Israel Defense Forces soldiers found weapons and Hamas surveillance equipment during raids along the ceasefire line in Gaza’s eastern Rafah area, the military announced on Monday.
According to the IDF, the Golani Brigade seized weapons, including AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, as well as cameras used by Hamas to monitor Israeli military activity in the southern Strip.
The soldiers also dismantled several terrorist infrastructure sites and eliminated dozens of terrorists who were operating in tunnels and posed an immediate danger to them, according to the statement.
Troops of the military’s Southern Command remain deployed in the Gaza Strip in accordance with the U.S.-brokered truce deal “and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the IDF said.
In a separate statement, the military announced that it had eliminated two Palestinian terrorists who crossed the Yellow Line and posed a threat to its soldiers in two incidents on Monday and Tuesday.
On Tuesday, soldiers operating in southern Gaza killed a terrorist who had crossed the Yellow Line and approached them “while carrying a suspicious object, posing an immediate threat to the troops,” it said.
The incident came a day after the elimination of a terrorist who “crossed the Yellow Line and approached the troops, posing an immediate threat to them,” according to the IDF statement.
Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire and hostage-release agreement that went into effect some two months ago, the terror group committed to returning for burial all 28 bodies it was holding captive, on Oct. 13.
However, Hamas slow-walked their return, with one body still remaining in captivity, delaying the second phase of the ceasefire deal.
President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that his International Stabilization Force for the Gaza Strip was already running and that more countries would be added, despite Jerusalem’s opposition to moving to Phase 2 before the return of the last remains.
“I think that, in a form, it’s already running,” he said in the Oval Office. “More and more countries are coming into it. They’re already in but they’ll send any number of troops that I ask them to send.”
“My relationship with Bibi is very good,” Trump said, dismissing reports of a rift with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He added: “We took Iran out of the game, and because of that we can make peace. We have a good relationship with everyone in the Middle East.”
Trump also said that Washington was “looking into” whether Jerusalem violated the Gaza ceasefire by carrying out a targeted strike that killed senior Hamas terrorist commander Raad Saad over the weekend.
Saad was Hamas’s fourth most senior commander, after slain terrorist Marwan Issa. Saad was believed to possess extensive knowledge of Hamas’s rocket arsenal, tunnel infrastructure and secret sites.
The IDF identified Saad as “one of the architects” of the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and one of its last remaining senior officials.
“Saad played a leading role in Hamas’s military wing, including direct involvement in violating the ceasefire agreement,” the military stated.
