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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.
In short term, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu was reported to have made preparations to go beyond the suspension of food and fuel announced on Sunday, to implement a programme of steadily increased isolation of the coastal strip and its population of around 2.2 million, according to the national public radio station, Kan, which said government was referring to this the programme of measures as the “hell plan”.
The plan would involve cutting off electricity and remaining war supplies, and moving Palestinians in northern Gaza back down to the south, to pave the way to the potential resumption of full-scale war.
The defence minister, Israel Katz, has instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to make preparations for a return to combat, according to the Walla news site. From Wednesday they will be serving under a new chief of staff, Maj Gen Eyal Zamir, who has been an advocate of using overwhelming force aimed at achieving a quick, decisive victory over the remnants of Hamas in Gaza.
Meanwhile, there were reports in the Arab press that Hamas was also getting ready for the resumption of fighting. Qatar’s Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported that Hamas and other armed factions had gone back to a war footing, with those holding Israeli hostages to resume heightened security measures.
Hamas is also said to have been extracting high explosives from unexploded Israeli weapons fired during the war, for use in roadside bombs if the fighting starts again.
Talks on the ceasefire have stalled since Friday. The Israeli government is insisting on a proposal extending the first phase of the ceasefire during Ramadan and then Passover until 20 April, during which half the remaining hostages would be released in return for Palestinians in Israeli jails. The other half would be released once there was agreement on a lasting end to the war.
There are still 59 Israeli hostages yet to return from Gaza, but Israeli authorities believe at least 34 are already dead.
Netanyahu has attributed the proposal to the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, though Witkoff has so far not spoken about it.
Hamas has rejected the proposal, saying it represents a violation of the original truce agreement in January, which envisaged the ceasefire moving into a second phase this week, in which hostage releases would be coupled with Israeli troop withdrawals from strategic points in Gaza, starting with the Philadelphi corridor, a buffer strip between Gaza and Egypt.
A diplomat from an Arab country was quoted by Kan on Monday as saying that Hamas might agree to a shorter extension to the first phase with the release of a handful of hostages.
During the six weeks of the first phase of the ceasefire, about 600 trucks of aid, mostly food and fuel, crossed into Gaza each day, about the level of the pre-war average. The Israeli government has argued that aid deliveries are commandeered by Hamas and that there were already substantial stockpiles of basic necessities in the territory.
“There is plenty of food and supplies in Gaza – 4,200 trucks a week have gone in during this ceasefire, enough for many, many months,” said a government spokesman, David Mencer.
Mencer claimed that Hamas had “enough food to fuel an obesity epidemic”, adding that “the supplies are there, but Hamas don’t share”.
However, the announcement of the blockade caused an immediate impact on the affordability of food inside Gaza. Prices of staples that had been steadily declined during the ceasefire quickly spiked. A bag of flour that was about 50 shekels (£11) on Saturday rose to 100 shekels (£22) in a matter of hours after Netanyahu’s announcement on Sunday, while a kilogram of sugar rose from 6 shekels (£1.30) to 10 (£2.20).
“As Ramadan begins, Palestinians are holding on to hope for a permanent ceasefire. Now, Israel’s cruel decision to reinstate a total blockade on aid threatens to undo it all – plunging people back into despair, starvation, and fear,” said Fikr Shalltoot, Gaza director for the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.
Against the background of a diplomatic impasse and a looming humanitarian crisis, the member states of the Arab League are due to meet in Cairo on Tuesday to approve an Egyptian-drafted blueprint for Gaza’s future, intended to be an alternative to Donald Trump’s shock declaration last month that US could take over the strip, which would be depopulated and then turned into a “Riviera on the Mediterranean.”
The Egyptian plan, according to a version seen by the Reuters news agency, would establish a “governance assistance mission” to replace Hamas as the governing authority in Gaza, and the mission would be responsible for humanitarian aid and reconstruction work. The plan did not make clear who would pay for the reconstruction, or how Hamas would be shouldered aside.
