The Israeli military is preparing to expand its ground operation in the Gaza Strip and occupy 25% of the Palestinian enclave territory in order to put significant pressure on Hamas and force it to release more hostages, Axios reported on Monday, citing a senior Israeli official.

According to the official, reoccupying Gaza could go beyond Israel's war goal and could be used as a pretext to push the Palestinians to leave the Strip. If no new ceasefire and hostage deal is reached, the Israeli ground operation in Gaza could be expanded and result in the displacement of most of the two million Palestinians to a "small humanitarian zone," according to the report.

On Monday morning, Israel issued an evacuation order for Gaza's southern city of Rafah, stressing that it would expand its military operations there "to eliminate the capabilities of terrorist organizations in these areas."