Israeli planes have launched strikes on Gaza City, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing militant group Hamas of violating the ceasefire and ordering his military to carry out "powerful attacks" in response.
At least 17 people were killed in the strikes, including four in Gaza City's Sabra neighbourhood and five in a car targeted in Khan Younis, according to Gaza health officials.
The Israeli strikes targeted an area close to Shifa hospital, the largest operational hospital in northern Gaza, witnesses and Hamas media said. There is no word yet on any casualties.
Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that Hamas would pay a "heavy price for attacking Israeli soldiers in Gaza and for violating the agreement on returning the deceased hostages".
Israel warned the United States before launching the strikes on Tuesday, according to two US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
US Vice President JD Vance said the ceasefire in Gaza was holding despite Israeli strikes in Gaza City and both Israel and Hamas accusing each other of violations.
"The ceasefire is holding. That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be little skirmishes here and there," Mr Vance said.
"We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an [Israeli military] soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond, but I think the president's peace is going to hold despite that."
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, which marked the latest violence in a fragile three-week-old ceasefire in the Gaza war.
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 was under Israeli control.
"This is yet another blatant violation of the ceasefire," the official said.
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.
Both sides have accused each other of violations of the ceasefire.
On Tuesday, Hamas denied responsibility for an attack on Israeli forces in the southern Gaza city of Rafah which prompted Israel to launch attacks in Gaza.
The militant Palestinian group also said in a statement that it remained committed to the US-brokered ceasefire deal in Gaza.
On Saturday, Israel said its forces carried out a "targeted strike" on a person in central Gaza who was planning to attack Israeli troops.
Mr Netanyahu accuses Hamas of violating ceasefire
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire by turning over some wrong remains in a process of returning the bodies of hostages to Israel.
Mr Netanyahu said the remains handed over on Monday belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, an Israeli killed during Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack. Mr 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.
Israeli media earlier 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.
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 it was complying with the ceasefire terms and Mr 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 hostages' bodies
Hamas also agreed to hand over the remains of all dead hostages yet to be recovered, but said it would take time to locate and retrieve the bodies amid Gaza's ruins.
Israel said the militant group could access the remains of most of the hostages.
The issue has become one of the main sticking points in the ceasefire, which US President Donald Trump said he was watching closely.
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.
Images from Reuters 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 inside.
Gaza health authorities said 68,000 people had been killed in the Israeli strikes, and thousands more were missing. Israel launched the war after Hamas-led fighters stormed through southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and bringing 251 hostages back to Gaza.
Reuters/AP
