Israel is considering small pauses in the fight against Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday amid mounting international pressure to halt hostilities to let aid into the Gaza Strip.
“There’ll be no cease-fire, general cease-fire, in Gaza without the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu told American broadcaster ABC News.
“As far as tactical little pauses — an hour here, an hour there — we’ve had them before,” the prime minister added. “I suppose we’ll check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in; or our hostages, individual hostages to leave.”
Israel has been under growing diplomatic pressure to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, where it has launched a major offensive against Hamas in retaliation for the Palestinian militant group’s violent attacks, which killed more than 1,400 people on Israeli soil on October 7.
During its surprise incursion, Hamas also took more than 200 hostages who are currently being held in the Gaza Strip.
For the past three weeks, Israeli forces have besieged the Palestinian enclave in retaliation, limiting access to food, water and fuel to around 2.3 million people, while launching thousands of airstrikes and a ground offensive which has killed more than 10,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza.
Israel has so far resisted calls from Arab countries for an immediate cease-fire, while the United States — Israel’s staunchest ally — and the European Union have called for pauses in hostilities to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
