Israeli airstrike kills five in southern Gaza, civil defense says

Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in the south of the enclave 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, a 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 attack in Gaza City after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a new wave of strikes against Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday ordered the army to launch heavy raids in the Gaza Strip after accusing Hamas of violating a US-brokered truce.

“After security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered the military to immediately carry out heavy strikes on the Gaza Strip,” a statement from his office said.

That development came after the Israeli military accused Hamas of conducting its investigation into the remains of a Gaza prisoner, one of 28 the group had agreed to hand over under a ceasefire deal.

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“Yesterday (Monday) Hamas operatives were documented removing remains from a pre-prepared structure and burying them nearby,” the military said in a statement, attaching drone footage it said showed the act.

Aerial footage shows three people emerging from a damaged building in Gaza carrying a body wrapped in a white sheet. The men then bury the body moments before a bulldozer parked nearby unearths it again.

“The terrorist organization Hamas called representatives of the Red Cross and made a false show of discovering the body of a dead hostage,” the military statement said.

The video shows three people wearing red vests, which AFP could not independently verify. The military did not specify the location of the video, which was shot on Monday.

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“This video clearly shows that the terrorist organization Hamas is trying to create a false impression of efforts to locate the bodies, when in fact it is holding dead hostages whose remains it refuses to release as required by the agreement,” the statement said.

The statement came as Israel accused Hamas of violating the terms of a US-brokered ceasefire.

Hamas handed over what it said was the body of a 16th prisoner on Monday, but an Israeli forensic examination found that Hamas had actually handed over some remains of Ofir Jarfati – whose body had already been flown to Israel about two years ago, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

“I can confirm to you today that Hamas dug a hole in the ground yesterday, placed the partial remains of Ofir in it, covered it with soil and handed it over to the Red Cross,” government spokeswoman Sosh Bedrossian told reporters on Tuesday.

Hamas says it is committed to the terms of the ceasefire, but lacks the necessary equipment to locate and exhume the bodies of prisoners, possibly buried under buildings collapsed by airstrikes.

The military’s statement on Tuesday said the equipment requested by Hamas was “apparently unnecessary for transporting remains, and therefore these claims are not an obstacle to the return of the remaining dead hostages.”

Hamas said it was Israel that prevented it from carrying out the body searches and accused it of making “false pretexts in preparation for taking new aggressive measures against our people”.