IDF says troops killed 4 gunmen, captured 2 others who emerged from Rafah tunnel

The military said Wednesday it killed four Palestinian gunmen and captured two other operatives who emerged from tunnels in eastern Rafah, an IDF-held area in the southern Gaza Strip where dozens of Hamas fighters are believed to be trapped underground.

The confrontation came after more gunmen were killed in Rafah earlier this week, also believed to have been holed up in tunnels, and as the army said it killed at least two other operatives who crossed the ceasefire line, as well as a Hamas sniper in northern Gaza.

In the morning, soldiers monitoring surveillance cameras in Rafah spotted six operatives in the area, the Israel Defense Forces said, adding its assessment that the gunmen were in the Rafah tunnels.

A short while later, the Israeli Air Force, with information provided by ground forces, struck the six operatives while they attempted to flee, the IDF said.

The IDF said one of the operatives was killed in the airstrike, and that later, Nahal Brigade soldiers located him in a building, along with three other gunmen who had not been killed. The troops opened fire on the armed terror operatives and killed them, the army said.

Two additional terror operatives who were in the building were captured by the soldiers, the IDF added.

Palestinian gunmen who tried to flee from a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah are targeted in an airstrike, November 26, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

In the past week, the IDF has reported killing over 20 terror operatives and capturing a further eight, after they tried to flee from the tunnels in Rafah.

The IDF has vowed to kill or capture all the remaining operatives on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line that divides Gaza in accordance with the October ceasefire agreement.

Two operatives cross Yellow Line, troops ‘remove the threat’

In two separate incidents, also in southern Gaza, two more Palestinian terror operatives were killed, according to the IDF.

In the first incident, a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad was spotted by troops of the Kfir Brigade on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line in the Khan Younis area.

The operative “posed an immediate threat” to the soldiers, and a short while later, the Israeli Air Force struck and killed him to “remove the threat,” the IDF said.

Palestinian media reported that a 20-year-old man had been killed and another person wounded in a strike in the Bani Suheila area near Khan Younis.

In the second incident, soldiers monitoring surveillance cameras spotted a terror operative who crossed the Yellow Line and approached troops stationed in the Strip’s south, according to the military.

The IDF said soldiers of the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade then “eliminated the terrorist.”

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip reported that one Palestinian was killed and two others were wounded by Israeli fire near the Maghazi camp, just north of Khan Younis.

IDF: Struck Hamas sniper planning ‘imminent’ attack

In northern Gaza, the IDF said it carried out an airstrike that killed a Hamas operative who was planning to carry out an “imminent” sniper attack against Israeli troops.

“The terrorist was struck in order to remove the threat to IDF troops deployed in the northern Gaza Strip in accordance with the [ceasefire] agreement,” it said.

The military published a video showing the strike in the Beit Lahiya area.

צה"ל תקף להסרת איום מיידי מחבל מארגון הטרור חמאס אשר תכנן לבצע מתווה טרור נגד כוחות צה"ל

לפני זמן קצר, צה"ל בהובלת פיקוד הדרום ובאמצעות חיל האוויר תקף מחבל מארגון הטרור חמאס אשר תכנן לבצע מתווה צליפה נגד כוחות צה"ל בצפון רצועת עזה בטווח הזמן המיידי.

המחבל הותקף על מנת להסיר את… pic.twitter.com/KLvt6DGFjN

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 26, 2025

Palestinian media reports, citing field medics, said two people had been killed and several wounded by the strike.

Unverified footage circulating on Arabic media showed a group of people putting a sheet over what appeared to be human remains beside an unfinished building, as others rushed to the scene.

The first phase of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan formed the basis of Israel and Hamas’s October 9 truce-hostage deal.

In the next stage of the plan, Israel is meant to withdraw further from the Yellow Line, alongside the establishment of a transitional authority to govern Gaza, the deployment of a multinational security force meant to take over from the Israeli military, the disarmament of Hamas, and the start of reconstruction.

Hamas has so far refused to agree on the matter of demilitarization. Israel insists the Strip must be demilitarized before Trump’s plan can advance.