Cachella Smith
Live reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Less than three weeks after the Gaza ceasefire came into effect, Israel has launched fresh strikes on the territory after both sides accused one another of violating the fragile truce.

The strikes followed an order from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for "powerful" attacks after his office said a coffin handed over by Hamas on Monday did not contain the body of an additional deceased hostage but rather remains of Ofir Tzarfati whose body was recovered by Israeli forces in late 2023.

Since those strikes were carried out, the Hamas-affiliated Gaza Civil Defence agency has said that nine people have been killed - including four women, three men and two children.

The Israeli military has been approached by the BBC for comment on the reported killings.

Meanwhile, Hamas has said it will postpone a planned handover of another dead hostage "due to violations" of the ceasefire plan by Israel.

The US - which helped broker the deal - maintains that the ceasefire is "holding". But even Vice-President JD Vance acknowledged the delicate nature of the agreement, as he added: "that doesn't mean that there aren't going to be little skirmishes here and there."

Since the deal was agreed to at the start of the month, there's been more than one round of strikes on Gaza - while Israel has criticised the length of time it is taking Hamas to return the remaining dead hostages.

We're ending our live coverage for the day, but you can keep across further updates in our main news story.

A short while ago, we provided an update from Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence agency, which included details about an attack on Gaza City that killed four people in a civilian home.

We can now bring you pictures from that area, where you can see search and rescue teams looking for Palestinians who might be stuck beneath the debris of a destroyed building.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Turkey's foreign ministry has said the Israeli strikes on Gaza this evening "openly violate" the ceasefire agreement it reached with Hamas.

In a new statement, the ministry says it is concerned by the reports of civilian deaths and has reiterated a call for Israel to remain committed to the ceasefire.

"Turkey will continue its solidarity with the Palestinian people and will continue to support efforts to ensure a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace in the region," the statement adds.

• For context: Mediators from Turkey, Qatar and Egypt helped secure the deal reached between Israel and Hamas earlier this month

Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent in Istanbul

We've just had another update come from the Hamas-run civil defence agency.

In a summary of today's events, a spokesperson for the agency tells the BBC:

• Four people were killed after an Israeli strike hit a civilian home in the al-Sabra neighbourhood, south of Gaza City. The victims included three women and a man
• Five others were killed when an Israeli air strike targeted a civilian vehicle in Khan Younis. The victims were two men, a woman, and two children
• Two people were injured after Israeli forces struck a tent sheltering displaced families west of al-Zawaida in central Gaza

That brings the total number of people killed today in Gaza by Israeli strikes to nine, according to the Hamas-run civil defence agency.

It adds that its teams, as well as other emergency responders, continue field operations despite difficult conditions caused by ongoing bombardment and a severe lack of resources.

The BBC has approached the Israeli military for comment on the reported killings.

Image source, EPA

We've just had a reaction from the US administration, with US Vice-President JD Vance saying the ceasefire in Gaza is holding despite Israeli strikes in Gaza City and both Israel and Hamas accusing each other of violations.

"The ceasefire is holding. That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be little skirmishes here and there," Vance tells reporters.

"We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an Israeli military soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond, but I think the president's peace is going to hold despite that."

Image source, Reuters

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has released a statement following Israel's earlier accusation that Hamas put a body in soil, then excavated it and said it was one of the deceased hostages.

ICRC says its team was "not aware that a deceased person had been placed there prior to their arrival, as seen in the footage".

"Our role as neutral intermediary does not include unearthing of the bodies of the deceased. Our team only observed what appeared to be the recovery of remains without prior knowledge of the circumstances leading up to it," the statement says.

"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 organisation adds.

ICRC says it is "raising its concerns directly with the parties", and "reiterates its call on the parties to uphold their commitments to the ceasefire agreement and facilitate the return of the deceased".

We've just received another report on the death toll after new Israeli strikes today.

Gaza's civil defence agency says an Israeli air strike on a vehicle in the south of the territory has killed five people, according to AFP news agency.

Several Palestinian media outlets - including the Hamas-affiliated Filastin - also report that five people have been killed in the same area.

Israel has not confirmed the report.

Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent in Istanbul

A spokesman for Hamas’s Civil Defence told the BBC that three Palestinians were killed and dozens injured in a series of Israeli air strikes that hit homes, the courtyard of al-Shifa Hospital, and several other areas in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis.

Witnesses and local residents reported hearing powerful explosions that shook several parts of the enclave, with the heaviest strikes concentrated in Gaza City.

The new wave of attacks came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to resume strikes on Gaza, following days of rising tension and accusations that Hamas was stalling over the recovery of Israeli captives’ remains.

In a statement, Hamas denied any connection to a shooting incident that targeted an Israeli army unit in the southern city of Rafah, saying the group remains committed to the ceasefire agreement brokered through Egyptian and Qatari mediation.

The escalation has deepened fears among residents that the already fragile truce could collapse, especially amid growing mistrust between the parties and stalled efforts to move to the second phase of the Cairo agreement.

Reuters and AFP news agencies report that two people have been killed and four people are injured following an Israeli strike near Gaza City, citing an update from Gaza's Hamas-run Civil defence agency.

We're monitoring this and will bring you updates as we have them.

In the latest daily update, Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health says that more than 68,500 people have been killed since the war began on October 7 2023.

The ministry adds that a "number" of victims are still under rubble in areas where emergency crews have been unable to reach them.

Since the ceasefire came into effect, the ministry says 94 deaths have been recorded.

In the last 24 hours, it says hospitals in the Strip have recorded two deaths. Two bodies were recovered from the rubble. Seven others are also reported to have been injured, the ministry says.

Israel has launched strikes on Gaza, local media and news agencies report.

A spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence agency tells AFP that Israel launched at least three air strikes.

The IDF has not yet commented on the reports. We'll bring you more information as we get it.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said Hamas "will pay a heavy price", alleging the group has attacked IDF soldiers in Gaza and has violated the ceasefire agreement.

"The attack on IDF soldiers in Gaza today by the Hamas terrorist organization is crossing a bright red line to which the IDF will respond with great force.

"Hamas will pay with compound interest for attacking the soldiers and violating the agreement to return the fallen hostages," Katz says.

• This is not the first time since the start of the ceasefire that Israel has said its soldiers have been attacked by Hamas - last week the IDF launched strikes after it said two soldiers died in Rafah. Hamas said it was not responsible and had not had contact with fighters in the area since communications were cut off in March

Andre Lombard
Reporting from Jerusalem

More than an hour ago we heard what sounded like three fighter jets flying overhead. Around 20 minutes later we heard what sounded like three planes flying back in the opposite direction.

Then came the announcement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office that "powerful" strikes on Gaza would be carried out.

With both Hamas and Israel accusing each other of breaking the US brokered ceasefire, this is a test of it - but American pressure should make sure it holds.

Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent

Tension and fear spread across Gaza on Tuesday evening after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to launch immediate strikes on the enclave.

Witnesses in several areas of Gaza City and Khan Younis said people hurried home as news of the order circulated.

“The streets emptied as soon as they heard the Israeli threats,” Alaa Saleh, a teacher who is now working a taxi driver, told the BBC. “Everyone wanted to reach his tent or house before the planes arrived.”

Most shops closed their doors before nightfall, and the normally crowded markets fell silent. Local residents said armed Hamas fighters who had been manning checkpoints on several main roads were seen withdrawing shortly before sunset.

The renewed tension comes amid growing uncertainty surrounding the fragile truce and ongoing efforts to recover the bodies of Israeli captives believed to remain under the rubble or in tunnels.

Residents in Gaza described a mix of anxiety and exhaustion after months of sporadic violence and repeated Israeli warnings of renewed operations

Yolande Knell and Jacob Evans
Reporting from Jerusalem

Earlier this week, our reporters wrote about children in Gaza who are waiting for medical evacuations.

In different wards of Nasser Hospital lie two 10-year-old boys, one shot by Israeli fire and paralysed from the neck down, another with a brain tumour.

They are among some 15,000 patients who the World Health Organization (WHO) says are in need of urgent medical evacuations.

Ola Abu Said sits gently stroking the hair of her son, Amar. His family says he was in their tent in southern Gaza when he was hit by a stray bullet fired by an Israeli drone. It is lodged between two of his vertebrae, leaving him paralysed.

"He needs surgery urgently," Ola says, "but it's complicated. Doctors told us it could cause his death, a stroke or brain haemorrhage. He needs surgery in a well-equipped place."

• You can read on in our news story

It's nearly three weeks since Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire deal that would see the release of all remaining hostages being held by the armed group and the retreat of Israeli troops from part of Gaza.

Announced at the start of the month, the terms of the deal largely aligned with the first part of Trump's 20 point peace plan.

The deal was expected to increase aid into Gaza and see Palestinian prisoners released.

But the ceasefire has been tenuous - and Israel has launched air strikes into Gaza, while Hamas has yet to return all of the remains of deceased hostages, citing difficulty locating them.

Earlier this year, a previous ceasefire collapsed after a wave of Israeli air strikes - which Netanyahu said was a response to Hamas' "repeated refusal to release our hostages".

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent, reporting from Jerusalem

Israel says it will carry out what it calls "intense strikes" on Hamas in response to what it claims are repeated violations of the Trump-brokered Gaza ceasefire plan.

Israel has accused Hamas of firing on its forces occupying part of the Gaza Strip as well as what it says was "a deliberate deception plot".

Last night Hamas handed over what it said were the remains of another Israeli hostage. But Israel says forensic tests showed they belong to a body already recovered from Gaza two years ago.

Drone footage taken by the IDF appears to show a body being taken out of a building in Gaza, placed in a shroud in a shallow grave then covered in soil. Israel says Hamas then carried out a fake excavation.

Hamas did not immediately comment on the drone footage but says it is postponing a planned handover of another dead hostage "due to violations" of the ceasefire plan by Israel. It says Israel is to blame for the delay in handovers by impeding the excavation work needed to recover the bodies.

In a statement a little earlier, Hamas accused Israel of seeking to "fabricate false pretexts in preparation for taking new aggressive steps" in Gaza.

It says Israel is obstructing efforts to search for bodies in the Strip, and calls on mediators to "allow the relevant bodies to carry out their humanitarian tasks away from political and aggressive calculations".

The statement from Benjamin Netanyahu's office comes as Israel says a coffin handed over by Hamas on Monday did not contain the body of another deceased hostage.

Forensic tests showed the remains belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, whose body was recovered by Israeli forces in late 2023, and not to any of the 13 deceased hostages still in Gaza, his office said.

It accused Hamas of a "clear violation" of the two-week-old Gaza ceasefire deal. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

The group has said it is committed to the deal brokered by the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, but that it needs help to find remains buried under the rubble left by two years of war.

• Read more on this story here

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the military to immediately carry out "powerful" strikes on Gaza, his office says.

This is a breaking story and we'll bring you more updates as we get them.