The officials mentioned that the plan, sanctioned by the security cabinet, entails relocating numerous Palestinians to the southern part of Gaza. They shared this information anonymously due to the sensitive nature of military strategies.

Described as a gradual approach by one official, this plan signifies a major escalation in the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which reignited mid-March after attempts to extend an 8-week truce between Israel and Hamas fell through. Israel currently holds control over about half of Gaza, including a safety zone near the Israeli border and three major east-west corridors. This situation has confined Palestinians into increasingly smaller areas of the already devastated region.

For weeks, Israel has been trying to ratchet up pressure on the militant Hamas group and prompt it to show more flexibility in negotiations.

On March 18, Israel resumed strikes in the territory, killing more than 2600 people in the weeks since, many of them women and children, according to local health officials.

The previous ceasefire was meant to lead the sides to negotiate an end to the war, but that end goal has been a repeated sticking point in talks between Israel and Hamas.

Israel says it won’t agree to end the war until Hamas is defeated. Hamas meanwhile has demanded an agreement that winds down the war.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Israel says 59 captives remain in Gaza, although about 35 are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials, who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.

The fighting has displaced more than 90 per cent of Gaza’s population, often multiple times, and turned Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape.