GAZA/WASHINGTON - The White House said on Thursday that Israel agreed to pause military operations in parts of north Gaza for four hours a day, but there was no sign of a let-up in the fighting that has killed thousands and laid waste to the seaside enclave.

The pauses, which would allow people to flee along two humanitarian corridors and could be used for the release of hostages, were significant first steps, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested any pauses would be scattered, and there was no official confirmation of a plan for recurring breaks.

Asked if there would be a “stoppage” in fighting, Mr Netanyahu said on Fox News Channel: “No. The fighting continues against the Hamas enemy, the Hamas terrorists, but in specific locations for a given period of a few hours here or a few hours there, we want to facilitate the safe passage of civilians away from the zone of fight and we are doing that.”

But as night approached, there were no immediate reports of a lull in fighting raging among the ruined buildings in the north of the Gaza Strip.

There was also no direct confirmation from Israel, which spoke more generally of measures that appeared to correspond to arrangements already in place.

“We are undertaking localised and pinpoint measures to enable the exit of Palestinian civilians from Gaza City southwards, so that we do not harm them. These things do not detract from the war fighting,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said.

Israeli forces completely encircled Gaza City in recent days and the military has been allowing civilians safe passage along the main route south for three or four hours each day, with ever growing numbers of families opting to escape.

There would be no full ceasefire for now, Mr Gallant told reporters.

“We will not stop fighting as long as our hostages are in Gaza and as long as we have not completed our mission, which is toppling the Hamas regime and eliminating its military and governance capabilities,” he said.

Mr Taher Al-Nono, a political adviser to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, said on Thursday that unspecified negotiations were continuing, and no deal had been reached with Israel so far.

Israel unleashed its assault on Gaza in response to a cross-border Hamas raid on southern Israel on Oct 7 in which gunmen killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages.

It was the single worst day of bloodshed in Israel’s 75-year history and drew international condemnation of Hamas and sympathy and support for Israel.

But Israel’s retaliation in the Hamas-ruled enclave caused great concern as a humanitarian catastrophe unfolded.

Palestinian officials said 10,812 Gaza residents had been killed as at Thursday – about 40 per cent of them children – in air and artillery strikes, while basic supplies are running out and areas laid waste by unrelenting Israeli bombardments.

US President Joe Biden told reporters he had sought a longer pause than four hours.

“I’ve asked for a pause longer than three days,” he said as he left the White House.

Asked if he was frustrated with Mr Netanyahu, Mr Biden said: “It’s taken a little longer than I hoped.”

Earlier, a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the heads of the Central Intelligence Agency and Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency met with the Qatari Prime Minister in Doha on Thursday to discuss the parameters of a deal for hostage releases and a pause in Hamas-Israel fighting.

The displaced pack hospitals

In northern Gaza, Israeli forces fought Hamas militants and inched their way closer to two big hospitals as the plight of civilians in the besieged Palestinian territory worsened.

Thousands more Palestinians were fleeing from the embattled north to the south along a perilous front-line path littered with bodies after Israel told them to evacuate, people on the route said.

But many are staying in the north, packed into the Al Shifa Hospital and Al-Quds Hospital as ground battles rage around them and more Israeli air strikes rain down from above.

Israel says its Hamas foes have command centres embedded in the hospitals.

In Paris, officials from about 80 countries and organisations were meeting to coordinate humanitarian aid to Gaza and find ways to help wounded civilians escape the siege, now in its second month.

“Without a ceasefire, lifting of siege and indiscriminate bombarding and warfare, the haemorrhage of human lives will continue,” said Mr Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Israel and its main backer, the United States, say a full ceasefire would benefit Hamas.

Residents in Gaza City, a Hamas stronghold, said Israeli tanks were stationed around the area. Both sides reported inflicting heavy casualties on each other in intense street battles.

Israel, which has vowed to wipe out Hamas, says 33 of its soldiers have been killed in ground operation as they advanced into the heart of Gaza City.

Hamas has long vowed to destroy Israel.

Nowhere to run

Thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge at Al Shifa hospital inside Gaza City, despite Israel’s orders to evacuate the area it has encircled. They are sheltering in tents in the hospital grounds and say they have nowhere else to go.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israel had again told residents of the north to move south, and that shelling around the main road continued, endangering evacuees.

“We saw decomposed bodies, people from civilian cars, civilians like us, not military cars or resistance men,” Mr Khaled Abu Issa said, after crossing into the south with his family at Wadi Gaza.

Another resident, who asked not to be named, said he had crossed with his wife and six children. “You have to hold your ID card in your hand and raise it as you go past the Israeli tanks and then walk several more kilometres searching for a lift,” he said.

Southern areas have also come under regular attack. In Khan Younis, Gaza’s main southern city, residents picked through the rubble of a building destroyed by an Israeli air strike, hoping to find survivors, on Thursday morning, witnesses said.

Tensions have also soared on other fault lines. Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah said it fired missiles over the border into Israel, and Israel’s military said it responded with artillery fire.

Ten Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in a raid on Jenin city and refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Israel’s military said it was conducting counter-terrorism raids. REUTERS