The Israeli military captured a senior Hamas commander hiding in the Gaza terror tunnel network. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not name the nabbed terrorist, but identified him as “a key commander in Hamas’ Eastern Rafah Battalion.” According to the Jerusalem Post, he was “one of Hamas’s top remaining commanders.”
The Israeli troops uncovered the tunnel after several armed terrorists emerged from one of the shafts to advance on an IDF position located across the ceasefire line. “Following the identification overnight (Friday) of eight terrorists who exited the underground terror infrastructure in eastern Rafah, and following the elimination of three of them, the IDF conducted searches in the area,” the IDF said in a statement. “During the searches, one of the terrorists who attempted to flee and hide was apprehended. The apprehended terrorist is a key commander in Hamas’ Eastern Rafah Battalion.”
The news comes as Israel is expected to open the Gaza-Egypt border crossing in the Rafah area as the U.S.-brokered ceasefire moves towards the second phase.
“Israel will reopen the Rafah border crossing on Sunday for people to travel between Gaza and Egypt, a government agency said, the first opening of effectively the sole route in or out of the Palestinian territory since May 2024,” Reuters reported. Throughout the Gaza war, Palestinian terrorists have used the tunnels to smuggle weapons and ammunition from Egypt.
On Saturday, the IDF struck commanders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist groups amid renewed ceasefire violations in Gaza. “The IDF and Shin Bet attacked commanders and terrorist infrastructure of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip,” Israel’s Ynetnews reported. “Additionally, a weapons storage facility, a weapons manufacturing site and two Hamas launching infrastructures in central Gaza were attacked.”
The IDF, in its statement, disclosed targeting “four commanders and additional terrorists from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations across the Gaza Strip.”
There were also reports of additional Israeli strikes on Hamas targets in northern Gaza:
With Hezbollah regrouping and fortifying its positions along the border, the IDF targeted terror operatives and infrastructure in southern Lebanon. “A short while ago, in response to Hezbollah’s repeated violations of the ceasefire understandings, the IDF struck a Hezbollah terrorist in the Markaba area in southern Lebanon,” the Israeli military said in a brief statement on Saturday.
This follows recent strikes on Hezbollah targets in the area, the Israel National News reported:
The IDF on Friday struck infrastructure sites and engineering vehicles used by Hezbollah terrorists in attempts to reestablish the terror organizations’ infrastructure in the Mazraat al-Daoudiya area in southern Lebanon, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced.It noted that the presence of these infrastructure sites and the engineering vehicles in the area, as well as Hezbollah’s use of them for rebuilding terror infrastructure sites in Lebanon, constitute a violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon.“The IDF will continue to operate to remove any threat to the State of Israel and to prevent Hezbollah’s reestablishment,” the statement said.
Israel is compelled to act as the Lebanese government has failed to disarm Hezbollah. Under the U.S.-sponsored ceasefire agreement, Beirut had agreed to demilitarize the Iran-backed terrorist group by December 31, 2025. Instead of handing over weapons, Hezbollah is pushing ahead with its terrorist buildup on the Israeli border.
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