1 month ago
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IT’S impossible to grasp the full horror that the hostages snatched by Hamas endured while being held in the subterranean hell under Gaza.
But I got a brief glimpse when The Sun toured a vast tunnel network where the terror group’s senior commanders plotted murderous attacks on Israel.
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Gasping for breath in the oxygen-depleted darkness, I stumbled along a narrow passageway leading into a warren of tunnels.
With the heat and dust making it difficult to breathe and the low ceiling forcing you into a back-breaking crouched stance, progress was slow.
But we eventually came to an underground crossroads with the three new routes heading in different directions into the wider network which stretches – in total darkness – for a barely believable six miles at a depth of 80ft.
It has 80 separate living quarters with bathrooms including showers and toilets, steel blast doors and a trolley system running on narrow rail tracks to distribute supplies.
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Next to the crossroads was a grave-sized hole which had been dug by Israeli troops, one of countless attempts to find the remains of hostages who did not survive their ordeal at the hands of Hamas.
It is just one of 1,300 tunnels spread across the entire Strip which the terror group spent decades and an estimated $1bn building, all with the aim of carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel.
Dubbed the Gaza Metro, the sophisticated network ran for 450 miles to a depth of 230ft.
Nearly 6,000 access shafts allowed terrorists to move undetected around Gaza in a spider’s web of tunnels that was far more extensive than Israel realised when the war began.
Boring equipment was smuggled in to build the biggest tunnels – one which was discovered 150ft underground and which ran for two and a half miles was big enough to drive a truck through.
The tunnels had strategic hubs where command and control centres were based, major branch routes to move troops and smuggle weapons and narrow tactical tunnels with hidden access shafts to stage lightning strikes on Israeli troops.
The tunnel we were shown –one of the most “significant and complex routes” found so far- has been named White Sparrow which in Hebrew translates to Freedom of the Son, named in honour of the parents of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin.
The 23-year-old Israel Defence Forces (IDF) reconnaissance soldier was killed two hours into a ceasefire after a six-week war between Israel and Hamas in 2014.
The barbaric terror group then kept his body in this tunnel for 11 years before finally agreeing to return it last month as Special Forces operatives from the Yahalom Unit and Shayetet 13 closed in.
As we prepared to enter Gaza to explore the tunnel, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani gave a security briefing in the event of attack by renegade militants.
Despite the Donald Trump-brokered ceasefire which came into effect in October, low level hostilities have continued.
In the 48 hours before our visit four Palestinians were shot dead by the IDF amid fears they were about to launch lone-wolf attacks on soldiers policing the yellow line.
That line splits the Strip in two with Hamas still in control of the western half and the eastern stretch controlled by Israeli troops.
Although the Hamas leadership has agreed to the first phase of the truce, meaning major hostilities have ceased, a number of fighters are still holed up in a tunnel close to where we were visiting, where they have been for nearly 20 months.
Cut off from their leadership, they have vowed to never surrender because that concept does not exist in the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing.
Lieutenant Colonel Shoshani told me: “You think you can fight? You can’t.
“If anything happens while we are in there then hit the ground and cover your head.
“The Special Forces soldiers accompanying you will deal with whatever arises.
“They will do what they are trained to do, you must stay still – don’t react, don’t try and fight, don’t run.”
Our convoy rumbled through the security fence which separates Israel and Gaza accompanied by two Humvees packed with those Special Forces, one at the front, one at the rear.
As we approached Rafah, a city on the border with Egypt where 170,000 people used to live, the full devastating extent of Israel’s response to the October 7 attacks – when 1,200 were murdered and 251 taken hostage – became clear.
The UN estimates that 75 per cent of buildings across Gaza have been destroyed or damaged – in the Shaboura neighbourhood of Rafah it is 100 per cent.
Almost every single building as far as the eye can see has been blitzed by Israel’s ruthless bombardment. The handful that remain standing are damaged beyond repair.
With Lieutenant Colonel Shoshani’s warning ringing in my ears, we pulled up at the entrance to the White Sparrow tunnel.
Soldiers stood guard on nearby mounds of dirt, their eyes scanning the horizon from raised vantage points checking for suspicious activity emerging from the rubble of Rafah, which had been Hamas’s final stronghold.
Overhead, the unmistakeable whine of a surveillance drone broke the silence of this ghost city as I headed into the terrorists’ lair, in the dusty footprints of Hamas’s most senior commanders.
