Hamas delays body handover after Netanyahu orders ‘powerful attacks’ in Gaza

2 hours ago 4

By Melanie Lidman

Updated October 29, 2025 — 6.39am

Tel Aviv: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has ordered the army to immediately carry out “powerful strikes” in Gaza, and Hamas has responded by saying it will delay handing over the body of a hostage, putting new pressure on the tenuous US-brokered ceasefire.

The order from Netanyahu on Tuesday (Israeli time) followed heightened tensions, as Israel reported Hamas firing on its forces in southern Gaza, and Hamas returned a set of remains that Israel said belonged to a hostage recovered earlier in the war.

Hamas militants carry a white bag believed to contain a body, after retrieving it from a tunnel during a search for the remains of hostages in Hamad City, Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.

Netanyahu called the return a “clear violation” of the ceasefire agreement, which requires Hamas to return all Israeli hostage remains 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 hadn’t been an official announcement.

The ceasefire that began on October 10 has largely held despite at least two previous flare-ups in violence.

On October 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. Last weekend, Israel carried out an airstrike against what it said were Islamic Jihad militants planning an attack, wounding several people.

A view from Sheikh Ridwan in Gaza City, Gaza, shows the heavy destruction left behind after the Israeli army withdraws following a ceasefire agreement.

The bodies of 13 hostages remain in Gaza. Hamas said on Tuesday it had recovered the remains of another hostage, but after Israel announced the plans to strike Gaza, the group said in a statement it would delay handing it over.

An Associated Press videographer in Khan Younis witnessed 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 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 bodies. That work continued on Tuesday in Khan Younis and Nuseirat.

Palestinians watch as Egyptian machinery and workers search for the bodies of hostages in Hamad City.

This is the second time since the ceasefire began that human 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.

A stricken family

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

An undated photo showing Ofir Tzarfati, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023 and whose body was recovered by Israeli troops in November 2023.

Tzarfati was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, during the Hamas-led attack on Israel that started the war. In all, some 1200 people were killed that day, mostly civilians, and 251 were taken hostage.

Tzarfati was killed in captivity, and Israeli troops retrieved his body 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 the West Bank

In another development, Israeli authorities said they had killed three Palestinian militants during an operation in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

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 afterwards 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.

Over 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.

Get a note direct from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.