IDF Kills Hamas Gunmen, Confirms Terrorists Still Operating Underground in Rafah

Four Hamas terrorists emerged from a tunnel shaft in eastern Rafah on Monday morning and opened fire on Israeli forces operating in the area, the IDF said. Troops returned fire and killed all four attackers. No Israeli soldiers were injured in the incident.

The IDF described the shooting as a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, which formally ended the fighting in Gaza four months ago. 

According to the IDF, the encounter occurred at around 8:00 a.m. as Brigade 7 troops were conducting operations against a tunnel shaft within the yellow-line area of eastern Rafah. During the activity, the four terrorists emerged from the underground passage and opened fire at close range. The soldiers engaged the gunmen in a face-to-face firefight and killed them.

“This constitutes a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, which the IDF views with utmost severity,” the military said in a statement. The IDF added that Southern Command forces are deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue operating to remove any immediate threat.

Israeli security officials say the repeated incidents highlight the continued presence of armed Hamas terrorists in Rafah, particularly in underground networks that have not yet been fully dismantled. According to interrogation testimony from a Hamas company commander who was recently captured after emerging from the Rafah terror pocket, several additional terrorists remain inside the tunnels. The assessment places their number at approximately seven.

Monday’s shooting was the third incident of live fire directed at Israeli forces in Gaza within the past week. Four days earlier, a reserve officer from the Alexandroni Brigade was seriously wounded in a separate shooting attack. In response to that incident, the IDF carried out strikes against terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip, including operatives and infrastructure.

The IDF is continuing to investigate whether the terrorists involved in Monday’s incident emerged because of the ongoing work by Israeli forces near the tunnel shaft. Earlier assessments had suggested that dozens of Hamas terrorists trapped in Rafah’s underground network would be unable to survive for long periods, but recent encounters indicate that some fighters remain active.

Despite the repeated ceasefire violations, U.S. officials have publicly downplayed concerns that the agreement is unraveling. “We are not in a crisis. There are challenges every day, but it was clear this would happen, and there is nothing dramatic,” U.S. officials involved in President Donald Trump’s peace initiative said in comments reported by Israeli media.

The Trump administration continues to insist that its 20-point plan is proceeding as expected, even as Israeli forces report ongoing armed encounters in Gaza. For now, the ceasefire remains formally in place, but the situation on the ground in Rafah suggests that Hamas’s underground presence there has yet to be fully eliminated.