BEIRUT: Israeli forces launched deadly strikes on Lebanon and Gaza on Monday, pressing their offensive after Egypt’s president proposed a two-day truce in the Mideast war. There was no comment from either Israel or Hamas on the plan unveiled on Sunday by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, but Israeli media said spy chief David Barnea was in Qatar for renewed talks on a captives release deal. Iran, which has largely avoided a direct confrontation with arch-foe Israel, warned it would "respond firmly and effectively" to Israeli strikes on military sites over the weekend.
The Lebanese health ministry said at least seven people were killed when Israel struck the city centre. A journalist saw an entire apartment block collapsed into smouldering rubble. The ministry said at least 17 more people were wounded as rescue workers were racing to pull more survivors from the pancaked building. Hours later, the Israeli army issued a new warning to residents, telling them to leave ahead of another attack on Hezbollah targets there. Lebanon’s National News Agency subsequently reported "a series of strikes" on the city. Hezbollah said its fighters had attacked Israeli forces along the border with rockets and artillery.
In Gaza, where Israel's year-long military campaign has killed Hamas’s senior leadership while killing tens of thousands of people and triggering a humanitarian crisis, rescuers reported fresh strikes on Monday. The Palestinian Red Crescent said three people were killed in a drone attack on Gaza City, while the civil defence agency and a correspondent reported more air strikes and shelling in other areas of the territory’s north and centre. Many Palestinians have been displaced several times during the war, as the Israeli military’s focus shifts from one area to another.
The UN Security Council was set to meet at Iran’s request, with Tehran urging the world to condemn Saturday’s strikes which authorities said killed four soldiers and caused some damage. Iranian media said a civilian guard was also killed in the first direct action on Iranian soil that Israel has publicly confirmed.
In a bid to stop the war, Egypt’s Sisi proposed a two-day pause in Gaza and a limited captives and prisoner exchange, aimed at eventually securing an elusive "complete ceasefire" between Hamas and Israel. 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 least 43,020 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. — AFP
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