JERUSALEM (VINnews) — During the war with Hamas, the defense establishment carried out numerous operations in an effort to gather reliable intelligence about the hostages and secure their release. On Wednesday night, Channel 12 reported about one of the most daring covert actions Israel undertook to obtain information on the hostages held in captivity.

One of the hostages who was freed recounted that on one of the days he was inside a tunnel, his captor left briefly to relieve himself. As soon as the captor exited the area, a camera descended from the tunnel ceiling and filmed him. When the terrorist returned, the camera retracted, so he did not notice it. During the war, the hostage did not mention this to the terrorists holding him ,and only after returning to Israel was he told that this had been an IDF operation.

During the war, there was more than one instance in which the defense establishment succeeded in photographing hostages inside tunnels.

Earlier this week, Channel 12 reported that the IDF employed a special and classified capability, details of which cannot be disclosed, through which forces managed to induce terrorists to exit a tunnel in Gaza, as part of efforts to recover hostages.

Senior defense officials closely monitored the rescue operation and observed everything from Israel. Once they realized  that the mission had failed, there was profound disappointment.

The initial plan had been to rescue the hostages and transfer them to a secret location in Israel for several days, with the intention of attempting a similar operation later. After the operation failed, this method was discontinued and not used again.