Israel agrees to four-hour pauses to let people flee Gaza: White House
World
Israelis agree to four-hour pauses to let people flee Gaza: White House
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has agreed to pause operations in northern Gaza for four hours a day from Thursday, the White House said, in the first sign of a respite in more than a month of fighting that has left thousands dead and stoked fears of a regional conflict.
The pauses would allow people to flee along two humanitarian corridors and were significant first steps, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.
"We've been told by the Israelis that there will be no military operations in these areas over the duration of the pause, and that this process is starting today," Kirby said.
The pauses, which would be announced three hours in advance, emerged out of discussions between U.S and Israeli officials in recent days, including talks U.S. President Joe Biden had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Kirby added.
Earlier, Israeli forces fought Hamas militants among ruined buildings in the north of the Gaza Strip, inching their way closer to two big hospitals as the plight of civilians in the besieged Palestinian territory worsened.
Thousands more Palestinians were fleeing from the embattled north to the south along a perilous frontline path littered with bodies after Israel told them to evacuate, people on the route said.
But many are staying in the north, packed into the Al Shifa Hospital and al-Quds Hospital as ground battles rage around them and more Israeli air strikes rain down from above.
Israel says its Hamas foes have command centres embedded in the hospitals.
In Doha, the heads of the CIA and Israel's Mossad intelligence agency met with the prime minister of Qatar to discuss a possible deal over hostages, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Qatar has served as a mediator with Hamas in the past.
In Paris, officials from about 80 countries and organisations were meeting to coordinate humanitarian aid to Gaza and find ways to help wounded civilians escape the siege, now in its second month.
"Without a ceasefire, lifting of siege and indiscriminate bombarding and warfare, the haemorrhage of human lives will continue," Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said before the White House announcement.
Israel and its main backer the United States say a full ceasefire would benefit Hamas.
Israel unleashed its assault on Gaza in response to a cross-border Hamas raid on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which gunmen killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
It was the single worst day of bloodshed in Israel's 75-year history and drew international condemnation of Hamas and sympathy and support for Israel.
But Israel's retaliation in the Hamas-ruled enclave has caused great concern as a humanitarian catastrophe has unfolded.
Palestinian officials said 10,812 Gaza residents had been killed as of Thursday, about 40% of them children, in air and artillery strikes while basic supplies are running out and areas laid waste by unrelenting Israeli bombardments.
Residents in Gaza City, a Hamas stronghold, said Israeli tanks were stationed around the area. Both sides reported inflicting heavy casualties on one another in intense street battles.
Israel, which has vowed to wipe out Hamas, says 33 of its soldiers have been killed in its ground operation as they advanced into the heart of Gaza City.
NOWHERE TO RUN TO
Thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge at Al Shifa hospital inside Gaza City despite Israel's orders to evacuate the area it has encircled. They are sheltering in tents in the hospital grounds and say they have nowhere else to go.
The UN humanitarian office OCHA said Israeli had again told residents of the north to move southwards, opening a four-hour corridor for the fifth consecutive day. About 50,000 people left the area on Wednesday, it said.
Clashes and shelling around the main road continued, the OCHA said, endangering evacuees. Corpses lay alongside the road, while most evacuees were moving on foot as the Israeli military had told them to leave vehicles, it said.
One resident, who asked not to be named, said he had crossed with his wife and six children including two adult daughters after having initially taken shelter in Gaza City from their home in Beit Hanoun close to the frontier with Israel.
"There are no taxis and you can only take a small amount with you. You have to hold your ID card in your hand and raise it as you go past the Israeli tanks and then walk several more kilometres searching for a lift," he said.
Huge numbers of displaced people from among Gaza's 2.3 million population are already crammed into schools, hospitals and other sites in the south.
Fighting close to Al Shifa would pose a challenge for Israeli forces, said Shalom Ben Hanan, a former top official in Israel's Shin Bet security service, given troops may need to evacuate civilians who ignored warnings to leave.
"They (Hamas) will shoot at us and will fight with us from the hospital," he told Reuters in Jerusalem. "We will pay a high price for it."
Although the fighting is concentrated in the north, southern areas have also come under regular attack.
In Khan Younis, Gaza's main southern city, residents picked through the rubble and twisted debris of a building destroyed by an Israeli air strike, hoping to find survivors, on Thursday morning, witnesses said.
CEASEFIRE CALLS
The conference in Paris, attended by Arab nations, Western powers, G20 members and NGO groups such as Doctors Without Borders, was discussing measures to alleviate the suffering in Gaza but without a pause in the fighting expectations are low.
President Emmanuel Macron, as he opened the conference, called for a humanitarian pause.
"The situation is serious and getting worse each day," he said.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, whose Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank but was driven out of Gaza by Hamas in 2007, was present at the conference. Israel was not invited.
"How many Palestinians must be killed for the war to stop," Shtayyeh asked. "Is killing 10,000 people in 30 days enough?"
The PA says the Gaza Strip is an integral part of what it envisions for a future Palestinian state. Israeli officials have said they do not intend to occupy Gaza after the war, but have yet to articulate how they might ensure security. Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005.
