Tel Aviv, Dec 9 (IANS): The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday said that it encountered shelling from within an school compound in Gaza city‘s Shejaiya area in Northern strip.

The IDF said that its Kfir Infantry Battalion killed the gunmen and raided the school and found weapons and military equipment in the class rooms.

Fighting between the IDF and Hamas operatives continued in the northern Gaza along with airstrikes.

The IDF in a statement said that the troops of the Armored Corps operating with the Paratroopers Brigade found and destroyed a tunnel shaft in Shejaiya.

The IDF said that this tunnel shaft was part of a large tunnel network and added that the troops discovered elevator in another tunnel shaft in the area. It also said that in Beit Honoun, the IDF troops were fired at from UNRWA managed school as well as from a mosque.

The IDF said that the Golani Brigade had identified a number of Hamas operatives with anti-tank missiles approaching them in Shejaiya and an airstrike was conducted using a combat helicopter that killed the operatives.