Gaza violence threatens ceasefire between Israel and Hamas : NPR

Hamas members search underground for the bodies of Israeli hostages in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Sunday. Also on Sunday, Israel said it had exchanged attacks with Hamas in the Rafah region, threatening the fragile ceasefire.

Abdel Karim Hana/AP

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Abdel Karim Hana/AP

The Israeli government says it has responded to attacks on its troops by Hamas militants in southern Gaza with a sudden escalation of violence that threatens to derail a fragile ceasefire in force for less than a week.

The Israeli Defense Forces said Sunday that “terrorists” had attacked Israeli troops operating in the Rafah region with fire and an anti-tank missile.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “ordered strong measures to be taken against terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip,” his office said in a statement. post on.

The Israeli military said it struck the area to respond to the attacks and also to dismantle tunnel shafts and other structures used by Hamas, calling the violence against its troops a “blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.”

Hamas said in a statement that it had been cut off from its remaining groups in the Rafah region and was “unaware” of the violence taking place there, and added that it remained fully committed to the ceasefire agreement, the The BBC reported.

Both parties have accused each other in recent days of break the ceasefire agreementwhich was negotiated by the United States and included the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza following the October 7 attacks more than two years ago. In exchange, Israel liberated nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.