Israel's position firmly rejects permitting terrorists to transit from Khan Younis and Rafah deep in Israeli-held territory to Hamas areas. In contacts held in recent days, effectively since the IDF force attack and death of Master Sgt. Yona Efraim Feldbaum last week in Rafah, Hamas demanded passage of several dozen terrorists, between 100 and 200, back to its ranks.
These terrorists became trapped in tunnels in the two southern cities. They are surrounded but attempt periodically to attack IDF soldiers. Since the ceasefire started, they have succeeded in killing three soldiers and wounding others. The IDF has eliminated many attackers, but many others remain in the tunnels. At the beginning of contacts, Hamas demanded passage in its own vehicles that would enter IDF territory and be escorted by the Red Cross to prevent harm. Subsequently, it agreed they would be transferred in Red Cross vehicles but demanded they keep their weapons.
Israel Hayom revealed Israel demanded the terrorists leave their weapons behind. Additional conditions that were set included Hamas committing to halt the attacks and maintain the ceasefire. Most critically, Hamas would return all bodies of the kidnapped fallen soldiers, again as written in the Sharm agreement.
According to information Israel has, Hamas has access to nearly or all the bodies and is withholding their return to gain advantages in negotiations. Israel also demanded an update on progress implementing the second phase, which includes Hamas disarming. During the contacts, Israel has conveyed a clarification to Hamas that if the attacks don't cease, all these terrorists will be eliminated and buried beneath the tunnel rubble.
However, Hamas has refused the condition of leaving weapons behind, claimed it has no control or contact with the terrorists in question, and regarding the kidnapped fallen soldiers, continues to assert that extracting the bodies requires engineering tools it doesn't possess. This response, combined with public pressure in Israel, led to the prime minister's announcement at midday that he will not permit safe passage of 200 Hamas terrorists and continues his firm position of disarming Hamas and demilitarizing the Strip, while thwarting terror threats against our forces.
The significance is that the IDF is expected to intensify its operations in areas under its control against those terrorists, exposing hiding places and eliminating them. On the diplomatic level, the Americans are trying to delay such intense operations to prevent collapse of the ceasefire. Another consideration in the delay is continued searches for fallen kidnapped soldiers in various locations in the Strip.
