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Israeli planes launched strikes in Gaza City on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the militant group Hamas of violating a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory and ordered the military to carry out “powerful attacks”.
At least eleven people were killed and four wounded in a strike on a residential building in the city’s Sabra neighbourhood, and an area close to Shifa hospital, the largest operational hospital in northern Gaza, was also hit, according to Gaza officials, witnesses and Hamas media.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, which were the latest violence in a fragile three-week-old ceasefire and which followed a statement by Netanyahu’s office saying he had ordered immediate attacks.
The statement did not give a specific reason for the attacks but an Israeli military official said Hamas had violated the ceasefire by carrying out an attack against Israeli forces in an area of the enclave that is under Israeli control.
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“This is yet another blatant violation of the ceasefire,” the official said.
US Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday the ceasefire in Gaza is still holding despite “skirmishes”, after Israel launched air strikes and accused Hamas of attacking its troops.
“The ceasefire is holding. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be little skirmishes,” Vance said in comments broadcast on Fox News and posted on social media by the White House.
The US-backed ceasefire agreement went into effect on October 10, halting two years of war that was triggered by deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 and that has devastated the narrow coastal strip.
Both sides have accused each other of ceasefire violations.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli media reported an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the reports. Hamas denied responsibility for an attack on Israeli forces in Rafah. The group also said in a statement that it remained committed to the ceasefire deal in Gaza.
Tuesday’s strikes on Gaza City followed what Israel called a “targeted strike” on Saturday on a person in central Gaza who it said was planning to attack Israeli troops.
Netanyahu accuses Hamas of violating ceasefire
Netanyahu said earlier on Tuesday that Hamas had violated the ceasefire by turning over the wrong remains in a process of returning the bodies of hostages to Israel.
Read moreInside post-ceasefire Gaza: Israel-backed militias, clan wars and Hamas’s fight to survive
Netanyahu said the remains handed over on Monday belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, an Israeli killed during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack. Tzarfati’s remains had already been partially retrieved by Israeli troops during the war.
Hamas initially said in response to this that it would hand over to Israel on Tuesday the body of a missing hostage found in a tunnel in Gaza. However, Hamas’ armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, said later it would postpone the planned handover, citing what it said were Israel’s violations of the ceasefire.
Hamas said Netanyahu was looking for excuses to back away from Israel’s obligations.
Under the ceasefire terms, Hamas released all living hostages in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian convicts and wartime detainees, while Israel pulled back its troops and halted its offensive.
Search for hostage bodies
Hamas has also agreed to hand over the remains of all dead hostages yet to be recovered, but has said that it will take time to locate and retrieve the bodies amid Gaza’s ruins. Israel says the militant group can access the remains of most of the hostages.
Read moreRed Cross, Egyptian teams join search for dead hostages in Gaza
The issue has become one of the main sticking points in the ceasefire, which US President Donald Trump said he is watching closely.
The search for hostage bodies stepped up over the past few days after the arrival of heavy machinery from Egypt. Bulldozers were working in Khan Younis on Tuesday, in the southern Gaza Strip, and further north in Nuseirat, as Hamas fighters deployed around them.
Some of the bodies are believed to be in Hamas’ network of tunnels running below Gaza. Witnesses in Khan Younis said the Egyptian teams, working with armed Hamas fighters, were digging deep near the Qatari-funded Hamad Housing City in the western side of Khan Younis, reaching tunnel shafts.
Reuters images showed an excavation a dozen or so metres below the surface, with Hamas men at the bottom of the trench next to a tunnel opening in an apparent search for bodies inside. Gaza health authorities say 68,000 people are confirmed killed in the Israeli strikes and thousands more are missing. Israel launched the war after Hamas-led fighters stormed through southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and bringing 251 hostages back to Gaza.
(FRANCE 24 with AP and AFP)
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