IDF troops discovered a tunnel system in southern Gaza where some 20 Israeli hostages were being held “in harsh and inhumane conditions,” including a five-year-old boy who made hopeful drawings while in captivity.
Chilling images uploaded on Saturday show a vast tunnel stretching more than half a mile beneath the home of a Hamas commander in Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza where the war has seen the heaviest fighting, according to the IDF.
Passing several booby traps, explosives and other obstacles placed by Hamas, the IDF said it found DNA evidence in the tunnels, along with testimonies from former hostages, which showed that the underground system housed up to 20 Israelis, including five-year-old Emilia Aloni. .
In the hostages’ caged rooms, soldiers found two of Emilia’s drawings that she left behind when she was freed along with her mother in November.
The images, which appeared to be drawn with a pink crayon, depict a happy home with flowers, butterflies and a smiling sun rising from the mountainside.
The IDF found five detention cells in a Hamas tunnel beneath a commander’s house in Khan Younis. IDF One of the cells contained drawings made by five-year-old hostage Emilia Aloni. X/@idfonline After weeks in captivity, Aloni was able to return to kindergarten in December. X/@YosephHaddad
Emilia and her mother, Danielle, were detained in one of five narrow cells located in the tunnel, each with a single mattress and a bathroom, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a news conference on Saturday. .
“According to the testimonies we have, about 20 hostages were held in this tunnel at different times, in harsh conditions without sunlight, in dense air with little oxygen and terrible humidity that makes it difficult to breathe,” Hagari said.
Peeks into one of the rooms show a mattress, blankets and trash lying on the floor, and the only form of ventilation appears to be fans at opposite ends.
Emilia and her mother, Danielle, were among those freed during the November hostage exchange. via REUTERS The tunnel system extended about half a mile below the south center of Khan Younis. IDF
Another holding cell appeared to house a single mattress on the floor in a narrow, empty white room.
Hagari said that while some of the hostages held in the cells were released like the Alonis, the rest were transferred and remained elsewhere in Gaza, probably “in even harsher conditions.”
Hagari did not say which of the more than 130 hostages were being held in the tunnel, but suggested that some are elderly people in need of medical assistance.
One of the cells had a mattress and nothing else in a narrow white room. IDF A kitchen was destroyed after Hamas operatives fought IDF troops securing the tunnel. IDF
The IDF added that when it began inspecting the tunnel beneath Khan Younis, its soldiers found several Hamas gunmen who were killed in the battle.
The tunnel was then secured and investigated, and the IDF also invited some journalists to tour it on Friday before it was destroyed.
Almost two months after the first hostage exchange agreement that allowed the release of the Alonis, there remains no sign of another agreement between Israel and Hamas to free the remaining captives.
The IDF said the terrorists had pipelines running in the tunnel system. IDF
The families of the hostages have begun to intensify their demonstrations calling on Prime Minister Netanyahu to accept a deal, with one of them going on a hunger strike outside the Israeli leader’s home.
Others have warned that they will take “extreme measures,” including forming blockades to prevent humanitarian aid shipments from reaching Gaza.
Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that military pressure on Gaza will be the best way to ensure the safety of the hostages and that the war effort will continue until Hamas is destroyed.
The terrorist group has said an exchange deal will not take place until Israel withdraws its military forces from Gaza and releases all Palestinians in its prisons.
With post cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn