Negotiations for a truce deal between Israel and Palestinian terror group Hamas appeared to make little headway as fighting between the warring sides raged on in Gaza. Israel rebuffed demands from Hamas to permanently stop fighting in the besieged enclave, The Times of Israel reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his country's long-standing position on the war that the fighting wouldn't stop at all unless Hamas was "completely destroyed" and hostages were released safe and sound. He said Hamas was given "a simple choice -- either to surrender or die" as they did not "have any option".

Netanyahu said after Israel achieved its goal of eliminating Hamas, he would "work with all my power" to ensure that Gaza no longer posed a threat to the Jewish nation.

“We are fighting until victory. We will not stop the war until we achieve all its goals -- completing the destruction of Hamas, and releasing all of our hostages,” he added.

A senior Israeli official said Israel was ready to discuss new stages for the release of hostages held by Hamas. In the previous agreement, Hamas released 105 hostages and Israel freed 240 Palestinian prisoners during a week-long ceasefire.

“We made clear to everyone in Israel and outside of Israel that it’s time to renew the shaping up of new hostages (release) structure,” the official said, adding that Israeli and Qatari officials met twice this week for negotiations on a new framework for a truce deal.

“Some people are looking for a small pause -- a pause here and there for one week, two weeks, three weeks. But we want to stop the aggression (completely). I think we will not play this game,” said Hamad, who earlier said Hamas wanted to carry out October 7-like attacks on Israel repeatedly until the country was destroyed.