– As you can see below
me, there are steps here as we're descending tens of
meters underground actually. Right now we're about
15 meters underground, but we keep going lower and lower through this step
system here in the tunnels And they believe at least
12 hostages were kept in this tiny little catacomb here. You can see in the back,
there's actually a fan on the wall because it's actually so hot and humid out here that people will probably quickly dehydrate. These metal bars that were
used to keep the hostages in, they believe these are actually
installed quite recently. You can see even here the
work actually looks quite new rather than mostly other
things here on the ground. We're now in one of the
bathrooms of the main compound, and you can see tiles
made to look like a beach. This is part of the reason they think that actually senior Hamas
officials would've stayed here. This is not something they
would've put up quickly for hostages, but rather
something that would've been for the VIPs of Hamas.
But here you can see again a caged door. They think the cages were
actually added afterwards for the hostages. We've got bed frames, which
you don't usually see. You usually see just
mattresses on the floor. Here we have the kitchen,
sink, coffee pot, things to clean dishes,
gas for a stove here. You can see electrical outlets. Again, they were able to live
here underground for a while. It's not clear precisely how the discovery of this tunnel complex changes
the IDF's equation here. Israeli military officials
did not say whether they knew where the hostages who
were held there are now, nor do they say where the
Hamas leaders are now.
Usually by the time that the Israeli military arrives at these underground prisons
for the hostages, the guards and their human bounty
are already long gone..