The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday that three soldiers had been killed by a booby-trapped tunnel in Rafah that was located in a medical clinic that was part of a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school.
In a statement, the IDF said:
In response to an anti-tank missile fired from an UNRWA school toward IDF troops, the 12th Brigade combat team operated in the school complex by which a mosque and a medical clinic are also located.
During the sweep and clear operation in the medical clinic, two incidents of explosive charges set in a booby-trapped tunnel shaft detonated on the troops. As a result of one of the explosions, three soldiers – Staff Sergeant Amir Galilove, Staff Sergeant Uri Bar Or, and Staff Sergeant Ido Appel – from the 50th Battalion of the Nahal Brigade were killed.
In addition, during the operation, large quantities of weapons were found in the complex, including firearms and grenades. Inside the classrooms at the school, the troops located significant shafts leading to a wide network of underground terror tunnels.
Israel has criticized UNRWA’s role in Gaza, saying the agency indoctrinates Palestinians to hate Israel and Jews, and accusing UNRWA employees of supporting, and even participating in, the October 7 terror attack by Hamas in Israel.
The risk of booby-trapped tunnels and buildings is one reason the IDF prefers to bomb dangerous locations rather than sending troops in. The Biden administration has recently withheld the needed bombs, in protest at the Rafah operation.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.