White House Asked If Now’s The Time For Humanitarian Pause After Israeli Strikes Gaza Refugee Camp
On Tuesday, Admiral John Kirby was asked about the potential for a humanitarian pause in Gaza.
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00:00 John, Hamas is claiming that they will free some foreign hostages in the next few days.
00:05 Has the U.S. been alerted to this by any official channels?
00:08 Do you have received --
00:09 Look, so first I'm hearing that report.
00:10 We'll have to see whether it pans out or not.
00:13 Obviously, we want that to be the case.
00:14 And are you hearing anything about the crossing into Egypt opening tomorrow to allow some
00:19 injured Palestinians out?
00:21 I have not heard that report.
00:22 Okay, Dara.
00:24 Given the airstrikes on the refugee camps near Gaza City, would now be the time for
00:29 a humanitarian pause?
00:31 I know you've said that U.S. positions note ceasefire.
00:34 You don't support a ceasefire.
00:35 But would now be the time for a humanitarian pause?
00:39 Without getting into this specific moment that we're in right now or litigating this
00:43 from the White House podium, we do believe that humanitarian pauses could be of value.
00:48 But they have to be -- you have to have -- there has to be credible support on both sides
00:54 here for where to do it, when to do it, for how long to do it, and for what purpose.
00:59 And we're continuing to work with partners in the region, including those who have a
01:04 direct line of communication with Hamas, to see if that's possible.
01:08 The goal would be to get aid in, to maybe get people out that want to evacuate.
01:13 It also would be valuable -- a humanitarian pause every now and then would be valuable
01:17 for us if, in fact, there is a serious effort to get hostages out, because you'd need some
01:22 of pause of the fighting to be able to do that safely.