Israeli military foiled an attempt by Hamas terrorists to breach the Israeli border fence from their stronghold of Rafah, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed Thursday.
The IDF soldiers spotted the terrorists intruders as they approached the border fence. “IDF troops operating in the area of the security fence identified several suspects who approached the border from the Gaza Strip and moved toward Israel in an attempt to cross the security area in the area of Rafah,” the Israeli military said in a press release Thursday. “The troops engaged the terrorists who opened fire at them. The troops then returned fire at the terrorists.”
Israeli fighter jets took out two of the terrorists, thwarting Hamas’s attempt to enter Israel. “An IAF aircraft that monitored the terrorist cell struck the terrorists and eliminated two of them. Another terrorist was eliminated by means of tank fire shortly afterward,” the IDF statement added. “We emphasize that the terrorists did not cross the fence built along the Gaza Strip.”
The foiled attack highlights Hamas’s intention to stage further terror attacks from Gaza despite the Israeli military offensive. The Wall Street Journal reports Sunday that Israel was forced to change its original military plan to capture Rafah under pressure from President Joe Biden. The move slowed down the IDF’s advance into Rafah, giving Hamas a halt ahead of the offensive.
The Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported the foiled terrorist attempt:
A serious incident broke out just before dawn on Thursday morning in the southernmost area of the Israel-Gaza border.An IDF investigation is still underway, but initial details are being revealed about the event in which 3 terrorists were eliminated.At 4:20 A.M. local time, IDF observers spotted suspicious movement in the Gaza area opposite the Kerem Shalom crossing, and triggered an infiltration procedure. The Bedouin patrol unit was activated and began to scan the area.At 5:00 A.M. the Israeli forces encountered terrorists who were trying to breach the “hourglass fence” on the border. The terrorists were equipped with small arms and RPG rockets, and they opened fire on the IDF troops.An Israeli Air Force aircraft that had been tracking the terrorist squad then eliminated two of them. A third terrorist was later eliminated by tank fire. A fourth apparently escaped back into Gaza territory.The exchange of fire took place a little over a quarter-mile (500 meters) from the fence inside Gaza, in an area designated by Israel as a buffer zone. The IDF said there was no infiltration into Israeli territory.
Israeli ground troops discovered a terror tunnel shaft inside a child’s room during a search operation in the Hamas stronghold of 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 IDF statement disclosed.
The discovery highlights Hamas’s use of Gaza children as human shields, using homes, schools, and playgrounds for storing weapons and staging terror attacks on Israel.
Besides Rafah, the Israeli military continued attacks on Hamas targets, hitting a United Nations-run school operating as a terror based in central Gaza, the Israeli media reported Thursday.
The building was “Hamas compound embedded inside an UNRWA school in the area of Nuseirat,” the IDF disclosed.
The targeted terrorists were members of the terrorist Nukhba Forces, which spearheaded the terror attack on October 7. “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 IDF confirmed. “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.”
The Times of Israel reported Thursday:
The Israel Defense Forces carried out an airstrike on what it said was a compound used by dozens of Hamas fighters inside a United Nations school in central Gaza before dawn on Thursday.The IDF said it took extensive precautions to reduce harm to civilians in the “precise strike” on the compound embedded within a UNRWA school in Nuseirat, where 20-30 terrorists, some of whom participated in the October 7 onslaught, were gathered.Palestinian civilians displaced by the war were also sheltering at the school.According to the military, the members of the terror groups were struck while gathered in three classrooms, separate from an area where civilians were sheltering. (…)The IDF said that an unspecified number of terrorists were killed in the strike.The IDF said the compound was used by members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force who took part in the terror group’s October 7 massacre in Israel, in which some 1,200 were killed and 251 were taken hostage.The army said the terrorists, along with members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, “directed terror attacks from the area of the school, while exploiting it as a civilian location and as shelter.”
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