Israeli PM Netanyahu orders military to immediately carry out 'powerful strikes' on Gaza

US Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday the ceasefire in Gaza is still holding despite "skirmishes", after Israel launched air strikes and accused Hamas of attacking its troops.

"The ceasefire is holding. That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be little skirmishes," Vance said in comments broadcast on Fox News and posted on social media by the White House.

Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike on a vehicle in the south of the territory killed five people on Tuesday.

"At least five (were killed) in an Israeli strike on a civilian vehicle on Al-Qassam Street in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas, told AFP.

The agency earlier reported that two people were killed in a separate Israeli strike in Gaza City, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a new wave of attacks against Hamas.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas rejected accusations that its fighters attacked Israeli troops in Gaza on Tuesday, vowing to abide by the US-brokered ceasefire with Israel.

"Hamas affirms that it has no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah and affirms its commitment to the ceasefire agreement," the group said in a statement.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Hamas of attacking Israeli forces in Gaza but did not specify the location of the incident.

Gaza's civil defence agency said that two people were killed and four were injured in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza City.

"Two civilians were killed and four others, including a child and an infant, were injured in an Israeli airstrike on a home belonging to the Al-Banna family in the Al-Sabra neighborhood in southern Gaza City," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency told AFP.

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday that Hamas attacked its troops despite an ongoing ceasefire in Gaza, and vowed the group would "pay a heavy price".

"The terrorist organisation Hamas will pay a heavy price for attacking IDF soldiers in Gaza and for violating the agreement to return the bodies of the hostages. Hamas's attack today on IDF soldiers in Gaza is a crossing of a bright red line, to which the IDF will respond with great force," Katz said in a statement released by his office.

Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered the military to carry out intense strikes on the Gaza Strip after accusing Hamas of violating the US-brokered ceasefire.

Gaza's civil defence agency said that Israel launched at least three air strikes on the Palestinian territory Tuesday, shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to carry out fresh attacks.

"The occupation is now bombing Gaza with at least three air strikes despite the ceasefire agreement", Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency told AFP. Witnesses told AFP that they heard the blasts.

Hamas's armed wing said it was postponing the handover of another hostage body scheduled for Tuesday evening after what it called Israeli "violations" of the US-brokered ceasefire.

Hamas's announcement came minutes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to carry out intense strikes on the Gaza Strip, accusing the militants of violating the truce deal.

"We will postpone the handover that was scheduled for today due to the occupation's violations," the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement, adding that any Israeli "escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies".

Israel accuses Hamas of faking recovery of Gaza hostage remains

Israel's military on Tuesday accused Hamas of staging its search for the remains of a Gaza hostage body, one of 28 the group had agreed to hand over under a ceasefire deal.

"Yesterday (Monday) Hamas operatives were documented removing body remains from a structure that had been prepared in advance and burying them nearby," the military said in a statement, attaching drone footage which it said showed the act.

The aerial footage shows three individuals exiting a damaged Gaza building holding what could be a body wrapped in a white sheet.

The individuals then bury the alleged body moments before a bulldozer parked nearby uncovers it again.

"The Hamas terrorist organisation summoned representatives of the Red Cross and staged a false display of discovering a deceased hostage's body," the military statement said.

Three people wearing red vests appear in the video, which AFP was unable to independently verify. The military did not specify the location of the footage which was filmed on Monday.

"This footage clearly shows that the Hamas terrorist organisation is attempting to create a false impression of efforts to locate the bodies, while in fact holding deceased hostages whose remains it refuses to release as required by the agreement," the statement said.

Hamas said it was Israel who prevented it from carrying out its search for bodies, and accused it of fabricating "false pretexts in preparation for taking new aggressive steps against our people".

Israel's Netanyahu orders immediate 'powerful strikes' on Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he has ordered the army to immediately carry out "powerful strikes" in Gaza, a new test for the tenuous U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

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

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 a 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 hasn't been an official announcement yet.

There are still 13 bodies of hostages in Gaza. Hamas said Tuesday it has recovered the body of a hostage that it plans to hand over this evening.

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 the bodies of the remaining hostages. That work continued Tuesday in Khan Younis and Nuseirat.