The attempt was made in eastern Rafah, which is within the Israeli side of the yellow line, the 53% of the Strip which the IDF currently controls
For the second time in about a week, Hamas terrorists used a tunnel to try to penetrate Israeli defense lines in Gaza, the IDF announced on Monday.
This attempt was made in eastern Rafah, which is within the Israeli side of the yellow line, the 53% of the Strip which the IDF currently controls.
During the incident, the four Hamas fighters exited a tunnel and opened fire on Brigade 7.
Brigade 7 returned fire, killing the four attackers.
Hamas rejects the possibility of public surrender
It was unclear if the Hamas move was a coordinated attack or if the fighters had been hiding in the tunnel areas in Rafah for months and had been slowly cornered by ongoing IDF tunnel-clearing activities until they were forced out in the open.
Either way, the IDF offered Hamas terrorists the option to surrender even post-ceasefire, for what was at one point around 200 Hamas fighters caught in the east Rafah tunnels.
There had even been a possibility that the Hamas terrorists would be given safe passage to a third country, but the Gaza terror organization rejected having to go through public scenes of surrender and handing over its ars which might harm its negotiating position to hold onto some of its arms and most of its military power in Gaza.
Most of those 200 fighters had been killed already in November 2025, when the Post visited east Rafah embedded with the IDF.
During that visit, the Post came as close as 600 meters away from where the IDF eventually intercepted 17 Hamas terrorists who tried to escape from their tunnels a day earlier.
The IDF soldiers in the area, including Golani Brigade Commander Col. Adi Gonen, as well as the Nahal Brigade, killed 11 and arrested six at the time.
Gonen told the Post and other media at the time that the goal is, “the central purpose is to locate the enemy and to destroy him or accept his surrender…Yesterday, 17 terrorists were killed or surrendered,” to a mix of Golani and Nahal forces.
On Monday, the IDF said that Hamas had violated the ceasefire and that Israel views the violation as severe, but would continue to enforce the deal.
