Aboard Air Force One on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said that «nothing» would jeopardize the ceasefire in Gaza while defending Israel’s right to respond after one of its soldiers was killed.
«They killed an Israeli soldier. So the Israelis hit back. And they should hit back», Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
His comments came after Gaza’s civil defense agency reported that Israeli air strikes had killed at least 50 people, despite the ongoing truce. Israel accused Hamas of violating the US-brokered ceasefire by attacking its troops.
Israel began carrying out air strikes on Tuesday after accusing Hamas of attacking Israeli troops in Gaza and violating the truce.
While Israel did not say where its troops were attacked, Hamas has said its fighter had "no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah" and reaffirmed its commitment to the US-brokered ceasefire.
The Israeli army said Wednesday one of its soldiers—37-year-old Yona Efraim Feldbaum—was killed "during combat in the southern Gaza Strip" a day earlier, and his family had been informed.
Trump defended Israel's actions on Wednesday, saying it "should hit back," but added that "nothing's going to jeopardize" the truce.
"They killed an Israeli soldier. So the Israelis hit back. And they should hit back," Trump told reporters on Air Force One during his tour of Asia.
US Vice President JD Vance earlier said the ceasefire was holding despite the "skirmishes."
Escalations
The territory's main Al-Shifa hospital said one of the strikes hit its backyard.
Al-Awda Hospital said it had received several bodies, including those of four children, killed in the bombing of Gaza's central Nuseirat refugee camp.
Hamas announced it would delay handing over the body of another hostage, due on Tuesday, saying Israeli "escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies".
Hamas militants had taken 251 people hostage during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war.
A row over the last remaining bodies of deceased hostages has threatened to derail the ceasefire agreement.
Israel accuses Hamas of reneging by not returning them, but the Palestinian group says it will take time to locate the remains buried in Gaza's war-ravaged ruins.
Hamas later said on Telegram it had found the bodies of two hostages on Tuesday but did not specify when it would hand them over.
'Act Decisively'
Hamas came under mounting pressure on Monday after it returned the partial remains of a previously recovered captive, which Israel said was a breach of the truce.
Hamas had said the remains were the 16th of 28 hostage bodies it had agreed to return under the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on October 10.
But Israeli forensic examination determined Hamas had in fact handed over partial remains of a hostage whose body had already been brought back to Israel around two years ago, according to Netanyahu's office.
Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian accused Hamas of staging the discovery of the remains.
"Hamas dug a hole in the ground yesterday, placed the partial remains... inside of it, covered it back up with dirt, and handed it over to the Red Cross," she told journalists.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the government to "act decisively against these violations" and accused Hamas of knowing the location of the missing hostages.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem rejected claims the group knows where the remaining bodies are, arguing that Israel's bombardment during the two-year war had left locations unrecognizable.
With AFP
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