Israel on Sunday announced that it will block the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza, claiming that Palestinian militant group Hamas had rejected a United States proposal to extend the expiring first phase of the ceasefire.

“Israel will not allow a ceasefire without a release of our hostages,” the prime minister’s office said. “If Hamas persists in its refusal, there will be additional consequences.”

A Hamas spokesperson said that blocking aid to Gaza was “cheap blackmail” and a “coup” on the ceasefire deal, according to the BBC. The militant group urged mediators to intervene in the matter.

Mediators Qatar and Egypt accused Tel Aviv of violating international humanitarian law by using starvation as a weapon, the Associated Press reported.

On Sunday morning, the Israeli government said that it had approved a temporary extension of the ceasefire in Gaza after the conclusion of the first six-week phase of its deal with Hamas.

The extension will last till the end of the Muslim festival of Ramzan in late March and the Jewish Passover period that lasts till mid-April, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had said.

The first phase of the ceasefire came into effect on January 19 and was to expire on Saturday without any certainty about the second phase. The ceasefire had halted 15 months of fighting in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Israel’s military offensive against Gaza began on October 7, 2023, after Hamas launched an incursion into southern Israel, killing 1,200 persons and taking more than 200 hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on Gaza since then, killing more than 47,700 persons, including over 17,400 children. About 400 Israeli soldiers have died in the conflict.

Some of the hostages were released in November 2023 as part of a brief ceasefire deal and some were killed as a result of the war.

In the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas freed 30 hostages and returned the bodies of eight others to Israel in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

The second phase of the ceasefire aims to secure the release of all the remaining hostages held by Hamas and negotiate an end to the war. The phase also entails the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gazan territory. However, negotiations for this phase have been inconclusive so far.

On Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said that the previously unpublicised framework for the temporary extension had been proposed by Steve Witkoff, the United States’ special envoy to West Asia, who gained “the impression that, at present, there was no possibility of bridging between the positions of the sides on ending the war, and that additional time was required for talks on a permanent ceasefire”.

The ceasefire agreement has allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to return to their neighbourhoods in Gaza. About 1.9 million people in Gaza have been displaced since October 2023, according to the United Nations’ Palestine refugee agency.

According to the United Nations, 92% of all housing units in Gaza have either been destroyed or damaged in the Israeli attacks.

The third and final phase is to include the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of any remaining bodies of the hostages.

The Israeli prime minister said on Sunday that Hamas is holding 24 persons hostage and the bodies of at least 35 others.

Also read: Israel-Hamas ceasefire will not end war or bring peace