Top Israeli officials are debating a tentative deal to pause the devastating two-year war with Hamas while their military forces carries out more strikes in Gaza, including one that reportedly left more than three dozen people trapped beneath rubble. The new strikes hit as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Cabinet met to weigh the terms of the breakthrough proposal that emerged late Wednesday and could free the remaining hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The broader ceasefire plan advanced by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump included many unanswered questions, such as whether and how Hamas will disarm and who will govern Gaza.

Hamas says it has accepted a new proposal from Arab mediators for a ceasefire in Gaza that would still need Israel's approval. Israel indicates its positions haven't changed. Gaza's Health Ministry meanwhile says the Palestinian death toll has passed 62,000 from 22 months of war. Israel announced plans to reoccupy Gaza City and other heavily populated areas after ceasefire talks appeared to break down last month. Those plans have sparked international outrage and infuriated many Israelis who fear for the remaining hostages taken in the 2023 attack that sparked the war. A widened military offensive will worsen the humanitarian crisis.

A senior official with the U.N. health agency says the reconnected U.S.-built pier off the coast of the Gaza Strip cannot supply Palestinians with anywhere near the level of aid they need. Dr. Hanan Balkhy, head of the World Health Organization's Eastern Mediterranean region, made the remarks after the U.S. military began delivering aid through the floating pier again, after it was removed a second time because of rough seas. She told AP that the pier has supported a little bit of aid deliveries into Gaza but not to the scale that is needed by any stretch of the imagination. WHO says since Israel launched its ground operation into Rafah, aid delivery had declined by 67%.

Egypt says it has agreed to send U.N. humanitarian aid trucks through Israel's main crossing into Gaza. But it remains unclear if the aid will be able to enter the territory as fighting raged in the southern city of Rafah amid Israel's escalating offensive there. Israel's army says the bodies of three more hostages killed on Oct. 7 were recovered overnight from Gaza. The CIA chief met in Paris with Israeli and Qatari officials, trying to revive negotiations for a cease-fire and a hostage release.

The Pentagon says that humanitarian aid will soon begin flowing onto the Gaza shore through the new pier that was anchored to the beach overnight and will reach those in need almost immediately. Trucks will drive the aid into the Palestinian enclave, besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war. The United Nations, however, warns that fuel imports have all but stopped and this will make it extremely difficult to deliver the aid to the more than a million Palestinians in critical need of food and other supplies.