 "Israeli jets strike near Gaza’s Shifa Hospital after Netanyahu orders ‘powerful strikes’")
Shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to “ carry out immediate and powerful strikes” in Gaza, Israeli warplanes struck an area near Shifa Hospital, the largest functioning medical facility in northern Gaza, according to a Reuters report, citing witnesses and Hamas media.
Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement, saying the renewed attacks were in response to what he described as repeated breaches by the militant group.
The strikes followed a security meeting in which Israeli leaders discussed their next steps after the alleged ceasefire violations.
“Following security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the military to immediately carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip," prime minister’s office said in a statement.
There were no immediate reports of casualties following the latest Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
The Israeli military has not yet issued a comment on the strikes, which mark the latest escalation in a fragile three-week-old ceasefire.
While the official statement did not specify the reason for the attacks, an Israeli military official said the strikes came in response to a Hamas attack against Israeli forces in an area of the enclave under Israeli control.
“This is yet another blatant violation of the ceasefire,” Reuters quoted the official as saying.
The US-brokered ceasefire, which took effect on October 10, was intended to end two years of conflict that began after Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. The war has since left much of Gaza in ruins.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsBoth Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of breaching the truce.
On Saturday, Israel said its forces carried out a “targeted strike” in central Gaza against an individual allegedly planning to attack Israeli troops.
Netanyahu accuses Hamas of violating ceasefire
Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement by returning the wrong remains during the process of handing over hostages’ bodies to Israel.
Netanyahu said the remains transferred on Monday were those of Ofir Tzarfati, an Israeli killed in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, whose body had already been partially recovered by Israeli forces earlier in the war.
In response, Hamas initially announced it would deliver the body of another missing hostage found in a Gaza tunnel on Tuesday. However, the group’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, later said it would postpone the handover, alleging Israeli violations of the ceasefire.
Israeli media also reported an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, though the Israeli military declined to comment on the reports.
Hamas, for its part, insisted it was adhering to the truce terms and accused Netanyahu of “seeking excuses” to withdraw from Israel’s commitments.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas agreed to release all living hostages in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, while Israel suspended its military offensive and withdrew troops from key areas of Gaza.
Search for hostage bodies continues
Hamas has agreed to hand over the remains of all deceased hostages still unrecovered but says the process will take time due to the extensive destruction across Gaza. Israeli officials, however, insist that the militant group has access to most of the bodies.
The dispute over the recovery of hostages’ remains has become a key sticking point in the fragile ceasefire, which US President Donald Trump has said he is “watching closely.”
In recent days, efforts to locate the bodies have intensified with the arrival of heavy machinery from Egypt. On Tuesday, bulldozers were seen operating in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and in Nuseirat further north, as Hamas fighters secured the sites.
Some of the remains are believed to be buried within Hamas’s extensive tunnel network beneath Gaza.
Witnesses in Khan Younis said Egyptian teams, working alongside armed Hamas members, were digging near the Qatari-funded Hamad Housing City on the western side of the city and had reached several tunnel shafts.
Reuters images showed excavations about a dozen meters deep, with Hamas men at the bottom of the trench beside a tunnel opening, apparently searching for remains.
According to Gaza health authorities, at least 68,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the start of the conflict, with thousands more missing.
The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.
With inputs from agencies
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