On Monday, the UN Security Council approved a US-drafted plan that calls for an international security force and that at least keeps the door open for eventual Palestinian statehood. But for the future of the tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the most important events may be happening not in New York, but below the streets of Rafah.

Gaza is hardly peaceful. Some 268 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire began, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, on top of those killed by Hamas. But there’s been no return to the full-scale combat that persisted for two years.

That could still change. An acute risk to warfare resuming centers around dozens of Hamas fighters — perhaps as many as 200, though no one knows exactly — who have been trapped in underground tunnels behind Israeli lines since before the ceasefire, cut off from their compatriots and likely running low on food and water. The presence of these fighters is a serious threat to the ceasefire. They were likely responsible for the two ambushes that killed three IDF soldiers in October, each prompting Israeli retaliatory strikes that killed dozens of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip.

Along with the ongoing dispute over whether Hamas is doing all it can to return the bodies of deceased hostages, the trapped Hamas fighters are also proving to be a diplomatic stumbling block, preventing the sides from moving on to larger issues: Israel wants the fighters to turn over their........

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