Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the military to immediately carry out “powerful” strikes on Gaza, his office says
It comes as Israel says a coffin handed over by Hamas on Monday did not contain the body of another deceased hostage and accuses Hamas of a “clear violation” of the weeks-old Gaza ceasefire deal
Hamas says Israel is seeking “to fabricate false pretexts in preparation for taking new aggressive steps” in Gaza
It says Israel is obstructing efforts to search for bodies in the Strip, and calls on mediators to “allow the relevant bodies to carry out their humanitarian tasks away from political and aggressive calculations”
All but one of the dead hostages still in Gaza were among the 251 people abducted during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 other people were killed
Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 68,500 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
