Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said he had instructed the military to launch “powerful strikes” in Gaza, accusing Hamas of breaching the ongoing ceasefire agreement in the enclave.

A statement from Netanyahu’s office did not provide specific details regarding the alleged violation.

However, an Israeli military official claimed Hamas had attacked Israeli forces in a zone under Israel’s control, calling it “another clear breach of the ceasefire.”

Earlier, Netanyahu had also accused Hamas of failing to return the correct remains during the process of transferring the bodies of Israeli hostages.

Hamas had initially announced that it would hand over the body of a missing hostage discovered in a tunnel in Gaza, but later postponed the handover, saying Israel had already violated the ceasefire terms.

Reports from Israeli media suggested clashes took place between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters in Rafah, though the Israeli military has not commented on those accounts.

Hamas, for its part, said it was adhering to the ceasefire agreement and accused Netanyahu of “seeking pretexts” to avoid fulfilling Israel’s commitments.

A U.S.-backed ceasefire is in force between Israel and Hamas, but each side has accused the other of violations.

Under the ceasefire terms, Hamas released all living hostages in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian convicts and war-time detainees, while Israel pulled back its troops and halted its offensive.

Hamas has also agreed to hand over the remains of all dead hostages yet to be recovered, but has said that it will take time to locate and retrieve the bodies in the enclave, which has been devastated by two years of war. Israel says Hamas can access the remains of most of the hostages.

• US president makes final stop on Asia trip.
• Meetings with China’s Xi, South Korea’s Lee expected.
• Trump expects to cut China tariff related to illicit fentanyl trade.

GYEONGJU: US President Donald Trump landed in South Korea on Wednesday for the final leg of his Asia trip, optimistic about striking a trade war truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping after summit talks with South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung.

Arriving from Tokyo hours after North Korea test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile, Trump is due to address a summit of CEOs and meet with Lee in Gyeongju, a sleepy South Korean town filled with historic tombs and palaces.

The main item on Wednesday’s agenda will be the unresolved trade agreement between the US and South Korea, before an expected meeting with Xi on Thursday, the prospect of which has already buoyed global markets.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Gyeongju, Trump dismissed the North Korea missile test and said he was squarely focused on his meeting with the leader of the world’s second-largest economy.

“The relationship with China is very good. So I think we’re going to have a very good outcome for our country and for the world, actually,” Trump said.

He expects to reduce US tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Beijing’s commitment to curb exports of fentanyl precursor chemicals, he added. The US could halve the 20% levies on Chinese goods it currently charges in retaliation for the export of such chemicals, the Wall Street Journal reported.

After arriving in the southern city of Busan, Trump was greeted by officials and a cannon salute on the red carpet, before a band struck up a rendition of Village People’s YMCA, a favourite of the US president’s often played at his rallies. He was then whisked to Gyeongju in his helicopter.

South Korea trade talks struggle

Trump made no mention of trade talks with South Korea on Wednesday, with both sides playing down the prospect of a breakthrough in leader talks.

The two allies announced a deal in late July under which South Korea would avoid the worst of the tariffs by agreeing to pump $350 billion of new investments into the United States. But talks over the structure of those investments have been deadlocked.

Trump has also pressed allies like South Korea to pay more for defence, and South Korea has sought reforms to US immigration laws to allow for more workers to build factories after a raid on a Hyundai Motor 005380.KS battery plant in Georgia.

The leaders will discuss trade, investment and peace on the Korean peninsula at talks on Wednesday, Lee’s office said, a reference to engagement with North Korea.

Trump has made repeated calls for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, including during this trip, but there has been no public comment from Pyongyang. Kim has previously said he could be open to talking if Washington stops pressing him to give up nuclear weapons.

Adding to the golfing gifts he received from Japan’s leader in Tokyo on Tuesday, Lee will present Trump with a replica gold crown and award him with the “Grand Order of Mugunghwa”, the country’s highest decoration.

A “golden dessert” is on the menu for their working lunch, Lee’s office said.

Taiwan on the agenda?

Skipping the main APEC summit, Trump will address the APEC CEO summit, have dinner with Lee and hold bilateral meetings with several countries’ leaders, including China’s Xi, before departing on Thursday.

Negotiators from the world’s top two economies hashed out a framework on Sunday for a deal to pause steeper American tariffs and Chinese rare earths export controls, US officials said. The news sent stocks soaring to record peaks.

Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said on Tuesday he was not worried that Trump would “abandon” the island in his meeting this week with Xi.

Since taking office in January, Trump has vacillated on his position towards China-claimed Taiwan as he seeks to strike a trade deal with Beijing. Trump says Xi has told him he will not invade Taiwan while the Republican president is in office, but Trump has yet to approve any new US arms sales to Taipei.

China said on Wednesday it “absolutely will not” rule out using force over Taiwan.

Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he did not know whether he would even discuss Taiwan with Xi.

