Key Points
- Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hamas of “consequences you cannot imagine” over the release of hostages.
- Hamas accused Israel of sabotaging the truce to avoid talks on ending the war.
- A stabbing attack in Haifa left one dead and four wounded before police killed the assailant.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Hamas with unimaginable consequences if it did not return hostages held in Gaza, while the Palestinian military group accused his government of sabotaging the truce.
The first phase of the fragile ceasefire ended over the weekend, but talks on its future have stalled after six weeks of relative calm in Gaza, which included exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and those held under administrative detention and an influx of aid into the territory.
While Israel announced early on Sunday it backed an extension of the first phase until mid-April, Hamas has insisted on a transition to the second phase, which should lead to a permanent end to the war.
Speaking in the Israeli parliament on Monday, Netanyahu warned Hamas “there will be consequences that you cannot imagine” if the dozens of hostages held by the group were not released.
As the truce’s first phase came to a close, Netanyahu’s office had announced Israel was halting “all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip” and that Hamas would face “other consequences” if it did not accept the truce extension.
Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported the measures the government was considering include displacing Gazans from the territory’s north and halting electricity supply.
A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, accused Israel of actively sabotaging the ceasefire, calling its push for an extension “a blatant attempt to … avoid entering into negotiations for the second phase”.
Israel “was interested in the collapse of the agreement and worked hard to achieve that”, Hamdan said in a video statement.
Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the terms of the truce, which has largely held since it began on 19 January.
The move to block aid drew criticism from key truce mediators Egypt and Qatar, with both calling it a violation of the ceasefire deal.
Other governments in the region as well as the United Nations and some of Israel’s Western allies have spoken against the Israeli decision.
Germany condemned blocking humanitarian aid as “not a legitimate means of pressure”, while Britain insisted it “must not be blocked”.
The European Union, Red Cross, and UN chief António Guterres urged Israel to restore aid to Gaza, where war has left most buildings in ruins, displaced nearly the entire population, and triggered widespread hunger, according to the UN.
Arab-Israeli killed in stabbing attack
In the first fatal attack in Israel since the truce began in January, authorities said a stabbing spree on Monday in the northern city of Haifa killed one person, wounded four others and ended with the assailant — a member of Israel’s Arabic-speaking Druze community — dead.
The stabbings took place at a bus and train station in the port city, home to a mixed Jewish and Arab population.
Police identified the assailant as a member of the Druze minority, generally considered supportive of the Israeli state, but did not specify a motive.
In Gaza, the Israeli military said it had struck a “suspicious motorised vessel” off the coast of Khan Younis in the south, and in a separate incident, opened fire on two suspects who had approached troops.
Reconstruction plan
Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo on Monday, ahead of a leaders’ summit set to discuss an alternative Gaza reconstruction plan to the one proposed by United States President Donald Trump, which involves relocating the territory’s 2.4 million residents.
The ministers held a “preparatory and consultative” session focused on rebuilding Gaza without displacing Palestinians, according to an Arab League source who spoke to Agence France-Presse anonymously.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu praised Trump’s plan as “visionary and innovative” arguing it was “time to give [Gazans] the freedom to leave”.
