Israel's biggest newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said on Thursday that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will move forward with plans for an all-out assault on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas to resume hostage negotiations.
The daily said that Israel would attack Rafah to put more pressure on Hamas and increase chances for an agreement on the hostages who were taken by the militant group in its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Netanyahu's government said Israel was "moving ahead" with its plans for a ground operation on Rafah but gave no timeline.
The war, now in its seventh month, has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. The offensive has laid to waste much of the enclave, displacing most of its 2.3 million people and creating a humanitarian crisis.
