Israel strikes Gaza after accusing Hamas of ceasefire violations

Israel launched air strikes in Gaza in response to what Israeli officials said were violations of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement.

Defense Minister Israel Katz accused Hamas of attacking Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Tuesday, and violating the conditions for returning the bodies of deceased hostages.

The Palestinian armed group claimed that it had “nothing to do” with the attack, and insisted on its commitment to the ceasefire agreement.

First responders in Gaza said at least nine Palestinians were killed in a wave of Israeli strikes across the Strip on Tuesday evening.

Despite the escalation, US Vice President J.D. Vance said he believed the ceasefire was holding.

A brief statement issued by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday evening said that he had ordered “strong strikes” by the army, but did not specify the reasons for this.

However, Defense Minister Katz said Hamas crossed a “bright red line” by launching an attack on Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Tuesday.

He warned that “Hamas will pay many times the price for attacking soldiers and violating the agreement to return the fallen hostages.”

An Israeli military official said that the attack occurred “east of the yellow line” that demarcates the borders of the territory controlled by Israel inside Gaza under the ceasefire agreement.

Israeli media reported that forces in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip were exposed to anti-tank missiles and sniper fire on Tuesday afternoon, while Palestinian media reported Israeli artillery shelling in the area at the same time.

After the Israeli army launched air strikes on Gaza on Tuesday evening, eyewitnesses reported strong explosions in several parts of the Strip, including Gaza City in the north and Khan Yunis in the south.

A spokesman for the Hamas-run Civil Defense Agency told the BBC that at least four people were killed, including three women, when a home for the Al-Banna family in the Al-Sabra neighborhood south of Gaza City was bombed.

It was also reported that the raids hit the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital in the Al-Rimal Al-Gharbiyya area.

The Civil Defense spokesman said that five other people were killed, including two children and a woman, when a vehicle was hit on Al-Qassam Street in Khan Yunis.

Hamas issued a statement denying that its fighters had attacked Israeli forces and condemned the Israeli strikes.

The statement said, “Hamas confirms that it has nothing to do with the shooting incident in Rafah, and confirms its commitment to the ceasefire agreement.”

“The criminal bombing carried out by the fascist occupation [Israeli] The Israeli army’s invasion of areas in the Gaza Strip represents a flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement.”

Meanwhile, the military wing of Hamas said it would postpone the return of the hostage’s body it recovered on Tuesday due to what it described as Israeli “violations.”

US Vice President Vance told reporters in Washington: “The ceasefire is holding. This does not mean that there will not be small skirmishes here and there.”

He added, “We know that Hamas or anyone else inside Gaza attacked anyone [Israeli] soldier. “We expect the Israelis to respond, but I think the president’s peace will hold nonetheless.”

The Israeli Prime Minister had previously pledged to take unspecified “steps” against Hamas after the movement handed over a coffin containing human remains on Monday night that did not belong to one of the thirteen deceased hostages who remain in Gaza.

Netanyahu’s office said that forensic tests showed that it belonged to Ofir Tzrefati, an Israeli hostage whose body was found by Israeli forces in Gaza in late 2023, and that this constituted a “clear violation” of the ceasefire agreement.

The Israeli military also released drone footage that it said showed Hamas members “extracting the remains of bodies from a previously prepared building and burying them nearby” in eastern Gaza City on Monday.

She added, “Shortly after, the officers summoned representatives of the Red Cross and made a false representation of discovering the body of a deceased hostage.”

Hamas rejected what it called “baseless allegations” and accused Israel of “seeking to create false pretexts in preparation for taking new aggressive steps.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross later condemned what it called a “fake recovery,” saying it attended the scene “at the request of Hamas” and “in good faith.”

He continued: “The ICRC team at this site was not aware that there was a deceased person there before arriving, as shown in the footage – in general, our role as a neutral intermediary does not include exhuming the bodies of the deceased.

“Our team only observed what appeared to be the recovery of the remains without prior knowledge of the circumstances leading up to it.

“It is unacceptable that a recovery is being faked, when so much depends on maintaining this agreement, and when so many families are still anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones.”

The ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey is supposed to implement the first phase of President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan.

She said that Hamas would return 48 living and deceased hostages within 72 hours of the ceasefire entering into force on October 10.

All 20 living Israeli hostages were released on 13 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 Gaza detainees.

Israel also handed over the bodies of 195 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 13 Israeli hostages returned by Hamas so far, along with the bodies of two foreign hostages – one Thai and one Nepalese.

Among the dead hostages who remain in Gaza are 11 Israelis, one Tanzanian, and one Thai.

Hamas’s chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, said on Saturday that the movement faces challenges because Israeli forces have “changed the terrain of Gaza.” He also said, “Some of those who buried the bodies were martyred or no longer remember where they buried them.”

However, the Israeli government insists that Hamas knows the locations of all the bodies.

All but one of the dead hostages remaining in Gaza were among 251 people kidnapped during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 other people were killed.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 68,530 people were killed, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Strip.