Inside Rafah: The most unexpected battle of the war
Plumes of smoke floated up into the sky in several different spots at once.
Tank machine-gun fire periodically interrupted what otherwise would have been a quiet trip through the desert.
Especially because it was the only ongoing battle, given that the war technically ended on October 4 or 10, depending on whether one goes by when the IDF invasion was stopped in its tracks or when the ceasefire papers were signed.
Around 200 Hamas fighters had gotten unintentionally trapped in the Israeli half of Gaza in eastern Rafah when the ceasefire kicked in.
The soldiers in the area, including Golani Brigade Commander Col. Adi Gonen, as well as the Nahal Brigade, killed 11 and arrested six.
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.
The altercation led Hamas to threaten to abandon the ceasefire.
Further, the overall situation with the trapped Hamas forces there has shaken the region for weeks.
US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff made a special flight to Jerusalem to try to convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow the Hamas fighters to cross into Hamas-controlled Gaza if they would be willing to turn over their weapons to the Egyptians.
The internal Israeli debate about whether to let the Hamas fighters go or not almost toppled the Israeli government, with threats from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
IDF chief sends out mixed messaging
There have been weeks of mixed messaging from IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir.At times, he seemed ready to let the Hamas forces go if Netanyahu cut such a deal with Kushner, but at times, he seemed to insist that they must be killed or surrender to IDF personnel.
IDF sources told the Post that they figured out several weeks ago, using various technological means to explore the tunnels in the area, that there was a large segment of Hamas fighters who had been trapped on the Israeli side.
Since then, they said that they have been slowly and meticulously cutting off underground areas where the Hamas terrorists might flee to.
The concept is to continuously narrow the underground area where they can maneuver and hide until they are effectively surrounded – similar to the way the IDF likes to surround a group of terrorists above ground.
IDF sources said they did not know why the Hamas terrorists did not flee into Hamas-controlled Gaza during the transition to the ceasefire.
Another possibility is that they assumed that they had so much maneuvering space underground that they would eventually easily sneak past IDF patrols back in Hamas-controlled Gaza at a convenient moment, or that they would not be detected by the IDF at all and could remain in the area indefinitely.
It may be that they thought the IDF would let them go if they were found, so as not to anger Hamas and endanger the ceasefire, being that killing 200 fighters all in one place usually would not be considered consistent with a ceasefire. The loophole here is that no one from Hamas is supposed to be in areas controlled by Israel – certainly not armed.
Finally, maybe they thought that to get back more Israeli deceased bodies of hostages, the IDF would withdraw from the area, and they would return to rule above ground.
IDF finds Hamas terrorists short on food, water, lacking morale
IDF sources described those Hamas terrorists whom they arrested as short on food and water and demoralized.Those who have left the tunnels appear to have done so, feeling that they ran out of any other options and were about to be killed by IDF encroachments or starve.
They also probably did not realize how quickly IDF surveillance would zero in on them and bomb them with a Hermes 450 “Zik” drone.
Those who were arrested were passed on to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) for interrogation.
IDF sources said they believe dozens more Hamas fighters from the group had been killed and were buried under the ground, not far from where the Post and the soldiers were walking.
The IDF has said that it has attacked 60 targets, including 15 tunnel shafts, and destroyed hundreds of meters of tunnels.
Pressed about why the IDF was not using airstrikes to kill all of the Hamas fighters, IDF sources said that they used airstrikes wherever feasible. Yet, in some instances, airstrikes would not necessarily kill the fighters, and in some instances, they wanted to track who was killed or arrested by seeing them up close.
IDF sources also said that they believed the Hamas terrorists from this group were well-trained and experienced and led by a relatively senior figure, likely a battalion commander.
This is in contrast to the majority of Hamas’s brand-new forces, who are younger, often minors, and have had little training.
Aside from the 200 Hamas fighters – who IDF sources say have likely dropped to dozens and who may be finished off within a period of weeks, a month or two at the most, if no diplomatic deal is cut to save them – IDF sources said that the broader Palestinian population is kilometers away.
Ongoing IDF operations are close to the Palestinian population in Rafah
The sense among IDF personnel was that, aside from this unexpected battle with Hamas forces caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, the ceasefire is holding.
