Arab and International Pressures to Protect Civilians in Gaza and Increase Humanitarian Aid

The escalating Israeli attacks coincide with growing international protests calling for a "humanitarian truce" to allow aid to enter. An informed source told Reuters that negotiations mediated by Qatar between Israel and Hamas continued on Sunday and included discussions about the potential release of hostages. The source, who requested anonymity, indicated that Hamas seeks a five-day humanitarian truce from Israeli operations to permit the entry of aid and fuel into the besieged Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of all civilian hostages held by the group. The Israeli government states that more than half of the hostages held by Hamas hold foreign passports from 25 countries, including 54 Thai nationals. The United Nations Security Council is set to be briefed today, Monday, on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The Council has voted four times in the past two weeks unsuccessfully on draft resolutions intended to take action concerning the war, but the 193-member UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a call for an immediate humanitarian truce on Friday. The White House announced that U.S. President Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday to protect civilians in Gaza and to "immediately and significantly increase the flow of humanitarian aid" to the besieged territory. Separately, the White House stated that Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi pledged a significant acceleration in aid flow to Gaza starting Sunday. Colonel Elad Gorin from the Israeli Defense Ministry's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories unit, responsible for coordination with Palestinians, said that Israel would permit a significant increase in aid to Gaza in the coming days, adding that Palestinian civilians should head to a "humanitarian area" in the southern part of the territory. Medical authorities in Gaza, which has a population of 2.3 million, reported on Sunday that 8,005 people, including 3,324 minors, had been killed.