Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza killed 21 more Palestinians, local health authorities confirmed Monday, while mediator Egypt floated a new truce proposal to de-escalate the weeklong aerial and ground offensive.
Health officials said Israel has killed nearly 700 Palestinians since it resumed attacks on Gaza last Tuesday, ending weeks of relative calm after a cease-fire in January. It said the deaths included at least 400 women and children.
Resistance group Hamas said several of its senior political and security officials had also been killed. Israel says it resumed its military operations to force Hamas to release the remaining hostages it is holding in Gaza.
It says it does its best to reduce harm to civilians and has questioned the death toll by health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave.
Israel’s Defense Minister claimed his country was fighting against Hamas and not Gaza civilians.
“But when Hamas fights in civilian dress, from civilian homes, and from behind civilians, it puts civilians in danger and they pay a horrible price. That is why we are urging Gazans to evacuate combat zones,” Katz said on X.
Hamas denies using the civilian population and property for military purposes.
In Rafah, the municipality said thousands of people were trapped inside the Tel al-Sultan area, where the Israeli military had sent some of its forces.
“Contacts with the neighborhood are cut off completely and the fate of (people) is unknown. Families are trapped among the ruins, with no water, no food, no medicine, amid a total collapse of healthcare services,” it said in a statement.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said 50,000 residents remained trapped in Rafah.
The Israeli military said troops had encircled Tel al-Sultan to dismantle “infrastructure sites and eliminate … in the area.”
Palestinian officials Sunday put the death toll from nearly 18 months of conflict at over 50,000.
Meanwhile, Egypt made a new proposal last week aimed at restoring the Gaza cease-fire deal, security sources told Reuters on Monday.
The proposal follows the escalation in violence last Tuesday, effectively ending the two months of relative calm.
The Egyptian plan suggests Hamas release five Israeli hostages each week, with Israel implementing the second phase of the cease-fire after the first week, the sources said.
Both the U.S. and Hamas agreed to the proposal, the security sources said, but Israel had not yet responded.
The sources said Egypt’s proposal also includes a timeline for the release of all hostages in exchange for a timeline for Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza, backed by U.S. guarantees.
Hamas has accused Israel of breaking the terms of the January cease-fire agreement but has said it is still willing to negotiate a cease-fire and was studying proposals from U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
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