Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to immediately launch strong attacks on the Gaza Strip, according to a statement reported by Reuters.

Earlier, an Israeli military official told Fox News that the Hamas organization violated the current ceasefire in Gaza, opening fire on Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in the Rafah area.

The incident follows the killing of two Israeli soldiers by gunmen in Rafah in mid-October.

At the same time, members of the Red Cross are monitoring Hamas work in the Al-Tufah area of Gaza, where excavations are being carried out to locate the bodies of missing Israeli hostages.

According to Israel, Hamas largely knows where their bodies are.

Hamas's response

Hamas' armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, announced that it was postponing the scheduled handover of the body of an Israeli hostage it had located, citing what it claimed were violations of the ceasefire in Gaza by Israel.

In a post on the Telegram platform, the organization warned that any Israeli escalation of attacks in the Gaza Strip would hinder search and recovery operations, delaying the return of the bodies of Israeli soldiers.