Israel said to warn Hamas it will annex parts of Gaza if no hostage deal reached

With negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal having stalled, Israel has sent a message to Hamas that if it doesn’t accept the proposal on the table in the coming days, Jerusalem will begin to take punitive measures against it, including the annexation of territory on Gaza’s outer perimeter, senior Israeli officials told Kan and Channel 13 news on Wednesday.

The reports came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with a small group of top aides and ministers to discuss ongoing efforts to make some progress toward a deal with Hamas.

Talks slowly continue in Cairo a week after Israel and the US pulled their negotiation teams from Qatar amid reported frustrations with Hamas’s inflexibility and introduction of new terms in its last proposal.

According to a senior Israeli official speaking to Channel 12, Jerusalem on Tuesday night gave mediators a document with key points in response to Hamas’s unsatisfactory reply last week, including its red lines on troop deployments and prisoner releases.

According to the report, Israel told Hamas that it will not leave the Phildelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border or the buffer zone around the Gaza border; will not allow the opening of the Rafah Crossing; and will not agree to Hamas demands for a prisoner release so far-reaching it will leave few bargaining chips in Jerusalem’s hands to compel Hamas to release the last batch of hostages in a potential ceasefire.

Israel assumes Hamas will not show any further flexibility, the report added.

“Israel will not be patient for much longer,” a senior Israeli official said.

An Israeli flag flies from a main battle tank deployed at a position along the border with the Gaza Strip and southern Israel on July 29, 2025. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)

However, Channel 12 reported that there was currently no appetite in the White House to greenlight an Israeli move to annex parts of the Strip.

Meanwhile, United States special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff traveled to Israel on Wednesday amid growing concern in the Trump administration over the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Mounting reports of an increasingly dire situation in the Palestinian enclave, including rising deaths from malnutrition and starvation, have sparked global outrage as well as concern from US President Donald Trump.

Witkoff’s visit, which was first reported by Axios, is his first to the country since May, and comes amid the stalled ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas — for which both Jerusalem and Washington have blamed the terror group.

An Israeli official confirmed Wikoff’s trip to The Times of Israel, with a US official following suit, telling reporters that the envoy was traveling and would “meet with officials to discuss next steps in addressing the situation in Gaza.”

“The president wants to know more about what the humanitarian situation in Gaza is in order to know how to get more assistance to civilians in Gaza,” one official told Axios, after Trump stressed the importance of getting Gazans fed during a trip to Scotland.

Witkoff may also enter the Strip to observe aid distribution sites run by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to the report.

US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff attends a meeting between US President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office at the White House on July 14, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images via AFP)

The White House said on Tuesday that it would soon present a new plan to deliver aid in Gaza, but provided little detail, promising that more information would be “forthcoming.”

The GHF has been the subject of global criticism as areas near its aid sites have seen repeated incidents of shootings of Palestinians trying to get food, with Hamas alleging that over 1,000 have been killed. Gazans have reported near-daily incidents in which groups trying to reach GHF facilities are shot at by Israeli forces, leading to mass casualties.

Israel, which accuses Hamas of hoarding aid, has also accused the terror group of attacking Gazan aid seekers near GHF sites and falsifying death tolls. However, Israel has also acknowledged that some Palestinian civilians have been killed near GHF aid distribution sites in shooting incidents as people strayed from approved routes.

Witkoff was expected to travel to the Middle East last week to discuss the hostage talks that were taking place in Doha, but the envoy canceled that leg of his trip as the negotiations unraveled.

According to Axios, Witkoff is also expected to discuss the ceasefire and hostage negotiations with Netanyahu.

The Axios report added that Israeli officials were “not optimistic” of a breakthrough in the near-frozen talks, despite the recent exchange of messages.

Palestinians carry humanitarian aid they received at the Rafah corridor as they walk in the Mawasi area of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on July 30, 2025. (AFP)

Despite the lack of a ceasefire agreement, Israel announced this week that it would order daily “humanitarian pauses” in fighting in Gaza to allow for eased aid entry and distribution in the Strip, alongside a surge in aid flow, as global outrage grew over reports of people dying from starvation and in shootings at aid sites.

