Video shows Gaza tunnel where Israel says militants killed six hostages

JERUSALEM (AP) – The Israeli military released video footage of a Gaza tunnel on Tuesday, saying Six hostages were recently killed by Hamas. The video shows a low, narrow corridor deep underground that had no toilet and only poor ventilation.

The discovery of the hostages’ bodies last month sparked a Mass outburst of anger in Israel and the release of the new video could increase pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a ceasefire agreement with Hamas to bring home the remaining hostages held by Hamas.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that the hostages' families had been shown footage of the Gaza tunnel and that “it was very hard for them to see their loved ones surviving under these conditions.”

Hagari showed the video in a nationally televised press conference after visiting the tunnel himself. He said the tunnel can be accessed through a shaft buried under a child's bedroom in a house in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The tunnel is about 20 meters underground and about 120 meters long.

In the video, Hagari, hunched over and unable to stand upright in the narrow, arched passageway, describes the conditions as extremely humid and difficult to breathe. He shows bottles of urine, a bucket that appears to have served as a makeshift toilet, a chessboard and ammunition for an automatic rifle that the kidnappers are believed to have used.

“They were here in this tunnel in terrible conditions, where there is no air to breathe, where you can't stand,” he said.

The six included 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin of Berkeley, California, whose parents led a global campaign for his release. Goldberg-Polin lost part of his left arm to a grenade in the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war in Gaza. In April, Hamas released a video showing him alive, sparking protests in Israel. The army identified the others as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; Alexander Lobanov, 33; and Carmel Gat, 40.

Three of the six – including Goldberg-Polin – were due to be released under the first phase of a ceasefire proposal discussed in July, which further fuelled anger when they were found dead.

The Hostages Families Forum, a group representing relatives of hostages, said in a statement that “time is running out” and called for an immediate agreement to return the abducted people.

“Every day that passes is a threat to their lives. They hang by a thread and are at the mercy of terrorists who are capable of the worst crimes against humanity,” the group said.

Pathological examinations on the bodies of the six men found by the military in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Saturday, August 31, showed that they were killed sometime during the night of August 29, Hagari told reporters.

Hagari said Israeli soldiers found evidence that the hostages and at least two of their captors had been there for several days. Mattresses, clothing, assault rifle magazines and grenades were also found, as well as some food, mainly energy bars and tuna. There were bloodstains on the floor, he said.

The day before the bodies were discovered, Hagari said, the army killed two militants who had tried to escape from a tunnel complex near where the hostages were found. There was “a probability” that the two had killed the hostages, he said. DNA tests would be conducted to confirm this, he added.

During the October 7 attack, Hamas kidnapped about 250 people. More than 100 were released during a brief ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians held captive in Israel. Eight of them were rescued by Israeli forces, while Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages who escaped captivity in December. According to Israeli authorities, 101 hostages remain in captivity, of whom 35 are presumed dead.

Shai Dickman, the cousin of Gat, one of the hostages found dead in the tunnel, told Israeli television Channel 13 that the government should immediately seek an agreement to bring the remaining hostages home.

“There are still people who live like this,” she said, holding back her tears. “If there had been an agreement in time, Carmel would be sitting here.”

Hamas has offered to release the hostages in return for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the release of numerous Palestinian prisoners, including high-ranking fighters. However, negotiations on a ceasefire have not led to an agreement.

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Melzer contributed from Nahariya, Israel.