Newsletters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday instructed the military to launch powerful strikes on the Gaza Strip, accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States, while Hamas said it would delay the handover of hostage remains over Israel’s truce violations.
According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, the decision followed security consultations earlier in the day. Local media reported that Israeli air forces carried out raids on Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, shortly after the announcement.
Following security consultations, the prime minister instructed the military to immediately carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip, his office said in a statement, without providing further details.
Gaza's civil defense agency reported two killed and four injured, including a child and an infant, in a home in the Al-Sabra neighborhood of southern Gaza City during at least three Israeli airstrikes on the Palestinian territory.
In a statement, Hamas rejected accusations by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz that its fighters attacked Israeli troops in Gaza on Tuesday, vowing to adhere to the ceasefire agreement.
"Hamas affirms that it has no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah and remains committed to the ceasefire agreement," the group said.
Minutes after Israel’s announcement, Hamas said it would postpone the handover of another hostage’s remains that had been scheduled for Tuesday. The group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, claimed Israeli "violations" of the truce had disrupted recovery efforts in Gaza’s tunnels and debris zones.
"Any Israeli escalation will hinder search and excavation operations and the retrieval of bodies, which will delay the return of the occupiers’ dead," the Qassam Brigades said in a statement.
Hamas had been scheduled to transfer the remains of an Israeli hostage at 8 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) under the ceasefire agreement, which took effect on October 10.
Under the terms of the truce, Hamas agreed to return the remains of 28 hostages captured during the October 2023 attacks. On Monday, it handed over what it said was the 16th body, but Israeli forensic teams later determined that the remains belonged to Ofir Tzarfati — a hostage whose body had already been recovered two years earlier.
Gaza Health Ministry reported that at least 94 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli strikes since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians described as members of a "terrorist cell" during a joint raid near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, police said.
The operation took place in the village of Kafr Qud and was conducted by the army alongside the police’s elite counterterrorism unit, Yamam.
In a statement, the Israeli police said Yamam forces "acted to neutralize a terrorist cell that was planning an attack and was part of a terrorist organization active in the Jenin refugee camp." The statement added that unit snipers opened “precise fire” after spotting the suspects emerging from a cave, killing all three.
Police later said the army carried out an airstrike on the cave to destroy what they described as a "terrorist hideout."
The Israeli military launched a large-scale campaign last winter across several northern West Bank refugee camps shortly after a brief ceasefire took effect in the Gaza Strip, aiming to suppress Palestinian armed groups.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz praised the latest operation, warning that "any attempt by terrorist organizations to rebuild their infrastructure in Judea and Samaria will be crushed with an iron fist."
1 min read
5 min read
