As the first phase of President Trump’s Gaza plan is nearly completed, dozens of Hamas terrorists who were caught for weeks inside a tunnel are increasingly emerging out — and summarily killed or taken into Israeli prisons. 

A few weeks ago the Israel Defense Force discovered that up to 200 armed Hamas men were caught in a system of terror tunnels near Rafah, where Israel has full control. Now, as the terrorists are running out of food and other necessities, they are increasingly attempting to escape.

On Wednesday, the IDF airforce hit six terrorists after they emerged from a tunnel exit. Four were killed, and two were taken into Israel for interrogation. Five Hamas men met a similar fate on Tuesday, and at least 17 came out of the tunnels over the weekend. Most were killed. A few dozen terrorists remain underground, according to Israeli estimates. Captured men testified that food, water, and even air is running out as IDF engineers systematically destroy the tunnel system. 

As the tunnel affair is nearing completion, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Wednesday returned to Israel the remains of an Israeli soldier, Dror Or, whose body has been held in Gaza since October 7, 2023. Two more bodies, of an Israeli soldier and a Thai citizen, remain in the strip. 

According to the American-sponsored cease-fire pact reached in October, all hostages, dead or alive, were to be returned to Israel within 72 hours, after which the second phase of the agreement would proceed. Israeli officials have long argued that Hamas and the PIJ know precisely where all bodies were buried. Yet the two organizations delayed the process, and used the time to reassert power in areas they control.  

One of the top issues in the next phase is the disarming of all Gaza terrorists. As yet, though, an increasing number of would-be troop contributors for a proposed International Stabilization Force make clear they have no intention to confront armed Gazans. Israelis increasingly say they alone would do that job, and even Washington officials are resigned to that possibility. 

The trapped Hamas men near Rafah were initially seen by American interlocutors as an opportunity to demonstrate how disarmament could proceed. Mr. Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner, reportedly urged the Israelis to let them emerge out, lay down their arms voluntarily, and then return to the area under Hamas control. 

Israelis widely said that the only way to break the impasse is killing or arresting the terrorists. Yet they were reluctant to confront the Americans. “Either choice is bad,” the head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, Yossi Kuperwasser, told the Sun at the time. “Letting them go would be crazy. If we don’t, though, we risk a dispute with the Americans.”

As time went by the men in the tunnel were mostly forgotten. Mr. Kushner and Mr. Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff moved on to broker a cease-fire in Ukraine, and Israel’s approach to the dilemma was largely accepted as the right solution. 

Meanwhile Hamas used the time it gained by slowing down the return of hostage remains to entrench in the areas under its control. According to the cease-fire agreement, the IDF controls 53 percent of Gaza territory until the multi-national force takes over.

In the Hamas-controlled areas, including Gaza City, Hamas is systematically performing public executions of Gazans suspected of opposing its power. A top IDF official who briefed Prime Minister Netanyahu’s security cabinet this week, told the ministers that Hamas “is returning to almost complete control of the Strip,” Israel Channel-13 television reported Tuesday. 

According to the report, the officer said that Israel “needs to build an independent operational plan to demilitarize the Strip, because the American plan does not provide an answer to this.” 

U.S. Central Command officials stationed at the Israeli city of Kiryat Gat to monitor the cease-fire, agree that disarming Hamas is a top mission — and even that Israel would likely end up shouldering most of that task, according to a report on Kan News.   

The IDF may soon need to “fight again in areas it already had fought in,” its chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, told troops earlier this week.