They are, of course, ready to return to going on the offensive if necessary, but generally they are in a holding pattern.
Despite the new general calm arising from the ceasefire, IDF sources are nowhere near feeling even a theoretical impact from the incoming international "peacekeepers".
They have not been trained how to deal with these peacekeepers, nor had any coordination conversations, suggesting that the late 2025 or very early 2026 deployment of the new so-called International Stabilization Force (ISF) is overly optimistic.
The commanders in the field know best how to defeat the enemy in front of them, but are often not in the conversation about the future strategic direction of the Strip.
This visit to Gaza showed the Post how surprised all parties involved were by this unexpected battle, and how close that curveball came to breaking the truce, but that for now, the chiefs on all sides seem to have backed off the issue, allowing it to play out on the ground however it will play out.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-875045
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Israel Defense Forces (IDF) combat teams from the Nahal and Golani Brigades, operating under the Gaza Division (143), have carried out intensive operations in the Rafah area over the past few weeks.
The efforts have focused on locating and destroying underground tunnels used by militant groups and eliminating terrorists sheltering within them.
According to the IDF, the operations, conducted in coordination with Yahyam units, involved encircling areas suspected of housing militants underground and systematically targeting their infrastructure above and below ground.
During the past month, hundreds of meters of underground tunnels were destroyed, and more than 60 targets were struck.
These included roughly 15 tunnel shafts and around 40 buildings used by terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip. In addition, military equipment, weapons, ammunition, and a Hamas flag were discovered in the Yellow Line area of Rafah.
Over the weekend, 17 militants emerged from an underground tunnel in the area. Following intense clashes, 11 militants were killed, while six others were captured for further questioning. The IDF emphasized that these operations are ongoing, with forces continuing to work to neutralize any immediate threats and maintain the safety of both military personnel and civilians in southern Israel.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/defense/artc-idf-destroys-underground-terror-tunnels-and-neutralizes-militants-in-rafah
IDF vows to hunt down dozens of Hamas fighters still holed up in Rafah
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Dozens of Hamas operatives remain trapped in an area of the southern Gaza Strip that is under Israeli control, military commanders told reporters on Sunday, vowing that they would hunt them all down.
“Our main mission is to destroy or capture the enemy in Rafah,” Col. Adi Gonen, the commander of the Golani Brigade, said in the southern Gaza city’s Jenina neighborhood.
The Hamas operatives trapped on the Israeli side of the so-called “Yellow Line” — separating Gaza in accordance with the October ceasefire agreement — are believed by the military to have been there since the collapse of a previous truce in the Strip earlier this year.
Since the start of the latest ceasefire, the United States has been pressuring Israel to allow the gunmen safe passage back to Hamas-held areas of Gaza.
The operatives are not all located in a single tunnel, but rather split up among several in the Jenina neighborhood, according to IDF assessments. The military believes that they are being led by a Hamas battalion commander and several company commanders in the terror group.
The IDF does not know exactly how many gunmen remain in the area. Some early assessments put that number at 200, but now the military believes that number to be far lower, saying dozens of the operatives likely died in the tunnels following Israeli strikes on them.
On Monday, the military reported that in the past week, combat engineers had destroyed hundreds of meters of tunnels in the area, and the Israeli Air Force struck over 60 targets — including 15 tunnel shafts and some 40 buildings used by terror groups.
Those who have survived after months of holding out in the tunnels — likely several dozen — are thought by the IDF to be running out of supplies and starving.
At times, the Hamas gunmen have tried to sneak up above ground to search for food, such as bags of flour that had fallen off aid trucks, or supplies left behind by the army.
Recently, military officials said that the operatives have been increasingly trying to flee back to Hamas-held areas of the Strip.
A week ago, IDF troops spotted and shot dead four operatives who emerged from a tunnel in the area. In an incident over the weekend, 17 gunmen emerged from tunnels at two locations in the Jenina area, and were either killed or captured.
“Our main mission is to continue to try to locate them in the area. Most of them are underground. Some of them try to come out of the ground. We are working day and night with different techniques to locate them,” Gonen said.
“It’s simple, either they surrender or we’ll kill them,” the commander vowed.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-vows-to-hunt-down-dozens-of-hamas-fighters-still-holed-up-in-rafah/
Tunnel in Rafah
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