IDF Releases Video of Gaza Tunnel Where Hamas Executed Six Israeli Hostages

A representative for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) walked viewers through the interior of a Gaza tunnel, where six Israeli hostages were executed by Hamas terrorists late last month, in a video posted to X on Tuesday.

On August 31, Israeli troops recovered the bodies of the six hostages — identified as Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Ori Danino, 25; Almog Sarusi, 27; Alexander Lobanov, 33; and Carmel Gat, 40 — two days after they were killed in a tunnel under the southern city of Rafah. In the nearly three-and-a-half-minute video, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari recounted what he saw.

The footage starts with Hagari standing outside the tunnel shaft located in a children’s room, with images of Snow White and Mickey Mouse on its walls. He then climbs the shaft 20 meters below the ground, which connects to a 120-meter-long tunnel. The narrow tunnel is so low that one can hardly stand up straight, Hagari said.

Hamas executed all six hostages in a section of the tunnel previously blocked by an iron door. Between two and six Hamas terrorists were present with the six hostages when they died, Hagari relayed to the camera. The tunnel was a part of the vast underground network in the Tel-al Sultan neighborhood underneath Rafah.

The IDF can be seen gathering various items — including AK-47 magazines, copies of the Koran, a hairbrush, and women’s clothing — in the video.

“This is their blood,” Hagari said before proceeding to name the hostages. “They were heroes, and they were here in this tunnel for weeks or days — we will find out. But they were here in this tunnel in horrific conditions where there is no air to breathe, where you cannot stand.”

Hamas still holds 101 hostages in similar conditions nearly a year after the October 7 massacre of Israeli citizens. At least 34 of those hostages are dead, according to Israeli estimates. Four American citizens who remain in Gaza are believed to be alive, while three others are presumed dead.

Hagari vowed on behalf of the IDF to “do everything we can” to bring back all remaining hostages, either dead or alive. The video was shown to the families of the hostages and members of the Israeli cabinet prior to Tuesday’s publication.

Goldberg-Polin, Yerushalmi, Danino, Lobanov, and Sarusi were abducted by Hamas at the Nova music festival near the Israel-Gaza border on October 7. The sixth hostage, Gat, was taken from his home in the nearby Kibbutz Be’eri. Both Israeli and U.S. officials expressed sympathy for the hostages’ families and mourned their losses.

Earlier in August, the IDF retrieved six more bodies of Israeli hostages from Gaza during an overnight military operation in the southern city of Khan Younis. That hostage development came as Israel was preparing to participate in its latest round of cease-fire negotiations with Hamas. No deal came from those discussions.