Israel strikes Gaza, at least 30 killed

A wave of Israeli airstrikes was reported Tuesday evening in Gaza City after Israeli officials vowed to respond to an attack on troops in south Gaza and Hamas’s failure to return the bodies of hostages still held in the Strip. After the incident, Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said at least 30 people were killed and dozens wounded in the Israeli strikes. Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the IDF to “carry out immediate and powerful strikes in Gaza,” his office said, after he called a meeting on Israel’s response to repeated violations of the Gaza ceasefire.Defense Minister Israel Katz also threatened the terror group, saying Hamas will pay a “heavy price” for attacking soldiers.
Hamas announced on Tuesday night that it had no connection to the shooting earlier in Rafah and that it was committed to the ceasefire. The war in Gaza erupted when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. The 20 remaining living hostages in Gaza were released earlier this month after 738 days in captivity, as part of phase one of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war. The remains of 13 deceased hostages, including those of a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war, are still in the Strip.