Israel Defense Forces troops killed a Hamas terrorist, who was planning to carry out an “imminent sniper attack” against troops in northern Gaza, on Wednesday, the Israeli military said.
The previous day, the Israeli military said that it killed five members of a terror cell who likely came out of underground tunnels, it said.
“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 IDF said.
On Wednesday morning, the IDF identified six more terrorists, who likely emerged from tunnels in the area, and struck the group as it tried to flee. One target was killed, the military said.
Jerusalem has reportedly faced U.S. pressure not to eliminate dozens of terrorists holed up inside the Rafah tunnel network, which falls within IDF-controlled territory under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
On Monday, the IDF said that it killed two Gazan terrorists who crossed the Yellow Line and approached Israeli troops in northern Gaza. The boundary marks Gaza territory that remains under Israeli control following last month’s truce between Jerusalem and Hamas.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli Air Force said it struck three terrorists who crossed the Yellow Line and approached IDF soldiers in southern Gaza. “Hits were identified,” the military said.
Soldiers of the IDF’s Nahal and Golani brigades have operated in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah in recent weeks as part of an effort to “dismantle the remaining terror tunnels in the area and eliminate the terrorists hiding within them,” the military said.
Working with the Yahalom combat engineering unit, the soldiers have encircled terrorists holed up underground while dismantling above-ground terrorist infrastructure over the past month, it said.
In the past week, Israel has destroyed hundreds of feet of tunnel routes that Hamas used and struck more than 60 terror targets, including about 15 tunnel shafts, the military said. It added that IDF forces killed 11 Hamas terrorists, who tried to flee besieged tunnels, and arrested six others after a 24-hour manhunt.
In another instance, the IDF uncovered what it said is one of the largest and most complex Hamas tunnel networks found so far in Gaza, a route stretching more than 4.3 miles and descending about 82 feet.
The underground route, which the military said ran under “a densely populated Rafah neighborhood and through an UNRWA compound, mosques, clinics, kindergartens and schools,” included 80 hideouts.
Since the truce went into effect on Oct. 10, “dozens of Hamas terrorists have crossed the Israeli lines to attack our troops, while they execute Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office stated on Saturday.
It called on mediators to pressure Hamas to fulfill its commitments under the agreement.
Palestinian terrorists are still holding two deceased hostages in Gaza.
