Several Israeli media outlets, citing unnamed officials, have said that the war cabinet discussed a new plan for a Gaza truce and hostage release, ahead of an Egyptian delegation’s visit, AFP reports.

Aid groups warn any Rafah invasion would add to already catastrophic conditions in Gaza where, according to the World Food Programme, famine is “a real and dangerous threat”.

Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told AFP that Israel “will not achieve what it wants” in Rafah.

After nearly seven months of war Israel had not achieved its goals, “whether eliminating Hamas or returning the captives”, he said.

Hamad warned that an invasion “will undoubtedly threaten the negotiations” and show “that Israel is interested in continuing the war”. The official spoke by phone from Qatar where a number of senior figures from Hamas’s political bureau are based.