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The week-old ceasefire in Gaza came under strain on Sunday, with Israel launching air strikes in the Palestinian enclave after accusing Hamas of carrying out three attacks on its forces.
The Israel Defense Forces accused Hamas of firing both an anti-tank missile and small arms at its forces in Rafah in southern Gaza, in an area behind the so-called yellow line to which the Israeli army withdrew as part of the ceasefire. It said militants had also crossed the yellow line in a separate incident in northern Gaza.
A military official said the IDF had responded with air strikes in both northern and southern Gaza. The military said on Sunday evening that it had begun a further round of strikes.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said earlier that the prime minister had ordered the military to take “strong action” in response.
Hamas said that it remained committed to the truce, with its armed wing saying it was not aware of any clashes in Rafah.
The militant group accused Netanyahu’s government of using “flimsy pretexts” to justify violating the ceasefire to appease his far-right coalition partners.
These lawmakers have demanded that Israel continue the war until the militant group has been destroyed.
The flare-up is the most serious challenge to the ceasefire, which was brokered by US President Donald Trump as part of a broader plan to end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the deadliest in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads one of two far-right parties in Netanyahu’s coalition, demanded that Israel resume its offensive in Gaza “at full force”, calling for Hamas to be “completely destroyed”.
Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the other ultranationalist party in Netanyahu’s coalition, simply wrote “War!” on X.
The Israeli strikes came after 10 days of a fragile truce during which Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of violating the terms of the ceasefire.
Israeli forces have killed more than two dozen Gazans since the truce went into effect, according to Palestinian officials. First responders in the enclave said on Saturday that at least nine people — including three women and four children — were killed when Israeli forces fired on a vehicle in Gaza City.
Israeli officials have meanwhile accused Hamas of firing at soldiers in Gaza and delaying the release of the bodies of the dead hostages it still holds.
They have threatened to limit the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza in an effort to pressure the militant group to accelerate the returns.
As of Sunday morning, Hamas had handed over 12 of the 28 remaining hostage bodies. Officials named two bodies returned on Saturday as Ronen Engel from Israel and Sonthaya Oakkharasri from Thailand.
The militant group said it had found and would hand over another body later on Sunday “if field conditions are suitable”.
The deal required the group to return the remains of all the dead hostages at the same time as the final living captives last Monday. But in cases where it could not locate bodies, the deal allowed for Hamas to share information about their expected whereabouts and try to hand them over as soon as possible.
US officials said earlier this week that the pace at which bodies are being returned is in line with what they had expected, given the level of destruction in Gaza.
But the Trump administration warned on Saturday that Hamas was preparing an attack on Palestinian civilians, saying it would “constitute a direct and grave violation of the ceasefire agreement”.
Hamas denied it was planning any attack or ceasefire violation, calling the claims “fully consistent with misleading Israeli propaganda”.
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