• Storm leaves hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans without power.
• Parts of western Jamaica come ‘underwater,’ says minister. 
• Hurricane Melissa comes after Beryl battered Jamaica last year.

Hurricane Melissa churned toward Cuba’s second-largest city with the force of a powerful Category 4 storm on Tuesday, hours after making landfall in neighboring Jamaica as the strongest-ever cyclone on record to hit that Caribbean island nation.

Melissa roared ashore near Jamaica’s southwestern town of New Hope, packing sustained winds of up to 185 mph (295 kph), according to the US National Hurricane Center, well above the minimum 157 mph (252 kph) wind speed of a Category 5 storm, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.

In southwestern Jamaica, the parish of St Elizabeth was left “underwater,” an official said, with more than 500,000 residents without power.

“The reports that we have had so far would include damage to hospitals, significant damage to residential property, housing and commercial property as well, and damage to our road infrastructure,” Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness said on CNN after the storm had passed.

Holness said the government had not received any confirmed storm-related fatalities, but given the strength of the hurricane and the extent of the damage, “we are expecting that there would be some loss of life.”

Melissa’s winds subsided to 145mph (233kph), the NHC said, as the storm drifted past the mountainous island, lashing highland communities vulnerable to landslides and flooding.

The hurricane was forecast to curve to the northeast on a trajectory toward Santiago de Cuba, Cuba’s second-most populous city.

“We should already be feeling its main influence this afternoon and evening,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a message published in state newspaper Granma, calling on citizens to heed evacuation orders.

“There will be a lot of work to do. We know that this cyclone will cause significant damage.”

Cuban authorities said some 500,000 people were ordered to move to higher ground. In the Bahamas, next in Melissa’s path to the northeast, the government ordered evacuations of residents in southern portions of that archipelago.

Farther to the east, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic had faced days of torrential downpours leading to at least four deaths, authorities there said.

Local media reported at least three deaths in Jamaica during storm preparations, and a disaster coordinator suffered a stroke in the onset of the storm and was rushed to hospital. Late Tuesday, many areas remained cut off.

Jamaica’s ‘storm of the century’

No stranger to hurricanes, Jamaica had never before been known to take a direct hit from a Category 4 or 5 storm, and the government called for foreign aid even as it prepared for Melissa’s arrival.

Meteorologists at AccuWeather said Melissa ranked as the third most intense hurricane observed in the Caribbean after Wilma in 2005 and Gilbert in 1988 – the last major storm to make landfall in Jamaica.

“It’s a catastrophic situation,” the World Meteorological Organisation’s tropical cyclone specialist Anne-Claire Fontan told a press briefing, warning of storm surges up to 4 meters high. “For Jamaica, it will be the storm of the century for sure.”

Colin Bogle, an adviser to aid group Mercy Corps in Portmore, near Jamaica’s capital of Kingston, said he had heard a loud explosion in the morning before everything went dark. Sheltering with his grandmother, he heard relentless noise and saw trees violently tossed in the wind.

“People are scared. Memories of Hurricane Gilbert run deep, and there is frustration that Jamaica continues to face the worst consequences of a climate crisis we did not cause,” he said.

Scientists warn that storms are intensifying faster with greater frequency as a result of warming ocean waters. Many Caribbean leaders have called on wealthy, heavy-polluting nations to provide reparations in the form of aid or debt relief to tropical island countries.

Melissa’s size and strength ballooned as it churned over unusually tepid Caribbean waters, but forecasters warned that its slow movement could prove particularly destructive.

Food aid will be critical, Bogle said, as well as tools, vehicle parts and seeds for farmers. Like last year’s devastating Hurricane Beryl, Melissa crossed over some of Jamaica’s most productive agricultural zones.

On Monday, Holness said the government had an emergency budget of $33 million and insurance and credit provisions for damage a little greater than Beryl.

‘Like a roaring lion’

Melissa made landfall in southwestern Jamaica, near the parish border between Westmoreland and St Elizabeth, one of the areas hardest-hit by Beryl.

St Elizabeth was submerged by flooding, local government minister Desmond McKenzie told a press briefing. Its only public hospital lost power and reported severe damage to one of its buildings.

Several families were known to have been stranded in their homes, but rescue teams managed to reach one group that included four babies, McKenzie said.

In Portland Cottage, some 150 km (94 miles) away from where Melissa made landfall, Collin Henry McDonald, 64, a retiree, told Reuters as the storm advanced that his community was seeing strong rain and winds, but his concrete roof was holding steady.

“It’s like a roaring lion. It’s mad. Really mad,” he said.

Around 15,000 Jamaicans were in temporary shelters by late Tuesday, McKenzie said. The government had issued mandatory evacuation orders for 28,000 people, but many were reluctant to leave their homes.

The International Federation of the Red Cross said up to 1.5 million people in Jamaica were expected to be directly affected by the storm.