00:00With us, an air attack has been launched on the Gaza Strip by Israel.
00:03Local reports say that the Israelis began firing missiles just over an hour ago into the Gaza Strip.
00:09On the ground, it's been confirmed the area around a hospital in the north of Gaza is being targeted.
00:14At least three airstrikes have been carried out, according to Israeli sources.
00:18This includes hits on Gaza City.
00:20Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the order.
00:22He called for powerful strikes to be launched.
00:25Netanyahu said it was in response to the latest handover of a dead Israeli hostage by Hamas.
00:30The remains handed over last night appeared to belong to a hostage taken two years ago.
00:35Part of his corpse was already in Israeli hands.
00:38The ceasefire called on October 10th is tied to the handover of all Israeli hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas and related groups.
00:47Hamas has said it's impossible at the moment to locate the 12 remaining dead bodies
00:52because of the extent of the damage caused by Israeli bombing.
00:56The search for those hostages under rubble is now being carried out by the Red Cross with Egyptian help
01:01and some limited Hamas personnel have been allowed in by Israel.
01:05There is no such operation, of course, to recover the many thousands estimated missing, presumed dead, on the Palestinian side.
01:13So far, more than 68,000 have been killed by Israel's revenge bombardment.
01:17On October 7th, 2023, Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 civilians, kidnapping 250.
01:25And Benjamin Netanyahu gave another reason for ordering these powerful strikes, as he called them,
01:31the death of Israeli soldiers in Gaza.
01:33Now, while this is factual, again, it doesn't acknowledge that Israel's military has killed as many as 93 Palestinians
01:38since the truce was called on October the 10th.
01:42Let's bring in for some clarity and more analysis, Jordana Miller, who's the ABC News correspondent in Jerusalem.
01:48Jordana, good evening to you.
01:49The order by Netanyahu for powerful strikes on Gaza.
01:53Is this basically Israel's final gesture, ending the ceasefire?
01:56I don't think so.
02:00I don't think we're close to actually ending this ceasefire.
02:03But as many insiders and U.S. officials warned, we are going to see bumps on this tough road
02:13from the end of a two-year war to the stabilization of Gaza.
02:18And one of the main reasons that the Israeli prime minister has issued this directive for powerful strikes
02:28is connected, of course, to accusations the Israelis have that Hamas is dragging their feet
02:35on returning the 13 missing hostage bodies in the Gaza Strip.
02:42But more critically, it's tied to an attack today on an Israeli position in what's called the yellow zone.
02:52Now, that's the area the Israelis control from the yellow line, east, north, and south.
02:57And that's supposed to be an area fully under Israeli control.
03:01Though more than a week ago, we saw Hamas stage a surprise strike on Israeli soldiers there, killing two.
03:08That set off the first major flare-up or bump in this ceasefire.
03:14And now, today, another attack this afternoon has seemed to have set off this second round of airstrikes.
03:22We're still waiting to hear from the Israelis, but it is very likely that soldiers were killed in the attack today.
03:30Otherwise, I don't think we would be seeing the intensity of the strikes that are coming.
03:36First reported in central Gaza and in Gaza City, and they're likely to continue for some time.
03:43It also follows an Israeli surveillance camera that captured Hamas, what appeared to be Hamas staging the burial of remains of a hostage,
03:54and then calling the Red Crossover to, in some kind of theater, show that it had found the remains.
04:04Those remains, as you know, were not positively matched to any of the 13 Israeli hostages that remain in Gaza.
04:12Instead, they were matched to an Israeli that was returned almost two years ago.
04:20By the way, this is not the second remains of this soldier, but this civilian, actually,
04:27but the third, Hamas previously turned over remains of this Israeli civilian that was kidnapped and killed from the Nova music festival.
04:38The Israelis believe that Hamas is trying to draw out phase one of this deal.
04:45And despite their claims that they don't know where the bodies are, the Israelis have been very clear that they've given the intelligence both to the Americans, to the CIA, to the Egyptian head, the Egypt's head of intelligence, to the Turks, right?
05:02And so they see this as a kind of stunt.
05:06And I think Hamas is, you know, if we are to believe the video of this kind of staging, it certainly throws a question over Hamas's claims that they don't know where any bodies are.
05:19Jordana Miller in Jerusalem, thank you very much indeed for that.
05:22Thank you very much.
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