At 10.30am in Washington, White House spokesman John Kirby announced what he was claiming to be a significant moment in the negotiations for a pause in fighting.
“We understand that Israel will begin to implement four-hour pauses in areas of northern Gaza each day, with an announcement to be made three hours beforehand and we have been told by the Israelis that there will be no military operations in these areas over the duration of the pause, and this process starting today.”
He specifically distinguished between the existing humanitarian windows which have been limited to certain Gazan roads over the past few days.
He went on to say: “The announcements today of these pauses do come after a lot of engagement by the president, personal engagement by the president, with the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and engagement at various other levels inside the administration.”
He added: “These decisions have come in the wake of an awful lot of engagement by the administration to try to make sure that humanitarian assistance could get in and people could get out safely.”
Within an hour, something slightly different from the Israeli government.
“The fighting continues and there will not be a ceasefire before the hostages are released,” a statement from the prime minister’s office said.
“Israel is allowing safe passages from the north of the Strip to the south, as 50,000 Gazans did yesterday. We again call to the civilian population in Gaza to turn south.”
Then the spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Forces in a briefing said: “I saw John Kirby’s comment a few hours ago. There is no ceasefire. I repeat, there’s no ceasefire.”
Referring to existing, very limited windows, Colonel Richard Hecht said: “These are tactical local pauses for humanitarian aid, which are limited in time and area.”
Pushed on whether the White House announcement represented a shift given that Admiral Kirby said it was new, starting today and that it was significant, Colonel Hecht said: “No, Mark, no shift. Again, if there’s a shift at the political level that directs us to do something differently, then we’ll do it.”
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