Israel will cease fire in Gaza for 4 hours every day to allow people to leave

Israel agreed to suspend operations in the northern Gaza Strip for four hours a day starting November 9. It was the first sign of a respite after more than a month of fighting that has killed thousands and raised fears of an escalating regional conflict. The publication told in more detail Reuters.

Photo: IStock

The suspension of operations will allow people to leave the sector through two humanitarian corridors, a critical first step in de-escalating the situation, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.

“The Israelis have informed us that there will be no military operations in these areas during the entire pause period, and that this process begins today,” Kirby assured.

He said the pauses, which will be announced three hours before the start of the operation, were made possible as a result of discussions held in recent days between US and Israeli officials, including talks between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Earlier, Israeli troops fought Hamas militants among destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip. Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing from north to south along dangerous front lines.

But many remain in the north, filling the hospitals of Al-Shifa and Al-Quds, while ground battles take place around them and more air strikes fall on them from above.

Israel claims the hospitals house command centers for Hamas opponents.

In Doha, leaders of the CIA and Israel's Mossad intelligence agency met with the Qatari prime minister to discuss a possible deal to free the hostages, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. Qatar has acted as a mediator in negotiations with Hamas in the past.

In Paris, officials from about 80 countries and organizations met to coordinate humanitarian aid to Gaza and find ways to help wounded civilians escape the siege, which is now in its second month.

“Without a ceasefire, lifting of the blockade, bombings and military action, the bloodshed will continue,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Israel and the US argue that a complete ceasefire would benefit Hamas.

Israel launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip in response to a Hamas raid on southern Israel on October 7 in which militants killed 1400 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages, according to Israeli estimates.

This day became the bloodiest in Israel's 75-year history and drew international condemnation of Hamas, as well as sympathy and support for Israel.

However, Israel's response in the Hamas-ruled enclave has raised grave concerns about the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe.

According to Palestinian authorities, as of November 9, air and artillery strikes killed 10 Gazans, about 812% of them children; Supplies are running low and areas are being destroyed by incessant bombing.

Residents of Gaza City, a Hamas stronghold, say Israeli tanks are stationed around the city. Both sides reportedly suffered heavy casualties during intense street fighting.

Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas, says 33 of its soldiers were killed in a ground operation to push into central Gaza City.

Nowhere to run

Thousands of Palestinians have taken refuge at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, despite Israeli orders to evacuate the encircled area. They are taking shelter in tents on the hospital grounds and say they have nowhere else to run.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said Israel had again ordered northern residents to move south.

“We saw decomposed bodies, people from civilian vehicles, civilians like us, not military vehicles or resistance fighters,” noted Khaled Abu Issa after his family crossed south into Wadi Gaza.

Another resident, who asked not to be named, said he crossed the border with his wife and six children.

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“You have to hold your ID card in your hand and, when passing Israeli tanks, pick it up, and then walk a few more kilometers in search of a ride,” he admitted.

The southern regions are also subject to regular attacks. On the morning of November 9, in Khan Yunis, the main southern city of the Gaza Strip, residents were clearing the rubble of a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in hopes of finding survivors, eyewitnesses said.

Tensions have also increased along other border lines. Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah said it fired rockets across the border into Israel, and the Israeli military responded with artillery fire.

Ten Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops during a raid on the city of Jenin and a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said it was conducting counter-terrorism raids.

An unidentified drone struck a civilian building in the southern Israeli port city of Eilat, causing only minor damage, the Israeli military said.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• October 7 Hamas attacked Israel: Netanyahu said "this is war."
• 8 October The Israeli government officially declared war and greenlighted "significant military steps" in response to the surprise attack by Hamas militants.
• October 11, first plane with American weapons arrived in southern Israel, and the US government invited American citizens wishing to leave Israel evacuation flights. On October 14 it became known: Egypt, Israel and the United States agreed that foreigners living in the Gaza Strip, will be able to travel through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
• October 16 President US Joe Biden said Israeli occupation Gaza Strip would be a big mistake.
• Hossein Amir-Abdallahian, Iranian Foreign Minister, October 18 posted a tweet where he wrote that Israel’s time is “running out”. This happened after a rocket attack on a hospital in Gaza took place on October 17.
• 18 October US President Joe Biden visited Israelto express strong support for a country that has declared war on the Palestinian group Hamas due to its brutal terror.
• 19 October US President Joe Biden addressed the Americans from the Oval Office with a speech about the wars between Israel and Hamas, as well as Russia and Ukraine.
• October 24 Hamas released two hostages: about what one of them said.
• On October 24, at a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the situation in the Middle East is becoming more dire by the hour and called on all parties to respect and protect civilians. Israel reacted angrily to comments by the UN Secretary General.
• Israeli troops and tanks conducted a raid in the Gaza Strip on the night of October 26. The military said it carried out several strikes on terrorist targets to “prepare the battlefield” ahead of a major ground operation.
• 27 October two Egyptian cities on the Red Sea were bombed – six people were injured. The aggressor has again demonstrated the danger of the conflict between Israel and Gaza spreading throughout the region. In the same day representatives of Iran and Hamas met in Moscow to talk about Israel.
• On November 1, hundreds of foreign passport holders and wounded people trapped in the Gaza Strip began to leave the war-torn territory. For them, for the first time since the Hamas attacks on Israel, Rafah, the border crossing with Egypt, opened.

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