Last Updated:
Tal Shoham survived nearly a year and a half in the tunnels that Hamas have dug and said that despite Israel’s attempts Hamas have kept digging tunnels.
A Palestinian walks in a smuggling tunnel while repairing it in Rafah near Gaza’s border with Egypt January 22, 2009. (IMAGE: REUTERS FILE)
Released hostage Tal Shoham who was held captive in Gaza City said that Hamas never stopped digging tunnels as the war raged above. “Hamas never stopped digging tunnels. Not for a single day,” Tal was quoted as saying by US broadcaster Fox News.
For eight and a half months, Tal remained confined in an underground tunnel, followed by five months in captivity across five different houses deep within Gaza. Throughout his ordeal, his captors kept him shackled, deprived him of food, and denied him basic human comforts.
Tal told Fox News that he remembered every detail of his 505 days in captivity.
Hamas’ extensive network of tunnels underneath Gaza has baffled the Israeli military for decades.
The maze of tunnels was initially used to bypass Israel’s devastating blockade on the Gaza Strip after Hamas came to power in 2007, allowing the smuggling of people, goods and weaponry in and out of Egypt.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) says Hamas has used the tunnels to smuggle weapons into Gaza. The tunnels which have existed for a long time have been used to smuggle essential goods into Gaza, including food, fuel, and construction materials, especially during periods of blockades.
A 2008 report by US-based news media outlet NPR said that the tunnels were also used to smuggle cows to meet the demand of meat ahead of significant events like Eid al-Adha.
However, following the October 7, 2023 attacks, the tunnels have been used for fighting the IDF and also to hide hostages. There were 1,300 tunnels over 500 kilometres (310 miles) in Gaza at the start of the war in October, according to a study from US military academy West Point.
The military vowed to destroy them in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack but Hamas as well as the hostages say that the tunnel system exists despite suffering extensive damage.
It extended the network after the 2014 Israel-Hamas war and used them to emerge across Gaza to launch rocket attacks on Israel.
- Location :
Tel Aviv, Israel
By
