Israeli soldiers in Gaza fighting Hamas efforts to regroup in northern Gaza found weapons inside a UN facility, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday.
Forces operating in the Jabalya area killed several Hamas terrorists in close-quarters combat. Israeli aircraft also eliminated a Hamas squad that fired an anti-tank missile at troops and a nearby squad armed with rocket-propelled grenades on their way to attack soldiers.
Soldiers found weapons inside a UN Relief and Works Agency facility in Jabalya. The IDF did not elaborate on the number or types of weapons found.
UNRWA, which supports Palestinian refugees, has been under fire for months, with Israeli officials demanding the agency be stripped of its authority in Gaza and defunded amid revelations that members of the agency’s staff participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks. Israel’s largest bank froze UNRWA’s account in February over suspicious financial transfers that the agency failed to adequately explain. Israeli forces discovered a Hamas complex located directly under the UNRWA’s Gaza City headquarters. Computer servers belonging to Hamas were directly connected to UNRWA’s electricity system.
Meanwhile, military operations continued in central Gaza, where Israeli tanks struck several terrorists and destroyed military structures in which explosives were planted and other weapons were stored.
In the southern Gaza area of Rafah, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad tactical-level commander was killed in an airstrike along with three other terrorists who were operating against Israeli forces.
The Israeli Air Force struck approximately 80 terror targets throughout Gaza over the past day including Hamas weapons storage facilities, rocket launchers, terror squads, and other infrastructure.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 128 remaining hostages, some 40 are believed dead.
