JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli forces uncovered a community of tunnels operating deep beneath central Gaza Metropolis from properties registered to Yahya Sinwar and different senior Hamas organizers of the Oct. 7 assaults on Israel, the navy mentioned on Wednesday.
The tunnels have been discovered when troopers secured a central space of the town in current days, spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner informed reporters.
Accessed by spiral staircases and an elevator as much as 20 meters (66 ft) under floor, the tunnels have been kitted out with electrical energy, plumbing, surveillance cameras and heavy blast doorways, in response to pictures shared with reporters by the navy.
“This complex, both above and below ground, was a centre of power for Hamas’ military and political wings,” Lerner mentioned. Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the data supplied.
The tunnels have been utilized by senior Hamas officers together with Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Muhammad Deif to direct operations and for “protected daily movement” by the center of Gaza Metropolis, the navy mentioned in a press release.
Israeli accuses the militant group of intentionally finding tunnels and different navy infrastructure amongst civilians whom it makes use of as human shields.
Hamas, which rejects the accusation, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Sinwar and Deif are believed to be the masterminds behind the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assaults that killed 1,200 folks and triggered an Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed round 20,000 folks and compelled many of the 2.3 million inhabitants to flee their houses.
Israel has the acknowledged purpose of destroying Hamas and rescuing greater than 130 folks nonetheless held hostage by the Palestinian Islamist militants.
Israel has but to search out the leaders regardless of taking management of some elements of Gaza. Israel’s intense air and floor marketing campaign has injured greater than 50,000 folks and laid waste to a lot of the coastal enclave.
Hamas has lengthy boasted that its tunnel community is lots of of kilometres (miles) lengthy. Some shafts are to 80 metres deep and have been described by one freed hostage as “a spider’s web”.
The group’s tunnels beneath the sandy 360 sq km coastal strip and its borders embrace assault, smuggling, storage and operational burrows, Western and Center East sources accustomed to the matter have mentioned.
Earlier this week, Israel mentioned it uncovered an unusually massive concrete and iron-girded tunnel designed to hold carloads of militant fighters from Gaza proper as much as the border.
