A senior Israeli defense official on Monday said President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to the Middle East is the “window of opportunity” to secure a hostage deal, otherwise Israel will initiate a new military operation in the Gaza Strip.

“If there is no hostage deal, Operation ‘Gideon Chariots’ will begin with great intensity and will not stop until all its goals are achieved,” the official said according to a Reuters report in reference to a Sunday night decision by Israel’s security cabinet to expand operations in the Gaza Strip.

Israel will use the roughly 10-day time frame to prepare for its new operations, which will entail calling up tens of thousands of reserve troops with the goal of taking over all the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, meets with then-President-elect Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. (Photo by Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)

Comments made by Netanyahu last week sent ceasefire negotiators reeling after he, for the first time, confirmed that returning the hostages taken by Hamas nearly 580 days ago on Oct. 7, 2023 was not his top priority.

“We have many objectives, many goals in this war. We want to bring back all of our hostages,” Netanyahu said. “That is a very important goal. In war, there is a supreme objective. And that supreme objective is victory over our enemies. And that is what we will achieve.”

The Israeli prime minister also on Saturday justified his increasingly aggressive operations in Gaza that have resulted in the death of more than 50,000 in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, including more than 15,600 children as of late-March, as “a war between civilization and barbarism.”

The building belonging to the Berbag family was destroyed after an Israeli attack, leaving several Palestinians, including children, dead and wounded in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Aug. 2, 2024. (Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Qatar, which has been heavily involved in hostage negotiations and ceasefire efforts, responded in a Saturday post on social media and said the comments “fall short of the most basic standards of political and moral responsibility.”

“Portraying the ongoing aggression against Gaza as a defense of ‘civilization’ echoes the rhetoric of regimes throughout history that have used false narratives to justify crimes against innocent civilians,” said Majed Al Ansari, advisor to Qatar Prime Minister Mohammad Al-Thani and spokesman for the foreign ministry. 

Ansari did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions. 

Fox News’ Yael Rotem-Kuriel contributed to this report.