The IDF on Thursday released a video on X showing the inside of the tunnel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have revealed a huge underground tunnel in Gaza that they say played a key role in Hamas operations for years. The tunnel is also the place where Hamas kept the body of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, who died during the 2014 Israel-Hamas conflict. Israel recently recovered his remains, bringing an emotional end to a long wait for his family.
The IDF on Thursday released a video on X showing the inside of the tunnel. According to the Israeli military, the tunnel stretches beneath a crowded neighbourhood in Rafah. It also runs under a UNRWA compound, several mosques, clinics, and kindergartens.
The army said Hamas used this vast tunnel network to store weapons, plan attacks, and hide its top commanders. These facilities allowed them to stay underground for long periods without detection.
The IDF said the tunnel is more than seven kilometres long and 25 metres deep. It contains around 80 rooms. The Yahalom combat engineering unit and the Shayetet 13 naval commando unit discovered the tunnel.
Inside, the forces found rooms that senior Hamas commanders used as command posts. One of them was Muhammad Shabana. Israel killed him in May along with Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar.
In another post on X, the IDF said it arrested Marwan Al-Hams. The military described him as “a Hamas terrorist involved in the determination of Lt. Hadar Goldin's death.”
The IDF also said, “Al-Hams was also suspected of knowing the location of Lt. Goldin's burial in the ‘White-Crowned’ tunnel in Rafah.”
According to the army, “The operation in July 2025 was part of dozens of confidential operations conducted in the past 6 months to retrieve Lt. Hadar Goldin & return him for burial in Israel.”
Fresh violence erupted in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday. Israeli airstrikes killed five people and injured 18 others in Khan Younis.
Medics told Reuters that an airstrike on a house in Bani Suhaila killed three people, including a baby girl, and wounded 15 more. Another strike in nearby Abassan killed a man and injured three others.
These attacks come as Israel and Hamas accuse each other of breaking a nearly six-week-old ceasefire. The truce has grown increasingly fragile.
The Gaza war began in October 2023 after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel. They killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. Israel launched a massive military response. Health officials in Gaza say the Israeli offensive has killed more than 69,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians.
