JERUSALEM/GAZA - Israel said Wednesday it had resumed a ceasefire in Gaza after a wave of airstrikes that, according to Gaza health authorities, killed at least 91 people.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it "has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire" following instructions from the political echelon.

The overnight strikes targeted "dozens" of militant sites and around 30 militants holding command positions in armed groups, said the military, without specifying which groups.

The attacks were carried out "in response to Hamas' violations" and Israel "will continue to uphold the ceasefire and respond firmly to any breach", it said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday instructed the military to "immediately carry out forceful strikes in the Gaza Strip," his office said in a statement.

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Israeli soldier shot dead in Rafah

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Ministry claimed that militants in the Palestinian enclave had shot dead an Israeli soldier.

The ministry identified the killed soldier as Yona Efraim Feldbaum, a 37-year-old Master Sergeant who served in the Combat Engineering Corps of the Gaza Division.

The military said he "fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip", not disclosing which group was responsible or immediately responding to a Xinhua request for comments on whether Hamas killed him.

Feldbaum was killed in an attack in Rafah in southern Gaza when militants opened fire at his bulldozer during an operation, according to Israel's state-owned Army Radio. Shortly afterwards, an anti-tank missile was also fired but caused no casualties, said the military.

In a statement on Tuesday night, Hamas denied any involvement in the Rafah shooting and reaffirmed "its commitment to the ceasefire agreement". The group condemned what it called the "criminal bombardment" across Gaza by Israel.

In another press statement released on Wednesday, Hamas said it was is committed to the ceasefire agreement with Israel, and accused Israel of violating it.

Israel's recent attacks in Gaza reveal its "intention to undermine the ceasefire agreement and impose new realities by force, amid the US administration's complicity", according to the statement.

At least 100 Palestinians killed

From late Tuesday to Wednesday, at least 100 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, marking the most intense escalation since the ceasefire agreement took effect on Oct 10.

In a press statement, Gaza's health authorities said 27 bodies were taken to al-Shifa Hospital, 10 to al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, 31 to al-Awda Hospital, 12 to al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, and 20 to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the south.

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Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, told Xinhua that intense Israeli airstrikes targeted residential homes and tents sheltering displaced people across the Gaza Strip. He added that among the dead were 35 children.

Weapon site in northern Gaza struck

On Wednesday evening, Israel carried out a new airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip, targeting what it described as militant sites.

In a statement, the military said the strike hit the Beit Lahia area, destroying a militant infrastructure site where weapons and aerial equipment were stored "for use in an imminent terror attack against Israeli soldiers and the State of Israel".

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein told reporters that Israel remained "committed to the ceasefire and to the Trump Plan", accusing Hamas of violating the truce "because it does not want to see the Trump Plan implemented, as it would be disarmed under the plan."

Red Cross visits to Palestinian detainees stopped

Separately, Israel barred representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from visiting Palestinian detainees held under a law classifying them as "unlawful combatants", Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday.

"The expert opinions presented to me clearly indicate that visits by the Red Cross to terrorists in prisons would seriously harm national security," Katz wrote in a decree banning the visits.

The Unlawful Combatants Law allows Israel to classify a Palestinian as an "unlawful combatant", a designation not recognized under international law, and to detain them indefinitely without trial, limit access to lawyers and international monitors, and impose restrictions on movement, interrogation, or detention outside the normal judicial process.