Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, said no to the idea of stopping the fighting with Hamas for a little while.
Netanyahu said during a TV speech that he will not agree to do that thing until Hamas lets go of the hostages they took during their attack on Israel on October 7th.
He spoke just after the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeated the request for short breaks in fighting to let more help reach Gaza.
Blinken mentioned that the specific plans for the breaks were being discussed and that Israel had valid concerns about how they would function.
But Netanyahu said that Israel will not agree to a short break from fighting unless our hostages are returned.
Formal ceasefires usually last a long time and let people talk. Humanitarian pauses can be very short, like a few hours.
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Netanyahu dismisses requests for a short-term truce
