Gaza ceasefire tested as Israel and Hamas exchange fire and blame

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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli army launched a barrage of attacks in Gaza on Tuesday as tensions with Hamas grew two weeks into a fragile ceasefire, and the militant group responded by saying it would delay handing over the body of a hostage. At least seven Palestinians were killed, health officials said.

The flare-up of violence presented one of the biggest tests so far for the truce and had international mediators scrambling to prevent it from collapsing. U.S. Vice President JD Vance attempted to play down the fighting, saying he expected “skirmishes” to quickly die down.

The order from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch “powerful strikes” 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. Israeli officials also accused Hamas of staging the discovery of these remains on Monday, sharing a 14-minute edited video captured by a military drone in Gaza.

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.

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. In Khan Younis, an Israeli strike on a vehicle killed five Palestinians, including two children, according to Ahmed al-Farra, the head of pediatrics at Nasser 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.

The U.S. vice president 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.

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.

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 limited scaleup of aid delivery, and “minor skirmishes” on the line that separates Israeli troops from the rest of Gaza.

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

Tzarfati was kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel that started the war. The militants killed some 1,200 people that day 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. This is the third time “we have been forced to open Ofir’s grave and rebury our son,” the family said in a statement.

The AP analyzed the video Israel released accusing Hamas of staging the discovery of Tzarfati’s remains on Monday.

The video shows a white body bag being thrown out of a damaged building into a dug out area. Three masked men are seen burying the body bag before heavy machinery moves it to a nearby area where it is buried for a second time. The men then dig it out before photos are taken of the body bag. People wearing red vests could be seen observing.

AP geolocated the footage and confirmed its location. The AP could not, however, confirm the exact date or time it was filmed or if remains were in fact inside the body bag.

“This footage clearly shows that the Hamas terrorist organization is attempting to create a false impression of efforts to locate the bodies, while in fact holding deceased hostages whose remains it refuses to release as required by the agreement,” the Israeli army said in a statement.

Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian called the scene a “disgraceful deception” and said the body bag contained the partial remains of Tzarfati.

Hamas did not respond to AP’s request for comment but in a statement accused Israel of obstructing their efforts to search for more hostage remains.

The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed in a statement that a team was present “in good faith” and was unaware of the circumstances leading to the discovery of the remains.

“It is unacceptable that a fake recovery was staged, when so much depends on this agreement being upheld and when so many families are still anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones,” said Sarah Davies, a spokesperson for the ICRC.

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.

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.

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Brito reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem, Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Sam Mednick in Rome, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Beatrice Dupuy in New York, and Kevin Freking and Matthew Lee in Washington, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war