Israel has warned the Islamic terror group Hamas that it will carry out a major military operation unless it accepts a deal on the table for the release of some, but not all, of the remaining 133 hostages.

“If there is a deal, we will suspend the operation,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Channel 12 as the IDF continued its preparations for the operation.

“The release of the hostages is a deep priority for us,” Katz added.

“If there is an option to make a deal, we will do it,” he further said, adding that this would not impact the overall goal of the war, which was to destroy Hamas.

Meanwhile, Egypt renewed its push to secure a hostage deal after weeks in which it seemed that such efforts had hit a dead end. An Egyptian delegation was in Israel on Friday for talks with Israel on the possibility of a new deal. Israeli officials told their Egyptian counterparts that Israel is ready to give hostage negotiations “one last chance” to reach a deal with Hamas before moving forward with an invasion of Rafah, Axios cited two Israeli officials as saying.

Hamas said it had received on Saturday Israel’s official response to its latest ceasefire proposal and will study it before submitting its reply, the group’s deputy Gaza chief said in a statement.