Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Every ordered the army to immediately carry out “strong strikes” in Gaza, and Hamas responded that it would delay giving up the governing body, putting new pressure on the youth group.
The order from Netanyahu follows growing tensions, as Israel reported Hamas firing on forces in the southern Gaza Strip and after Hamas returned a group of those it had brought back from earlier in the war.
Netanyahu has called for a “clear violation” of the cease-fire agreement, which requires Hamas to return all Israelis to silence immediately.
In another sign of the spillover, Israeli forces fired on the southern city of Rafah on Tuesday and returned fire, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because no official announcement has been made yet.
The permanent fire that started on Oct. 10 was in charge despite at least two previous flareups of violence.
On Oct. 19, Israel said two Israeli soldiers were killed by Hamas fire. Israel responded with a series of strikes that killed more than 40 Palestinians, according to local health officials. And over the weekend, Israel carried out an airstrike against what it says were Islamic Jihad fighters planning an attack, injuring several people.
There are still 13 dead bodies in Gaza. Hamas said on Tuesday that they had returned the governing body, but after Israel announced plans to attack Gaza, Hamas said in a statement that it would delay its hand.
An Associated Press photographer in Khan Younis saw what appeared to be a white body bag being carried in a tunnel by several men, including some stubborn soldiers, who were being carried away in an ambulance. It was not immediately clear what was in the bag.
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The slow return of the bodies of the hostages is used in the next phases of the elimination, which will address Knottier’s problems, such as the norms of the international security forces in Gaza and in determining who will rule the territory.
Hamas said it was scrambling to find the bodies amid widespread destruction in Gaza, and Israel accused the warring group of deliberately delaying it. Last weekend, Egypt sent a team of experts and heavy equipment to help search for the bodies of the remaining hostages. That work continued on Tuesday in Khan Younis and Nuseirat.
This is the second time since the elimination started on Oct. Israel said one of the Hamas bodies released in the first week of the ceasefire was of Palestinian origin.
During the previous firefight in February 2025, Hamas said it had handed over the bodies of three hostages, Shiri Bibas and her two sons, but they checked that one of the bodies was returned and identified as a Palestinian woman. asked as a Palestinian woman asked as a Palestinian woman asked as a Palestinian woman asked as a Palestinian woman asked as a Palestinian woman asked as a Palestinian woman asked as a Palestinian woman identified as a Palestinian woman asked as a Palestinian woman asked as a Palestinian woman asked as a Palestinian woman asked as a woman Palestinian was asked as a Palestinian woman was asked as a Palestinian woman was asked as a Palestinian woman. Shiri Bibas body was recovered a day later.
The bodies that were brought back overnight were identified as those of Ofiri Tzarfati, Netanyahu’s Office said.
Tzarfati was kidnapped at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7, 2023, the attack on Israel started the war. In total, the soldiers killed about 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.
Tzarfati was killed in exile and his body was discovered by Israeli forces in November 2023. In March 2024, his family found more burial remains.
Tzarfati’s family said in a statement that this is the third time “We are forced to open the grave of Ofir and ask for our son.”
When he exchanged the 15 dead taken back from Gaza since the beginning of the end, Israel returned to Gaza 195 Palestinians. The last 20 hostages were returned to Israel at the beginning of the ceasefire, and they found the Israelis freed from about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel kills 3 Palestinians in West Bank RAED
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli authorities said they killed three Palestinian soldiers in the morning during an operation in the northern part of the West Bank, the latest Israeli action in the field since the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas Attack.
Israeli police said the three men were shot as they came out of a cave near Jenin, a city in the North West Bank known as a military stronghold. The Israeli military said in a statement that the forces “engaged in a horrific operation in Jenin,” but did not provide further details.
Two soldiers were shot dead in the first round of gunfire. The third, who was wounded, was killed shortly after, according to the Israeli military.
The previous statement said that the Israeli army did airstrikes soon after that to destroy the cave. The army confirmed the airstrike in the area but gave no details.
Hamas condemned the Jenin strike and later identified two of the three men as soldiers with Hamas’ Qassam Brigades. The third man was identified as “reed,” but no other details about him were given.
Israel says its operations are to crack down on the forces in the West Bank. But Palestinians and human rights groups say scores of unsealed settlements were also among the dead, while tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes.
More than 68,500 Palestinians have died in the two-year war in Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and refugees in its calculations. The service maintains detailed physical records that are seen as trusted by UN agencies and independent experts. Israel has opposed them without providing much of them.
Corresponding journalists Josef Fedorman and Renata Brito in Jerusalem and Melelaos HadjiCostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, contributed to this report.
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