Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted Thursday that there would be “no ceasefire” without the release of hostages held by Hamas.
“The fighting continues and there will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Israel is allowing safe passage corridors from the northern strip to its south, as 50,000 Gazans did just yesterday.”
“We call again upon the Gazan civilian population to evacuate to the south,” he said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Thursday that Hamas has not put forward viable proposals on any hostage release.
“Whilst there are many, many people who are third-parties or sending optimistic messages to the news reels, I’m saying outright, according to my knowledge, up to now, there is no real, substantial information that is showing any real offer of any process on the table,” Herzog told NBC News in an interview. “And that is unfortunate. And of course we are working — both on the military front and all other fronts — to bring them back home.”
The statements coincided with US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby saying Israel will begin to implement daily four-hour pauses of military operations in areas of northern Gaza.
Israel has already been opening hours-long evacuation corridors since Saturday. Israel on Thursday opened an evacuation corridor for six hours, allowing civilians to flee from northern Gaza south of Wadi Gaza.
CNN