With Gaza facing a growing humanitarian catastrophe, mediators pushed on with efforts for a cease-fire Thursday, marked by Hamas leader's potential trip to Cairo.

The Qatar-based leader of the Palestinian resistance group Ismail Haniyeh was expected in the Egyptian capital on Thursday or Friday for talks on a proposed truce.

The group was reviewing a proposal for a six-week pause in its war with Israel, a Hamas source told AFP, after mediators gathered in Paris.

In Gaza, however, there was no let-up in Israeli attack or aerial bombardment, with the current focus of combat in Khan Younis, where Israel alleges top Hamas leaders were hiding.

Overnight, witnesses said several Israeli airstrikes hit the city, while aid and health workers have for days reported heavy fighting, particularly around two hospitals.

According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, 119 people were killed in the latest night of strikes.

"There is a massacre taking place right now," said Leo Cans of international aid group Doctors Without Borders.

Israel alleges Hamas of operating from tunnels under hospitals in Gaza and of using medical facilities as command centers, a charge denied by the resistance group.

Due to constraints on the delivery of humanitarian aid, the population is "starving to death," the World Health Organization's emergencies director, Michael Ryan, said Wednesday.

"The civilians of Gaza are not parties to this conflict and they should be protected, as should be their health facilities," he added.

In its latest update, the U.N. reported heavy bombardment across the Gaza Strip, particularly in Khan Younis, while it said 184,000 more Palestinians from the city had registered to receive humanitarian assistance after fleeing their homes in recent days.

Three-stage plan

As Qatari and Egyptian-led mediation efforts intensified, Haniyeh was due in Cairo to discuss a truce proposal thrashed out in Paris last weekend with CIA chief William Burns.

A Hamas source told AFP the three-stage plan would start with an initial six-week halt to the fighting that would see more aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip.

Only "women, children and sick men over 60" held by Gaza militants would be freed during that stage in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the source said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.

There would also be "negotiations around the withdrawal of Israeli forces," with possible additional phases involving more hostage-prisoner exchanges, said the source, adding that Gaza's rebuilding was also among issues addressed by the deal.

The war was triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion of Israel, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, according to official figures.

They also also seized about 250 hostages. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza including at least 29 people believed to have been killed.

Israel in response launched a brutal air, land and sea offensive that has killed over 27,000 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Gazan Health Ministry.

The U.N. Conference on Trade and Development said tens of billions of dollars would be required to rebuild Gaza, which "currently is uninhabitable" as half its structures are damaged or destroyed.

Aid access

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out withdrawing troops from Gaza and has repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas.

Netanyahu has also opposed releasing "thousands" of Palestinian prisoners as part of any deal.

With scores of Israeli hostages still trapped in Gaza, there has been mounting criticism of Netanyahu's government that has triggered street protests and calls for an early election.

For people in Gaza, access to aid has been further hampered after Israel accused several the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) staff of involvement in the Hamas incursion.

The claims last week saw several donor countries, led by key Israel ally the United States, freeze funding for the agency.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres told a U.N. committee he had "met with donors to listen to their concerns and to outline the steps we are taking."

UNRWA spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai told AFP the agency supports "an independent investigation" into the Israeli claims that led to the funding crisis.

Netanyahu told a meeting of U.N. ambassadors in Jerusalem that UNRWA had been "totally infiltrated" by Hamas and called for other agencies to replace it.

The U.S. State Department has said 12 UNRWA employees "may have been involved" out of 13,000 in Gaza and has said that it is "imperative" that the agency continue its "absolutely indispensable role."

Wider impact

The war's impact has been felt widely, with violence involving Iran-backed allies of Hamas across the Middle East surging since October and drawing in U.S. forces among others.

The White House blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of pro-Iran armed groups, for a drone attack that killed three U.S. soldiers at a base in Jordan.

Yemen's Houthi rebels, part of the anti-Western, anti-Israel "axis of resistance" of Iranian-backed groups, have been harassing Red Sea shipping for months, triggering U.S. and British reprisal attacks.

As a result, the International Monetary Fund said container shipping through the vital trade route has dropped by about one-third this year.

A missile fired from Yemen hit a merchant vessel, maritime security firm Ambrey said early Thursday, after the Houthis claimed an attack on a U.S. ship.

The US military said a destroyer shot down three Iranian drones along with an anti-ship missile fired by the Huthis on Wednesday.

It also said it had conducted strikes in Yemen against 10 attack drones and a ground control station operated by the rebels.