Egypt proposes initial two-day truce in Gaza with limited hostage-prisoner exchange

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.

Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made the announcement as efforts to defuse the devastating, more than year-long war resumed in Qatar with the directors of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency taking part.

Speaking alongside Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune during a press conference in Cairo, Sisi also said that talks should resume within ten days of implementing the temporary ceasefire in an effort 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.”

People walk past a wall displaying posters of hostages, in Tel Aviv, Israel, August 18, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/FLORION GOGA)

Continuous negotiations

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

The US, Qatar, and Egypt have been spearheading negotiations to end the war that erupted after Hamas terrorists stormed into southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.