Hamas tunnel found by IDF in child’s bedroom in Rafah

Israeli troops discovered an entrance to a Hamas tunnel inside a child’s bedroom in Rafah on Thursday.

The IDF says it recovered a trove of weapons and explosives from the tunnel. The operation is the latest of what Israel calls its “precise, intelligence-based, targeted operations” inside Rafah.

“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 IDF said in a statement.

Images released by the IDF show troops operating in the dense urban environment of Rafah. Images also show the cache of weapons, explosives and other equipment troops retrieved during the operation.

News of the operation comes the same day an Israeli strike took out Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists hiding at a United Nations school for displaced Palestinians in central Gaza. Local officials say that the strike killed more than 30 people, including 23 women and children.

Israel said it was targeting a Hamas compound inside the school containing 20 to 30 fighters and that many of them had been killed.

Witnesses and hospital officials said the predawn strike hit the al-Sardi School, run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). The school was filled with Palestinians who had fled Israeli offensives and bombardment in northern Gaza, they said.

“Eliminated: several Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who embedded themselves inside of an @UNRWA (United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees) school,” an IDF post to X reads.

“IAF fighter jets conducted a precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded inside the school in the area of Nuseirat. These terrorists belonged to the Nukhba Forces and participated in the Oct. 7 massacre,” it continued.

The IDF said a number of steps were taken before Thursday’s strike to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians during the strike, “including conducting aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information.”

The post was accompanied by an aerial photograph pinpointing rooms on two upper floors of the building, which the IDF said were the “locations of the terrorists.”