Israel strikes Gaza after accusing Hamas of violating US-brokered ceasefire

By Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi

JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli planes launched strikes in Gaza on Tuesday after Israel accused the militant group Hamas of violating a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory, the latest test of a fragile deal brokered earlier this month by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Local health authorities said the strikes killed at least 17 people, including four in Gaza City's Sabra neighborhood and five in a car in Khan Younis.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, the latest violence in a three-week-old ceasefire and which followed a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office saying he had ordered immediate "powerful 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.

"This is yet another blatant violation of the ceasefire," the official said.

The U.S.-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.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, part of a parade of Trump administration officials who visited Israel last week, said that despite the latest flare-up, "the ceasefire is holding."

"That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be little skirmishes here and there," he told reporters on Capitol Hill. "We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an (Israeli) soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond, but I think the president's peace is going to hold despite that."

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 some wrong remains in a process of returning the bodies of hostages to Israel.

Netanyahu said the remains handed over on Monday belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, an Israeli killed during Hamas' 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.

Late on Tuesday, Al-Qassam issued a statement saying it had recovered the bodies of two Israeli hostages, Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch, during search operations in Gaza.

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 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.

The issue has become one of the main sticking points in the ceasefire, which Trump says he is watching closely. He has touted the truce and hostage-prisoner exchange deal as one of the top foreign policy achievements of his second term, and he and his top aides have sought to keep the ceasefire intact.

The White House did not immediately respond to a question on whether Israel notified the U.S. before carrying out the Gaza strikes.

In Gaza City, an Israeli strike that killed four people hit a residential building near Shifa hospital, the largest operational hospital in northern Gaza. The hospital itself was also hit, according to Gaza officials, witnesses and Hamas media. Two people were wounded in an attack on a tent in Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities.

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.

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.

(Additional reporting by Tamar Uriel-Beeri in Jerusalem, Steve Holland and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Writing by Maayan Lubell, Emily Rose, Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Frances Kerry, Daniel Wallis and Lisa Shumaker)