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Egypt’s president says his country has proposed a two-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that would see the release of four hostages held in Gaza.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi said in Cairo on Sunday that the proposal also includes the release of some Palestinian prisoners and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip.
Egypt has been an important mediator along with Qatar and the United States. This is the first time the Egyptian president has publicly proposed such a plan.
There was no immediate response from Israel or Hamas.
El-Sisi said the proposal aims to “advance the situation.” He said once the two-day ceasefire takes effect, negotiations will continue to make it permanent.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Netanyahu on Tuesday as part of his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. Following Israel’s killing last week of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Blinken is seeking to revive efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza. Israeli forces besieged hospitals and shelters for displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday. The Israeli army razed a building in a Beirut suburb on Tuesday.
There has been no ceasefire since the week-long lull in fighting and the exchange of hostages and prisoners in November last year.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Mossad chief traveled to Doha on Sunday for talks with Qatar’s prime minister and CIA chief Bill Burns.
More airstrikes in Gaza
In northern Gaza on Sunday, Israeli strikes killed at least 22 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said, while Israel said it was targeting militants.
The Israeli offensive in the hard-hit and isolated north has entered its third week and aid agencies are calling it a humanitarian catastrophe.
According to Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom, a truck rammed into a bus stop near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, injuring 35 people. Israeli police described it as an attack and said the attacker was an Arab citizen of Israel. The ramming took place near the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
Iran’s supreme leader, meanwhile, said Israeli attacks on the country over the weekend “should not be exaggerated or downplayed” while stopping short of calling for retaliation, suggesting Iran is carefully weighing its response to the attack.
On Saturday, Israeli warplanes struck military targets in Iran in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old leader who would make the final decision on any response, said: “It is up to the authorities to determine how to transfer the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime and to take action.” that serve the interests of this nation and this country.”
The gun battles have raised fears of an all-out regional war pitting Israel and the United States against Iran and its militant allies, including Hamas and the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion after nearly attacking earlier this month. year of lower-level conflict.
Attack on people at bus stop
MDA released images of a large truck with a mostly empty bed that appeared to have crashed into a bus. The bus stop is not only near Mossad headquarters, but also near a central highway junction. The incident occurred as Israelis returned to work after a week-long vacation.
Asi Aharoni, a spokesperson for the Israeli police, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that the “attacker had been neutralized,” indicating that police were treating the incident as an attack. It is not clear whether the suspect has been arrested or murdered.
Aharoni said a truck had crashed into a bus and there were people waiting at the stop, and injured people were trapped under the vehicle. MDA director Eli Bin said six of the injured were in serious condition.
Palestinians have committed numerous stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks over the years. Tensions have soared since the outbreak of war in Gaza as Israel has carried out regular military attacks on the occupied West Bank, killing hundreds. Most appear to be militants killed in firefights with Israeli forces, but Palestinians taking part in violent protests and civilian bystanders have also been killed.
‘Horrible conditions’ in northern Gaza
The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency department said 11 women and two children were among the 22 people killed in attacks late Saturday on several homes and buildings in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. It said another 15 people were injured and the death toll could rise. It contained the names of the dead, most of whom came from three families.
The Israeli army said it carried out a precision strike on militants in a structure in Beit Lahiya and took steps to prevent harm to civilians. It disputed what it said were “media published figures”, without elaborating or providing evidence on its own account.
Israel has been waging a major air and ground offensive in northern Gaza since October 6, with Hamas militants said to have regrouped there. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled to Gaza City in the latest wave of displacement in the years-long war.
UNRWA, the UN Palestinian aid agency that provides health, education and social services in Gaza, said Israeli authorities are preventing humanitarian missions from reaching parts of northern Gaza, including the Jabalia refugee camp. Critical supplies, including medicine and food, were not reaching those in need, and the situation was especially catastrophic for children, said Alexandra Saieh, head of humanitarian policy and advocacy at Save the Children.
Israel says its attacks on Gaza target only militants, blaming Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants fight in densely populated areas. The military rarely comments on individual attacks, which often kill women and children.
Aid groups have warned of a catastrophic situation in northern Gaza, which was the first target of Israel’s ground offensive and has already suffered the worst destruction of the war. Israel is accused of severely restricting access to basic humanitarian aid in recent weeks, and the three remaining hospitals in the north – one of which was raided this weekend – say they have been overwhelmed by waves of injured people.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Saturday that continued Israeli evacuation orders and restrictions on the access of essential supplies to the north had left the civilian population in “horrendous conditions”.
“Many civilians are currently unable to move, trapped by fighting, destruction or physical constraints, and now lack access to even basic medical care,” the report said.
The war began when Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s border wall and stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack on October 7, 2023. According to Israeli officials, they killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250. There are still about 100 hostages in Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.
More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive, according to the local health ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in the count, but says more than half of the dead were women and children. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The offensive has devastated much of the impoverished coastal area and displaced about 90 percent of its 2.3 million residents, often several times. Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in squalid tent camps along the coast, and aid groups say hunger is rampant.
