Egypt has put forward an ambitious, initial proposal to end the Israel-Hamas war with a ceasefire, a phased hostage release and the creation of a Palestinian government of experts who would administer the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, a senior Egyptian official and a European diplomat said.

Word of the proposal came as Israeli air strikes heavily pounded central and southern Gaza, crushing buildings on families sheltering inside.

In the Maghazi refugee camp, rescue workers were still pulling bodies from the wreckage hours after a strike that killed at least 106 people, according to hospital records seen by The Associated Press – one of the deadliest of Israel’s air campaign.

The Egyptian proposal, worked out with the Gulf nation of Qatar, has been presented to Israel, Hamas, the United States and European governments but still appeared preliminary.

It falls short of Israel’s professed goal of outright crushing Hamas after its October 7 attack on southern Israel, which triggered the war.

It would appear not to meet Israel’s insistence on keeping military control over Gaza for an extended period after the war.

It is also unclear if Hamas would agree to relinquish power.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed the war would not stop.

“We are expanding the fight in the coming days and this will be a long battle and it isn’t close to finished,” he said, speaking to members of his Likud Party.

He delivered a similar message in a speech in Israel’s parliament, where families of the more than 100 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza held signs calling for Israel to reach a deal to bring them home immediately.

“Now! Now!,” they chanted from the gallery.

Mr Netanyahu and other members of the War Cabinet are to meet later, an Israeli official said, but would not say if they would discuss the Egyptian proposal.

The war has devastated large parts of Gaza, killed more than 20,400 Palestinians and displaced almost all of the territory’s 2.3 million people.

UN officials warned that a quarter of the population are starving under Israel’s siege of the territory, which allows only a trickle of supplies in.

Arriving aid trucks are often met by crowds of desperate people who in some cases have looted boxes of food and water.

A policeman with the Hamas-run Interior Ministry shot dead a 13-year-old boy when a group of people tried to seize aid from trucks arriving near the southern city of Rafah on Sunday, an official with the Hamas government media office said on Monday.

Enraged relatives of the killed boy attempted to attack a police station, burning tyres and demanding the policeman be held accountable.

The devastation of the war over the past weeks has brought sporadic eruptions of anger against Hamas, something that has previously been unthinkable during the group’s 16-year rule over Gaza.

Despite growing international pressure for a halt, Israel has said it is determined to destroy Hamas’s governing and military capabilities after the October 7 attack, in which militants rampaged in southern Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting around 240.

Israel also says it aims to free 129 people still held hostage.

The Egyptian proposal was an ambitious bid not only to end the war but also to lay out a plan for the day after.

It calls for an initial ceasefire of up to two weeks during which Palestinian militants would free 40 to 50 hostages, among them women, the sick and the elderly, in return for the release of 120-150 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, the Egyptian official said.

At the same time, negotiations would continue on extending the ceasefire and the release of more hostages and bodies held by Palestinian militants, he said.

Egypt and Qatar would also work with all Palestinian factions, including Hamas, to agree on the establishment of a government of experts, he said.

The government would rule Gaza and the West Bank for a transitional period as Palestinian factions settle their disputes and agree on a road map to hold presidential and parliamentary elections, he added.

In the meantime, Israel and Hamas would negotiate a comprehensive “all-for-all” deal, he said.

This would include the release of all remaining hostages in return for all Palestinian prisoners in Israel, as well as the Israeli military’s withdrawal from Gaza and the Palestinian militants’ halting of rocket attacks into Israel.

Close to 8,000 Palestinians are held by Israel on security-related charges or convictions, according to Palestinian figures.

Egyptian officials discussed the outline of the proposal with Ismail Haniyeh, the Qatar-based political leader of Hamas, who visited Cairo last week and planned to discuss it with the leader of the Islamic Jihad group, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, who arrived in Cairo on Sunday, the official said.

A Western diplomat said they are aware of Egypt’s proposal.

But the diplomat doubts that Mr Netanyahu and his hawkish government would accept the entire proposal.

The diplomat gave no further details.