Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz threatened Hamas on Wednesday evening that it would "receive the strongest blows that Gaza has not seen in a long time" unless it allows the return of prisoners held by it and stops firing rockets at Israel.

This came during his inspection of the city of Netivot in southern Israel, after it was targeted by two rockets from the central Gaza Strip at midnight on Tuesday/Wednesday. The Israeli army said it intercepted one of them and the other fell in an open area, according to the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

"If Hamas does not soon allow the release of the kidnapped Israelis from Gaza, despite Israel's willingness to make far-reaching concessions, and continues to fire at Israeli towns - it will receive heavy blows that Gaza has not seen for a long time," Katz said.

He added that the Israeli army will intensify and strengthen its activities in Gaza until the kidnapped soldiers are released and Hamas is eliminated.

Hamas has repeatedly confirmed, over the past months, its readiness to conclude a prisoner exchange and ceasefire agreement, and even announced its approval last May of a proposal put forward by US President Joe Biden.

However, Netanyahu backed down from the proposal, putting forward new conditions, most notably the continuation of the genocidal war and the failure to withdraw the army from Gaza, while Hamas insists on a complete cessation of the war and a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army.

The opposition and the families of Israeli prisoners accuse Netanyahu of obstructing an agreement to preserve his position, as extremist ministers, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, threaten to leave the government and bring it down if it accepts an end to the genocide in Gaza.

Tel Aviv continues its massacres, ignoring two arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court on November 21 against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant, on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel has turned Gaza into the world's largest prison, besieging it for the 18th year, and the war of extermination has forced about two million of its citizens, numbering about 2.3 million Palestinians, to flee in tragic conditions with a deliberate severe shortage of food, water and medicine.

For decades, Israel has occupied lands in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, and refuses to withdraw from them and establish an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the borders before the 1967 war.