By Nidal al-Mughrabi
(March 3, 2025 – REUTERS) – Israeli fire killed at least two people in Rafah and wounded three others in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, raising fears among Palestinians that the ceasefire could collapse altogether after Israel imposed a total blockade on the shattered enclave.
A first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas that began in January ended over the weekend with no agreement on what will happen next.
Hamas says an agreed second phase must now begin, leading to a permanent Israeli withdrawal and an end to the war. Israel has instead offered a temporary extension into April, with Hamas to release more hostages in return for Palestinian detainees, without immediate talks on Gaza’s future.
Later on Monday, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said Israel’s demand to extend the first phase of the ceasefire was pushing progress back to zero.
“The mediators and guarantors bear full responsibility for preventing (Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu from sabotaging all efforts made to reach the agreement and for protecting the agreement from collapsing,” Hamdan told a news conference.
Two Israeli government officials said mediators had asked Israel for a few more days to resolve the standoff.
In Washington, a State Department spokesperson said on Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, plans to return to the region in the coming days to work out a way to either extend the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal or advance to the second phase.
“The President has made clear and Secretary Rubio has repeatedly said all the hostages must be released immediately, and that includes American hostages,” the spokesperson added.
Israel raised the stakes on Sunday by imposing a total blockade on all supplies, including food and fuel, meant to sustain the 2.3 million Gazans living among ruins after the 15-month conflict.
Hundreds of lorries carrying supplies were backed up in Egypt and denied permission to enter. Gaza residents said shops had been swiftly emptied of all supplies and the price of a sack of flour had more than doubled overnight.
“Where will our food come from?” asked Salah al-Hajj Hassan, a resident in Jabalia on Gaza’s northern edge, where families have returned to destroyed homes to live in the rubble. “We are dying, and we don’t want war or the alarm bells of displacement or the alarm bells of starving our children.”
TANKS FIRING
Residents said Israeli tanks stationed near the eastern and southern borders of Gaza intensified gunfire and tank shelling into the outskirts throughout the night.
A Palestinian official with a group allied to Hamas told Reuters a state of alert had been declared among fighters.
At least two people were killed by Israeli drone fire in Rafah, and three people were wounded by a helicopter that fired on Khan Younis, medics said.
In a statement, the Israeli military said its forces fired at a motorboat in the coastal area of Khan Younis violating security restrictions in the area and posing a threat.
The military said in another incident in southern Gaza, its forces identified two suspects who were moving towards them and posing a threat. Israeli forces “fired at the suspects to eliminate the threat and identified casualties,” it said.
Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday it had adopted a proposal by Witkoff for a temporary ceasefire for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Jewish feast of Passover, ending around April 20.
The truce would be conditional on Hamas releasing half of the remaining living and dead hostages on the first day, with the remainder released at the conclusion if an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire.
Hamas says it is committed to the originally agreed ceasefire that had been scheduled to move into a second phase, with negotiations aimed at a permanent end to the war, and hostages could be released only under that plan.
FOOD PRICES SURGE
The Hamas-run Gaza interior ministry called on residents to provide information about merchants raising food prices in the wake of the new blockade.
Tamer al-Burai, a Gaza businessman, said that with shops suddenly empty, the price of a sack of flour had risen to 100 shekels ($28) from 40 shekels. Prices for cooking oil, fuel, and vegetables had also surged.
“It is catastrophic and things might become worse if the ceasefire isn’t resumed or there is no intervention by the local authorities against greedy merchants,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
Salama Marouf, head of the Gaza government media office, urged Gazans not to panic, saying there was enough food in markets for at least two weeks. The economy ministry had initiated an effort to compel merchants not to increase prices.
An Israeli government spokesperson said in an online briefing that there is enough food in Gaza for months, after the influx of aid in recent weeks.
“There is plenty of food and supplies in Gaza; 4,200 trucks a week have gone in during this ceasefire, enough for many, many months,” David Mencer said.
Aid agencies have warned that goods could spoil and that they don’t have limitless means to stockpile goods on the Gaza border.
“Aid is arriving at our warehouses every day… We have warehouse capacity for now, but we cannot be sure how long that will continue”, operations coordinator for the International Federation of the Red Cross in Egypt, Jurgen Hogl, told Reuters.
Israel’s onslaught has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health authorities, and displaced most of the population.
The war began when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Fifty-nine hostages are believed to remain in Gaza.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi. Additional reporting by Jana Choukeir in Dubai, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva, and Daphne Psaledakis and Steve Holland, Matt Spetalnick in Washington.Editing by Ed Osmond, Peter Graff, Ros Russell, Andrew Heavens and Nia Williams)
