The IDF said Sunday that four Palestinian terrorists were killed overnight after emerging from a tunnel route in Rafah, as forces continue operations against Hamas operatives entrenched in the underground network in southern Gaza.
In a statement, the military said troops, guided by the Air Force, identified the men exiting a subterranean passage and eliminated them.
According to the IDF’s assessment, the four may include the Hamas battalion commander in Rafah’s Janina neighborhood, his deputy and a company commander. Their identities are still under verification.
The military said roughly 40 terrorists have been killed in the area in recent weeks as they attempted to flee tunnels in southern Gaza. Southern Command forces “remain deployed in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the IDF said.
On Friday, the IDF reported that Nahal Brigade troops, working with the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, located and killed nine terrorists “likely as a result of concentrated and intensive activity in the area,” which included destroying tunnel routes using airstrikes and engineering tools.
On Wednesday, six terrorists were killed after emerging from another tunnel shaft in eastern Rafah, the army said. Nahal troops searched a building nearby where one terrorist was killed in an airstrike and three more were shot dead at close range. Two additional suspects found in the structure were arrested.
IDF strikes Hamas terrorists as they emerge from a tunnel route underneath eastern Rafah
(Video: IDF)
After weeks of entrenchment underground — and what the IDF describes as gradual “bites” into Hamas’ tunnel network — terrorists have begun seeking alternative hiding places, some trying to escape the area and others attempting suicide attacks. The army says it maintains close surveillance of the tunnel system using multiple intelligence assets, with some terrorists killed by airstrikes and others captured for interrogation.
IDF engineering and infantry forces operating in the area are engaged in what the military calls a systematic dismantling of Hamas infrastructure. The underground complexes, once considered by the group to be “impenetrable,” are now under increasing pressure as the army closes in.
The tunnel system in Rafah is “highly complex,” the IDF said, noting that terrorists remaining underground after the ceasefire came into effect last month — including the Rafah-area battalion commander — had prepared for long-term shelter. But as time passes and Israeli forces encircle them, supplies are running out, forcing some to surface, where troops are positioned to intercept them.
One captured terrorist told interrogators that roughly 30 operatives and 10 bodies were in the tunnels with the Hamas battalion commander, and that those who tried to flee emerged in search of food and water.
Military officials said the operational gains reflect the success of their strategy: not only locating and encircling terrorists but applying pressure on their survival systems. The IDF says terrorists trapped underground face two options — “surrender or die” — and that forces are now securing the area based on that principle.
Troops on the ground are exploiting every tunnel exit—voluntary or forced—to gather intelligence, capture terrorists or kill them, and further dismantle the underground network, the army said.