CNN goes inside a compound deep under the besieged southern city, where the Israeli military says Hamas held hostages. Much of the surrounding residential area has been destroyed.

‘Just horrific’: CNN producer describes being in room where hostages were held

Inside this maze of tunnels under Khan Younis, there is a narrow room with an arched ceiling, divided in half by a barred metal gate. The musty chamber, which looks like a makeshift cell, is where the Israeli military says Hamas held at least 12 of the hostages kidnapped and brought to Gaza on October 7.

“They spent years and years building it, this is not a two-year project, this is years of planning. So, if anyone asks how long was October 7 being planned, I say for many years,” he said

Goldfuss said a building once stood where CNN accessed the tunnel through a huge crater and other shafts spread like a spiderweb through the neighborhood. The devastation is immense – nothing was left of the original structure; its remnants having been bulldozed away to expose the tunnel entrance.

Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20240208173404/https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/07/middleeast/gaza-underground-compound-israel-hamas-intl-cmd/index.html

  • johker216@lemmy.world
    63·
    9 months ago

    And what Hamas is trying to accomplish is also genocide - but this is all besides the point. The larger question is this: what would it take for you to believe even a fraction of what the Israeli military claims?

    Can it be true that the IDF is indiscriminately killing Palestinian civilians as well as telling the truth?

    Would you claim that Hamas is justified in their killing of civilians if the Israeli military also kills civilians?

    Even further: what happens if all foreign governments stop sending aid to Israel and Lebanon/Hamas/etc. attack Israeli citizens with the intent of purging them? Would you suddenly support the IDF in it’s struggle to protect Israeli citizens from these groups who have already made it clear that their primary purpose is the genocide of the Jews in the Levant?

    Regardless of anyone’s feelings on the IDF, it is incumbent on all of us to take the claims of Hamas and Israel with a massive grain of salt - you may not believe in the credibility of the IDF but you certainly cannot dismiss the engrained antisemitism of Hamas and others in the region and believe them at face value.