Israel said Wednesday that it has begun “renewed enforcement of the cease-fire in response to Hamas’ violations,” a day after a series of airstrikes killed more than 100 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health officials.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strikes, carried out Tuesday on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s orders, targeted Hamas commanders and sites the military described as “positions of ongoing threat.” Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 104 people were killed, including 46 children, and 253 others were wounded.
According to the IDF, the operation “struck 30 terrorists holding command positions” following what it called “Hamas violations” of the cease-fire agreement.
Netanyahu on Tuesday had directed “forceful strikes” against Gaza, accusing Hamas of a “clear violation” of the truce. The escalation came after Israel said the remains of an Israeli hostage returned Monday by Hamas were not those of a person listed in the cease-fire deal. Netanyahu’s office said the body was that of Ofir Tzarfati, whose remains were previously recovered by Israeli forces in November 2023, with additional fragments found in March 2024.
The IDF told TIME that among those killed in Tuesday’s strikes was Hamas commander Hatem Maher Mousa Qudra, whom Israel says led an attack on Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel.
Netanyahu said an Israeli soldier, Major Sgt. Effie Feldbaum, was also killed overnight. “He gave his life for the security of Israel,” the prime minister said Wednesday.
Israel’s strikes marked the deadliest night in Gaza since the cease-fire took effect on Oct. 10, a fragile truce repeatedly strained by mutual accusations of violations. Gaza’s Health Ministry said 211 Palestinians have now been killed in Israeli strikes since Oct. 11.
In the absence of independent monitoring on the ground, the ministry is the primary source for casualty data relied upon by humanitarian groups, journalists, and international bodies. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants and cannot be independently verified by TIME.
Dr. Hasan AlShaer, medical director of the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, told TIME that 20 people killed and 50 injured in the latest strikes had been brought to the hospital in the past 24 hours. “Over 100 people have died here since the cease-fire began—at least a quarter of them children,” AlShaer said in a statement shared by the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians. “We hope there will be genuine pressure on the Israeli government to enforce a true cease-fire, open the crossings, and provide the medical equipment and supplies that hundreds of thousands of injured people need.”
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that more than 600,000 Palestinians have moved across Gaza since the truce began, with around 80% returning to the north following previous displacement orders. “Fatal incidents have been reported as returnees attempt to clear rubble from damaged homes in the north,” OCHA said, “underscoring the urgent need for emergency shelter materials to provide families with a safe alternative.”
Hamas, in a statement Wednesday, accused Israel of seeking to undermine the cease-fire agreement. “The insidious escalation against our people in Gaza reveals a clear Israeli intention to impose new realities by force,” the group said. Hamas also accused the United States of “complicity” in the strikes, saying the Trump Administration holds a “biased position” while the group remains “committed to the cease-fire.”
Israel has accused Hamas of staging a fake recovery of remains in Gaza as part of its obligation to return the bodies of Israeli hostages—13 of whom remain unaccounted for.
Shosh Bedrosian, a spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office, said a video released Tuesday shows Hamas fighters discarding the body of Tzarfati before presenting it to Red Cross officials. “They cheated Israel, they cheated President Trump, they cheated the United States, and they cheated the world,” Bedrosian said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its staff were unaware of the body’s handling before the handover. “It is unacceptable that a fake recovery was staged when so much depends on this agreement being upheld, and when so many families are still anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones,” the ICRC said in a statement.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum condemned Hamas’s actions, calling them “another act of deception and cruelty designed to torture the families and sabotage the deal.”
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