Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his military to immediately carry out strikes in Gaza.

It comes after he accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire in the territory by handing over remains that were of an Israeli hostage who was already recovered.

A statement from the prime minister’s office said: “Following the security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the military echelon to carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip immediately.”

Hamas today said that it would postpone the planned handover of a body of a hostage it had recovered, claiming violations of the ceasefire by Israel.

The announcement of strikes came shortly after Israel said that Hamas had opened fire at Israeli forces in southern Gaza today.

In a sign of the fragility of the three-week old ceasefire, Israeli troops were shot at in the city of Rafah, and returned fire, according to an Israeli military official.

An Israeli military official told Sky’s Middle East correspondent Adam Parsons that Hamas have “shown their true face”.

The official told him: “Hamas violated the ceasefire once again, carrying out an attack against IDF forces east to the yellow line, an area under Israeli control.

“This is yet another blatant violation of the ceasefire. This comes after Hamas has also shown their true face and the fact that are pretending to not know where the remaining hostages are.”

Hamas said on the Telegram messaging app that any Israeli escalation of attacks in Gaza would hinder search and recovery operations, and delay the return of the bodies of Israeli soldiers.

There are still 13 bodies of hostages in Gaza.

-Agencies