Five Israeli hostages killed in Hamas captivity were recovered from an underground tunnel network in northern Gaza, the military said on Sunday, showing footage of a white-tiled bathroom and work room linked by dark concrete-lined passages.
The publication left open the question of how they had died, with chief military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari saying postmortems were pending. “We will brief the families and then, depending on what they approve, the public,” he said.
Hamas last week published video showing three of the hostages alive in what appeared to be a narrow, white-tiled and windowless bedroom with an electric wall socket.
In a Hebrew chyron directed at Israel, the Iranian-backed Islamist group said: “Your military weapons killed the three.”
Hamas has previously said some hostages died in Israel’s shelling of Gaza. It has also threatened to execute hostages.
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Video released by the military showed its engineers in a dark and dusty tunnel network which, it said, had two storeys – one 10 metres down and the other “dozens of metres” deeper.
One tunnel ran to the home of Ahmad al-Ghandour, chief of Hamas’ North Gaza brigade, the Israeli military said. Hamas declared him and several other commanders killed in action on November 26. Israel said they were targets of one of its air strikes.
The video showed a section of tunnel lined with white tiles, as well as a similarly designed bathroom with a basic shower, toilet and sink, and a work room with a corner table and bench. One tunnel had a drinking water dispenser and a pile of bullets.
The military video did not include images corresponding to the hostages’ bedroom shown in the Hamas video, whose ceiling appeared differently designed though also tiled in white.
Also on Sunday, at least 70 people were killed in Gaza in one of the deadliest strikes of the war, health officials said, while Israel’s leaders acknowledged the “very heavy price” after 15 soldiers were killed in combat over the weekend.
Associated Press journalists at a nearby hospital watched frantic Palestinians carry the dead and wounded, including children, following the deadly strike on the Maghazi refugee camp, east of Deir al-Balah. One bloodied young girl looked stunned while her body was checked for broken bones.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said the toll was likely to rise.
“We were all targeted,” said Ahmad Turokmani, who lost several family members including his daughter and grandson. “There is no safe place in Gaza anyway.”
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Fifteen Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in Gaza over the weekend, the Israeli military said on Sunday, while tentative efforts continued on a deal for another exchange of hostages for Palestinians held by Israel.
Additional reporting by Associated Press