The Israeli army said tonight that it had killed more than 40 Palestinian fighters in the past week during operations targeting tunnels near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, a territory devastated by the two-year war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.
Israeli forces have concentrated their efforts in the eastern part of Rafah for the past 40 days, "with the aim of dismantling the remaining underground tunnel networks in the region and eliminating the terrorists hiding there," the Israeli army said in a statement.
"Over the past week, more than 40 terrorists have been eliminated in the area of the tunnel network, and dozens of tunnel entrances and terrorist infrastructure locations, both above and below ground, have been dismantled," the statement added.
Earlier, the Israeli army said it had killed four Palestinian fighters as they emerged from a tunnel in Rafah.
Several sources told AFP on Thursday that negotiations are underway over the fate of dozens of fighters from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, who have been trapped in tunnels in the Israeli-controlled sector of the Gaza Strip for several weeks.
According to an unnamed Hamas official in Gaza, "between 60 and 80 fighters" are believed to be trapped underground in Rafah.
On Wednesday, Hamas called on mediating countries to pressure Israel to allow fighters to leave the tunnels they are trapped in in the Palestinian territory, an area where the Israeli military has redeployed as part of a ceasefire agreement in effect since October 10.
The ceasefire, reached after more than two years of war sparked by Hamas' attack on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, remains very fragile, with both sides accusing each other of violating it.
There is a very serious humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip due to the war.
Bonus video:
