By Isabel Vincent | New York Post
Israeli soldiers found a sniper rifle and ammunition hidden inside a large teddy bear during a raid on a school in the Gaza Strip.
The weapons were found at a school compound in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaia Friday after Israel Defense Forces engaged in heavy fighting with a Hamas terrorist cell in the area, Israeli news reports said.
A video released by the IDF showed soldiers pulling the giant teddy from a pile of furniture and other items strewn across the classroom, laying it down, and slicing it open.
Hidden among the stuffing was the long rifle and a box of ammunition.
The school was used for terror purposes by Hamas, according to the IDF.
Soldiers found more weaponry hidden in classrooms at an adjacent school, in bags labeled “UNRWA.”
The initials stand for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which provides assistance and protection for Palestinian refugees, according to its website.
A search of the school compound where the teddy bear was found also revealed a tunnel shaft inside of a classroom, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.
The tunnel discovery adds to the evidence that Hamas uses civilian areas, such as hospitals and shelters, as a cover for its terrorist activities, the report said.
Earlier this week, the IDF said it had found one of the largest Hamas stockpiles of weapons in the history of its operations in Gaza next to a school and a hospital.
The weapons cache contained hundreds of missiles and explosives, among other weapons, according to reports.
“Who stores RPG missiles, anti-tank missiles, explosive devices, long-range missiles, grenades, and UAVs at a school and a medical facility in Gaza?” the IDF asked in a post on X Wednesday. “The answer: Hamas. Hamas doesn’t hide their terrorism. Stop excusing it.”
Saturday, Israeli warplanes continued to strike parts of the Gaza Strip by land, sea, and air.
Its aerial bombing campaign pounded some of the areas in the territory’s south that it had told Palestinians to evacuate, according to reports.
The airstrikes came a day after the US vetoed a UN resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire.
The Security Council vote was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that Gaza was at “a breaking point” with its humanitarian support system on the verge of collapse, and some Arab countries expressed deep dissatisfaction with the US veto.
Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, who the US has touted as a possible post-war governing authority for Gaza, said that the veto was a “mark of shame that will follow the United States for many years.”
With the war entering its third month, the death toll in Gaza stands at more than 17,400, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip.
Their counts do not differentiate between civilian and military casualties.
More than 1,200 Israelis were brutally tortured and killed in a Hamas terror attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
The IDF on Saturday announced the deaths of five Israeli soldiers, including four killed in fighting in southern Gaza and one who died from injuries suffered on Oct. 7, bringing the total since the start of the war to 97.