The Israel Defense Forces opened a mile-and-a-half Hamas tunnel to journalists three years after it was used to massacre more than 75 people at Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
The underground passage, located less than half a mile from the kibbutz in Shuja’iyya, Gaza City, served as both a launch point and an escape route during the Oct. 7, 2023 assault, according to an IDF commander in the southern Gaza Strip. The commander described the network as “a city under a city” that connects back to Gaza City itself.
“It is hard to imagine, but it [the tunnel] is all connected and goes back to [Gaza City],” the commander told reporters. The entrance appeared inconspicuous from outside, hidden in a now-leveled area behind a screen door. Inside, a massive reinforced door was designed to slow Israeli soldiers while allowing Hamas fighters to flee through alternate exits.
The living quarters revealed a sophisticated operation built for extended occupation. Barracks included a bathroom, multiple air-conditioned rooms, a working water system, and sleeping quarters capable of sustaining militants for months. “Many thousands [of Hamas terrorists] could live in the tunnels,” the commander added. Narrow stone hallways ran throughout, with overhead wires supplying electricity, wall-mounted lights illuminating passageways, and pipes carrying water across the network.
This was where Hamas dragged 18 kidnapped victims after overwhelming the base and neighboring village. The group seized seven people directly from the kibbutz, including female soldiers Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa and Naama Levy. The women appeared bloodied and injured in Hamas propaganda footage, forced to sit across from the bodies of slain fellow soldiers, while a militant was caught on film threatening to rape them. All four were released in early 2025.
The IDF base at Nahal Oz had numerous security cameras that captured how hundreds of Hamas terrorists poured into the facility within 15 minutes, overwhelming the 162 soldiers on post. Israeli military officials later dubbed the assault a “system failure.” Once the base fell, Hamas rampaged through the neighboring village, livestreaming slaughter and kidnappings using victims’ phones. Images emerged of dozens of bodies, bloodied cribs and children’s rooms, and entire houses burned to the ground.
The commander estimates Israel has destroyed at least 32 miles of Hamas tunnel network since the war began, but cautioned it could “take years” to dismantle the more than 300 miles remaining beneath Gaza. Israeli military officials believe some hostages may have been held in this newly discovered tunnel during the war.
Beyond the tunnel tour, the IDF escorted journalists to a military post overlooking Deir al-Balah, where officials stated “no Palestinians” remain inside IDF-controlled territory representing nearly 70 percent of Gaza. Fighting persists despite this control. Hamas targeted an engineering vehicle with a roadside bomb just days before the tour, officials said, and the group is exploiting a fragile cease-fire to rebuild.
“Hamas is doing everything to rebuild,” an IDF official at the Gaza Strip military post said. “A Gaza boy at the age 15 [in 2023] is now recruitable.”
The IDF also brought reporters to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the Gaza border, where IDF spokeswoman Rona Epstein, 22, was raised. Epstein said she lost her brother and several family members during the Oct. 7 terror attack. The kibbutz lost 64 residents total, including infants and children. Her brother Netta dove on a Hamas grenade to protect his girlfriend, Irene Shavit, who was found alive by responding soldiers as she hid beneath his body.
Kfar Aza once housed roughly 1,000 people and even employed Gazans in an effort to bridge peace between the two groups. Now only 200 residents and volunteers remain.
