Its warplanes attacked it on Tuesday night, shortly after the Israeli prime minister ordered the army to carry out “strong attacks” in Gaza, in the most serious test of the increasingly shaky truce.
At least 90 dead
The death toll from Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza has reached 90, according to medical sources who spoke to Al Jazeera, including 24 children.
At least 42 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in central Gaza, 31 were killed in northern and 18 in southern Gaza.
“Another 200 people were injured,” Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Civil Protection in Gaza, told AFP, calling it a “clear and flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement” between Hamas and Israel. At the same time, he denounced the “disastrous and terrifying” situation in the Gaza Strip.
For its part, the Israeli army announced today that a soldier was killed yesterday in Gaza.
A truce is called
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Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said “nothing” would jeopardize the ceasefire, but added that Israel “must return fire” if its soldiers are killed. “They killed an Israeli soldier. So the Israelis returned fire. And they have to fire back,” Trump said.
Netanyahu ordered the attacks after an exchange of gunfire between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops, and amid growing anger over Hamas’ surrender of the remains of a hostage, which Israeli troops had recovered two years earlier.
Far-right voices for a return to war
Israel’s prime minister called an emergency meeting to discuss what he described as ceasefire violations by Hamas, amid calls for a return to war from far-right figures in the Israeli government.
The bombing prompted Hamas to postpone a planned handover of the remains of a hostage, which had been scheduled for Tuesday night.
Israeli media reported that Hamas fighters attacked Israeli forces in southern Gaza earlier on Tuesday with an anti-tank missile and weapons.
Hamas denies it
Hamas denied responsibility for the attack and said in a statement that it remained committed to the ceasefire agreement.
“Israel informed the US of the attack”
An Israeli military official told Reuters the attack violated the ceasefire as it took place east of the agreed withdrawal line for Israeli forces.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hamas would “pay dearly” for attacking Israeli soldiers and failing to hand over the hostages’ remains. “The attack against IDF soldiers in Gaza today by the terrorist organization Hamas crosses the line and the IDF will respond with great force,” Katz said in a statement.
Israel notified the US before launching the attacks, according to two US officials who spoke to The Associated Press.
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The ceasefire, which began on October 10, has been maintained to this day, despite similar incidents of violence in recent weeks. US officials have made it clear that they do not want a repeat of the conflict in Gaza
Reassuring Vance
US Vice President JD Vance said he believed the ceasefire would hold despite Tuesday’s fighting. “That doesn’t mean there won’t be little skirmishes here and there,” Vance told reporters.
Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of a “clear violation” of the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire, saying the militant group had returned the body parts of a hostage that had been recovered by Israeli forces two years ago.
13 bodies left
Under the terms of the truce, Hamas is required to return the remains of all Israeli hostages as soon as possible. In return, Israel agreed to hand over 15 Palestinian bodies for every Israeli. Hamas has yet to return 13 bodies.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Hamas said the latest order to attack Gaza would further delay efforts to recover the remains of the hostages.
Hamas has also accused Israel of violating the ceasefire, with the Gaza press office reporting that Israel has violated the agreement more than 80 times, killing at least 80 people since the ceasefire began.
Trump ultimatum to Hamas
On Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross escorted members of Hamas to areas of Gaza under the control of the Israeli military to facilitate the search for the bodies, after Donald Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum on Saturday for the “swift” return of the remains of the dead Israeli hostages, otherwise “the other countries involved in this great peace they will take action.”
In the evening, Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, announced that it had returned the body of an Israeli prisoner, with the Israeli government later confirming that it had been received by the Red Cross.
The body was not identified
But on Tuesday, Israel’s health ministry’s National Forensic Institute said there was no identification of any of the 13 missing bodies, saying the remains belonged to Ofir Charfati, whose body was recovered by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip in December 2023, less than two months after his abduction.
The Israeli military has released a video it claims shows Hamas members reburying a body in order to “stage a fake discovery” for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and create a false impression that efforts are being made to locate the bodies. Hamas has yet to comment on the allegations.
The news outraged Israelis, with far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich attacking Hamas and calling on Netanyahu to restart the war.
The Far-Rightists are “unraveling”: “Mr. Prime Minister, give the order”
“The fact that Hamas continues to play games and does not immediately hand over all the bodies of our dead is itself proof that the terrorist organization still exists,” said Ben-Gvir, the security minister.
“Now we don’t have to ‘blackmail Hamas’ for the violations. We must strip it of its very existence and destroy it completely, once and for all, in accordance with the central objective set for the ‘war of regeneration’ he said, adding: ‘Mr Prime Minister, enough with the hesitations. Give the order.”
Finance Minister Smotrich wrote to Netanyahu calling for “decisive reactions” to Hamas’ violations and called for “the destruction of Hamas and the elimination of the threat emanating from Gaza to the citizens of Israel.”
Punitive measures in Gaza?
It was unclear whether the strikes ordered in Gaza would be accompanied by further punitive measures. The Times of Israel newspaper reported that the prime minister was considering moving the yellow line that divides Gaza into two parts to bring more territory under IDF control, or stopping humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.
Hamas has so far returned the remains of 15 hostages, while 13 bodies remain on the ground.
The militant group says it does not know the exact location of all the bodies, saying it has lost contact with several of its units holding the prisoners who were reportedly killed during the Israeli shelling.
In a separate development on Tuesday, police said Israeli forces killed three Palestinians they described as members of a “terrorist organization” during a raid near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
