TEL AVIV, August 4. /TASS/. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that only increased military pressure on Hamas will help release all hostages held by radicals in the Gaza Strip.

"Only increasing the military pressure on Hamas will lead to achieving all of the objectives of the war, including the return home of all of our hostages, the living and the deceased," the prime minister’s office quoted him as saying.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.

In late November 2023, Hamas announced an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, on a four-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, which took effect on November 24. The sides extended the ceasefire several times but on the morning of December 1 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas had violated the truce in Gaza and opened fire on Israeli territory, thus prompting the IDF to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli side, more than 100 hostages were released during this period. As many as 115 people are still held in captivity in Gaza.