Israel Strikes Gaza After Hamas Attack on Troops

Israel Strikes Gaza After Hamas Attack on Troops

Israel launched air strikes on Gaza on Tuesday despite an ongoing ceasefire, after accusing Hamas of attacking its troops and violating the US-brokered truce, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.

At least 30 people were killed in strikes targeting several parts of the territory, according to a spokesman for the agency, which operates under Hamas authorities.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “powerful strikes” on Gaza, while Defence Minister Israel Katz said Hamas’s attack on Israeli soldiers had “crossed a bright red line.”

“Hamas’s attack today on IDF soldiers in Gaza is a crossing of a bright red line, to which the IDF will respond with great force,” Katz said in a statement.

Hamas, however, denied involvement, saying its fighters had “no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah.”

Despite the violence, US Vice President JD Vance said the ceasefire remained intact. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be little skirmishes,” he told Fox News, adding that Washington expected Israel to respond but believed “the president’s peace is going to hold.”

Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least three strikes were carried out, one of which hit the backyard of Al-Shifa Hospital. Five people were killed when their vehicle was struck.

Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas was due to hand over the body of another Israeli hostage on Tuesday, but the group delayed the process, blaming Israel’s “escalation” for obstructing the recovery of remains buried beneath rubble.

Hamas’s armed wing later said it had located the bodies of two more hostages but did not specify when they would be returned.

Tensions have risen over the handling of the hostages’ remains. On Monday, Hamas returned partial remains of a previously recovered captive, which Israeli officials described as a breach of the truce. The Israeli government accused Hamas of staging the discovery, alleging the group reburied old remains before returning them.

Hamas rejected the claim, saying Israel’s bombardment during the two-year war had devastated Gaza’s landscape, making it difficult to locate the missing bodies.

“The movement is determined to hand over the bodies of the Israeli captives as soon as possible once they are located,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said.

Hamas has so far returned all 20 living hostages agreed upon under the ceasefire deal.

The conflict, which began with Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack that killed 1,221 people in Israel—mostly civilians—has since left at least 68,531 dead in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry, which the UN regards as reliable.

Despite the truce, the toll continues to rise as more bodies are recovered from the rubble.

In Gaza, 60-year-old resident Abdul-Hayy al-Hajj Ahmed expressed fear that full-scale fighting could soon resume. “Now they accuse Hamas of stalling, and that is a pretext for renewed escalation and war,” he said. “We want to rest. I believe the war will come back.”