Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause in the Gaza Strip for the sake of releasing hostages, President Yitzhak Herzog said, according to The Times of Israel, UNN reports.
I can reiterate the fact that Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian assistance to make the release of the hostages possible. The responsibility for this lies entirely with Sinwar and the Hamas leadership
A seven-day pause last month reportedly led to the release of about 105 hostages.
According to the President, Israel also agrees to allow additional humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
"The volume of humanitarian aid could be instantly tripled," he said, claiming that Israel checks hundreds of trucks daily at the Nitzan crossing, but that UN agencies and other partners on the ground cannot keep up, resulting in only 125 to 100 trucks entering per day.
"You can easily triple the number of trucks if the UN and its partners make the effort. The world needs to know that tens of thousands of tons more could be coming into Gaza a day," Herzog said.
According to The Times of Israel, the UN denied this claim, saying that Israeli bombing had made it very difficult to deliver aid safely.
Recall
Two Egyptian security sources said on Sunday that Israel and Hamas are ready to resume the ceasefire and release hostages, although disagreements remain over how this will be implemented.