Israel says killed 40 fighters over past week in Gaza tunnels operation

A generator is dragged through a tunnel near Rafah in the Gaza Strip, in this image taken from video shot by a CTV camera crew in the region.

The Israeli army said Sunday that it had killed more than 40 Palestinian militants over the past week in operations targeting tunnels near Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier in the day, the army announced it had killed four militants emerging from underground in the territory’s southernmost city overnight.

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

Over the past 40 days, troops have been concentrating their efforts around eastern Rafah, “with the aim of dismantling the underground tunnel routes that remain in the area and bringing about the elimination of the terrorists hiding out within them”, the military said in a statement.

It added that “more than 40 terrorists were eliminated” in the last week.

“Additionally, dozens of tunnel shafts and terrorist infrastructure sites, both above and below ground, were dismantled in the area.”

Multiple sources told AFP on Thursday that negotiations were under way 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 them safe passage -- the first time the Islamist group had publicly acknowledged the situation.

‘Cannot accept surrendering’

The U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas -- with Egypt, Turkiye and Qatar also serving as mediators -- entered into force on Oct. 10.

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

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

“Our fighters in Rafah cannot accept surrendering or handing over their weapons to the occupation,” Hamas official Husam Badran said in a statement.

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

The ceasefire remains fragile, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of violating the terms, while the Gaza Strip remains in a deep humanitarian crisis.

Badran accused Israel of avoiding moving on to the next phase of the truce, adding that stalling “will only push the entire region into further instability”.

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

Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,103 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, 356 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire.