Hamas Squad in Gaza School Fires on Soldiers As Civilians Shelter Inside

Hamas terrorists fired on Israeli soldiers from a Gaza school where civilians were sheltering, the Israel Defense Forces said on Saturday night.

Soldiers from the IDF’s 188th Brigade’s combat team had been operating in the area of a school in the Al Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, encountering Hamas squads firing from buildings. On Thursday, the military received intelligence that dozens of Hamas terrorists entrenching themselves inside a school together with a civilian population.

“The terrorists took advantage of the presence of civilians in the school area in order to fire RPGs and small arms at the forces while hiding behind women and children,” the IDF said.

Forces from the 188th Brigade’s combat team raided the school and arrested dozens of terrorists.

The IDF added that at least nine tunnel shafts were found inside the UNRWA refugee camp.

Also on Saturday, Israeli fighter jets targeted Hezbollah terror infrastructure in the area of Kfarkela, a Lebanese village across the border from Metula. Since October 7, Hezbollah has fired a large number of rockets from the village.

At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. The number of men, women, children, soldiers and foreigners held captive in Gaza by Hamas is now believed to be 129. Other people remain unaccounted for as Israeli authorities continue to identify bodies and search for human remains.