IDF Finds Tunnel in Child’s Room; Strikes Hamas HQ Inside UN School

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed Thursday that it had found an entrance to a Hamas terror tunnel inside a child’s room during operations in Rafah.

A Hamas tunnel was discovered by the IDF in the room of a Palestinian child in the town of Rafah, near the Gaza-Egypt border, June 2024 (IDF)

In a statement, the IDF said:

Over the past few weeks, the soldiers of the 828th Infantry Training School Brigade under the command of the 162nd Division have been conducting precise, intelligence-based, targeted operations in the Rafah area. The soldiers located weapons, eliminated terrorists and destroyed terrorist infrastructure in the area.

This week, the troops located a tunnel shaft inside a child’s room, and a butcher’s knife next to it. In addition, the troops identified six terrorists near a school in the area of the troops. The terrorists were eliminated by a UAV and tank fire.

The 828th Brigade Combat Team has completed its mission in the Rafah area and is now preparing for future operations.

The IDF has continued to move slowly through Rafah, fighting Hamas terrorists and eliminating tunnels, including smuggling tunnels along the Egyptian border. One tunnel destroyed this week in Rafah was two kilometers long.

The IDF also conducted a precise airstrike Thursday morning on a complex that it said was used by dozens of Hamas terrorists inside a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound in Gaza.

In a statement, the IDF said:

A short while ago, IAF fighter jets, directed by IDF intelligence and the ISA, conducted a precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded inside an UNRWA school in the area of Nuseirat.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who belonged to the Nukhba Forces and took part in the murderous attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7th were operating in the compound.

The terrorists directed terror from the area of the school while exploiting it and using it as a shelter. Several terrorists who planned to carry out terror attacks and promote terrorist activities against IDF troops in the immediate time frame were eliminated in the strike.

Before the strike, a number of steps were taken to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians during the strike, including conducting aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information.

The Times of Israel reported that Hamas claimed that Israel had carried out a “massacre,” and UNRWA said dozens had been killed:

The Hamas-run government media office claimed at least 27 people were killed in what it termed the Israeli “massacre.” UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma told Reuters that the number of those reported killed in the Israeli offensive on the Nuseirat school is between 35 and 45, but it still cannot confirm the number at this stage, she added. It was not immediately clear how many of those killed were members of terror groups.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer told reporters Thursday that the terrorists who were killed included some who were involved in the October 7 attack. He added that the IDF had targeted three specific classrooms.

Mencer added that the school had been used for “staging attacks” and as a “forward operating base.” He noted that the IDF had called off the attack twice because of concern about potential civilian casualties before proceeding when it was safest to do so.

Israel has long accused Hamas of using schools for terrorist purposes, and has accused UNRWA of helping it.

Hamas has been fighting back, attempting to infiltrate terrorists into Israel even as the IDF moves into Rafah. One Israeli soldier was killed Thursday in a gun battle after terrorists were seen moving toward the border in the morning fog. Three terrorists involved in the attempted infiltration were killed in an airstrike and in tank fire, the IDF said.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Photo: file