The United States wants Palestinians displaced inside the Gaza Strip to be able to return to their homes when it is safe to do so, US officials said Thursday, as thousands fled an Israeli ground attack on the Hamas-controlled northern part of the strip. Reuters.

People cross the Gaza Strip into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, November 1, 2023Photo: Khaled Omar / Xinhua News / Profimedia

Israel has agreed to suspend military operations for four hours a day along two corridors that will allow civilians to flee to safety, Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said at a regular press briefing, adding that the development was a direct result of US diplomacy. officials.

The Israeli military has said that it does not agree to a ceasefire and will continue operations outside of local humanitarian pauses.

Patel said those fleeing their homes should be allowed to return, but said Washington had no control or jurisdiction over the affected areas.

“We do not support and do not wish, as a matter of fundamental principle, to see the displacement of the population of Gaza,” US special envoy for humanitarian affairs in the Middle East David Satterfield said at a previous conference.

“Those who are currently in the south should be given every opportunity to return to the north when it is safe to do so,” he said.

According to Israel, Hamas militants from Gaza crossed the border into Israel on October 7 and killed 1,400 people. Since then, more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli forces’ continuous shelling of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people, Palestinian health officials in Gaza say.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who has opened talks with Israeli and Arab leaders on a future for Gaza without Hamas, said on Wednesday that Gaza should not be re-occupied by Israel, besieged or taken from its territory, and should be governed by Palestinians under one authority with the occupied West coast.

“How to achieve these goals is an issue that will need to be discussed in the near term,” Satterfield said.

“Of course, a lot depends on how this campaign will end, whether Hamas will be eliminated as a threat, as a force capable of dictating to the people of Gaza. The goal is to prevent that from happening,” the official said.

On the same topic:

  • The Palestinian Authority says it can govern Gaza under the US-imposed two-state solution