WASHINGTON, The White House welcomed Monday the success of the Qatari efforts to extend the humanitarian pause in the Gaza Strip for another two days.
“We welcomed the announcement just a little bit ago by Qatar that the humanitarian pause in Gaza now in its fourth day will be extended for another two days to Thursday morning,” said the Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House John Kirby in a statement.
He pointed out that the humanitarian pause has already brought a halt to the fight together with a surge in humanitarian assistance.
“We would of course hope to see the pause extended further, and that will depend upon Hamas continuing to release hostages,” he said.
The President has been deeply engaged on this process throughout the Thanksgiving weekend he spoke with the Amir of Qatar at a very critical moment to help resolve an impasse on the second day of the pause and then yesterday he spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu with a focus on working towards an extension of the pause.
The President was briefed this morning by the National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on the ongoing talks to extend the pause.
“He and his entire national security team will obviously stay engaged on this over the coming days as we work to implement this extension of the original agreement, as well as efforts to extend the pause even from there,” Kirby clarified.
Kirby updated reporters about the figures related to the truce.
“As of this morning of November 26 200 trucks were dispatched to the Rafah crossing, and 137 trucks of supplies were offloaded by the United Nations reception point in Gaza making it the biggest humanitarian convoy received since the seventh of October.
“This brings the total number of trucks of aid and assistance, including fuel to over 2000 Since the 21st of October, our team has prioritized getting this much needed relief into Gaza to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians there,” he unveiled.
He also disclosed that over 840 Americans and their families who have departed Gaza with the US team on the ground in Egypt.
Source: Kuwait News Agency
