Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday ordered “powerful” airstrikes on Gaza, imperiling the fragile U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
“Following security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the military echelon to carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip immediately,” his office said in a statement.
An IDF official said the command is a result of Hamas allegedly attacking soldiers in Rafah in an Israeli-controlled area. NBC News has not independently verified this attack. The official would not confirm if airstrikes would be launched Tuesday night. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the move.
Airstrikes were reported by Al Jazeera in east Deir al-Balah and the center of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday night local time.
Earlier, Netanyahu said that the remains of a hostage returned by Hamas overnight were body parts of another hostage who was recovered in Gaza by Israeli troops almost two years ago.
Under the truce agreed on Oct. 10, Hamas is expected to return all Israeli hostage remains as soon as possible.
In a statement earlier on Tuesday, Hamas’ military wing, Al Qassam Brigades, said it had found the body of a hostage during a search in southern Gaza but will postpone returning it to Israel due to their “violations.” The return was originally scheduled for Tuesday.
Before Netanyahu’s announcement, Hamas official Suhail al-Hindi told Al Jazeera that the group has faced difficulties recovering hostages’ bodies and has asked Israel to approve the entry of heavy equipment as well as permission for search teams to enter “red zones” to get the work done, which Israel allegedly refused. Al-Hindi also restated Hamas’ commitment to the ceasefire agreement and accused Israel of falsely accusing the group of violating it.
Netanyahu’s instructions come just weeks after Israel and Hamas agreed to the ceasefire. The deal saw the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and detainees, and prompted high hopes that fighting between the two sides would end.
The conflict in Gaza had raged largely uninterrupted since Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas-led attacks killed 1,200 people in Israel and led to nearly 250 being taken hostage. Since then, Israeli forces have killed nearly 70,000 people in Gaza, according to local health officials, and devastated the enclave, leaving a vast majority of the population with inadequate access to food, shelter and medical care. Famine was declared in parts of Gaza in August.
In the weeks following the ceasefire deal, the Israeli military has struck Hamas “to eliminate the threat” posed by militants and “dismantle tunnel shafts and military structures used for terrorist activity.”
Hamas, meanwhile, has reasserted its control over parts of the enclave that Israel has withdrawn from — deploying armed police officers, clashing with rival clans, directly firing on and killing Israeli troops, and carrying out at least one public execution.
The Associated Press and Abigail Williams contributed.
