The Israel Defense Forces found explosive devices hidden inside sacks belonging to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, the military said on Friday.
The bags, meant to hold food, were in a building that previously functioned as a school in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, the IDF said.
In another building that previously served as a school in Khan Yunis, situated in the southern part of the Strip, a tunnel shaft was discovered and dismantled by Israeli troops, the army added.
Efforts led by the IDF Southern Command in the southern and central parts of the Gaza Strip in recent days have located more than 800 explosive devices and weapons in courtyards and residential buildings, the military said.
Dozens of tunnel shafts have been “uncovered, investigated and dismantled” in the same areas.
During operational activity in Gaza on Friday, IDF soldiers killed four armed terrorists after identifying them, the IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said in a joint statement.
Also on Friday, an Israeli Air Force craft struck and killed Hamas terrorist Khalil Farwana in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City. He served as head of a weapons manufacturing site in the organization’s weapons production headquarters, the statement continued.
The Force further attacked dozens of terrorist targets throughout the Strip, including gunmen, “military” sites, observation and sniper posts, as well as additional terrorist infrastructure, the IDF and Shin Bet said.
Soldiers of the IDF’s 7th Brigade’s combat team, operating under the command of the 98th Division, are currently conducting raids in Khan Yunis as part of “Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” the IDF said on Sunday.
As part of their mission, the forces eliminated dozens of terrorists and destroyed approximately 100 terror infrastructure sites. The operations were carried out through coordinated efforts involving the brigade’s fire coordination center, the Air Force and Military Intelligence Directorate.
In one incident, soldiers identified three terrorists attempting to plant explosives in order to booby-trap the area. The soldiers ordered an airstrike that “attacked and eliminated the terrorists,” the IDF said.
Additionally, in cooperation with elite Yahalom combat engineers, the brigade’s soldiers located and destroyed a terrorist tunnel system approximately 90 feet deep and almost 2,300 feet long, it said.
On May 16, the IDF launched “Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” a large-scale military campaign against the remaining Hamas and Islamic Jihad strongholds.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the Gaza ground offensive is aimed at establishing complete and lasting Israeli security control throughout the entire Strip.
The war will continue until Hamas is disarmed and its leadership is killed or exiled, he said.
On May 25, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir declared that Hamas is under “great pressure,” having lost most of its assets and control of Gaza. “We are intensifying our activity according to a structured plan,” he told soldiers fighting in the Khan Yunis area.
“We will use all our tools to bring the hostages home, to defeat Hamas and to dismantle its rule,” Zamir said.
With reports emerging about Hamas’s rejection of a new Washington-devised ceasefire, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir urged Netanyahu on Friday to press on and “annihilate” Hamas.
“Mr. Prime Minister, after Hamas has once again rejected the proposed deal, there is no more excuse—for anyone—to continue this stagnation in Gaza. We have already missed enough opportunities,” he tweeted.
“It’s time to go in with full force—to destroy, to kill and to annihilate Hamas,” he said, referencing the decree against the Jews in Persia in the mid-fourth century BCE, as mentioned in the book of Esther (3:13).
Ben-Gvir issued the statement hours after a senior Hamas official told the BBC that the terrorist organization intends to turn down the most recent U.S. offer for a temporary ceasefire in the war in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday that Israel and Hamas are “very close” to reaching a ceasefire.
“We’ll let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow; we have a chance of that,” he said.
According to Israel’s Channel 12 News, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff devised a ceasefire plan that includes the two-stage release of 10 living hostages and 18 bodies, in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire aimed at facilitating negotiations to end the war.