Three years after the October 7 massacre, the IDF has opened to journalists a sprawling Hamas tunnel complex near Kibbutz Nachal Oz that military officials say was used by terrorists involved in one of the deadliest battles of the attack and later served as part of the underground network into which Israeli hostages were taken. Pasted markdown

The tunnel, stretching approximately a mile and a half beneath Gaza, contains reinforced doors, living quarters, electricity, running water, air conditioning and other infrastructure that allowed Hamas terrorists to remain underground for extended periods. An IDF commander described the network as effectively “a city under a city.”

The newly exposed tunnel lies less than half a mile from Nachal Oz, one of the communities and military positions hit hardest when Hamas launched its massive invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

“It is hard to imagine, but it [the tunnel] is all connected and goes back to [Gaza City],” an IDF commander in the southern Gaza Strip told reporters.

From above ground, there was little to indicate what lay underneath. The entrance was concealed in an area that has since been largely leveled, with what appeared to be an ordinary screen door leading down into the underground system.

Once inside, however, reporters encountered an extensive Hamas installation built for prolonged use. A massive reinforced door had been installed near the entrance, designed to delay Israeli soldiers attempting to enter while giving terrorists time to escape through another route.

The underground compound included several rooms, sleeping quarters, a bathroom and sink, air-conditioning equipment and a functioning water system. Electrical wires ran along the narrow corridors, lights were installed along the walls, and pipes carried water through the complex.

“Many thousands [of Hamas terrorists] could live in the tunnels,” the commander said.

The revelation comes exactly three years after the October 7 attack, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed across southern Israel and 251 people were abducted into Gaza.

Nachal Oz was among the scenes of the most devastating fighting. Hamas terrorists attacked both the IDF base and the neighboring kibbutz, overwhelming Israeli defenses before murdering soldiers and civilians and abducting Israelis into Gaza.

A subsequent IDF investigation into the fall of the Nachal Oz military base described what happened there as a “systemic failure.” There were 162 soldiers stationed at the base that morning, including only about 90 who were armed, when waves of Hamas terrorists descended on the facility.

Military investigators later determined that Hamas had gathered extraordinarily detailed intelligence about the base before the attack. The terror group knew its layout, the location of barracks and bomb shelters, where commanders slept, the number of soldiers ordinarily stationed there, where surveillance cameras were positioned and how long it was expected to take Israeli reinforcements to arrive.

Hamas had even calculated that it could reach and penetrate the base within approximately 15 minutes of crossing the Gaza border. The terrorists took slightly longer than that to break in, but major Israeli reinforcements would not arrive for hours.

At approximately 6:30 a.m., surveillance soldiers began detecting Hamas squads moving toward the border carrying explosives. Terrorists subsequently blasted through sections of the border defenses and began pouring into Israel on foot, motorcycles and pickup trucks.

The Nachal Oz base was located only about 850 meters from the Gaza border. Despite that proximity and its critical surveillance role, investigators found serious weaknesses in its defenses. Guard positions were inadequately manned, troops were not prepared for an assault of such magnitude and Hamas rapidly overwhelmed the forces attempting to defend the installation.

Approximately 215 Hamas terrorists ultimately stormed the base in several waves. Fifty-three Israeli soldiers were killed there, including 16 female surveillance soldiers, and 10 soldiers were abducted into Gaza.

Seven of those abducted were female surveillance soldiers. Ori Megidish was subsequently rescued by Israeli forces. Noa Marciano was killed in captivity and her body recovered by the IDF. Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Agam Berger were eventually freed in hostage agreements.

Images of the captured surveillance soldiers became some of the most haunting footage from October 7. Several were seen bloodied and injured after being taken prisoner, surrounded by armed Hamas terrorists.

The IDF base’s extensive network of security cameras captured portions of the assault as Hamas fighters overwhelmed the facility. Terrorists attacked soldiers in shelters and eventually set fire to the command center after Israeli troops inside refused to surrender.

At the same time, Hamas terrorists invaded nearby Kibbutz Nachal Oz. Seven people were abducted from the kibbutz itself, while residents were murdered and homes were burned during the attack.

The tunnel now shown to reporters was part of the underground system used after the assault. According to the IDF commander who led journalists through it, 18 soldiers and civilians abducted from the Nachal Oz area were taken into the tunnel network. Israeli military officials believe some hostages may subsequently have been held inside portions of the complex during the Gaza war.

The scale and sophistication of the facility provide another glimpse into the underground infrastructure Hamas constructed beneath Gaza over many years. Rather than serving merely as passageways, portions of the network were built as functioning subterranean bases where terrorists could eat, sleep, communicate and remain hidden for extended periods.

An IDF commander who has been involved in operations against Hamas’s underground infrastructure estimated that Israeli forces have destroyed at least 32 miles of tunnels during operations under his command since the war began.

But the military believes hundreds of miles of Hamas tunnels remain beneath Gaza. The commander estimated that dismantling the remaining network — believed to total more than 300 miles — could “take years.”

The journalists were also taken to an IDF position inside Gaza overlooking Deir al-Balah. Israeli officials said the territory presently under IDF control represents nearly 70 percent of Gaza and that there are “no Palestinians inside the IDF-controlled territory.”

Despite the ceasefire that has prevented a return to the full-scale warfare seen earlier in the conflict, Israeli troops continue to face attacks from Hamas. Military officials said terrorists detonated a roadside bomb against an IDF engineering vehicle only days before the journalists toured the area.

Israeli officials also say Hamas is using the relative lull to replenish its ranks and rebuild its capabilities.

“Hamas is doing everything to rebuild,” an IDF official from a Gaza Strip military post said. “A Gaza boy at the age 15 [in 2023] is now recruitable.”

The tour also brought journalists to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, another Gaza-border community devastated on October 7. Sixty-four residents were killed there, including children, and numerous residents were abducted.

IDF spokeswoman Rona Epstein, who grew up in Kfar Aza, told reporters that her brother, Netta, was among those murdered. During the Hamas attack, Netta threw himself on a grenade to shield his partner, Irene Shavit. When IDF soldiers eventually reached the scene, they found Shavit alive beneath his body.

Kfar Aza was home to approximately 1,000 people before October 7 and had employed Gazans in an effort to foster peaceful relations between the communities. Three years later, only about 200 residents and volunteers are living there.

The newly exposed tunnel near Nahal Oz stands as another physical reminder of what was waiting just across the border before October 7: an extensive underground military infrastructure running beneath Gaza, close to Israeli communities that would become some of the principal targets of the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history.

{Matzav.com}