Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he may be open to “little pauses” in his nation’s bombardment on the Gaza Strip.
Mr Netanyahu made the admission in an interview with US broadcaster ABC, adding there would be no general ceasefire in Gaza without the release of the estimated 240 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7th.
“Well, there’ll be no ceasefire, no general ceasefire in Gaza without the release of our hostages,” he said.
“As far as tactical little pauses – an hour here, an hour there – we’ve had them before.
“I suppose we’ll check the circumstances, in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods, to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages, to leave.”
Lulls in the fighting are being sought to facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries.
Over 450 trucks carrying aid have been allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt since October 21, but humanitarian workers say the support is far short of mounting needs.
Around 70 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have fled their homes since the war began.
In recent days, airstrikes have hit United Nations facilities where thousands were sheltering, as well as hospitals, which have been overwhelmed by wounded and running low on power and supplies.
Mobile phone and internet service also went down overnight — the third territory-wide outage since the start of the war — but was gradually restored on Monday.
The crossing was closed over the weekend because of a dispute among Israel, Egypt, and Hamas but reopened on Monday.
Seven Palestinian patients were evacuated to Egypt, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
