CNN goes inside a compound deep under the besieged southern city, where the Israeli military says Hamas held hostages. Much of the surrounding residential area has been destroyed.

‘Just horrific’: CNN producer describes being in room where hostages were held

Inside this maze of tunnels under Khan Younis, there is a narrow room with an arched ceiling, divided in half by a barred metal gate. The musty chamber, which looks like a makeshift cell, is where the Israeli military says Hamas held at least 12 of the hostages kidnapped and brought to Gaza on October 7.

“They spent years and years building it, this is not a two-year project, this is years of planning. So, if anyone asks how long was October 7 being planned, I say for many years,” he said

Goldfuss said a building once stood where CNN accessed the tunnel through a huge crater and other shafts spread like a spiderweb through the neighborhood. The devastation is immense – nothing was left of the original structure; its remnants having been bulldozed away to expose the tunnel entrance.

Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20240208173404/https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/07/middleeast/gaza-underground-compound-israel-hamas-intl-cmd/index.html

  • @givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22•9 months ago

    And yet some thought was put into the interior design. The rooms are adorned with tiles more fitting of a home than the underground compound of a militant group. In the kitchen, the tiles are painted with bowls of eggs and gherkins, baskets of flowers and jars marked, in English, “flour,” “cookies,” and “cereals.”

    "You can see in the kitchen; they even took time to make themselves feel at home here. The initial objective of this tunnel wasn’t to have the kidnapped here, this was a strategic tunnel, there is a toilet, there is a bathroom, there is a maintenance tunnel, the leaders spent time here,” Goldfuss claimed.

    These aren’t terrorist tunnels made for nefarious reasons, people lived down there…

    And if you’re wondering why people would.live in underground tunnels:

    Emerging from the underground complex reveals the enormous destruction wrought by the Israeli military.

    Goldfuss said a building once stood where CNN accessed the tunnel through a huge crater and other shafts spread like a spiderweb through the neighborhood. The devastation is immense – nothing was left of the original structure; its remnants having been bulldozed away to expose the tunnel entrance.

    Similar devastation could be seen throughout the surrounding residential area. Most buildings had gaping holes instead of windows, giving them a dollhouse-like appearance. On several balconies, laundry hung out to dry was still flapping in the winter breeze. Books and personal items lay scattered around the rubble.

    None of the buildings appeared to be liveable, and there was no one in sight.

    Building those bomb shelters is entirely rational if you live in Gaza and are under constant threat of your country being flattened

    • @johker216@lemmy.world
      14•9 months ago

      Which is more likely for underground tunnels that don’t hold many people and are kitted for permanent subterranean living:

      1. a safe place for a terrorist organization’s leadership and inner circle to plan attacks with the easy ability to traverse the city unknown
      2. temporary bomb shelters for the population of Gaza

      At what point will people, who bend over backwards to defend a designated terrorist organization who exclusively target civilians, admit that the conflict is more complicated than “Israel bad” - when Hamas revives indiscriminate bus bombings of Israelis (or do they pine for the 90s/2000s again)? Netanhanyu needs to go, but Hamas doesn’t even try to distinguish between military targets and civilians - all Israelis are military targets (genocide). The victims in this conflict are Palestinian and Israeli civilians and this needs to not be forgotten in their haze of Israeli bloodlust.

      • @givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15•9 months ago

        If the IDF wants people to believe them, they shouldn’t have spent decades lying

        They have zero credibility, and even without past history, they’re committing a genocide right now as we speak

        • @johker216@lemmy.world
          7•9 months ago

          And what Hamas is trying to accomplish is also genocide - but this is all besides the point. The larger question is this: what would it take for you to believe even a fraction of what the Israeli military claims?

          Can it be true that the IDF is indiscriminately killing Palestinian civilians as well as telling the truth?

          Would you claim that Hamas is justified in their killing of civilians if the Israeli military also kills civilians?

          Even further: what happens if all foreign governments stop sending aid to Israel and Lebanon/Hamas/etc. attack Israeli citizens with the intent of purging them? Would you suddenly support the IDF in it’s struggle to protect Israeli citizens from these groups who have already made it clear that their primary purpose is the genocide of the Jews in the Levant?

          Regardless of anyone’s feelings on the IDF, it is incumbent on all of us to take the claims of Hamas and Israel with a massive grain of salt - you may not believe in the credibility of the IDF but you certainly cannot dismiss the engrained antisemitism of Hamas and others in the region and believe them at face value.

    • @speaker_hatOP
      2•9 months ago

      These aren’t terrorist tunnels made for nefarious reasons, people lived down there

      This is false. You spread lies.

      The Israeli military said it made that assessment based on testimony from freed hostages and forensic evidence, including DNA. Some were among those released during the pause in hostilities in late November, the military said. CNN could not independently confirm Israel’s account, but details of it tally with descriptions in Israeli media from hostages who say they were held there.

      Hamas propaganda videos have shown hostages in similar confined spaces with tiled walls.

      • @givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1•9 months ago

        Taylor Swift had her picture taken on the field after the Super Bowl, does that mean she’s the reason it was there?