Middle East: Egypt proposes two-day cease-fire in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Israel's attack on Iran "precise and powerful," saying it met all its objectives.

"The air force attacked throughout Iran. We hit hard Iran's defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed at us," Netanyahu said in a speech at a memorial event on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem for the victims of the Hamas massacre on October 7 last year.

He thanked the United States for "their close coordination and support."

Netanyahu said Israel is in an existential struggle against an "Axis of Evil" led by Iran. He asserted that Israel's enemies must pay a "very high price."

Iran, he said, attacked Israel with hundreds of ballistic missiles at the beginning of the month. "This attack failed," Netanyahu added.

An Israeli TV journalist has been severely criticized for helping soldiers to blow up a building in southern Lebanon.

The well-known journalist from the N12 television channel was embedded with ground troops on an operation.

The building, which had reportedly been used as a launch site against Israel, was set to be blown up in a controlled manner.

One of the soldiers handed the correspondent the detonator, who then pressed the trigger under their instructions.

 

He then said: "A house with an ammunition depot, in sight of Israel, has blown up — one less threat to the state of Israel."

Colleagues in Israel criticized his behavior on social media, with one calling it "a disgrace to the profession of journalism."

Another wrote: "His job is to report, not to blast. If you want to fight, you should put on a uniform."

President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran did "not seek war" but was ready to deliver "an appropriate response" to strikes by Israel that killed five people early Saturday.

"We do not seek war but we will defend the rights of our nation and country," Pezeshkian told a Cabinet meeting.

Pezeshkian blamed the soaring regional tensions on Israel's "aggression" and support for the country from the United States.

"If the aggressions of the Zionist regime and its crimes continue, the tensions will spread," the president warned.

Pezeshkian added that the United States had "promised to end the war in return for our restraint, but they did not keep their promise."

Egypt has proposed a two-day cease-fire in Gaza to allow an exchange of four Israeli hostages for some Palestinian prisoners, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said.

Speaking at a news conference in Cairo, Sissi said the cease-fire would see humanitarian aid enter Gaza.

Within 10 days of implementing the temporary cease-fire, talks should resume on attempts to reach a permanent truce.

Egypt has been a key mediator along with Qatar and the United States.

A new round of negotiations to pause the yearlong conflict resumed in Qatar on Sunday, with the directors of the CIA and Israel's Mossad intelligence agency taking part.

This is the first time that Egypt's president has publicly proposed such a plan.

There has been no immediate response from Israel or the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

A weeklong cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in November 2023 — which also involved an exchange of hostages for detained Palestinians — has been the only pause in the fighting so far.

Israeli strikes on northern Gaza on Sunday have killed at least 22 people, mostly women and children, the Associated Press news agency reported, citing Palestinian officials.

This comes as the Israelioperations in the hard-hit and isolated area continue.

The Reuters news agency said a strike on the Jabaliya refugee camp killed 20, citing the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Nine more people were killed in another strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinian families in Shati camp in Gaza City, medics told Reuters.

Speaking about the situation in northern Gaza, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "shocked by harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction." 

Guterres emphasized his call for an "immediate cease-fire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and accountability for crimes under international law."

"The plight of Palestinian civilians trapped in North Gaza is unbearable," said the secretary-general's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, who added that repeated efforts to deliver essential supplies "continue to be denied by the Israeli authorities, with few exceptions, putting countless lives in peril."

Israeli forces say they are operating in northern Gaza to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.

The latest offensive has led some observers to accuse Israeil of implementing a "surrender or starve" plan to push Hamas out of northern Gaza. 

Irancalled for an urgent United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting to condemn Israel’s airstrikes on the country this weekend.

In a letter to the UN chief and the head of the council, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi demanded "an urgent meeting of the UNSC to take a decisive position in condemning this aggression."

Araghchi added that, though most of the projectiles fired by Israel were intercepted, the attack led to damage at "the target points," as well as the death of four soldiers. 

