Israel-Hamas War: What happened on Day 75?

The IDF has seized control of a secret underground web of tunnels which both served as a bunker for the top Hamas leadership and as a transportation route to above-ground sites in and around Palestine Square in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood and in Gaza City itself.

“This is a city that exists on two levels, one above ground and one underneath,” Commander of the 401st Brigade, Major-General Beni Aharon told reporters, and the battle for it also takes place in both arenas.

Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, Muhammad Deif used this network to manage the organization’s operation and movement through the heart of Gaza City, said the army, which has nicknamed the area “Commander’s Square.”

Using the tunnels for movement 

They could also travel around through the tunnels, hide for a prolonged period if needed, or escape, the army explained.

“Hamas took enough generators and solar panels from civilians so that they could survive down there for months and even weeks,” Aharon said.

The Square was located between a high-class residential area, that includes a college, a hotel, a school for the deaf, and a fancy bridal shop.

IDF uncovers secret underground Hamas tunnels in Palestine Square (credit: TOVAH LAZAROFF)

Deputy Commander of the 401st Brigade, Lt. Col. Ido, whose full name can’t be used said, “From outside everything looks normal, everything looks like a normal city.”

A short distance away from the two schools, but in the square itself, the IDF uncovered two tunnel shafts and a tunnel-making workshop, which they showed to reporters on Tuesday afternoon, but they did not take them into the tunnels themselves.

The IDF also released to the media videos detailing their find, with shots of the underground tunnels, including one that led from a home of Sinwar’s in the square, in which a spiral staircase could bring him directly down into a concrete corridor, complete with electricity.

The tunnels were discovered under property owned by Sinwar and Haniyeh, and allowed for Hamas leaders to travel from home to the office and to other places within the city, the army explained.

What was found in the tunnels?

One office, now filled with debris, that the army showed reporters, is believed to have been used by Deif, with officers speculating that a wheelchair found in that room, could have been his.

The tunnels had electricity, water, phones, food, solar panels, security cameras, as well as rooms, including one that was 150 meters big. Arms were also found including rockets, RPGs and nighttime equipment.

An elevator was also found leading into a tunnel, used almost exclusively by Hamas leadership, the army explained.
Ido said that right off the square, which had been booby-trapped when they arrived. They also found a workshop for building tunnels.

“There are posters of instructions of how to build, when to do, what to do. You can see all around here cement and concrete and equipment for building the tunnel inside,” Ido said as he pointed to concrete slabs. “All these are the walls for the tunnel which are taken down with a high lift into the tunnels,” Ido said.

In the Square’s center had been a monument to Hamas’ successful attack against an IDF armored personnel carrier during the 2014 Gaza war, also known as Operation Protective Edge, in which seven soldiers were killed. This includes Oron Shaul, whose body has since been held by Hamas along with that of Hadar Goldin, also killed in that war.

It is also the place where some of the hostages were initially released, shots that were shown on Israeli television, in which the Square was filled with Palestinians.

Earlier this week, the IDF destroyed the monument.

The army seized the tunnels and the square thanks to the work of the 162nd Division’s 401st Brigade, which worked together with the Shaldag Unit and the 13th Squadron, which had also helped fight to secure the square from Hamas terrorists these last week, gaining almost complete control of it in the last few days.

The IDF estimates that it killed some 600 Hamas terrorists during that battle.

The square after the IDF attack

On Tuesday, when reporters arrived, the square was one large empty dustbowl of brown dirt, with a mound in the center.

On top of that mound was a flagpole, from which fluttered a large Israeli flag. Next to it was a large Hanukkah menorah, which was left standing, even though the holiday was last week.

“We arrived here before the first night of Hanukkah and in a tearful ceremony, we remembered those who had fallen and everything that we endured to get here and we lit the first candle,” Aharon said.

He added that he also loved the flag, which “has become a symbol of hope” and as “type of magic.”

Some of the buildings, such as the college and the school for the deaf were standing, but damaged, and others were reduced to rubble so that a ring of destruction also surrounded the square.

Reporters entered Gaza through a coastal road, first in a jeep, open in the back so that one could see how the road leading to Gaza City, and indeed every section of the city itself that reporters saw, had only destroyed, partially destroyed or damaged buildings.

At what soldiers called “the blue beach” which had been a resort, pagodas were partially destroyed and debris littered the sand.

From there they transferred to an armored vehicle with three soldiers at the helm, two of whom Elad and Deny explained how they had been in Gaza almost from the start, with little radio or telephone contact, including with their families.

One of them Elad, had a child’s drawing pasted to the top of the vehicle, with solider and blue stars next to it and the words “take care of yourselves” written out.

Elad said he received the picture in a care package and didn’t know who the child was, but he had placed it on top of the vehicle to remind him “why we are here and what we are fighting for.”

At the Square itself, much like the road leading up to it, there were no Palestinians in sight, and it seemed as if the city had become on strange ghost town, inhabited only by soldiers and journalists.

