Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi introduced on Sunday a proposed two-day truce and restricted hostage change in Gaza geared toward securing “a whole ceasefire” after greater than a 12 months of conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The proposal consists of exchanging 4 Israeli hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and can be adopted by extra negotiations inside 10 days, Sisi stated at a information convention in Cairo.
He didn’t say whether or not the plan had been formally offered 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 combating a conflict towards Hezbollah in Lebanon and having simply launched air strikes on its main foe Iran.
The strikes on Saturday, the second time Israel has retaliated towards 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 residence, Iranian leaders performed down their significance, saying the strikes had triggered solely restricted injury.
President Masoud Pezeshkian informed his cupboard Iran didn’t need conflict however would ship “an applicable response”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, talking on the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas assault on October 7 final 12 months, stated 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 relations of victims of the Hamas assault within the crowd.
– ‘Painful concessions’ –
Israeli spy chief David Barnea was due in Qatar on Sunday for talks geared toward restarting negotiations in the direction of a hostage deal.
Households of the hostages have referred to 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 stated Sinwar had been a key impediment to a deal.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant stated “painful concessions” can be wanted in negotiations and that navy motion alone wouldn’t obtain the nation’s conflict goals.
Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants throughout the October 7 assault, 97 are nonetheless held in Gaza together with 34 the Israeli navy 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 individuals.
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 discuss of negotiations, Israel continued to struggle 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 throughout the day.
Lebanon’s well being ministry stated at the very least eight individuals had been killed close to Sidon, and three rescuers affiliated with a Hezbollah ally in a strike on a southern village.
The conflict has left at the very least 1,615 individuals useless in Lebanon since September 23, in response to an AFP tally primarily based on official figures, although the true quantity is more likely to be increased resulting from gaps within the information.
The Israeli navy stated early on Sunday it had killed 70 Hezbollah fighters and struck 120 targets, whereas dropping 5 of its personal troopers in combating, 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 navy stated it had killed one other 40 militants within the territory.
United Nations Secretary-Common 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 stated.
Talking in Cairo, Sisi warned of famine and stated it was “essential that support enters as quickly as attainable”.
Israel a number of weeks in the past started a significant operation within the north of Gaza, specifically round Jabalia and its neighbouring refugee camp.
Because the sweeping assault was ongoing, Gaza’s civil defence company stated on Sunday an Israeli strike on a faculty constructing sheltering displaced Palestinians killed at the very least 9 individuals. The Israeli navy stated it was trying 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 had been pulled from beneath the rubble in Jabalia camp.
“My darling Lulu, she was three and a half years outdated and Sama was 12 days outdated,” he stated, including that he’d already needed to bury his two-year-old Lara earlier within the conflict.
Israel launched the offensive in Gaza a 12 months in the past after Hamas’s October 7 assault that resulted within the deaths of 1,206 individuals, principally civilians, in response to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
A minimum of 42,924 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed within the Israeli offensive on Gaza, in response to figures from the Hamas-ruled territory’s well being ministry, which the UN considers dependable.
The conflict has since drawn in Iran-backed teams throughout the area, most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon, but in addition militias in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
burs-dc/dcp/ami
![[Yoo Choon-sik] Financial coverage confined by condo costs](https://i2.wp.com/res.heraldm.com/phpwas/restmb_idxmake.php?idx=640&simg=/content/image/2024/10/27/20241027050210_0.jpg&w=150&resize=150,150&ssl=1 "[Yoo Choon-sik] Financial coverage confined by condo costs")
