Key Gaza mediator Egypt proposed Sunday a two-day truce in the Palestinian territory and limited hostage exchange hopefully leading to a complete cease-fire.
The proposal made by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi includes exchanging four Israeli hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. More negotiations within 10 days would follow it, el-Sissi told a news conference in Cairo.
He did not say whether the plan had been formally presented to either Israel or Hamas.
El-Sissi’s intervention came as Israel continued its genocidal war on Gaza while also fighting a war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and having just launched airstrikes on Iran.
The strikes Saturday, the second time Israel has retaliated against Iranian ballistic missile attacks, triggered global calls for restraint.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been under pressure to secure the release of captives held in Gaza.
His speech at a Jerusalem memorial for Hamas’ Oct. 7 incursion that sparked the war, was interrupted by shouting from victims’ relatives.
‘Painful concessions’
Egypt, alongside Qatar and the United States, has for months been mediating indirect talks with little success.
Israeli spy chief David Barnea was due in Qatar on Sunday for talks aimed at restarting negotiations toward a hostage deal.
Families of the hostages have called on the Israeli government to broker an agreement in the wake of the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar earlier this month.
Among the key issues preventing a breakthrough in talks has been Israeli insistence on continuing to occupy Gaza contrary to Hamas’ demand of a full withdrawal.
Earlier Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant acknowledged “painful concessions” would be needed in negotiations, and that military action alone would not achieve the country’s war aims.
Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian resistance groups during the Oct. 7 incursion, 97 are still held in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
More than 100 were released during a one-week truce last November.
‘We are dying’
Israel has continued its heavy bombing of Gaza. An Israeli drone killed three people gathering on a street east of Gaza City, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Monday, while an Israeli missile strike killed a man near central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp.
Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep concern for the fate of Gaza’s civilians, weeks into a major Israeli operation in the territory’s north.
“The plight of Palestinian civilians trapped in north Gaza is unbearable,” Guterres’s spokesman said.
In Gaza, Bilal al-Hajri said people are “dying under a tight siege and famine”.
“None of us can leave home even to provide some food and drink,” the 25-year-old told AFP.
“Anyone who leaves is targeted.”
With the sweeping assault ongoing, an AFP journalist on Monday reported Israeli military vehicles firing heavily west of Jabalia camp.
Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, has killed at least 42,924 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
