IAF kills five terrorists who emerged from underground in Rafah

The Israeli Air Force on Friday killed five Palestinian terrorists who emerged from underground infrastructure in Rafah, east of the Yellow Line.

The cell advanced toward IDF troops operating in southern Gaza, “posing an immediate threat to them,” the army said.

The Air Force subsequently struck and killed the terrorists.

“IDF troops in the Southern Command remain deployed in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the military added.

The Yellow Line demarcates the areas of Gaza under Israeli military control per the terms of last month’s U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Jerusalem and the Hamas terrorist organization.

Infantrymen from the IDF’s Kfir Brigade discovered an eight-tube rocket launcher loaded with four rockets and aimed toward Israeli territory during operations near the Yellow Line area in Gaza, the military said on Thursday.

The troops located the launcher during area-clearing activities conducted in accordance with the ceasefire agreement.

In a separate operation, brigade forces uncovered additional weapons including Kalashnikov rifles, fragmentation grenades, explosives, ammunition magazines and military uniforms, the military said.

The Kfir Brigade has been tasked with defending the Yellow Line area and dismantling infrastructure used by terrorist organizations to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians, according to the statement.

Hamas has consistently violated the truce since it went into effect on Oct. 10, including several terrorists firing on Israeli troops in the Khan Yunis area on Wednesday, prompting Israeli retaliatory strikes in Gaza.

The IDF eliminated two Palestinian terrorists on Tuesday after they breached the ceasefire line by attempting to cross into IDF-controlled territory in the Strip.

IDF reports Hamas infrastructure in Gaza’s Beit Hanoun

The IDF on Thursday released an animated intelligence briefing detailing what it described as extensive Hamas terror infrastructure in Beit Hanoun, a city in the northeastern Gaza Strip.

The army demonstrated, using Hamas’s own captured video and IDF documentation, how the area contained a tunnel network beneath civilian homes, along with thousands of above-ground structures used for weapons storage, firing positions and command centers.

It also showed armed terrorists operating from an elementary school that had a tunnel shaft beneath it.

Troops “neutralized terrorist infrastructure” that posed a threat to Israeli civilians, the IDF said.