The goal of Israel’s renewed onslaught is the “complete occupation of the Gaza Strip,” Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar said.

“Such a move endangers those who remain in captivity,” Zohar, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, told the public broadcaster KAN on Monday.

"But there is no choice left."

The Israeli minister claimed that the ongoing military assault will force the Palestinian group Hamas to release Israeli captives and go into exile outside Gaza.

Netanyahu’s office said early Monday that Israel’s Security Cabinet unanimously approved a plan to expand its ongoing military onslaught on Gaza and occupy territories inside the enclave.

Israeli estimates suggest 59 captives remain in Gaza, with 24 believed alive. In contrast, more than 9,500 Palestinians remain imprisoned in Israel under harsh conditions, including reports of torture, starvation, and medical neglect, according to Palestinian and Israeli rights organisations.

More than 52,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.