No hostages have been there when it was found
Gaza Strip:
On the finish of a kilometer-long, booby-trapped tunnel within the Gaza Strip, Israeli troopers found cramped cells the place the navy mentioned Hamas stored about 20 hostages.
They discovered a holding space, 5 slim rooms behind metallic bars, bogs, mattresses, and even drawings by a toddler hostage who was freed throughout a November truce, navy spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari mentioned.
No hostages have been there when it was found.
The navy launched pictures from the underground labyrinth and mentioned it introduced in journalists to doc the tunnel earlier than it was destroyed.
The tunnel entrance, Hagari mentioned, was in the home of a Hamas member within the southern Gaza metropolis of Khan Younis, the place Israel has been focusing its combat in current weeks in opposition to the Palestinian Islamist group.
“The troopers entered the tunnel the place they encountered terrorists, partaking in a battle that ended with the elimination of the terrorists,” Hagari mentioned.
The tunnel was rigged with blast doorways and explosives, he mentioned.
“Based on the testimonies we’ve, about 20 hostages have been held on this tunnel at totally different instances beneath harsh situations with out daylight, in dense air with little oxygen, and horrible humidity that makes respiration tough,” he mentioned.
Among the hostages stored there have been freed throughout the week-long Qatari-mediated truce. Others are among the many greater than 130 captured throughout Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage by way of southern Israel which are nonetheless in Gaza.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
