Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said late Monday that while the “situation in Gaza is difficult,” Israel is working to ensure that large quantities of aid enter the Strip.

Netanyahu’s statement, which was made in English, came amid a policy shift on aid to Gaza as international outrage has grown over the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, including daily reports of deaths from starvation and malnutrition.

The premier said Israel “will continue to work with international agencies, as well as the US and European nations to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid flows into the Gaza Strip.”

He added that Israel is already allowing significant amounts of food, water and medicine into Gaza every day.

While the premier acknowledged that the situation facing Gaza’s residents is “difficult,” he said that “Hamas benefits from attempting to fuel the perception of a humanitarian crisis.”

“As such, they have been releasing unverified numbers to the news media while circulating images that are carefully staged or manipulated,” he said.

The premier did not offer evidence to back up the claim that images of starving children that have circulated globally were “staged” by Hamas (though the veracity of one image was debunked by the IDF). In contrast, US President Donald Trump said Monday that the images of starvation in Gaza are “real,” adding: “You can’t fake that.”

“We’ll continue to act responsibly, as we always have, and we’ll continue to seek the return of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas,” Netanyahu’s office concluded. “That is the only way to secure peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

The reports of an increasingly dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip — including reportedly growing levels of severe, acute malnutrition, and children dying by starvation — led Israel on Sunday to declare that it would implement a “tactical” pause in daily military operations in densely populated areas of Gaza, along with several other changes, to allow for the safe distribution of humanitarian aid.

At the same time, Israel has denied using hunger as a weapon of war, and accused the United Nations and other aid agencies of failing to pick up and distribute supplies delivered to Gaza’s border crossing points.

On Monday evening, Netanyahu held a cabinet meeting during which the military reportedly presented a new plan for a “siege” of the Gaza Strip, which would again cut off all humanitarian aid and even electricity, according to the Kan broadcaster.

According to the report, the IDF would dramatically “expand” its ground operations in Gaza, including to areas where it has not yet operated, to “tighten” pressure on Hamas.

The report did not specify which areas of Gaza the IDF would focus on, but was likely referring to areas where hostages are believed to be held – a move that Israel largely avoided until now. The IDF recently claimed it already controls some 75 percent of the Gaza Strip.

The report quoted a source as saying that Israel is at “the worst situation at the current point in time.”

“The negotiations for a [ceasefire and hostage release] deal are at a standstill, the IDF is in a kind of shambles in the Strip and soldiers are being killed, and Hamas is not feeling the pressure,” the source said. “Not to mention Trump’s words today confirming that there is famine in Gaza.”

According to a report by Channel 12 news, the cabinet is also considering a full military occupation of the Gaza Strip, alongside a tightened siege on certain city centers within the territory.

The network said that the full occupation of the enclave was on the docket for Monday’s cabinet meeting, but did not say what the ministers decided on the issue.

Regarding talks for a truce with Hamas, a senior security official told the network: “The US needs to put a gun on the table and force Qatar to choose between Hamas’s interests and its own. The US is the only actor that can bring Hamas back to the negotiating table. If it doesn’t act, the situation will remain unchanged.”

The terror group has said that it remains interested in negotiating a deal. It denies claims by Israel and the US — which the two countries cited as the reason for pulling their teams from Doha last week — that it is being unserious in the talks.

According to a third report, in the Hebrew-language Maariv daily, Israel will begin annexing parts of the Gaza Strip if Hamas again rejects efforts by mediators to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal, adding that Jerusalem will give the negotiations another chance.

The unsourced report said Netanyahu recently presented the proposal while meeting with a small group of ministers, who decided to establish a special entity for administering annexed areas.

A separate report in the Haaretz newspaper said Netanyahu presented the plan as part of efforts to keep Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from pulling his far-right Religious Zionism party out of the government.

While fellow far-right party leader National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has come out strongly against the recent shift in aid policy, Smotrich has remained publicly quiet on the issue, reportedly pressuring Netanyahu behind the scenes.

According to the report, Israel would annex areas in the “buffer zone” along the Gaza border first, followed by areas in the north of the Strip near the Israeli cities of Sderot and Ashkelon, and gradually continue until most or all of the territory is annexed.

Smotrich reportedly told Netanyahu that if the plan goes forward, his party will “remain in the government for the time being,” and that the premier will be “tested by his actions.”

The report said that the plan had been given the green light from Trump.

While Smotrich has stayed quiet in recent days, fellow Religious Zionism Minister Orit Strock, who leads the Settlement and National Projects Ministry, declared Monday that there is “no point” to a right-wing government leading Israel if it cannot bring about a swift victory in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking to Israelis wounded in the war at a tent encampment near the Knesset, Strock said her party’s position is that unless the government can lead Israel to victory “not in a time frame of years, but in a time frame of days, of a few weeks,” then “we have nothing to do there [in Gaza].”

Meanwhile, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi reportedly met with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Florida on Monday, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The source added that the trio was seeking to coordinate after both the US and Israel pulled their negotiators out of Qatar, citing frustration with Hamas’s response to the latest Gaza ceasefire and hostage release proposal.

An Arab diplomat and second source involved in mediation efforts said the gaps between the two sides are still bridgeable and that Egypt and Qatar are urging the US to allow for proximity talks to resume in Doha.

Witkoff said last week that the US would explore “alternative options,” and Trump indicated that he would support Israel moving ahead with military operations to try to “get rid of” Hamas.

According to an Arab diplomat who spoke with The Times of Israel, contact between mid-level Israeli negotiators and Egyptian and Qatari mediators has continued on a daily basis since Israel and the US decided to recall their teams last week.

The Arab diplomat said Egypt and Qatar are still waiting for directives from Witkoff, while simultaneously working independently to revive the negotiations.

The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023.

They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in Gaza in 2014.

Over 58,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.