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OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israel’s top diplomat charged Tuesday that humanitarian aid had become the “number one source of revenue” for Hamas, as he defended his government’s decision to block all deliveries to Gaza.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said the Israeli move “threatens the lives of civilians exhausted by 16 months of brutal war”.

Israel announced on Sunday that it would halt the entry of aid into Gaza after negotiations over next steps in a fragile January 19 ceasefire in the Palestinian territory hit an impasse.

“Humanitarian aid became the number one source of income of Hamas in Gaza,” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said. “With that money they use for terror to restore their abilities and to get more young terrorists into their organisation.”

The UNRWA chief called on Israel to allow the aid surge agreed under the ceasefire to continue.

More Gaza funding needed to hit ceasefire targets, UN official says

“Humanitarian aid must continue to flow at scale similar to what we’ve seen over the past six weeks when the ceasefire began”, Lazzarini posted on X.

“The vast majority of the people in Gaza rely on aid for their sheer survival,” he said, adding that “aid and these basic services… must never be used as weapons of war.”

Saar countered that in Israel’s view, “aid that goes to Hamas is not humanitarian”, and is instead used to fund its operations against Israel.

“I don’t know of any other country in the world that is being asked to finance the war against itself,” he said.

Saar said that Israel had allowed the aid into Gaza as a part of its responsibilities under the first phase of the ceasefire that began on January 19 “as long a there was a commitment.. to free our hostages”.

After the first phase ended on Saturday, “we don’t have any commitment now to finance terror against ourselves”, he said.

During the 42 days of the first phase, 33 hostages were returned to Israel in exchange for about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.

All remaining living hostages were due to be freed in a second phase of the ceasefire, but Hamas and Israel are deadlocked over how to extend the truce.

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