Jerusalem:
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened Hamas with “unimaginable consequences” as part of what it has called a “hell plan” to pressure the Palestinian group into further hostage releases without a troop withdrawal from the enclave. The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire ended over the weekend, but there is no sign of movement towards a second phase, which was due to start last weekend, with both sides taking contingency steps to return to a war footing.
While Israel announced early on Sunday it backed an extension of the first phase of the truce until mid-April, Hamas has insisted on a transition to the second phase, which should lead to a permanent end to the war. Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the terms of the truce, which has largely held since it began on January 19.
Israel’s “Hell Plan”
Israeli Premier Netanyahu, speaking Monday in the parliament, warned Hamas “there will be consequences that you cannot imagine” if the dozens of hostages still held by militants were not released.
Defence Minister Israel Katz later struck a similar tone, saying if the group did not free the hostages, “the gates of Gaza will be locked, and the gates of hell will open”.
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.
However, now the Netanyahu government is reportedly preparing to go beyond the suspension of food and fuel announced, and implement a programme of steadily increased isolation of the coastal strip and its population of about 2.2 million, according to the national public radio station, Kan, which said the government was referring to the programme of measures as the “hell plan”.
The “hell plan” would reportedly involve cutting off electricity and remaining water supplies in the Palestinian territory and moving the people in northern Gaza back down to the south, to pave the way to the potential resumption of full-scale war.
The Israeli government is reportedly planning to ratchet up its blockade on Gaza as part of what it has called a “hell plan” to pressure Hamas into further hostage releases without a troop withdrawal from the Palestinian territory.
With the six-week-old ceasefire in limbo, and no sign of movement towards a second phase that was due to start last weekend, both sides were taking contingency steps to return to a war footing.
Hamas’ Warming
Amid Israel’s warming, Hamas has accused the Netanyahu government of sabotaging the fragile truce there.
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.
Global Criticism
The move to block aid also 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’s foreign ministry said that denying humanitarian access “is not a legitimate means of pressure in negotiations”, while Britain said aid “must not be blocked”.
Gaza Reconstruction Plan
The dispute came as Arab leaders prepared for a summit in Cairo on Tuesday to hash out a plan for Gaza’s reconstruction to counter a widely condemned proposal from US President Donald Trump that would involve the displacement of its Palestinian population.
The Arab ministers also held a “preparatory and consultative” session centred on a plan to rebuild the territory without displacing Palestinians, a source at the Arab League told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The war has destroyed or damaged most buildings in Gaza, displaced almost the entire population and triggered widespread hunger, according to the UN. The fighting was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
That attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians, while Israel’s military retaliation in Gaza has killed nearly 48,400 people, also mostly civilians, data from both sides show. Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 58 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
In the first fatal attack in Israel since the truce began in January, authorities said a stabbing spree 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, and did not specify a motive.
In Gaza, the Israeli military said it had struck a “suspicious motorised vessel” off the coast of Khan Yunis in the south, and in a separate incident, opened fire on two suspects who had approached troops.