Running beneath mosques, health clinics and schools, this is where Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, was based.
Sinwar took over leadership of the terror group when his elder brother was killed. He too was killed in May this year aged 49.
Muhammad Shabaneh, commander of Hamas’s Rafah Brigade, was also based here before he too was killed by the IDF.
The tunnel entrance is only a few feet high, forcing you to crawl in on hands and knees.
Once inside it rises up but only to a height of around 5ft 6in, making walking tricky.
The tunnel is built with a series of pre-fab arches, made with concrete stolen by Hamas after being shipped into Gaza for legitimate civilian building projects, according to the IDF.
The floor is dusty and cluttered with debris and although the tunnels’ construction appears rudimentary at first sight, Hamas clearly developed engineering skills which meant fighters could spend lengthy periods underground without fear of a roof collapse.
Hamas used this tunnel for a lot of different purposes. They used it to attack our forces, as shelter and to smuggle
IDF soldier
An Israeli Special Forces’ soldier said: “I would say that the tunnels are skilfully built.
“Hamas used this tunnel for a lot of different purposes. They used it to attack our forces, as shelter and to smuggle.”
The tunnel is part of a vital section of the ‘Gaza Metro’ which hugs the border with Egypt in the south of the Strip.
It has been dubbed Hamas’s oxygen pipeline because dozens of tunnels cross into Egypt and have been used to smuggle weapons and other supplies into the Strip.
In times of peace, they were also used to bring fast food into Gaza.
There are no international fast food restaurants in the Strip so locals ordered meals including KFC from Egypt which were brought through the tunnel network.
When the IDF discovered the White Sparrow tunnel they weren’t surprised at finding yet another network, but they were taken back at its complexity and extent.
The Special Forces commander who led the operation to explore and clear the tunnel, told The Sun: “When we entered Rafah in May 2024, we encountered many terrorists in this specific area above and underground.
“We weren’t surprised at finding underground infrastructure. What we were surprised at was the extent of the tunnels and how advanced and sophisticated the network was.
“We were surprised at how vast the network was, how wide it went, how it connected to other networks of tunnels all the way to Khan Yunis.
“It has dozens of communications rooms and a lot of areas to stay in.
“It’s ten kilometres that are intertwined and has a lot of turns and different rooms that you keep discovering as you go on.
“Each tunnel has its own DNA and it really depends on the person who dug the tunnel and was the commander of it.
“This one is highly complex, a very complicated tunnel.
“If you look over this ridge, there’s an UNWRA [the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency] facility and a mosque.
“The tunnel network goes beneath them and is yet another example of Hamas’s cynical use of civilian infrastructure to build their own terror infrastructure beneath.”
We were surprised at how vast the network was, how wide it went, how it connected to other networks of tunnels all the way to Khan Yunis
IDF Special Forces commander
Lieutenant Colonel Shoshani, an IDF spokesman, added: “This tunnel network is where Muhammad Shabaneh and Mohammed Sinwar, the most senior leaders of Hamas, hid and operated from.
“This is a tunnel network that Hamas had built for decades and has dozens of rooms and passageways.
“It was built by money intended for Gazan civilians. Concrete brought in to Gaza for civilian projects was used for terror purposes, to hold our hostages in and to conduct terror activity from.
“We were able to take control of this tunnel and make sure that the threat is removed.”
When the war began Israel employed various tactics to fight Hamas in the tunnels including pumping millions of gallons of sea water from the Mediterranean in a bid to flush out fighters.
They also used 5,000lb bunker buster bombs which penetrate the surface before exploding underground.
With the world holding its breath in the hope that the ceasefire can move to phase two, the IDF’s strategy has pivoted from one of wide-scale attack to exploration and clearance, ensuring no terrorists remain undetected underground.
They continue searching the tunnels to gather evidence of Hamas activities and for any clues as to the whereabouts of Ran Gvili, 24, a member of a police anti-terror unit who was killed on October 7 when his body taken to Gaza.
He is the only hostage – living or dead – still being held by Hamas.
As I emerged from the darkness of the White Sparrow tunnel, blinking in the bright winter sunshine, it was hard to shake thoughts of another group of hostages, the final 20 who were released in October as part of the peace plan.
Spending just one night in the hell beneath Gaza would be unbearable – they were held captive there for more than two years.
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