The Israeli army said on Wednesday it had discovered a network of tunnels in Gaza City used by “senior leaders” of the Palestinian movement Hamas.
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According to images released by the army, this network of tunnels connected “terrorist hideouts, offices and homes (…) of senior Hamas leaders” in Gaza. We can see soldiers entering the basement of a house, which leads to a long tunnel and then to a room furnished with furniture.
According to the Army, this network is “in close proximity to stores, government buildings, homes and a school.”
The tunnels were used by “senior Hamas officials, including Ismaïl Haniyeh, Yahya Sinouar, Mohammed Deif and others, to manage their operational activities” and “for their protection in their daily movements in the city center” of Gaza, said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a Israeli army spokesman.
The Israeli army said on Sunday that it had discovered the “largest tunnel” of Hamas's armed wing under the Gaza Strip, which it said stretches for more than four kilometers and whose mouth is only about 400 meters from the Erez border crossing. between Palestinian and Israeli territory.
The tunnel is equipped with a pipe system, electricity, ventilation, sewers, communication networks and rails, noted an AFP journalist authorized to go there by the Israeli army.
According to a senior official in the Islamist movement, Osama Hamdane, Hamas had downplayed the discovery of this tunnel, claiming it was built for a “mission” that was “successfully carried out.”
The Palestinian group carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on the latest official Israeli figures. About 250 people were taken hostage, 129 of whom are still being held in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
In retaliation, Israeli authorities vowed to destroy Hamas, relentlessly shelled the Gaza Strip and conducted ground operations there since October 27.
According to the Hamas government, 20,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in this Palestinian territory since October 7.