IDF says it killed four Hamas gunmen who emerged from Rafah tunnel, fired on troops

IDF troops on Monday killed four Palestinian gunmen who emerged from a tunnel and attacked soldiers in southern Gaza’s Rafah, the military said, with several other Palestinians reportedly killed in IDF strikes in the Strip later in the day.

According to the IDF, during mop-up operations in eastern Rafah early in the morning, four terror operatives were identified emerging from a tunnel and opening fire on troops of the 7th Armored Brigade.

The soldiers returned fire, the IDF said, “and eliminated the four terrorists.” There were no reports of Israeli casualties in the incident.

The IDF said the attack was a “blatant violation of the ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas, and it viewed the incident “gravely.”

Dozens of Hamas operatives were believed to be trapped underground in the eastern Rafah area, on the Israeli side of the ceasefire line. The IDF has reported killing or capturing some 40 of them in recent months.

The IDF said it was continuing to operate in the area “to locate and eliminate all remaining terrorists in the tunnel.”

Commenting on the incident, Hamas’s military wing described it as “heroic resistance, saying that its fighters “refused humiliation or submission in the besieged Rafah valley and chose martyrdom over surrender.”

Later on Monday, Palestinian media reported two dead and several wounded in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, on the Hamas-controlled side of the ceasefire line.

The IDF did not immediately comment on the reported strike.

Separately, the military on Monday said that troops in northern Gaza shot and killed a Palestinian who crossed the Yellow Line and approached soldiers of the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade “in a manner that posed an immediate threat.”

“Immediately after identification, the forces eliminated the terrorist in order to remove the threat,” the army said.

Since the start of the ceasefire in October 2025, the IDF has said it has killed dozens of terror operatives and other “suspects” who have crossed the Yellow Line — demarcating the military’s withdrawal in the Strip — and approached troops. Such incidents have taken place on a near-daily basis.

NCAG not slated to enter Gaza this week, with no date set for start of its operations

The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) is not slated to enter the Strip this week, as little progress has been made toward the commencement of the technocratic committee’s operations, two Arab diplomats told The Times of Israel on Monday.

The 12-member panel was unveiled roughly four weeks ago and has since been holding meetings in Cairo in preparation for its entry into Gaza.

US President Donald Trump’s administration and the Board of Peace’s High Representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, who oversees the NCAG, had aimed for the technocratic committee to enter the Strip shortly thereafter.

However, an Arab diplomat said the NCAG will not enter Gaza until it is equipped with the necessary tools to govern the enclave.

It’s still unclear how much international funding the NCAG will have to operate, which Palestinians in Gaza it will be able to hire as civil servants, where the panel will be based and how its protection will be ensured, the diplomat said.

Mladenov has been working to advance a series of measures to boost the humanitarian situation on the ground, which would help boost the NCAG’s legitimacy, according to the Arab diplomat. The measures include an increase in temporary shelter materials for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still living in unstable tents.

But those Palestinians — the vast majority of the Strip’s population of 2 million — are located in the western half of the enclave still under Hamas control, and Israel has pushed back on easing restrictions over those areas before the terror group gives up its weapons.

Hamas has refused to do so, and disarmament talks are still in their early stages.

The Arab diplomat said there is no timeline for the NCAG’s entry into Gaza and that the panel will only do so when it is equipped to govern and the appropriate environment exists in the enclave.

Indonesia said set to deploy thousands of troops

Meanwhile, the Kan public broadcaster reported Monday that several thousand Indonesian troops are expected to deploy in Gaza in the coming weeks, which would mark the first deployment of the International Stabilization Force.

The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.

The forces will be based in the southeast of Rafah, according to the report, which specified that offices and living quarters will be built for them in the coming weeks. There was no set date reported for their arrival.

In November, Indonesia’s defense minister said the country had trained up to 20,000 troops to take on health and construction-related tasks.

An Indonesian official told reporters that President Prabowo Subianto was invited to attend the February 19 Board of Peace meeting alongside Trump in Washington, but had not decided whether he would make the trip.

Under Trump’s Gaza peace plan, the first phase of which was signed into force in October, the ISF is tasked with providing security in the Strip, while gradually phasing out the IDF, which currently remains in control of 53% of the enclave. The force will be headed by US Central Command Special Operations Commander Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers.

Only a few countries have since voiced public interest in joining the ISF. Azerbaijan, which Washington had publicly touted as a member of the force, announced last month that it would not be participating.

While the US has had trouble getting countries to commit their forces to join the ISF, a US official speaking to The Times of Israel last month downplayed the apparent recruitment woes, insisting that countries would agree to contribute troops once they realize that they will not be expected to send their soldiers into battle against Hamas, as the mandate will be more modest than Washington and Jerusalem initially envisioned.