Hamas accuses Israel of delaying aid deliveries
Hamas has accused Israel of delaying aid deliveries agreed under the Gaza ceasefire deal. The group’s spokesperson Abdul Latif al-Qanou said that goods such as tents, rubble removal equipment and fuel were affected.
Hamas has called on mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States to exert pressure on Israel to fulfil its obligations.
According to Israel, the agreed number of 600 aid trucks per day has so far been exceeded.
Since the ceasefire deal came into effect on January 19, more than 12,000 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have entered Gaza, according to the Israeli authority responsible for Palestinian affairs.
The UN said on Thursday that the figure was closer to 10,000 representing some 550 trucks per day.
Israeli army says it’s deploying troops in Gaza Strip under ceasefire
“As part of the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the return of the kidnapped, forces from Division 162, Division 143, and Division 99 in the Southern Command were deployed to several points in the Gaza Strip,” the Israeli military says in a post on X.
It said this was “to strengthen the layer of defence for residents of the western Negev and the State of Israel”.
Uncertainty plagues the Gaza ceasefire process
From the beginning of the ceasefire deal, everybody understood that the stakes are very high. But that the potential for a breakdown was also quite high.
There have been delays, as we saw today, in the release of the names of the Israeli captives to be freed.
Hamas, however, accuses Israel of implementing only 10 percent of the humanitarian protocol. This pertains to the number of trucks that are allowed in and the tents that are needed for those 1.9 million displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
The number of injured Palestinians, who have been waiting for months for life-saving treatment outside of Gaza, has also not matched the number agreed upon in the ceasefire agreement.
Let’s also remember this is still phase one of the ceasefire agreement. Negotiations on phase two haven’t started yet and have been delayed.
Trump adds a new phase to the ceasefire – ‘ethnic cleansing’
The delayed release of a list of Israeli captives to be freed from Gaza on Saturday was met with relief after the fate of the ceasefire was thrown into question by Trump’s comments about Gaza this week.
“There was a bit of calm that followed the publishing of the list of captives that are going to be released because there is a lot of anxiety surrounding Trump’s declared intention to take over Gaza and to expel all the Palestinians from it,” Michael Omer-Man, director of research for Israel-Palestine at the human rights group DAWN, told Al Jazeera.
“If that’s the case, with that end game so clearly laid out, what is the incentive for Hamas to continue with this deal?”
While he noted that “there’s a bit of relief, all around, that it is moving forward at this stage,” Omer-Man cautioned that the deal remains fragile.
“There’s a lot more uncertainty about the next stages,” he said. “Whereas Trump has said quite consistently that he wants to see everybody released and for this deal to be completed, he’s added a new stage, which is cleansing Gaza of all of its people.”
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