US Pressures Israel To Release Terrorists Trapped In Rafah, Hamas Makes New Conditions

Despite heavy U.S. pressure, Israel is still weighing how to deal with some 200 terrorists trapped in tunnels in southern Gaza. It is estimated that the “resistance pocket” in the Rafah area contains dozens, or at most 200 of these terrorists. Meanwhile, security officials believe Hamas knows the locations of at least five more slain hostages.

The “resistance pocket” where Hamas operatives are located in the al-Jeneina terror neighborhood in western Rafah is completely isolated, raising the question of how those terrorists managed to survive at all. The IDF has had operational control over the entire area for a long time. Forces have been operating there since May of last year, and once control of Rafah was achieved this terror pocket became isolated, and the terrorists were cut off and left alone.

Since the ceasefire took effect as part of the hostage deal, three soldiers have fallen, all in the Rafah area. The Hamas terrorists used a similar tactic in the incidents where the soldiers fell: they emerged from tunnel shafts and attacked. According to assessments, all of them belong to the same resistance pocket. The army calls them a “stubborn force” that will not give up.

The terrorists operate in terrain under full IDF operational control, in a region from which it is not possible to enter or exit independently. Therefore, their movement would require some form of Israeli involvement.

Yesterday it was reported that the Trump administration is pressing Israel to allow the transfer of the terrorists trapped in the Rafah tunnel complex. The Americans believe that if fighting breaks out with the terrorists and IDF soldiers are harmed, Israel will be forced to retaliate. A renewed cycle of fighting could collapse the ceasefire. The IDF’s position, by contrast, is that the terrorists stuck in the tunnels should be eliminated or only released in exchange for hostages.

Initially Prime Minister Netanyahu was willing to allow the terrorists to lay down their arms and return to Western Gaza, but public pressure led him to renege on this decision.

Hamas has conveyed a new condition to Israel: if Israel does not allow the exit of the terrorists who are underground, Israel will not receive all of the fallen hostages. This is in violation of the October 13 agreement signed by the terrorist organization which requires it to transfer all remaining hostages alive and dead to Israel (unless they cannot be found).

There are still eight slain hostages being held in the Gaza Strip, after earlier this week the fallen hostages Col. Asaf Hamami, Capt. Omer Maksim Naotrah, and Sgt. Oz Daniel were returned. The security establishment’s current assessment is that Hamas knows the locations of at least five additional fallen hostages being held in Gaza, and could return them in the immediate term.