Israeli airstrikes killed at least 38 Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday, hospital officials said, as new details emerged about a ceasefire proposal being discussed by mediators and Israeli negotiators headed to Qatar, according to AP.
The proposal, described by people familiar with the talks, outlined a 60-day ceasefire in which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and 18 dead hostages while Israeli forces pulled back to a buffer zone along Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt. The plan also called for significant aid deliveries distributed by United Nations agencies and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
AP reported that the document did not guarantee a permanent end to the war, but said negotiations on that issue would continue during the 60-day truce. During that period, the document said, President Donald Trump would guarantee Israel's adherence to stopping military operations and would personally announce the agreement.
The day of diplomacy did not stop the violence on the ground. In Gaza City, strikes on two houses killed 20 Palestinians and wounded 25 others, according to Mohammed Abu Selmia, director of Shifa Hospital. In southern Gaza, strikes in Muwasi killed 18 more people, according to officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
The AP report said the Israeli military said it had struck Hamas fighters in the Gaza City area and later reported hitting 130 targets across Gaza in the previous 24 hours. Israel's military had no immediate comment on the southern strikes, while Netanyahu's office said Hamas was seeking unacceptable changes to the ceasefire proposal.
The broader war context remains unchanged: Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, most of whom have been released in earlier truces. Israel's campaign in Gaza has since killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which the U.N. and other international organizations treat as the most reliable casualty source available from the territory.
What gives this report its weight is the collision between the diplomatic track and the battlefield track. On the same day Israeli strikes killed dozens in Gaza, negotiators were arguing over aid delivery, troop withdrawals and how to prevent a ceasefire from collapsing again.
The evidence packet does not settle who will accept the proposal or whether the terms will hold. But it does show the outlines of the next stage: a temporary truce built around hostage exchanges, aid flows and a promise of follow-up talks, all while the war continues to kill civilians in the territory.
For now, the confirmed facts are clear enough. Gaza's hospitals reported at least 38 dead from airstrikes on Sunday, and mediators had put a new ceasefire plan on the table that would trade captives, aid and military restraint for a short pause in the fighting.
