With paintings of Mickey Mouse and Snow White next to the word “Love” scrawled on a white wall, it has all the hallmarks of an ordinary child’s bedroom.
Yet beneath the Disney characters lies a chamber of horrors where six Israeli hostages were imprisoned, tortured and ultimately executed by Hamas gunmen, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
On Tuesday, the Israeli army released footage of the tunnel in Gaza where it claims the group captured on Oct 7 were killed two weeks ago.
Video footage released by the IDF shows a massive tunnel shaft located inside what appeared to be a children’s bedroom in a home in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
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The entrance appeared to have been covered by a removable floor. It led to a shaft running 20 metres deep, with four separate ladders to climb down to the main part of the tunnel.
Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesman, estimated the narrow tunnel to be 120 metres long, 1.7 metres high and one metre wide. It had no rooms, just a single corridor.
A thick iron door separated the last part of the tunnel in which the hostages were kept for weeks, according to Israeli estimates.
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In the video, the first items seen behind the iron door are bottles of urine, some kept in a bag.
A hole has been dug in the ground where a bucket was used as a toilet.
A battery charger hangs from the ceiling. On the floor lies a Koran, women’s clothes, mattresses, AK-47 magazines and a hairbrush.
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Finally, a pool of blood is seen on the floor, showing where, according to the IDF, the hostages were executed.
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The IDF also said tuna cans, energy bars and a chessboard were found inside the tunnel.
Throughout the war in Gaza, Israeli troops have been uncovering Hamas’s vast network of tunnels.
As well as homes, they have been embedded under schools, hospitals, apartments, mosques and UN facilities.
Many of the remaining 101 hostages are believed to be kept in tunnels similar to the one exposed on Tuesday.
Between two and six terrorists were guarding the hostages, according to Mr Hagari.
“Why murder them in a tunnel after they survived 11 months?” Mr Hagari asks in the video where he conducts a tour of the inside of the tunnel.
The IDF believes two terrorists executed the six hostages on Aug 29 before making their escape from the tunnel.
The bodies of Carmel Gat, 40, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Alex Lobanov, 32, Almog Sarusi, 27, and Ori Danino, 25, were discovered by Israeli forces the following day.
Mr Hagari said they were held in “horrific” conditions.
Mrs Yerushalmi weighed just 36kg (five-and-a-half stone), indicating that she was starved, a form of torture other hostages have testified to after their release or rescue from captivity in Gaza.
Other hostages who made it out alive have revealed they were sexually abused, beaten and psychologically tortured.
After the IDF released the footage from the tunnel, the Hostages Families Forum issued a statement saying the dry blood stains “leave no doubt as for the cruelty of their last moments”.
The six hostages “suffered until their last breath” and “fought for their lives until their death”, the Israel-based campaign group said.
“Hungry, exhausted, tortured, they cling to a single hope: that we will continue fighting for their freedom,” the forum added, before calling on the Israeli government to reach a ceasefire deal with Hamas.
“They trust us to bring them home. Every day in captivity is eternity. Every day that passes is a danger to their lives, hanging by a thread, at the mercy of terrorists capable of the worst crimes against humanity… A deal must be signed NOW!”
Avigdor Lieberman, the former defence minister, and Yisrael Beiteinu, the leader of the opposition party, also reacted strongly to the video, calling for an immediate halt to humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“No food, no water, no cigarettes, no fuel and no goods,” Mr Lieberman said, accusing Hamas of using the same methods to kill Jews as the Nazis.
Source Agencies
