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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the Israeli military to escalate attacks against Hamas over what he alleged were repeated ceasefire violations by the militant group, in the latest threat to the fragile deal to end the two-year war in Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday accused Hamas of firing on its forces in areas of southern Gaza still held by Israel as part of the initial phase of the US-brokered truce.
An Israeli military official called the attack “a blatant violation” of the accord, which is designed to end the deadliest war in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but has repeatedly come under strain since going into force on October 10.
Witnesses reported strikes and explosions in Gaza City and elsewhere in the strip after Netanyahu’s statement on Tuesday, according to news agencies.
Israel also said Hamas on Monday violated the deal by handing over the remains of an Israeli hostage that authorities later concluded had already been repatriated.
A forensic investigation by Israeli authorities said the remains belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, whose body was officially recovered by the Israeli military in November 2023 and brought to burial.
Following several hours of consultations with his security chiefs, Netanyahu said he had “instructed the military echelon to immediately carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip”. Defence minister Israel Katz said Hamas had “crossed a bright red line” with the attack and warned the group would “pay a heavy price”.
Under the terms of the deal, Hamas was to release all 48 remaining hostages it held — 20 of whom were alive — within three days of the truce coming into effect.
While the living hostages were freed, the Palestinian militant group has so far released only 15 bodies of hostages either killed in captivity or during its October 7 2023 attack, which triggered the Gaza war.
Israeli authorities assess that Hamas is deliberately delaying the return of hostage remains, something the group described in a statement on Tuesday as “baseless”.
“[Israel] continues to pursue a systematic policy of preventing and obstructing efforts aimed at searching for the bodies,” Hamas said, alleging that Israel was “seeking to fabricate false pretexts” in a bid to escalate its attack and violate the ceasefire.
Hamas’s military wing said it was postponing the handover of one deceased hostage planned for Tuesday evening due to what it said were Israel’s own “violations”.
US President Donald Trump had weighed in on Saturday, writing that countries involved in the deal would “take action” if Hamas did not speed up the return of hostage remains.
Egyptian and Red Cross technical teams have been deployed inside Gaza to aid in the location of the deceased hostages.
Tzarfati was abducted from the Nova music festival by Hamas militants on October 7, and was killed in captivity, according to a statement by the forum representing hostage families. Tzarfati’s family added that additional remains had separately been recovered and brought back for burial in March 2024 as well.
The IDF on Tuesday released footage taken from a military drone a day earlier showing what it said was Hamas staging the recovery of a hostage body, which they had reburied and then handed over to the Red Cross. The FT was unable to independently verify the video.
As part of the ceasefire, Israeli forces have partially withdrawn to the so-called Yellow Line, located outside Gaza’s main urban population centres, although sporadic deadly clashes have continued.
According to local health authorities in Gaza, more than 90 people have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire took hold. The Israeli military has said that most of the casualties were as a result of Gazans nearing its troops on the Yellow Line, which splits the strip in half.
The fragile ceasefire faced an acute test just over a week ago when two Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Gaza and the Israeli military responded with a wave of air strikes across the strip. The Trump administration quickly contained the escalation and urged both parties to adhere to the ceasefire.
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