In a subterranean compound deep beneath 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 mentioned that roughly 20 hostages have been stored within the compound at varied occasions. It mentioned it pieced that evaluation collectively primarily based on testimony it mentioned 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 folks, have been later dispersed to different places in Gaza, the navy mentioned.
There was no impartial 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 through the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel, during which about 1,200 folks have been killed, in response to Israeli officers. Greater than 25,000 Gazans have been killed up to now, most of them civilians, in response to 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 point out what they mentioned have been the situations during 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 faux 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 Purple 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 war goals of dismantling Hamas’s navy and its governing talents and of liberating the remaining 130 or so captives, which can almost definitely require a diplomatic deal involving a cease-fire.
No less than 25 of the captives have already been declared useless, and plenty of Israelis concern that point is working out for the remaining. 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 hundreds of miles, in response to Israeli intelligence.
Beneath Khan Younis alone, the navy estimates that Hamas dug no less than 100 miles of tunnels throughout a number of ranges, creating an inverted, multistory advanced.
“We’re preventing in Khan Younis above floor and beneath floor,” mentioned Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israeli navy, who led the tour of the subterranean compound on Friday. He added, “This type of warfare is in contrast to every other trendy battlefield wherever on this planet.”
The spiraling loss of life toll in Gaza has elevated worldwide stress on Israel to finish the struggle. Above floor, a lot of Gaza is in ruins.
“Israel doesn’t search destruction,” Admiral Hagari mentioned. “This struggle is a tragedy.” However there isn’t a solution to destroy tunnels constructed beneath civilian areas with out damaging the constructions above, he mentioned, 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 especially 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 residence constructing that led down a staircase to a maze of tunnels that branched out in several instructions. The neighborhood, in jap Khan Younis, had been evacuated.
The tunnel entrance, positioned beneath the residence of a Hamas operative, was booby-trapped with explosives, in response to 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 mentioned. By the point the troopers reached the carpeted chamber and cells, the hostages had been moved to a different location, the navy mentioned, with out saying when it believed hostages had final been current there.
The compound was a few 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 succeed in 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 mentioned troopers had discovered two drawings by a toddler. The navy confirmed images of the drawings — each of a home in opposition to a backdrop of hills with a solar and clouds within the sky — that it mentioned have been drawn by Emilia Aloni, 5, an Israeli woman who was kidnapped along with her mom, Danielle Aloni, 44, on Oct. 7 from Kibbutz Nir Oz. After practically 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 footage she mentioned have been drawn by her daughter in captivity that carefully resembled these the Israeli navy mentioned had been discovered within the compound beneath Khan Younis.
Within the tv interviews, Ms. Aloni mentioned 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 mentioned, they got here to a form of “cave” the place there have been a few dozen different captives, together with wounded older folks and an adolescent.
Ms. Aloni recalled sleeping on mattresses subsequent to different hostages in extraordinarily humid situations with little air, making it onerous to breathe.
The Alonis have been held underground for a number of days after which moved to an residence above floor the place they stayed for practically two weeks with different hostages, Ms. Aloni mentioned. They have been then returned to the tunnels for security, she mentioned, 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 during which it supplied its personal narrative of current occasions, the group mentioned that it “dealt in a optimistic and sort method with all of the civilians who’ve been held in Gaza.”
Most of the launched hostages say they obtained little meals and water, insufficient medical remedy, if any, and have been stored in robust situations.
The Israeli navy mentioned among the hostages have been stored within the central chamber and others within the slim cells with the barred doorways. The cells had medical white-tiled partitions damaged by a vertical purple stripe with a bathroom and sink behind each; some additionally had a small bathe nozzle. Troopers escorting the journalists mentioned that strands of hair had been discovered within the cells, in addition to a bra. The navy mentioned DNA testing matched the hair with hostages, however didn’t say who.
Ayala Metzger, the daughter-in-law of Yoram Metzger, 80, who remains to be a captive in Gaza, instructed Israel’s Channel 12 Information on Sunday that his DNA was discovered on garments left behind within the compound.
A boiler supplied scorching water when there was electrical energy.
Any hostages stored within the compound would have had little sense of time beneath floor, or of the destruction happening on the floor.
Rising again into daylight two hours after getting into the tunnel, the subterranean silence was changed for the reporters accompanying the Israeli navy on Friday by the sounds of struggle. 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 degree 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 seemed liveable.
By Saturday, the tunnels and the compound beneath the neighborhood had been blown up.
Myra Noveck contributed reporting from Jerusalem.