TEL AVIV, Israel — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to conduct strikes in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday as the government accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement by firing on Israeli forces and failing to return the bodies of dead hostages.

The decision “to immediately carry out forceful strikes in the Gaza Strip” was announced in a statement by Netanyahu’s office. It later said the prime minister had made the decision with the Israeli military, and then informed President Donald Trump “before the action was taken.”

Israeli and Arab media reported strikes in Gaza, explosions could be seen over the enclave’s skyline, and Gaza’s civil defense said several people had been killed. But the Israeli military did not confirm that it had carried out any attacks.

A spokesperson for Netanyahu, David Mencer, said Tuesday night that “Hamas have violated the framework by not returning hostages and attacking our forces.”

Hamas denied involvement in an attack on Israeli forces. In a statement, it said it remained committed to the ceasefire agreement, and accused Israel of violating it.

Hamas has insisted that it is working in good faith to recover the bodies.

Since the ceasefire began earlier this month, Israel and Hamas have both said they want to stick to the truce, despite tensions and repeated flare-ups of violence. Last week, Israel struck sites across Gaza in response to clashes that killed two Israeli soldiers, but each side said afterward that it remained committed to the ceasefire.

Speaking on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance said “the ceasefire is holding,” despite what he called “little skirmishes here and there.”

“We expect the Israelis are going to respond” when fired upon, he said. “But I think the president’s peace is going to hold despite that.”

Israel has accused Hamas of delaying the return of the bodies of hostages, a key plank of the ceasefire deal that Israeli officials had expected to happen more quickly. Hamas has said it cannot work faster because of conditions on the ground in Gaza, which has been devastated by two years of war.

Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli military released a drone video that it said showed members of Hamas staging the discovery of a body amid the ruins.

In the video, three men can be seen carrying what resembles a white body bag from inside a damaged building and placing it in a pit. They then use shovels to bury the bag with dirt and place large rocks over it, covering it entirely.

Then an excavator arrives and digs up the same spot, unearthing the white bag and carrying it to a mound of dirt nearby. Three Red Cross representatives arrive to examine the white bag as the excavator covers it with dirt, before the bag is unearthed again.

Another man appears to take photographs or videos of the white bag with his phone before the drone footage ends.