‘Sophisticated tunnel may have hidden Hamas leaders’: Israeli Defence Force

The IDF uncovers evidence of a specially equipped room 30m underground where Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Daif may have been hiding.

An Israeli soldier checks the entrance to a tunnel used by the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip earlier this month. Picture: AFP.

The Israeli Defence Force has found evidence of a specially equipped room 30 metres underground where Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Daif may have been hiding since the October 7 attacks on Israel.

The room lies at the bottom of a tunnel under one of the militant organisation’s above ground command centres captured by the IDF a few days ago. Officials were surprised by the “sophistication and scope” of the tunnel network, which included a lift shaft that went far deeper than the usual three to five metres of Hamas tunnels under Gaza city, the Jerusalem Post reports.

The tunnel was outfitted with oxygen, air-conditioning, and more advanced communications than other underground mini command centres, the Post reports.

Not only does a terrorist tunnel appear to lead from a Hamas terrorist's house to the Rantisi hospital, they are also right next to a school and a @UN building.

Hamas exploits the people of Gaza. https://t.co/KwmWZok54Gpic.twitter.com/90CUiVr9Pi

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 14, 2023

“Inside the bottom of this special tunnel, the IDF found signs that Hamas’s high command had hidden there, with a top official speculating that this could very well have included Gaza Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif,” the newspaper claimed.

Sinwar and Daif are believed to have orchestrated the massacre which killed at least 1200 Israelis. A senior Hamas commander has claimed that the original intention for the incursion into Israel was only to kidnap “a few Israeli soldiers,” but the Hamas chiefs changed the orders at the last minute to give the go-ahead for a full out massacre.

IDF Division 162 Commander Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen told Israeli media: “We created conditions which could lead to taking apart the military and governance capabilities of Hamas in Gaza City.

“Since the start of the invasion, the IDF and Division 162 have been taking apart the centres of gravity of Hamas and the capabilities that it spent years building. Since the start of the invasion, divisional forces have killed over 1,000 Hamas terrorists and reduced rocket fire from northern Gaza at Israel by around 80 per cent,” he said.

EXCLUSIVE RAW FOOTAGE: Watch IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari walk through one of Hamas' subterranean terrorist tunnels—only to exit in Gaza's Rantisi hospital on the other side.

Inside these tunnels, Hamas terrorists hide, operate and hold Israeli hostages against their… pic.twitter.com/Nx4lVrvSXH

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 13, 2023

General Cohen also said all of Hamas’s long-range Kornet anti-tank missiles were destroyed by the IDF in the invasion’s first 24 hours, although Hamas still has a large supply of shorter-range rocket-propelled-grenade launchers.

The IDF has captured a number of Hamas tunnels in Gaza, including a tunnel that led from a Hamas leader’svhouse to the Rantisi hospital, which was also near a school and UN building.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) told reporters travelling aboard Air Force One that Hamas and Islamic Jihad “use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al-Shifa and tunnels underneath them, to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages”.

Mr Kirby’s comments represented the first time the US has said that Hamas is operating out of the hospitals.

Mr Kirby said Hamas and Islamic Jihad members operate a command-and-control node from Al-Shifa in Gaza City, have stored weapons there and the groups are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.