Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) released a graphic this week showing several Hamas underground rocket launchers placed next to a school in Gaza, according to a tweet from Emanuel Fabian of The Times of Israel.
According to The Times of Israel, the Hamas terrorist group frequently hides its launchpads under tarps or inside buildings for cover.
The IDF also tweeted a map showing where hundreds of Hamas rockets misfired in Gaza, killing or wounding their own civilians.
“Fact: Of the 4,300+ rockets that Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired at Israel during Operation Guardian of the Walls, 680 misfired and exploded inside Gaza, killing and injuring their own civilians,” IDF tweeted, along with an image showing from where certain rockets were launched compared to where they landed.
The images nearly a week into a ceasefire enacted after 11 days of conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza. The attacks were initiated by Hamas on Monday, May 10, and over the next 11 days, Hamas fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israel. The Israeli military also struck hundreds of Hamas targets in response.
The Times reported that IDF praised its efforts to combat the barrage of rocket fire from Hamas, noting that Israeli forces dealt a significant blow to Hamas’ military capabilities.
“Cracking Hamas’s ‘metro,’ Military Intelligence’s ability to map underground infrastructure and provide much-needed information to combat troops in order to take from the terror group its central domain is a strategic shift. This was the work of several years,” a senior Military Intelligence official speaking on a condition of anonymity told reporters.
“Years of work, outside-the-box thinking and the fusion of Military Intelligence’s power with officials in the field resulted in a breakthrough and a solution to the enigma of the underground,” he said.
However, the terrorist group still reportedly has thousands of rockets, and Israeli Military Intelligence said it cannot assess how long the current ceasefire will last.
Over the weekend, Hamas co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar told British television that Israel didn’t have the right to exist, and said the terrorist group’s strategy is to attack “most of the overcrowded areas in the civilian society” in Israel.
Al-Zahar said that “the new element…is the degree of the resistance movement, particularly in Gaza, to attack the Israeli targets at very important points, including most of the overcrowded area in the civilian society. So for how long the Israeli will accept that, I think this is the main issue.”
