IDF shows media a Hamas tunnel, where holes drop several metres deeper to other parts of the network

Published

2 years ago

December 27, 2023

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Hamas has always had a reputation for having some of the best underground tunnels of any militia.

In a media tour arranged by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) into Gaza, one of the most impressive tunnels the Israeli military has discovered was on full display.

The entrance was just inside Gaza, only a few hundred metres from the Erez border crossing with Israel, where there was a gaping hole in the sand.

Inside was a heavily fortified tunnel, and without doubt the largest tunnel I have ever seen in Gaza.

There was plenty of room inside the reinforced concrete tunnel. A steel pipe ran along the top of it, and electricity cables dangled inside.

The IDF said the tunnel ran for more than two miles into central Gaza City.

It’s no secret Hamas has been building its tunnel infrastructure for years. It uses them to transport fighters, not only belonging to Hamas but also other militant groups like Islamic Jihad, from one end of the strip to the other.

Tunnels are also used to move and store weapons, launch attacks against Israel and, in this war, to hold hostages.

With every war with Israel, tunnels are destroyed and rebuilt again. But the extent of the labyrinth beneath Gaza is difficult to fathom, it’s believed it may stretch 150-200 miles.

There were no lights inside. The IDF had placed a metal grid on the floor to cover holes in the ground that dropped by up to 15 metres, down to other parts of the subterranean complex.

One IDF spokesman told me the degree of sophistication and engineering used to build and maintain these tunnels was “impressive”.

In the distance you could hear small arms fire and occasional explosions. Smoke hung over the northeastern tip of Gaza, and you could see large blocks of apartments, reduced to rubble.

The land inside Gaza next to the Israel border, which is known as the buffer zone, was churned up by Israeli tanks and bulldozers.

The IDF’s automatic machine gun towers – which surround the Gaza strip and are positioned along the wall – were clearly heavily damaged in the 7 October attack by Hamas.

The covered walkway from the Erez crossing into Gaza was destroyed, along with Israeli border offices adjacent to the crossing.

Hamas has long promoted its network of tunnels on its official television news station, but I can’t recall them ever allowing journalists to visit those it built for fighting.

Israel insists its war must continue until the tunnels are destroyed and Hamas is defeated. Its media tour was aimed at showing journalists what they were dealing with beneath Gaza.

The problem is the tunnels are embedded into the Gaza strip. This tiny strip of land is among the most densely populated places on earth, so of course the tunnels run deep below homes, schools and neighbourhoods.

Hamas has been perfecting its tunnel-building over the last 20 years. Members of the group and smuggling barons constructed them under the southern Egyptian border after Israel imposed its siege on Gaza in 2006.

I have visited the underground networks at the bottom of Gaza over the years, and they were crude in comparison to the one we were shown in the north.

In the south, the tunnels were carved out of sand, often only high enough to crawl through, and the men who dug them were often killed when ceilings collapsed.

While this war continues, Hamas’s fighters are still holed up inside these subterranean passages, as are Israeli hostages.

It’s left the IDF with a dilemma: how to destroy the network without killing hostages in the process.

As for Gaza’s civilian infrastructure above ground, the United Nations says 45% of the territory’s housing stock has been destroyed.

Israel says it wants to protect civilians during this war, but Gaza’s Health officials say that more than 21,000 Palestinians have been killed so far.

The tunnels have given Hamas a tremendous military strategic advantage in this war – Israel wants them destroyed once and for all.

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Israel allows Red Cross and Egyptian teams into Gaza as search for bodies of hostages widens

Published

12 hours ago

October 26, 2025

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Israel allows Red Cross and Egyptian teams into Gaza as search for bodies of hostages widens

International teams searching for the bodies of hostages have been allowed to cross Israel’s military boundary in Gaza, according to an Israeli government spokesperson.

Hamas says it has expanded its search for the bodies of hostages in Gaza, a day after a team of Egyptian experts arrived to help retrieve them.

The team is working with the Red Cross during the search.

“Israel is aware that Hamas knows where our deceased hostages are, in fact, located. If Hamas made more of an effort,
they would be able to retrieve the remains of our hostages,” the government spokesperson said on Sunday.

The military boundary, often referred to as the “yellow line”, is a boundary for Israel Defence Forces (IDF) troops in Gaza, established by the ceasefire agreement.

The fragile ceasefire, brokered by the US, relies on Hamas returning all the remains of Israeli hostages as soon as possible, but in the past five days, no bodies have been released.

On Saturday, the Egyptian team arrived with an excavator and bulldozers to help search for bodies, as part of efforts by international mediators to make sure the ceasefire holds.

The bodies of 13 hostages remain in Gaza, with Hamas chief Khalil al Hayya saying the group has started searching in new areas on Sunday morning.

As part of the ceasefire deal, Israel agreed to give back 15 bodies of Palestinians for every body of a hostage.

Israel has now sent back the bodies of 195 Palestinians, while Hamas has returned 15 bodies of hostages.

US President Donald Trump warned he is “watching very closely” to ensure Hamas returns more bodies.

“Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely,” he said in his post on Saturday.

Last week, Hayya told an Egyptian media outlet that efforts to retrieve the bodies faced challenges because of the massive destruction, burying them deep underground.

