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........

© The Times of Israel