Is­raeli Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Ne­tanyahu hint­ed at wider mil­i­tary ac­tion in dev­as­tat­ed Gaza on Tues­day, even as for­mer Is­raeli army and in­tel­li­gence chiefs called for an end to the near­ly 22-month war.

The new pres­sure on Ne­tanyahu came as Gaza’s Health Min­istry said the Pales­tin­ian death toll had sur­passed 61,000. Health of­fi­cials re­port­ed new deaths of hun­gry Pales­tini­ans seek­ing food at dis­tri­b­u­tion points. As des­per­a­tion mounts, the Is­raeli de­fense body co­or­di­nat­ing aid an­nounced a deal with lo­cal mer­chants to im­prove aid de­liv­er­ies.

For­mer se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cials speak­ing out in­clud­ed pre­vi­ous lead­ers of Is­rael’s Shin Bet in­ter­nal se­cu­ri­ty ser­vice, Mossad spy agency and the mil­i­tary — and ex-Prime Min­is­ter Ehud Barak. In a video post­ed to so­cial me­dia this week, they said far-right mem­bers of the gov­ern­ment are hold­ing Is­rael “hostage” in pro­long­ing the con­flict.