Israel’s security cabinet on Monday convened an emergency meeting to discuss alerts in the recent weeks of the ceasefire indicating that Hamas had been preparing for another October 7-style massacre in Israel, Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday, citing Israel’s Channel 12.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz repeated the concerns on Tuesday morning in a meeting with the Otef Israel Forum, mainly comprised of Israelis who live near Gaza.

“There are constant preparations being made by Hamas for an invasion [into Israel], similar to October 7,” Katz said there, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“We must strike them and completely finish the job through both offense and defense,” Katz stated. “This is the goal that drives me.”

The report noted that security forces have identified an dramatic increase in efforts by Hamas to carry out attacks against IDF forces in Gaza, pointing to the possibility that Hamas seeks to prepare for another invasion of Israel.

On Tuesday morning, the IDF announced that it had conducted “extensive” strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip overnight Monday.

“This follows Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators,” the Israeli prime minister’s office stated.

The IDF is “attacking targets of the Hamas terrorist organization throughout the Gaza Strip in order to achieve the objectives of the war as they have been determined by the political echelon including the release of all of our hostages, the living and the deceased,” the statement continued. “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that Jerusalem had consulted the Trump administration before launching the operation, which the Israeli military named “Strength and Sword.”

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