Israel Defense Forces troops on Tuesday killed five armed terrorists in the Rafah area of southern Gaza, the military said.

According to the IDF, the cell likely emerged from underground terror infrastructure.

“IDF troops in the Southern Command remain deployed in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the statement added.

On Wednesday morning, IDF observation posts identified six additional terrorists who likely emerged from tunnels in the same area. Troops struck the group as they attempted to flee, with the military confirming a successful hit.

Jerusalem has reportedly been facing U.S. pressure not to eliminate the dozens of terrorists barricaded inside the Rafah tunnel network, which falls within IDF-controlled territory under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

On Monday, the IDF killed two Gazan terrorists who crossed the Yellow Line and approached Israeli troops in the northern Strip. The boundary marks Gaza territory that remains under Israeli control following last month’s truce between Jerusalem and Hamas.

Earlier Monday, the Israeli Air Force struck three terrorists who crossed the Yellow Line and approached IDF soldiers in southern Gaza. According to the army, the terrorists were struck by the Israeli Air Force in two separate incidents in Khan Yunis. “Hits were identified,” it stated.

Soldiers of the IDF’s Nahal and Golani brigades have been operating in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah in recent weeks as part of an effort to “dismantle the remaining terror tunnels in the area and eliminate the terrorists hiding within them,” the military said separately Monday.

The soldiers, working with the Yahalom combat engineering unit, over the past month have encircled terrorists holed up underground while dismantling above-ground terrorist infrastructure, it stated.

Over the past week alone, hundreds of meters of tunnel routes used by Hamas were destroyed, and more than 60 terror targets were struck, including some 15 tunnel shafts, according to the statement.

The statement noted that over the weekend, IDF forces killed 11 Hamas terrorists who attempted to flee the besieged tunnels and arrested six others after a 24-hour manhunt.

In another instance, the IDF uncovered one of the largest and most complex Hamas tunnel networks found so far in Gaza, a route stretching more than 4.3 miles and descending roughly 82 feet.

The underground route, which the military said ran under “a densely populated Rafah neighborhood and through an UNRWA compound, mosques, clinics, kindergartens and schools,” included 80 hideouts.

Since the truce went into effect on Oct. 10, “dozens of Hamas terrorists have crossed the Israeli lines to attack our troops, while they execute Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office stated on Saturday, calling on mediators to pressure Hamas to fulfill its commitments under the agreement.

Palestinian terrorists are still holding two deceased hostages in Gaza.

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