The order from Netanyahu on Tuesday (Israeli time) followed heightened tensions, as Israel reported Hamas firing on its forces in southern Gaza, and Hamas returned a set of remains that Israel said were those of a hostage recovered earlier in the war.
US Vice President JD Vance, part of a parade of Trump administration officials who visited Israel last week, said that despite the latest incidents, “the ceasefire is holding”.
Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One as he travels from Japan to South Korea on Wednesday.Credit: AP
The US-backed truce came into effect on October 10, halting two years of war triggered by the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Both sides have accused each other of ceasefire violations, with at least two previous flare-ups in violence.
Netanyahu said earlier on Tuesday that Hamas had broken the ceasefire by handing over to Israel further partial remains of a hostage already recovered.
An undated photo showing Ofir Tzarfati, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023 and whose body was recovered by Israeli troops in November 2023.Credit: AP
The remains returned on Monday belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, an Israeli killed during the October 7 attack, Netanyahu said. Israeli troops had partially retrieved his body during the war.
Tzarfati’s family said in a statement that this is the third time “we have been forced to open Ofir’s grave and rebury our son”.
Netanyahu called the return a “clear violation” of the ceasefire agreement, which requires Hamas to return all Israeli hostage remains as soon as possible.
This is the second time since the ceasefire began that human remains turned over by Hamas have been problematic. Israel said one of the bodies Hamas released in the first week of the truce was that of 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 sons, but testing showed that one of the bodies returned was identified as a Palestinian woman. Shiri Bibas’ body was returned a day later.
The bodies of 13 hostages remain in Gaza. Hamas said on Tuesday it had recovered the remains of another hostage, but after Israel announced the plans to strike Gaza, the group said in a statement it would delay handing it over.
Hamas militants carry a white bag believed to contain a body, after retrieving it from a tunnel during a search for the remains of hostages in Hamad City, Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.Credit: AP
An Associated Press videographer in Khan Younis witnessed what appeared to be a white body bag being carried out from a tunnel by several men, including some masked militants, and then transported into an ambulance. It was not immediately clear what was in the bag.
The slow return of hostages’ bodies is posing a challenge to implementing the next stages of the ceasefire, which will address even knottier issues, such as the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force in Gaza and deciding who will govern the territory.
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 their return. Over the weekend, Egypt deployed a team of experts and heavy equipment to help search for bodies. That work continued on Tuesday in Khan Younis and Nuseirat.
In another sign of the ceasefire’s fragility, Israeli troops were shot at in the southern city of Rafah and returned fire, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because there hadn’t been an official announcement.
Displaced Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli army strike on their tent camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Wednesday.Credit: AP
Israel kills three Palestinians in the West Bank
In another development, Israeli authorities said they had killed three Palestinian militants during an operation in the northern part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
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Israeli police said the three men were shot as they came out of a cave near Jenin, a town in the northern West Bank known as a militant stronghold. The Israeli military said in a statement that the militants “took part in terror activity in Jenin” but gave no further details.
According to the Israeli military, two militants were shot and killed in the initial volley of gunfire. The third, who was wounded, was killed shortly after.
An earlier statement said the Israeli military carried out an airstrike shortly afterwards to destroy the cave. The army confirmed an airstrike in the area but gave no further details.
Hamas condemned the Jenin strike and later identified two of the three men as militants with Hamas’ Qassam Brigades. The third man was referred to as a “comrade”, but no additional details about him were given.
Israel says its operations have cracked down on militants in the West Bank. But Palestinians and human rights groups say scores of uninvolved civilians have also been among the dead, while tens of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes.
Over 68,500 Palestinians have died in the two-year war in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records, which are generally considered reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.
AP
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