Israel on Sunday launched its heaviest wave of attacks on Gaza since a fragile cease-fire took hold a week ago and said it was suspending aid to the territory after accusing Hamas of firing on its forces and violating the truce.
Israel made clear, however, that it was not looking to abandon the cease-fire. Hamas also reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining the truce.
The transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza has been halted until further notice, according to two Israeli officials who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.
Both Israel and Hamas have now accused each other of violating the truce after repeated flare-ups of violence over the past three days.
The Israeli military on Sunday said Palestinian militants of attacking its forces across cease-fire lines in Gaza and said it had launched airstrikes in retaliation. It said the Palestinian fighters had fired an anti-tank missile at its troops and then shot at them in the Rafah area of southern Gaza that remains under Israeli control, according to the cease-fire agreement.
The military called this “a blatant violation” of the truce. In response, the military said, Israeli forces struck in the area “to eliminate the threat” and dismantle tunnel shafts and other military structures. Later Sunday, the military intensified its attacks, saying it struck dozens of Hamas targets throughout the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’s military wing said in a statement that it was “unaware of any events or clashes taking place in the Rafah area,” saying they had lost contact with their fighters there.
Israeli forces also struck a group of people they identified as armed militants crossing the cease-fire line in northern Gaza, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity under army rules.
Gaza’s health ministry reported 14 Palestinian deaths between midnight and 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, without distinguishing between combatants or civilians. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on casualties.
Although the military’s statement did not mention Hamas by name, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel blamed the group for the latest violence. He said he had consulted with his defense minister and security chiefs and had instructed them to act forcefully against militant targets in Gaza.
It added that it has had no contact with its fighters in the Rafah area since an earlier, temporary cease-fire collapsed in March and therefore has “no connection to any events taking place in those areas.”
A Hamas official, Izzat al-Rishq, in a separate statement on Sunday accused Israel of continuing to violate the truce and of fabricating “flimsy pretexts to justify its crimes.”
On Friday, the Israeli military fired on a vehicle in northern Gaza, killing at least nine people, including four children, according to a Gaza rescue service that is part of the territory’s Hamas-run Interior Ministry.
In relation to that episode, the Israeli military said that the vehicle had crossed over a demarcation line where Israel’s forces have withdrawn to under the terms of the cease-fire. The military added that its forces had fired on the vehicle, which it described as “suspicious,” after the vehicle ignored warning shots.
The Israeli military has repeatedly warned civilians not to cross the new lines or approach its troops in the Israeli-held areas but many Gazans — either lacking internet, puzzling over unclear maps, or simply lost in the devastated enclave — have at times been unsure about whether they have entered a restricted area.
After Sunday’s violence, members of Mr. Netanyahu’s hard-line government immediately called for a full resumption of Israel’s offensive against Hamas, the militant group that led the Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel that set off the war.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the ultranationalist minister of national security, called for a resumption of fighting “at full strength.” Any notions that Hamas would abide by the cease-fire agreement, he added, “are predictably proving dangerous to our security.”
Mr. Ben-Gvir was among the far-right ministers opposed to the cease-fire in the first place, believing that Israel should have continued fighting until Hamas was fully defeated.
Israel still controls about half the territory in Gaza and has accused Hamas fighters of operating out of tunnels beneath areas still under Israeli control.
Israeli officials have also expressed frustration over the slow pace at which Hamas has been handing over the remains of deceased captives as part of the cease-fire deal.
Hamas has freed the last 20 living Israeli hostages and turned over the bodies of 12 captives over the past week, according to the Israeli government. A 13th body that Hamas handed over to Israel was found by forensic experts not to match any of the captives.
Israel has freed almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and sent the bodies of more than 100 Palestinians to Gaza.
Israel identified two dead hostages whose bodies were handed over late Saturday as Ronen Engel, 54, and Sonthaya Oakkharasri, 30, a Thai citizen who had been working in agriculture in Be’eri, a border community.
Mr. Engel was killed in Nir Oz, another Israeli border community ravaged during the Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023. His body was taken to Gaza.
The bodies of 16 other captives still remain in Gaza, according to the Israeli government.
Hamas has said repeatedly that it will be difficult to locate and recover all of them. Some are buried deep under rubble and require heavy equipment to extract them.
Gabby Sobelman, Johnatan Reiss, Abu Bakr Bashir and Iyad Abuheweila contributed reporting.
Isabel Kershner, a Times correspondent in Jerusalem, has been reporting on Israeli and Palestinian affairs since 1990.
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