The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday presented detailed information about a massive underground “terror stronghold” constructed by Hamas beneath the northern Gaza city of Beit Hanun.
“Beneath civilian homes, Hamas built an extensive tunnel network,” the IDF told the Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
“Above ground: Thousands of structures served as weapons storage facilities, firing positions, and command centers for terrorists. Additionally, armed terrorists operated from inside an elementary school, and beneath it a tunnel shaft led to an underground tunnel,” the report continued.
The IDF took reporters from the Jerusalem Post to view the surface area of the Hamas terror city from a lookout post near Beit Hanun. IDF commanders explained that holding such positions was crucial to the task of uncovering Hamas tunnel networks and hidden caches of illegal weapons, a job they said was much more difficult than the world believes it to be.
“It is unclear why the IDF has revealed its findings regarding Beit Hanun in mid-November, six weeks after the war seems to have ended,” the Jerusalem Post said — then answered its own question by musing that it could be an effort to “rally world public opinion behind moves to disarm Hamas in the future.”
The IDF has long maintained that Hamas is clever, and ruthless, about using civilian structures and populations to conceal its weapons and hideouts, knowing that international media will be much more critical of the Israelis for striking such assets than of Hamas for deliberately using human shields.
The siege of Beit Hanoun was one of the more difficult operations in the Gaza war, in part because of the enormous size of the Hamas tunnel network discovered under the city. IDF officials said they were determined to expose and destroy all of the underground network.
The operation included heavy artillery barrages and airstrikes, for which the IDF was heavily criticized even after presenting photographic evidence of the illegal Hamas assets it was destroying. The heavy shelling began after five Israeli soldiers were killed and 14 injured in a Hamas ambush in Beit Hanoun.
The IDF disclosures on Thursday revealed the Hamas tunnel network ran beneath the entire city of Beit Hanoun, combined with thousands of weapons depots, firing positions, and command posts aboveground. Hamas did not hesitate to use all manner of civilian structures to shelter its fighters and weapons, including schools. One of the videos released by the IDF on Thursday showed Hamas gunmen operating out of an elementary school in Beit Hanoun.
Last week, the IDF revealed the diary of a Hamas platoon commander recovered from Beit Hanoun. The diary included details of how Hamas weaponized schools, hospitals, and even United Nations facilities.
The author of the diary, Khaled Abu Akram, said he was personally involved with launching an ambush from a school and stealing batteries and solar panels from a United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) facility.
Akram also described how Hamas stole electric power from hospitals and concealed unexploded Israeli munitions recovered by the terror group inside school buildings.
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