JERUSALEM — Israel launched airstrikes Sunday in Gaza after what it said was a Hamas attack on its forces, adding to the two-year-old war’s death toll and rattling a delicate U.S.-brokered ceasefire that had brought a measure of relief to the beleaguered enclave.
The day descended into finger-pointing as each side accused the other of violating the pact that President Trump, just six days earlier, had said would usher in “a golden age” of peace for the Middle East.
The ceasefire compelled Israel to end its months-long blockade of the enclave, but Israel said Sunday that it once again halted aid flows, potentially plunging Gaza once more into famine even as aid groups were clamoring for additional supplies to be trucked in.
Sunday’s strikes constituted the strongest challenge yet to an uneasy truce that came into place Oct. 10 after intense diplomacy — and no little pressure on the belligerents — from Trump and a raft of Arabic and Islamic nations to stop fighting and bring an end to a war that has killed tens of thousands and all but flattened much of Gaza.
Live broadcasts Sunday showed blooms of smoke rising across the Gaza Strip, as Israeli warplanes hit multiple areas in Rafah, Khan Yunis and Deir al Balah, killing at least 15 people, Palestinian health officials said. The Israeli military said one one soldier and one officer were killed.
In a statement, the Israeli military accused the militant group Hamas of firing an anti-tank missile at troops in southern Gaza, calling the attack “a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.” The military added that it responded “to eliminate the threat and dismantle tunnel shafts and military structures used for terrorist activity.”
Later, reports of dozens of attacks by Hamas came in from local media.
“Hamas will pay a heavy price for every shot and every breach of the ceasefire,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. “If the message is not understood, our response will become increasingly severe.”
The Israel Defense Forces said targets included “weapons storage facilities, infrastructure used for terrorist activity, firing posts, terrorist cells, and additional terrorist infrastructure sites. The IDF also struck and dismantled [nearly 4 miles] of underground terrorist infrastructure, using over 120 munitions.”
Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, denied any connection to the violence in Rafah, saying that it was “unaware of any events or clashes taking place in the Rafah area” and that it hadn’t had contact with any of its fighters since March, when Israel broke an earlier ceasefire.
Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Risheq insisted that it was Israel — and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — that was continuing to violate the agreement and fabricating “flimsy pretexts to justify its crimes.”
“Netanyahu’s attempts to evade and disavow his commitments come under pressure from his extremist terrorist coalition, in an attempt to evade his responsibilities to the mediators and guarantors,” Al-Risheq wrote on his Telegram messaging app channel.
Hamas says Israel has violated the ceasefire 47 times, killing 38 Palestinians and injuring 143 since the truce began Oct. 10.
In the days since, Hamas has handed over 20 living hostages kidnapped in its operation on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war; in exchange, Israel released more than 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Hamas also returned the bodies of 12 other hostages who died in captivity, and said it was still searching for the remains of 16 others.
The Qassam Brigades said in a later statement Sunday that it had recovered another body and that it would deliver it to Israel that day “if field conditions permit.” It added that any escalation “will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies.”
Israel still controls just over half of Gaza’s territory.
The violence Sunday sparked calls from Israeli leaders across the political spectrum for a return to the fight against Hamas. A Netanyahu rival — Israeli politician Benny Gantz — said that “all options must be on the table.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist minister in Netanyahu’s government who was against any truce with Hamas, said fighting should resume “with maximum force.” His right-wing ally, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, tweeted a single word: “War!”
Details on what had prompted the Israeli onslaught remained scant. The Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported the incident began at 10 a.m., when Hamas fighters emerged from a tunnel and fired an anti-tank missile at an engineering vehicle. That was followed by sniper fire at another vehicle.
But one Palestinian channel on Telegram seen as close to Hamas said the target was a Palestinian militia that had worked throughout the war with Israel.
The head of that militia, Yasser Abu Shabab, did not respond to questions sent to the militia’s email address.
The violence comes a day after the State Department said in a rare weekend statement that there were “credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza.”
The State Department warned that “should Hamas proceed with this attack, measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire.”
In response, Hamas dismissed what it called “U.S. allegations” as “false” and said that they “fully align with the misleading Israeli propaganda.” It accused Israel of supporting “criminal gangs” that it said were assaulting Palestinian civilians.
“Criminal gangs” was an apparent reference to militias competing with Hamas for control of Gaza. Last week, video emerged of what was said to be Hamas operatives executing accused collaborators in Gaza.
Last week, Trump noted the internal conflicts in Gaza when he repeated his demand that Hamas abide by a key part of the 20-point peace pact: that it disarm. If not, Trump warned Hamas, “we will have no choice but to go in and kill them.”
The war began after Hamas-led militants blitzed into southern Israel and killed about 1,200 people, two-thirds of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities, and kidnapped about 250 others.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which says the majority are women and children and which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
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