Egypt has proposed an initial two-day ceasefire in Gaza to exchange four Israeli hostages held by Hamas for some Palestinian prisoners, the Egyptian president said on Sunday as Israeli military strikes killed 45 Palestinians in the enclave.
Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made the announcement as efforts to defuse the devastating more than year-long war in Qatar resumed, with the participation of the directors of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.
Speaking alongside Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune at a press conference in Cairo, Sisi also said talks should resume within 10 days of the implementation of the temporary ceasefire in efforts to reach a permanent ceasefire .
There was no immediate comment from Israel or Hamas, but a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort told Reuters: “I expect Hamas would listen to the new offers, but it remains firm that any agreement must end the war and Israeli troops must be removed from Gaza. .”
Israel has said the war cannot end until Hamas is wiped out as a military force and governing entity in Gaza.
The US, Qatar and Egypt have taken the lead in negotiations to end the war that broke out after Hamas fighters entered southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing 1,200 people and more than 250, according to Israeli allies hostages were taken hostage.
The number of deaths from Israel’s air and ground attacks on Gaza is approaching 43,000, Gaza health officials say, as the densely populated enclave lies in ruins.
An official briefed on the talks told Reuters earlier on Sunday that negotiations in Doha will seek a short-lived ceasefire and the release of some hostages held by Hamas in return for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners .
The goal, which remains elusive after multiple mediation attempts, is to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a halt to fighting for less than a month in the hope that this would lead to a more permanent ceasefire .
At least 43 of the people killed in Gaza on Sunday were in the north of the enclave, where Israeli forces have returned to root out Hamas fighters who are believed to have regrouped there.
‘UNFORTUNATE’ CONDITIONS IN NORTHERN GAZA
The United Nations called the plight of Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza “unbearable” and the conflict was “conducted with little regard for the requirements of international humanitarian law.”
“The Secretary General (Antonio Guterres) is shocked by the dire numbers of deaths, injuries and destruction in the north, where civilians are trapped under rubble, the sick and injured live without life-saving healthcare, and families lack food and shelter. amid reports that families have been separated and many people have been arrested,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
Israeli authorities are hampering efforts to deliver food, medicine and other essential humanitarian goods, putting lives at risk, he said. The destruction and deprivation caused by Israeli military operations in the north made life there untenable.
Israel says its forces operate in accordance with international law. It says it targets Hamas operatives who hide among the civilian population and use them as human shields, a charge Hamas denies.
It denies that humanitarian aid to Gaza has been blocked, blames international organizations for problems in its distribution and accuses Hamas of stealing from aid convoys.
JABALIA IN FOCUS
Earlier on Sunday, 20 people were killed after an airstrike on homes in Jabalia, the largest of eight historic refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, which has been the focus of an Israeli military offensive for more than three weeks. according to WAFA.
Another Israeli airstrike on a school housing displaced Palestinian families in Gaza City’s Shati camp killed nine people and injured 20 others, many in critical condition, medics said.
Images circulating in Palestinian media that Reuters could not immediately verify showed people rushing to the bomb site to help evacuate victims. Bodies lay strewn on the ground, while some carried injured children in their arms before being loaded into a vehicle.
The Israeli military said it is investigating the report on the school attack.
Among those killed at the school in Shati were three local journalists: Saed Radwan, head of digital media at Hamas Al-Aqsa television, Hanin Baroud and Hamza Abu Selmeya, Hamas media said.
On Sunday, the Israeli army said it had killed more than 40 militants in the Jabalia area in the past 24 hours, dismantled infrastructure and located large amounts of military equipment.
Israeli military strikes on the towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza have killed about 800 people so far in a three-week offensive, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)