Netanyahu Orders “Powerful” Strikes in Gaza as Ceasefire Breaks Down

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that he had ordered “powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip immediately” in retaliation for what Israeli officials say was a Hamas attack on Israeli forces in the city of Rafah.

The big picture: The deal to end the war in Gaza was easily President Trump’s biggest diplomatic achievement this term. It’s now looking incredibly fragile.

• The Trump administration has been focusing over the last several weeks on stabilizing the ceasefire and pressing both parties to avoid steps that could detonate it.
• As part of that mission, the White House sent several top officials to Israel and established a U.S. command center in Israel to oversee it and monitor the situation on the ground.
• But a deepening dispute over the return of deceased hostages by Hamas, and a firefight on Tuesday in the city of Rafah, intensified calls in Israel for military action. The strikes Netanyahu ordered could rupture the ceasefire altogether.

The latest: Trump told reporters on Air Force One en route from Tokyo to Seoul that Israel had the right to retaliate and he didn’t think the clashes endangered the ceasefire. Trump added that if Hamas doesn’t behave, it will be destroyed.

Driving the news: The Israel Defense Forces claimed Hamas militants fired anti-tank missiles and conducted sniper fire on Tuesday against Israeli forces in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. One Israeli soldier was killed in the attack.

• Hamas claimed it had no involvement in the incident and remains committed to the ceasefire, which it accused Israel of violating with its new strikes.
• Most of Rafah controlled by the IDF, but some Hamas militants still operate in tunnels in the area. The attack led to significant exchanges of fire between Hamas militants and the IDF.
• The Israeli air force conducted air strikes in Rafah and in other parts of Gaza in response.
• More than 30 Palestinians were killed in the strikes, according to the Hamas-controlled Civil Defense Authority in Gaza.

What they’re saying: After Netanyahu’s announcement on the strikes, Hamas’ military wing said it would postpone the handover of a deceased hostage it had recovered earlier on Tuesday.

• “We confirm that any Zionist escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies, which will lead to a delay in the occupation’s recovery of the bodies of its dead,” the statement said.
• Later, Hamas issued a statement calling on the mediators of the peace deal “to take immediate action to pressure Israel to restrain its escalation against civilians in Gaza and compel it to fully abide by the ceasefire agreement.”

Between the lines: Before the Rafah incident, Nentayahu had already consulted with Israel’s military leaders about taking new military action in Gaza over alleged ceasefire violations by Hamas related to the returning of deceased hostages.

• Israeli officials told Axios that Netanyahu was seeking to get in touch with Trump — who is traveling in East Asia — to seek a green light for a military response.
• But the events in Rafah appear to have changed Netanyahu’s calculus. There’s no indication they spoke before he released the statement announcing new strikes.

Zoom out: Israeli officials claim Hamas is “dragging its feet” on returning the remains of 13 hostages still held in Gaza.

• On Saturday, Trump called on Hamas to “start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages, including two Americans, quickly,” and stressed that if they don’t “other Countries involved in this GREAT PEACE will take action.”
• Trump acknowledged that some of the bodies are hard to reach, but stressed that “others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not.” He said he’d “watch closely” over the next 48 hours.
• On Monday, several hours before Trump’s 48-hour window closed, Hamas delivered the remains of an Israeli hostage. But a day later, Israel said Hamas had actually just handed over body parts from a hostage whose remains Israel had partially recovered more than a year ago.
• Netanyahu said in a statement on Tuesday that this had been a violation of the peace deal.

The intrigue: Several hour later, the Israeli military released a 15 minute video taken from a drone which purports to show Hamas militants staging the discovery of the body of a different hostage.

• The video shows a group of people throwing a body bag into a pit, covering it with rubble, bringing in a bulldozer, and then returning with Red Cross officials, apparently to show that a body had been “excavated.”
• Israeli officials claimed the video proved that Hamas was only pretending to be conducing difficult search efforts. “They are violating the agreement, cheating and making fun of both Israel and the Trump administration,” one told Axios.

Behind the scenes: On Tuesday, before the Rafah incident, Israel provided the video to the White House and the CIA, contended it’s a violation of the agreement and said Israel would have to respond, Israeli officials say.

• Senior Trump administration officials told Netanyahu’s team they don’t see it as a material breach of the deal by Hamas, and urged Israel not to take radical measures that could push the ceasefire to the brink of collapse, a U.S. official told Axios.
• Shortly afterwards, Netanyahu held an emergency meeting with the IDF to consider options for retaliation. The IDF presented a package of possible responses, including the resumption of strikes in Gaza and an expansion of the area of Gaza that Israel still occupies under the deal, Israeli officials say.
• “The meeting ended without any decisions and Netanyahu concluded it by noting that coordination with the U.S. would be necessary to determine which steps Israel could take,” an Israeli official said.

State of play: Shortly after that meeting, Hamas announced it had found the body of another Israeli hostage in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, and that it would be returned to Israel later on Tuesday.

• But soon after that, the firefight in Rafah began, Netanyahu announced the strikes, and Hamas said it would not be returning the body as planned.