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Published January 21, 2024, 2:58 PM ET
IDF troops discovered a tunnel system in the southern Gaza Strip where about 20 Israeli hostages were being held “in harsh and inhumane conditions” – including a five-year-old who drew hopeful pictures while in captivity.
Chilling footage uploaded on Saturday shows a huge tunnel stretching more than half a mile under the home of a Hamas commander in Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza, where the IDF says the most intense fighting has taken place in the war have.
Passing several booby traps, explosives and other obstacles set up by Hamas, the IDF said it found DNA traces in the tunnels as well as statements from former hostages that proved that the underground system housed up to 20 Israelis, including five-year-old Emilia Aloni.
In the hostages' cage rooms, soldiers found two of Emilia's drawings that she had left behind when she was released with her mother in November.
The images, which appear to have been drawn with a pink crayon, show a happy home with nearby flowers, butterflies and a smiling sun peeking out from the mountainside.
The IDF found five holding cells in a Hamas tunnel under a commander's home in Khan Younis. IDF One of the cells contained drawings by five-year-old hostage Emilia Aloni. X/@idfonline After weeks in captivity, Aloni was able to return to kindergarten in December. X/@YosephHaddad
Emilia and her mother Danielle were held in one of five cramped cells in the tunnel, each equipped with a single mattress and a toilet, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a news conference on Saturday.
“According to the witness statements, about 20 hostages were held in this tunnel at different times in harsh conditions with no daylight, in dense air with little oxygen and terrible humidity that makes breathing difficult,” Hagari said.
Glimpses of one of the rooms show a mattress, blankets and trash on the floor, with the only form of ventilation appearing to be fans at opposite ends.
Emilia and her mother Danielle were among those released during the hostage exchange in November. via Portal The tunnel system ran about half a mile below the southern junction of Khan Younis. IDF
In another cell, a single mattress appeared to lie on the floor in a narrow and empty white room.
Hagari said that some of the hostages held in the cells, like the Alonis, were released, but the rest were moved and remained elsewhere in Gaza, probably “under even harsher conditions.”
Hagari did not say which of the other more than 130 hostages were being held in the tunnel, but suggested that some were seniors who needed medical attention.
One of the holding cells had a mattress and nothing else in a cramped white room. IDF A kitchen was vandalized after Hamas militants fought against IDF troops securing the tunnel. IDF
The IDF added that while inspecting the tunnel beneath Khan Younis, its soldiers encountered several Hamas gunmen who were killed in the battle.
The tunnel was then secured and examined, with the IDF also inviting some journalists to view it on Friday before it was destroyed.
Nearly two months after the initial hostage swap deal that led to the release of the Alonis, there is no sign of another agreement between Israel and Hamas to release the remaining prisoners.
The IDF said the terrorists had working pipelines in the tunnel system. IDF
The families of the hostages have begun intensifying their demonstrations, calling on Prime Minister Netanyahu to accept a deal. One of them went on a hunger strike in front of the Israeli leader's house.
Others have warned that they will take “extreme measures,” including forming blockades, to prevent humanitarian aid shipments from reaching the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed that military pressure in Gaza was the best way to ensure the hostage's safety and that the war effort would continue until Hamas was destroyed.
The terror group said an exchange deal would only happen once Israel withdraws its forces from Gaza and releases all Palestinians in its prisons.
With post wires
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