Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected international calls for an immediate Gaza ceasefire, amid reports of a possible limited hostage release for a pause in the fighting of one to two days. “There will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu stated, adding that “everything else is false.”
He spoke as tensions rose between the United States and Israel over the conditions for a Qatari-led proposal for the release of some 10 to 15 hostages, in exchange for a humanitarian pause to the Gaza war, now in its second month.
The hostage talks have been coordinated with the United States, a source told Reuters, adding that the pause should allow Hamas to gather details of all civilian hostages and secure the release of dozens more.
“The exact number is still unclear at this stage,” said the source, who declined to be named.
A separate Egyptian security source also said a 24- to 48-hour ceasefire or limitation of the main zone of operations was expected within the next week in return for a release of hostages.
The US and other countries have stepped up pressure on Israel to get this done, the source said.
Biden says he urged Netanyahu to authorize a humanitarian pause
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he had urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to authorize a pause in fighting for humanitarian reasons.
Israel has considered brief humanitarian pauses in exchange for a limited hostage release. So far, four women have been freed in two separate releases. Israel is now under pressure to weigh a larger pause, or perhaps for a day or two, in exchange for the release of 10 to 15 captives, including some Americans.
US National Security Council advisor John Kirby told reporters in Washington that “the key focus right now is on hostage release” as he clarified that the Biden administration was operating under the assumption that the captives were still alive. He clarified, however, that there was no proof that this was so.
Israel has feared prolonged pauses could become a de-facto ceasefire. Such pauses also risk paralyzing the IDF military operation because they could be timed to halt successful advances.
Netanyahu has therefore preferred minimal pauses of an hour or two or an overall one-time exchange.
Kirby said, however, that the US considered that the hostages could be released through a series of humanitarian pauses.
“We want to stay open to the idea, that it might take more than one humanitarian pause to get them all out,” he said.
Kirby clarifies pause would be geographically limited
The pauses under discussion would be for fixed points in time and in a specific geographic zone, he said, explaining that they would not be global pauses for all of Gaza.
“That does not mean there won’t be or couldn’t be fighting outside that zone, in that same period of time,” Kirby said.
Hamas has said more than 10,600 Palestinians have been killed in war-related violence, and the United Nations has said 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip have been displaced due to the war. About 40% of the fatalities have been children, the terrorist group has said.
The UN said Gaza’s health system was close to collapse, battered by airstrikes, flooded with patients, and running out of medicines and fuel.
Israel has rejected all ceasefire calls until such time as Hamas releases all the hostages. It has also closed down its two crossings into Gaza for commercial and pedestrian traffic until the captives are freed.
Some limited aid has entered Gaza through the Egyptian crossing at Rafah, with Hamas then allowing foreign nationals who had been living in the enclave to leave.
Guterres says entry of aid has been 'too little and too late'
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said the trickle of humanitarian supplies that has been let in was “too little and too late.
“People are coming to our premises asking for water and bread,” he said during a public interview at a Reuters conference, adding that the situation in Gaza is catastrophic.
The UN is in intense negotiations with Egypt, Israel, and the US for an effective aid system, he said.
Guterres called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
The number of children killed in Gaza in the last month was higher than in any other global conflict, he added.
“There is something wrong in the way [Israel’s] military operation is being run,” Guterres said.
Blinken on Wednesday said while a pause was acceptable, a ceasefire cannot be on the table.
“Those calling for an immediate ceasefire [in Gaza] have an obligation to explain how to address the unacceptable result it would likely bring about,” he told reporters in Tokyo.
In that scenario, Hamas would be “left in place, with more than 200 hostages, with the capacity and stated intent to repeat October 7th – again and again and again,” Blinken said.
His statement referenced the more than 1,400 people who were killed and at least 239 hostages Hamas seized during its October 7 attack against southern Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
World leaders echo concern over ceasefire
Several leading world powers have backed the US and Israel in their concern over a ceasefire even as they would like to see a larger humanitarian pause of a day or two.
Foreign ministers of G7 countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US, met in Tokyo on Wednesday.
The G7 condemned the Hamas attack and called for a humanitarian pause to the Gaza war rather than insisting on a full ceasefire.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday said the allies of NATO support a pause to allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday told reporters he wanted a significant humanitarian pause in the Gaza conflict to allow for the release of all hostages. Ottawa had previously called for a series of halts in the fighting to allow aid into the enclave but had steered clear of advocating a longer pause.
At the House of Commons on Tuesday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said his country cared about the suffering of the Palestinian people and “abhorred” the Hamas use of them as “human shields.”
The UK is doubling its funding for humanitarian aid to Gaza and has consistently called for a humanitarian pass, but it opposes a “unilateral and unconditional ceasefire,” he said.
Such a step “would simply allow Hamas to entrench its position and continue its attacks against Israel” at a time when it is still calling to kill more Israeli civilians, Sunak said.