Hundreds of Hamas fighters are stuck in tunnels in Israeli-controlled Gaza

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

52% : Hamas wants Israel to provide the fighters with safe passage into Hamas-controlled territory.
45% : "For several months, the Israeli military 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," wrote Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday on X. "To let them leave safely a moment before Israeli fighters close in on them and eliminate them is a security and moral folly.
42% : A little over a week earlier, Israel and Hamas had agreed to a cease-fire.
42% : But Israel's partial withdrawal under the U.S.-brokered cease-fire last month has left militants who remain behind the line trapped underground with no means of escape and dwindling supplies.
42% : Most are struck in the southernmost city of Rafah, but some are also in parts of central and northern Gaza where Israel also maintains control, Israeli and Arab officials say, including neighborhoods east of Khan Younis, Beit Hanoun and Shuja'iyya.
42% : On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu switched Israel's position and said the fighters wouldn't be granted safe passage after an outcry by lawmakers from across the political spectrum who demanded militants involved with attacks on soldiers be either detained or killed.
42% : The bodies of seven hostages remain in Gaza, and Israel alleges Hamas is dragging out the process to buy time to continue reconsolidating power in the enclave under the cover of a cease-fire and without any external forces deployed into the strip.
41% : Israel initially agreed but wanted the fighters to give up their weapons and to tie their safe passage to the return of more dead hostages.
37% : Israel responded to the deadly encounter with a round of airstrikes on Gaza that killed dozens of people.
37% : Israel wants them to surrender or to kill them.
37% : " Israel fears that killing the trapped Hamas fighters could lead to Hamas halting the process of returning the deceased hostages remaining in Gaza, said Yaakov Amidror, a former national-security adviser under Netanyahu.
33% : The early test of the fragile truce pointed to a bigger problem: Hundreds of armed Hamas fighters are trapped in tunnels under the Israeli-controlled side of Gaza, and willing to take shots at Israel.
32% : "Israel's policy in Gaza is clear: the IDF is acting to destroy the tunnels and eliminate Hamas terrorists without any restrictions within the yellow area under our control," Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X on Wednesday, referring to the Israeli military by its initials.

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