CAIRO, Egypt: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi proposed a two-day truce in Gaza and limited hostage exchange aimed at securing “a complete ceasefire” after more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas.
The proposal includes exchanging four Israeli hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and would be followed by more negotiations within 10 days, Sisi said at a news conference in Cairo.
He did not say whether the plan had been formally presented to either Israel or Hamas.
Sisi’s intervention came with Israel continuing to pound the Palestinian territory, while also fighting a war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and having just launched air strikes on its major foe Iran.
The strikes on Saturday, the second time Israel has retaliated against Iranian ballistic missile attacks, triggered global calls for restraint.
The UN Security Council will meet on Monday at Iran’s request, with Tehran calling for the body to condemn the strikes that killed four soldiers.
At home, Iranian leaders played down their importance, saying the strikes had caused only limited damage.
President Masoud Pezeshkian told his cabinet Iran did not want war but would deliver “an appropriate response”.
According to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Tehran had “received indications” hours before the attack. US news site Axios reported earlier that Israel had provided a warning so as to “prevent a wider escalation”.
With traders relieved that Israel’s strikes had avoided Iran’s energy infrastructure, oil prices tumbled Monday, falling as much as five percent before paring some of their losses.
Israel launched the strikes in retaliation for an October 1 missile attack by Iran, which was a response to the killings of Tehran-aligned militant leaders and an Iranian commander.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation “was precise and powerful, achieving all of its objectives”.
Netanyahu, speaking at a Jerusalem memorial for Hamas’s October 7 attack that sparked the war, was interrupted by shouting from victims’ relatives.
Israeli premier has been under pressure to secure the release of captives held in Gaza.
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 towards 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 Israel’s rejection of Hamas’s demand of complete withdrawal of troops from Gaza.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said “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 group during the October 7 attack, 97 still held in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
More than 100 were released during a one-week truce last November.
At least 42,924 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in the Israeli offensive on Gaza, according to figures from the Gaza’s health ministry, verified by the UN.
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