ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Friday called for “full force” to be used in the Gaza Strip in the wake of a truce proposal being criticized by Hamas, with the Palestinian group urging global protests in solidarity with their cause.

The US on Thursday announced that it had proposed a ceasefire deal that would see a 60-day cessation of hostilities, as well as the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

Washington claims that Israel backs the proposal, though Hamas official Bassem Naim lamented the temporary nature of the offer, saying on Thursday that it “does not meet any of our people's demands, foremost among them halting the war." Despite this, he added that the group would study the documents "with full national responsibility,” with a response being expected on Friday or Saturday.

In the wake of the proposal’s apparent dismissal, Ben Gvir urged an escalation of the Israeli campaign in Gaza, saying, “The confusion, the shuffling, and the weakness must end. We have already missed too many opportunities. It is time to go in with full force, without blinking, to destroy, and kill Hamas to the last one."

His comments come a day after another Israeli hardliner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, unveiled plans to create 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank to “[reinforce] the eastern axis of the State of Israel.”

Amid heavy Israeli military pressure and an ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Strip, Hamas on Friday called for global demonstrations against the Israeli onslaught, urging people across the world to “let the coming days… be days of global anger, with demonstrations, marches, and massive sit-ins in all cities and squares around the world… to denounce and reject the crimes and war of genocide and starvation to which our people are being subjected.”

Ben Gvir has previously faced backlash for extremist rhetoric, being exempted from conscription in the Israeli military for his far-right views. The firebrand politician leads the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) political party, which descends from a supremacist movement led by Rabbi Meir Kahane. According to the Anti-Defamation League, a pro-Israel NGO that aims to combat antisemitism, the Kahanist movement “preached a radical form of Jewish nationalism that promoted unabashed and virulent anti-Arab racism, violence, and political extremism.”