The White House said Thursday Israel has agreed to daily four-hour pauses in the fighting against Hamas militants to allow trapped Palestinian residents in Gaza to escape the fighting and possibly accelerate talks to free hundreds of hostages still held by the group.
The agreement would mark the first time the government of Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a pause in its retaliatory campaign into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip a month after the Palestinian militant group staged a terror campaign that killed more than 1,400 people across southern Israel and captured nearly 240 Israeli and foreign hostages, including a handful of Americans.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House that the first daily humanitarian pause would be announced Thursday and that the Israelis had committed to announcing each four-hour window at least three hours in advance.
Israel, he said, also was opening a second corridor for civilians to flee the areas that are the current focus of its military campaign against Hamas, with a coastal road joining the territory’s main north-south highway, The Associated Press reported.
“If we can get all the hostages out, that’s a nice finite goal,” he said. “Humanitarian pauses can be useful in the transfer process.”
Both the U.S. and Israel have resisted growing international calls for a more extensive cease-fire as the toll of Palestinians killed since the events of Oct. 7 has reportedly climbed to more than 10,500, arguing it would only help Hamas, a group both governments consider a terrorist organization. The death toll provided by the Ministry of Health, run by Hamas in Gaza, hasn’t been independently verified.
Israeli forces have pounded the densely populated Gaza enclave with airstrikes and an expanding ground operation in a campaign to wipe out the Hamas stronghold.
The White House announcement came shortly after French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday issued his own call for a cease-fire in the war, amid talk of a three-day pause in the fighting in exchange for the release of about a dozen hostages.
Mr. Macron made the remark in Paris during a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza.
“In the immediate term, we need to work on protecting civilians. To do that, we need a humanitarian pause very quickly and we must work towards a cease-fire,” Mr. Macron told conference delegates, according to Agence France-Presse.
With popular opinion in the region shifting against Israel as the Gaza death tolls mount, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told delegates in Paris that Israel is violating international law by exceeding what is necessary to ensure its self-defense.
“How many Palestinians must die for this war to stop?” Mr. Shoukry asked. “Is it enough to kill six children and four women every hour?”
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.