Israel says killed four coming out of Gaza tunnels

The Israeli army said on Sunday it had killed four Palestinian militants coming out of tunnels in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Dozens of Hamas fighters are holed up in southern Gaza’s tunnels, underneath areas controlled by the Israeli military.

Israeli troops continue operating in the eastern Rafah area, the military said in a statement.

Overnight “four terrorists who exited underground infrastructure in the area were identified. Guided by the Israeli Air Force, the troops eliminated the terrorists,” it said.

“IDF (Israeli army) troops in the Southern Command remain deployed in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat.”

On Friday, Israel’s military said more than 30 fighters who had attempted to flee the tunnels had been killed.

Multiple sources told AFP on Thursday that negotiations were underway regarding the fate of the fighters still in south Gaza’s tunnel network.

On Wednesday, Hamas called on mediating countries to pressure Israel to allow safe passage — the first time the Islamist group had publicly acknowledged the situation.

The US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with Egypt, Turkey and Qatar as mediators, entered into force on October 10.

Under its terms, the Israeli army withdrew behind the so-called Yellow Line within the Gaza Strip, a boundary marked on the surface with yellow concrete blocks.

The Hamas militants are in tunnels located on the Israeli-controlled side of the Yellow Line.

A prominent Hamas member in Gaza told AFP that the group estimated their number to be between 60 and 80.

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.

Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,100 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

The ministry says that since the ceasefire came into effect, 354 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire.