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‘Hamas Hid Behind Civilians’: Entrance to Tunnel Where Murdered Hostages Found Was in Child’s Play Area, IDF Says
A combination picture shows undated handout images of hostages Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, and Almog Sarusi, who were kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks, and whose bodies have been found underground in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip and returned to Israel, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict. Photo: Courtesy of Bring Them Home Now/Handout via REUTERS
The entrance to the tunnel in Gaza where six Israeli hostages were found murdered by Hamas terrorists this past weekend was in a children’s play area, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), underscoring Hamas’s extensive use of civilian infrastructure as protection for its military activity.
“Our troops found drawings, stuffed animals, and the tunnel entrance to where 6 Israeli hostages were held for over 300 days in a terrorist tunnel,” the IDF wrote on X/Twitter on Wednesday.
Video and pictures of the site showed paintings of Disney characters Mickey Mouse and Cinderella on the wall, with a large hole in the ground going down into a tunnel.
The IDF said it was a place where “a child should be safe, not used as human shields for Hamas.”
Our troops found drawings, stuffed animals and the tunnel entrance to where 6 Israeli hostages were held for over 300 days in a terrorist tunnel. The hostages were murdered in cold blood by Hamas.
Hamas hid behind their civilians in order to kill ours. pic.twitter.com/lWTfCt3gqS
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 4, 2024
On Saturday, the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages taken by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists during their Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Five of the hostages — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, and Almog Sarusi — were kidnapped from the Nova music festival, and one — Carmel Gat — was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri.
They were reportedly executed shortly before the IDF arrived, and Hamas indicated that it murdered the hostages because Israeli troops were nearby.
The video of the entrance to the tunnel where the hostages were found underscored the fact that, since Oct. 7, there has been extensive documentation showing Hamas systematically using civilians and civilian infrastructure as shields for its military operations.
Senior Israeli officials told The New York Times in January that the tunnel system built by Hamas was estimated to be up to 450 miles long — winding under the surface of the Gaza Strip. To put the extent of the system in perspective, Gaza as a whole is only 141 square miles.
The Times added: “Hamas has improved its ability to conceal the tunnels, but the senior official said the Israeli military had figured out one of the group’s operating models. The official called it the ‘triangle.’ Whenever the Israeli military finds a school, a hospital or a mosque, soldiers know they can expect to locate an underground tunnel system beneath them, the official said.”
Additionally, videos that Hamas has released of its combat often show its fighters in civilian clothing and even using humanitarian aid to prop up rockets.
Such practices are not a consequence of a lack of equipment but rather a matter of strategy. In June, The Wall Street Journal reported that trying to maximize civilian casualties has been part of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s “brutal calculation” on how to win the war.
Sinwar spoke clearly about how he saw his strategy of putting civilians in danger for the cause of destroying Israel: “These are necessary sacrifices,” he said.
The post ‘Hamas Hid Behind Civilians’: Entrance to Tunnel Where Murdered Hostages Found Was in Child’s Play Area, IDF Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Saudi Arabia Rejects Israel PM Netanyahu’s Remarks on Displacing Palestinians
US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talk in the midst of a joint news conference in the White House in Washington, US, Jan. 28, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Saudi Arabia affirmed its categorical rejection of remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about displacing Palestinians from their land, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Israeli officials have suggested the establishment of a Palestinian state on Saudi territory. Netanyahu appeared to be joking on Thursday when he responded to an interviewer on pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 who mistakenly said “Saudi state” instead of “Palestinian state,” before correcting himself.
While the Saudi statement mentioned Netanyahu’s name, it did not directly refer to the comments about establishing a Palestinian state in Saudi territory.
Egypt and Jordan also condemned the Israeli suggestions, with Cairo deeming the idea as a “direct infringement of Saudi sovereignty.”
The kingdom said it valued “brotherly” states’ rejection of Netanyahu’s remarks.
“This occupying extremist mindset does not comprehend what the Palestinian territory means for the brotherly people of Palestine and its conscientious, historical and legal association with that land,” it said.
Discussions of the fate of Palestinians in Gaza has been upended by Tuesday’s shock proposal from President Donald Trump that the U.S. would “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.
Arab states have roundly condemned Trump’s comments, which came during a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza war that Israel has been waging against the terrorist group Hamas, which controls the narrow strip.
Trump has said Saudi Arabia was not demanding a Palestinian state as a condition for normalizing ties with Israel. But Riyadh rebuffed his statements, saying it would not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.
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Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on 27 February to Discuss ‘Serious’ Palestinian Developments
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Feb. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Egypt will host an emergency Arab summit on 27 February to discuss what it described as “serious” developments for Palestinians, according to a statement from the Egyptian foreign ministry on Sunday.
The summit comes amid regional and global condemnation of US President Donald Trump’s suggestion to “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.
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Thai Nationals Held Captive by Hamas in Gaza Return Home
Relatives hug a released Thai hostage, who was kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and held in Gaza, as the hostages arrive in Thailand following their release, at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, in Samut Prakan, Thailand, February 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
When Surasak Rumnao, 31, left his home in Thailand’s rural Udon Thani province three years ago to go across the world to the southern Israeli town of Yesha for agriculture work, his family never imagined they would lose touch with him for over a year when he was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in October 2023.
He and four others were reunited with their families this weekend after their release from captivity in Gaza.
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists abducted more than 250 people, including Israelis and foreign nationals, in their October 2023 attack on Israel.
During the attack, Hamas terrorists killed more than 40 Thais and kidnapped 31 Thai laborers, some of whom died in captivity, according to the Thai government. Later that year, the first group of Thai hostages was returned.
Surasak’s mother, Khammee Rumnao, was relieved that her son was not mistreated and has returned to his home, about 620 km(385 miles) northeast of the capital, Bangkok.
“He mainly got to eat bread, he was looked after well and was fed all three meals (each day). He got to shower, he was looked after well,” Khammee said, and that he ate whatever his captors had.
Her son does not plan to go back and wants to use the knowledge he gained in his agricultural work in Israel at their home, she said.
His grandparents and other relatives came to their home to welcome him home.
His stepfather, Janda Prachanan, was elated.
“I couldn’t find the words to describe how happy I am, that my son is safe and finally home,” he said.
Earlier on Sunday, the other returnees, dressed in winter jackets, were met with tears of joy from their families who were waiting for their arrival at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
“We are all deeply touched to come back to our birthplace … to be standing here,” said Pongsak Thaenna, one of the returnees said. “I don’t know what else to say, we are all truly thankful.”
Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa, who met the hostages in Israel after their release last week, expressed relief.
“This is emotional … to come back to the embrace of their families,” he said. “We never gave up and this was the fruit of that.”
Before the conflict, approximately 30,000 Thai laborers worked in Israel’s agriculture sector, making them one of the largest migrant worker groups in the country. Nearly 9,000 Thais were repatriated following the October 7 attacks.
The workers primarily come from Thailand’s northeastern region, an area comprising villages and farming communities that is among the poorest in the country.
Thailand’s foreign ministry said a Thai national is still believed to be held captive by Hamas.
“We still have hope and continue to work to bring them back,” Maris said, adding that this includes the bodies of two deceased Thai nationals.
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