Gaza ceasefire tested as Israel and Hamas exchange fire and blame

The order from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch "powerful strikes" 18 days into the truce came after an Israeli official said its forces were fired upon in southern Gaza and after Hamas handed over body parts on Monday that Israel said were the partial remains of a hostage recovered earlier in the war.

Netanyahu called the return of these body parts a "clear violation" of the ceasefire agreement, which requires Hamas to return the remaining hostages in Gaza as soon as possible.

Israel's Defense 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 notified the United States before launching the strikes on Tuesday, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

An Associated Press reporter in Deir al-Balah heard tanks firing from an area controlled by the Israeli army. And in Gaza City, at least two Palestinians were killed by strikes, according to Rami Mhanna, the managing director of Shifa hospital, where the bodies were taken.

Earlier in the day, Israeli troops were shot at in the southern city of Rafah and returned fire, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because there hasn't been an official announcement yet. In a statement, Hamas denied involvement in the gunfire in Rafah and reiterated its commitment to the ceasefire.

"The violent strikes carried out by Israel across the Strip is a blatant violation of the ceasefire deal," said the group, calling on mediators to pressure Israel to stop.

Vice President JD Vance expressed confidence that the ceasefire would hold. "That doesn't mean there aren't going to be little skirmishes here and there," Vance told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Fragile ceasefire holds so far despite tests

The ceasefire that began on Oct. 10 has largely held despite at least two previous flare-ups in violence.

On Oct. 19, Israel said two Israeli soldiers were killed by Hamas fire. Israel responded with a series of strikes that killed over 40 Palestinians, according to local health officials. And over the weekend, Israel carried out an airstrike against what it said were Islamic Jihad militants planning an attack, wounding several people.

There are still 13 bodies of hostages in Gaza. Hamas said Tuesday it had recovered the body of a hostage, but after Israel announced the plans to strike Gaza, Hamas said in a statement it would delay the handover.

An AP videographer in Khan Younis witnessed Tuesday what appeared to be a white body bag being carried out from a tunnel by several men, including some masked militants, and then transported into an ambulance. It was not immediately clear what was in the bag.

The slow return of hostages' bodies is posing a challenge to implementing the next stages of the ceasefire, which will address even knottier issues, such as the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force in Gaza and deciding who will govern the territory.

Hamas has said it is struggling to locate the bodies amid the vast destruction in Gaza, while Israel has accused the militant group of purposely delaying their return.

Over the weekend, Egypt deployed a team of experts and heavy equipment to help search for the bodies of the remaining hostages. That work continued Tuesday in Khan Younis and Nuseirat.

An Arab official involved in negotiating the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas said talks were underway with both sides to try to prevent the truce from collapsing. "Both sides violated the agreement, but there was no significant breach," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The official said violations included delays in handing over bodies, the failure to open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, delays evacuating patients out of Gaza, the limited scaleup of aid delivery, and "minor skirmishes" on the line that separates Israeli troops from the rest of Gaza.

A stricken family

The remains returned to Israel overnight were identified as belonging to Ofir Tzarfati.

Tzarfati was kidnapped from the Nova music festival during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel that started the war. The militants killed some 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.

Tzarfati was killed in captivity and his body was retrieved by Israeli troops in November 2023. In March 2024, his family received additional remains for burial.

Tzarfati's family said in a statement that this is the third time "we have been forced to open Ofir's grave and rebury our son."

This is the second time since the ceasefire that remains turned over by Hamas have been problematic. Israel said one of the bodies Hamas released in the first week of the ceasefire belonged to an unidentified Palestinian.

During a previous ceasefire in February 2025, Hamas said it handed over the bodies of three hostages, Shiri Bibas and her two sons, but testing showed that one of the bodies returned was identified as a Palestinian woman. Shiri Bibas' body was returned a day later.

Over 68,500 Palestinians have died in the two-year war in Gaza, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.