Only yesterday terrorist operatives ambushed Israeli troops in Rafah, killing Major Yaniv Kula and Staff Sergeant Itay Yavetz, and wounding three others. The IDF responded with strikes on some twenty targets, mostly in the central part of the Gaza Strip, after which it announced that it will return to abiding by the cease-fire. The IDF attributed the attack to Hamas. The linked Times of Israel stories includes photos of the murdered IDF officers.
Two IDF soldiers — Maj. Yaniv Kula, 26, and Staff Sgt. Itay Yavetz, 21 — were killed in a Hamas attack in Rafah this morning.
Hamas is murdering Israelis. Hamas is murdering Gazans. Where are the “mediators”? pic.twitter.com/fvUY3yxsuW
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) October 19, 2025
A senior Trump administration official told Axios that Washington “knew this was brewing.” What is to be done? Messrs. Witkoff, Kushner, and Vance have arrived The Times of Israel are expected to arrive in Israel on Tuesday. The Times of Israel suggests that they will take the situation in hand. There seems to be a fictive element to the Trump plan:
According to the official, the US told Israel to keep its actions directed at Hamas while pressing ahead with the ceasefire plan.
“We are now in charge of what’s going on in Gaza when it comes to the implementation of the deal,” Axios quoted the US official saying. “We are going to be calling the shots.”
US officials told the outlet that Washington had anticipated such clashes could happen in the early stages of the ceasefire, and it now intends to significantly increase its oversight of the plan to ensure it holds together.
Maybe they will tell Hamas to knock it off.
Hamas continues to exert its will in Gaza (video below). One might infer that it has no intention of disarming or ceding its authority. Peter Berkowitz surveys the road ahead in the RCP column “The Next Phases of Trump Gaza Plan Get Harder.” The New York Post has more here.
Hamas is very busy this week!
-not clearing rubble
-not helping peopleHamas is busy executing and torturing Gazans in barbaric fashion. h/t @EFischberger
And from ‘pro-Palestinian’ activists we hear nothing! They are more concerned with what Israeli football teams are doing! pic.twitter.com/BW2UpX5g8X
— David Collier (@mishtal) October 19, 2025
Berkowitz concludes his column:
One major obstacle to implementing the Trump plan is that Hamas sees agreement to phase 1 as at most a tactical retreat. In its Oct. 3 response, Hamas characterized the plan as “calling for an end to the war on the Gaza Strip” – as if Israel were the aggressor and its enemy was not Hamas but rather the Palestinian people. Hamas said nothing about ending the war on the Jewish state that it proclaimed in its 1988 covenant and has been carrying out ever since.
US diplomats should recognize that Hamas and fellow jihadists may have reined in or paused the long and difficult war they have waged against Israel, but they are far from having ended it.
Whole thing here.
