IDF forces 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 child who drew hopeful pictures while in custody.
Chilling footage uploaded on Saturday showed a vast tunnel stretching more than half a mile under the home of a Hamas commander in Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza where the war has seen its heaviest fighting, according to the IDF.
Bypassing several stealth traps, explosives and other obstacles placed by Hamas, the IDF said it found DNA evidence in the tunnels, plus testimony from former hostages, which proved the underground system housed as many as 20 Israelis, including Emilia Aloni, 5.
In the hostage room, the soldiers found two paintings of Emilia that she had left behind when she was released with her mother in November.
The pictures, which look like they were drawn with pink crayons, depict a happy home with nearby flowers, butterflies and the smiling sun emerging from the mountainside.
The IDF found five detention cells in a Hamas tunnel under the commander’s house in Khan Younis. IDF One of the cells contained a drawing made by five-year-old hostage Emilia Aloni. X/@idfonline After several weeks in confinement, Aloni was able to return to kindergarten in December. X/@YosephHaddad
Emilia and her mother, Danielle, were held in one of five cramped holding cells located inside the tunnel, each with a single mattress and toilet, IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a press conference on Saturday.
“According to the information we have, about 20 hostages were held in this tunnel at different times in terrible conditions without sunlight, in dense air with little oxygen, and terrible humidity that made breathing difficult,” Hagari said.
A look into one of the rooms shows mattresses, blankets and rubbish littered on the floor, with the only form of ventilation appearing to be a fan at the opposite end.
Emilia and her mother, Danielle, were among those released during the November hostage exchange. via REUTERS The tunnel system runs about half a mile under the southern hub of Khan Younis. IDF
Another holding cell appears to house a single mattress on the ground in a narrow, empty white room.
Hagari said that while some hostages held in cells have been released like Alonis, the rest have been transferred and remain elsewhere in Gaza, possibly “in worse conditions.”
Hagari did not say which of the more than 130 other hostages were being held in the tunnel but suggested that there were elderly people who needed medical attention.
One of the holding cells had a mattress and nothing else in the cramped white room. IDF A kitchen was left in ruins after Hamas operatives battled the IDF forces guarding the tunnel. IDF
The IDF added that when it began inspecting the tunnel under Khan Younis, its soldiers found several Hamas gunmen killed in the fighting.
The tunnel was later secured and investigated, with the IDF even inviting several journalists to visit it on Friday before it was destroyed.
Almost two months after the first hostage exchange deal that saw Alonis released, there is still no sign of another deal between Israel and Hamas to free the remaining captives.
The IDF said the terrorists had been working to install pipes in the tunnel system. IDF
Families of the hostages have begun escalating their demonstrations urging Prime Minister Netanyahu to accept the deal, with one beginning a hunger strike outside the Israeli leader’s home.
Others have warned that they will take “extreme measures,” including forming a blockade to stop humanitarian aid shipments from reaching Gaza.
Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed that military pressure on Gaza would be the best way to ensure the safety of the hostages and that the war effort would continue until Hamas was destroyed.
The terror group says the swap deal will not happen until Israel withdraws its forces from Gaza and frees every Palestinian in its prisons.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
