Israel carried out a night of strikes across Gaza after an Israeli reservist was killed in Rafah, then said it had resumed enforcement of a two-week-old ceasefire. Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry reported 104 Palestinians killed, including 46 children and 20 women, and more than 250 injured.
The Israel Defense Forces said it struck dozens of targets and members of armed groups in response to violations by Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “forceful strikes” after a security assessment, while Defence Minister Israel Katz said an attack on troops had crossed a red line. The military identified the dead soldier as Master Sergeant Yona Efraim Feldbaum.
According to an Israeli military source, Feldbaum was killed when fire hit an engineering vehicle whose team was dismantling an underground tunnel route in Rafah. Several anti-tank missiles were then fired toward another armoured vehicle without causing further injuries. The incident occurred on the Israeli-controlled side of the ceasefire's “Yellow Line,” the source said.
Hamas denied any connection to the Rafah fire and maintained that it remained committed to the agreement. The competing accounts could not be independently resolved from the supplied reporting.
The Israeli strikes hit homes, schools and residential blocks from Gaza City and Beit Lahia in the north to Bureij, Nuseirat and Khan Younis farther south. Gaza's civil-defence agency reported fatalities from several family homes. At Nasser Hospital, relatives mourned a mother and four children killed in a tent at a camp for displaced people in al-Mawasi. Israel said its target set included at least 30 commanders of armed groups.
The IDF announced the renewed ceasefire the following morning but later reported another strike on a Beit Lahia site, which it said held weapons and aerial equipment intended for an imminent attack. Palestinian media reported one person killed there.
The confrontation also unfolded amid a dispute over the return of deceased hostages. Israel said remains transferred by Hamas belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, whose body Israeli forces had recovered in 2023, and accused the group of staging a false recovery. Hamas rejected that allegation. The International Committee of the Red Cross said its team attended in good faith, did not know remains had allegedly been placed at the site beforehand and regarded any staged recovery as unacceptable.
US President Donald Trump said the soldier's killing justified an Israeli response but insisted the flare-up would not destroy the ceasefire. The agreement, brokered by the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, had already secured the release of 20 living Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The latest violence exposed how quickly disputes over battlefield incidents and hostage remains could test that arrangement even when both sides said it remained in force.
