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Israeli ground forces pushed deeper into the Gaza Strip and freed a hostage held by Hamas as the war threatened to escalate on multiple fronts.
The Israeli military said on Monday it had deployed additional “infantry, tanks, engineers and artillery” in Gaza and killed dozens of Hamas militants in fighting in the area, while Palestinians said Israeli forces had reached the outskirts of Gaza City.
At a time of growing concern over the fate of more than 230 hostages held by Hamas, Israeli military and intelligence authorities said an Israeli soldier, Ori Megidish, had been released during Israel Defense Forces ground operations.
Addressing a war cabinet meeting, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said the IDF was expanding its presence in Gaza “in measured, very forceful steps” and was making systematic progress step by step.
He added: “Calls for a ceasefire are a call for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terror, to surrender to barbarism. That will not happen.”
Megidish is the first hostage rescued so far, although Hamas released four abductees last week.
Hamas released a video of three more hostages, which Netanyahu described as an act of “brutal psychological propaganda.”
In the video, a woman named Danielle Aloni, a 44-year-old from the town of Yavneh, said that Palestinian prisoners should be released by Israel so that she and the other prisoners could return home.
Netanyahu, who faced criticism from the families of some hostages, later said Israel would do “everything to return the hostages and leave their homeland.”
The death of Shani Louk, a 22-year-old German-Israeli woman believed to have been kidnapped by Hamas, was also confirmed.
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The IDF said it would step up its activities in Gaza but refused to provide details of troop locations.
However, footage posted online appeared to show an Israeli tank and a bulldozer on the outskirts of Gaza City on Salah al-Deen Road, the territory’s main north-south axis inland.
Bashar, a freelance cameraman who was traveling with the person who shot the video, said the tank fired on a private car in front of them as well as a “small bus.”
The IDF says it has hit more than 600 targets in Gaza in recent days, including weapons depots, anti-tank missile launch sites and hideouts used by Hamas. The humanitarian arm of the United Nations said on Monday that there had been some attacks near hospitals over the weekend.
Israel has also severely restricted supplies of electricity, water, fuel and food to the enclave, prompting aid groups to warn of a growing humanitarian disaster.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Monday about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and efforts to release the hostages.
Diplomats are trying to prevent hostilities from escalating into a larger regional conflict with the U.S. warning Iran and its proxies to stay out of the fighting.
But the Israeli air force bombed “military infrastructure” in Syria overnight after rockets were fired from the country, and one of its jets targeted militants in the northern West Bank town of Jenin. Palestinian Health Ministry officials said four Palestinians were killed in the fighting.
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Meanwhile, police said they had “neutralized” a man in Jerusalem after he stabbed a police officer in the east of the city.
Daniel Hagari, IDF spokesman, said Israel was also prepared for a flare-up in hostilities on its northern border with Lebanon, where its forces have been engaged in escalating cross-border firefights with militants from the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in recent weeks.
Israeli forces struck targets in Lebanon on Sunday and Monday after rockets were fired deeper into northern Israel than at any time since fighting broke out between Hamas and Israel this month.
Israel has also been bombing Gaza since Hamas militants carried out the deadliest attack on Israeli soil on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials.
Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 8,000 people and injured more than 20,000, according to Palestinian officials.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said over the weekend that thousands of families in Gaza were “sleeping in makeshift shelters or in the open with little food and water.” It was said that hospitals were on the verge of collapse and sewage systems were no longer functioning.