Meanwhile, the US has its own interests in pushing its ally for the pause, said Sami Hamdi, the managing director at International Interest, a political risk firm focusing on the Middle East.

“The pause is designed to be a vehicle through which the US can continue to support Israel’s push to ethnically-cleanse the northern part of Gaza, but also be able to reframe and present that support to the raging global public as ‘humanitarian’,” Hamdi told Al Jazeera.

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