A prominent member of the Israeli negotiating team confirmed on Friday that the decision of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to expand Israeli army operations in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip will endanger the lives of detainees.

Israeli Channel 12 quoted the senior official as saying, “Further expanding the Rafah process will push the leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement, Yahya Sinwar, to double his current rejection of the settlement, which will harm efforts to reach an agreement in the near future.”

The official believes that “the only strategy that will work at this stage to convince Sinwar to back down from his demands will be if Israel presents a viable alternative to Hamas’ rule in Gaza,” according to the Times of Israel.

These are the first warnings issued - albeit anonymously - by a senior member of the Israeli negotiating team, led by the head of the Mossad, David Barnia, the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, and the commander of the IDF, General Nitzan Alon.

Netanyahu had previously stressed that such talks regarding the management of Gaza in the post-war period before the dismantling of the Hamas movement are futile, because no one will agree to take control as long as Hamas remains in the picture, according to him. .

Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government insisted that only military pressure, such as the military operation in Rafah, would convince Hamas to agree to the detainees deal.