Israel threatens to raze Gaza City if Hamas does not surrender

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has threatened to raze Gaza City to the ground if Hamas does not surrender to Israeli demands.

The city - the largest urban area in Gaza - would "become like Rafah or Beit Hanoun", Katz said on Tuesday, referring to two cities that have been almost entirely levelled by the Israeli military.

Israeli forces have mounted a devastating assault on the city in recent weeks, forcibly displacing tens of thousands of people and leaving several of the city's suburbs in ruins.

Military officials want to expel its one million residents to the south of the enclave ahead of invading the city, though expect around 20 percent of the population to refuse to leave.

The far-right minister was responding to a statement from Hamas that reiterated its willingness to release all the captives and cede control of the territory to an independent administration to permanently end the fighting.

Hamas last month agreed to a temporary ceasefire on terms put forward by Qatar and Egypt that would see the release of half of the remaining captives in return for a 60-day truce.

The group on Tuesday said it is willing "to enter into a comprehensive deal in which all enemy prisoners held by the resistance will be freed in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners held by the occupation".

It is ready to step down in favour of "an independent national administration of technocrats", it added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined Katz in rejecting the ceasefire proposal, demanding that Hamas meet all of Israel's conditions for ending the war.

His demands include the release of all the captives, Hamas's disarmament, Israeli security control of the entire territory, and a new administration with no ties to Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.

"This is more spin by Hamas, containing nothing new," the prime minister's office said on Tuesday.

The Israeli government has a history of scuppering negotiations to end the war and until recently was only willing to discuss temporary pauses in the fighting.

It had backed a formula for a temporary truce drawn up by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, which is the basis for the plan now being pushed by Egypt and Qatar.

However, Netanyahu in August reversed his position and now rejects Witkoff's framework for a multi-phased peace deal.