IDF and Shin Bet say three Hamas weapons depots in Gaza were destroyed

Israel's military and its domestic security service say they destroyed three weapons storage sites belonging to Hamas in strikes across the Gaza Strip last Thursday. In a joint announcement published by the IDF spokesperson, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA) said the facilities had been used by the military wing of Hamas.

According to the statement, the sites held dozens of weapons of several kinds. The items listed were RPGs, launchers, rockets, Kalashnikov rifles and other combat equipment. The announcement did not name the locations of the three facilities beyond describing them as spread across the Gaza Strip, and it was released several days after the strikes themselves took place.

Who made the announcement

The IDF is Israel's armed forces, covering ground, air and naval units. The ISA is the agency more commonly known in Israel and abroad as the Shin Bet, or by its Hebrew acronym Shabak. It is responsible for internal security and counterterrorism, and in Gaza it typically supplies intelligence used to select targets. Joint statements from the two bodies are common when an operation draws on Shin Bet intelligence and IDF firepower.

The statement was carried in English on the IDF's official Telegram channel and on its account on X, and in Hebrew by Israeli outlets. The Hebrew version published by News.co.il was presented as a joint release from the IDF spokesperson and the Shin Bet's spokesperson's office, and it added that security forces would keep acting to degrade the capabilities of armed groups in Gaza and to thwart any attempt to rebuild them or hold weapons. Ynet's alert service used the Hebrew abbreviation amlach, short for the phrase meaning "means of warfare", a standard Israeli military term for weapons and munitions.

What was reportedly stored

The weapons named in the statement are a mix of light arms and heavier systems. An RPG is a rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-fired weapon used against vehicles, fortifications and troops. Kalashnikov rifles are the AK family of assault rifles, widely used by armed groups across the region. The statement also mentions rockets and launchers, which are the means Hamas has used to fire projectiles toward Israeli communities.

The IDF did not give a precise count, describing the quantity only as dozens. It did not say whether any of the weapons were manufactured locally or smuggled into Gaza, and it did not release imagery of the sites in the material reviewed here.

How the reports differ

The accounts agree on the core facts: three sites, struck on Thursday, used by Hamas to store weapons. There are small differences in how the strikes and contents are described. Emanuel Fabian, military correspondent for The Times of Israel, described the operation as airstrikes, while the IDF's own English and Hebrew text says only that the forces struck and dismantled the facilities, without specifying whether aircraft were used.

Joe Truzman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington research institute, summarised the contents as rockets, RPGs and assault rifles, a shorter list than the official one, which also includes launchers and additional combat equipment. These are differences of wording rather than contradictions, but readers should note that the airstrike description comes from a correspondent rather than from the official statement.

Where this fits

Hamas is the Islamist movement that has controlled the Gaza Strip, the coastal territory bordering Israel and Egypt. Its armed wing, which the IDF refers to as the military wing, maintains stockpiles of rockets and small arms. Israeli announcements of strikes on weapons stores, tunnels and launch sites are a recurring feature of reporting from Gaza, and the IDF regularly frames such operations as aimed at preventing Hamas from restoring its military capacity, language that also appears in this statement.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports gives the exact locations of the three facilities, the time of the strikes on Thursday, or why the announcement came days later. None mentions casualties, whether anyone was present at the sites, or any damage to surrounding buildings. There is no response from Hamas in the material, and no independent confirmation from sources inside Gaza. The precise number and condition of the weapons, and how the IDF assessed what was stored there, are also not stated.