At least three Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces north of Rafah in southern Gaza on Monday, health officials told the Wafa news agency, as more bodies of deceased hostages and Palestinians were exchanged between Israel and Hamas.
Wafa had given an initial death toll of two earlier in the day. It said the pair were shot dead near the Israeli military base in Rafah.
The Israeli military said in a statement that "terrorists" had crossed the so-called yellow line and advanced towards troops in southern Gaza, posing an immediate threat.
"Following the identification, the [military], from the air and on the ground, struck the terrorists in order to remove the threat to the troops," it added.
The renewed violence came as Israel repatriated the bodies of 45 Palestinians killed in the Gaza war, hours after Hamas transferred the remains of three more hostages to Israel.
Zaher Al Wahidi, a representative of the Gaza Health Ministry, said Nasser Hospital received the 45 bodies on Monday morning, after Israeli forensics tests identified the three hostage bodies as former soldiers, one of whom held US nationality.
Both sides continued to accuse each other of breaching the ceasefire, with Hamas releasing what it called a list of offences by Israel. Ismail Al Thawabta, director of Gaza's government media office, denied that Hamas fighters had broken the truce by attacking Israeli soldiers, as claimed by Israel.
The ceasefire has calmed most fighting, but the violence has not completely halted. On Sunday, an Israeli air attack killed a man near a vegetable market in the Shujaiya suburb of Gaza city. The Israeli military said its aircraft struck a militant who was posing a threat.
“There are still Hamas pockets in the areas under our control in Gaza, and we are systematically eliminating them,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
Israeli attacks have killed at least 238 Palestinians in Gaza since a US-brokered ceasefire came into effect on October 10, nearly half of them on a single day last week when the military carried out air strikes across the territory in retaliation for an alleged attack on its troops. Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed.
However, with the fighting much reduced, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been allowed to return to the ruins of their homes. Israel has withdrawn troops to behind the yellow line in the east of the enclave. Under a peace deal for Gaza set out by US President Donald Trump, Israeli forces are supposed to withdraw further at a later stage.
In return, Hamas released all 20 living hostages held in Gaza in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees held by Israel. The group also agreed to hand over the remains of 28 hostages in exchange for the bodies of 360 Palestinians killed in the war.
The handovers have been a source of friction that has threatened the ceasefire. Israel has said Hamas has been too slow in delivering the bodies, while Hamas says it is working as quickly as possible under difficult conditions, with much of Gaza in ruins after two years of war.
The hostage bodies handed over by Hamas on Sunday were found in a tunnel in southern Gaza, the militant group said. Israeli forensic tests identified the remains as Omer Neutra, an American-Israeli citizen, Oz Daniel and Asaf Hamami, who all served in the Israeli military.
Mr Trump said he had spoken with Mr Neutra's family. Israeli officials have said they believe the US citizen, who was from Long Island in New York, was killed in the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023.
About 200 US troops have set up base in southern Israel to monitor the ceasefire and help make plans for an international force to stabilise Gaza, as laid out in later phases of Mr Trump's blueprint for ending the conflict.
But there has been little sign of progress towards the next stages. Major obstacles lie ahead, including the disarmament of Hamas and a timeline for complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
