Israel vowed to ramp up pressure on Hamas as the terror group rejected a proposal backed by Israel and the U.S. for a six-week ceasefire and hostage deal, which Israel supported.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday morning that Israel’s priority is “to make every effort to bring about the release of all the hostages in the framework of the Witkoff outline,” referring to U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, “and building a bridge to defeat Hamas following that.”

Hamas rejected the proposed six-week ceasefire requiring the terrorist group to disarm, the BBC reported on Tuesday. Following a meeting between Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya and Egyptian intelligence officials in Cairo, a Palestinian official told the BBC that Hamas would not accept a deal that does not include an Israeli commitment to end the war. 

The deal would have also included the release of Israeli-American Edan Alexander as well as nine other living hostages being held captive in Gaza in exchange for Israel freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including the perpetrators of deadly terror attacks. Fifty-nine hostages remain in Gaza, at least 21 of whom are thought to be alive.

Ditza Or, the mother of hostage Avinatan Or, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told her on the phone on Monday that the deal includes Alexander, but Hamas will determine which of the other hostages it will release.

Netanyahu visited Gaza on Tuesday and said that Israel “insists that [Hamas] free all of our hostages,” warning that “Hamas will suffer more and more blows.” 

Katz argued that Israeli pressure has spurred movement in the talks, with Egypt and Hamas discussing the terrorist group’s disarmament for the first time. That pressure includes Israel’s policy of blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza for the past six weeks, plus continued fighting that has weakened Hamas’ forces and infrastructure, as well as clearing the population from large swaths of Gaza.

IDF officers’ “determination is high, and they have total confidence in the necessity of the war aims and their ability to realize them – to free all the hostages and not to leave such an enemy on our border,” Katz said. “If Hamas continues to refuse, we will expand the action and move to the next stages.” 

Hamas released a video on Saturday of Alexander, 21, the last remaining living American hostage in Gaza who was kidnapped from an IDF base where he was serving in the Golani Brigade on Oct. 7, 2023, that was believed to have been recorded earlier in the week. The terrorist group’s spokesman Hudhaifa Kahlout, known as Abu Ubaida, claimed on Tuesday that they “lost contact” with Alexander’s captors, without presenting evidence. Hamas has lied about the status of hostages in the past. 

Alexander’s father, Adi Alexander, said in an interview with NewsNation on Tuesday that the video was “devastating…very tough to see our son in this situation. It’s really a miserable situation.”

He expressed concern that President Donald Trump will “lose patience with the situation.”

“And to the prime minister [Netanyahu],” Adi Alexander asked, “the question still remains: How do you plan to get the last hostage out without ending this war and without committing to the second phase of this deal?”

Netanyahu called Alexander’s parents and the families of several other hostages in the past week to update them on the “ongoing, intensive negotiations.” 

Or said she lamented to Netanyahu that “whoever is abandoned in this stage [of hostage releases] will remain hostage and there is no chance he will be returned.”

According to the smaller Tikva Forum of hostage families, which represents Or, among others,

Netanyahu responded: “That is not true. We will continue until we free them all, we are committed to that.”

In contrast with Alexander’s parents, Or called to intensify the war in Gaza. 

“When we fought intensively, daringly and uncompromisingly in [Lebanon], we got great, unexpected results. We were blessed with miracles,” she said. “I call on the prime minister to lead moves of similar intensity in the south, and with God’s help we will merit surprises and miracles there, too, beyond what we are able to plan.”