Kirby: "Now Is Not Time For A General Ceasefire"

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby has told reporters that now is not the time for a "general ceasefire."

• Kirby: "In terms of a ceasefire, our concern is that Hamas benefits... As I said yesterday, now if not the time for a general ceasefire. It is, however, the time to consider pauses in the fighting [to allow the delivery of humanitarian assistance]."
• Kirby: "We do believe that humanitarian pauses could be of value but there has to be credible support on both sides here for; where to do it, when to do it, for how long to do it, and for what purpose. We're continuing to work with partners in the region to see if that's possible."
• Kirby: "A humanitarian pause, every now and then, would be valuable for us if there was a serious effort to get hostages out."
• Kirby dismisses a report from a short time that Hamas will release hostages in the coming days: "That's the first I'm hearing that report. We'll have to see whether it pans out or not, obviously we want that to be the case."