Deep Underneath Gaza, Proof of Cells and Hostages, Israel Says

In a subterranean compound deep under Khan Younis, a Hamas stronghold within the southern Gaza Strip, the 5 cells with barred doorways that the Israeli army says held hostages kidnapped from Israel had clearly been constructed lengthy upfront.

The tunnel builders even paid some consideration to décor: The tiled partitions of a small kitchenette within the compound, plagued by remnants of meals and soiled dishes, had been embellished with a quaint, if incongruous, motif of teapots and teacups.

The Israeli army mentioned that roughly 20 hostages had been stored within the compound at numerous instances. It mentioned it pieced that evaluation collectively primarily based on testimony it mentioned it gathered from the captives, in addition to proof like DNA. Some had been launched among the many greater than 100 hostages freed throughout a weeklong truce in late November, whereas others, together with older individuals, had been later dispersed to different areas in Gaza, the army mentioned.

There was no impartial affirmation of the Israeli account of the compound, however particulars supplied to Israeli media by one of many hostages — who was freed in November and, Israel says, held within the Khan Younis compound — aligns with a few of these assertions.

Some 240 captives had been seized in the course of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel, during which about 1,200 individuals had been killed, in accordance with Israeli officers. Greater than 25,000 Gazans have been killed to this point, most of them civilians, in accordance with well being authorities within the enclave, following a punishing counterattack by Israel.

A journalist for The New York Occasions descended on Friday morning into the darkish labyrinth resulting in the compound beneath Khan Younis, escorted by Israeli troopers and army officers to indicate what they mentioned had been the circumstances during which the hostages had been held.

An arched chamber on the mouth of the hall resulting in the cells with barred doorways was coated with inexperienced carpeting, like faux grass, and strewed with detritus.

Amid a jumble of blankets with floral patterns and plastic bottles lay a number of empty tubes labeled RPG-7VR, a type of rocket-propelled grenade, and bearing the insignia of Hamas’s army wing, the Qassam Brigades. In a dim nook, there have been 4 standing followers, a half-used pack of disposable diapers and a metallic Palestine Pink Crescent Society first-aid case containing a packet of latex gloves and some sealed gauze pads.

The guided go to to the compound got here as Israel, after greater than 100 days of preventing in Gaza, appeared more and more torn between the dueling war goals of dismantling Hamas’s army and its governing skills and of liberating the remaining 130 or so captives, which can more than likely require a diplomatic deal involving a cease-fire.

Not less than 25 of the captives have already been declared lifeless, and plenty of Israelis concern that point is operating out for the remaining. The army offensive has slowed, difficult by the sheer scope and class of Hamas’s huge tunnel community that crisscrosses the Palestinian enclave, extending for hundreds of miles, in accordance with Israeli intelligence.

Beneath Khan Younis alone, the army estimates that Hamas dug at the very least 100 miles of tunnels throughout a number of ranges, creating an inverted, multistory advanced.

“We are fighting in Khan Younis above ground and below ground,” mentioned Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israeli army, who led the tour of the subterranean compound on Friday. He added, “This kind of warfare is unlike any other modern battlefield anywhere in the world.”

The spiraling loss of life toll in Gaza has elevated worldwide stress on Israel to finish the warfare. Above floor, a lot of Gaza is in ruins.

“Israel does not seek destruction,” Admiral Hagari mentioned. “This war is a tragedy.” However there isn’t any approach to destroy tunnels constructed beneath civilian areas with out damaging the constructions above, he mentioned, including, “Hamas knows that.”

The Occasions and different journalists accepted a army escort to go to the underground compound and safe uncommon entry to wartime Gaza, which is principally off-limits to the surface information media.

After a half-hour journey in an armored automobile, the journalists had been taken to a ground-level entrance with an open metallic door within the aspect of a three-story condominium constructing that led down a staircase to a maze of tunnels that branched out in several instructions. The neighborhood, in japanese Khan Younis, had been evacuated.

