Israeli warplanes struck Gaza on Tuesday night, killing at least 81 people, including two children, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “powerful strikes” in the most serious challenge to the US-brokered ceasefire so far, according to a Guardian report.
Witnesses reported explosions across Gaza City and Khan Younis shortly after Netanyahu’s announcement, according to medical sources.
The Israeli military confirmed on Wednesday that a soldier had been killed, with US President Donald Trump telling reporters aboard Air Force One that Israel “should hit back” if its soldiers were killed.
“They killed an Israeli soldier. So the Israelis hit back. And they should hit back,” Trump said, though he added that “nothing” would jeopardise the ceasefire.
Netanyahu ordered the strikes following a firefight between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops and amid growing anger over Hamas returning body parts of a hostage whose remains Israeli forces had already recovered two years earlier.
The bombardment prompted Hamas to delay a planned handover of a hostage’s remains scheduled for Tuesday night, the group said in a statement.
Israeli media reported that Hamas militants had attacked Israeli troops in southern Gaza with an anti-tank missile and guns earlier on Tuesday, though Hamas denied responsibility and said it remained committed to the ceasefire deal.
An Israeli military official told Reuters the attack violated the ceasefire because it occurred east of the agreed withdrawal line of Israeli forces.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said Hamas would “pay many times over” for attacking Israeli soldiers and failing to turn over hostages’ remains. “The attack on IDF soldiers in Gaza today by the Hamas terror organisation crosses a glaring red line to which the IDF will respond with great force,” Katz said in a statement.
Israel notified the US before launching the strikes, according to two US officials who spoke to the Associated Press.
The ceasefire, which began on 10 October, had largely held despite similar incidents in recent weeks. US Vice-President JD Vance told reporters he believed the ceasefire would continue despite Tuesday’s fighting. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be little skirmishes here and there,” Vance said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of a “clear violation” of the ceasefire after the militant group returned body parts of a hostage whose remains Israeli troops had already recovered in December 2023.
Under the ceasefire terms, Hamas must return all Israeli hostages’ remains. In exchange, Israel agreed to return 15 Palestinian bodies for each Israeli. Hamas has yet to return 13 bodies.
The Israeli health ministry’s National Forensic Institute said the remains handed over belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, whose body was recovered by the IDF less than two months after his abduction.
The Israeli military published footage of what it claimed showed Hamas members reburying a body to “stage a false discovery” for the International Committee of the Red Cross. Hamas has not commented on these claims.
The incident has angered Israeli officials, with far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich calling on Netanyahu to resume the war.
“The fact that Hamas continues to play games and does not immediately transfer all the bodies of our fallen, is in itself evidence that the terror organisation is still standing,” said Ben-Gvir, the security minister.
Smotrich, the finance minister, urged Netanyahu to respond forcefully to Hamas’s violations and called for “the destruction of Hamas and the removal of the threat emanating from Gaza toward the citizens of Israel”.
It remains unclear whether the strikes ordered on Gaza would lead to further punitive measures. According to The Times of Israel, Netanyahu is considering moving the line dividing Gaza to place more territory under Israeli military control, or halting humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Hamas says it has lost contact with several units that had been holding captives and were reportedly killed during Israeli bombardments. The group has so far returned the remains of 15 hostages, with 13 bodies still in the territory.
In a separate development on Tuesday, police said Israeli forces had killed three Palestinians they described as members of a “terrorist cell” during a raid near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
(information from The Guardian/ image source: EPA/ATEF SAFADI)
