The President of Egypt says that his country has proposed a two-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas during which the four hostages held in Gaza will be released.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, speaking in Cairo on Sunday, said the proposal included 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 that the president of Egypt has publicly proposed this plan.
There was no immediate response from Israel or Hamas.
El-Sisi said the proposal aims to “move the situation forward.” He said that once work has started for two days, the negotiations will continue indefinitely.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on Tuesday with Netanyahu as part of his eleventh trip to the region since the Israeli-Hamas war broke out. After Israel killed last week Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Blinken is trying to revive efforts to stop the fighting in Gaza. Israeli forces besieged hospitals and shelters for the homeless in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday. Israeli forces demolished a building in a suburb of Beirut on Tuesday.
There has been no ceasefire since last November's break in fighting and hostage-taking and prisoner exchanges.
Meanwhile, the head of Israel's Mossad went to Doha on Sunday to discuss with the prime minister of Qatar and the head of the CIA, Bill Burns.
More airstrikes in Gaza
In northern Gaza on Sunday, Israeli strikes killed at least 22 people, most of them women and children, Palestinian officials said, and Israel said they were targeting terrorists.
Israel's offensive on the hard-hit and isolated northern enclave is now in its third week, and aid groups are calling it a humanitarian crisis.
In another incident, a truck rammed into a bus stop near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, injuring 35 people, according to Israel's rescue agency Magen David Adom. Israeli police described it as an attack and said the attacker was an Arab citizen of Israel. The incident took place near the headquarters of the Israeli spy agency Mossad.
Iran's top leader, meanwhile, said Israel's strikes on the country over the weekend “should not be exaggerated or downplayed,” while refraining from seeking revenge, suggesting Iran is carefully considering its response to the attack.
On Saturday, Israeli warplanes attacked areas targeted by Iran's military in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's 85-year-old leader who will make the final decision on any response, said “it is up to the authorities to decide how to transfer the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli government and take measures that serve the needs of this nation and the country.”
The exchange of fire has raised fears of a regional war between Israel and the United States and Iran and opposition groups, including Hamas and the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground offensive earlier this month after Israel attacked . a year of low-level conflict.
Attacks on people at the bus stop
The MDA has released images of a large truck with an empty bed that appears to have hit the bus. In addition to being close to the Mossad headquarters, the bus stop is near the entrance to the highway, and the incident happened when Israelis were returning to work after a week-long holiday.
Asi Aharoni, a spokesman for the Israeli police, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that “the attacker has not changed,” indicating that the police were treating the incident as an attack. It was not clear whether the suspect was arrested or killed.
Aharoni said that the truck hit the bus and people who were waiting at the bus stop, and he said that there were injured people who were stuck under the car. MDA Director Eli Bin said six of the injured are in critical condition.
Palestinians have carried out a number of stabbings, shootings and car attacks over the years. Tensions have been high since the war broke out in Gaza, as Israel has carried out repeated attacks on the West Bank, leaving hundreds dead. Most appear to have been soldiers killed in a shootout with Israeli forces, but Palestinians who took part in the violent protests and bystanders were also killed.
'Terrible conditions' in northern Gaza
Gaza Health Ministry emergency officials said 11 women and two children were among the 22 killed in Saturday's strikes on homes and other areas north of Gaza City, Beit Lahiya. It said 15 other people were injured and the death toll may rise. It lists the names of those killed, most of whom were from three families.
The Israeli army said it carried out a direct strike on terrorists in a building in Beit Lahiya and took measures to avoid harming civilians. It disputed what it said were “numbers published by the media,” without elaborating or providing evidence for its account.
Israel has been carrying out air and ground attacks in northern Gaza since October 6, claiming that Hamas militants have regrouped there. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled Gaza City in the latest displacement in the year-long war.
UNRWA, the UN aid agency for Palestine that provides health, education and social services in Gaza, said Israeli authorities are preventing humanitarian operations from reaching parts of northern Gaza, including the Jabalia refugee camp. Essential supplies, including medicine and food, were not reaching those in need, and the situation was particularly dire for children, according to Alexandra Saieh, head of humanitarian policy and advocacy at Save the Children.
Israel says its strikes in Gaza are aimed only at militants, and blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the forces are fighting in densely populated areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.
Aid groups have warned of a dire situation in northern Gaza, which was the first target of Israel's offensive and has been devastated by the war. Israel has been accused of drastically reducing the flow of basic aid in recent weeks, and the three remaining hospitals in the north – one of which was attacked at the weekend – are said to be overwhelmed by waves of injured people.
The International Committee of the Red Cross on Saturday said Israel's ongoing evacuation orders and restrictions on the entry of essential goods in the north have left citizens in “extremely dire conditions.”
“Many citizens are currently immobilized, trapped in fighting, destruction or physical oppression and now do not have access to even basic health care,” he said.
The war began when Hamas-led militants punched holes in Israel's border wall and stormed southern Israel in a surprise attack on October 7, 2023. They killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and captured about 250, according to officials. of Israel. Another 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel's retaliation has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the local Ministry of Health. The Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its statistics but says that more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 soldiers, without providing evidence.
The invasion devastated much of the impoverished coastline and displaced up to 90 percent of its 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people are huddled in filthy tent camps along the coast, and aid agencies say starvation is rife.
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