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The White House says Israel has agreed to daily four-hour humanitarian breaks in its attack on Hamas in northern Gaza to get hostages out. National Security spokesman John Kirby confirmed the windows will be announced three hours in advance and will begin today.
The move was announced as President Joe Biden said he had dim hopes for a long-term ceasefire in Gaza and that Israeli forces were engaged in a brutal street war with Hamas. Fighting has intensified in the 34 days since Hamas’ brutal attack on October 7, and tensions in the region have led to attacks on US forces by Iran-backed allies.
Biden also warned that he was prepared to order more airstrikes in the Middle East in retaliation for attacks on US forces. The president said he sent two F-15s to attack Iranian Revolutionary Guard weapons depots in Syria because “they hit us.” When asked about the “chances” of a ceasefire in Gaza outside the White House before a trip to Illinois, he said: “None. No possibility.’
He added that the US remains “optimistic” and that all hostages captured during the October 7 terrorist attack will be released. “We won’t stop until we get them out,” he said. The Biden administration says it has secured a second route for civilians to flee the fighting. Biden had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to impose the daily breaks during a Monday call.
Before boarding Air Force One for a flight to Illinois, he hinted that he was frustrated with Netanyahu because the break had lasted “a little longer than I had hoped.” Kirby said Israel has also agreed to open a second corridor for civilians to flee northern Gaza – along the territory’s coastal highway – in addition to the first corridor along the main north-south highway.
On Thursday, Israeli military officials claimed their forces had toppled one of the Palestinian militants’ “strongholds” after a grueling 10-hour battle. Hamas fighters, armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and assault rifles, fired on Israeli soldiers, backed by armored vehicles, in the ruins of the besieged area in the north. Broken palm trees, mangled road signs and twisted lampposts marked the remains of what was once the main road north of Gaza, as Israeli tanks and APCs moved south to enter Gaza City.
Meanwhile, an IDF unit claimed to have discovered a Hamas weapons factory next to a child’s bedroom in the city’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood. Images shared on the IDF’s official social media accounts showed heavily armed Israeli troops standing in a room with several small beds and pink wallpaper covered in rubble. Drone parts and missiles were seen in an adjacent room as soldiers combed the site.
Israeli flags can now be seen in northern Gaza, where there is little sign of human presence amid the destruction, with hundreds of thousands of residents fleeing the dire humanitarian situation. The total destruction is the result of more than a month of war sparked by the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, when gunmen from the Islamist group crossed the Gaza border into Israel and, according to Israeli officials, killed 1,400 people and about seized 240 hostages. the worst attack in the country’s history.
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