Egypt rejects proposal for it to run Gaza as 'unacceptable'

Egypt rejected on Wednesday an Israeli opposition leader's proposal that it take over the administration of Gaza, calling the idea "unacceptable" and contrary to longstanding Egyptian and Arab policy.

"Any notions or proposals that circumvent the constants of the Egyptian and Arab stance (on Gaza)... are rejected and unacceptable," the official MENA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Tamim Khallaf as saying, a day after Israel's Yair Lapid floated the idea.

In press remarks, Khallaf said any suggestions bypassing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state were "half-solutions" that risk prolonging the conflict rather than solving it.

He said the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, were integral parts of the Palestinian territories that must be under "full Palestinian sovereignty and management".

On Tuesday, Lapid said Egypt should run the Gaza Strip for at least eight years after the war is over, in exchange for massive debt relief.

Egypt has repeatedly rejected proposals for the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million Palestinian inhabitants to be relocated, calling such mass displacement a "red line".

It led diplomatic efforts this month against a plan floated by President Donald Trump for the Unmited States to "take over" and "own" the war-battered enclave after its inhabitants have been relocated to Egypt or Jordan.

The Israeli military said it conducted air strikes against several launch sites inside Gaza Wednesday after a projectile was fired from the Palestinian territory but fell short.

"Earlier today (Wednesday), a projectile launch that fell inside the Gaza Strip was identified. A short while ago, the (military) struck several launch posts in the area where the projectile was fired from," it said in a statement.

Israelis mourned the family that symbolised the trauma their country suffered in the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, as the Palestinian group agreed to free the last hostage bodies included in the initial phase of the Gaza ceasefire.

Hamas said the bodies of Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi and Shlomo Mantzur would be released on Wednesday night and added that a hospital in Gaza was preparing to receive Palestinian prisoners who would be released in exchange.

The resolution came on the same day as the funeral of the young Bibas family following the handover of the bodies of nine-month-old Kfir Bibas, his four-year-old brother Ariel and their mother Shiri last week.

The youngest hostages seized during the attack on Israel by gunmen from Hamas on October 7, 2023 were killed weeks after they were abducted into the Gaza Strip.

Hamas says the boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike but Israel says it has intelligence and forensic evidence that shows they were killed by their captors using their bare hands.

Thousands of people, some in tears, carrying blue and white Israeli flags or photographs of the family, walked in procession or waited as a convoy bearing the coffins passed on their way to the funeral. Many were carrying orange balloons, a new symbol of mourning for the hostages, matching the red hair of the two Bibas boys.

"It's still not really registering," said Tal Ben Shimon, a Tel Aviv resident who joined mourners at the open air space that has become known as Hostage Square for the regular rallies of hostage families and their supporters that have gathered there since the start of the Gaza war.

"They kind of represent all the families, the very young families, who were slaughtered on that day." Yarden Bibas, the father of the boys, who was captured separately from his family and released during an exchange of hostages and prisoners earlier this month, paid tribute in an emotional eulogy at their funeral.

"I hope you know I thought about you every day, every minute," he said in an address carried live on Israeli television.

For Israelis, the Bibas family has become an emblem of the trauma that has haunted their country since the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken back to Gaza as hostages.

Israel's air and ground war in Gaza in response has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians and destroyed most of the coastal enclave, but fighting has stopped since the fragile ceasefire agreement brokered by Egyptian and Qatari mediators last month.

Under the deal, Hamas agreed to hand over 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from some of their positions in Gaza as well as a massive influx of aid.

On Wednesday, Egyptian mediators confirmed they had secured a breakthrough that should allow the handover of the final four hostage bodies due in the first phase of the deal this week after a days-long impasse.

Hamas confirmed that an agreement had been reached for the exchange of hostages for prisoners, but said their release would be conducted under a new mechanism. It said the European Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza was preparing to receive prisoners after their release, which could come as early as Wednesday night.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government but an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that it looked like the release would be on Wednesday night but that Israel would not confirm the names until it had verified the identity of the bodies.

Israel had previously refused to release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Saturday after accusing Hamas of breaching the ceasefire deal by staging what it considered an offensive public handover of hostages in Gaza.

Agencies