TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said on Friday it had found weapons and tunnels on the grounds of al-Azhar University in the Gaza Strip, announcing that the terrorist Hamas organization was using the campus for its activities.
One tunnel is said to lead from the university campus to a school 1 kilometer away. Soldiers had discovered explosive devices and rockets on the campus during their attack on Thursday, the army said.
It said that Hamas also misused the university building for attacks on Israeli soldiers. The information could not initially be independently verified.
Israel’s army repeatedly accuses Hamas of carrying out attacks from residential areas, hospitals and other civilian buildings, and of using civilians as shields. Hamas denies this.
The actions of the Israeli army have come under increasing international criticism, due to the suffering and displacement inflicted on Palestinian civilians.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock urged the Israeli government on Friday to better protect civilians in the coastal strip.
“We expect Israel to adapt its military action to alleviate civilian suffering, to allow more humanitarian aid, especially in the north, to take a more targeted military approach and to accept fewer civilian casualties,” Baerbock said on the sidelines of the COP28 climate talks in Dubai.
“The fight is against Hamas and not the innocent Palestinians,” she added.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again ruled out Hamas’ participation in a future government saying in an X post on Friday: “There will be no Hamas — we will eliminate it.”
Netanyahu was responding to comments made by Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who suggested Hamas could become a junior partner of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Gaza after the end of the war, during a news interview.
“The very fact that this is the Palestinian Authority’s proposal only strengthens my policy: the Palestinian Authority is not the solution,” the prime minister wrote on X.
The U.S. wants the Palestinian Authority — which governs the West Bank and was forcibly expelled by Hamas from the Gaza Strip in 2007 — to take back control after the war but Israel opposes this idea.
The PA says it is prepared to do so if there is a two-state solution.
On the ground, the Israeli bombardments continued, with around 450 targets attacked on the ground, by air and from the sea over the course of Thursday, the army announced early on Friday.
The Israeli army also successfully intercepted “a suspicious aerial target” that crossed from Lebanon on Friday.
“A number of launches were identified from Lebanon toward IDF (Israel Defense Forces) posts in the border areas. … IDF artillery struck the source of the fire and additional targets in Lebanon,” the army said.
According to statements from the Israeli army, dozens of terrorists have been killed during continued operations in the southern city Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.
“We have launched a rapid, powerful and targeted operation, moving from tunnel to tunnel and house to house,” the military said on Friday.
The homes of high-ranking Hamas officials were also among the targets of the military searches, where the army found weapons and intelligence-related material.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, which is considered a Hamas stronghold under its leader in Gaza, Yehya al-Sinwar, militants were hit from the air with precision strikes, the army said. The targeted air force strikes lasted for two hours.
It is only “a matter of time” before al-Sinwar is found, Netanyahu said on Wednesday evening after the army surrounded al-Sinwar’s house.
Experts suspect that al-Sinwar and his leadership are holed up in an extensive network of tunnels under Gaza. Many of the 138 hostages still being held are also believed to be there.
Al-Sinwar, together with Mohammed Deif, commander of the armed wing of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, is regarded as the planner of the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s army has vowed to track down both men.
The Israeli government has come under fierce criticism for not doing enough to free the remaining hostages.
Netanyahu has taken no direct responsibility for the political and military failures on October 7.
Relatives of the Israelis killed and kidnapped in the surprise attack called on Friday for Netanyahu’s resignation, during a rally near the parliament in Jerusalem attended by 200 to 300 demonstrators, according to media estimates.
Even before the brutal terrorist attack, there had been repeated mass protests in Israel against Netanyahu and his coalition. It is the most right-wing government in Israel’s history.
The Gaza war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel’s history, carried out by Hamas terrorists and other terrorist groups on October 7 near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. More than 1,200 people were killed and around 240 taken hostage.
Israel has since launched massive airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, followed by a ground offensive that began in late October.
According to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry, more than 17,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip.
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