Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to seize parts of the strip if Hamas didn’t release all the hostages.

Israel has reportedly killed 500 people with its renewed assault in Gaza, as its threats to Palestinian civilians take on an increasingly menacing tone.

Israeli Defense Minister Katz told Hamas that the IDF would take "permanent" and "annexed" control of parts of the Gaza Strip unless the hostages were freed.

The military ordered people to evacuate on foot along a single route to the Mawasi area, a sprawling area of squalid tent camps with few public services.

Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 21 Palestinians, local health authorities said on Monday, as Israeli forces operated in Rafah near the border with Egypt, escalating a new week-long aerial and ground offensive.

An Israeli airstrike killed a Hamas political leader in southern Gaza. Palestinian officials put the death toll from months of conflict at over 50,000.