Local health authorities said the strikes killed at least 26 people, including five in a house hit in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, four in a building in Gaza City's Sabra neighbourhood, and five in a car in Khan Younis. The attacks by Israeli planes continued into early Wednesday across the Gaza Strip, according to witnesses.
The latest violence in the three-week-old ceasefire 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.
The US-backed ceasefire agreement went into effect on October 10, halting two years of war triggered by deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
US Vice President JD Vance 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."
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 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.
In response, Hamas initially said it would hand over to Israel 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 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 has said it will take time to locate and retrieve all the hostage remains amid Gaza's ruins.
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 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.
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.
Gaza health authorities say 68,000 people are confirmed killed in the Israeli offensive 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.
with Reuters
