JERUSALEM/GAZA: The Zionist entity said Sunday that it was suspending the entry of supplies into Gaza, with deadly attacks reported in the territory after it and Hamas hit an impasse over how to proceed with their fragile ceasefire. As the 42-day first phase of the ceasefire drew to a close, the Zionist entity gave its backing to an extension it said was put forward by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, which would cover the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Hamas has repeatedly rejected an extension, instead favoring a transition to the truce deal’s second phase, which would see the release of all remaining captives and a more permanent end to the fighting in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided that, from this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will be suspended,” his office said in a statement. “If Hamas persists with its refusal, there will be other consequences,” it added.

Hamas slammed the move, saying in a statement that the “decision to suspend humanitarian aid is cheap blackmail, a war crime and a blatant coup against the (ceasefire) agreement”. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty urged on Sunday

the “full implementation” of the Gaza ceasefire deal, calling on the European Union to pressure the Zionist entity to enforce it. “There is no alternative to the faithful and full implementation by all parties of what was signed last January,” Abdelatty said at a press conference in Cairo, urging the EU to exert “maximum pressure on the parties, especially the (Zionist) party, regarding commitment to the ceasefire agreement”.

Gaza’s civil defense agency, meanwhile, reported “artillery shelling and gunfire from (Zionist) tanks” east of Khan Yunis city, in the southern Gaza Strip. The Palestine Red Crescent reported one person killed in a Zionist drone strike in the area, and one more killed in another town nearby. The army also said it had conducted an air strike in northern Gaza. Gaza’s health ministry later reported at least four killed and six wounded in Zionist attacks on Sunday.

Following the announcement of the aid suspension, Netanyahu spokesman Omer Dostri wrote on X: “No trucks entered Gaza this morning, nor will they at this stage.” Far-right Zionist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose party is crucial to keeping Netanyahu’s government in power, welcomed the decision to suspend aid as “an important step in the right direction”, calling for a renewed fight “until total victory” against Hamas. “We have remained in government to ensure this,” he added.

According to the Zionist entity, the truce extension would see half of the captives still in Gaza freed on the day the deal came into effect, with the rest to be released at the end if an agreement was reached on a permanent ceasefire. Hamas called on “mediators and the international community to pressure” the Zionist entity to “put an end to these punitive, immoral measures against more than two million people in the Gaza Strip”.

Its spokesman Hazem Qassem later said the Zionist entity “bears responsibility for the consequences of its decision on the people of the Strip and the fate of its prisoners”. A senior Hamas official had earlier told AFP the Palestinian militant group was prepared to release all remaining captives in a single swap during the second phase. Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said the Zionist entity bore responsibility for “sabotaging” the ceasefire in Gaza. “We, in the Islamic Jihad Movement and the resistance factions, reaffirm our commitment to the ceasefire based on the three phases, and we will continue to abide by what was agreed upon,” the group said in a statement. “The occupation is the one responsible for the consequences of sabotaging this.”

At a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, supporters and family members of the hostages demanded the government secure their freedom. “The current crisis in the negotiations is a deliberate crisis, orchestrated and manipulated by Netanyahu,” said Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is still in Gaza.

Under the first phase, Hamas returned 25 living captives and the bodies of eight others, in exchange for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners. More than 15 months of war created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with the UN repeatedly warning the territory was on the brink of famine before the ceasefire allowed a surge of aid to enter.

The suspension of aid comes as Palestinians in Gaza, alongside much of the Muslim world, mark the second day of the holy month of Ramadan, during which the faithful observe a dawn-to-dusk fast. On Saturday evening, Gazans gathered amid destroyed buildings for a fast-breaking iftar meal as they entered their second Ramadan under the shadow of war. “We are here in the midst of destruction and rubble, and we are steadfast despite the pain and our wounds,” said Beit Lahia resident Mohammed Abu Al-Jidyan. “Here we are eating iftar on our land and we will not leave this place.”

The war has left much of Gaza in ruins, displaced the vast majority of its residents and killed more than 48,388 people, mostly civilians. Washington has announced it is boosting its military aid to Israel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said late Saturday he was using “emergency authorities to expedite the delivery of approximately $4 billion in military assistance”. – AFP