had approved the proposal.
A Hamas spokesman said Israel’s blockade was “cheap blackmail” and a “coup” against the ceasefire agreement.
In a statement on Sunday, Qatar’s foreign ministry said it “strongly condemns” the Israeli decision, describing it as “a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement” and “international humanitarian law”.
In Egypt, the foreign ministry accused Israel of using starvation as “a weapon against the Palestinian people”, the AFP news agency reported.
Both Qatar and Egypt helped to mediate the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia expressed its “condemnation and denunciation” of the Israeli aid blockade, the foreign ministry said.
Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, wrote in a post on X: “International humanitarian law is clear: We must be allowed access to deliver vital lifesaving aid.”
Netanyahu said Israel had decided to act “because Hamas steals the supplies and prevents the people of Gaza from getting them.
“It uses these supplies to finance its terror machine, which is aimed directly at Israel and our civilians, and this we cannot accept.”
Hamas has previously denied stealing humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Netanyahu also said Hamas was refusing to accept a temporary extension of the ceasefire proposed by US President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff.
The first phase of the ceasefire came into force on 19 January and expired at midnight on Saturday.
Negotiations on phase two, meant to lead to a permanent ceasefire, the release of all remaining living hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, were due to have started weeks ago – but have barely begun.
There are believed to be 24 hostages alive, with another 39 presumed to be dead.
Phase three is meant to result in the return of all remaining bodies of dead hostages and the reconstruction of Gaza, which is expected to take years.
Hamas has previously said it will not agree to any extension of phase one without guarantees from the mediators that phase two will eventually take place.
As the first phase of the deal expired on Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said Israel had agreed to Witkoff’s proposal for the ceasefire to continue for about six weeks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Jewish Passover periods.
If, at the end of this period, negotiations reached a dead end, Israel would reserve the right to go back to war.
Witkoff has not made his proposal public. According to Israel, it would begin with the release of half of all the remaining living and dead hostages.
Witkoff is said by Israel to have proposed the temporary extension after becoming convinced that more time was needed to try to bridge the differences between Israel and Hamas on conditions for ending the war.
Aid agencies confirmed that no aid trucks had been allowed into Gaza on Sunday morning.
“Humanitarian assistance has to continue to flow into Gaza. It’s very essential. And we are calling all parties to make sure that they reach a solution,” Antoine Renard from the World Food Programme (WFP) told the BBC.
Thousands of trucks have entered the Gaza Strip each week since the ceasefire was agreed in mid-January.
Aid agencies have managed to store supplies, which means there is no immediate danger to the civilian population.
Also on Sunday, medics said four people had been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza. The Israeli military said it had attacked people who were planting an explosive device in the north of the territory.
Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage.
Israel responded with an air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip, during which at least 48,365 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
