From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Herzog: Israel ready for another truce in exchange for hostages, aid can be tripled
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
President Isaac Herzog tells a group of ambassadors from 80 countries that Israel is prepared for a second pause in the fighting in exchange for the release of more hostages.
The seven-day pause last month brought home some 105 hostages.
Herzog briefed the envoys on the war in Gaza, placing an emphasis on Israel’s humanitarian effort, his office says, urging international organizations to do more to facilitate the delivery of assistance to Gaza.
“The amount of humanitarian aid can be tripled instantaneously,” he claimed, asserting that Israel has been inspecting hundreds of trucks at its Nitzana Crossing each day but that UN agencies and other partners on the ground have failed to keep up, resulting in the entry of just 125 to 100 trucks a day.
The UN has pushed back against this claim, saying that Israeli bombing has made it very difficult to safely deliver the aid. The US argued that the bottleneck was due to Israel’s refusal to reopen its Kerem Shalom Crossing. It coaxed Israel into taking that step, and on Sunday nearly 200 trucks of aid entered Gaza for the first time since the truce.
“You can triple the amount of trucks easily if there was only an effort by the United Nations and its partners. The world has to know that you could have had tens of thousands of tons a day more going into Gaza,” Herzog says.
“The president noted that Israel was not in a war with the Palestinian people, but was fighting its enemy the terrorist organization Hamas,” the Israeli readout says.
““I can reiterate the fact that Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid in order to enable the release of hostages. And the responsibility lies fully with Sinwar and the leadership of Hamas,” Herzog tells the ambassadors.
