The Israeli military said it is reinforcing the Gaza ceasefire after it was "violated" by Hamas, signaling an end to strikes on the enclave that it claimed were carried out in response to earlier attacks on its forces.
It followed the resumption of strikes by Israel on Gaza, after its military accused the Palestinian militant group Hamas of breaking a ceasefire and hostage release deal brokered last week.
The Israeli army said dozens of Hamas targets were struck in Gaza today, with Gaza's civil defence saying that at least 33 have been killed in Israeli strikes.
"Over the past few hours, in response to the blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement earlier today, the IDF struck dozens of Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip," the Israeli military had said, adding that the targets included Hamas weapons stores.
"In response to the blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement earlier today, the IDF (Israeli army) has begun a series of strikes against Hamas terror targets in the southern Gaza Strip", the Israeli military said in an earlier statement.
Israel also said earlier that it would be suspending the delivery of aid into Gaza until further notice and that it has closed its crossing points into Gaza to aid convoys.
Under the terms of the agreement, Hamas and its allies committed to releasing all remaining hostages they seized on 7 October 2023.
They have so far released all 20 surviving hostages, but have returned only 12 bodies of the 28 dead hostages they still hold, blaming difficulties in locating them under the rubble.
Besides failing to return all the hostages, Israel accuses Hamas of targeting its troops in areas of Gaza where they are allowed to be stationed under the deal, a claim that Palestinian militants reject.
An Israeli military official said that a first wave of strikes this morning was in retaliation for at least three attacks against its forces.
Watch: Israel says returning to ceasefire after 'violation'
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According to the official, the army responded to "at least three incidents in which Hamas fired towards our troops standing behind the yellow line in the agreed-upon positions," referring to the line of withdrawal of the Israeli army under the terms of the ceasefire.
In two incidents in Rafah in southern Gaza, Hamas allegedly opened fire and launched a rocket-propelled grenade against Israeli troops, some of whom were engineering forces "operating to dismantle terrorist infrastructure in southern Gaza".
The official said that troops were stationed in areas behind the yellow line where the Israeli military is allowed to manoeuvre under the terms of the truce.
In a separate incident in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, Palestinian militants crossed the yellow line into Israel-controlled areas and were "eliminated in a precise strike," the military official said.
Hamas denied the accusations it had attacked Israeli forces, saying it was adhering to the truce and that Israel was devising "flimsy pretexts" to resume the war.
Palestinian witnesses told AFP that clashes erupted in Rafah, in an area still held by Israel, between Hamas and a local Palestinian gang known as Abu Shabab, supported by Israel.
Following the strikes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Defence Minister Israel Katz and the heads of the Shin Bet and Mossad security agencies, and "directed that strong action be taken against terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip," according to a statement from his office.
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Meanwhile, Gaza's civil defence agency said a series of Israeli air strikes today killed at least 11 people across the territory, as Israel and Hamas traded blame for violating a ceasefire.
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas authority, said six of the victims were killed when an Israeli strike targeted a "group of civilians" in northern Gaza.
Israel's attacks today were the most serious test of an already fragile ceasefire, which took effect on 11 October.
Palestinians in Gaza said they heard explosions and gunfire in Rafah in the south of Gaza and witnesses separately reported heavy gunfire from Israeli tanks in the eastern town of Abassan near Khan Younis, also in southern Gaza.
Witnesses in Khan Younis heard a wave of airstrikes launched into Rafah this afternoon.
Local health authorities in Gaza said two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the eastern Jabalia area of northern Gaza.
The Times of Israel reported that the military was conducting airstrikes in the Rafah area after militants attacked forces there, though it did not cite a source for the information.
An Israeli military official said today that Hamas had carried out multiple attacks against Israeli forces inside Gaza, including a rocket-propelled grenade attack and a sniper attack against Israeli soldiers.
"Both of the incidents happened in an Israeli-controlled area ... this is a bold violation of the ceasefire," the official said.
Senior Hamas official Izzat Al Risheq said that the Palestinian militant group remained committed to the ceasefire, which he accused Israel of repeatedly violating.
The government media office in Gaza said yesterday that Israel had committed 47 violations after the ceasefire deal, leaving 38 people dead and 143 wounded.
"These violations have ranged from direct shooting at civilians, to deliberate shelling and targeting operations, as well as the arrest of several civilians," the media office statement said.
Israel says Hamas will pay 'heavy price' if troops attacked
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that troops in Gaza would respond forcefully if Hamas militants carry out attacks in violation of a ceasefire.
"Hamas will pay a heavy price for every shot and every breach of the ceasefire," Mr Katz said in a statement. "If the message is not understood, our response will become increasingly severe."
Rafah crossing to remain closed
The Israeli government and Hamas have been accusing each other of violations of the ceasefire for days, with Israel saying the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed until further notice.
Rafah has largely been shut since May 2024. The ceasefire deal also includes the ramping up of aid to Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people were determined in August to be affected by famine, according to the IPC global hunger monitor.
Israel and Hamas have been engaged in a dispute over the return of the bodies of deceased hostages.
Israel demanded that Hamas fulfill its obligations in turning over the remaining bodies of all 28 hostages.
Hamas has returned all 20 live hostages and 12 of the deceased and has said it has no interest in keeping the bodies of remaining hostages. The group said the process needs effort and special equipment to recover corpses buried under rubble.
Read more: Fragile Gaza ceasefire seems to be holding but can it last?
Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza today, bringing the total number handed over to 150, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said.
Under the ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.
Israel confirmed that the second of two bodies returned overnight by Hamas was that of a Thai farm worker killed during the 7 October 2023 attack whose body was taken to Gaza.
The prime minister's office said the military had informed the family of the deceased hostage, Sonthaya Oakkharasri, that their loved one had been returned to Israel and formally identified.
Formidable obstacles to Mr Trump's plan to end the war still remain. Key questions of Hamas disarming, the governance of Gaza, the make-up of an international "stabilisation force", and moves towards the creation of a Palestinian state have yet to be resolved.
When asked for comment, the US Embassy in Jerusalem referred inquiries to the US State Department.
Renewed fighting in Gaza and concerns over the ceasefire pushed key Tel Aviv share indices down nearly 2% today.
