Health ministry in Gaza says war death toll at 34,488

The tally includes at least 34 deaths in the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 77,643 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war broke out when Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7.

A Hamas delegation was due Monday in Egypt, where it will respond to Israel's latest proposal for a long-sought truce in Gaza and hostage release after almost seven months of war.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate an agreement between Hamas and Israel for months, but a flurry of diplomacy in recent days appeared to suggest a new push towards halting the fighting.

 Talks “are taking place in Cairo today”, said Al Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian intelligence services, though it was not immediately clear whether the Hamas delegation had already arrived.

A senior Hamas official said on Sunday that the Palestinian group had no “major issues” with the most recent truce plan.

“The atmosphere is positive unless there are new Israeli obstacles,” the official told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss the negotiations.

A source with knowledge of the talks told AFP that Qatari mediators were also taking part in the negotiations in Cairo.

While Israel has pledged to pursue Hamas battalions in Rafah despite mounting global concern for Palestinian civilians sheltering in the southern Gaza Strip city, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the government may “suspend” the invasion if an agreement is reached.

A Hamas source close to the negotiations had told AFP the group is keen for an agreement that “guarantees a permanent ceasefire, the free return of displaced people, an acceptable deal for [prisoner-hostage] exchange and an end to the siege” in Gaza.

In Israel, protesters have demanded that the government secure the freedom of the 129 hostages estimated to remain in Gaza since being seized by the fighters on October 7, including 34 the military says are dead.

The war has brought besieged Gaza to the brink of famine, UN and humanitarian officials say, reduced much of the territory to rubble and raised fears of broader conflict.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Monday that

Hamas has been offered a 40-day ceasefire and the release of “potentially thousands” of Palestinian prisoners in return for freeing Israeli hostages. 

The Palestinian militant group has been given “a very generous offer of sustained 40 days ceasefire, the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners, in return for the release of these hostages”, Cameron told a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh.

“I hope Hamas do take this deal and frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes of the world should be on them today saying take that deal,” Cameron said, adding the proposal would lead to a “stop in the fighting that we all want to see so badly”.

The UK foreign minister said that for a “political horizon for a two-state solution”, with an independent Palestine co-existing with Israel, the “people responsible for October 7, the Hamas leadership, would have to leave Gaza and you’ve got to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza”.

“You’ve got to see a political future for the Palestinian people, but you’ve also crucially got to see security for Israel and those two things have to go together,” he added.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also told the World Economic Forum meeting that diplomacy has halted regional escalation since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, including after unprecedented open clashes between Iran and Israel earlier this month.

“We did come very close to an escalation or spread of the conflict, and I think because of very focused, very determined efforts, we’ve been able to avoid it,” Blinken told a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh.