JERUSALEM (VINnews)-The Israel Defense Forces have completed the sealing of a vast underground tunnel in southern Rafah where Lt. Hadar Goldin was held by Hamas after his abduction during the 2014 Gaza war, the military announced Monday.

Goldin, killed in battle on Aug. 1, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, was abducted by Hamas terrorists. His remains were returned to Israel for burial in November 2025 as part of a framework for the return of hostages and remains.

The tunnel, stretching more than 16 kilometers (about 10 miles), served as a key Hamas command-and-control center and was used by the commander of the terror group’s Rafah Brigade in its military wing to plan attacks. It included approximately 80 living quarters and ran beneath a densely populated civilian area that included residential neighborhoods, mosques, kindergartens, clinics, a school and a UNRWA facility.

IDF troops from the Southern Command, in an operation involving the Yahalom combat engineering unit and Shayetet 13 naval commandos, located the tunnel complex near the Philadelphi Corridor. Over the past three months, engineering forces from the Gaza Division and Southern Command, working with Yahalom specialists, poured more than 30,000 cubic meters of concrete to seal the tunnel, the IDF said.

The completion of the operation marks another step in the IDF’s ongoing efforts to dismantle Hamas’ extensive underground infrastructure in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack and the ensuing war.