The IDF has defended its actions and a spokesperson said: “According to the agreement, all terror infrastructure, including tunnels, is to be dismantled throughout Gaza. Israel is acting in response to threats, violations, and terror infrastructure.”
On 18 October, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that “demilitarizing Gaza by destroying the terror tunnels and all terror infrastructure” was a “clear” part of Israel’s security policy.
Point 13 of Trump’s peace plan published by the White House – the closest thing to publicly released terms of the ceasefire – stated that all “military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt”.
But it also states the process of demilitarisation of Gaza will be “under the supervision of independent monitors”.
“This is definitely a violation of the ceasefire,” said Dr H A Hellyer, a RUSI Senior Associate Fellow. “But [Washington] DC is unwilling to recognise it as such, insisting that the ceasefire has to hold, even when it isn’t actually holding.”
But Mr Shamir denied the IDF was breaching the ceasefire. He told BBC Verify that according to his sources within the IDF there was a view that: “Hamas is allowed to do what it wants in the territory it controls, and Israel is allowed to do what it wants in the territory it controls.”
The IDF was taking the view that it was unlikely Hamas would follow through with the second stage of the agreement, according to his sources.
“Therefore, the space must be prepared for the continuation of the fighting, so as not to leave [them] any options to ambush our soldiers.” He also said that there were frequent attempts by Hamas to infiltrate beyond the Yellow Line and that there were still long sections of tunnel to be dealt with.
Some analysts – such as Adil Haque, professor of law at Rutgers University – said Israel could be violating the laws of war, which prohibit the destruction of civilian property by an occupying power.
He noted that exceptions to the rule can only arise “from military operations, that is, from combat or direct preparations for combat,” arguing that during a ceasefire “it is not plausible that such significant destruction of civilian property has been rendered absolutely necessary by military operations”.
Hugh Lovatt, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said ultimately the demolitions could jeopardise the peace plan.
“The problem of Israeli demolitions will grow the longer Israel stays in the zone behind the Yellow Line.
“Ultimately, the sense that Israel is stalling its withdrawal and looking to create new permanent facts on the ground, as it has in the West Bank, will become an increasingly greater threat to the maintenance of the ceasefire.”
Additional reporting by Alex Murray