STOCKHOLM, May 5. /TASS/. The strategy of the Israeli authorities to oversee the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip defies humanitarian principles, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland stated.

"We cannot and will not do something which is fundamentally against humanitarian principles," he told the AFP news agency. "The United Nations agencies, all other international humanitarian groups and non-governmental organizations have said 'no' to be part of this idea coming from the Israeli cabinet and from the Israeli military."

On Monday, the Ynet news website wrote, citing sources, that Israel’s war cabinet approved a plan to intensify the Gaza military operation that stipulates the possibility of occupying the enclave.

Dmitry Gendelman, an advisor to the Israeli prime minister's office, wrote on his Telegram channel that the Israeli cabinet also overwhelmingly supported the option of setting up a humanitarian framework to distribute international aid in Gaza provided that it "will not allow Hamas to control supplies and will dismantle its administrative capacity."

On March 18, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out airstrikes on Hamas strongholds in the Gaza Strip, thus ending the ceasefire established in January this year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that Israel had resumed military operations in Gaza after Hamas rejected the US proposals put forward by mediators and US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff. The office stated that the Israeli military had resumed strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza to facilitate the release of hostages and that the army would escalate its campaign in the enclave. The radicals have blamed the United States for the renewed Israeli offensive.

According to the latest figures provided by Israel, the radicals are currently holding 24 hostages and the bodies of 35 dead captives in Gaza.