IDF Engineers have breached the “blast door” of the Al Shifa Hamas HQ hospital tunnel; Shin Bet Special Forces, Tunnel Rats, and K9 Dog units are reconnoitering beyond, Arutz Sheva reports. The IDF has destroyed approximately 400 terror tunnel shafts since the beginning of the military operation.
“Behind the breached blast door, soldiers discovered an air-conditioned hideout room and a bathroom. The soldiers of the 7th Brigade also located two additional tunnel shafts near the hospital: one on a nearby street and the other in a nearby house,” Arutz Sheva reports.
#WATCH: Soldiers in the Yahalom special forces unit of the Combat Engineering Corps discover and destroy a tunnel shaft in Gaza.
Until now, according to the IDF, soldiers have exposed and destroyed approximately 400 terror tunnel shafts. pic.twitter.com/8yguKolAf8— Israel National News – Arutz Sheva (@ArutzSheva_En) November 22, 2023
“The findings unequivocally display Hamas’ deliberate method of operating underneath hospitals. The terrorist organization also exploits the hospital buildings, using them to store weapons in and as terrorist headquarters,” the IDF stated. “Hamas has embedded its network of terrorist tunnels below population centers across the Gaza Strip,” the IDF explained, adding, “Many of the shafts leading to its tunnel network are located within civilian hospitals, schools, and homes.”
Since the start of the ground incursion, IDF soldiers have exposed and destroyed approximately 400 terror tunnel shafts, the IDF said Wednesday morning.
Arutz Sheva reports that the Yahalom combat engineers played a significant role in uncovering and destroying these shafts.
Earlier this week, the IDF exposed a 55-meter-long terror tunnel 10 meters deep underneath the Shifa Hospital complex. Last week, IDF troops uncovered a terror tunnel shaft located in a mosque in Gaza.
Spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said the IDF Givati Brigade had found massive shafts, including one that’s 160 feet deep and 23 feet wide, in the luxury Sheikh Zayed area of Gaza, where the headquarters of Hamas’ Northern Brigade is located.
“Just look at this thing,” Hecht wrote.
“This neighborhood is infamous for being the home of senior Hamas terrorists, including of members “Nukhba” commando force, who spearheaded the October 7th attack on Israel. Their outposts in the area are located (surprise, surprise) deeply embedded in civilian infrastructure”, Hecht writes.
A first look into Hamas’ underground city, underneath the Shifa Hospital complex: pic.twitter.com/O8gEQHAfJ6
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 22, 2023
The tunnel wasn’t the only thing uncovered by the Givati Brigade at Sheikh Zayed, according to Hecht.
They also found:
- A scaled-down model simulating an IDF armored fighting vehicle
- A wall simulating the security fence of Gaza
- A rocket manufacturing facility, including a lathe
- Underground pits for launching rockets
- Assorted weapons
“As part of the activity, the soldiers eliminated dozens of terrorists in the area. At the end of the operation, the soldiers destroyed the outpost. Later on, they found a vehicle and weapons used during the October 7th massacre,” Hecht writes.
“These operations are exactly what we need to be doing to ensure that Oct 7th never happens again. Find the terrorists. Find the infrastructure. Neutralize it, and move to the next objective.”
