Coalition lawmakers welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision on Sunday to not let any more aid enter Gaza, citing Hamas’s refusal to accept what Israel said was an American proposal to extend the ceasefire agreement’s first phase, which expired at midnight after 42 days.

The terror group slammed Netanyahu’s decision as “cheap extortion, a war crime and a blatant attack on the agreement,” and urged mediators to force Israel to reverse the decision. The terror group said the Jewish state “bears responsibility for the consequences of its decision” for Gazans and hostages alike.

Zionist opposition leaders — The Democrats’ Yair Golan, Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid, Yisrael Beytenu’s Avigdor Liberman and National Unity’s Benny Gantz — were all but mum about the decision. Meanwhile, further-left lawmakers and civil society groups warned it would harm civilians and hostages in Gaza, and assailed Netanyahu for refusing to negotiate the second phase of the ceasefire.

That second phase would see Hamas release remaining living hostages and Israel withdraw from the Strip — a red line for the Netanyahu coalition’s right-wing flank.

Speaking about the humanitarian aid halt, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that US President Donald Trump’s administration “accepts our stance” and that warnings of famine in Gaza have been “a lie” throughout the war there.

“We’re prepared to continue negotiations, including on phase two, according to our principles, in exchange for the release of hostages,” Sa’ar said at a joint press conference in Jerusalem with his Croatian counterpart.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has threatened to topple the government should it proceed to the second phase, wrote on X that Netanyahu’s decision “to completely halt the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza until Hamas is destroyed or completely surrenders and all our hostages are returned is an important step in the right direction.”

Israel needs to open the “gates of hell… as quickly and in as deadly a manner as possible” until “complete victory” is achieved, wrote Smotrich, paraphrasing Trump’s repeated threats against Hamas if it failed to release the hostages. He added that ensuring the aid halt was the reason his Religious Zionism party had stayed in the government despite opposing the ceasefire agreement.

Education Minister Yoav Kisch (Likud) said on X that “the decision to halt the entry of humanitarian aid until the hostages are returned is important and correct.”

“Israel must continue to pressure Hamas with all the tools at its disposal, while cooperating with the American administration until the last of the hostages is returned,” he said.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi (Likud), who has called for the forced expulsion of Gazans, said all of the hostages must return home immediately or Israel would rain “fire and brimstone on the despicable terrorists without mercy.”

“The Jews will have light and joy, and the Nazis will have the gates of hell open today,” he wrote on X.

Former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose far-right Otzma Yehudit party left the coalition in protest of the hostage-ceasefire agreement with Hamas, welcomed Netanyahu’s decision “if it is indeed implemented” and said the move was “better late than never.”

“This should be the policy until the last of the hostages is returned,” said Ben Gvir.

“Now is the time to open the gates of hell, stop the electricity and water, return to war, and — most importantly — not settle for just half of the hostages, but rather return to President Trump’s ultimatum: all the hostages immediately or all hell will break loose in Gaza.”

MK Ofer Cassif, of the communist Hadash party, wrote on X that Netanyahu’s decision was a war crime that “violates the [ceasefire] agreement, and punishes not just the Palestinians — who are honoring the agreement — but also the hostages who are being abandoned to die in cruel captivity.”

Israeli-Palestinian socialist collective Standing Together warned in a statement that the humanitarian aid halt would harm hostages and civilians in Gaza.

“Netanyahu’s refusal to hold talks on the [ceasefire] deal’s second phase — contrary to the agreement the government signed some six weeks ago — spells the sacrifice of the hostages and surrender to Smotrich’s demand to resume the fighting,” said the group, which has collected and transferred humanitarian aid to the Strip.

“A significant majority of the Israeli public wants the deal to be completed, the war ended, and all the hostages brought home alive,” read the statement.

The second phase of the ceasefire deal would see Hamas release 24 hostages believed to still be alive. Following the completion of the first phase — which saw Hamas release 33 women, children, civilian men over 50 and those deemed “humanitarian cases” — all the remaining living hostages are young men.

Another 35 hostages confirmed dead by the IDF would be returned in a potential third phase. These comprise a soldier killed in the 2014 Gaza war and 34 people kidnapped on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.

Netanyahu commenced talks for the second phase only on Thursday, despite having been required under the agreement to start negotiating by February 3, day 16 of the first phase. Israel also failed to withdraw on Saturday from the Philadelphi Corridor, separating Gaza and Egypt, as stipulated by the deal.

Early on Sunday, minutes after the first phase expired, Netanyahu’s office said it endorsed a proposal to extend the ceasefire through Ramadan and Passover.

The Muslim holy month, which began on Friday in Gaza, will last through March 29, while the weeklong Jewish holiday ends on April 19. In that time, the remaining 59 hostages could be released, according to the premier’s office, which attributed the proposal to US President Donald Trump’s special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

According to Israel’s account of the proposal, half of the remaining hostages — living and dead — would be released on the first day of the extended first phase of the ceasefire, and the remaining captives would be released at the end of the period if a permanent truce is reached.