Tel Aviv [Israel], February 26 (ANI/TPS): Israeli soldiers discovered a massive tunnel 10 km in length that passed beneath a Gaza hospital and university, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday. The 162nd Division located a network of underground terror tunnels connecting the north and south of the Gaza Strip. The forces gained operational control over the tunnel shafts, investigated the tunnels, and then destroyed a large part of the network.
The terror tunnel network connected the Turkish Hospital bordering the camps of central Gaza to the Israa University building in Gaza City’s Zeitoun area. This tunnel network was used by Hamas to move its different brigades around Gaza.
Inside the tunnels, soldiers located rooms including toilets, storage facilities for weapons and combat equipment, a branching tunnel shaft network, as well as the bodies of terrorists Hamas left behind. “Hamas has spent millions of dollars building an underground network of terror tunnels used for its military activities below schools, hospitals and residences across the Gaza Strip. The IDF will continue to operate to locate and dismantle Hamas’ subterranean network of terror,” the military said in a statement.
At least 1,200 people were killed and 240 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the remaining 134 hostages, Israel recently declared 31 of them dead. (ANI/TPS)
“We are working round the clock to free the hostages’: Israel defence minister
Israel’s Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, held a meeting on Monday with the family members of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, as he does on a weekly basis. The minister spoke with the families of soldiers held hostage there and answered their questions. He emphasized his personal commitment to returning all of the hostages and reiterated that the fighting against Hamas will not end as long as there are still hostages held in Gaza.
Minister Gallant discussed the various efforts undertaken to return the hostages, primarily the effort to achieve an agreed framework that will enable their return. “We are working around the clock to achieve a framework that will allow the return of hostages,” he told the families. “As part of the talks, we are working to maintain pressure on Hamas. The defence establishment’s position will be clear: the full return of civilians to the northern area of the Gaza strip will only take place following the return of all the hostages.”
“As I have said repeatedly since day one, we have no moral right to stop the fighting as long as we have even a single hostage in Gaza,” added Gallant. “This position has not and will not change. Even if we achieve a framework that requires a temporary ceasefire, we will then return to fighting, in order to destroy the Hamas terrorist organization and to return all the hostages.” (ANI/TPS)
