Trump’s fragile Gaza ceasefire on brink as Israel orders ‘powerful strikes’ | World | News
Benjamin Netanyahu said he instructed Israeli forces to immediately launch “strong attacks” on Gaza. Hamas responded by saying Donald Trump would delay the handover of a hostage’s body, in a new test of the tenuous ceasefire brokered by the White House that began on October 10.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s order on Tuesday afternoon came after rising tensions as Israel reported firing on Hamas forces in southern Gaza and Hamas returned a set of remains that Israel said belonged to a hostage rescued earlier in the war. Netanyahu called the return a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement, which requires Hamas to return all remains of Israeli hostages as soon as possible.
The ceasefire, which began on October 10, has largely held despite at least two previous outbreaks of violence.
Israel announced that two Israeli soldiers were killed as a result of fire opened by Hamas on October 19. Israel responded with a series of attacks that left more than 40 Palestinians dead, according to local health officials.
Over the weekend, Israel launched an airstrike against Islamic Jihad militants who were planning an attack, injuring many people.
There are still bodies of 13 hostages in Gaza. Hamas announced on Tuesday that it had found the body of a hostage, but after Israel announced plans to strike Gaza, Hamas said in a statement that it would delay the hostage’s handover, according to the Associated Press.
The gradual return of the hostages’ bodies poses a challenge to the implementation of the next phases of the ceasefire, which will address more complex issues such as disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of international security forces in Gaza and deciding who will govern the region.
Hamas said it had difficulty locating bodies amid massive destruction in Gaza, while Israel accused the militant group of deliberately delaying the return of bodies. Over the weekend, Egypt deployed a team of experts and heavy equipment to help search for the bodies of the remaining hostages. This work continued in Khan Yunus and Nuseyrat on Tuesday.
This is the second time that the ceasefire handed over by Hamas has been problematic since the ceasefire began on October 10. Israel said one of the bodies released by Hamas in the first week of the ceasefire belonged to an unidentified Palestinian.
During the previous ceasefire in February 2025, Hamas said it had handed over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two sons, but tests showed that one of the bodies returned was that of a Palestinian woman. Shiri Bibas’ body was returned a day later.
Netanyahu’s office said the remains returned overnight were determined to be those of Ofir Tzarfati.
Tzarfati was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, during the Hamas attack on Israel that started the war. Militants killed a total of 1,200 people that day, most of them civilians, and took 251 people hostage.
Tzarfati was killed in captivity and his body was retrieved by Israeli troops in November 2023. Additional remains were released to his family for burial in March 2024.
Tzarfati’s family said in a statement that this was the third time “we have been forced to exhume Ofir and rebury our son.”
In exchange for the 15 dead hostages returned from Gaza since the ceasefire began, Israel returned the bodies of 195 Palestinians to Gaza. The last 20 hostages alive at the beginning of the ceasefire were returned to Israel, and in return Israel released approximately 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli officials said they prematurely killed three Palestinian militants during an operation in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, the latest act of Israel’s increased military activity in the region since the Hamas offensive on October 7, 2023.
Israeli police said the three men were shot as they emerged from a cave near the northern West Bank town of Jenin, a known militant stronghold. The Israeli army said in a statement that the militants “participated in terrorist activities in Jenin” but did not provide further details.
In the first shot, two militants were shot dead. The third injured person was killed a short time later, according to the Israeli army.
In a previous statement, it was stated that the Israeli army launched an air strike to destroy the cave shortly afterwards. The military confirmed an air strike on the area but did not provide further details.
Hamas condemned the Jenin attack and later identified two of the three men as Hamas’ Qassam Brigades militants. The third man was referred to as a “comrade” but no additional information was given about him.
Israel claims its operations are effective against militants in the West Bank. However, Palestinians and human rights groups claim that many civilians who were not involved in the events were among the dead, and tens of thousands of people had to leave their homes.
More than 68,500 Palestinians have died in the two-year war in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in the count. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are generally considered reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. Israel objected to them without specifying its own fee.
