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

chairman Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said the proposal included the release of Palestinian prisoners and the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged Gaza. It aims to “move the situation forward”, he said, adding that negotiations would continue to make the ceasefire permanent.

Talks seeking a longer, phased ceasefire have repeatedly stalled. Hamas wants Israeli forces out of Gaza as a precondition, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said they will stay until Hamas is destroyed. Since then there has been no ceasefire The week-long break in combat in November in the first weeks of the war.

Israel’s Mossad chief was in 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 October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

These tensions now see Israel at war with both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon and openly attacking Iran, their backer, for the first time this weekend. Iran’s supreme leader said on Sunday that Israel’s strikes – in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack this month – “should not be exaggerated or downplayed”, while stopping short of calling for revenge.

Flames and smoke rise from an Israeli air strike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday morning, Oct. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Hussein Malla

During a government memorial for the Hebrew anniversary of the October 7 attack, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said “not every objective 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, chanting “Shame on you.” Many Israelis blame him for the security failures that led to the attack and hold him responsible for not yet bringing 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 in the isolated and hard-hit area. entered a third week. The UN Secretary General described the plight of the Palestinians there as “unbearable”. Israel said it targeted the militants.

Netanyahu says strikes on Iran have achieved Israel’s goals

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

Satellite images showed damage two secret Iranian military basesone related to nuclear weapons work that Western intelligence agencies and nuclear inspectors say was halted in 2003. The other is related to Iran’s ballistic missile program. Iran said one civilian was killed, without giving details. Earlier, he said four people with the military air defense were killed.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader, said it was “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 Iran’s request. 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 fire on Israel in response to Israel’s ground invasion of southern Lebanon in recent weeks.

Two Israeli strikes killed eight people in Sidon, southern Lebanon, and wounded 25, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

The Israeli military said four soldiers, including a military rabbi, were killed in the fighting in southern Lebanon, without giving details. An explosive drone and a projectile fired from Lebanon injured five people in Israel, authorities said.

Truck crash in Israel injures dozens

A truck plowed into a bus station 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 strike took place outside a military base and near the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

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

Tensions have risen since the Gaza war began, and Israel has regular military raids in the occupied West Bank which left hundreds dead.

‘Appalling 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 strikes late Saturday in Beit Lahiya, in the north. The Israeli military said it had carried out a strike against the militants.

Ministry official Hussein Mohesin said 11 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a school-turned-shelter in the northern Shati refugee camp, with many injured. “Most of the injured are children and women, and most of them are in very serious condition,” he said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

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

Aid groups have warned of a catastrophic situation. Israel 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 noted “appalling levels of death”.

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

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says more than half of those killed 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 about 90 percent 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.

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