Apartments, elevators, a hall of gigantic dimensions: the Israeli military says it has discovered an extensive tunnel system in the heart of Gaza City. It is said to have served as a command center for the Hamas leadership.
The Israeli army says it has discovered a “huge tunnel system” belonging to the radical Islamist terrorist organization Hamas under Gaza City in the north of the Gaza Strip. The military released footage that it said shows a network of tunnels “connecting terrorist hideouts, offices and homes of the Hamas leadership.”
The tunnels around Palestine Square in the center of the city of Gaza were used by high-ranking Hamas representatives such as “Ismail Haniya, Jahja Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and others,” said army spokesman Peter Lerner. Israel accuses them of planning the Hamas attack on the country on October 7th.
According to media reports, Sinwar, the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and the head of Hamas’s military wing, Deif, left the northern Gaza Strip during the course of the war. According to reports, they are believed to be in the city of Khan Yunis in the south of the coastal area. Haniya, chairman of the Hamas politburo, has lived in Qatar with his family for years.
Rooms 20 meters deep
The tunnel rooms were 20 meters underground and had elevators, stairs and their own water and electricity shafts. From there, “offices and apartments of the political and military Hamas leadership” are said to have been accessible underground. Weapons, water supplies and food for longer stays were stored there. One of the rooms is a kind of hall with a diameter of 150 meters.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Hamas members routinely used the extensive underground infrastructure “during emergencies and also at the start of the war on October 7.” The tunnels stretched across the entire city of Gaza.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
The military later said Palestine Square was “connected to underground infrastructure in the Rantisi Hospital and Shifa Hospital areas.” The information could not be independently verified.
The Israeli army had already announced a tunnel discovery on Sunday. The largest Hamas tunnel discovered to date has been uncovered under the Gaza Strip and is located near the Eres border crossing.
Hagari: Scale back operation in northern Gaza
Hagari indicated that Israeli forces would scale back operations in northern Gaza, including Gaza City. The troops moved into the last remaining Hamas stronghold in Gaza City, the Tufah district. The fighting is now concentrated primarily in the south of the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military says the Hamas leadership is hiding.