Israeli troops spent the past 40 days in a “concentrated effort” in eastern Rafah to dismantle remaining tunnel routes and eliminate terrorists hiding within them, the military said on Sunday night.
Soldiers from the Nahal and Golani Infantry Brigades, together with Yahalom combat engineers and under the command of the Gaza Division, killed more than 40 terrorists along the tunnel routes over the past week, the IDF added.
Dozens of tunnel shafts and other terrorist infrastructures, above and below ground, were also dismantled.
“IDF troops under the Southern Command are deployed in the area, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement, and continue to operate to remove any immediate threat to the residents of the western Negev,” the military said.
The Israel Defense Forces eliminated four Palestinian terrorists who emerged from the besieged tunnels in southern Gaza’s Rafah area overnight on Saturday, the military said.
According to Israel’s Channel 12 News broadcaster, the military was checking whether the commander of Hamas’s East Rafah Battalion, which oversees the entire tunnel network, was among those slain.
Channel 14 News cited security sources confirming that the battalion commander, his deputy and security guard were killed in the operation.
Jerusalem has reportedly been facing U.S. pressure not to kill the terrorists barricaded inside the Rafah tunnel network, which falls within IDF-controlled territory under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
Last week, around 20 terrorists tried to escape from the Rafah tunnels. Several of them surrendered and were taken for questioning in Israel.
