The Gaza Strip

Belowground Byway

An Israeli soldier on December 15 secures a 2.5-mile-long tunnel near Israel’s Erez border crossing believed to carry Hamas weapons and fighters. The largest tunnel unearthed since October 7, it runs nearly 160 feet below the ground with openings as wide as 10 feet, allowing vehicle passage. In 2021, Hamas said they had built 311 miles of tunnels beneath Gaza. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has found hundreds of tunnel shafts—which they’ve dubbed the “Gaza Metro”—that connect miles of underground passageways and say they have destroyed at least 500 of them. The IDF has begun tests to flood some with seawater in an attempt to flush out Hamas fighters. It is believed that some of the roughly 130 remaining hostages might be held in the tunnel network, which one released hostage described as a “spiderweb.”