Israel on the event date of 2025-03-01 stopped the entry of all food and other supplies into Gaza, escalating pressure at the end of the ceasefire's first phase. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was taken because Hamas was stealing supplies and preventing them from reaching people in Gaza. The decision drew sharp criticism from mediators and aid groups, and it immediately shifted the truce debate from diplomacy back to access and coercion.
The supply cutoff came with a warning of additional consequences if Hamas did not accept what Israel described as a US-backed proposal to extend the ceasefire. Israel said the new formula would carry the truce through Ramadan and Passover, with Hamas releasing half the hostages on the first day and the rest once a permanent ceasefire was reached. That outline left the main question unresolved: whether the first phase was a bridge to a second deal or the point at which the agreement began to unravel.
Egypt and Qatar accused Israel of violating humanitarian law by using starvation as a weapon. The International Committee of the Red Cross said that any unraveling of the gains made over the previous six weeks risked pushing people back into despair, while UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called the decision alarming and said aid access had to be allowed under international humanitarian law. The United Nations secretary-general also urged all sides to prevent a return to hostilities and to restore aid flow immediately.
The hostage dimension remained central. Israel said 59 hostages were still held in Gaza, 35 of them believed dead, and families in Israel again pressed their government to keep negotiations moving. Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the next phase of the truce and called the aid cutoff a war crime and a blatant attack on the agreement. Both positions point to the same reality: the ceasefire had entered a stage where each side was testing how far pressure could be applied without triggering a full collapse.
The humanitarian stakes are enormous because the war has left most of Gaza's more than two million people dependent on international aid. About 600 aid trucks had been entering daily since the truce began on Jan. 19, according to the supplied report, easing famine fears that had built during the fighting. With the border shut again, the argument over the ceasefire was no longer abstract diplomacy. It was a fight over whether food, medicine and fuel would keep moving at all.
