In addition to seizing thousands of munitions, the IDF struck approximately 250 targets over the previous 24 hours.
The IDF said that it had found one of the largest weapons stockpiles in the history of its operations in Gaza, an arsenal containing hundreds of missiles, launchers, long-range rockets, anti-tank missiles, UAVs, and explosives.
The massive weapons cache was located near a hospital and a school, the IDF reported.
The terror munitions were discovered by the 50th battalion of the 460th brigade. The IDF said that some of the munitions were detonated on site while others were sent for further investigation.
The IDF stated that all of the ordnance was found in the vicinity of densely populated civilian areas, citing the discovery as “further evidence of the cynical use that the Hamas terrorist organization makes of the residents of the Gaza Strip as human shields.”
Also, over the last day, the Israel Air Force hit around 250 targets in Gaza, the IDF stated. Troops on the ground worked to locate weapons; Hamas infrastructure, including subterranean structures; and explosive devices.
Additionally, IDF troops directed an IAF strike on two Hamas rocket launchers which had been used to rain rockets down on central Israel on Tuesday.
IDF operates in central Gaza
Israeli troops also directed an airstrike in the Deir al-Balah area in central Gaza.
These airstrikes successfully eliminated both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists and destroyed a number of terrorist-controlled infrastructure.
Israeli troops also hit a terror cell conducting its operations next to a school in northern Gaza, the army said.
The IDF then proceeded to target a subterranean structure in the area of the school. In another local school, troops found more weapons and ammunition.
Soldiers in the Nahal Brigade fought in close combat with terrorists in the Jabalya neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip, eliminating several terrorists, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said on Wednesday.
The soldiers also found sniper rifles, explosives, anti-tank missiles, rockets, tunnel openings, and swastikas in a school and a mosque in the neighborhood. Rocket launchers were found near the school as well.