Israel, opening for a new truce to release more hostages

Israel is ready for a further pause in fighting in exchange for the release of more hostages. Israeli President Isaac Herzog announced this while speaking to a group of ambassadors from 80 countries, according to the Times of Israel. “I can reiterate the fact that Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause and another humanitarian aid to allow the release of the hostages,” the Israeli president told the ambassadors, stressing that “the responsibility lies exclusively in the hands of Sinwar and the Hamas leadership.” Herzog also emphasized Israel’s humanitarian efforts, urging international organizations to do more to deliver aid to Gaza. “The amount of humanitarian aid can be tripled instantly,” he said, also stating that the Israelis were inspecting hundreds of trucks a day at the crossing of Nitzana, but the UN and other groups did not maintain the pace of shipments, leading only 100-125 trucks entering per day.: «We could easily triple the number of trucks if there was an effort on the part of the UN and its partners, the The world should know that we could have had tens of thousands of tons of additional aid for Gaza.”

The UN disputed these claims, saying that Israeli bombings had made the safe delivery of aid very difficult. The United States also explained that the slowdown in aid inflows was due to Israel’s refusal to reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing. What the Americans convinced the Israelis to do, so that on Sunday, for the first time since the beginning of the truce, 200 aid trucks entered Gaza. The statement from the Israeli presidency, which reported the meeting between Herzog and the ambassadors, concludes by stating that the “president stressed that Israel is not at war with the Palestinian people, but is fighting against its enemies, the terrorist organization Hamas”.