Far-right Israeli ministers have called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ignore a proposal for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza accepted by Hamas on Monday.
The Palestinian armed group has agreed to a new framework for ceasefire talks, which was drawn up by Egypt and Qatar in a bid to prevent Israel from launching a devastating offensive against Gaza City.
"The movement has submitted its response, agreeing to the mediators' new proposal. We pray to God to extinguish the fire of this war on our people," senior Hamas official Bassem Naim wrote on social media.
A Hamas official told AFP that the group had accepted the proposal without asking for any changes.
Following the news, the powerful far right contingent in Netanyahu's cabinet publicly called for him to reject the deal.
Finance minister and head of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party Bezalel Smotrich declared that Israel "must not give in" and demanded that the war continue.
"Continue to the end, win and bring back all the hostages in one go," he wrote on social media.
Extremist national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was more strident in his opposition to a ceasefire.
"I say to the prime minister: you have no mandate to go for a partial deal and not to decisively defeat Hamas," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Netanyahu has in recent days rowed back on his previous insistence on a temporary ceasefire and now says he is only interested in a single agreement that ends the war and meets all his conditions.
On Saturday, he laid out his list of demands which included the release of all the captives, the disarming of Hamas and the formation of a Gaza administration independent of both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
He also demanded the full demilitarisation of the enclave and Israeli control over the Gaza perimeter.
Netanyahu has not provided an official response to the Egypt-Qatar proposal, saying only that "we can see clearly that Hamas is under immense pressure".
US president Donald Trump appeared to back the Israeli far right on Monday, writing on his Truth Social platform that the captives will only be returned once Hamas is "confronted and destroyed".
Meanwhile, centrist opposition figures and the captives' family members called on Netanyahu to accept the deal.
"We demand that Netanyahu immediately conduct continuous negotiations for the release of all the hostages and the captives from Gaza… The people will not allow the prime minister to torpedo yet another deal," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White-National Unity opposition party, said that the prime minister has public backing for agreeing a captive-release deal and urged him not to hesitate.
Ceasefire plan
The latest ceasefire efforts come amid rising public anger in Israel over the government's decision to launch a new assault in Gaza City.
Israel killed scores of people on Tuesday amid an assault on the Sabra area of the city.
In what was one of the largest protests since the beginning of the war, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv last week to demand a deal to release the captives.
The Gaza City offensive has also drawn the ire of many in the defence establishment, who have called on Netanyahu to end the war.
The ceasefire terms drawn up by Egypt and Qatar are reportedly close those submitted by Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff earlier this year.
According to Egyptian state-affiliated media, the deal involves a 60-day ceasefire, a partial deal to release some Israeli captives and Palestinian detainees, and a surge of aid into Gaza.
Hamas and other armed groups continue to hold 49 captives, more than half of whom are believed to be dead.
According to the proposal, Hamas would release 10 living captives in exchange for 150 Palestinian detainees, an Arab diplomatic source told The Times of Israel.
The last round of negotiations in Qatar broke down a few weeks ago when the US and Israel walked away from talks, blaming Hamas for obstructing a deal.
The talks collapsed amid disagreements over Israel's presence in Gaza and the future of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the Israel- and US-backed group that took control of most of the aid distribution in the war-torn territory at the end of May.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while queuing up for aid at the GHF's sites, and the UN has denounced its distribution system as "lethal".
'Horrific humanitarian impact'
The renewed diplomatic efforts come as Israel prepares to launch an all-out assault on Gaza City.
Israeli warplanes have pummelled the eastern and southern suburbs of Zeitoun and Tuffah in recent days, causing widespread devastation and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee.
Plans drawn up the military aim to forcibly displace the city's estimated 740,000 residents in less than two months before mounting a ground invasion.
The UN humanitarian agency said on Monday that the attack will have a "horrific humanitarian impact" and called on Israel to respect international law.
"Forcing hundreds of thousands to move south is a recipe for further disaster and could amount to forcible transfer," it said in a statement.
The capture of Gaza City – the largest urban area in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank – is part of the far right's broader ambition to seize the entire territory and expel its 2.2 million inhabitants.