Five hostages killed in Hamas captivity were recovered from an underground tunnel network in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said on Sunday. Chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said post-mortems were pending.
“We will brief the families and then, depending on what they approve, the public,” he said. The three soldiers and two civilians were among 240 people dragged back to the Gaza Strip by Hamas gunmen during the cross-border rampage of Oct. 7 that sparked the war.
In a centralized intelligence effort, IDF troops located and recovered the bodies of 5 hostages—abducted during the October 7 Massacre—and brought them back to Israel:️WO Ziv Dado️SGT Ron Sherman️CPL Nik Beizer️Eden Zacharia️Elia Toledano
May their memory be a… pic.twitter.com/tq1UlLo8Z2
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 24, 2023
In a video released by IDF, the Israeli military showed its engineers in a dark and dusty tunnel network which, it said, had two storeys – one 10 metres down and the other “dozens of metres” deeper. One tunnel ran to the home of Ahmad Al Ghandour, chief of Hamas’ North Gaza brigade, the Israeli military said.
The video showed a section of tunnel lined with white tiles, as well as a similarly designed bathroom with a basic shower, toilet and sink, and a work room with a corner table and bench. One tunnel had a drinking water dispenser and a pile of bullets.
WATCH: IDF soldiers exposed Hamas’ northern headquarters.Dozens of meters deep, the underground headquarters was made up of 2 levels, with an intricate tunnel network—used for directing combat and the movement of terrorists. This network was connected to a shaft leading to… pic.twitter.com/rioSighGz0
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 24, 2023
Last week, Hamas published a video showing three of the hostages alive in what appeared to be a narrow, white-tiled and windowless bedroom with an electric wall socket. In a Hebrew chyron, the Islamist group said: “Your military weapons killed the three.” Hamas has previously said some hostages died in Israel’s shelling of Gaza. This comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would deepen operations in an almost 12-week-old war whose toll on Gaza civilians has alarmed Western powers also worried about the 129 remaining hostages.
(With agency inputs)
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