Israel defended its weekend cutoff of more humanitarian aid to Gaza as a necessary step to stop resources flowing to Hamas.
The spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted that Israel has allowed in 4,200 food trucks per week, “enough for many, many months,” during the six-week cease-fire that ended on March 1.
Under the proposal, Hamas would be required to release half of all living and dead hostages on the first day and release all the rest if a permanent cease-fire were reached.
Netanyahu said, in a statement released by his office, that Hamas held 59 hostages, up to 24 of whom are alive and at least 35 of whom are dead.
Witkoff proposed the extension when it became apparent that Israel and Hamas could not agree on moving to a cease-fire second phase, according to Netanyahu.
“There will be no free lunches,” Netanyahu said in announcing the cutoff of supplies. “If Hamas thinks that it will be possible to continue the cease-fire or benefit from the terms of the first state without us receiving hostages, it is sorely mistaken.”
His office’s spokesman, David Mencer, said in a virtual press conference on March 3 that “Hamas systematically takes humanitarian aid and sells it to support their own terror.”
“For a year and a half now, Israel has sent in—but Hamas has betrayed—the supplies we sent so that Hamas could be humanitarian. Instead, they’ve in fact been barbarian for years,” Mencer said.
He said Hamas diverted concrete meant for homes and used it instead to build hundreds of miles of terror tunnels. Israelis refer to it as the “Gaza Metro.”
“Fuel meant for ambulances was used in pickup trucks and motorbikes that broke into Israel and carried our kidnapped women and children into Gaza. Medicines have been used to drug our own hostages,” Mencer said.
“Food intended for widespread distribution has been feeding the bellies of the guards that starve our own hostages, who emerge ... looking like victims of the Holocaust. You’ve seen it with your own eyes. ... No free meals to those who kill.”
While Israel is prepared to make many sacrifices pursuing “a change in the status quo ... arming and equipping those who seek our own extermination, and who use supplies we send to torture our own people, is a step too far,” he said.
Hamas has hoarded months of supplies, according to Mencer.
“They have enough food to fuel an obesity epidemic, but the only people we see getting fat are Hamas themselves,” he said.
Red Lines
That the cease-fire negotiations reached a seeming impasse was predictable, Elliot Chodoff, an Israeli military strategist, told The Epoch Times. The inability to move to the second phase hinges on the issue of Hamas remaining in power.“That’s always been Hamas’s bottom line, and it’s always been a red line for Israel,” he said.
Chodoff said he regarded the aid cutoff as symbolic, with Gaza having an estimated four months’ worth of food stockpiled.
With the Biden administration, Israel was under pressure to maintain the flow of aid and used “the myth of imminent starvation” to press the point.
“It wasn’t imminent. Certainly, people in Gaza are suffering, and I don’t want to belittle that, but it wasn’t on the level that it was made into,” Chodoff said.
Israel’s declaration that it is cutting off further aid now is made with the Trump administration going along with it, he said.
“This is more a message that America is not going to pressure Israel in the way that it did in the past,” Chodoff said.
Hamas must plan its responses to Israel’s demand for more hostage releases, he said, knowing that Israel is ready to resume large-scale operations in Gaza, using four or five divisions, as large as the force that went in during October 2023 and November 2023. Israel is holding off for now because of the hostages but can go in “on a moment’s notice.”
“There’s a point at which the Israeli government will have to decide, ‘Do we continue or do we stop?’ In other words, ‘Have we hit a dead end?’” Chodoff said.
The value of the last 20 to 24 living hostages has gone up significantly, he said, indicating that they are likely Hamas’s last assets.
“Either they get the deal they want with these or they have no assets left to negotiate with. So they’re going to hold out for very, very high stakes,” Chodoff said.
“This is the brinkmanship. Ultimately, the Israeli government will have to make a decision. Can we continue to reason with these people, or have we reached a complete dead end and we have to go back into a military operation?”
