New Gaza ceasefire deal proposed amid heightening regional tensions

Egypt has proposed an initial two-day ceasefire in Gaza to exchange four Israeli hostages of Hamas for some Palestinian prisoners, Egypt's president said on Sunday as Israeli military strikes killed 45 Palestinians across the enclave.

Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi made the announcement as efforts to defuse the devastating, more than year-long conflict resumed in Qatar. Sisi also said that talks should resume within 10 days of implementing the temporary ceasefire in efforts to reach a permanent one.

There was no immediate comment from Israel or Hamas but a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort told Reuters: "I expect Hamas would listen to the new offers, but it remains determined that any agreement must end the war and get Israeli forces out of Gaza."

Israel has said the war cannot end until Hamas has been wiped out as a military force and governing entity in Gaza.

The death toll from Israel's retaliatory air and ground onslaught in Gaza is approaching 43,000, Gaza health officials say, with the densely populated enclave in ruins.

At least 43 of those killed in Gaza on Sunday were in the north of the enclave, where Israeli troops have returned to root out Hamas fighters who it says have regrouped there. Israeli military strikes on the towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza have so far killed around 800 people during a three-week offensive, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

The United Nations said in a statement that the plight of Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza was "unbearable" and the conflict was being "waged with little regard for the requirements of international humanitarian law."

In Lebanon, the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continues. Since September 23, the Israeli army has conducted intensive attacks on Lebanon in an escalation with Hezbollah. Earlier this month, Israel initiated a ground operation across its northern border into Lebanon.

The death toll from Israeli air strikes in Lebanon since October 8, 2023, reached 2,672, while injuries increased to 12,468, said the Lebanese Health Ministry on Sunday.

Also on Sunday, Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei said the Israeli attack on Iran should neither be exaggerated nor downplayed while addressing people in Tehran.

Khamenei said Israel "made a mistake" by attacking Iran. "They (Israelis) are, of course, exaggerating it (the attack). Their exaggeration is wrong, but we should know that it is also wrong to play it down. It is also wrong that we say it was nothing and failed to be important," he was quoted as saying in a statement published on his website.

Khamenei said the Israelis "are making miscalculations about Iranian people," failing to "accurately understand the Iranian people's power, capability, innovation and determination. We should make them understand these."

Khamenei also condemned Israel's "brutal war crimes" in Gaza, and governments and international organizations that failed to counter Israel's military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, calling on all governments, especially the Muslim ones, to stand against Israel.

The UN Security Council will meet on Monday to discuss Israel's attack on Iran, council president Switzerland said on Sunday.

(With input from agencies)