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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

 said Tuesday he has ordered the army to immediately carry out “powerful strikes” in Gaza, and Hamas responded by saying it would delay handing over the body of a hostage, putting new pressure on the tenuous U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

The order from Netanyahu came after an Israeli official said Hamas had fired on its forces in southern Gaza and after the Palestinian militant group 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 

 to return the remaining hostages in Gaza as soon as possible.

In another sign of the fragility of the ceasefire, Israeli troops were shot at in the southern city of Rafah on Tuesday and returned fire, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because there hasn't been an official announcement yet.

Fragile ceasefire holds so far despite tests

 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 Associated Press 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 

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

The remains returned overnight have been identified as belonging to Ofir Tzarfati, Netanyahu's office said.

Tzarfati was kidnapped from the Nova music festival during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel that started the war. In all, 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 

 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, 

, but testing showed that one of the bodies returned was identified as a Palestinian woman. Shiri Bibas’ body was returned a day later.

In exchange for 15 dead hostages returned from Gaza since the ceasefire began, Israel has handed back to Gaza 195 Palestinian bodies. The last 20 living hostages were returned to Israel at the start of the ceasefire, and in exchange, Israel freed roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel kills 3 Palestinians in a West Bank raid

Earlier Tuesday, Israeli authorities said they had killed three Palestinian militants early during an operation in the northern part of the occupied 

, the latest action in Israel’s stepped-up military activity in the territory since the war began.

Israeli police said the three men were shot as they came out of a cave near Jenin, a town in the northern West Bank known as a militant stronghold. The Israeli military said in a statement that the militants “took part in terror activity in Jenin,” but gave no further details.

Two militants were shot and killed in the initial volley of gunfire. The third, who was wounded, was killed shortly after, according to the Israeli military.

An earlier statement said the Israeli military carried out an airstrike shortly afterward to destroy the cave. The army confirmed an airstrike in the area but gave no further details.

Hamas condemned the Jenin strike and later identified two of the three men as militants with Hamas’ Qassam Brigades. The third man was referred to as a “comrade,” but no additional details about him were given.

Israel says its operations have cracked down on militants in the West Bank. But Palestinians and human rights groups say scores of uninvolved civilians have also been among the dead, while tens of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes.

, 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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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to carry out “powerful strikes” in Gaza. This decision comes after an Israeli official reported that Hamas fired on Israeli forces in southern Gaza. Hamas has delayed handing over another hostage’s body in response to Israel’s planned strikes.

Gaza ceasefire tested as Israel and Hamas exchange fire and blame

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