Israel agrees to four-hour daily pauses in Gaza fighting, says White House

First humanitarian pause to be announced on Thursday
Daniel Keane9 November 2023

Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern Gaza, the White House said on Tuesday.

It comes after President Biden asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to institute the daily pauses during a phone call on Monday.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the first humanitarian pause would be announced on Thursday and that the Israelis had committed to announcing each four-hour window at least three hours in advance.

The pauses would allow people to get out of harm's way and for deliveries of humanitarian aid and could be used as a way to get hostages out of Gaza.

Mr Biden also told reporters that he had asked the Israelis for a "pause longer than three days" during negotiations over the release of some hostages held by Hamas, though he ruled out the chances of a general ceasefire.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken last week urged Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza for Palestinian civilians as it intensifies its war against Hamas.

French President Emmanuel Macron had opened a Gaza aid conference on Thursday with an appeal for Israel to protect civilians, saying that "all lives have equal worth" and that fighting terrorism "can never be carried out without rules."

ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT
A fireball erupting in the Gaza Strip during an Israeli bombardment, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Hamas
AFP via Getty Images

Their appeals came as the IDF ramped up its ground campaign in the densely populated enclave. Gaza City is the focus of Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas following its brutal attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The number of Palestinians killed in the war passed 10,500 on Wednesday, including more than 4,300 children, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Hamas attack last month.

Hamas are estimated to have taken 239 hostages, including children and the elderly, during its surprise attack. US officials believe that fewer than 10 Americans are among those held captive.

Mr Kirby told reporters that pauses could be useful to "getting all 239 hostages back with their families to include the less than 10 Americans that we know are being held. So if we can get all the hostages out, that's a nice finite goal".

"Humanitarian pauses can be useful in the transfer process," he added.

In other developments, the armed wing of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad in Gaza said it was prepared to release two Israeli hostages, a woman and a boy, for humanitarian and medical reasons.

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