For the second time in around a week, Hamas terrorists used a tunnel to try to penetrate Israeli defense lines in Gaza, the IDF announced on Monday.
The attempt was made in eastern Rafah, which is within the Israeli side of the Yellow Line, the 53% of the Gaza Strip currently under IDF control.
During the incident, four Hamas terrorists exited a tunnel and opened fire on the 7th Armored Brigade.
The soldiers returned fire, killing the four attackers.
It was unclear whether the Hamas move was a coordinated attack or the fighters had been hiding in the tunnel areas in Rafah for months and slowly cornered by ongoing IDF tunnel-clearing activities until they were forced out in the open.
Either way, the IDF had offered Hamas the option to surrender even post-ceasefire, for what was at one point some 200 Hamas fighters caught in the east Rafah tunnels.
There had even been a possibility that Hamas terrorists would be given safe passage to a third country.
However, the Gaza terror organization rejected the offer at the prospect of having to participate in public scenes of surrender. It also refused to put itself in a position of having to hand over weapons, believing such a move might harm its negotiating stance in demanding to hold on to some of its arms – and most of its military power in Gaza.
The majority of those 200 terrorists had been killed already when, in November 2025, The Jerusalem Post, embedded with the IDF, visited east Rafah.
During that visit, the Post came as close as only 600 meters from where the IDF eventually intercepted 17 Hamas terrorists trying to escape from their tunnels a day earlier. The IDF soldiers in the area, including Golani Brigade Commander Col. Adi Gonen and the 933rd “Nahal” Brigade, killed 11 and arrested six.
At the time, Gonen told the Post and other media that “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. Israel views the violation as severe but will continue to enforce the deal, the military stated.