The United States stated on Thursday (9) that Israel agreed to allow four-hour “humanitarian pauses” in the north of the Gaza Strip with the aim of facilitating the exit of civilians.
In a conversation with journalists, White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby announced that Israel has communicated to the US that during these pauses, which would begin today, “there will be no military operations”. However, the Israeli government says that these measures had already been adopted in recent days.
The Times of Israel newspaper stated that Israel has been implementing pauses since Sunday (5), opening a four-hour daily humanitarian corridor on the Salah a-Din road for Palestinians from northern Gaza to head south.
However, according to the newspaper, the Israeli government has referred to these actions as “humanitarian corridors” and not as “humanitarian pauses”.
“Israel is opening safe corridors from the north to the south of the Strip, with 50,000 Gazans using it just yesterday,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reported, according to the Times of Israel.
The prime minister had said earlier this week that the Jewish state could allow short tactical pauses in the conflict with the terrorist group Hamas.
Last week, Netanyahu said a ceasefire would only occur if the approximately 240 hostages held by Hamas were released. In an interview with American broadcaster ABC News, the prime minister maintained this position, but admitted that short breaks could be taken.
The White House spokesperson recalled that the pauses in southern Gaza allowed thousands of people to leave and humanitarian aid to enter, but that this aid needs to increase.
In this sense, he celebrated that 106 trucks entered southern Gaza through the Rafah crossing, which connects the enclave with Egypt, but hopes that this number will increase as quickly as possible. (EFE Agency)
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