TEHRAN - Israel has imposed a block on all aid entering the Gaza Strip following the end of the first phase of the January 19 ceasefire deal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a statement on Sunday morning confirming that Israel had blocked the entry of all goods into Gaza, Middle East Eye reported.

The move, which coincides with the fasting month of Ramadan for Muslims, came after Hamas refused to accept the extension of the first phase of the ceasefire deal.

Though Israel has stopped, possibly temporarily, dropping bombs on Gazans, its recent moves openly confirm that it was starving the Gazans during the nearly 16-month war to make the resistance fighters surrender.

The statement by Netanyahu’s office added, “Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages. If Hamas continues its refusal, there will be further consequences."

There are certain reasons for setting such a condition. Most importantly, Israel feels humiliated that despite its nearly 16-month cruel war on Gaza, it failed to defeat resistance fighters.

Netanyahu is also casting light on his lies through blockading aid to Gaza during the war.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York on September 27, Netanyahu claimed Israel had not halted shipment of food to Gaza, saying, “What an absurdity. We help bring in 700,000 tons of food into Gaza. That’s more than 3,000 calories a day for every man, woman, and child in Gaza.”

He also said, “Israel is absurdly accused by the ICC Prosecutor of deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza.”

Now that a shaky ceasefire is underway, the Netanyahu regime is obstructing aid to Gaza, let alone when it was pounding Gaza savagely, especially in the early days and weeks of the war.

It is an open secret that Israel was starving Gazans, and the UN officially were constantly were warning about this act. His then so-called defense minister Yoav Gallant said, "I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly."

Israel is notoriously famous for breaking promises, agreements, and international laws. Now, contrary to the terms of the ceasefire agreement, Netanyahu is seeking to extend the initial exchange phase to secure the release of as many Israeli captives as possible without offering anything in return or fulfilling the military and humanitarian obligations of the agreement.

In addition to feeling humiliated to defeat the resistance fighters, Netanyahu is using aid as a weapon to force Hamas officials to give in to his demands, which are contrary to what has been agreed in ceasefire agreement, to find a pretext to resume the war as it has been openly implied in the Sunday statement, and finally force the people to leave their homes in line with the proposed Trump plan for Gaza and the greater project of ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their motherland.