The expanded Israeli cabinet agreed to assign the Israeli negotiating team, which will leave for the Qatari capital, Doha, to complete negotiations aimed at reaching a prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas.

On Sunday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held two meetings of the two ministerial councils - the small one for managing war affairs, and the expanded one for political and security affairs.

The two meetings discussed the position of the Israeli government on the proposal presented by the Hamas movement, last week, to exchange prisoners under an agreement that includes a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The “extended cabinet” meeting ended more than three hours after it was held.

Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would continue the military campaign against the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, where relief agencies say famine is looming on the horizon.

Netanyahu said during a cabinet meeting that Israel will advance into Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the small and crowded Gaza Strip, more than five months after the start of the war.

He added, "We will carry out an operation in Rafah. It will take several weeks, and it will be carried out," without clarifying whether he meant that the attack would continue for weeks or begin within weeks.

During the Israeli Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said, "Is your memory so weak? Did you forget so quickly on October 7th, the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust? So quickly are you prepared to deprive Israel of the right to defend itself against the monsters of Hamas?"