The "executives' tunnel" in Khan Younis, where senior Hamas members had been staying with 12 imprisoned hostages was exposed on Wednesday by the IDF in a video released. The hostages where kept in a detention room with metal bars, watched by the Hamas terrorists.
Read more:
The military said the tunnel which was beneath a civilian neighborhood in Khan Younis, was destroyed and that during their operation, forces from the Engineering Corps and others, came under attack and removed explosive devices placed by them.
Footage of the 98th Brigade Commander touring around Hamas strategic tunnels
(Video: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
The tunnel, according to the IDF, was more than a kilometer long. It contained a number of rooms and restrooms and a kitchen. In their search soldiers found documents and weapons.
"This tunnel was also built under the heart of a civilian area of Khan Younis, and is estimated to have cost millions of shekels to construct," the military said in a statement. "This strategic tunnel was part of an intricate and interconnected underground labyrinth, linked to another tunnel revealed a few weeks ago where hostages had also been held."
6 View gallery
98th Brigade footage of Hamas makeshift jail for hostages
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
Soldiers found sacks of concrete supplied by UNRWA as well as medicines with the stamp of the aid agency. "We actually see a door made of bars that is still attached to the wall. It's really a prison for people. Inside here you can see many more such bars, huge rooms, more large rooms with bars and a room with plumbing for a prolonged stay," said a soldier who documented the tunnel.
6 View gallery
IDF finds long tunnel leading to senior officials compound
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
6 View gallery
IDF enters hideout in inconspicuous entrance to tunnel
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
"We are going into an underground network of compounds where both the hostages and senior Hamas commanders had been. These are strategic tunnels, we are inside a strategic compound of senior officials who were walking around Khan Younis, Brigadier General Dan Goldfuss, commander of the 98th Brigade, said. "When you enter the large complex, you can see the height, the same construction that you see elsewhere, only now the dimensions are much large."
6 View gallery
Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfuss in Hamas compound in Khan Younis
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
Goldfuss pointed to beds in one room and to the electricity inside the tunnel. "Here you can see the service tunnel, which allows ventilation." We have a prison complex here, what you can see from the size of this complex is that it was converted during the war, that the enemy retreated into here. When you get here and look at the bars that are here, and how they were recently installed, you can understand that it is something new."
6 View gallery
'You can see here the madness of this vile terrorist organization that thinks about how to pass food through bars
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
He showed how food could be given to those behind the bars without the need to unlock the door. A "You can see the madness of this vile terrorist organization that even thinks about the conditions here in terms of how to pass food or all kinds of things through the bars and as you enter this space you can see the passage to the toilets behind here. This is a compound for senior members of Hamas that was converted into a prison."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his meeting earlier with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was shown another strategic Hamas tunnel, which was located under the upscale Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, under UNRWA's central headquarters.