Egypt Makes New Proposal to Restore Gaza Truce as Israeli Strikes Kill 65

Palestinians rush an injured girl away from the site of Israeli strikes on a makeshift displacement camp in central Gaza City on March 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Palestinians rush an injured girl away from the site of Israeli strikes on a makeshift displacement camp in central Gaza City on March 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TT
20

Egypt Makes New Proposal to Restore Gaza Truce as Israeli Strikes Kill 65

Palestinians rush an injured girl away from the site of Israeli strikes on a makeshift displacement camp in central Gaza City on March 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Palestinians rush an injured girl away from the site of Israeli strikes on a makeshift displacement camp in central Gaza City on March 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Egypt has floated a new proposal aimed at restoring the Gaza ceasefire deal, security sources told Reuters on Monday, as Palestinian health authorities said Israeli strikes had killed at least 65 people in the enclave in the previous 24 hours.

The proposal, made last week, follows an escalation in violence after Israel resumed air and ground operations against Hamas on March 18, ending a two-month period of relative calm after 15 months of war.

Gaza health officials said Israeli airstrikes and shelling have killed nearly 700 Palestinians since then, including at least 400 women and children.

Among those killed on Monday were two local journalists, Mohammad Mansour and Hussam Shabat, medics said. The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate said at least 206 journalists have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since early October 2023, when the conflict erupted. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

Hamas said several of its senior political and security officials had also been killed.

Later on Monday, the Israeli military said it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen before it crossed into Israel. Warning sirens had sounded in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other areas. Iran-aligned Houthi militias in Yemen have at times fired missiles at Israel in support of Hamas fighters.

The Egyptian plan calls for Hamas to release five Israeli hostages each week, with Israel implementing the second phase of the ceasefire after the first week, two security sources said.

Hamas is still holding 59 hostages, with 24 thought to be still alive, among the more than 250 it seized in its October 7, 2023 cross-border attack on Israel. Most of the rest have been freed, or their bodies handed over, in negotiated exchanges.

Both the US and Hamas have agreed to the proposal, the security sources said, but Israel has not yet responded.

A Hamas official did not confirm the proposed offer, but told Reuters that "several proposals are being discussed with the mediators to bridge the gap and to resume negotiations to reach common ground that would pave the way to start the second phase of the agreement".

TIMETABLE FOR WITHDRAWAL

The sources said the Egyptian proposal includes a timeline for a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza, backed by US guarantees, in exchange for the release of remaining hostages.

Hamas has accused Israel of breaking the terms of the January ceasefire agreement but has said it is willing to negotiate a renewed truce and was studying proposals from US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff.

Israel says it resumed its military operations to force Hamas to release the remaining hostages it is holding in Gaza.

On Monday, Hamas released a video it said showed hostages Elkana Bohbot, 35, and Yosef Haim-Ohana, 24, who were both abducted from the Nova music festival site on October 7.

Israel says it does its best to reduce harm to civilians and has questioned the death toll provided by health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave.

Palestinian officials on Sunday put the number of dead from nearly 18 months of conflict at over 50,000.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies.

In Gaza's southernmost city Rafah, the municipality said thousands of people were stuck inside the Tel Al-Sultan district where some Israeli military forces had entered, with families trapped among the ruins, with no water, food, or medicine.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said 50,000 residents remained cornered in Rafah, which abuts the border with Egypt.

The Israeli military said troops had encircled Tel Al-Sultan to dismantle "terror infrastructure sites and eliminate terrorists in the area".

A United Nations spokesperson said on Monday it would reduce its footprint in Gaza after five staff members of its Palestinian relief agency UNRWA were killed in the renewed conflict, but remains committed to providing aid to civilians.

Separately, UNRWA said 124,000 Palestinians have been displaced in Gaza in recent days.

"Families carry what little they have with no shelter, no safety, and nowhere left to go. The Israeli authorities have cut off all aid. Food is scarce and prices are soaring. This is a humanitarian catastrophe. The siege must end," UNRWA said on X. 



Pope Speaks Against Forced Mass Displacement of Gaza Civilians

Pope Leo XIV leads the Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 20, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Pope Leo XIV leads the Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 20, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
TT
20

Pope Speaks Against Forced Mass Displacement of Gaza Civilians

Pope Leo XIV leads the Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 20, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Pope Leo XIV leads the Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 20, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

Pope Leo, whose role in advocating for peace in Gaza has become notably stark since Israel struck the territory's only Catholic church last week, told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday that he opposed any forced displacement of Palestinians.

The Vatican said Abbas, who leads the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, had phoned the pope on Monday, three days after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called and expressed regret over the strike on Gaza's Holy Family church.

Israel has said the strike, which killed three people and wounded the church's parish priest, was a mistake, Reuters reported.

The small church in Gaza has been a focus of papal advocacy for peace throughout the war in the territory. Pope Leo's predecessor Pope Francis spoke to the parish nightly.

In Monday's conversation with Abbas, Leo condemned the "indiscriminate use of force" and any "forced mass displacement" of people in the Gaza Strip, the Vatican said.

Israel has said it wants Gazans to move to a special humanitarian zone in Gaza or leave the territory voluntarily. All mainstream Palestinian groups and neighbouring Arab states have rejected any plan that would displace them.

In emotional remarks on Sunday after his weekly Angelus prayer, Leo read out the names of those killed at the church in Gaza and called for an end to the "barbarity of war".