Gaza ceasefire going up in smoke as Israel resumes ‘powerful strikes’, killing 33 kids

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced late on 28 October, Tuesday, that he has ordered the Israeli army to carry out “powerful strikes” in Gaza immediately, escalating tensions that threaten the fragile US-brokered ceasefire — over allegations of Hamas playing fast-and-loose with the conditions agreed upon.

In response, Hamas declared it would delay handing over the body of a hostage that it had recovered, increasing pressure on the already tenuous truce.

Associated Press reporters and witnesses reported hearing tank fire and seeing explosions in multiple parts of Gaza, including Gaza City and Deir al-Balah. This latest strike order follows an incident where Israeli forces were allegedly fired upon in southern Gaza and after Hamas handed over some body parts on 27 October, Monday, that Israel identified as partial remains of a hostage already recovered earlier in the war.

Netanyahu called the return of these body parts a “clear violation” of the ceasefire, which mandates that Hamas promptly return all remaining hostages held in Gaza.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz warned in a statement, “Hamas would pay a heavy price for attacking Israeli soldiers in Gaza and for violating the agreement on returning the deceased hostages.”

This has included at least 60 people dead overnight, over half of them children, per local hospital officials’ counts on 29 October, Wednesday.

• The Aqsa Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah said at least 10 bodies, including 3 women and 6 children, reached the hospital overnight after two Israeli airstrikes there.

• In southern Gaza, the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said it received 20 bodies after five Israeli strikes in the area, of which 13 were children and 2 were women.

• Elsewhere in central Gaza, the Al-Awda Hospital said it received 30 bodies, of which 14 were children.

Of course, this is not the first strike Israel has carried out since the supposed commencement of this ceasefire deal — and many a political observer and West Asia expert has counted multiple violations from Israel itself.

Prior to launching the strikes, Israel notified the United States, according to two US officials who spoke to AP anonymously about the matter, per reports.

An AP reporter in Deir al-Balah heard tanks firing from an Israeli-controlled area, while in Gaza City, health officials reported strikes near the Shifa hospital complex.

Earlier, Israeli troops in Rafah were reportedly shot at and returned fire, though an official announcement has not yet been made. Hamas denied involvement in the Rafah gunfire, insisting in a statement, “The violent strikes carried out by Israel across the Strip is a blatant violation of the ceasefire deal.”

Hamas has called on mediators in the ceasefire to demand that Israel halt its escalations, especially attacks on civilians.

US vice president J.D. Vance expressed cautious optimism about the ceasefire’s stability, claiming, “That doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be little skirmishes here and there.”

It remains unclear whether this means Israel is allowed to skirmish while Hamas is held to higher standards.

Fragile ceasefire tested but still holding

The ceasefire, effective since 10 October, has largely held despite several flare-ups. On 19 October, Israel alleged Hamas fire had killed two Israeli soldiers and initiated retaliatory strikes that reportedly killed over 40 Palestinians, per local health officials. Over the weekend of 24–26 October, Israel targeted Islamic Jihad militants in an airstrike, injuring several.

The fate of the 7 October 2023 hostages — whole complete handover to Israeli authorities is a key component of the deal — remains a key challenge. While Hamas has released all living hostages and handed over several bodies, it has said Israeli presence and the invasive military operations have cut off access or knowledge of several bodies.

Thirteen bodies of hostages are supposedly still in Gaza. Although Hamas claimed on 28 October, Tuesday, that it had recovered one more hostage’s body after being allowed (with a Red Cross) beyond the ‘yellow line’ where the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have withdrawn to, Hamas has now announced it shall delay transferring the body to the Red Cross for handover to Israel after Netanyahu’s announcement of the “immediate” strike.

An AP videographer reported seeing a white body bag being carried out of a tunnel in Khan Younis by men who included masked militants. It was loaded into an ambulance, but the contents were not confirmed.

The slow repatriation of the hostages’ remains complicates plans for the next ceasefire phases, which deal with contentious issues such as full disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force across Gaza, and the question of future governance in Palestine.

Hamas has cited the difficulty of locating bodies amid Gaza’s widespread destruction and IDF presence that puts certain areas off-limits still — where Hamas presence would also, doubtless, be read a ceasefire violation by Israel. Meanwhile, Israel accuses Hamas of intentionally delaying the process. Egypt has sent teams with heavy equipment to assist in the search, with efforts ongoing in Khan Younis and Nuseirat.

The violations he cited include delays in returning the bodies on Hamas’ part, while on Israel’s part, there has been the failure to open the Rafah crossing as yet, the multiple postponements of patient evacuations and scaling up of aid as promised (these were to be immediate actions in the early phase), besides the ‘minor skirmishes’ along the ‘yellow lines’ separating Israeli troops from Gaza.

A family’s tragedy amid conflict

The remains returned overnight (28 October) have been identified as those of Ofir Tzarfati, Netanyahu’s office has claimed. Tzarfati was abducted during Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack, during which militants killed approximately 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.

This was followed by Israel’s crippling genocidal retaliation in this latest war on Gaza, killing 68,500 Palestinians in two years, per official Gaza health ministry figures, which does not differentiate civilians from combatants in its counts. The ministry’s casualty data are generally regarded as reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. Israel disputes these figures but has not released its own casualty statistics.

However, conflict experts and West Asia observers have suggested that precedents from other wars suggest the actual figure of Palestinian dead may be a whole order of magnitude higher than the official figures.

Early in this war, however, Tzarfati died in captivity. His body was recovered by Israeli forces in November 2023, with additional remains returned to his family in March 2024. The family said with Hamas’ latest handover, this is the third time “we have been forced to open Ofir’s grave and rebury our son”.

This is the second time since the latest ceasefire that Hamas-released remains have been considered ‘problematic’ by Israel. The Netanyahu regime claimed that one body released during the first week of the ceasefire belonged to an unidentified Palestinian rather than a hostage taken from Israel. There has been no independent verification of the claims.

Previously, in February 2025, Hamas handed over the bodies of three hostages, including Shiri Bibas and her two sons, but one body was later identified as a Palestinian woman, according to Israeli authorities. Shiri Bibas’ body was returned the following day, with Hamas admitting there had been a mistake on that occasion. (It has not commented on the more recent claims of deception from Israel.)

Since the ceasefire began, Israel has received 15 deceased hostages from Gaza and returned 195 Palestinian bodies to Gaza. The initial 20 living hostages were handed back to Israel at the ceasefire’s start, in exchange for roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel — these being detainees held in custody after 7 October 2023.

Of course, as far back as July 2023 — long before the ‘7 October Hamas attack’ — the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) had reported that Israel held 5,000 Palestinians (including 160 minors) in detainment. Most of them are still held by Israel, though a small proportion were released in earlier hostage exchanges.

Much of the detainment of Palestinians — from both Gaza and the occupied West Bank — by Israel has involved no formal charges or trials, and only allegations of security threats.

There have equally been allegations from rights groups, including Israeli ones, that there is widespread mistreatment of detainees by the IDF and Israeli authorities — up to and including rape, starvation, solitary confinement and other forms of torture.

There have also been allegations of Israel releasing prisoners — only to round up a number of them again later or going after other members of their families.

Meanwhile, detainments have been ramped up since the 7 October Hamas attack, so that the current estimate of Palestine’s citizens in Israel’s custody exceeds 9,100.

The release of these thousands of Palestinian detainees, including minors, in exchange for the 7 October hostages has always been Hamas’ stated objective since 8 October 2023 — along with the full withdrawal of Israel from Palestinian territory, both Gaza and the West Bank and parts of occupied Jerusalem.