Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi introduced on Sunday a proposed two-day truce and restricted hostage change in Gaza aimed toward securing “a whole ceasefire” after greater than a yr of warfare between Israel and Hamas.
The proposal contains exchanging 4 Israeli hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and can be adopted by extra negotiations inside 10 days, Sisi mentioned at a information convention in Cairo.
He didn’t say whether or not the plan had been formally introduced to both Israel or Hamas.
Egypt, alongside Qatar and the US, has for months been mediating oblique talks with little success.
Sisi’s intervention got here with Israel persevering with to pound the Palestinian territory whereas additionally preventing a warfare in opposition to Hezbollah in Lebanon and having simply launched air strikes on its main foe Iran.
The strikes on Saturday, the second time Israel has retaliated in opposition to Iranian ballistic missile assaults, triggered international requires restraint.
An emergency UN Safety Council assembly will happen on Monday at Iran’s request, with Tehran calling for it to sentence the strikes that killed 4 troopers.
At house, Iranian leaders performed down their significance, saying the strikes had brought on solely restricted harm.
President Masoud Pezeshkian informed his cupboard Iran didn’t need warfare however would ship “an acceptable response”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, talking on the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas assault on October 7 final yr, mentioned the assault on Iran “was exact and highly effective, attaining all of its targets”.
Israel launched the strikes in retaliation for an October 1 assault by Iran, which fired about 200 missiles at Israel.
There was public and diplomatic stress on Netanyahu to do extra to strike a deal to safe the discharge of the remaining captives held in Gaza.
His speech in Jerusalem was interrupted by shouting from family members of victims of the Hamas assault within the crowd.
‘Painful concessions’
Israeli spy chief David Barnea was due in Qatar on Sunday for talks aimed toward restarting negotiations in direction of a hostage deal.
Households of the hostages have known as on the Israeli authorities to dealer an settlement within the wake of the killing of Hamas’ chief Yahya Sinwar earlier this month.
Israeli and US officers in addition to some analysts mentioned Sinwar had been a key impediment to a deal.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant mentioned “painful concessions” can be wanted in negotiations and that army motion alone wouldn’t obtain the nation’s warfare goals.
Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants through the October 7 assault, 97 are nonetheless held in Gaza together with 34 the Israeli army says are useless.
In opposition to the already charged backdrop, a truck crashed right into a crowd of individuals at a bus cease in central Israel, killing one man and injuring greater than two dozen folks.
Police didn’t instantly say whether or not the incident, close to the Mossad spy company’s headquarters and different Israeli intelligence websites, was an assault or an accident.
Regardless of speak of negotiations, Israel continued to battle in Gaza and Lebanon.
There have been in a single day strikes in and round Beirut and a number of southern cities, with strikes persevering with through the day.
Lebanon’s well being ministry mentioned at the least eight folks have been killed close to Sidon, and three rescuers affiliated with a Hezbollah ally in a strike on a southern village.
The warfare has left at the least 1,615 folks useless in Lebanon since September 23, in line with an AFP tally based mostly on official figures, although the actual quantity is prone to be larger as a consequence of gaps within the knowledge.
The Israeli army mentioned early on Sunday it had killed 70 Hezbollah fighters and struck 120 targets, whereas dropping 5 of its personal troopers in preventing, taking to 37 the demise toll amongst troops for the reason that begin of floor operations in Lebanon late final month.
‘Gaza is insufferable’
Heavy bombing additionally continued in Gaza. The Israeli army mentioned it had killed one other 40 militants within the territory.
United Nations Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres expressed deep concern for the destiny of Gaza’s civilians.
“The plight of Palestinian civilians trapped in north Gaza is insufferable,” Guterres’s spokesman mentioned.
Talking in Cairo, Sisi warned of famine and mentioned it was “crucial that assist enters as quickly as potential”.
Israel a number of weeks in the past started a significant operation within the north of Gaza, particularly round Jabalia and its neighbouring refugee camp.
Because the sweeping assault was ongoing, Gaza’s civil defence company mentioned on Sunday an Israeli strike on a college constructing sheltering displaced Palestinians killed at the least 9 folks. The Israeli army mentioned it was wanting into the report.
On the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza Metropolis, Jihad Muqat mourned the demise of his spouse and two child daughters whose our bodies have been pulled from underneath the rubble in Jabalia camp.
“My darling Lulu, she was three and a half years previous and Sama was 12 days previous,” he mentioned, including that he’d already needed to bury his two-year-old Lara earlier within the warfare.
Israel launched the offensive in Gaza a yr in the past after Hamas’s October 7 assault that resulted within the deaths of 1,206 folks, largely civilians, in line with an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
No less than 42,924 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed within the Israeli offensive on Gaza, in line with figures from the Hamas-ruled territory’s well being ministry, which the UN considers dependable.
The warfare has since drawn in Iran-backed teams throughout the area, most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon, but in addition militias in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.