Key mediator Egypt proposes a 2-day Gaza cease-fire

(AP) — Egypt's president announced Sunday his country has proposed a two-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas during which four hostages held in Gaza would be freed.

There was no immediate response from Israel or Hamas as the latest talks were expected in Qatar, another key mediator.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said the proposal includes the release of some 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 cease-fire permanent.

Talks in pursuit of a longer, phased cease-fire have repeatedly stalled. Hamas wants Israeli forces out of Gaza as a precondition, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said they will remain until destroying Hamas. There hasn't been a cease-fire since November's weeklong pause in fighting in the earliest weeks of the war.

Israel's Mossad chief was travelling to Doha on Sunday for talks with Qatar's prime minister and the CIA chief in the latest attempt to end the fighting and ease regional tensions that have built since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.

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Those 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 on Sunday said Israel's strikes — in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack this month — “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” while stopping short of calling for retaliation.

During a government memorial for the Hebrew anniversary of the October 7 attack, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “not every goal can be achieved through only military operations," adding that “painful compromises will be required” to return the hostages.

At the same event, protesters disrupted 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 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 hard-hit and isolated area entered a third week. The UN secretary-general called the plight of Palestinians there “unbearable.” Israel said it targeted militants.

Netanyahu in his first public comments on the strikes said “we severely harmed Iran's defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed toward us.”

Satellite images showed damage to two secretive Iranian military bases, one linked to work on nuclear weapons that Western intelligence agencies and nuclear inspectors say was discontinued in 2003. The other is linked to Iran's ballistic missile program. Iran said a civilian had been killed, with no details. It earlier said four people with the military air defense 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 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 firing on Israel in response to Israel's ground invasion in southern Lebanon in recent weeks.

Two Israeli strikes killed eight people in Sidon in southern Lebanon, with 25 wounded, according to Lebanon's health ministry.