The leaders of France, Germany and Britain have endorsed calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, the return of scores of hostages held by Hamas and the “unfettered” delivery of humanitarian aid.
In a joint statement released Monday, they endorsed the latest push by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to broker an agreement to end the 10-month-old Israel-Hamas war.
The mediators have spent months trying to get the sides to agree to a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages captured in its Oct. 7 attack in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and Israel would withdraw from Gaza.
“The fighting must end now, and all hostages still detained by Hamas must be released. The people of Gaza need urgent and unfettered delivery and distribution of aid,” the statement said.
It was signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The statement also called on Iran and its allies to refrain from any retaliatory attacks that would further escalate regional tensions after the killing of two senior militants last month in Beirut and Tehran.
Here’s the latest:
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza says Israeli strikes over the past 48 hours have killed 142 people and wounded 150 others.
The fatalities announced on Monday bring the Palestinian death toll in Gaza to 39,897 since the start of the war, according to the ministry. It says over 92,000 people have been wounded.
The ministry does not say how many of the dead and wounded were combatants.
The Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records and its casualty figures from previous wars have largely matched up with those of independent experts, the United Nations and even Israel’s own figures.
The war began when Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7. Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 others.
Around 110 hostages are still being held in Gaza after most of the rest were released during a cease-fire in November. Israeli authorities believe around a third of the remaining hostages are dead.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A hospital in southern Gaza has received the bodies of 13 people, including a child, who were killed in apparent Israeli strikes on Khan Younis.
The strikes came as Israel has ordered mass evacuations from Gaza’s second-largest city in recent days, saying Palestinian militants are firing rockets from the area. Khan Younis suffered heavy destruction earlier this year during a major Israeli air and ground offensive.
An media journalist counted the bodies at the nearby Nasser Hospital and saw funeral prayers being held Monday morning.
The dead include a medic who was killed along with two others in a strike on his house, according to the hospital records.
The Israeli military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and accuses Hamas of putting them in danger by fighting in dense, residential areas. The army rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is calling on Iran to refrain “in every way” from fueling the Middle East conflict.
The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, appealed instead for Tehran to embrace dialogue, negotiation and peace, during a phone call Monday with Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.
