CBNNews.com - GAZA STRIP - Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops diffused a bomb, set with a timer, inside a school, with a fuse that ran to a nearby zoo.

After neutralizing the bomb, the troops found a large weapons cache inside the school, which included AK-47 assault rifles, RPG launchers and grenades.

Meanwhile, following an IAF(Israel Air Force) air strike on a mosque in southern Gaza City on Monday, IDF ground troops found a massive weapons cache inside, including a stockpile of Kassam and Katyusha rockets and mortar shells.

Brigadier General Avi Benayahu said IDF troops have encountered many rigged bombs in abandoned homes, schools, and tunnels.

"We continue to face an insane reality of booby-trapped schools," Benayahu said.

"In one neighborhood of 150 homes, more than 30 were rigged with explosive devices," he said.

He also said Hamas placed booby-trapped mannequins at the entrances of abandoned buildings.                                                         

The IDF estimates that some 900 Palestinians have been killed since the operation began on December 27.

Of that number, 400 are known Hamas operatives, while the IDF believes that at least half of the remaining 500 were also Hamas fighters.       

Sources: The Jerusalem Post, israel national news