Following intelligence indicating that Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists and infrastructure were embedded inside the UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza City, IDF troops began a counterterrorism operation in the area earlier this week. At the start of the operation, the IDF opened a defined corridor to enable civilians to evacuate from the area.

During the operation, the Commando Brigade Combat Team under the command of the 99th Division conducted a targeted raid on a Hamas combat complex embedded inside a compound previously used by UNRWA. With the guidance of the Intelligence Directorate (J2), Maglan and Egoz special forces raided the compound and apprehended terrorists who tried to escape from the area.

During the activity, the troops engaged in close-quarters combat with terrorist cells that had fortified themselves inside the UNRWA compound and located parts for assembling a UAV, war rooms used for surveillance operations and large quantities of weapons, including tactical drones, rockets, machine guns, mortars, explosives and grenades.

Next to the terror compound raided by the troops, the IDF previously exposed and operated against an underground tunnel route and significant asset of Hamas’ military intelligence that passed under the building that served as UNRWA’s Headquarters in the Gaza Strip.

In additional scans carried out by the troops during the current operations in the area, the troops located an underground laboratory for the manufacturing of explosives and weapons inside a university building.