| At the link can be seen video, photos, maps, diagrams, and so forth. |
Inside the underground facility, forces found proof that Hamas’ military wing commander Mohammed Deif stayed inside the command center for a time after locating an elevator shaft leading to his office, alongside a wheelchair likely to have been used by him after injuries from IDF attempts to kill him.
"After securing the area, a ’sweep and clear’ operation revealed the underground terrorist city which is part of Hamas’ tunnel system and includes a strategic tunnel route connected to other significant underground infrastructure in the Gaza Strip," the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.
"Tunnel shafts leading to the network of tunnels are located in the residences and offices of senior officials and allow for a covert descent through designated elevators and stairs. This enabled Hamas operatives to both escape and remain in hideouts for extended periods. The underground tunnel network includes blast doors and hideouts. In some cases, food products, water and electrical infrastructure were found that allowed for prolonged stays," the statement added.
The depth of Hamas’ main underground offices and ministries reached the limit of their digging capabilities, meaning up to the edge of the water table – some 50 meters to 60 meters below ground level. The complex included discussion rooms, recreation halls and a Cabinet meeting room.
The IDF is preparing to demolish the massive facility systematically, but no one in Israel can guarantee that this expansive terrorist base, like others in the Gaza Strip, won’t be rebuilt after the war ends.
Regular Morlocks
| The Times of Israel has more visuals and more description, adding: |
...the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...members to flee to other areas of the Strip as Israel launched its ground offensive against the terror group.
In a statement Wednesday, the army described the complex as an "underground terror city" with a "strategic tunnel route connected to other significant underground infrastructure in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
Strip."
The tunnels under Paleostine Square, along with other Hamas infrastructure in the adjacent buildings, underline the deep entanglement of the group’s terror activities within the civilian fabric of Gaza.
"Regular homes of civilians, that people seemingly live in the day-to-day, but in reality, they are either a hideout apartment for terrorists, or directly underneath the building, they have meeting rooms, where all of Hamas’s officials met," Aharon said.
"They built the underground [infrastructure] over decades, which is aimed at protecting themselves, the seniors, not the civilians, not even the soldiers in this case — their holy warriors — but their officials," Aharon said.
Aharon said the tunnels’ electricity for lighting, air circulation, and communications was largely powered by solar panels from nearby buildings, which Hamas siphoned off from local civilians, further taking advantage of the population. The terror group also uses generators, and has power accumulators to be able to stay hidden in the underground passages for long periods, he said.
