The IDF has drawn up plans to significantly expand its presence in Gaza in the coming weeks in an effort to increase pressure on Hamas to free the remaining 59 hostages, a senior Israeli defense source said on Monday. Residents of Rafah, in southern Gaza, received notices from the IDF on Monday to evacuate the area and move north of the city. The notices were part of the Israeli military’s plan, presented in a press briefing on Monday, to gradually evacuate Palestinians from more areas in Gaza and drastically widen the buffer zone between Israeli towns and Gazans in all directions in the coming weeks, with an emphasis on the north and south of the Strip. If Hamas does not agree to a hostage deal, Israel will call up large numbers of reservists and return to a full-scale ground war, the source said.
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