The Israeli government is considering approving the safe transit of about 200 Hamas terrorists, who were trapped behind the Yellow Line in tunnels in the Rafah area, to the area vacated by the IDF, according to reports in Arab and Hebrew media.
The Qatari government-affiliated Al Jazeera outlet reported that the terrorists are trapped in several "pockets" within the Rafah area, with some of them staying in underground tunnels which have not yet been destroyed by the Israeli military.
Arab reports said that "mediators" of the ceasefire were requesting the Israeli government to allow the terrorists safe passage to the Hamas-held side of the ceasefire.
Complicating the issue is the fact that the terrorists are believed to be the ones responsible for the attacks over the past two weeks, which resulted in the deaths of three IDF soldiers.
Some reports suggested they had been cut off from Hamas leadership and were not informed about the ceasefire.
According to a report in Israel's Channel 12 News, two security sources told the outlet that the government will likely approve the safe passage for the terrorists, as doing so would prevent further attacks by the terrorists on IDF positions behind the Yellow Line.
"We are doing this in order to protect the lives of our soldiers and disarm them on their own territory," one of the security sources said. "That way, we will also be able to search for more hostages."
The second source said that if the Hamas fighters surrendered their weapons, they would no longer be classified as "terrorists."
"The moment they agree to lay down their weapons and agree to pass unarmed, they are no longer defined as terrorists," he was reported as telling Channel 12.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich slammed the proposed plan, noting that among the Hamas terrorists to be given safe passage are those who attacked an IDF position last week, killing three Israeli soldiers.
He called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to grant safe passage to the terrorists.
"For several months, the IDF has been encircling and pursuing Hamas terrorists who are hiding in a 'pocket' in the Rafah area, terrorists who killed three of our heroic fighters just in the last few days," Smotrich wrote in a post to 𝕏. "To let them leave safely a moment before IDF fighters close in on them and eliminate them is a security and moral folly, and I call on the Prime Minister to reject this absurd idea out of hand. These terrorists are sons of death, and that should be their end."
The family of Master Sgt. Yonah Effie Feldbaum, the reservist killed in the most recent Hamas attack in Rafah, released a statement calling on Netanyahu not to grant safe passage to those responsible for killing their son.
"Prime Minister Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, today you are being tested," the message read. "Are you facing the dismantling and elimination of Hamas or the settlement and inclusion? At these moments, you are about to make a decision that is a decisive decision for the entire people of Israel. Do we sell our security to intermediaries or do we care about the security of our nation and the peace of our soldiers?"
"Stop the rumors and announce now that Hamas terrorists will not receive a reward for killing IDF soldiers," the family demanded. "There are only two options, either convince them or eliminate them."
"We will stand as a wall to stop the madness and ensure that the people of Israel receive the minimum required: the elimination and defeat of Hamas, and not its reinforcement by terrorists returning as heroes from the battlefield," the statement concluded. "The excuses must end!"
Republished with permission from All Israel News