Imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his militant group Thursday to lay down its arms and dissolve as part of a new bid to end a four-decade long conflict with Turkey's government that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

In a message from his prison on an island off Istanbul, Ocalan said that the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, should hold a congress and decide to disband.

Negotiations between Israel and Hamas on the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire began Thursday, Egypt said, averting a collapse ahead of Saturday's expiration of the agreement's first phase.

Officials from Israel, Qatar and the United States started "intensive discussions" on the ceasefire's second phase in Cairo, Egypt's state information service said.

An investigation by the Israeli military has determined that Hamas was able to carry out the deadliest attack in Israeli history on Oct. 7, 2023, because the much more powerful Israeli army misjudged the militant group's intentions and underestimated its capabilities.

The findings, released Thursday, could pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a widely demanded broader inquiry to examine the political decision-making that preceded the attack, which triggered the war in Gaza.

An Arab Israeli man on Thursday rammed a vehicle into pedestrians in northern Israel before stabbing two soldiers, leaving 10 wounded before being killed by police.

The ramming attack took place at the Karkur junction south of the city of Haifa, police said in a statement.

Hamas said Thursday it was ready to negotiate the the next phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, after a swap in which it handed over what it said were the remains of four hostages in exchange for the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

It was the final such exchange the two sides agreed to as part of a truce that's set to end this weekend. Negotiations over a second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens of remaining hostages in exchange for more prisoners and a lasting ceasefire, have not yet begun.

Israel's refusal to withdraw from a narrow strip of desert on the Gaza side of the border with Egypt, as called for in the ceasefire with Hamas, could further threaten the fragile truce.

An Israeli official said Thursday that Israeli forces would remain in the so-called Philadelphi corridor to prevent weapons smuggling. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Palestinian medics say an infant has died from hypothermia in the Gaza Strip, the seventh such death in the last two weeks.

Dr. Munir al-Boursh, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said that Seela Abdel Qader, who was less than 2 months old, died Wednesday due to the latest “severe cold wave” that has hit the Palestinian enclave.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan accused Israel of “regional aggression” and “expansionism” following recent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his country would not allow Syria’s new army to enter areas south of Damascus.

Fidan on Wednesday also welcomed a national dialogue conference held by Syria’s new rulers who have promised an inclusive political transition.

An Israeli human rights group says Palestinian doctors from Gaza have faced systematic abuse in Israeli military detention, including starvation and medical neglect “amounting to torture.”

The report by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, released Wednesday, is based on interviews with 24 doctors who spent time in Israel’s network of military detention facilities.

Egypt on Wednesday rejected a proposal floated by Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid suggesting the Gaza Strip could be ruled and rebuilt by Egypt in exchange for debt relief.

In response to an Associated Press inquiry, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tamim Khalaf said any proposals that didn’t call for Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state “are rejected and unaccepted.”