Israel has agreed to a daily four hour pause in the fighting in northern Gaza, the White House said as Palestinian Islamic Jihad published a video of two of the hostages it indicated it could be willing to release.
“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,” US National Security Council spokesperson John 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 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Kirby added.
The pauses would allow people to flee along two humanitarian corridors and were significant first steps, Kirby explained.
Biden on Thursday went further than Kirby on Tuesday, telling reporters he has asked for a three-day pause in Gaza, and a pause much longer than that to get hostages being held by Hamas out.
Four-hour pauses with three-hour notice
The US statements and the video release came after the CIA and Mossad chiefs met with the Qatari prime minister in Doha on Thursday to discuss the parameters of a deal for hostage releases and a pause in Hamas-Israel fighting in the Gaza Strip, a source briefed on the meeting told Reuters.
Qatar, where several Hamas political leaders are based, has been leading efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israeli officials for the release of hostages taken by Hamas militants when they rampaged into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people.
Israel then launched an unrelenting bombardment of Hamas-ruled Gaza and late last month launched an armored invasion of the enclave, where over 10,000 people have now been killed, 40% of them children, according to Hamas.
US officials have been increasingly clear that humanitarian pauses are linked to hostage releases, with reports on Wednesday of a potentially larger swap of 10 to possibly even 50 people for a three-day pause in the fighting.
The United Nations as well as many in the international community have called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, explaining that the death toll due to IDF aerial bombardments was disproportionate and unjustified.
The United States has backed Israel’s assertion that a ceasefire would harm its military operation to oust Hamas from Gaza. There is a growing disagreement between Washington and Jerusalem, however, over the issue of a “pause” in the fighting to allow for limited hostage releases.
Netanyahu has only wanted to consider limited pauses of an hour or hours, not days and only in targeted locations, so that the IDF could push forward in others.
The Prime Minister’s Office said on Thursday that the fighting continues and that there will be no ceasefire without the release of the hostages.
Israel has allowed a safe transit corridor from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south, noting that 50,000 Gazans traveled this route on Wednesday.
“We once again call on the civilian population in Gaza to evacuate to the south,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
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