The tunnel entrance, positioned beneath the residence of a Hamas operative, was booby-trapped with explosives, in accordance with the Israeli army. As troopers of the 98th Paratroopers Division superior alongside the underground route, they encountered blast doorways and engaged in shut fight with a number of fighters, who had been killed, the army mentioned. By the point the troopers reached the carpeted chamber and cells, the hostages had been moved to a different location, the army mentioned, with out saying when it believed hostages had final been current there.

The compound was a few half-mile into the warren of tunnels, which was lined with electrical energy and communications cables, and about 65 ft — or about six flooring — underground. To achieve it required strolling single file by way of pitch darkness and strolling down lengthy flights of stairs carved into the earth. The air was thick and humid.

Within the deserted chamber, which was outfitted with fundamental gentle fittings, the Israeli army mentioned troopers had discovered two drawings by a baby. The army confirmed pictures of the drawings — each of a home towards a backdrop of hills with a solar and clouds within the sky — that it mentioned had been drawn by Emilia Aloni, 5, an Israeli woman who was kidnapped together with her mom, Danielle Aloni, 44, on Oct. 7 from Kibbutz Nir Oz. After practically seven weeks in captivity, the Alonis had been launched in a primary group of 13 hostages, all girls and kids, beneath the momentary truce deal in November.

In interviews with Israeli tv channels after the hostages’ launch, Ms. Aloni displayed photos she mentioned had been drawn by her daughter in captivity that carefully resembled these the Israeli army mentioned had been discovered within the compound beneath Khan Younis.

Within the tv interviews, Ms. Aloni mentioned she and her daughter had been taken right into a tunnel quickly after arriving in Gaza after which walked for hours in what she described as an “underground city.” Ultimately, she mentioned, they got here to a type of “cave” the place there have been a few dozen different captives, together with wounded older individuals and a youngster.

Ms. Aloni recalled sleeping on mattresses subsequent to different hostages in extraordinarily humid circumstances with little air, making it exhausting to breathe.

The Alonis had been held underground for a number of days after which moved to an condominium above floor the place they stayed for practically two weeks with different hostages, Ms. Aloni mentioned. They had been then returned to the tunnels for security, she mentioned, as Israeli fighter jets pounded Gaza.

Ms. Aloni appeared in a hostage video in late October with two different girls, Rimon Kirsht, 36, and Yelena Trupanob, 50, who had been additionally launched a month later.

In a doc launched on Sunday by Hamas during which it supplied its personal narrative of current occasions, the group mentioned that it “dealt in a positive and kind manner with all the civilians who have been held in Gaza.”

Lots of the launched hostages say they obtained little meals and water, insufficient medical therapy, if any, and had been stored in powerful circumstances.

The Israeli army mentioned a few of the hostages had been stored within the central chamber and others within the slim cells with the barred doorways. The cells had medical white-tiled partitions damaged by a vertical purple stripe with a rest room and sink at the back of every one; some additionally had a small bathe nozzle. Troopers escorting the journalists mentioned that strands of hair had been discovered within the cells, in addition to a bra. The army mentioned DNA testing matched the hair with hostages, however didn’t say who.

Ayala Metzger, the daughter-in-law of Yoram Metzger, 80, who remains to be a captive in Gaza, advised Israel’s Channel 12 Information on Sunday that his DNA was discovered on garments left behind within the compound.

A boiler supplied scorching water when there was electrical energy.

Any hostages stored within the compound would have had little sense of time under floor, or of the destruction happening on the floor.

Rising again into daylight two hours after coming into the tunnel, the subterranean silence was changed for the reporters accompanying the Israeli army on Friday by the sounds of warfare. A drone whined within the sky. Sharp cracks and booms stirred up plumes of darkish smoke.

The neighborhood is a wasteland, surrounded by mounds of earth and rubble and churned up roads.

Inside the home that Israel says belonged to the Hamas operative, a marble staircase hinted at a degree of opulence. Copper and gold curtains nonetheless hung at blown-out home windows in a lower-floor bed room, and most of an outdoor wall had gone. Not one constructing within the neighborhood appeared liveable.

By Saturday, the tunnels and the compound under the neighborhood had been blown up.

Myra Noveck contributed reporting from Jerusalem.