Footage released by the Israeli military revealed a new network of tunnels in Gaza, it said on Wednesday, as well as a workplace used to build the passages.
The IDF said the videos showed a “large network” around Palestine Square in Gaza City fortified by blast doors and security cameras, as well as a workshop used to build tunnel components – hidden next to a school for deaf children .
The discovery comes as Israeli forces continue to search for the Hamas leadership responsible for the October 7 attack in which terrorists killed around 1,200 people in Israel and took another 240 hostage back to Gaza.
The houses linked to the tunnel network included those of Muhammad Deif – the shadowy leader of Hamas's military wing – and Yahya Sinwar – Hamas' top official in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said.
Palestine Square is in the upscale Rimal neighborhood, the once-bustling coastal power center that was heavily bombed in the early days of the ongoing war as Israel sought to eliminate the Hamas leadership.
Footage released by the Israeli military revealed a new network of tunnels in Gaza, it said on Wednesday, as diplomatic efforts continued to bring about a pause in fighting
In the footage, a long section of the tunnel can be seen before arriving at a fire door
A video released by the military shows Israeli soldiers exposing the entrance to part of the tunnel network under a hatch door.
A spiral staircase leads to what appears to be a basement, where there is another tunnel shaft that leads even deeper into the ground below.
Soldiers inspect equipment positioned around the tunnel entrance, which appears to include a winch and elevator, presumably used to transport equipment in and out of the underground system. There is also a ladder leading down the side of the shaft.
A narrator in the video says the troops also found what looked like a prayer room, with copies of the Koran and prayer mats.
Apparently they also found military equipment such as rifles and grenades.
The camera then delves further down into the network of tunnels, which are equipped with electrical and plumbing cables, the footage shows. The clip also shows a security camera and a fire door at the end of a long section of the dark tunnel.
Fuse boxes and other devices are also highlighted in the footage.
The IDF says the tunnels were used daily by Hamas and that they connected them to other parts of the Gaza Strip, allowing them to move underground undetected.
In a separate clip, also released by the IDF, a soldier is shown walking the camera through a workshop that the military said was used to build the tunnels “next to an adult education center and a school for deaf children.”
The soldier named Lt. Col. Ido says his unit found the booby-trapped workshop. They “neutralized the threat,” he says, before finding materials and equipment to build the underground system.
The footage also appears to show an elevator going further down.
The army's chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said the army had discovered a huge underground complex. “They all used this infrastructure routinely, during emergencies and also at the start of the war on October 7,” he said.
He said the tunnels stretched across the Gaza Strip and into major hospitals.
The claims could not be independently verified.
The soldier named Lieutenant Colonel Ido (pictured) says his troops found the booby-trapped workshop. They “neutralized the threat,” he says, before finding materials and equipment to build the underground system
The footage (pictured) also appears to show an elevator going further down
Another video released by the military shows Israeli soldiers uncovering the entrance to part of the tunnel network under a hatch door
Fuse boxes and other equipment are highlighted in the footage, with the IDF saying the tunnel was equipped with electricity and water pipes
The footage also shows military equipment in the network of tunnels that the IDF says was located there
As the army continues its search for the Hamas leadership, it reported hand-to-hand fighting and more than 300 attacks over the past day.
The Israeli army said three soldiers were killed on Wednesday, bringing the death toll of its forces in the Gaza Strip to 137 since ground operations began in late October.
The United Nations said Israel issued evacuation orders on Wednesday for large areas of Khan Yunis, where more than 140,000 displaced people were seeking refuge.
At the start of the conflict, Israel called on civilians to leave the north of the besieged Palestinian territory and urged them to seek safety in southern areas.
But as places where people could turn became smaller, international outrage grew over the rising death toll.
The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The Hamas government's media office in the Gaza Strip said on Wednesday that at least 20,000 people have been killed in Palestinian territory since the war with Israel began. It was said that 8,000 children and 6,200 women were among the dead.
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths called it a “tragic and shameful milestone”.
In the southern city of Rafah, where fireballs and smoke rose after explosions on Wednesday, residents expressed hope that the ceasefire talks would be successful.
“I wish for a complete ceasefire and an end to the series of death and suffering.” “It has been more than 75 days,” said 25-year-old Kassem Shurrab.
Smoke rises over Gaza after an airstrike on Thursday
Hopes that Israel and Hamas could move closer to another ceasefire and hostage release deal rose this week as the Palestinian militant group's leader visited Egypt and talks took place in Europe.
Qatar-based Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Egypt on Wednesday for talks with the country's intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel.
Haniyeh also met with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, but details were not disclosed.
A Hamas official told AFP that “a complete ceasefire and withdrawal of the Israeli occupation army from the Gaza Strip is a prerequisite for serious negotiations” on a hostage-prisoner exchange.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there could be no ceasefire in Gaza before the “elimination” of Hamas.
And US President Joe Biden said of a new agreement on the release of hostages: “At this point there are no expectations. But we are pushing.”
Mossad director David Barnea held a “positive meeting” in Warsaw this week with CIA chief Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a source familiar with the talks told AFP.
Qatar, with support from Egypt and the United States, helped negotiate an initial week-long ceasefire last month in which 80 Israeli hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Palestinians search for injured people at the site of an Israeli attack on a house in Rafah on December 20 amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas
Meanwhile, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Thursday that Israeli forces carried out operations in the West Bank overnight.
An AFPTV live camera captured two bombings on Wednesday in Rafah, where many of the territory's estimated 1.9 million displaced people have fled.
Hamas's health ministry said Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians as houses and a mosque were “attacked” in Rafah. It was later said that at least 30 more people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit two houses east of Khan Yunis.
Crowds swarmed the rubble and dug with shovels and a backhoe to free the victims. A blackened body lay under a blue blanket on the blood-soaked floor.
“Enough, enough of this.” “We have lost everything and we can't take it anymore,” said Samar Abu Luli, a woman in Rafah, after Israeli attacks on the Al-Shabura neighborhood.
UN rights expert Francesca Albanese said Israel was attacking the health system in the Gaza Strip, with attacks “taking the most sadistic forms”.
The U.N. Security Council was due to try again on Thursday to pass a resolution calling for an end to the fighting after previous efforts to win Washington's support failed.
Israel has rejected the term “ceasefire” and the US has used its veto twice since the start of the war to thwart resolutions rejected by Israel.
The United Arab Emirates supports a draft resolution on the conflict that has already been watered down to ensure a compromise, according to a draft version seen by AFP.
It calls for “an urgent cessation of hostilities to enable safe and unhindered humanitarian access and urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
Israel observed destruction in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday as a result of weeks of Israeli bombardment of the Palestinian territory
The war has raised fears of regional escalation, with exchanges of fire across the Lebanese border and rockets from Iran-backed Yemeni rebels disrupting shipping in the Red Sea.
Israel said on Wednesday it attacked an “operations center” used by Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters and fired on fighters heading toward the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have fired missiles and drones at cargo ships in the Red Sea, warned on Wednesday that they would strike back if attacked by US forces.
The warning came after the United States announced it was setting up a multinational naval task force to protect ships transiting the Red Sea from Houthi attacks carried out in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.