In one of the buildings journalists were taken into, soldiers had taken over apartments, which were still partially or livable. In one living room, they had placed mattresses on the floor. In another, they had set up a command center around a large fancy dining table, pasting a wall size Google type map on the wall, which they had found in a nearby office.

It was clear from the furniture and the tiles and hallway decor that the building had been modern, with expensive furniture, akin to what one could find in Tel Aviv or any other Middle Eastern city.

Aharon said that the terrain for the soldiers was no longer that of a civilian city, but one of combat.

During the time the group was there, three firefights broke out within a few block's radius, during which the IDF exploded the buildings, such that dust or flames and clouds of black smoke rose from them. Gun shoots and explosions could be heard in the distance.

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen discussed the opening of a maritime trade corridor between Cyprus and Gaza during a meeting with Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos on Wednesday.

"The creation of a maritime corridor to Gaza will help Israel's economic disengagement from the Strip. We will not allow a return to the reality that preceded the murderous terrorist attack of the Sheva in October," said Cohen.

Video footage recovered from an IDF dog recorded on December 10, has revealed the moment when IDF Golani forces allowed the three hostages who were mistakenly shot dead by another force five days later, to escape their captors.

In a prelude to a battle in Shejaia between Hamas terrorists and IDF Golani forces on December 10, an IDF dog was sent into a suspicious area.

When Hamas forces shot the dog, IDF forces realized there were terrorists present and engaged them.

The IDF Golani forces succeeded in killing the Hamas terrorists on the site.

As with some ongoing war situations, since IDF soldiers were wounded, the Golani forces moved on to attack other Hamas forces in the area and did not immediately come to retrieve the dog.

Documentation of the activities of the Golani patrol forces in the Shejaia neighborhood. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON UNIT, screenshot)

After the fact, it turns out that though the dog died, a camera embedded on its body continued to function.

That camera eventually caught footage of the three hostages escaping the area, once they saw that their Hamas guards had been killed.

BREAKING: In a WILD turn the IDF has now disclosed that a video camera on a dead dog recorded the moment on Dec. 10 when 3 hostages were unknowingly freed by the IDF - only later to be MISTAKENLY killed by other IDF forces Dec. 15. The video was recovered Dec. 18.

— Yonah Jeremy Bob (@jeremybob1) December 20, 2023

The IDF forces did not get close enough to see them and did not recover the recording from the dog until December 18, after which it took some time to analyze it.

In retrospect, the Golani forces involved believe they heard calls of “Save us” and “Hostages” in Hebrew, but they believed that these were ruses by Hamas to get them to let their guard down since similar ruses have been common during the Gaza War.

The IDF has concluded that this spot, about a kilometer from where the hostages were later mistakenly gunned down by other IDF forces, was the place from which the hostages were freed and that they then tried to escape and send signals to the IDf while avoiding being recaptured over the next five days.

The three, named Yotam Chaim, Samer Talalka, and Alon Shamriz, were all taken hostage during the October 7 massacre against southern Israeli communities.

According to an initial probe, the hostages were standing near a building with the words "help" and "SOS" spray-painted on its exterior walls.

In addition, the IDF also found a message saying "three hostages - help" on the buildings two days before the deadly altercation.

Initially, the IDF avoided the buildings with those messages, believing that they were Hamas traps.

Staff-Sergeant-Major (res.) Uriel Cohen, 33, a tank commander in the Givati Brigade from Tzur Hadassah, fell in combat in the south of the Gaza Strip, the IDF announced in a statement on Wednesday. 

Intensive Qatari- and Egyptian-mediated talks are underway for a possible second Gaza truce under which Hamas would return some hostages in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners, a person briefed on the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

While the number of people slated to go free was still being discussed, Israel is insisting that women and infirm male hostages be included, said the source, adding that Palestinians jailed for serious offenses could also be on the roster.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to hold talks with Egyptian officials, mainly on developments in the war with Israel in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian group said.

By the time IDF soldiers mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza, a commander in the effort to locate hostages had informed the Southern Command and other relevant bodies that the three men appeared to be together and in the Shejaia area, in which the incident took place. 

The assessment was that they were still in Hamas captivity, but the notice was intended to make it known to IDF forces that they were operating in an area where there may be hostages. 

Israeli warplanes conducted strikes on several Hezbollah targets in Lebanese territory, according to a Wednesday morning statement from the IDF. 

The targets included terrorist infrastructure and military sites from which Hezbollah operates. 

Mohammed Deif, the leader of Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades, whom Israel has been hunting down for years, is alive and kicking, in all senses of the word, according to footage recently obtained by the IDF. 

In one of the videos, seized during intelligence-gathering operations inside the Gaza Strip, Deif is seen walking on his own two feet, albeit with a slight limp. 

Actor Alex Baldwin crossed paths with a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on Monday and was filmed in a heated confrontation with a protester that culminated in him getting escorted away by the New York Police. 

A video of the incident shows the actor speaking with two or three protesters. One is heard asking Baldwin, “Who’s pockets are you in? You work for Hollywood; do you condemn Israel?”