WATCH: IDF finds explosives-rigged home by Gaza school
IDF releases videos showing its ground forces operating against Hamas terrorists, infrastructure
Itamar Sharon is a news editor at The Times of Israel
As Israel and Hamas appeared to maintain a humanitarian truce Saturday, the IDF released several videos documenting its activities in the Gaza Strip as part of Operation Protective Edge.
One video uploaded to YouTube showed troops at a Palestinian house located near a UN school, which had been rigged up with explosives.
“We went inside, the search dog and I, and we found eight bombs connected to each other,” a soldier says. The soldier points out that the house is right by a UN school.
Another soldier then shows explosives rigged inside the basement, masked to look like parts of a chicken coop.
In another video, troops huddle by a civilian home as one of the soldiers points to a bomb by the house and says: “This is a bomb called a Claymore. As you can see Hamas uses the homes of the civilian population and places bombs inside them.”
(Note: The bleeping in the video does not censor expletives but classified information.)
He explains that a hole seen in the wall was made by Hamas to lure IDF troops to enter the home at that point and then detonate the device against them.
“This thing could take down half a platoon I think,” another soldier adds.
At the end of the video soldiers detonate the bomb safely.
Another video shows troops locating the entrance to an attack tunnel dug beneath homes. The tunnel is loaded with explosives and detonated by troops.
A third clip begins with a soldier filmed at nighttime as he tells the camera amid distant booms: “As you can see there’s a lot of artillery here, the air force is doing its work. We will do everything in order to bring back quiet to the state of Israel. Shabbat Shalom.”
Another soldier is then seen in night vision giving the traditional blessing of the Sabbath as a group of soldiers gather to celebrate the Jewish holy day. “L’Chaim!” they call as he finishes saying the words.
The video then shows various clips of soldiers walking across the dangerous Gazan landscape.
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