TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened, on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, to “deliver additional and painful blows” on Hamas to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza.

“In the coming days we will increase the military and political pressure on Hamas because this is the only way to free our hostages,” Netanyahu said, without offering any details.

The Israeli army has said some of the hostages abducted during Hamas’ October 7 attack in southern Israel were being held in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Later Sunday, military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement, “The chief of staff has approved the next steps for the war.” He did not provide specific information.

“On Passover, it will be 200 days of captivity for the hostages. … We will fight until you return home to us,” he said.

Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to unleash a military offensive on Rafah, claiming members of the terror group Hamas are holed up there.

The threat comes despite calls for restraint from the international community, including from the United States — Israel’s main ally.

Twenty-two people, including 18 children, were killed by Israeli strikes on Rafah overnight, officials said Sunday, as Israel vows to expand its ground offensive against Hamas militants in the city of 1.4 million people, most of them refugees.

The airstrikes killed a man, his pregnant wife and their 3-year-old child, according to the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital, which received the bodies.

Doctors managed to safely deliver the baby from her dead mother’s womb, the hospital said.

Another, second strike killed 17 children and two women from an extended family.

Asked about the casualties in Rafah, an Israeli military spokesperson said various militant targets were struck in Gaza including military compounds, launch posts and armed people.

“Did you see one man in all of those killed?” said Saqr Abdel Aal, a Palestinian man whose family was among the dead, grieving over the body of a child in a white shroud.

“All are women and children,” he said. “My entire identity has been wiped out, with my wife, children and everyone,” the Reuters news agency reported.

Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million is sheltering after fleeing Israel’s military assaults in other parts of the enclave.

(VOA)