Closing summary
Hamas has accused Israel of trying “to collapse” the Gaza ceasefire agreement, with an official saying Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to extend the first phase of the deal was a “blatant attempt” to avoid entering negotiations about the second phase, which envisaged an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said yesterday that it was imposing a blockade on Gaza because Hamas would not accept a plan which it claimed had been put forward by the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to extend phase one of the ceasefire and continue to release hostages.
Egypt and Qatar – both key mediators in the conflict – were among the Arab states that said Israel’s decision violated the ceasefire deal. The Egyptian foreign ministry accused Israel of using starvation as “a weapon against the Palestinian people”. Israel has also been accused of violating international with the Turkish foreign ministry saying its decision to block aid aims to collectively punish Palestinian people in Gaza.
Foreign ministers from several Arab countries have met behind closed doors in Cairo ahead of the critical Arab League summit tomorrow that will focus on alternatives to Donald Trump’s proposal for the effective ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.
Reuters has seen an Egyptian plan that will be presented as an alternative to Trump’s “take over” proposal. It would reportedly sideline Hamas, which would be replaced with interim bodies controlled by Arab, Muslim and western states.
We are closing this blog now. Thanks for following along. You can find all of our latest Middle East coverage here.
Updated
Turkey’s foreign ministry has condemned Israel’s decision to block all aid going into the Gaza Strip, saying it is a “blatant violation of international law” (see post at 08.54 for more details).
In a post on X, the ministry wrote:
We condemn Israel’s decision to halt the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The Israeli government’s denial of the Palestinian people’s access to essential supplies constitutes a blatant violation of international law.
This decision, which aims to collectively punish the Palestinian people, also jeopardizes the efforts to establish a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.
The international community must take immediate action to secure unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza and ensure that Israel fulfils its obligations.
Egypt's alternative plan to Trump's 'ethnic cleansing' proposal sidelines Hamas - report
Foreign ministers from several Arab countries have met behind closed doors in Cairo ahead of the critical Arab League summit tomorrow that will focus on alternatives to Donald Trump’s proposal for the effective ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.
Trump’s plan – which would force Palestinians to move from their homeland in Gaza to nearby countries such as Egypt and Jordan – has united Arab countries in opposition to it.
Reuters has seen an Egyptian plan to be presented as an alternative to Trump’s proposal tomorrow. It would reportedly sideline Hamas, which would be replaced with interim bodies controlled by Arab, Muslim and western states.
Here is an extract from the Reuters report, which we have not yet been able to independently verify:
Cairo’s plan does not tackle critical issues such as who will foot the bill for Gaza’s reconstruction or outline any specific details around how Gaza would be governed, nor how an armed group as powerful as Hamas would be pushed aside.
Under the Egyptian plan, a Governance Assistance Mission would replace the Hamas-run government in Gaza for an unspecified interim period and would be responsible for humanitarian aid and for kickstarting reconstruction of the enclave, which has been devastated by the war.
“There will be no major international funding for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Gaza if Hamas remains the dominant and armed political element on the ground controlling local governance,” a preamble outlining the draft Egyptian plan’s objectives said …
The plan does not specify who would run the governance mission. It said it would, “draw on the expertise of Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere to help Gaza recover as quickly as possible”.
The plan firmly rejects the US proposal for mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, which Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan see as a security threat.
Hamas accuses Israel of trying to 'collapse' Gaza ceasefire agreement
Hamas has accused Israel of trying “to collapse” the Gaza ceasefire agreement. In a video statement, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said:
Violations of the agreement during the first phase prove beyond a doubt the (Israeli) occupation government was interested in the collapse of the agreement and worked hard to achieve that.
Hamdan called Israel’s push for an extension of the deal “a blatant attempt to evade the agreement and avoid entering into negotiations for the second phase”.
“We condemn the cheap blackmail that Netanyahu and his extremist government are committing against our people by using humanitarian aid as a pressure card in the negotiations,” Hamdan said.
“We call on the international community to pressure Israel to open the crossings and allow the life-saving humanitarian aid into Gaza,” he added.
Hamdan said Israel is pushing to “bring back the situation to square one” as it proposes amendments to the truce that were not originally agreed upon.
As a reminder, Israel has cut off the entry of all food and other goods into Gaza. It is trying to pressure Hamas to agree to what Benjamin Netanyahu’s government describes as a US proposal to extend the ceasefire’s first phase instead of beginning negotiations on the second phase, which envisaged an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Updated
ActionAid UK have described the decision by Israeli authorities to cut off humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as “horrifying.”
In a statement the charity said:
The horrifying decision by the Israeli authorities to block humanitarian supplies into Gaza will cost lives at a time where the entire population is reliant on aid to survive.
The current level of need in Gaza, after 15 months of war, is staggering. In the last few weeks alone, seven babies have died of hypothermia amid a dire shortage of tents, shelter materials and warm clothes. Many more people will die if urgently needed supplies of food, water, fuel, medicines and other essentials are cut off.
