2023-12-17 15:58:00
Israeli soldiers in the Hamas tunnel in northern Gaza (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
About four kilometers long, 50 meters deep: these are the dimensions of the largest Hamas tunnel that the Israeli Army has discovered within the Gaza Strip. Located less than half a kilometer from the Erez crossing, on the border with Israel north of the Palestinian enclave, it was one of the entry doors for its militiamen to commit the brutal attack on October 7.
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“Millions of dollars have been spent on this tunnel, hundreds of tons of cement and a lot of electricity. Instead of spending all that money, cement or electricity on hospitals, schools, housing or other needs of the inhabitants of Gaza,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israeli Army, said inside the tunnel.
The Army found the enormous structure a few meters from the border
Over the weekend, Hagari showed a small group of media, including EFE, one of the exit mouths of the tunnel and several meters of its interior, where the magnitude and solidity of this project, which took years to build, was hidden. under sand and was one of the key players in perpetrating the attack on Israeli soil that left more than 1,200 dead and 240 kidnapped.
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“This was until now Yahya Sinwar’s best kept secret, but we have discovered and revealed it,” said Hagari, referring to the head of the Islamist group Hamas within the Strip, and considered the mastermind of the October 7 attack, the largest massacre of civilians ever occurred in Israel and the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
One of the exits of the eHamas tunnel (AP)
Israel claims that it was his brother, Mohamed Sinwar, who led and supervised the construction of this tunnel and showed journalists videos recorded by the group, found by the Israeli Army during its ground offensive in the enclave, in which he is seen in a vehicle circulating inside the tunnel, which gives an idea of the magnitude of the project.
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Although they have not officially confirmed it, this week the Israeli aviation dropped leaflets over the cities of Gaza and Khan Younis – a stronghold of the Sinwar family -, in which they offered financial rewards to Gazans for offering information on the whereregardings of senior Hamas commanders. . Yahya Sinwar’s head was valued at $400.00, the highest amount, while that of his brother, who commands the southern brigade of the al Qasam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, was paid at $300,000.
Hagari promised to “defeat” Hamas and destroy its entire tunnel infrastructure, where they claim their top commanders are hiding, including the Sinwar brothers, although they are probably also holding there some of the 129 hostages they still hold captive within the enclave, that around twenty are estimated to have already died.
“This is Hamas, it will take us time to defeat Hamas, but we will hunt down Sinwar and the terrorists who participated in the October 7 attack. We will find them above and below ground (…) We have two missions in this war: destroying Hamas and rescuing our hostages,” Hagari said.
The newly revealed tunnel, inside which they found numerous weapons, is a key piece of Hamas’ extensive tunnel network, equipped with reinforced concrete, electricity, ventilation, sewage, communication networks and roads for vehicle traffic.
The reinforced concrete structure had electricity, ventilation and other facilities. Spokesman Daniel Hagari before the press (AP)
The Army assures that, since the ground offensive on the Strip began on October 27, they have found numerous tunnels, under hospitals, schools and other civil infrastructure, such as the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, which they besieged and attacked for more than of ten days, forcing the displacement of more than thousands of wounded and evacuated.
The exit mouth of this tunnel, with a diameter of more than three meters, has been discovered in a huge hole dug by Israeli troops on the surface, just 400 meters from the Erez crossing, which connects the north of the Strip with Israel. The tunnel was a “key piece” in the attack, which allowed thousands of Hamas militants to break in unseen and kill and kidnap soldiers. The bodies of two soldiers
The Hamas tunnel reached meters from the Erez crossing
In Erez there are still the remains of the aggression; walls knocked down, furniture destroyed, the electrical system destroyed – to dismantle the security cameras -, garrisons of soldiers reduced to ashes, and bullet holes everywhere.
“Hamas chose terror, conflict and horror, using its people on the surface as a human shield, using all the Gazan civilians who entered through the Erez crossing to work in Israel and earn money, using them as a decoy, preventing the coexistence of the citizens of Gaza, They chose terrorism,” said the rear admiral.
The Army claims that the Erez crossing was a “symbol of hope” for Gazans: 18,000 had work permits in Israel and earned a salary six times higher than in the Strip, and 7,000 crossed that crossing to receive medical treatment in Israeli hospitals. in 2022.
Since the war began on October 7, some 19,000 Palestinians have died from Israeli bombing and fighting, including almost 8,000 children; while more than 51,000 are injured and an estimated 7,500 bodies are trapped under the rubble, according to the count of the Ministry of Health of the Strip, controlled by Hamas.
(With information from EFE)
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