JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL

The Israeli army said Friday that it had killed five Palestinians, claiming they had emerged from a tunnel in Rafah city in southern Gaza, within areas Israel occupies inside the enclave under the ceasefire agreement.

In a statement, the army claimed that its forces from the Nahal Brigade combat team detected five armed men emerging from underground infrastructure in eastern Rafah, in the south of the Strip.

Rafah city lies within the areas occupied by the Israeli army east of what is known as the “yellow line,” as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement that went into effect on Oct. 10.

For days, Israeli media outlets have said that around 200 Hamas fighters are trapped in a tunnel in Rafah and that Tel Aviv has so far not responded to demands from the Palestinian group and mediators to allow them safe passage to areas under the movement’s control inside the Strip.

Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed nearly 70,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, injured over 170,800, and reduced the enclave to rubble.