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Israel has conducted air strikes in Gaza, following what Israeli officials describe as breaches of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement.
Defense Minister Israel Katz accused Hamas of attacking Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Tuesday and violating the terms regarding the return of deceased hostages’ bodies.
The Palestinian armed group asserted it had “no connection” to the reported attack, maintaining its commitment to the ceasefire deal.
First responders in Gaza reported that at least nine Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli strikes across the territory on Tuesday evening.
Despite the recent escalation, US Vice-President JD Vance stated his belief that the ceasefire remains in effect.
A brief statement from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday evening indicated he had ordered “forceful strikes” by the military, without specifying the rationale.
However, Defense Minister Katz stated that Hamas had crossed “a bright red line” by allegedly launching an attack on Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Tuesday.
“Hamas will face significant consequences for attacking the soldiers and violating the agreement to return the fallen hostages,” he warned.
An Israeli military official reported that the alleged attack occurred “east of the Yellow Line,” which delineates Israeli-controlled territory within Gaza under the ceasefire agreement.
Israeli media reported that troops in the southern Gaza city of Rafah were subjected to anti-tank missile and sniper fire on Tuesday afternoon, while Palestinian media reported Israeli artillery shelling in the area at the same time.
Following the Israeli military’s air strikes in Gaza on Tuesday evening, witnesses reported substantial explosions in several parts of the territory, including Gaza City in the north and Khan Younis in the south.
A spokesman for the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency told the BBC that at least four people, including three women, were killed when a home belonging to the al-Banna family was bombed in the southern Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City.
Strikes also reportedly impacted a courtyard of al-Shifa hospital, located in the western Rimal area.
The Civil Defence spokesman stated that another five people, including two children and a woman, were killed when a vehicle was struck on al-Qassam Street in Khan Younis.
Hamas issued a statement denying that its fighters had attacked Israeli troops and condemning the Israeli strikes.
“Hamas affirms that it has no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah and affirms its commitment to the ceasefire agreement,” it declared.
“The criminal bombardment carried out by the fascist occupation [Israeli] army on areas of the Gaza Strip represents a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.”
The group’s military wing, meanwhile, announced it would postpone the return of a hostage’s body it had recovered on Tuesday, citing what it described as Israeli “violations.”
US Vice-President Vance told reporters in Washington: “The ceasefire is holding. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be little skirmishes here and there.”
“We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an [Israeli] soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond, but I think the president’s peace is going to hold despite that,” he added.
Earlier, Israel’s prime minister had pledged to take unspecified “steps” against Hamas after the group handed over a coffin containing human remains on Monday night that did not belong to one of the 13 deceased hostages still in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s office said forensic tests showed they belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, an Israeli hostage whose body was recovered by Israeli forces in Gaza in late 2023, and that this constituted a “clear violation” of the ceasefire deal.
The Israeli military also released drone footage it claimed showed Hamas operatives “removing body remains from a structure that had been prepared in advance and burying them nearby” in eastern Gaza City on Monday.
“Shortly afterwards,” it added, the operatives “summoned representatives of the Red Cross and staged a false display of discovering a deceased hostage’s body.”
Hamas rejected what it called the “baseless allegations” and accused Israel of “seeking to fabricate false pretexts in preparation for taking new aggressive steps.”
In a statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) condemned what it called the “fake recovery,” stating it had attended the scene “at the request of Hamas” and “in good faith.”
It continued: “The ICRC team at this location were not aware that a deceased person had been placed there prior to their arrival, as seen in the footage – in general, our role as neutral intermediary does not include unearthing of the bodies of the deceased.
“Our team only observed what appeared to be the recovery of remains without prior knowledge of the circumstances leading up to it.
“It is unacceptable that a fake recovery was staged, when so much depends on this agreement being upheld and when so many families are still anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones.”
The ceasefire agreement brokered by the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey is intended to implement the first stage of President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan.
It stipulated that Hamas would return its 48 living and deceased hostages within 72 hours of the ceasefire taking effect on 10 October.
All 20 living Israeli hostages were released on 13 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
Israel has also handed over the bodies of 195 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 13 Israeli hostages so far returned by Hamas, along with those of two foreign hostages – one of them Thai and the other Nepalese.
Eleven of the dead hostages still in Gaza are Israelis, one is Tanzanian, and one is Thai.
On Saturday, Hamas’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said the group was facing challenges because Israeli forces had “altered the terrain of Gaza.” He also said that “some of those who buried the bodies have been martyred or no longer remember where they buried them.”
However, the Israeli government insists Hamas knows the locations of all the bodies.
All but one of the dead hostages still in Gaza were among the 251 people abducted during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 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 have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Shireen Abu Akleh died after she was fired on during a raid at Jenin refugee camp in May 2022.
Unfil says the drone flew over a patrol in an “aggressive manner”, but the Israeli military says it was gathering intelligence and posed no threat.
Israel said the teams have been permitted to search beyond the so-called “yellow line” in the area controlled by its forces in Gaza.
Around 15,000 Gazans are waiting for urgent medical treatment, according to the UN.
Michael Smuss, an artist who helped make petrol bombs during the uprising, died in Israel aged 99.
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