JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday evening that Hamas had rejected a proposal for the return of half of the living hostages in Gaza by demanding the end of the war and an Israeli military retreat from Gaza.

"If we capitulate to the dictates of Hamas now, all the great achievements of the war ... will disappear," said Netanyahu in a recorded video statement.

In the statement, the Israeli prime minister also dismissed the idea that Israel could deceive Hamas into freeing all the hostages and then resume the war, arguing that the international community would not accept such a move.

Earlier in the day, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, released a new video showing an Israeli hostage held in Gaza.

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The four-minute video features Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot speaking on a landline phone, seemingly making a call to his family to continue their efforts for his release.

"My health is not good. I am screaming for death. Please, do this for me," he said at the end of the recording.

The Al-Qassam Brigades concluded the video with the message, "They will not return except in a capacity," in reference to the hostages.

It remains unclear when the video was recorded.

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Israeli media reported that the video's release triggered demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beersheba, and Haifa, where thousands called on the government to secure the release of captives without delay.

Meanwhile, Israel's military operation has been continuing in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that its armored forces killed more than 40 Hamas militants in the Rafah area, southern Gaza Strip, over the weekend.

The IDF also said that one of its soldiers was killed and three others seriously injured in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, on Saturday.

The killed soldier was G'haleb Sliman Alnasasra, a 35-year-old tracker from the Bedouin city of Rahat in southern Israel, according to the statement.

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Another IDF tracker and two female soldiers were seriously injured, it added.

Israel's Channel 12 News reported that Hamas militants emerged from a hidden tunnel shaft and fired an RPG at an IDF force, injuring the two female soldiers.

According to the report, after about half an hour, a rescue force arrived at the scene and an explosive device was detonated against it. As a result, Alnasasra was killed, and the other tracker was wounded.