Israel rebuffs allies’ calls to ‘pause’ Gaza assault in first open disagreement
Gaza City during an Israeli strike on 27 October, as Israel carried out bombings of unprecedented intensity since the start of the war in the north of the Gaza Strip, particularly in Gaza City. Such a pause has now been backed by all its major allies, including the USA, EU, and UK.Israel is rejecting calls for respite in Gaza as its closest allies in the West have coalesced around the idea of"humanitarian pauses", or temporary stops to the bombardment.
The chorus of appeals for a pause followed days of intense diplomacy at UN headquarters in New York and in Brussels, and was a compromise between those, such as Spain, who wanted to push Israel to call a ceasefire, and those who say Israel's right to self defence was foremost. "I welcome the growing global consensus for a humanitarian pause in the conflict. I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving supplies at the scale needed," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement on Friday.
An average of 12 trucks a day have entered Gaza in recent days, down from 500 a day prior to the conflict, Guterres said on Friday. Earlier on Friday, a Hamas official said the group, which has freed four captives so far, intended to release civilian Israeli hostages but made this contingent on a ceasefire.Even among Israel's allies, there is no consensus on what is meant by a humanitarian pause.
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