Life-saving aid must never be used as a bargaining chip.
Head of the Nur Shams camp services committee has told Reuters that the camp has been virtually emptied after the continued Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank.
Nihad al-Shawish said that of the usual population of about 13,000 people, “there were about 3,000 people left in the camp and as of today, they have all left. There are still some people just outside on the outskirts but there is no one left in the camp.”
Residents say Israeli bulldozers have been clearing a broad roadway through the area where houses once stood to create easy access for military vehicles.
Reuters reports that in a televised statement, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said Israel “is pushing to return things to square one and overturn the agreement through the alternatives it is proposing.”
Israel has been seeking to extend the first phase of the fragile ceasefire agreement, which would involve the return of more Israeli hostages before Israel’s military presence withdrew from the Gaza Strip.
Mourners at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis have been attending the funeral of two Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in Rafah earlier today.
Just a couple of kilometres to the east, kibbutz Nir Oz has seen Israeli mourning at the funeral procession for Itzhak Elgarat, who was abducted during the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack inside Israel, whose body was recently returned from captivity.
The charity Islamic Relief Worldwide has described Israel’s decision to once again cut off humanitarian aid from entering Gaza as “a cruel and illegal act,” adding that “denying people aid and using starvation as a weapon of war is a clear violation of international law.”
In a statement the organisation said:
Israel’s immoral and illegal decision to block all aid into Gaza will be fatal. Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool or to impose collective punishment on an entire civilian population. International governments must urgently demand that aid is allowed in and must reinvigorate political pressure to agree a permanent ceasefire.
At the start of Ramadan, most Palestinian families in Gaza are struggling to find enough to eat and remain stuck in dire conditions, in overcrowded tents with little clean water, sanitation or other basic services. Despite the ceasefire, Israel’s nearly 18-year-old blockade of Gaza remains in place and this latest decision clearly shows how Israel can turn supplies on or off at any moment.
The decision is yet another violation of the January 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered Israel to take immediate measures to prevent genocide in Gaza, including allowing sufficient humanitarian aid to enter.
Israeli military's deadly raid on West Bank city of Jenin continues
Israel’s military, police and intelligence services started a deadly raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on 21 January, claiming it was targeting terrorists. We are now on the 42nd day of the assault which has seen at least 27 Palestinian people reportedly killed by Israeli forces who have left a trail of heavy destruction in the area.
Jenin’s refugee camp, one of 19 across the West Bank built in the aftermath of Israel’s creation in 1948 to house displaced Palestinians, is a centre of armed Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Here is the latest report – which we have not yet independently verified – from Palestinian news agency Wafa on the ongoing raid in Jenin:
Last night, a three-month-old infant suffocated from the teargas fired by the occupation forces at the entrance to Jenin refugee camp.
The occupation forces continue to block all entrances to Jenin refugee camp with dirt mounds, forcing citizens attempting to reach their homes to turn back. Meanwhile, Israeli bulldozers and military vehicles remain stationed around the camp, and reinforcements are continuously being deployed to the surrounding areas.
The Israeli soldiers withdrew from the al-Rabee building near Jenin refugee camp, leaving behind massive destruction in the residential apartments they had used as military outposts for 41 days. After the withdrawal, the soldiers repositioned themselves at other locations near the camp.
So far, the occupation has forced nearly 20,000 citizens to leave the camp, dispersing them across 39 towns and villages. The occupation is also attempting to alter the camp’s landscape through systematic destruction, which has caused complete destruction to 120 homes and partially damage to dozens of others.
Food prices surge in wake of Israel's aid blockade on Gaza - reports
There are reports that the Israeli blockade on all aid – including food – coming into Gaza is causing food prices in the territory to surge. In response, Gaza’s health ministry has called on residents to provide information about merchants raising food prices.
Tamer al-Burai, a Gaza businessman, said that with shops suddenly empty, the price of a sack of flour had risen to 100 shekels ($28) from 40 shekels. Prices for cooking oil, fuel, and vegetables had also surged.
“It is catastrophic and things might become worse if the ceasefire isn’t resumed or there is no intervention by the local authorities against greedy merchants,” al-Burai told the Reuters news agency.
Salama Marouf, head of the Gaza government media office, has tried to restore calm among the population, saying there was enough food in markets for at least two weeks. The economy ministry had initiated an effort to compel merchants not to increase prices.
The ceasefire’s first phase – which expired at midnight on Saturday – took effect on 19 January and allowed an increase of aid into Gaza. An average of 600 trucks with aid entered a day. Those daily 600 trucks of aid were meant to continue entering through all three phases of the ceasefire.
However, Hamas says less than 50% of the agreed-upon number of trucks carrying fuel, for generators and other uses, were allowed in. The Palestinian militant group also says the entry of live animals and animal feed, key for food security, were denied entry.
At least two people were killed by an Israeli drone fire in central Rafah in southern Gaza, medics said. An Israeli military helicopter, meanwhile, fired two missiles on the al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis, injuring three civilians, Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting.
