The Israeli military says it will undertake a daily 11-hour “tactical pause” in fighting along a route in southern Gaza to allow in more humanitarian aid but reiterated its offensive in Rafah will carry on.
The pause began Saturday and will occur every day from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. along a roughly 7.5-mile route in Rafah to allow trucks to travel through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, the main entry point for aid to southern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of refugees remain, the Israel Defense Force said.
The 11-hour pauses are significantly longer than the previous ones implemented by the IDF during the war and done to reduce the need for coordinating aid deliveries.
The Israeli military has also secured a route from the crossing to Al Bayuk and the European Hospital in Khan Younis, which will be opened during the pause and restricted to aid trucks only.
The Kerem Shalom Crossing has suffered a bottleneck since Israel’s offensive in Rafah began in early May, with Hamas and the IDF clashing repeatedly along the route.
“This is an additional step in the humanitarian aid efforts that have been conducted by the IDF and COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories) since the beginning of the war,” the IDF said in a statement.
The IDF said the “tactical pause,” which begins as Muslims start marking their major Eid Al-Adha holiday, came after discussions with the United Nations and international aid agencies.
But shortly after announcing the pause, the IDF made it clear that the initiative would not undermine its ongoing battle against Hamas in Rafah, southern Gaza’s most populous city where the terror group’s remaining strongholds are believed to be located.
“The fighting in Rafah continues,” the Israeli military said.
The clarification came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the decision, with the Jewish leader allegedly butting heads with his military chiefs at a war cabinet meeting Sunday, according to local Channel 13.
“We have a country with an army, not an army with a country,” Netanyahu reportedly said during the meeting. “In order to achieve the elimination of Hamas, I have made decisions that aren’t always accepted by the military echelon.”
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir stood by Netanyahu’s comments and said that whoever came up with the idea for a pause is a “fool who should not continue to be in his position.”
The fighting in Rafah remains intense, with eight Israeli soldiers killed by an explosion Saturday in one of the deadliest single attacks on the IDF since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
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