Netanyahu orders 'powerful' strikes saying Hamas violated cease-fire

by · UPI

Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israel Defense Forces to strike Hamas in Gaza following an attack on IDF forces in southern Gaza and after saying it returned the wrong remains.

Netanyahu ordered "immediate and powerful" strikes in the Gaza Strip due to repeated cease-fire violations by Hamas, The Times of Israel reported.

He made the decision after Hamas attacked IDF troops in southern Gaza and after learning that remains returned on Monday were not of the person Hamas claimed they were.

Israel is awaiting the return of the bodies of 13 hostages who died while in captivity in Gaza, but the latest remains were from a body that Hamas returned to Israel two years ago, according to CNN.

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"This constitutes a clear violation of the agreement by the terrorist organization Hamas," the Israeli Prime Minister's Office said in a prepared statement.

Israeli forensics testing showed the partial remains belong to Ofir Tzarfati, whose remains already were recovered during an Israeli military operation in November 2023.

He was among the 251 hostages taken by Hamas and Islamic Jihad during the Oct. 7, 2023, raid on Israeli civilians that killed 1,200.

The remains were returned in a coffin, but drone footage recorded by an Israeli military drone showed Hamas members burying a body covered in a white shroud in a shallow grave.

Hamas then invited the Red Cross to watch while staging the discovery of the body before returning it to Israel, claiming that it had been found inside a tunnel beneath the Gaza Strip.

It was the second time that Hamas claimed to return a body that did not belong to who they said it did after earlier returning a body that belonged to a Gazan.

Hamas said it unearthed another hostage's body on Tuesday but won't return it amid Netanyahu's order for immediate strikes.

Hamas officials deny any wrongdoing or violating the cease-fire and accused Israel of trying to "fabricate false pretexts in preparation for taking new aggressive steps" in Gaza, the BBC reported.

Hamas also accused Israel of interfering with the search for the remains of hostages in Gaza and asked cease-fire mediators to block "political and aggressive calculations" by Israel while the search for more bodies continues.

They also claimed the IDF violated the cease-fire 80 times and killed more than 80 Gazans since the cease-fire took effect two weeks ago.

Thirteen bodies remain to be returned to Israel in accordance with the cease-fire and after President Donald Trump on Saturday gave Hamas a 48-hour deadline to return all remaining bodies.

Failure to do so would prompt other nations involved in the peace agreement to act against Hamas.