Fifteen Hamas fighters surfaced from two separate tunnel openings in eastern Rafah on Wednesday, according to an initial Israeli military assessment.

The IDF said the terrorists emerged inside a sector firmly under IDF control, near the Yellow Line — the dividing corridor between Israel-controlled territory and the rest of Gaza — where tens of Hamas members are believed to be hiding underground. Within minutes, air units struck the group using intelligence fed from ground troops, killing six of the operatives.

Five others surrendered to Israel’s Nachal Brigade and were taken into custody. They have been transferred into Israel for interrogation by the Shin Bet. IDF officials said forces are still sweeping the area by land and air for the remaining members from the group.

The episode comes as Israel continues a concentrated push to erase the last vestiges of Hamas’s tunnel network under Rafah — a mission that has intensified in recent weeks despite mounting U.S. pressure on Jerusalem to provide terrorists holed up in the tunnels a safe exit deeper into Gaza. American officials have privately urged Israel to avoid a pitched battle along the border zone, which Washington fears could destabilize broader negotiations over Gaza’s post-war future.

Israel has flatly rejected calls for safe passage, insisting that the remaining fighters must be “eliminated,” not evacuated. “We are destroying the underground routes and the terrorists residing in them,” the IDF said in a statement.

Last week, the IDF reported a similar encounter, saying it killed three to four Hamas operatives as they attempted to surface from the same tunnel system.

Israel estimates that dozens of terrorists remain beneath the Rafah area — a final cluster of hardened fighters who helped sustain Hamas’s leadership and weapons pipelines throughout the war. The military says operations will continue “until the tunnel network ceases to exist.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)