Earlier Tuesday, Hamas militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade and a sniper fired at troops in two incidents in southern Gaza, an Israeli military official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the attack. Hamas said in a statement that it had “no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah and affirms its commitment to the ceasefire agreement.”
Tensions had been escalating after Netanyahu accused Hamas of returning the remains of hostage Ofir Tzarfati; but Israel had already recovered his partial remains in November 2023. Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal, Hamas agreed to return the remains of hostages it abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, many of whom died or were killed in captivity.
The prime minister signaled hours before the strikes that he would seek retaliation for what he called a clear violation of the agreement by the group.
“Today’s attack on IDF soldiers in Gaza by the terrorist organization Hamas is a crossing of a glaring red line to which the IDF will respond with great force,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said shortly before the bombardment began. “Hamas will pay dearly, with interest, for attacking the soldiers and for violating the agreement on the return of the deceased hostages.”
Hamas has countered that Israel has been slowing the search for hostage bodies by refusing to allow into Gaza heavy machinery needed to move rubble and forbidding Palestinian and international search teams from entering certain areas. The militant group accused Israel of “seeking to fabricate false pretexts in preparation for taking new aggressive steps against our people.”…..
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