Israel Defense Forces soldiers on Wednesday eliminated a terrorist who crossed the ceasefire line in northern Gaza and approached them in a threatening manner, the military said.
“Immediately after the identification, the soldiers eliminated the terrorist with the aim of removing the threat,” stated the IDF in Hebrew. No injuries were reported among Israeli forces.
On Tuesday, the IDF struck armed Hamas terrorists inside a truck in the central Strip, the army announced earlier on Wednesday.
“The terrorists were advancing terror attacks against IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip in an immediate time frame,” according to the statement.
Soldiers remain deployed in the enclave in accordance with the U.S.-brokered Oct. 10, 2025, ceasefire agreement “and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” it added.
Over the weekend, troops from the IDF’s 205th Brigade, working in coordination with the Yahalom combat engineering unit, dismantled four tunnel routes in Gaza with a total length of around half a mile.
The underground structures—located in northern Gaza, east of the truce-instituted Yellow Line—contained “living quarters, equipment for prolonged stays, mines and materials used by Hamas to prepare explosive devices,” the IDF revealed earlier this week.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the military announced the elimination of several members of a terrorist cell, including one operative who was involved in the Jan. 22, 2024, anti-tank missile strike that killed 21 IDF soldiers in central Gaza.
Among the slain terrorists was Yousef Ibrahim Mahmoud Basheti, who was part of the cell responsible for the deadliest single attack on IDF soldiers during the ground offensive, it stated.
“The elimination of Basheti constitutes a significant step in addressing one of the most severe attacks carried out against IDF troops during the war,” according to the military.
Other eliminated terrorists included a Nukhba Force operative, an officer in the Hamas “police” and additional Hamas terrorists.
Hamas representatives reportedly arrived in Cairo on Saturday ahead of discussions with Egyptian mediators regarding the implementation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Gaza Strip.
Talks would also focus on “halting Israeli violations,” one Hamas official told AFP on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with the press.
According to the official, the terrorist group would stress the need for the IDF to withdraw from Gaza, fully reopen the Strip’s borders, increase the number of crossings and allow greater volumes of aid to enter the enclave.
The current truce went into effect in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 10, 2025, ending the two-year war that began when Hamas, other Palestinian terrorist groups and Gazan “civilians” invaded the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, 2023, killing approximately 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and taking 251 hostages. The terms of the ceasefire leave the IDF in control of approximately half of Gaza.
Top Hamas leaders, including Khaled Mashaal and Musa Abu Marzouk, have rejected key parts of Trump’s plan in recent months, including disarmament, despite having agreed to the proposal in October.
“The resistance and its weapons are the ummah’s [Islamic nation’s] honor and pride,” Mashaal told an anti-Israel summit in Istanbul on Dec. 6.
“A thousand statements are not worth a single projectile of iron,” he said.
