Israel blocked the entry of aid trucks into Gaza on Sunday as a standoff over the truce that has halted fighting for the past six weeks escalated.
"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.
"Israel will not accept a cease-fire without the release of our hostages. If Hamas persists with its refusal, there will be other consequences."
▲ Palestinians gather for a communal iftar, or fast-breaking meal, on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, amid building rubble in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday. AFP
Hamas slammed the move, calling it a "war crime" and saying it violated the terms of the cease-fire agreement between the two sides, the first 42-day phase of which just drew to a close.
Netanyahu's office said earlier that it had adopted a proposal by United States President Donald Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, for an extension of the first phase that would last through the Ramadan fasting period and end at Passover in mid-April.
The truce would be conditional on Hamas releasing half of the living and dead hostages on the first day, with the remainder released at the conclusion, if an agreement is reached on a permanent cease-fire.
Hamas said on Sunday that the "decision to suspend humanitarian aid is cheap blackmail, a war crime and a blatant coup against the (cease-fire) agreement".
The group said it is committed to the originally agreed cease-fire that had been scheduled to move into the second phase, with negotiations aimed at a permanent end to the conflict, and it has rejected the idea of a temporary extension to the first phase.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Saturday that the Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal "must hold".
"At this fragile moment, we must avoid a resumption of hostilities that would deepen the suffering and further destabilize a region that is already perched on a knife's edge," he said, urging that the "humanitarian lifeline open" in his Ramadan message.
Ayman Yousef, a professor of international relations at the Arab American University in Jenin, West Bank, said US and Israeli plans give Israel enough space and time before it finalizes the end of the fighting.
"In the American and Israeli minds, they differentiate between cease-fire and ending of war," Yousef told China Daily. "Ending of war indicates civility of full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, including the Philadelphi Corridor, and the flooding of Gaza with humanitarian assistance."
However, with both Israel and the US led by right-wing governments, they do not believe Hamas should remain a presence in Gaza after the conflict, he said. As a result, they are trying to encircle Hamas and put more pressure on it to accept their proposal, believing the group is not ready for another round of escalation and fighting, he added.
"People in Gaza are trying to manage their lives during this Ramadan... They are trying to accommodate difficult conditions and the lack of basic commodities and lack of basic human needs. Meanwhile, the US is trying to accommodate Israeli demands and to wish it (would be more) receptive to the idea of ending the war," he said.
Jawaid Iqbal, chairman of the Department of West Asian and North African Studies at Aligarh Muslim University in India, said Gaza has been reduced to rubble and "does not pose a security threat for the foreseeable future".
"Israel intends to keep the Gaza Strip on tenterhooks so that Hamas is unable to declare an outright victory," Iqbal said.
"Israel has got the green signal from the Oval Office to carry on with its military operations in the West Bank. The West Bank has immense strategic value and has hundreds of settlements," he said.
"Netanyahu would like to drag on the first phase of the cease-fire in order to build pressure on Hamas to return the hostages. He is unlikely to restart the Gaza war right away because of tremendous opposition within Israel for such a move."
