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 navy says held hostages kidnapped from Israel had clearly been constructed lengthy prematurely.
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, have been embellished with a quaint, if incongruous, motif of teapots and teacups.
The Israeli navy stated that roughly 20 hostages have been stored within the compound at numerous instances. It stated it pieced that evaluation collectively based mostly on testimony it stated it gathered from the captives, in addition to proof like DNA. Some have been launched among the many greater than 100 hostages freed throughout a weeklong truce in late November, whereas others, together with older individuals, have been later dispersed to different areas in Gaza, the navy stated.
There was no unbiased 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 have been seized throughout the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel, through which about 1,200 individuals have been killed, in keeping with Israeli officers. Greater than 25,000 Gazans have been killed up to now, most of them civilians, in keeping 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 navy officers to indicate what they stated have been the situations through which the hostages had been held.
An arched chamber on the mouth of the hall resulting in the cells with barred doorways was lined with inexperienced carpeting, like pretend 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 form of rocket-propelled grenade, and bearing the insignia of Hamas’s navy 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 battle targets of dismantling Hamas’s navy and its governing talents and of liberating the remaining 130 or so captives, which is able to probably require a diplomatic deal involving a cease-fire.
A minimum of 25 of the captives have already been declared useless, and lots of Israelis worry that point is operating out for the remainder. The navy offensive has slowed, difficult by the sheer scope and class of Hamas’s huge tunnel community that crisscrosses the Palestinian enclave, extending for tons of of miles, in keeping with Israeli intelligence.
Beneath Khan Younis alone, the navy estimates that Hamas dug at the very least 100 miles of tunnels throughout a number of ranges, creating an inverted, multistory advanced.
“We’re preventing in Khan Younis above floor and under floor,” stated Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israeli navy, who led the tour of the subterranean compound on Friday. He added, “This sort of warfare is in contrast to every other fashionable battlefield anyplace on the earth.”
The spiraling dying toll in Gaza has elevated worldwide stress on Israel to finish the battle. Above floor, a lot of Gaza is in ruins.
“Israel doesn’t search destruction,” Admiral Hagari stated. “This battle is a tragedy.” However there isn’t any method to destroy tunnels constructed beneath civilian areas with out damaging the buildings above, he stated, including, “Hamas is aware of that.”
The Occasions and different journalists accepted a navy 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 car, the journalists have 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 numerous 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 keeping with the Israeli navy. 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 have been killed, the navy stated. By the point the troopers reached the carpeted chamber and cells, the hostages had been moved to a different location, the navy stated, with out saying when it believed hostages had final been current there.
The compound was a couple of 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 means 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 geared up with fundamental gentle fittings, the Israeli navy stated troopers had discovered two drawings by a toddler. The navy confirmed images of the drawings — each of a home towards a backdrop of hills with a solar and clouds within the sky — that it stated have been drawn by Emilia Aloni, 5, an Israeli lady who was kidnapped along with her mom, Danielle Aloni, 44, on Oct. 7 from Kibbutz Nir Oz. After almost seven weeks in captivity, the Alonis have been launched in a primary group of 13 hostages, all ladies and youngsters, beneath the momentary truce deal in November.
In interviews with Israeli tv channels after the hostages’ launch, Ms. Aloni displayed photos she stated have been drawn by her daughter in captivity that carefully resembled these the Israeli navy stated had been discovered within the compound beneath Khan Younis.
Within the tv interviews, Ms. Aloni stated she and her daughter have been taken right into a tunnel quickly after arriving in Gaza after which walked for hours in what she described as an “underground metropolis.” Ultimately, she stated, they got here to a form of “cave” the place there have been a couple of dozen different captives, together with wounded older individuals and a young person.
Ms. Aloni recalled sleeping on mattresses subsequent to different hostages in extraordinarily humid situations with little air, making it laborious to breathe.
The Alonis have been held underground for a number of days after which moved to an condominium above floor the place they stayed for almost two weeks with different hostages, Ms. Aloni stated. They have been then returned to the tunnels for security, she stated, as Israeli fighter jets pounded Gaza.
Ms. Aloni appeared in a hostage video in late October with two different ladies, Rimon Kirsht, 36, and Yelena Trupanob, 50, who have been additionally launched a month later.
In a doc launched on Sunday by Hamas through which it supplied its personal narrative of current occasions, the group stated that it “dealt in a constructive and type method with all of the civilians who’ve been held in Gaza.”
Lots of the launched hostages say they acquired little meals and water, insufficient medical remedy, if any, and have been stored in powerful situations.
The Israeli navy stated a number of the hostages have been stored within the central chamber and others within the slender cells with the barred doorways. The cells had scientific white-tiled partitions damaged by a vertical purple stripe with a rest room and sink behind every one; some additionally had a small bathe nozzle. Troopers escorting the journalists stated that strands of hair had been discovered within the cells, in addition to a bra. The navy stated DNA testing matched the hair with hostages, however didn’t say who.
Ayala Metzger, the daughter-in-law of Yoram Metzger, 80, who continues to be a captive in Gaza, informed Israel’s Channel 12 Information on Sunday that his DNA was discovered on garments left behind within the compound.
A boiler supplied sizzling 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 navy on Friday by the sounds of battle. 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 stage 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.
