Israeli forces will stop fighting for four hours every day in certain areas of the northern Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, announced on Thursday.
Tens of thousands of civilians have already left the northern Gaza region for the southern one in recent days as Israeli forces have been bombarding the northern area, where the humanitarian situation has gotten worse.
In the future, an announcement will be made three hours prior to each pause, and thousands more civilians will be able to get southern Gaza via a second route that follows a coastline road, according to Kirby. During a briefing, he informed reporters that Israeli officials informed the United States that there would be no operations in certain regions during that period.
His remarks followed the reports from two foreign diplomats and an American official that the United States was in talks with Israel and Qatar about putting forth a proposal for a few-day cease-fire.
The precise nature of the daily pauses, which will differ from the ones that Israel has been enacting for the previous several days, is unknown. According to Israeli officials, the purpose of the brief ceasefires was to facilitate the migration of Palestinian population from northern Gaza to the southern region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement shortly after Kirby made his pronouncement, stating that the combat was still going on and that “there will be no cease-fire without the release of our hostages.”
“The fighting continues,” IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari reaffirmed on Thursday during a briefing, despite the “local tactical pauses.”
Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have left northern Gaza in recent days after Israel claimed that its troops had reached the “heart” of Gaza City. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, estimated during a briefing on Wednesday that about 50,000 Palestinians had fled south that day after the IDF announced it had established humanitarian corridors for people to do so.
Over the past few days, the passageways have only been available for a few hours each day. Many people have been escaping Israel’s constant shelling as well as the deteriorating humanitarian situation, which includes running out of food, water, and other essential supplies.
The protection of civilians should come first, according to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who stated on Wednesday that the “unfolding catastrophe in Gaza makes the need for a humanitarian cease-fire more urgent with every passing hour.”
“Gaza is turning into a kid’s cemetery,” he declared. “It is said that hundreds of boys and girls are hurt or killed every day.”
The declaration made by the White House, according to University of San Francisco Middle East politics expert Stephen Zunes, is positive for Palestinian citizens but does not provide an end to their extreme suffering.
“The tremendous humanitarian crisis that has been ongoing will be lessened by any pause in the fighting,” he declared. “It will enable Palestinian citizens to escape areas of conflict. The issue, though, is that the Gaza Strip is really a war zone.
He stated that although longer cease-fires are preferable, “even temporary ones are better than none.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog told NBC News earlier on Thursday that Israel had not yet received a significant offer from Hamas on a solution that would see prisoners released, rejecting rumors that an agreement for a longer ceasefire would be near.