WATCH: IDF Destroys Hamas Leaders’ Tunnels in Underground Detonation

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed Friday that soldiers had found a “hideout” belonging to Gaza-based Hamas leader Yayha Sinwar, as well as a tunnel underneath the building that led to a large underground command center, which was later destroyed.

The Yahalom unit, which is a specialized unit of combat engineers that has expertise in finding and destroying tunnels, located Sinwar’s tunnel and the larger “headquarters” complex to which it was connected.

In a statement, the IDF said:

In recent weeks, the 14th Reserve Brigade Combat Team, under the command of the 162nd Division, located and destroyed one of the hideout apartments of the Leader of the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar. The apartment was located near Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, with many findings inside.

Soldiers of the Yahalom [“Diamond”] Unit examined the apartment using additional technological means, and discovered that a strategic tunnel shaft was located on the basement floor. The soldiers inspected the tunnel shaft and reached a significant tunnel that is apparently used by the senior officials of Hamas’ Military and Political Wing.

The apartment is part of a long and branching tunnel network, in which senior officials of the Hamas terrorist organization moved and operated. The tunnel shaft that was located in the northern Gaza Strip led to a 218 meter long tunnel, with a depth of about 20 meters. Located in the tunnel was an electrical network, ventilation and sewage infrastructure, hideout materials, prayer rooms and resting rooms. The tunnel was built so that it would be possible to stay inside it and conduct combat from it for long periods of time.

At the end of the examination and the operational activity conducted along the tunnel route, the tunnel was destroyed by the soldiers of the Yahalom Unit.

The IDF also killed a Palestinian terrorist who rammed a car into four civilians in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), and struck back at Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon who had fired anti-tank missiles and rockets into northern Israel communities.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.