Israel’s Military Says Gaza City Tunnel Network Served Hamas Senior Leadership

livemint.com:

The Israeli military released footage of a tunnel network in Gaza City that it said provided Hamas’s senior leadership and operatives covert passage across the enclave. The military said that tunnel shafts were found in the residences and offices of senior Hamas officials and that they allowed for covert descent through elevators and stairs and allowed for both escape and prolonged stays.

Hamas leaders, including political head Ismail Haniyeh, military chief Mohammed Deif and top Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, used the integrated above-to-below-ground infrastructure, with Hamas commanders directing the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel from the complex, said Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesperson.

“From this infrastructure, they could move and spread out across the Strip," said Hagari. The central Gaza City complex connected to nodes from which Hamas leaders could exit above ground and obtain protected passage to other areas of Gaza.

“From the heart of Gaza City," said Hagari, “they could go to Shifa Hospital, and from there take an ambulance as a taxi southward, and come back to Shifa, enter the network, move northward toward the Rantisi hospital area." The Israeli military has long held that Hamas uses medical infrastructure for operational cover, and Israel has raided both Shifa and Rantisi, among other hospitals, in search of militants, weapons and tunnels. Representatives of Hamas couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The footage was released days after the Israeli military took a group of reporters, including from The Wall Street Journal, into what it said was the largest tunnel it had discovered in the enclave, one big enough for large vehicles to drive through it. Daphné Richemond-Barak, a