Israel halts Gaza aid as Hamas retakes control of deliveries

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett posted a video on X showing armed Hamas terrorists riding on food trucks they had hijacked as the US makes a new push for a Gaza ceasefire.

A Palestinian man walks on the rubble of the Abu Nadi home which was hit in an Israeli strike in the northern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

Israel has reportedly halted humanitarian deliveries into Gaza as Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz admitted Hamas was again taking control of aid entering Gaza.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has threatened to leave the government unless immediate action was taken to prevent the aid from reaching Hamas, Israel’s Channel 12 TV reports.

Mr Netanyahu’s office said he ordered the military to present a plan within the next two days on how to keep Hamas from stealing humanitarian assistance.

It comes after former prime minister Naftali Bennett posted a video on X showing armed Hamas terrorists riding on food trucks they had hijacked.

“This video was filmed today,” Mr Bennett wrote. “Fighters on the ground explained to me that these are the current instructions - to bring in trucks without control. This is how they continue to feed Hamas with money and power. Government ministers pledged that ‘not a single grain will enter,’ and as usual, the reality is the opposite.”

הסרטון הזה צולם היום. רואים בו חמושים של החמאס שהשתלטו שוב על משאיות מזון שממשלת ישראל הכניסה לרצועה.

לוחמים בשטח הסבירו לי שאלו ההוראות כיום, להכניס משאיות בלי בקרה.

ככה ממשיכים להזין את חמאס בכסף ובכוח.

שרי הממשלה התחייבו ש״אף גרגר לא ייכנס״ וכרגיל המציאות הפוכה.

מביש. pic.twitter.com/Sj5Wozwgb8

— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) June 25, 2025

Meanwhile the US is making a fresh push in negotiations to end the fighting and free the hostages in Gaza, as President Trump hopes to build on the momentum of a deal that paused hostilities between Israel and Iran and bring an end to the conflict that sparked nearly two years of war in the Middle East.

While significant gaps remain between Israel and Hamas, Arab officials mediating the talks say both sides have shown an interest in getting a deal done. The mediators said they are in talks with both sides by telephone, adding they could soon meet in Egypt, which along with Qatar has helped the US broker the Gaza talks.

On Wednesday, Trump said that the ceasefire between Israel and Iran has improved the atmosphere of talks around the fighting in Gaza. “I think great progress is being made on Gaza,” Trump told reporters at the NATO summit in The Hague. “I think we’re going to have some very good news.”

Trump said he was recently briefed about developments in the talks by special envoy Steve Witkoff. “He did tell me that Gaza is very close,” Trump said.

US officials have frequently expressed hopes that talks to end the conflict, sparked by Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, were close to bearing fruit, only to be proven wrong as one side or the other undermined progress.

The fresh push for a Gaza deal comes after several previous efforts failed. Israel and Hamas agreed to two temporary ceasefire deals over the course of the fighting, but they have found it impossible to get past a fundamental disagreement: Israel’s unwillingness to accept the militant group’s demand for a permanent end to the conflict.

Donald Trump and US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth leave at the end of a press conference during NATO summit in The Hague. Picture: AFP

While Israel is willing to talk, there is no sign it has changed its position on ending the war or some of its other demands, including Hamas’s giving up its arms.

But after months of stalemate, there have been signs of new activity. Hours before Trump announced the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, special envoy Witkoff called Israel and Arab mediators to restart the negotiations for a possible Gaza deal, the mediators said. The mediators reached out to Hamas officials, who indicated they are willing to come back to the table, the mediators said.

Witkoff told the mediators that Trump wants to see the war in Gaza end and that Israel has communicated to the US that it is sincere about reaching a deal after months of deadlocked negotiations, the mediators said.

The Israeli prime minister’s office and Hamas didn’t respond to requests for comment. The State Department and Witkoff didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday that it would continue its “positive engagement with the efforts of mediators, and with any serious ideas or proposals that could lead to a comprehensive agreement.”

Mourners in Israel on Wednesday at the funeral of an soldier killed in the Gaza Strip the day before. Picture: AFP

Israel launched the war in Gaza after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage. Israel’s war in the enclave has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who don’t say how many were combatants, and has left swathes of the enclave in ruins.

Israel had aimed to wrap up its war in Iran to shift the focus back to Gaza, a person familiar with the matter said.

Hamas, meanwhile, finds itself increasingly isolated, with its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and patron Iran battered by Israeli attacks. Most of Hamas’s military leadership has been taken out in Gaza, where the group is now on its third leader in eight months after the previous two were killed by Israel.

The latest proposal under consideration is similar to one that has been on the table for months, the mediators said. It calls for Hamas to release 10 of the approximately 20 hostages Israel believes are still alive, along with the bodies of some deceased hostages. In return, Israel would release a much larger number of Palestinians it is holding and commit to a 60-day ceasefire, they said.

According to the proposal, the 60 day ceasefire would be followed by a lasting ceasefire, during which the remaining living and slain hostages would be handed over.

Hamas has expressed willingness to accept guarantees that the US would express publicly that Israel will enter into talks to end the war, the mediators said. Hamas has been concerned Israel could skip those talks and return to fighting, as it did after securing the release of 25 living Israeli hostages in the first phase of the two-month ceasefire it agreed to in January.

The US joined Israel in its strikes against Iran’s nuclear program Sunday, hitting three key sites with 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs and a salvo of submarine-launched cruise missiles. After a tepid Iranian retaliatory strike, the administration worked with Qatar to strike a ceasefire deal that went into effect on Tuesday morning and continued to hold Wednesday.

Wall Street Journal