Citing diplomats, the Reuters news agency reported that the Security Council is meeting on Monday to discuss Israel's attack in Iran.

Relatives of the October 7 attack victims interrupted a speech by -Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Israel’s official Hebrew commemoration date for the attacks. 

Calls such as "my father was killed" and "shame on you" were heard as Netanyahu stood in front of the crowd without saying a word.

About 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza over a year after the attacks. Netanyahu and his government have been facing pressure from the hostages' relatives and Israel's international allies to reach a truce.

Relatives have been holding large-scale protests to call for release of their loved ones, with some of them saying they think that Netanyahu does not want a deal.

One person was killed and dozens injured when a truck rammed a bus and a transit stop next to an Israeli army base near Tel Aviv on Sunday.

The ramming occurred near the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency..

"All investigative directions are being examined with an emphasis on the suspicion that this is a terror attack," the Reuters news agency cited the Israeli police as saying.

According to police, the truck driver steered the vehicle, which carried heavyweight baggage, into a group of people who stood at the bus stop. According to Magen David Adum (MDA), the Israeli emergency services, most of the injured were on the bus. 

Israeli media reported that the assailant was an Arab citizen of Israel. Police said he was shot dead by a nearby bystander.

Most of those injured by the ramming were elderly people who came to visit the nearby army base, MDA told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

At least eight people were killed and 25 wounded in an Israeli strike near the coastal city of Sidon in southern Lebanon, the LebaneseHealth Ministry said.

The strike hit a densely populated area, where many internally displaced people from areas further south had relocated, the French AFP news agency reported. The target was an apartment, which was destroyed, AFP added.

Earlier on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces issued a call for residents of 14 Lebanese villages to evacuate. But Harat Saida, which was hit in this strike, was not among them.

The directors of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad will meet Qatar’s prime minister in Doha on Sunday to begin negotiations for a short-term Gaza cease-fire and the release of some hostages by Hamas in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons, Reuters report.

The talks aim to get Israel and Islamist militant group Hamas to agree to a cease-fire in Gaza that would last less than a month, with the hope that it would lead to a more permanent agreement. 

As Israel commemorates the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack, the country’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said "painful concessions" were needed to secure the release of the hostages in Gaza. 

"Not all objectives can be reached through military operations alone," Gallant said.

The Israelimilitary said four soldiers have been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, with five others being severely wounded. 

According to Israeli media, the four were killed as a result of confronting Hezbollah militants in one of southern Lebanon’s Shiite villages.

The total number of Israeli soldiers killed in the October 7 terrorist attacks in 2023, and the wars that followed in Gaza and Lebanon, stands at 769.
 

IsraeliPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country’s attack on Iran"achieved all its objectives."

"The air force attacked throughout Iran. We severely harmed Iran's defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed at us," Netanyahu said in his first public comments on the strikes.

"We promised we would respond to the Iranian attack and on Saturday we struck," the Israeli leader added, referring to an earlier Iranian missile barrage targeting Israel.
 

Iran’s parliament convened for a meeting behind closed doors to discuss the country’s response to the Israeli airstrikes on key targets.

The Iranian parliament has limited influence, with the decision making being concentrated in the state leadership headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Speaking about the Israeli attack, Khamenei said it should "neither be downplayed nor exaggerated," without explicitly calling for a retaliation. 

According to Khamenei, Israel should be made to "understand the strength, will, and initiative of the Iranian nation and its youth," and that the decision on the country’s possible response should be made by the Iranian authorities.

At least 35 people were injured, some of them seriously, after a truck rammed into a bus and a nearby stop in central Israel, Israeli authorities say.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz said at least 10 of people were seriously injured in the attack.

The circumstances were not immediately clear, but Palestinians have carried out dozens of vehicle-ramming attacks over the years. Israeli police said they are investigating the incident.

The attack took place near the Glilot army base in the city of Ramat Hasharon, some ten kilometers (6.2 miles) to the north of Tel Aviv. 

ftm/wd (Reuters, AFP, AP)