Updated
Kathleen Spencer Chapman, the director of influencing and external affairs at Plan International UK, has responded to Israel announcing a blockade on aid to Gaza.
In a statement, Chapman said:
We are horrified by reports that aid is once again being stopped from getting into Gaza. Gaza remains in the grip of a catastrophic hunger crisis, with children in dire need of food, water and shelter. Without the influx of humanitarian aid promised by the ceasefire agreement, thousands more could die from hunger and related diseases alone.
After over 15 months of indescribable trauma, Palestinians in Gaza finally had a faint glimmer of hope. World leaders must do all they can to broker an immediate, permanent solution and ensure that critically needed humanitarian aid can safely get into all parts of Gaza. Anything less is unconscionable.
Her comments follow similar outcry from other charities such as Oxfam and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies who are calling for unhindered access for aid into all parts of the Gaza Strip to meet the needs of Palestinians who have been struggling to survive for 16 months of war.
Updated
Analysis: Israeli block on aid raises health fears for Gaza’s undernourished population
Israel’s war on Gaza has reduced much of the territory to rubble and led to dire living conditions for almost all of its residents. Despite an increase in aid flowing into the strip since the ceasefire agreement came into effect in mid January, the humanitarian needs of Palestinian people across the strip remain huge.
Julian Borger, the Guardian’s senior international correspondent, has had a look at how Israel’s decision to stop the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza will affect relief efforts and the undernourished population’s access to food in particular. Here is an extract of his analysis piece:
Aid agencies say the population of Gaza remains highly vulnerable and that the blockade of humanitarian supplies to a civilian population is unacceptable in any circumstances …
Israel has consistently denied allegations by aid organisations during the 15-month military campaign in Gaza that it was using food as a weapon of war, insisting that blockages in supplies were a result of other factors. Sunday’s announcement by Netanyahu’s office made no attempt to disguise the government’s actions or the goal behind them, which is to gain advantage at the negotiating table.
For the duration of the ceasefire, about 600 trucks a day have crossed into Gaza, carrying a total of 57,000 tons of food. This is a similar level to prewar aid deliveries, but aid agencies say that was for a population in a much better physical condition than the undernourished inhabitants now, and that also had the capacity to produce some of its own food.
The situation in Gaza now is far more precarious. Nearly 70% of the buildings across the coastal strip have been destroyed or damaged. In those circumstances, Oxfam called the aid that reached Gaza during the six-week ceasefire “a drop in the ocean”.
Updated
Israeli police say they are looking for potential accomplices in the Haifa stabbing attack, according to reports. Israeli authorities said earlier that the assailant was killed.
“The incident has not concluded,” police spokesperson Ariyeh Doron was quoted as having said.
“Large amounts of police and security forces are operating in the area … After completing the search, we will declare the end of the incident.”
Elderly man killed in knife attack in Israeli city of Haifa
A 70-year-old man was killed and others injured in a knife attack in the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Monday morning, medics say.
“Paramedics and EMTs have pronounced the death of a man around 70 years old and are providing medical treatment to and evacuating four injured individuals”, Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said, after the police reported the suspect was killed.
Three people, a man and woman in their 30s and a 15-year-old boy, are in a critical condition, and a 70-year-old woman has “moderate” injuries after the attack at a busy bus station in Haifa, the MDA said.
Video from the scene pic.twitter.com/weyhwmW7wQ
— Magen David Adom (@Mdais) March 3, 2025
Updated
Israel accused of using 'food as a weapon of war' as it is condemned for aid blockade on Gaza
Welcome to our live coverage of the latest developments in the Middle East as Israel is widely condemned for blocking the entry of all humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said yesterday that it was imposing a blockade on Gaza because Hamas would not accept a plan which it claimed had been put forward by the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to extend phase one of the ceasefire and continue to release hostages, and postpone phase two, which should, in theory, see Israel completely withdraw its forces from Gaza, in effect ending the war.
“With the end of phase one of the hostage deal, and in light of Hamas’s refusal to accept the Witkoff outline for continuing talks – to which Israel agreed – prime minister Netanyahu has decided that, as of this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will cease. Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” it said in a statement. “If Hamas continues its refusal, there will be further consequences.”
After the announcement, Netanyahu’s spokesperson, Omer Dostri, said: “No trucks entered Gaza this morning, nor will they at this stage.”
Egypt and Qatar were among the Arab states that said Israel’s decision violated the ceasefire deal. The Egyptian foreign ministry accused Israel of using starvation as “a weapon against the Palestinian people”. Similarly, Qatar’s foreign ministry said: “Qatar strongly condemns the decision of the Israeli occupation government to stop bringing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, and considers it a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, (and) international humanitarian law”, adding its “rejection of the use of food as a weapon of war”.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, reacted by demanding that “humanitarian aid flow back into Gaza immediately” with the organisation’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher describing the move as “alarming”.
A spokesperson for Palestinian militant group Hamas said Israel’s blockade was “cheap blackmail” and a “coup” against the internationally mediated ceasefire agreement.
