Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he has ordered the military to immediately carry out “powerful strikes” in Gaza, a new test for the tenuous US-brokered ceasefire.
Netanyahu’s order comes after a rise in tensions, as Israel reported that Hamas fired on its forces in southern Gaza and later Hamas returned a set of remains which Israel said belonged to a hostage recovered earlier in the war.
“This constitutes a clear violation of the [Gaza peace] agreement” by Hamas, Netanyahu’s office said, adding that the prime minister would meet with the heads of Israel’s defense establishment, “during which Israel’s measures in response to the violations will be discussed.”
In a sign of the fragility of the ceasefire, Israeli troops came under fire in the southern city of Rafah on Tuesday and returned fire, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because there has not yet been an official announcement.
There are still 13 hostage bodies in Gaza. Hamas said on Tuesday it had recovered the body of a hostage, but after Netanyahu announced plans to attack Gaza, Hamas said in a statement it would delay the handover.
An Associated Press cameraman in Khan Younis witnessed what appeared to be a white body bag being carried out of a tunnel by several men, including some masked militants, and then carried to an ambulance. It was not immediately clear what was in the bag.
The slow return of the hostages’ bodies poses a challenge to the implementation of the next stages of the ceasefire, which will address even thornier issues, such as disarming Hamas, deploying an international security force in Gaza and deciding who will govern the territory.
Later on Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces accused Hamas of “attempting to create a false impression of efforts to locate the bodies, while in reality holding deceased hostages whose remains it refuses to release as the agreement requires.”
He The IDF said its drones had recorded Hamas operatives “removing body parts from a structure that had been prepared in advance and burying them nearby” on Monday, and then staging “a fake display of the discovery of the body of a deceased hostage.”
Hamas has said it is struggling to locate the bodies amid the vast destruction in Gaza, while Israel has accused the militant group of deliberately delaying its return. Over the weekend, Egypt deployed a team of experts and heavy equipment to help search for the bodies of the remaining hostages. That work continued Tuesday in Khan Younis and Nuseirat.
Israeli hostage negotiator and peace activist Gershon Baskin told CBS News earlier this month that it was “very likely that there were Israeli bodies under the rubble” in Gaza, where the Hamas-led government estimates at least 90% of the buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
This is the second time since the ceasefire began on October 10 that remains handed over by Hamas have been problematic. Israel said one of the bodies released by Hamas in the first week of the ceasefire belonged to an unidentified Palestinian.
During a previous ceasefire in February 2025, Hamas said it handed over the bodies of three hostages, Shiri Bibas and her two children, but evidence showed that one of the returned bodies was identified as a Palestinian woman. Shiri Bibas’ body was returned a day later.
The remains returned overnight have been identified as belonging to Ofir Tzarfati, Netanyahu’s office said.
Tzarfati was kidnapped at the Nova music festival in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that started the war. In total, the militants killed about 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.
Tzarfati was killed in captivity and his body was recovered by Israeli troops in November 2023. In March 2024, his family received additional remains for burial.
Tzarfati’s family said in a statement that this is the third time “we have been forced to open Ophir’s grave and rebury our son.”
In exchange for the 15 dead hostages returned from Gaza since the ceasefire began, Israel has returned 195 Palestinian bodies to Gaza. The last 20 living hostages were returned to Israel at the start of the ceasefire and, in return, Israel freed some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Earlier Tuesday, Israeli authorities said they had killed three Palestinian militants during an operation in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, the latest action in Israel’s escalation of military activity in the territory since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.
Israeli police said the three men were shot as they emerged from a cave near Jenin, a city in the northern West Bank known as a militant stronghold. The Israeli military said in a statement that the militants “engaged in terrorist activities in Jenin” but gave no further details.
Two militants were shot dead in the initial volley of gunfire. The third, who was wounded, died shortly after, according to the Israeli military.
An earlier statement said the Israeli military carried out an airstrike shortly afterward to destroy the cave. The army confirmed an airstrike in the area but gave no further details.
Hamas condemned the attack on Jenin and later identified two of the three men as militants from Hamas’ Qassam Brigades. The third man was called “comrade,” but no further details were given about him.
Israel says its operations have suppressed militants in the West Bank. But Palestinians and human rights groups say dozens of uninvolved civilians are also among the dead, while tens of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes.
More than 68,500 Palestinians have died in the two years of war in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry maintains detailed records of victims that are generally considered reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. Israel has questioned them without paying its own price.
