US President Joe Biden called for a “pause” in the war between Israel and Hamas so that the “prisoners” can leave the Gaza Strip. “I think we need a pause. A pause means giving prisoners time to get out,” Biden said Wednesday after being asked about the issue at an event.
The White House later explained that by “prisoners” Biden was referring to hostages kidnapped by the Palestinian radical Islamic organization Hamas. The White House has so far refused to talk about a ceasefire, saying such a ceasefire would only benefit Hamas. Instead, he called for “humanitarian pauses” to allow for aid deliveries or evacuations.
“A humanitarian ceasefire is long overdue,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on Wednesday after his first visit to the Gaza Strip since the start of the war. And the UN Human Rights Office also sharply criticized Israeli attacks on refugee camps in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. “Given the high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction (…), we are seriously concerned that these are disproportionate attacks that could constitute war crimes,” the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Twitter (X) . .
Israeli forces said Wednesday they killed another Hamas commander in their second attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in two days. Fighter jets attacked a Hamas command and control complex in Jabalia “based on accurate intelligence” and killed the head of the Islamist group’s anti-tank missile unit, Muhammad Asar.
According to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, 195 people were killed and 777 injured in the attacks. 120 people are still missing under the rubble. The numbers cannot be independently verified.
On Wednesday, Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt to people for the first time. It is the only border crossing into the Gaza Strip that is not controlled by Israel. More than 400 people have managed to leave the Gaza Strip so far, including 31 Austrians.
According to Israeli information, the radical Islamist Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, killed at least 1,400 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped at least 240 people in the Gaza Strip, in an unprecedented major attack against Israel on October 7 .
In response to the Hamas attack, Israel placed the Gaza Strip under constant fire and completely isolated the Palestinian territory. According to Hamas figures that cannot be independently verified, Israeli bombings have killed more than 8,796 Palestinians since October 7. 16 Israeli soldiers also died during military operations in the Gaza Strip.