Egypt, key mediator, proposes two-day ceasefire in Gaza

RAMAT HASHARON, Israel (AP) — Egypt’s president announced Sunday that his country proposed a two-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, during which four hostages held in Loop would be released. There was no immediate response from Israel or Hamas, as final talks were awaited in Qatar, another key mediator.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi He said the proposal includes the release of some Palestinian prisoners and the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged Gaza. Their goal is to “move the situation forward,” he said, adding that negotiations would continue to make the ceasefire permanent.

Talks aimed at achieving a longer, gradual ceasefire have repeatedly stalled. Hamas wants Israeli forces to leave Gaza as a precondition, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said they will remain until Hamas is destroyed. There has been no ceasefire since The week-long pause in fighting in November in the first weeks of the war.

The head of Israel’s Mossad was traveling to Doha on Sunday for talks with Qatar’s prime minister and the head of the CIA in the latest attempt to end the fighting and ease regional tensions that have built up since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 against southern Israel.

Those tensions now have Israel at war with both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon and openly attacking Iran, its sponsor, for the first time this weekend. Iran’s supreme leader said Sunday that Israel’s strikes – in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack this month – “should not be exaggerated or downplayed,” while without asking for retaliation.

During a government commemoration event for the Hebrew anniversary of the October 7 attack, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “not all objectives can be achieved through military operations alone,” adding that “painful compromises will be required.” to return the hostages.

At the same event, protesters interrupted Netanyahu’s speech shouting “Shame on you.” Many Israelis blame him for the security failures that led to the attack and hold him responsible for not yet bringing the hostages home.

Inside Gaza, the latest Israeli strikes in the north killed at least 33 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said, as an offensive on the isolated and hardest-hit area. entered a third week. The UN secretary general called the plight of Palestinians there “unbearable.” Israel said it attacked militants.

Netanyahu says attacks on Iran achieved Israel’s goals

Netanyahu in his first public comments on the attacks said that “we seriously damaged Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed at us.”

Satellite images showed damage to two secret Iranian military basesone linked to work on nuclear weapons that Western intelligence agencies and nuclear inspectors say was suspended in 2003. The other is linked to Iran’s ballistic missile program. Iran said a civilian had been killed, without giving details. He had previously said that four military air defense personnel 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.

The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Monday at the request of Iran. Switzerland, which holds the council’s rotating presidency, said Russia, China and Algeria, the council’s Arab representative, supported the request.

Iran’s most powerful proxy is Hezbollah, which has stepped up attacks on Israel in response to the Israeli ground invasion of southern Lebanon in recent weeks.

Two Israeli strikes killed eight people in Sidon, southern Lebanon, and wounded 25, 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 projectile fired from Lebanon wounded five people in Israel, authorities said.

Truck crash in Israel leaves dozens injured

A truck crashed into a bus stop in Ramat Hasharon, near Tel Aviv, killing one person and injuring more than 30. Israeli police said the attacker was an Arab citizen of Israel and had been “neutralized.” The attack occurred outside a military base and near the headquarters of the Israeli spy agency Mossad.

Hamas and the smaller militant group Islamic Jihad praised the attack but did not claim responsibility for it.

Tensions have soared since the war in Gaza began and Israel has carried out Regular military raids in the occupied West Bank that have left hundreds of dead.

‘Heartbreaking 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 Saturday night’s attacks in Beit Lahiya in the north. Israel’s military said it carried out an attack against militants.

Ministry official Hussein Mohesin said 11 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a school-turned-shelter in the Shati refugee camp in the north, and many were wounded. “The majority of the injured are children and women, and most of them are in very serious conditions,” he said. Israel’s military had no immediate comment.

Israel has waged a massive air and ground offensive in northern Gaza since early October, saying Hamas militants had regrouped there. Hundreds of people have died and tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled the last wave of displacement.

Aid groups have warned of a catastrophic situation. Israel has severely limited the entry of humanitarian aid in recent weeks, and the three remaining hospitals in the north say they have been overwhelmed. The UN secretary general observed “heartbreaking levels of death.”

The war began when militants led by Hamas stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023. They killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250. About 100 hostages remain in Gazaof whom around a third were believed dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, 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 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.