Moment IDF dog unit uncovers Hamas terror tunnel underneath Gaza City as firefights continue despite UN resolution calling for more aid
By James Reynolds
Daily Mail
Dec 23, 2023
The IDF shared a video it said showed a dog racing through Hamas' 'terror tunnels' under Gaza
This is the dramatic moment an IDF dog unit uncovered a tunnel route used by Hamas for 'command and control, and movement of operatives' under Gaza City, according to the IDF.
Fast-paced footage shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, today showed Oketz, a K-9 unit, tearing through tunnels, climbing stairs and revealing infrastructure as seen through an attached camera.
The video presents an electricity box, a blast door and a hideout space as evidence Hamas has been using the dark caverns to conduct operations under the city.
The 'multi-level structure' in the area of Issa has 'since been destroyed by troops', the IDF reported. MailOnline was not able to verify the location or claims.
The news comes as both pro-Palestinian protestors, the families of Israeli hostages and international NGOs continue to mount calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East.
The United Nations has warned that Gazans now face the 'highest ever recorded' levels of food insecurity. A quarter of households - some 500,000 people - are facing 'catastrophic conditions' and face famine unless a ceasefire is agreed, a UN food security agency found this week.
The video highlighted a number of features in the tunnel it attributed to Hamas operatives
It claimed the tunnels housed hideout spaces used by Hamas to 'move operatives'
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said on Saturday they had fired decoy shots in the area of Issa in Gaza City that lured dozens of militants from a building that served as a Hamas headquarters in the north of the enclave while sweeping the region.
Fighting has raged in the north of the beleaguered Strip as the IDF looks to unsettle Hamas from power, seeking out command posts it says are hidden underground.
Earlier this week, the IDF shared footage of the destruction of a large network of strategic underground tunnels it claimed were operated by Hamas in Gaza.
Dramatic footage appeared to show a large explosion in the 'Elite Quarter' of Gaza City, north Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
The IDF said it had 'exposed the terrorist infrastructure' under the city late Wednesday, revealing 'bureaus belonging to Hamas' senior military and political leadership'.
'The network of tunnels was destroyed in a controlled manner,' the IDF said in a statement shared on Telegram with the footage.
The IDF has accused Hamas of building a large headquarters under al-Shifa hospital, Gaza's largest, in the heart of Gaza City - something Hamas denies.
Raids last month brought the military a step closer to navigating the tunnels uncovered around the site - though progress is expected to be slow as the military relies on dogs and robots to clear potential booby traps.
The IDF also pointed to small arms caches it claimed it had found inside the hospital - evidence, it believes, Hamas is using the hospital for military purposes, which could relieve it of special protections in war.
Hamas - and the hospital - denies the allegations about al-Shifa.
Displaced Palestinians gather in the yard of Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital on December 10, 2023
Soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip, amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Image released by the IDF on December 22
A soldier operating in the Gaza Strip, amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, on December 22, 2023
An investigation by The Washington Post, published Thursday and based on open-source visuals and satellite imagery, found little evidence to back up Israel's 'remarkably specific' claims about the hospital.
The Post's analysis claimed that 'the rooms connected to the tunnel network discovered by IDF troops showed no immediate evidence of military use by Hamas', that 'none of the five hospital buildings identified by Hagari appeared to be connected to the tunnel network' and that 'there is no evidence that the tunnels could be accessed from inside hospital wards'.
Israel accuses the militant group Hamas of placing tunnels and other military infrastructure among civilians to use them as human shields, something Hamas denies.
Amid a raid near al-Shifa last month, an Israeli spokesperson said that the quarter 'contains the largest training facilities in the Gaza Strip for urban warfare, military outposts, warehouses and various munitions factories (used to produce rockets, anti-tank missiles, UAVs and explosives).
'Also in the area are commanders' offices, underground tunnel networks and war-rooms from which the Hamas terrorist organization directs fighting and fire.'
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the US has intelligence indicating Hamas is indeed using the hospital and alleged connecting tunnels for military purposes.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, a prominent member of Hamas's political bureau, said late in October it was up to the UN to protect Gaza's civilians.
'We built the tunnels because we have no other way of protecting ourselves from being killed in airstrikes. We are fighting from inside the tunnels,' he said. 'Seventy-five percent of the population of Gaza are refugees, and it is the UN's responsibility to protect them,'
Israel has also accused Hamas of placing rockets next door to a classroom and explosives underneath a child's bedroom - further evidence, they said, Hamas was using human shields.
Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks are buried in a mass grave as some cemeteries run out of space due to the rising death toll as Israeli attacks continue in Gaza City, Gaza on December 23
Residents of the refugee camp of Bureij arrive in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip following an evacuation order, on December 22, 2023
A boy carries a donkey as Palestinians leave their homes to escape Israeli bombardments and head towards the city of Deir al-Balah, after Israeli forces ordered them to leave the camp in Bureij, Gaza, on December 22, 2023
Last month, at least 50 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The Israeli army did not specifically comment on the strikes but in a statement said its troops were expanding operations in the Gaza Strip, including in parts of Jabalia, to 'target terrorists and strike Hamas infrastructure'.
At the start of November, Hamas claimed scores of Palestinians had been killed and injured after an Israeli missile strike hit an ambulance convoy.
Bodies were seen strewn across a street in between damaged ambulances. Desperate civilians were seen dragging limp bodies away, some of which left a trail of blood behind.
Israel admitted to the attack, saying the vehicle was being used by Hamas.
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