Israeli soldiers walk near a tank, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza Border, in southern Israel, May 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Hamas said on Friday it was reviewing a US proposal to restore the Gaza ceasefire as Israel intensified military operations in the enclave to press the Palestinian terrorist group into freeing remaining Israeli hostages.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s “bridge” plan, presented last week, aims to extend the ceasefire into April, beyond Ramadan and Passover, to allow time for negotiations on a permanent cessation of hostilities.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military was ramping up air, land, and sea strikes and would also evacuate civilians to the southern part of Gaza, speaking three days after Israel resumed combat operations following a two-month-old truce.

Katz emphasized that Israel would continue its campaign until Hamas released further hostages and was totally defeated.

However, while Israel inflicted serious damage on Hamas with airstrikes this week that killed its Gaza government chief and other top officials, Palestinian and Israeli sources say Hamas has shown it can absorb major losses and still fight and govern.

Hamas said it was still debating Witkoff’s proposal and other ideas, with the goal of reaching a deal on prisoner releases, ending the war, and securing a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters Egypt had also put forward a bridging proposal, but Hamas had yet to respond. The official declined to provide details on the proposal, which he said was under consideration.

Two Egyptian security sources said Egypt suggested putting a timeline into place for releasing the rest of the hostages alongside a deadline for a full Israeli pullout from Gaza with US guarantees.

The sources said the US had signaled initial approval of the plan while Hamas and Israel‘s responses were expected later on Friday.

A temporary, first phase of the truce ended at the start of this month, but Israel and Hamas could not overcome differences over terms for launching the second phase. Hamas held up further hostage releases and Israeli military action then resumed.

Katz warned that Hamas would lose more territory the longer it kept refusing to free remaining hostages. Of the more than 250 originally seized in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, 59 remain in Gaza, 24 of whom are thought to be alive.

The war began after Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people.

Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in Gaza.