The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Tuesday that at least 28,473 people have been killed and at least 68,146 have been wounded in the territory during more than four months of war between Palestinian militants and Israel.

The latest toll includes 133 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said.

Israel’s spy chief was headed to Cairo Tuesday for talks with his Egyptian and US counterparts on a Gaza truce proposal, Israeli officials told AFP, as discord mounts over the war.

Mossad director David Barnea will meet CIA chief William Burns, Israeli officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the discussions.

They will be joined in the Egyptian capital by Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who also serves as the country’s top diplomat and has brokered previous Gaza ceasefires.

Washington sources familiar with developments confirmed Monday that Burns is expected in Cairo for talks on a Qatari-brokered truce proposal, after Israel rejected the initial response last week from Gaza rulers Hamas.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep up Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas by sending troops into Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where some 1.4 million people have sought shelter.

Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen in fighting in the southern and central Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours, the military said on Tuesday.

It said more than 30 gunmen were killed in Khan Younis, a southern city close to Rafah on Gaza’s Egyptian border, where Israeli leaders have said they plan to send ground troops next in a bid to destroy remaining Hamas battalions.

China urged Israel on Tuesday to stop its military operation in the Gazan city of Rafah “as soon as possible”, warning of a “serious humanitarian disaster” there if fighting did not stop.

“China follows closely the developments in the Rafah area, opposes and condemns actions that harm civilians and violate international law,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

Beijing urged Israel to “to stop its military operation as soon as possible, (and) make every effort to avoid innocent civilian casualties, in order to prevent a more serious humanitarian disaster in the Rafah area”.

Israel faced growing international pressure on Tuesday to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas, as it planned an incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.

CIA Director William Burns was due in Cairo on Tuesday for a new round of talks on a Qatari-mediated ceasefire that would temporarily halt fighting in exchange for Hamas freeing hostages.

His planned visit comes after Washington and the United Nations warned Israel against carrying out a ground offensive into Rafah without a plan to protect civilians, who say they have nowhere left to go.

“Wherever we go there’s bombing, martyrs and wounded,” said Iman Dergham, a displaced Palestinian woman.

US President Joe Biden and Jordan’s King Abdullah II kept up pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza as senior mediators were to resume work on Tuesday on an Israel-Hamas truce agreement, with the threat of an Israeli ground offensive looming in Rafah.

Senior officials from the US, Egypt, Israel and Qatar were expected to meet in Cairo to work on a three-phase framework that would see the release of hostages and achieve an extended pause, sources familiar with the matter said.

“The United States is working on a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas which would bring an immediate and sustained period of calm into Gaza for at least six weeks,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Monday after talks with Abdullah.

For his part, Abdullah underscored the urgency of the plight of Palestinians, especially the more than 1 million civilians seeking refuge in Rafah.

“We cannot stand by and let this continue,” he said. “We need a lasting ceasefire now. This war must end.”

Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired two missiles at a ship carrying corn bound for a port in Iran on Monday, causing minor damage but no injuries to its crew, authorities said.

The attack on the Marshall Islands-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Star Iris shows just how widely the Houthis now target ships travelling through the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the two waterways.

The Star Iris had been heading from Brazil to Bandar Khomeini in Iran, the main backer and armer of the Houthis in Yemen’s yearslong war.

“The group owner and operator regularly trade bulk cargo with Iran, so this was assessed to be the likely destination,” said Ambrey, a private security firm. Ambrey added that the Star Iris sustained damage to its starboard side in the attack.