The Japan Times - Israel launches air strikes on Gaza, says Hamas attacked troops

At least 30 people were killed in strikes targeting several parts of Gaza, said a spokesman for the agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas.

However, US Vice President JD Vance said the ceasefire was holding despite Tuesday's "skirmishes".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered "powerful strikes" on Gaza, his office said, as Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Hamas of attacking Israeli troops in Gaza.

"Hamas's attack today on IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers in Gaza is a crossing of a bright red line, to which the IDF will respond with great force," Katz said in a statement.

While Katz did not say where the troops were attacked, Hamas said its fighters had "no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah".

In comments broadcast on Fox News and posted on social media by the White House, Vance said the ceasefire was holding.

"That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be little skirmishes," said the vice president, one of several top US officials to rush to Israel last week to shore up the fragile ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump.

"We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an IDF soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond -- but I think the president's peace is going to hold," he added.

- Strikes on Gaza -

Gaza's civil defence agency said at least three strikes were carried out, while the territory's main Al-Shifa hospital said one hit its backyard.

Five people were killed when their vehicle was hit by an air strike, the agency reported.

Hamas had announced it would hand over the body of another hostage on Tuesday as demanded by Israel under the ceasefire deal.

During the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, Hamas militants took 251 people hostage.

A row over the last remaining bodies of deceased hostages has threatened to derail the ceasefire.

Israel accuses Hamas of reneging by not returning them, but the Palestinian Islamist group says it will take time to locate the remains amid Gaza's war-ravaged ruins.

Hamas later said it would delay Tuesday's handover, adding that Israeli "escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies".

In a further statement on Telegram, Hamas's armed wing said it had found the bodies of two hostages on Tuesday.

It did not say when it would hand them over.

- 'We want to rest' -

Hamas had come under mounting pressure after it returned on Monday partial remains of a previously recovered captive, which Israel said was a breach of the truce.

Hamas had said the remains were the 16th of 28 hostage bodies it had agreed to return under the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on October 10.

But Israeli forensic examination determined Hamas had in fact handed over partial remains of a hostage whose body had already been brought back to Israel around two years ago, according to Netanyahu's office.

Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian accused Hamas of staging the discovery of the remains.

"I can confirm to you today that Hamas dug a hole in the ground yesterday, placed the partial remains... inside of it, covered it back up with dirt, and handed it over to the Red Cross," she told journalists.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the government to "act decisively against these violations" and accused Hamas of knowing the location of the missing hostages.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem rejected claims the group knows where the remaining bodies are, arguing that Israel's bombardment during the two-year war had left locations unrecognisable.

- 'Third set of remains' -

"The movement is determined to hand over the bodies of the Israeli captives as soon as possible once they are located," he told AFP.

Hamas has already returned all 20 living hostages as agreed in the ceasefire deal.

Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza killed at least 68,531 people, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

Despite the ceasefire, the toll has continued to climb as more bodies are found under the rubble.

On the ground in Gaza, 60-year-old Abdul-Hayy al-Hajj Ahmed told AFP he was afraid the war would start again because of the mounting pressure on Hamas.

"Now they accuse Hamas of stalling, and that is a pretext for renewed escalation and war," he said.

"We want to rest. I believe the war will come back."

K.Hashimoto--JT