On Saturday night, Israeli forces struck the central Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza for the second time in a week, according to Awda Hospital.

The IDF claimed it was targeting militants associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group who were planning to attack Israeli troops.

Islamic Jihad, the second largest militant group in Gaza, denied it was preparing for an attack.

Hamas called the strike a “clear violation” of the ceasefire and accused Benjamin Netanyahu of attempting to sabotage President Trump’s efforts to end the war.

The strike on Saturday came hours after US secretary of state Marco Rubio left Israel.

He was the latest in a series of White House officials to visit Israel and visit a new centre for civilian and military coordination that is attempting to oversee the ceasefire.

US vice president JD Vance was in Israel earlier this week, as were American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.

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Prosecutor furious as news leaks of Louvre heist gang arrests

Published

19 hours ago

October 26, 2025

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Prosecutor furious as news leaks of Louvre heist gang arrests

Two men have been arrested following a robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris which saw thieves escape with priceless jewellery, including part of the French crown jewels.

Confirming arrests had been made on Saturday night, French public prosecutor Laure Beccuau appeared furious with the way the arrests were announced.

She said: “I deeply deplore the hasty disclosure of this information by informed individuals, without consideration for the investigation.

“This revelation can only harm the investigative efforts of the hundred or so investigators involved in the search for both the stolen jewellery and all the perpetrators.”

While Ms Beccuau did not confirm the number of arrests, she said one man had been arrested as he was preparing to leave the country from Charles de Gaulle Airport.

A second man was arrested on the same evening, also in the Paris region, according to French media.

Ms Beccuau did not say whether jewels had been recovered.

Both men are originally from Seine-Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, according to French daily paper Le Parisien.

The operation is understood to have been swiftly launched after investigators, who had been monitoring the two individuals for days, realised that one of them was about to flee abroad. French media reported he was set to board a flight to Algeria.

Ms Beccuau said it was too early to provide any further details, but would say more at the end of the period of police custody.

Commenting on the arrests on social media, France’s interior minister Laurent Nunez praised the investigators for “working tirelessly” and said “the investigations must continue while respecting the confidentiality of the inquiry”.

The suspects are now in pre-trial detention as part of investigations into the “organised theft” and “criminal conspiracy to commit a crime”. They can be held for up to 96 hours.

The men are suspected of being part of the group of criminals who used a cherry picker to reach a window in the Apollo Gallery of the Louvre, smashing display cases and making off with jewels worth £76m. They fled on motorbikes.

One of the world’s most famous museums, attracting up to 30,000 visitors a day, the Louvre was forced to close last Sunday morning after thieves accessed a gallery containing the French crown jewels at around 9.30am local time (8.30am UK time).

It took them less than eight minutes to steal eight “priceless” objects, including sapphire and emerald necklaces, and a diamond brooch containing 2,438 diamonds.

A ninth item – the emerald crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie – was stolen but recovered, damaged at the scene.

The Louvre reopened to visitors earlier this week.

Sky News has contacted French police for comment.

World

Trump oversees signing of ‘historic’ Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire deal

Published

19 hours ago

October 26, 2025

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Trump oversees signing of 'historic' Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire deal

US President Donald Trump has overseen the signing of an expanded ceasefire deal between Thailand and Cambodia, which he helped negotiate this summer to resolve their border dispute.

The ceremony took place shortly after Mr Trump arrived in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur for the ASEAN summit on Sunday, in what he described as a “momentous day”.

“There was a lot of killing. And then we got it stopped, very quickly,” he said before Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed the agreement.

“We did something that a lot of people said couldn’t be done,” said Mr Trump. Mr Manet called it a “historic day” and Mr Charnvirakul said the agreement creates “the building blocks for a lasting peace”.

The ceasefire agreement calls for Thailand to release 18 Cambodian soldiers in captivity and for both countries to start withdrawing heavy weapons from the border.

The US president said he had signed economic deals with both nations and was scheduled to finalise a trade agreement with Malaysia later in the day.

During the ASEAN Summit, regional leaders are expected to work on stabilising ties with the US.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and a troupe of ceremonial dancers greeted Mr Trump at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. He paused on the red carpet to dance with the performers before getting into his limousine.

Kuala Lumpur is the first stop of Mr Trump’s week-long trip to the region, which also includes visits to Japan and South Korea.

This includes a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in South Korea.

Asked by a reporter whether rare earths were discussed in the US-China talks that began on Saturday, US trade negotiator Jamieson Greer said a wide range of topics were covered, including extending the trade truce.

“I believe we are reaching a point where the leaders will have a very productive meeting,” Mr Greer said.

Mr Trump is also expected to discuss tariffs with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is among the leaders attending the APEC summit.

East Timor, Asia’s youngest nation, officially became ASEAN’s 11th member on Sunday, fulfilling a vision its current president had nearly 50 years ago, when the country was still a Portuguese colony.

Also known as Timor-Leste, the nation of 1.4 million is among Asia’s poorest and hopes joining the bloc will strengthen its fledgling economy. At roughly $2bn, it represents only a small fraction of ASEAN’s combined $3.8trn GDP.