The IDF located and destroyed three terror tunnel shafts belonging to the Hamas terror organization near the Rantisi Hospital and in the nearby girls’ high school; the tunnel shafts, one of which included an elevator, were dozens of meters deep. They were connected by an underground network passing under the hospital and leading to the heart of Gaza City.
In recent weeks, IDF soldiers led by the 401st Brigade of the 162nd Division in cooperation with Shayetet 13 and the ‘Yahalom’ Unit, located and searched three operational tunnel shafts near the Rantisi Hospital, before ultimately destroying them.
As part of the operation, the Tzabar Battalion and the 52nd Battalion carried out raids and scans of buildings in the hospital area, where significant terror infrastructure was found, including command and control centers, media equipment, maps, aids, and numerous weapons.
Yahalom soldiers searched the area along with the shafts and tunnels using a variety of means for mapping the tunnels’ topography and the connections between the shafts.
The operation revealed that the shafts are connected by a wide underground network passing under the hospital, spanning several kilometers, and leading to strategic points in the heart of Gaza City.
As with others found throughout Gaza, the tunnel beneath Rantisi Hospital leads directly to one school and is close to a second school in the area; it also served as a command and control center for conducting combat in northern Gaza and for carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel.
The operational shaft located in a girls’ school in the area was about 20 meters deep and included an elevator and electrical infrastructure.
Following intelligence information directed by Unit 504 of the Intelligence Directorate, another operational shaft was located inside one of the hideout residences used by one of the commanders of the Hamas naval unit in Gaza.
In the tunnels’ topography, junctions and blast-doors were located that were designed to prevent IDF soldiers from breaking in, and to protect against damage to the tunnel infrastructure.
The tunnel and its shafts (entrances) were destroyed by soldiers from the ‘Yahalom’ Unit and engineering soldiers from the 14th Brigade.
“The exposure of the shafts near the hospital and school once again demonstrate Hamas’ cynical use of the civilian population, exposing Hamas’ use of the residents of the Gaza Strip, including refugees and children, as human shields,” the IDF pointed out.
Soldiers of the 401st and 460th brigades also killed dozens of terrorists during combat in the area of the hospital.
