Palestinians work to recover the body of Fathi Oweida from under the rubble of a house hit in an overnight Israeli strike, in Gaza City, October 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Palestinians look out of a window, near a house hit in an overnight Israeli strike, in Gaza City, October 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian man inspects the site of an overnight Israeli strike on a house in Gaza City, October 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas militants search for the bodies of deceased hostages, kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, October 28, 2025. REUTERS/Haseeb Alwazeer
A drone view shows the destruction in a residential neighborhood, after the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the area, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Gaza City. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Rescuers work to free people trapped in rubble after an Israeli strike in Gaza City, October 28, 2025, in this still image taken from video. Obtained by Reuters/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES
A rescuer works to free people trapped in rubble after an Israeli strike in Gaza City, October 28, 2025, in this still image taken from video. Obtained by Reuters/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES
People gather during the search for the bodies of deceased hostages, kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, October 28, 2025. REUTERS/Haseeb Alwazeer

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO/ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) -Israel kept up airstrikes in Gaza on Wednesday killing dozens of people, after it said an attack by Palestinian militants had killed one soldier, in the latest challenge to an already fragile ceasefire.

U.S. President Donald Trump said that the U.S.-backed ceasefire was not at risk even as Israeli planes struck across the enclave, with Israel and Hamas trading blame for violations of the truce.

Gazan health authorities said the Israeli strikes killed at least 70 people, including five in a house hit in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, four in a building in Gaza City's Sabra neighborhood, and five in a car in Khan Younis.

"As I understand it, they took out an Israeli soldier," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. "So the Israelis hit back and they should hit back. When that happens, they should hit back," he added.

The Israeli military confirmed the soldier's death on Wednesday.

"Nothing is going to jeopardize" the ceasefire, Trump said. "You have to understand Hamas is a very small part of peace in the Middle East, and they have to behave."

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, which followed a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office saying he had ordered immediate "powerful attacks."

An Israeli military official said Hamas had violated the ceasefire by carrying out an attack against Israeli forces who were stationed within the so-called 'yellow line', the deployment line agreed upon in the ceasefire.

Turkey late on Tuesday said Israel's renewed attacks on Gaza were a violation of the ceasefire and that the Israeli government must be pushed by world powers to fully adhere to the deal and end its "policy of genocide".

Israel has strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as self-defence. Israel is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague that accuses it of genocide.

The U.S.-backed ceasefire agreement went into effect on October 10, halting two years of war triggered by deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Both sides have accused each other of ceasefire violations.

"If they (Hamas) are good, they are going to be happy and if they are not good, they are going to be terminated, their lives will be terminated," Trump said.

"Nobody knows what happened to the Israeli soldier but they say it was sniper fire. And it was retribution for that, and I think they have a right to do that."

Hamas denied responsibility for the attack on Israeli forces in Rafah, in southern Gaza, and said in a statement that it remained committed to the ceasefire deal.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Trevor Hunnicutt Kanishka Singh and Maayan Lubell; Writing by Maayan Lubell, Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom; Writing by Stephen Coates; Editing by Michael Perry)