Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday 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.

A handout picture provided by the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on October 27, 2024, shows him addressing the crowd during a meeting in Tehran. – Khamenei said on October 27 that Israel’s attack on the Islamic republic “should neither be exaggerated nor minimised”, a day after Israeli warplanes struck military bases and missile sites in several Iranian provinces, killing two soldiers. (Photo by KHAMENEI.IR / AFP) / === RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / HO / KHAMENEI.IR” – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ===

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”.

A general view of Tehran after several explosions were heard in Tehran on October 26, 2024. – Israel announced the launch of “precise strikes” on military targets in Iran on October 26, 2024, in retaliation for attacks against it, as Iranian state media reported several explosions around the capital. Iranian state TV said October 26, 2024, “strong explosions” were heard around the capital Tehran, without specifying the cause of the blasts. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

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 per cent 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”.

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike targeting Beirut’s southern suburb of Shayah on October 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by AFP)

Netanyahu, speaking at a Jerusalem memorial for Hamas’s October 7 attack that sparked the war, was interrupted by shouting from victims’ relatives.

The premier has been under pressure to secure the release of captives held in Gaza.

– ‘Painful concessions’ –

Egypt, alongside Qatar and the United States, has been mediating indirect talks for months 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 Hamas’s insistence that Israel withdraw completely from Gaza, which Israeli officials have repeatedly rejected.

Smoke billlows from a building due to an Israeli airstrike a day earlier on the Sfeir neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs on October 23, 2024. – Israel ramped up its air strikes on what it says is Hezbollah strongholds around the country and sent in ground troops late last month, in a war that has killed at least 1,552 people since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures. (Photo by Ibrahim AMRO / AFP)

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 militants during the October 7 attack, 97 are still held in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

More than 100 were released during a one-week truce last November.

Against the already charged backdrop, a truck crashed into a crowd of people near a central Israel intelligence complex, killing one man and wounding more than two dozen people.

Israel continued to fight in Gaza and Lebanon, where strikes hit Beirut and multiple southern cities.

The Lebanese health ministry said at least 21 people were killed in Israeli strikes on south Lebanon on Sunday, including at least nine near Sidon city and seven — three of them rescuers — in the southern village of Ain Baal, closer to the Israeli border.

People inspect the debris a day after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburb of Jnah on October 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP)

The war has left at least 1,615 people dead in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally based on official figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.

The Israeli military said early on Sunday it had killed 70 Hezbollah fighters while losing five of its own soldiers, taking to 37 the death toll among troops since the start of ground operations in Lebanon late last month.

– ‘We are dying’ –

Heavy bombing also continued in Gaza. The Israeli military said it had killed another 40 militants in the territory.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep concern for the fate of Gaza’s civilians, weeks into a major Israeli operation in the territory’s north.

“The plight of Palestinian civilians trapped in north Gaza is unbearable,” Guterres’s spokesman said.

On the ground, resident Bilal al-Hajri said people are “dying under a tight siege and famine”.

“None of us can leave home even to provide some food and drink,” the 25-year-old told AFP.

“Anyone who leaves is targeted.”

People dance and wave Israeli national flags as they celebrate the news of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, in the Israeli costal city of Netanya, on October 17, 2024. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)

Speaking in Cairo, Sisi warned of famine and said it was “very important that aid enters as soon as possible”.

With the sweeping assault ongoing, Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Sunday an Israeli strike on a school building sheltering displaced Palestinians killed at least nine people. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.

Israel launched the offensive in Gaza a year ago after Hamas’s October 7 attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures which includes hostages killed in captivity.

A portrait of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah sits amidst debris at Beirut’s southern suburb Rouweiss neighbourhood on October 10, 2024, following overnight Israeli strikes. (Photo by AFP)

At least 42,924 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in the Israeli offensive on Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.

The war has since drawn in Iran-backed groups across the region, most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon, but also militias in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

AFP