By World Israel News Staff

Hamas terrorists trapped in a tunnel network inside Israeli-controlled territory in the southern Gaza Strip are running out of food and water, according to a report Monday morning, as the IDF works to destroy the tunnels themselves.

A report published by The Wall Street Journal cited a senior Israeli security official who said that an estimated 100 to 200 terrorists are believed to still be in the tunnel network under eastern Rafah, even after more than 40 terrorists were killed after attempting to flee the tunnels in the past few weeks, with more captured.

Hamas officials have provided lower figures, estimating that just 60 to 80 terrorists remain trapped in the tunnels.

The Israeli official said the IDF is using massive drills to break into the tunnels, with explosives lowered through the holes into the network, enabling soldiers to demolish it segment by segment.

In addition, the IDF is flooding some areas of the tunnel network, forcing the remaining terrorists to abandon some of the tunnels.

The terrorists holed up in the Rafah tunnels are running low on both food and water, Arab intelligence officials and Israeli military sources told the Journal.

Dozens of Hamas terrorists have attempted to escape the tunnels and to reach the western side of the ceasefire line, though most have either been killed or captured.

Israeli combat drones are loitering above the tunnel network, prepared to open fire on terrorists as they exit the subterranean system.

While the US, at the behest of Turkey, had pushed for Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement enabling the terrorists to safely withdraw from the tunnels, an Israeli offer of safe passage in exchange for surrender and a pledge not to return to terror was reportedly rejected by the trapped Hamas brigade, which is said to have told Hamas leaders the survivors would prefer to die to the last man rather than hand over their weapons.