THE Israeli occupation government blocked on Sunday the entry of all humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and reneged on the truce after the first phase of the ceasefire deal ended without agreement on continuing into a second phase.
Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s office justified the measure by claiming that the Hamas movement had so far refused to accept a temporary ceasefire extension under a proposal by US president Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.
Netanyahu’s office warned of ‘additional consequences’ if Hamas does not accept the new US proposal for a short-term ceasefire.
For its part, the Hamas movement condemned the Israeli decision to ban the entry of aid to Gaza as ‘cheap blackmail’, a ‘full-fledged war crime’ and a ‘blatant breach of the truce’.
Hamas called on the mediators in Egypt and Qatar to immediately intervene to pressure the Israeli government to stop its punitive and unethical measures against more than two million people in Gaza.
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) launched a campaign of raids and arrests that targeted several towns and villages in the West Bank on Sunday.
The occupation army stormed the city of Nablus and the Balata refugee camp, as well as the surrounding area of Askar refugee camp, while resistance fighters fired at the occupation forces in the old city of Nablus.
The occupation army also raided the town of Beit Ummar north of Al-Khalil and conducted military patrols in its streets. The occupation forces stormed the town of Khadr in Bethlehem in the southern West Bank, firing sound bombs and tear gas at homes and shops, with no injuries reported.
North west of Ramallah, an Israeli force invaded the village of Ibwien, damaging citizens’ vehicles and raiding several homes. For their part, local sources stated that IOF soldiers stormed the village of Burin, south of Nablus in the West Bank.
In addition to the IOF incursions, Broqin in western Salfit witnessed an attack by dozens of settlers who assaulted the homes and vehicles of Palestinians, causing significant material damage and instilling fear among residents, under the protection of the occupation army, which fired live bullets at the Palestinians.
In another attack, settlers targeted residential tents in the town of Al-Nasariya in the central Jordan Valley, damaging the tyres of a tractor. They also invaded the Khallet Makhol gathering in the northern Jordan Valley, threatening and terrorising its residents, according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency.
The occupation army and its settlers have escalated their assaults in the West Bank, including eastern Jerusalem, since the start of the genocide against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, resulting in the martyrdom of at least 927 Palestinians, injuring about 7,000 others, and the arrest of 14,500 more, according to official Palestinian data.
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi has emphasised that the only path to regional stability and the return of the remaining Israeli captives is for the Israeli occupation government to engage in talks over the second phase of the ceasefire agreement.
‘The second phase includes negotiations on a permanent ceasefire, a complete army withdrawal and Gaza reconstruction, and eventually the release of prisoners as part of an agreed-upon deal. We insist on this and will not back down from this position,’ Mardawi said in a statement on Sunday.
Mohammed Darwish, head of the Hamas leadership council, reiterated in a message sent to the Arab summit and Arab leaders on Saturday the movement’s commitment to completing the remaining phases of the ceasefire agreement, leading to a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire, the full withdrawal of occupying forces from the Gaza Strip, reconstruction and lifting the siege.
He confirmed Hamas’s commitment to rearranging the Palestine Liberation Organisation, on the basis of full partnership to make it a true representative of all Palestinians, conducting general elections at various national levels, restoring democratic life, and ‘enabling our people to freely choose their leadership and determine our political options and future’.
There is no doubt that the UK, the US and the EU trade union movements must support this Palestinian mass action by calling indefinite general strikes in full support of Palestine!
