Tel Aviv, Dec 29 : The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday said that it has unearthed a large cache of arms including Kalashnikov rifles, grenades, mines, rocket launchers and rocket-propelled grenades from Khirbat Ikhzaa region near Khan Younis in Gaza. An IDF statement noted: "Soldiers are working alongside IDF engineering battalions and have eliminated Hamas terrorists and attacked several significant terror targets, including tunnel entrances, tunnel shafts, and rocket launch positions." The Israeli army earlier said on Friday that dozens of tunnel shafts were discovered, adding the engineering battalions destroyed them. Khirbat Ikhzaa was the base of many of the terrorists who were a part of the October 7 attacks by Hamas. The IDF has named the operation as "Operation Oz and Nir" after Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel which suffered at the hands of Hamas terrorists. /IANS