“The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know: if by Ramadan the hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere to include the Rafah area,” said Gantz, a former military chief of staff.
He added: “Hamas has a choice. They can surrender, release the hostages, and the civilians of Gaza can celebrate the feast of Ramadan.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Monday it will allow Ramadan prayers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque but limits will be set according to security needs.
Hamas denounced the proposed restrictions and the top Palestinian Islamic council called on all Muslims to visit Al-Aqsa regardless.
Al-Aqsa, one of the holiest sites in the world for Muslims, sits on a hilltop in Jerusalem’s Old City in a compound also revered by Jews as the site of their temples of biblical times.
Rules about access to the site have been a frequent source of friction, particularly during holidays including Ramadan, saying that doing so prevents violence.
Asked about the possibility of blocking access for Israeli Muslims to Al-Aqsa, Netanyahu’s office said: “The prime minister made a balanced decision to allow freedom of worship within the security needs determined by professionals.”
It gave no further details.
‘Last bastion’: Israel’s 6-week drive to hit Hamas and scale back Gaza war
‘Last bastion’: Israel’s 6-week drive to hit Hamas and scale back Gaza war
Egypt has stressed it does not want Gazans to flee over the border, arguing this would help an effort to empty Gaza of its Palestinian population – an objective Israel denies.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 29,092 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by the territory’s health ministry.
03:02
Gaza’s Rafah zoo: Humanitarian crisis takes toll on both people and wildlife
Gaza’s Rafah zoo: Humanitarian crisis takes toll on both people and wildlife
The army released footage on Monday from inside Gaza of Israeli combat troops with canine units engaged in fierce house-to-house battles, and tanks churning through the sand amid remains of bombed-out buildings.
The spiralling humanitarian crisis has forced some Palestinians to grind animal feed into flour.
“My children are starving, they wake up crying from hunger,” a northern Gaza woman said.
“Where do I get food for them?”
Israel’s army said on Saturday it had detained about 100 suspects at the hospital and also that it found medicines there that had been sent for hostages but were never delivered to them.
The Gaza health ministry said seven patients, including a child, had died in hospital since Friday due to power cuts, and “70 staff including intensive care doctors” had been arrested.
At least 20 of the 200 patients still there urgently require relocation to other facilities, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding that his organisation “was not permitted to enter” the site.
China’s response to the Israel-Gaza war and Red Sea crisis under the microscope
China’s response to the Israel-Gaza war and Red Sea crisis under the microscope
Israel says diesel and oxygen supplies have been delivered to the hospital and a temporary generator was running.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that “troops have operated with great precision to apprehend terrorists, with no resulting civilian casualties”.
International pressure has grown on Israel to halt the war in the besieged coastal territory.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted the army will continue until it achieves “total victory”, despite also facing domestic pressure from resurgent anti-government protests and desperate relatives of hostages.
The UN’s top court opened a week of hearings from Monday examining the legal consequences of the country’s 57-year occupation of Palestinian territories.
The Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki told the court his people were suffering “colonialism and apartheid” under the Israelis.
Israel will not participate in the hearings which the prime minister’s office has said is “aimed at harming Israel’s rights to defend itself from existential threats”.
Israeli forces kill 3 Palestinians in West Bank
Israeli forces kill 3 Palestinians in West Bank
Western governments have increasingly pushed for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state to be part of a wider peace process, something Israel has rejected.
Netanyahu labelled the comments “shameful” and Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared the Brazilian president “persona non grata in the state of Israel” unless he apologises.
In an indicator of the scale of the war’s economic impact, Israel’s GDP slumped by 19.4 per cent in the last three months of 2023 from the previous quarter, the central statistics office said on Monday.
Additional reporting by Reuters