Netanyahu's office said, on Monday evening, that this comes "to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to promote the release of detainees and achieve other goals of the war."

He indicated that Tel Aviv will send a professional delegation to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement under conditions acceptable to Tel Aviv, he said.

The Israeli army announced that it was suddenly attacking Hamas targets in the eastern Rafah area.

The Israeli forces carried out intensive air strikes on Rafah on Monday evening, after stressing their call for residents to evacuate east of the city, located in southern Gaza.

It added that it continued its strikes almost non-stop over the past half hour, shortly before 10 p.m.