Israel pushed for large numbers of Gazans to be admitted to Egypt
The War Between Israel and the Gazans: Israel’s Defense and the Damnation of the Hamas Regime in the Middle East
Mr. Danon added that the idea would need the agreement of the Egyptian government, which controls Gaza’s southern border. Mr. Danon did not know if Israel had been trying to get foreign governments to back the plan.
If Israel takes control over parts or all of Gaza at the end of its military operations there will be a lot of uncertainty, thanks to Israel’s diplomatic push.
The Israeli military called on the residents of northern Gaza to leave the territory immediately after the Hamas attack on October 7. The Egyptian border is mostly sealed since the start of the war, but Israel did not suggest that Palestinians cross it.
Mr. el-Sisi said that Egypt’s complete rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians and their exodus to Egyptian lands in Sinai is nothing but the end of the Palestinian cause.
Danny Danon, a lawmaker from Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party and a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, said he supported evacuating Gazan civilians to give Israel more room to maneuver during its ground invasion of Gaza, and to move civilians out of harm’s way.
“We are trying to get the Israelis to take steps to minimize civilian casualties,” he said. We are working very hard to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza. I think that you will see in the days ahead that we can expand the assistance in a number of ways, so that more people who need it can get it, and that more people who need it can come out.
Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said that Israel doesn’t want a cease-fire because it hasn’t accomplished its stated goal.
Israel continues to strike Gaza from the air and on the ground, seeking to remove Hamas from power in response to its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which militants killed some 1,400 people and took another roughly 240 as hostages.
The United States wants a cease-fire in Gaza, not a humanitarian pause. What’s the difference? A rare joint statement by U.N. agencies
The heads of 18 United Nations agencies issued a rare joint statement repeating their calls for an immediate cease fire and the release of all hostages.
Enough is enough. The heads of the World Health Organization and some other people signed a letter that said this needs to stop now.
Thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C., for a protest demanding a cease-fire in the conflict with Israel. Others have taken place in New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco — as well as cities throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and Latin America.
In the U.S., several progressive House Democrats introduced a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, which roughly a dozen lawmakers have signed onto since mid-October. It was only last week, when Sen. Dick Durbin of Ill. became the first to call for one, that he realized it was only after all of the hostages are released.
The Israeli prime minister said in his televised address that he had told Blinken: “We are continuing full force, and that Israel refuses a temporary cease-fire that does not include the return of hostages.”
“This should be completely removed from the lexicon,” he said. We say this to our friends and enemies. We will simply continue until we defeat them. We don’t have an alternative.
Source: [The U.S. wants a humanitarian pause in Gaza](https://lostobject.org/2023/11/04/a-humanitarian-pause-in-gaza/), not a cease-fire. [What’s the difference?](https://www.npr.org/2023/11/06/1210992532/israel-hamas-cease-fire-humanitarian-pause)
U.S. and Israel are in the “precise practicalities” of humanitarian pauses: the Rafah crossing reopened on Oct. 21
A humanitarian pause is a temporary cessation of hostilities for humanitarian purposes in a specific geographical area.
According to reporters, Blinken stated that they had given Israel advice on how to minimize civilian deaths while still finding and finishing Hamas terrorists and their infrastructure of violence.
In recent days, top U.S. officials have asked the Israeli government to pause operations in certain areas of Gaza in order to facilitate the release of hostages and delivery of aid.
Just over 450 aid trucks had entered Gaza since the Rafah border crossing reopened on Oct. 21, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Sunday. The number of confirmed trucks crossing through is lower than it was before the conflict began.
Daalder says one is temporary, designed to achieve something on the ground. “The other is designed to be permanent and to end the military phase of the conflict.”
The US and Israel are both trying to answer important questions about how humanitarian pauses would work.
He said on Monday that the two countries are engaged “on the particular practicalities” of humanitarian pauses, and called those efforts — both to make progress on hostages and increase aid to Gaza — a work in progress.
The White House said Biden and Netanyahu spoke on Monday morning, including about the “possibility of tactical pauses to provide civilians with opportunities to safely depart from areas of ongoing fighting, to ensure assistance is reaching civilians in need, and to enable potential hostage releases.” It said the two agreed to speak again in the coming days.
