RAMAT HASHARON, Israel (AP) — Egypt's president announced Sunday his country has proposed a two-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas during which four hostages held in Gaza would be freed. There was no immediate response from Israel or Hamas as the latest talks were expected in Qatar, another key mediator.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, speaking in Cairo, said the proposal also includes the release of some Palestinian prisoners and the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged Gaza. It aims to "move the situation forward," he said, adding that once the two-day cease-fire goes into effect, negotiations would continue to make it permanent.
This is the first time Egypt's president has publicly proposed such a plan. There hasn't been a cease-fire since November's weeklong pause in fighting in the earliest weeks of the war, in which 105 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel’s Mossad chief was traveling to Doha on Sunday for talks with the prime minister of Qatar and the CIA chief in the latest attempt to end the fighting and ease regional tensions that have built since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
Those tensions now see Israel at war with both Hamas in Gaza and with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and openly attacking Iran, their backer, for the first time this weekend. Iran's supreme leader on Sunday said the strikes — in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack earlier this month — "should not be exaggerated nor downplayed," while stopping short of calling for retaliation.
During a government memorial for the Hebrew anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “not every goal can be achieved through only military operations," adding that “painful compromises will be required” to return the hostages.
At the same event, protesters disrupted a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, shouting “Shame on you." Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for the failures that led to the’ attack and hold him responsible for not yet bringing home remaining hostages.
Inside Gaza, the latest Israeli strikes in the north killed at least 33 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said, as Israel's offensive in the hard-hit and isolated area entered a third week. The U.N. secretary-general called the plight of Palestinians there "unbearable." Israel said it targeted militants.
Netanyahu says strikes on Iran achieved Israel's goals
Netanyahu in his first public comments on the strikes said “we severely harmed Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed toward us.”
Satellite images showed damage to two secretive Iranian military bases, one linked to work on nuclear weapons that Western intelligence agencies and nuclear inspectors say was discontinued in 2003, and another linked to Iran's ballistic missile program. Iran on Sunday said a civilian had been killed, with no details. It earlier said four people with the military air defense were killed.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader, said “it is up to the authorities to determine how to convey the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime.” Khamenei would make any final decision on how Iran responds.
Iran's most powerful proxy is Hezbollah, which has stepped up firing on Israel in response to Israel's ground invasion in southern Lebanon in recent weeks.
Two Israeli strikes killed eight people in Sidon in southern Lebanon, with 25 wounded, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
The Israeli military said four soldiers, including a military rabbi, were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, without providing details. An explosive drone and a projectile fired from Lebanon wounded five people in Israel, authorities said.
Truck ramming in Israel wounds dozens
In a separate development, a truck rammed into a bus stop in Ramat Hasharon near Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding more than 30. Israeli police said the attacker was an Arab citizen of Israel. The ramming occurred outside a military base and near the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
Asi Aharoni, a police spokesperson, told reporters the attacker had been “neutralized,” without saying if the assailant was dead. Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group praised the attack but did not claim it.
Tensions have soared since the war in Gaza began, and Israel has carried out regular military raids into the occupied West Bank that have left hundreds dead.
‘Harrowing levels of death’ in northern Gaza
The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service said 11 women and two children were among the 22 killed in strikes late Saturday on homes and buildings in Beit Lahiya in the north. The Israeli military said it carried out a strike on militants.
Ministry official Hussein Mohesin said 11 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Shati refugee camp in the north, with many injured. “Most of the injuries are children and women, and most of them are in very serious condition," he said. Israel's army did not immediately comment. Israel has struck a number of such shelters, saying it targets militants hiding among civilians.
Israel has waged a massive air and ground offensive in northern Gaza since early October, saying Hamas militants have regrouped there. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled in the latest wave of displacement.
Aid groups have warned of a catastrophic situation in the north. Israel has severely limited the entry of basic humanitarian aid in recent weeks, and the three remaining hospitals in the north say they have been overwhelmed. The U.N. secretary-general in a statement noted "harrowing levels of death."
The war began when Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel's border wall and stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023. They killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, around a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The offensive has devastated much of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, Magdy from Cairo and Krauss from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press reporters Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
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