Tensions have escalated as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an order on Tuesday, following reports of hostilities in southern Gaza. This comes after Israel accused Hamas of violating a ceasefire agreement by firing on Israeli forces and returning only partial remains of a hostage, which Israel claimed had been recovered earlier in the conflict.

Netanyahu labeled the partial return of the remains as a “clear violation” of the ceasefire terms, which demand that Hamas return all Israeli hostage bodies without delay.

Highlighting the fragile nature of the ceasefire, Israeli forces came under fire in the southern city of Rafah on Tuesday. They returned fire in response, according to an Israeli military official who requested anonymity due to the absence of an official statement.

Currently, 13 hostages’ bodies remain unreturned in Gaza. On Tuesday, Hamas announced it had recovered the body of a hostage that it plans to hand over later in the evening.

An Associated Press videographer in Khan Younis captured footage of what seemed to be a white body bag being carried from a tunnel by several individuals, including some masked militants, before it was placed into an ambulance. The exact contents of the bag were not immediately confirmed.

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. That work continued Tuesday in Khan Younis and Nuseirat.

This is the second time since the ceasefire began on October 10 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.

During a previous ceasefire in February 2025, Hamas said it handed over the bodies of three hostages, Shiri Bibas and her two sons, but testing showed that one of the bodies returned was identified as a Palestinian woman. Shiri Bibas’ body was returned a day later.

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

Tzarfati was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel that started the war. In all, the militants killed some 1200 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”.

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 2000 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel kills three Palestinians in a West Bank raid

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli authorities said they had killed three Palestinian militants early during an operation in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, the latest action in Israel’s stepped-up military activity in the territory since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

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.

More than 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 UN agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.