Israel’s armed forces say they discovered a tunnel system in southern Gaza where about 20 hostages were kept “in harsh and inhumane conditions”, with a five-year-old among them who drew hopeful pictures while imprisoned.
Video uploaded Saturday shows a vast tunnel below the home of a Hamas commander in Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza, where the war has seen the most intense fighting, the IDF said.
The Israeli military said after passing several booby traps, explosives, and other obstacles set by the terror group, it found DNA evidence in the tunnels, coupled with testimony from hostages already released by Hamas, that proved as many as 20 Israelis had been housed in the underground system.
One of them was Emilia Aloni, 5, with soldiers discovering two of her drawings left behind in the hostages’ rooms when she was freed along with her mother in November, authorities said.
The pictures depict a happy home with flowers nearby, and smiling sun emerging from behind the mountains.
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Emilia and her mom Danielle were imprisoned in one of five narrow holding cells in the tunnel, each of which had a single mattress and toilet, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at a press conference on Saturday.
He said: “According to the testimonies we have, about 20 hostages were held in this tunnel at different times under harsh conditions without daylight, in dense air with little oxygen, and terrible humidity that makes breathing difficult.”
Photographs show a mattress, with crumpled blankets and trash strewn about the floor. Electrical fans at one end of the room appear to be the only form of ventilation.
Hagari said that while some of the hostages kept there had been released like the Alonis, the rest were moved elsewhere and remained in Gaza, likely “under even harsher conditions.”
Hagari didn’t specify which of the more than 130 remaining hostages were being held in the tunnel but suggested some are seniors in need of medical assistance.
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The IDF said when Israeli troops began inspecting the tunnel, they encountered a number of Hamas gunmen who were killed in the fight that followed.
The tunnel was then investigated and some journalists were invited by the IDF on Friday to see it before it was destroyed.
Almost two months on from the first swap deal that returned the Alonis to their family, there is no sign of a new agreement between Israel and Hamas to free further captives.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that military pressure in the enclave is the best way to ensure the hostages’ safety and the military action will continue until Hamas is destroyed.
Hamas, meanwhile, has said it will not agree to another hostage and prisoner exchange until Israel releases every Palestinian held in its prisons and withdraws its forces from Gaza.
