Israel’s war on Hamas has entered its thirty-fourth day, a month after Hamas killed at least 1,400 Israelis and injured more than 3,300. In Gaza, the Health Ministry reported that more than 10,812 Palestinians have been killed. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas hold more than 242 soldiers and civilians as hostages, including foreign nationals.
Israel has agreed to daily four-hour military pauses in northern Gaza for humanitarian purposes, the White House said on Thursday, November 9, even as President Joe Biden said there was no chance of a full ceasefire.
Military Endeavors
Israeli and Hamas forces were locked in heavy close-quarters fighting in Gaza, with Israel saying a 10-hour battle had toppled a Hamas “stronghold.”
As the Israeli army pushed deeper into Gaza City, they engaged in intense fighting with Hamas in the Jabaliya refugee camp. Israeli forces also conducted rare daytime airstrikes in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, saying it targeted armed militants.
The Israelis stated that they have destroyed Hamas’ tunnels, anti-tank missile launch positions, a drone, and a weapons manufacturing site.
Two drone attacks targeted a military airport where troops of the US-led anti-jihadist coalition are based, authorities in the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan said.
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Diplomatic Push
Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal spearheaded a Hamas delegation to Egypt.
Egypt’s foreign minister said he rejects any attempt to displace Palestinians from Gaza.
Israeli and US spy chiefs were in Qatar for talks on “a potential humanitarian pause” to the war raging in Gaza, an official with knowledge of the visit said.
CIA director Bill Burns and David Barnea, head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, “are both visiting Doha for trilateral talks with the Qataris to work through the details of a potential humanitarian pause that would see the release of hostages and more aid entering Gaza,” the official told the media, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Meanwhile, Hamas said its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, arrived in Egypt for talks about the war.
Israel has agreed to implement four-hour humanitarian pauses in northern Gaza every day, with a preliminary three-hour advance warning, US National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby said.
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US President Joe Biden said there is currently “no possibility” of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, his French counterpart, President Emmanuel Macron, called for a suspension of hostilities as he opened a conference on aid for the besieged territory.
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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated that NATO allies support humanitarian pauses to allow aid to enter Gaza.
Belgium’s deputy prime minister called for sanctions against Israel and to investigate the bombings of hospitals and refugee camps.
Gaza Hostages
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it was ready to release two hostages for medical and humanitarian reasons. It followed with the release of a video of two Israelis they hold in Gaza, an elderly woman and a boy, seen praising their captors and criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Humanitarian Aid
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt reopened to allow the limited evacuation of wounded Palestinians and foreign passport holders, as well as the entry of aid trucks, a Palestinian official said.
A journalist on the Egyptian side confirmed the crossings had resumed, with men, women, and children leaving Gaza on foot while the wounded were taken to ambulances.
Thousands of Palestinians were fleeing the fighting in the north of the territory, walking south along roads with their possessions in their hands. The number of people moving south to escape the violence has increased as Israeli forces have squeezed Gaza City, with 50,000 leaving in the past day alone, the army said.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
