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Israeli strikes kill more than two dozen in Rafah, Gaza
At least 31 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip early Saturday. Twenty-eight people died in an early attack while three police died in a later strike.
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says that it recently launched raids on Hamas facilities in Gaza, killing 120 terrorists, while discovering a “significant” amount of assets and weapons, including inside a United Nations-affiliated building.
In a joint statement made with the Israel Security Agency (ISA), the Israeli military announced Saturday that the raids were conducted in northern Gaza over the past two weeks.
“The forces operated in the areas of Shati and Tel al-Hawa in northern Gaza,” the joint statement read. “Approximately 120 Hamas terrorists were killed, and 20 terrorist infrastructure sites were destroyed as part of the operation.”
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The IDF explained that the ISA initially led them to a tunnel shaft near a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
The IDF says that the ISA led them to a tunnel shaft near a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). (Israel Defense Forces)
“The shaft led to an underground terror tunnel that served as a significant asset of Hamas’ military intelligence and passed under the building that serves as UNRWA’s main headquarters in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF explained.
The Israeli military said that it seized a “wide variety of intelligence assets” while raiding the 700-meter-long tunnel, but did not specify what exactly was found.
“The newly-found intelligence will allow the forces to operate against additional Hamas targets,” the IDF said. “The dismantling of the tunnel weakens Hamas’ intelligence capabilities.”
That discovery ultimately brought the military to the UNRWA’s headquarters, where Israeli forces found that the UNRWA building supplied the Hamas tunnel with electricity.
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The Israeli military said that it seized a “wide variety of intelligence assets” while raiding the 700-meter long tunnel. (Israel Defense Forces)
“Following these findings and based on preliminary ISA intelligence, the forces conducted a targeted raid on UNRWA’s central headquarters, which contains offices for various humanitarian and international organizations,” the statement read. “Large quantities of weapons were found inside the rooms of the building, including rifles, ammunition, grenades and explosives.
“Intelligence and documents discovered in the offices of UNRWA officials confirmed that the offices had in fact also been used by Hamas terrorists.”
On Saturday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Phillippe Lazzarini said on X that his organization, “did not know what is under its headquarters in Gaza.”
“UNRWA staff left its headquarters in Gaza City on 12 October following the Israeli evacuation orders and as bombardment intensified in the area,” he wrote on X. “We have not used that compound since we left it nor are we aware of any activity that may have taken place there.”
The IDF also found rifles, ammunition, grenades and explosives inside the UNRWA headquarters. (Israel Defense Forces)
Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant recently told Fox News Digital that “dozens” of UNRWA employees took part in the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks that launched the Israel-Hamas war.
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“I think the world needs to wake up and address this issue in a different way, while also addressing Gaza’s needs,” Gallant told Fox News Digital. “UNRWA is a group of terrorists who receive salaries from many countries – these countries gave money to people who raped, murdered and took people into captivity.”
Fox News Digital’s Ruth Marks Eglash contributed to this report.
Andrea Vacchiano is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. You can follow her on X at @andrea_vacch or send story tips to [email protected].