The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday disclosed new information about an underground Hamas tunnel network which the IDF said it recently demolished following the recovery of the bodies of five Israeli hostages.
The hostages – who CNN previously reported on in mid-December are: Ziv Dado, Eden Zecharya, Ron Sherman, Nik Beizer and Elia Toledano.
Zecharya and Toledano were civilians, Dado, Sherman and Beizer were IDF soldiers.
Citing recent operations over the past few weeks in “the area of the Jabalya camp” which the IDF calls “one of Hamas’ operational centers in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF on Sunday said in a statement it “exposed a strategic tunnel network that served as Hamas’ northern headquarters in Gaza. The underground headquarters, which included two levels … with many routes, was used for directing combat and the movement of terrorists.”
“The network was connected to a shaft leading to the residence of the Commander of Hamas’ Northern Brigade,” Ahmed Ghandour, who the IDF previously identified as “a leading figure in the planning and execution of the October 7th massacre.”
In late November, the IDF said Ghandour – and four other “senior commanders” were killed in IDF operations.
“He initiated, promoted, and approved terrorist activities and attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops. These included shootings, bombings, rocket launches, and terror attacks,” they said in a November 26 statement.
In their Sunday statement, the IDF said the underground network, used by Hamas, “also passed beneath a school and a hospital.” CNN has not independently verified details of the tunnel network’s location.
After the bodies of the five Israeli hostages were recovered, the IDF says it dismantled the “subterranean headquarters,” according to the statement.
“The demolition of the headquarters in Jabalya is part of the effort to deal with Hamas’ tunnel infrastructure and to strike at its senior commanders and its strategic capabilities,” the IDF said in Sunday’s statement.
“This effort is continuing at all times and is now being carried out in Khan Yunis and the southern Gaza Strip,” they said.
In late December, Hamas released a video that showed Elia Toledano, Nik Beizer and Ron Sherman while they were alive and still in Hamas in captivity in what appears to be an underground tunnel.
CNN is not showing the Hamas video or images from the video because the men were likely speaking under duress.
