The source told CNN that the defense establishment opposes an expansion of ground operations in areas where the hostages are believed to be held, as it would risk putting them in harm’s way.
The report was criticized by a group of mothers of Israeli soldiers, saying it would be fatal for both hostages and soldiers. The Palestinian Authority called on the international community to intervene.
Asked about plans to widen the military campaign, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Monday it reflected “a wish to see all the hostages come back, and the wish to see the end of this war after the talks for a partial deal were not successful.”
It’s unclear whether the Israeli government’s approach is in line with that of US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Witkoff spent three hours with the families of Israeli hostages on Saturday, and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum quoted him as saying that the plan “is not to expand the war but to end it. We think the negotiations should be changed to all or nothing. End the war and bring all 50 hostages home at the same time – that’s the only way.”
“We have a plan to end the war and bring everyone home,” Witkoff reportedly added. “Someone will be to blame” if the remaining living hostages do not return to Israel still alive, he said, according to the forum.
When asked, Witkoff’s team did not offer any further information on the special envoy’s comments.
Trump said Sunday that Witkoff would likely be traveling to Moscow later in the week.
Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive. There was widespread shock in Israel at the release of images by Hamas at the weekend of two of the hostages – Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski – looking weak and emaciated.
Netanyahu said the images demonstrated that Hamas “don’t want a deal. They want to break us with these horrifying videos, with the false horror propaganda they’re spreading around the world.”
However, the families forum warned the government against expanding the military campaign in Gaza.
“Netanyahu is preparing the greatest deception of all. The repeated claims of freeing hostages through military victory are a lie and a public fraud,” the forum said Sunday.
The forum called on Israel and Hamas to commit to bringing “the 50 hostages home, ending the war, and then rebuilding and reviving Israel,” the statement said.
Hamas has insisted it is committed to negotiations but only when “the catastrophic humanitarian situation” is addressed, according to Basem Naim, a senior Hamas political official.
Another Hamas official, Mahmoud Mardawi, told CNN last week there was “no point” in continuing talks as long as Gaza’s starvation crisis persists.
Hunger-related deaths in Gaza spiked in July, the World Health Organization said last week. Malnutrition rates reached “alarming levels,” with more than 5,000 children under five admitted for outpatient treatment of malnutrition in just the first two weeks of July, WHO said.
The Hamas-controlled Government Media Office in Gaza said Monday that 600 truckloads of aid were needed every day to alleviate the hunger crisis and claimed that in the past week an average of 84 trucks a day had entered the territory.
