Israel carried out at least three airstrikes on Gaza City late Tuesday, Gaza’s civil defense agency said, just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to launch new attacks in violation of the existing cease-fire.
"The occupation is now bombing Gaza with at least three air strikes despite the cease-fire agreement," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, told AFP. Witnesses told AFP that they heard the blasts.
An Israeli airstrike hit the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, while artillery fire targeted areas east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported. Missiles also struck around the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City. Local media said an Israeli drone struck the courtyard of the Shifa Hospital, located inside areas beyond the "yellow line" from which Israeli forces had previously withdrawn under the cease-fire deal.
"Following security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the military to immediately carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip," a statement from his office said.
Netanyahu made the announcement shortly after Israel claimed that Hamas had opened fire at Israeli forces in southern Gaza.
Tensions were already high after Hamas returned a set of remains that Israel said belonged to the body of an Israeli hostage recovered earlier in the war.
The Palestinian group said the handover of the body of another Israeli hostage found in one of its tunnels tonight was delayed due to Israel’s cease-fire violations.
In an earlier statement, the group's armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said the remains would be transferred at 8 p.m. local time (1800GMT).
"Any Israeli escalation will hinder search and excavation operations and the retrieval of bodies, which will delay the return of the occupiers' dead," the group's armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, warned in a statement.
Since the cease-fire took effect on Oct. 10, Hamas has released 20 living Israeli hostages and the bodies of 17 out of 28 deceased captives. However, Israel says that one of the recovered bodies did not match any of its captives.
The cease-fire plan also envisages the rebuilding of Gaza and the establishment of a new governing mechanism without Hamas.
Israel's genocidal war in Gaza has killed over 68,500 people and injured more than 170,300 since October 2023, according to Palestinian authorities.
