israel-raids-hamas-compounds-in-rafah

The Israeli military conducted operations in Rafah on Sunday, targeting two Hamas compounds in the southern Gaza city and seizing a large cache of weapons, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported.

 

In Rafah’s Tel al-Sultan neighbourhood, Israeli forces raided a Hamas compound that served as a training ground for Hamas’s Tel al-Sultan Brigade. During the raid, soldiers discovered the office of the brigade’s commander, Mahmoud Hamdan, along with weapons storage facilities and several tunnel shafts. The IDF is currently examining and dismantling these tunnel shafts and destroying the compound.

 

In the same area, soldiers also raided the office of Yasser Nett, the Commander of Rocket and Missile Fire in Hamas’s Rafah Brigade. Nett has been responsible for multiple rocket attacks into Israel and against Israeli troops in Gaza.

 

In a parallel operation, soldiers targeted a second Hamas compound in the Rafah area, seizing large quantities of weapons and intelligence documents and uncovering additional tunnel shafts.

 

Over the weekend, Israeli forces also discovered and destroyed weapons caches located inside a Gaza university and in residential homes. Additionally, they identified and dismantled a rocket launching site placed within a humanitarian zone.

 

These operations come in the aftermath of the deadly attacks by Hamas on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,200 people and the taking of 252 hostages, including Israelis and foreigners. Of the 116 hostages still remaining, more than 30 are believed to be dead.