Notwithstanding the recent efforts to step up aid to the hunger-ridden enclave, the Red Cross said Wednesday it could take weeks for enough aid to enter to stabilize the situation.

“A humanitarian pause is necessary but insufficient,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in response to a query from The Times of Israel. “It is extremely welcome for the population and the aid providers. But a pause is insufficient. What is needed is a sustained and sustainable agreement. The amount of food that needs to come in is so substantial that it will take weeks for the situation to stabilize.”

The Red Cross said that stocks of some basic foodstuffs that were brought in during the last ceasefire were also starting to run out.

Displaced Palestinians at the Nuseirat refugee camp haul food parcels and other items they managed to get from a GHF aid distribution point in the central Gaza Strip on July 30, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

“The entry of some specialized goods was a saving grace in that sense, because some products have a long shelf life and are still available, but the problem is that even that is now running out,” it said.

It also said that the GHF sites are difficult for people to access and dangerous.

“The food distribution areas are hard to access, and it’s difficult for most people to understand how to even get there, as some are located close to, or in, evacuation zones,” the ICRC said. “The Red Cross Field Hospital is close to one distribution center and not far from another, and we’ve received large numbers of gunshot victims who tell us they’re coming from those sites.”

Also taking part in the aid surge to Gaza are the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Egypt, who airdropped 32 aid packages on Wednesday, according to the IDF, as the Prime Minister’s Office urges more countries to join the effort.

“Hamas stole food from its own people,” the PMO wrote on X. “Israel acted. We airdropped aid to Gazan civilians, and we called on other nations to join us. Some have already done so.”

“We secured the skies, secured the drops, and made sure the food got through,” the PMO continued. “Any country that truly wants to help is welcome to join us.”

Displaced Palestinians at the Nuseirat refugee camp haul food parcels and other items they managed to get from a GHF aid distribution point in the central Gaza Strip on July 30, 2025.(Eyad BABA / AFP)

Cabinet members call to annex, settle Gaza

As the global conversation has turned to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, Israeli ministers and lawmakers have mounted a push towards occupation, annexation and resettlement of the Strip.

On Wednesday, cabinet member Ze’ev Elkin of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party said that Israel should threaten to annex parts of Gaza to increase pressure on Hamas to concede in talks.

Accusing Hamas of trying to drag out ceasefire talks to gain Israeli concessions, Elkin told the Kan public broadcaster that Israel may give the group an ultimatum to reach a deal before further expanding its military actions.

“The most painful thing for our enemy is losing lands,” he said. “A clarification to Hamas that the moment they play games with us, they will lose land that they will never get back would be a significant pressure tool.”

Also on Wednesday, 22 cabinet ministers and coalition lawmakers signed a letter asking Defense Minister Israel Katz to approve a tour of northern Gaza by settlement groups in order to examine possible sites for future Israeli settlements.

The letter, signed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Culture Minister Miki Zohar and Social Equality Minister May Golan, among others, called on Katz to “approve a patrol into the northern border area of the Gaza Strip as part of an initiative by the Nachala Movement’s settlement cadres to examine settlement options in the area.”

The Nachala organization is involved in the construction of illegal settlement outposts. Its leader, Daniella Weiss, has been sanctioned by Canada and the UK.

Israeli right-wing protesters gather on a hill overlooking the Gaza Strip near the border fence on July 30, 2025, during a rally to mark 20 years since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

In conjunction with this letter, Nachala and other groups of ultranationalist activists organized a march near the Gaza border, with the stated goal of advancing the movement to establish Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territory.

The activists who took part are part of several cadres that have been formed by the Nachala to establish a number of new settlements if authorization for such a move is approved by the government.

Hamas still holds 50 hostages, 49 of whom were taken captive during the October 7, 2023, attack, which sparked the ongoing war in Gaza. During that attack, Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 hostages back to Gaza.

Over 60,000 people have since been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas health ministry. The tally cannot be verified and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 459.