Blinken presses Hamas to accept new proposal for Gaza cease-fire

JERUSALEM (AP) — The United States stepped up pressure for a cease-fire deal in Gaza on Monday as the secretary of state said a new proposal had been put to Hamas, whose officials were in Cairo talking to Egyptian mediators. Israeli airstrikes killed 26 people in the Gaza's southern town of Rafah, according to hospital records.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, ahead of a new visit to Israel this week, pressured Hamas to accept the latest proposal, calling it "extraordinarily generous" on the part of Israel.

Terms of the proposal were not made public, and it was not known if anything had changed on the main roadblock that U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators have repeatedly crashed against: the question of the extent of a cease-fire. During months of talks, meditators have often signaled major progress only to come out empty-handed.

Hamas demands that the release of all hostages bring a complete end to Israel's nearly seven-month assault in Gaza and a withdrawal of its troops from the devastated territory. Israel has offered only an extended pause, vowing to resume its offensive to destroy Hamas once the pause is over.

Israel says it plans to invade Rafah, Gaza's southernmost town where over 1 million Palestinians have sought shelter from fighting elsewhere. Its closest ally, the United States, and others have repeatedly warned against it, saying an offensive would cause a new surge in mass casualties in an offensive that has already killed more than 34,000 people.

Overnight and Monday morning, Israeli strikes flattened at least three homes where extended families of Palestinians were gathered, and the dead included nine women and six children, one of whom was just 5 days old, according to hospital records and an Associated Press reporter.

"Everyone was sleeping in their beds," said Mahmoud Abu Taha, whose cousin was killed with his wife and their year-old baby in one house where at least 10 died. "They have nothing to do with anything, all of them are girls and women."

Egypt has stepped up mediation efforts for a cease-fire deal in hopes of averting an Israeli ground assault on Rafah, which sits on Gaza's border with Egypt.