GAZA, Dec 25 (BBC/AP/AFP): Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says an Israeli air strike killed at least 70 people in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of the strip. A spokesman said the death toll was likely to rise given the large number of families living in the area.
The Israeli military told the BBC it was looking into reports of the strike. It comes as Israeli and Arab media say Egypt, which borders the Gaza Strip, has put forward a new proposal for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Dozens of injured people were rushed from Maghazi to nearby Al-Aqsa Hospital with footage showing some children's faces covered in blood and body bags piled outside. The health ministry says three houses were hit in the attack late on Sunday.
According to ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra, a densely populated residential block was destroyed. A father said he had lost his daughter and grandchildren, adding that his family had fled from the north for safety in central Gaza.
"They lived on the third floor of one of the buildings," he said. "The wall collapsed on them. My grandchildren, my daughter, her husband - all gone. "We are all targeted. Civilians are targeted. There is no safe place. They told us to leave Gaza City - now we came to central Gaza to die."
The Palestine Red Crescent Society says "intense" Israeli air strikes have led to the closure of main roads between Maghazi and two other refugee camps, Al-Bureij and Al-Nuseirat, "hindering the work of ambulances and rescue teams".
In a statement to the BBC, the Israeli military said it had received "reports of an incident in the Maghazi camp".
"Despite the challenges posed by Hamas terrorists operating within civilian areas in Gaza, the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) is committed to international law including taking feasible steps to minimize harm to civilians," it added.
Egypt floats ambitious plan
to end Israel-Hamas war
Egypt has put forward an ambitious, initial proposal to end the Israel-Hamas war with a cease-fire, a phased hostage release and the creation of a Palestinian government of experts who would administer the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, a senior Egyptian official and a European diplomat said Monday.
The proposal, worked out with the Gulf nation of Qatar, has been presented to Israel, Hamas, the United States and European governments but still appeared preliminary.
It falls short of Israel's professed goal of outright crushing Hamas and would appear not to meet Israel's insistence on keeping military control over Gaza for an extended period after the war.
Israel's War Cabinet, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will meet later Monday discuss the hostage situation, among other topics, an Israeli official said, but would not say if they would discuss the Egyptian proposal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Word of the proposal comes after three bloody days across Gaza before Christmas Day in which Israeli airstrikes killed dozens of Palestinians at a time and 17 troops were killed in ground fighting in the north, center and south of the territory.
The war has devastated large parts of Gaza, killed more than 20,400 Palestinians and displaced almost all of the territory's 2.3 million people.
The mounting death toll among Israeli troops - 156 since the ground offensive began - could erode public support for the war, which was sparked when Hamas-led militants stormed communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 and taking 240 hostage.
UN agency reports loss of
142 employees in Gaza
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) reported the death of 142 of its staffers in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.
"Our teams are doing the impossible to help people in need. We mourn the loss of more UNRWA colleagues killed in Gaza, now 142, the majority with their families," the UN Palestinian refugee agency wrote on X (former Twitter).
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after Gaza Strip-based Hamas militants launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly.
Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities' aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City.
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