Israeli strikes kill 65 more Gazans as Egypt offers new ceasefire proposal
- 24 Mar 2025
Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip killed more than 60 Palestinians over the past day, including women and children, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday.
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.
In less than a week of air and ground operations since Israel broke the ceasefire with Hamas, its forces have killed hundreds of people in Gaza - sending the death toll from 17 months of war soaring above 50,000.
Meanwhile, officials say Egypt has introduced a new proposal to try and get the ceasefire back on track.
The proposal, made last week, follows an escalation in violence after Israel resumed air and ground operations against Hamas on March 18, effectively 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.
Hamas would release five living hostages, including an American-Israeli, in return for Israel allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza and a weekslong pause in the fighting, an Egyptian official said on Monday. Israel would also release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
A Hamas official said the group had "responded positively" to the proposal, without elaborating. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief media on the closed-door talks.
Teen dies in Israeli prison: Palestinian NGO
The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said on Monday that a teenage inmate died in an Israeli jail, decrying a spike in deaths in custody since the start of the Gaza war.
In a statement, the group announced the death of Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmad, 17, in Meggido prison in northern Israel under unknown circumstances.
Israel's Prison Service said in a statement that a 17-year-old prisoner had died on Sunday at the facility.
"His health condition is covered by medical confidentiality," the statement said.
One of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli custody, Ahmad was the 63rd Palestinian inmate to die in an Israeli jail since the October 2023 outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Prisoners Club.
The advocacy group said Ahmad, from the town of Silwad near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, was detained on September 30. It was not clear what led to his arrest.
The Prisoners Club said that a "growing number" of detainees have died in Israeli custody due to "systematic abuses" throughout the Gaza war.
"This period has been the deadliest in the history of the Palestinian prisoners' movement since 1967," it said, referring to the year Israel seized Palestinian territories including the West Bank in a war.
Rights groups including Israel's B'Tselem have documented numerous deaths of Palestinians in Israeli prisons during the Gaza war.
B'Tselem has also reported worsening detention conditions for Palestinians, including "systematic mistreatment" and "torture", which Israeli authorities have denied.
The Prisoners Club said in September there were at least 250 Palestinian minors in Israeli custody.
According to non-government group Defense for Children International Palestine, "each year approximately 500-700 Palestinian children, some as young as 12 years old, are detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system. The most common charge is stone-throwing."
Agencies
