An IDF officer from the Nahal Reconnaissance unit was severely injured during combat in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said on Friday morning.
The officer was evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment. His family has been notified.
On Thursday, the Nahal Brigade continued to conduct precise, intelligence-based operations in the Rafah area, under the command of the 162nd Division.
During scans in the area, the troops of the Nahal Reconnaissance Battalion located passages in the walls made by terrorists to pass between the civilian houses. These passages were designed to be used in ambushes against IDF troops while using the civilian population as human shields for the terrorists’ activities. In another residence, a tunnel shaft was located by a drone inside a bathroom.
In one activity, a terrorist cell hiding inside an apartment that was being used as terrorist infrastructure was struck by the IAF following the direction of the brigade’s Fire Control Center. During the strike, the deputy commander of the aerial unit of Hamas’ Rafah Brigade was eliminated.
Also on Thursday, the IAF conducted an intelligence-based strike on Hamas command and control centers inside of which Hamas terrorists were operating.
The command centers were embedded in the areas of the “Abdelfattah Hamouda” and “Al-Zahra” schools in Daraj Tuffah. The school compounds were used by Hamas terrorists and commanders as command and control centers, from which they planned and carried out attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel.
Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, surveillance, and additional intelligence, the IDF said in a statement.
“The Hamas terrorist organization systematically violates international law, exploiting civilian structures and population as human shields for its terror attacks against the State of Israel,” it added.