Israel’s agriculture minister Avi Dichter has said he has “difficulty seeing any other option” than the release of at least three captives on Saturday, as well as the return to fighting later, Al Jazeera reports citing Israeli newspaper Maariv.

“We want to return all the hostages in the agreement as quickly as possible. This is one of the war goals we set, along with the other two goals. There is no intention to end the war before all the goals have been achieved,” he is quoted as saying.

He claimed that the destruction of Hamas’s military infrastructure has largely been achieved but that “the collapse of the government’s capacity is a goal that has not yet been achieved”.