KEY POINTS
- Egypt urges Israel and Hamas to fully honour the Gaza ceasefire deal.
- Israel suspends aid entry into Gaza as the fragile truce ends.
- Four people were killed and six injured in Israeli attacks in Gaza.
- Egypt urges the EU to press Israel on ceasefire adherence.
- Hamas insists on moving to a second phase of Gaza ceasefire deal.
- Egypt to host Arab foreign ministers to finalise Gaza reconstruction plans.
- Hamas terms Israel’s aid suspension “cheap blackmail” and a “war crime”.
- Hamas is ready to release all hostages in one swap if a permanent ceasefire is agreed.
- UN warns of looming famine in Gaza.
CAIRO, Egypt: Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Sunday called for the total compliance of the Gaza ceasefire deal, urging both Israel and Hamas to honour their commitments.
“There is no alternative to the faithful and full implementation by all parties of what was signed last January,” Abdelatty said at a news conference in Cairo with the EU commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Suica.
Israel suspended the entry of all goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip on Sunday after the fragile ceasefire ended.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said four people were killed and six others wounded in Israeli attacks Sunday after the first phase of a fragile truce in the territory ended.
“Since this morning, four dead and six wounded” have been brought to “hospitals in the Gaza Strip following Israeli attacks in various parts of the territory,” the ministry said in a statement.
It earlier said Israeli tanks targeted the border areas of Abasan Al-Kabira town, east of Khan Younis city, in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Egyptian Foreign Minister also urged the European Union to exert “maximum pressure on the parties, especially the Israeli party, regarding commitment to the ceasefire agreement”.
First phase of Gaza ceasefire ends
As the 42-day first phase of the ceasefire ended, Israel backed an extension proposed by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, which would cover the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover.
However, Hamas has rejected extending the first phase and insisted on moving directly to the second stage.
This would involve the release of all remaining hostages and a more permanent end to the Israeli bombardment in Gaza.
“We must now move forward with negotiations on the second phase, which will naturally be challenging,” Abdelatty said.
He added that progress remained possible “if goodwill and political will are present”.
Egypt is set to host a meeting of Arab foreign ministers on Monday, ahead of a Tuesday summit where Arab leaders are due to discuss a reconstruction plan for Gaza.
Abdelatty said the plan had been finalised and was “awaiting presentation to Arab partners at the ministerial meeting and the summit for approval”.
Egypt has also been rallying Arab support against a plan by US President Donald Trump to take over Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Cheap blackmail, war crime
In a statement, Hamas slammed Israel’s blockade of critical aid and said that the “decision to suspend humanitarian aid is cheap blackmail, a war crime and a blatant coup against the (ceasefire) agreement”.
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 Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose party is crucial to keeping Netanyahu’s government in power, welcomed the decision to suspend aid.
Stopping aid “until Hamas is destroyed or completely surrenders and all our hostages are freed is an important step in the right direction”, he said on Telegram, calling for a renewed fight “until total victory” against Hamas.
Israel’s punitive measures
According to the Israeli statement, the truce extension would see half of the hostages 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.
Israeli officials engaged in ceasefire negotiations with Egyptian, Qatari and American mediators in Cairo last week. But by early Saturday there was no sign of consensus.
Hamas called on “mediators and the international community to pressure” Israel 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 Israel “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 said that the Palestinian group was prepared to release all remaining hostages in a single swap during the second phase.
Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said Sunday that proceeding to the second phase was “the only way to achieve stability in the region and the return” of the hostages.
Under the first phase, Hamas returned 25 living hostages and the bodies of eight others, in exchange for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.
Of the 251 captives taken by Hamas during its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 58 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
Looming famine in Gaza
More than 15 months of Israeli 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.
But Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Sunday dismissed warnings of famine in Gaza as a “lie”.
“With regards to this starvation [claim], that was a lie during all this war. That was a lie,” Saar said at a press conference in Jerusalem.
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.
Israeli bombardment campaign has ravaged the vast majority of Gaza and killed more than 48,388 Palestinian people there, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry, figures the UN has deemed reliable.
Washington announced late Saturday it was boosting its military aid to Israel.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was using “emergency authorities to expedite the delivery of approximately $4 billion in military assistance”.
