Jerusalem: Israel carried out air strikes on Gaza on Tuesday despite an ongoing ceasefire, Gaza’s civil defence agency said, after accusing Hamas of violating the US-brokered truce by attacking its troops.
At least two people were killed when one of the strikes hit a house in Gaza City, the agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas, told AFP.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “powerful strikes” on Gaza, his office said, following what Israeli officials described as a breach of the ceasefire by Hamas.
Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Hamas of firing on Israeli troops in Gaza. “The terrorist organisation Hamas will pay a heavy price for attacking IDF soldiers in Gaza and for violating the agreement to return the bodies of the hostages,” Katz said in a statement.
“The attack on IDF soldiers in Gaza is a crossing of a bright red line, to which the IDF will respond with great force,” he added.
According to Associated Press, Israeli troops were shot at earlier in the day in the southern city of Rafah and returned fire. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there had been no official announcement on the incident yet.
Hamas denied any involvement in the Rafah gunfire and reiterated its commitment to the truce. “The violent strikes carried out by Israel across the Strip are a blatant violation of the ceasefire deal,” the group said, urging mediators to pressure Israel to stop its escalations and abide by the agreement.
US Vice President JD Vance expressed confidence that the ceasefire would hold. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be little skirmishes here and there,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill.
According to an Associated Press report, Netanyahu’s order came after Hamas returned a set of remains that Israel said belonged to a hostage recovered earlier in the war. The prime minister called the return a “clear violation” of the ceasefire agreement, which stipulates that Hamas must hand over all Israeli hostage remains promptly.
“We will postpone the handover that was scheduled for today due to the occupation’s violations,” Hamas’s armed wing said in a statement, adding that any Israeli “escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies”.
Israel says 13 bodies of hostages are still in Gaza. Hamas claimed Tuesday it had recovered the body of one hostage, which it planned to hand over later in the evening.
An AP videographer in Khan Younis reportedly saw what appeared to be a white body bag being carried from a tunnel by several men, some of them masked militants, before being loaded into an ambulance. The contents of the bag could not be independently verified.
The AP noted that the slow pace of body recoveries is complicating the next phase of the ceasefire, which is expected to address contentious issues such as the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force, and the future governance of Gaza.
Hamas has said it is struggling to locate the bodies amid widespread destruction, while Israel accuses the group of intentionally delaying their return. Egypt has sent experts and heavy equipment to assist in the search for the remaining hostages’ bodies in Khan Younis and Nuseirat, according to the report.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem rejected claims the group knows where the remaining bodies are, arguing that Israel’s bombardment during the two-year conflict had left locations unrecognizable.
“The movement is determined to hand over the bodies of the Israeli captives as soon as possible once they are located,” he told news agency AFP.
This marks the second time since the October 10 ceasefire began that the return of remains has led to discrepancies. Earlier, Israel said one of the bodies handed over by Hamas was that of an unidentified Palestinian. During a previous truce in February 2025, Hamas said it returned the bodies of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two sons, but testing revealed that one of the remains belonged to a Palestinian woman; Bibas’ body was returned the following day.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed three Palestinian militants during an operation near Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, authorities said, part of Israel’s intensified military campaign in the territory since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, reported AP.
Police said the men were shot as they emerged from a cave; an airstrike later destroyed the site. Hamas identified two of the dead as members of its Qassam Brigades.
Israel says the raids target militants, while Palestinians and rights groups say civilians are also being killed and displaced.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, over 68,500 Palestinians have died in the two-year war a figure Israel disputes.
