HAMAS terror troops have been hiding weapons in babies’ cots and sending children on to the frontline in Gaza, shocked Israeli soldiers told The Sun yesterday.

Terror tunnels have been found under a kindergarten and mosques have been used to store huge stashes of weapons among fiendish tactics.

But the most shocking ploy has been the alleged use of children as young as 10 and old folk to scout Israeli positions.

An army captain who has spent weeks in Gaza – and lost a comrade in battle – called The Sun from north Gaza yesterday to describe his daunting task as “like fighting ghosts.”

He described living hour-by-hour on the frontline, never knowing when elusive Hamas fighters might spring from a tunnel to attack before vanishing.

But the 27-year-old reservist officer insisted morale remained high among troops determined to wipe out the terrorist savages behind the October 7 attacks which claimed 1,200 lives.

The soldier – who The Sun agreed to name only as “Captain Daniel” – said: “Our enemy are cowardly – they don’t stand and fight and exposure to them is usually very short.

“It‘s 100 per cent true that it’s like fighting ghosts.

“Since we’ve been on the ground here there is not a single unit, not a single platoon, that hasn’t come across deeply troubling and disturbing signs.

“There was a situation where a very old man and a boy no older than around 10 appeared in front of us.

“They seemed entirely innocent and obviously appeared to be no threat, but it became clear very soon after that Hamas were using them to scout our position.

“Soon after we saw them we came under heavy fire and it’s now a tactic that we have to expect all the time as we move forward.

“Civilians are being used like this to either distract us and get our attention or tell the enemy where we are.”

Captain Daniel, of the Jerusalem Brigade’s 7007th Battalion, told how structures including schools and mosques are also being used as terror bases.

He said: “We went into a kindergarten with a playground with see-saws and slides outside and children’s pictures on the walls painted pink.

“But an entrance to a Hamas tunnel was inside which linked to their underground network and we found weapons, ammunition and explosives inside.

Read Related Also: ‘I’m outta here,’ Costco shopper fumes after being ‘chastised’ by employee for not waiting for receipt check

“Tactics like this are troubling but we are learning about our enemy and determined to finish the job here.

“We all appreciate the importance of our mission.”

IDF chiefs yesterday released exclusive images to The Sun which they claimed exposed their enemy’s twisted tactics. 

The Israeli Defence Force’s 261st Division said they had unearthed an array of weaponry in “cynical places” during the recent ceasefire.

Pictures showed a Kalashnikov assault rifle hidden under the cot mattress with explosives next to it, said to have been found in the Naveh-Said neighbourhood of Al Atatra in north Gaza.

Other finds – which could not be verified – included explosives hidden in a container of baby formula booby trapped to a grenade.

A 50-foot terror tunnel shaft was also pictured, said to be inside a kindergarten in the same neighbourhood. 

A whiteboard normally used by nursery school teachers inside a mosque also appeared to have been used to sketch diagrams depicting rocket-firing tactics.

And large caches of arms and explosives were also reported to have been recovered from two mosques in the same area by the same unit.

Captain Daniel, from Ra’anana, central Israel also told yesterday of the personal dangers he has faced during weeks of fighting – and the pain of losing a comrade in battle.

The officer was listening in on his radio when a firefight erupted nearby and comrade Lieutenant Yuval Zilber, 25. 

Captain Daniel said: “Unfortunately, in the first week of our mission, my comrade Yuval Zilber was killed.

“A terrorist appeared from a tunnel shaft and he was killed by gunfire before we engaged and neutralised him.

“We have since named a compound that we captured after Yuval.

“His loss was a shock to us all but we understand the reason for our mission and we do not have a choice. We must fight on.”