What is going on in the war in southern Gaza?

Because of a lack of information from the ground inside southern Gaza, it's difficult to keep pace with how the Israel Defence Forces are getting on with their mission which is to destroy Hamas. With no reporters allowed into Gaza on a daily basis - only when there are special IDF-guided press trips - there is no intelligence or outside assessment of what is being achieved other than what the IDF spokesman puts out in regular briefings. But there seems to be a sort of hiatus in the battle between the IDF and Hamas. When the Israeli action started five months ago it was shock-and-awe stuff with massive bombing and artillery strikes. But right now there seem to be far more limited airstrikes and, as yet, no comprehensive move to send in the infantry and specialist combat engineers to blast the Hamas leaders out of their underground bunkers in Rafah in the south. Is this because Binyamin Netanyahu is taking some notice of what Joe Biden has been saying for the last few weeks about preventing further Palestinian bloodshed, or has he now settled for a long war, as the US intelligence community predicted the other day? I suspect it's a bit of both. But principally, there must now be a much greater effort to release the remaining hostages who have endured terrible trials for too long. For this to happen, a large-scale strike on Rafah will have to be put off. But there are no signs of a breakthrough in the hostage-release negotiations. So, the war in Gaza has reached an impasse, and Hamas holds the controlling cards.