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.<\/p>\n
The attempt was made in eastern Rafah, which is within the Israeli side of the Yellow Line<\/a>, the 53% of the Gaza Strip currently under IDF control.<\/p>\n During the incident, four Hamas terrorists exited a tunnel and opened fire on the 7th Armored Brigade.<\/p>\n The soldiers returned fire, killing the four attackers.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Either way, the IDF had offered Hamas the option to surrender even post-ceasefire<\/a>, for what was at one point some 200 Hamas fighters caught in the east Rafah tunnels.<\/p>\n There had even been a possibility that Hamas terrorists would be given safe passage to a third country.<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 and most of its military power in Gaza.<\/p>\n The majority of those 200 terrorists had been killed already when, in November 2025, The Jerusalem Post, embedded with the IDF, visited east Rafah<\/a>.<\/p>\n