Israel resumes Gaza ceasefire after 104 Palestinians killed in airstrikes

• The Trump administration has been focusing over the last several weeks on stabilizing the ceasefire and pressing both parties to avoid steps that could detonate it.
• As part of that mission, the White House sent several top officials to Israel and established a U.S. command center there to monitor the situation on the ground.
• But amid a dispute over the return of deceased hostages by Hamas, and after a firefight on Tuesday in the city of Rafah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered "powerful" strikes in Gaza.

The latest: On Wednesday morning, after a night of massive airstrikes, the Israel Defense Forces said it had "begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire" at the directive of the Israeli government.

• The IDF said in a statement that "in response to Hamas' violations" it attacked 30 of the group's commanders in the Gaza Strip.
• The Gaza Ministry of Health said 104 Palestinians were killed in the strikes, among them 46 children and 20 women. 211 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the ceasefire and more than 68,600 since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry.

Driving the news: The IDF claimed Hamas militants fired anti-tank missiles and conducted sniper fire on Tuesday against Israeli forces in Rafah in southern Gaza. One Israeli soldier was killed in the attack.

• Hamas claimed it had no involvement in the incident and remains committed to the ceasefire, which it accused Israel of violating with its new strikes.
• Most of Rafah is controlled by the IDF, but some Hamas militants still operate in tunnels in the area. The attack led to significant exchanges of fire between Hamas militants and the IDF.
• After Netanyahu announced the strikes, Trump told reporters on Air Force One en route from Tokyo to Seoul that Israel had the right to retaliate and he didn't think the clashes endangered the ceasefire. Trump added that if Hamas doesn't behave, it will be destroyed.

What they're saying: After Netanyahu's announcement on the strikes, Hamas' military wing said it would postpone the handover of a deceased hostage it had recovered earlier on Tuesday.

• "We confirm that any Zionist escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies, which will lead to a delay in the occupation's recovery of the bodies of its dead," the statement said.
• Later, Hamas issued a statement calling on the mediators of the peace deal "to take immediate action to pressure Israel to restrain its escalation against civilians in Gaza and compel it to fully abide by the ceasefire agreement."

Between the lines: Before the Rafah incident, Netanyahu had already consulted with Israel's military leaders about taking new military action in Gaza over alleged ceasefire violations by Hamas related to the returning of deceased hostages.

• Israeli officials told Axios that Netanyahu was seeking to get in touch with Trump — who is traveling in East Asia — to seek a green light for a military response.
• But the events in Rafah appear to have changed Netanyahu's calculus. There's no indication they spoke before he released the statement announcing new strikes.

Zoom out: Israeli officials claim Hamas is "dragging its feet" on returning the remains of 13 hostages still held in Gaza.

• On Saturday, Trump called on Hamas to "start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages, including two Americans, quickly," and stressed that if they don't, "other Countries involved in this GREAT PEACE will take action."
• Trump acknowledged that some of the bodies are hard to reach, but he stressed that "others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not." He said he's "watching this very closely" over the next 48 hours.

• On Monday, several hours before Trump's 48-hour window closed, Hamas delivered the remains of an Israeli hostage. But a day later, Israel said Hamas had actually just handed over body parts from a hostage whose remains Israel had partially recovered more than a year ago.
• Netanyahu said in a statement on Tuesday that this had been a violation of the peace deal.

The intrigue: Several hours later, the Israeli military released a 15-minute video taken from a drone that purports to show Hamas militants staging the discovery of the body of a different hostage.

• The video shows a group of people throwing a body bag into a pit, covering it with rubble, bringing in a bulldozer and then returning with Red Cross officials, apparently to show that a body had been "excavated."
• Israeli officials claimed the video proved that Hamas was only pretending to be conducing difficult search efforts. "They are violating the agreement, cheating and making fun of both Israel and the Trump administration," one official told Axios.

Behind the scenes: On Tuesday, before the Rafah incident, Israel provided the video to the White House and the CIA, contended it's a violation of the agreement and said Israel would have to respond, Israeli officials say.

• Senior Trump administration officials told Netanyahu's team they don't see it as a material breach of the deal by Hamas and urged Israel not to take radical measures that could push the ceasefire to the brink of collapse, a U.S. official told Axios.
• Shortly afterward, Netanyahu held an emergency meeting with the IDF to consider options for retaliation. The IDF presented a package of possible responses, including the resumption of strikes in Gaza and an expansion of the area of Gaza that Israel still occupies under the deal, Israeli officials say.
• "The meeting ended without any decisions and Netanyahu concluded it by noting that coordination with the U.S. would be necessary to determine which steps Israel could take," an Israeli official said.

State of play: Shortly after that meeting, Hamas announced it had found the body of another Israeli hostage in the city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, and that it would be returned to Israel later on Tuesday.

• But soon after that, the firefight in Rafah began, Netanyahu announced the strikes and Hamas said it would not be returning the body as planned.