Israel’s defense chief on Friday ordered the military to intensify activity in the West Bank following three explosions on buses in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam.

Officials said the buses were empty and no one was injured in the late-Thursday blasts.

During a visit to the West Bank Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told reporters he wanted to convey a clear message to terrorists.

“Yesterday's serious attempted attack against a civilian population will not deter us,” he said. “We are at war against radical Islamic terrorism, and we will win here and in Gaza and everywhere.”

He said he had a special message for the “terrorists” — Palestinian prisoners released as part of the hostage deal under the Gaza ceasefire agreement — who were released back into the West Bank.

“We are keeping an open eye on you, and any involvement by any of you in carrying out or directing terrorism will immediately cost you the heaviest price."

Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces reported on operations this week in the West Bank conducted along with the Israeli security agency, Shin Bet, and the Israeli Border Guard.

In the report, the IDF said 90 terrorists were arrested in the West Bank in the past week and more than 15 weapons were confiscated.

IDF officials also reported that the elite Duvdevan Unit 217, a force dedicated to the West Bank, arrested five so-called terrorists in the town of Iktaba, outside the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Thursday. The report said the unit also confiscated several weapons and explosives that were in the building where the suspects were arrested.

Earlier Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas will “pay the price” for failing to release the body of hostage Shiri Babas as prescribed by the peace agreement with Israel.

In a video statement, Netanyahu said "We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages — both living and dead — and ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement.”

"Not only did they abduct the father, Yarden Bibas, the young mother, Shiri, and their two small infants in an unimaginably cynical manner, but they also failed to return Shiri to her small children, the little angels, and instead placed the body of a Gazan woman in a coffin," he said.

Hamas said Friday Shiri Babas’s remains appeared to have been mixed with other human remains from rubble after an Israeli airstrike hit the place she was held, the Reuter News Agency reported.

The bodies of three Israeli hostages and the body of a fourth, unidentified woman, were returned to Israel on Thursday in the latest release under a ceasefire between Israel and the militant group Hamas.

Those released Thursday included the youngest captives — infant Kfir Bibas, who was 9 months old when he was kidnapped, and his 4-year-old brother, Ariel Bibas.

The body of their mother, Shiri Bibas, was also supposed to be released. But on Friday, local time, the Israeli military said the female body was not Shiri Bibas. The body does not belong to any other hostage and remains unidentified, the military said.

The Israeli military accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement.

“This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is obliged under the agreement to return four deceased hostages,” the military said in a statement.

Israel’s United Nations representative, Danny Danon, also condemned Hamas for returning an unidentified body.

“Hamas returned an unidentified body, as if it were a worthless shipment. This is a new low, an evil and cruelty with no parallel,” Danon said in a statement.

The Bibas family was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Video of the abduction showed Shiri Bibas swaddling the boys in a blanket and being whisked away by armed men.

Hamas has said the boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023. Israel never confirmed the claim. Their father, Yarden Bibas, was kidnapped separately and returned alive earlier this month.

The body of fellow Nir Oz resident Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted from his home, was also released on Thursday.

On Saturday, six living hostages are set to be released in exchange for hundreds more Palestinians detained by Israeli forces in Gaza during the war.

Israel and Hamas are in the first phase of a ceasefire that began on January 19. Talks on the second phase are scheduled to begin this week, according to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.

Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, killed about 1,200 people in the October 2023 attack and took about 250 as hostages. More than half of the captives have been released in ceasefire agreements and other deals, while eight were rescued in military operations.

Israel's air and ground war killed more than 48,200 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. The Israeli military says the death toll includes 17,000 militants. The offensive destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced most of its population of 2.3 million.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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