The Cradle / September 8, 2024
Adina Moshe was taken captive by Hamas on 7 October and held in the tunnels under Gaza before her release on 24 November
Adina Moshe, an Israeli woman formerly held captive by Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza, stated that the Israeli military knows nothing about Hamas’ underground tunnel network, Channel 12 reported on 8 September.
Moshe was taken captive by Hamas on 7 October and released on 24 November as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the US between Hamas and Israel.
Moshe said that after her release, she was debriefed by the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.
“The internal security service asked me to draw a map of the tunnels in Gaza because they know nothing about them,” Israel’s Channel 12 quoted her as saying.
During a speech she gave during the protests demanding a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, Moshe indicated that the Shin Bet had sent her an engineer on its behalf who asked her to explain what Hamas’ tunnels, telephones, and wires looked like, what their branches were and where they were located.
This made it clear to Moshe that “the Israeli security services do not know anything about the tunnels,” she said.
Moshe told the engineer that “the tunnels in the Gaza Strip are a huge, huge maze that extends underground throughout the Strip, and military pressure will not help bring back the prisoners.”
She emphasized that “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lying, and that he and the army do not know anything about Hamas’ tunnels in the Gaza Strip.”
On 7 February, after several Israeli captives of Hamas had been killed by Israeli troops and poison gas from Israeli airstrikes during operations in Gaza, the former captive pushed Netanyahu to agree to another ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal.
“Again, I am asking you, Mr. Netanyahu, everything is in your hands, you’re the one who can do it, and I’m extremely scared that if you continue along this path…there won’t be any more hostages to release,” she stated during a press conference.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has sought to sabotage any possible ceasefire deal, leading some Israelis to blame him for the deaths of many of the captives held in Gaza.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported on 2 September that the prime minister is responsible for the deaths of six Israeli soldiers who were killed while captives of Hamas because he sabotaged a Gaza ceasefire agreement in July that would have led to their release.
The Hebrew newspaper reported that according to a senior Israeli security official, Israel submitted a proposal for an agreement in May that would have returned the Israeli captives and led to a ceasefire.
However, after Hamas agreed to most of its terms, the Prime Minister decided to back out of the deal. To do so, he ordered a new document to be drafted in July, which included “clarifications” to the first Israeli proposal, including that Israeli troops continue to occupy the Egypt-Gaza border.
Six additional Israeli captives were later killed. Their bodies were recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah on 31 August.
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Former Israeli captive – Shin Bet clueless about Gaza’s underground tunnel network
TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / September 8, 2024
Moshe recounted how the Shin Bet investigator asked her to describe the appearance, structure, and layout of the Gaza tunnels.
Former Israeli captive Adina Moshe revealed that Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet had asked her to sketch a map of the tunnels in Gaza, admitting they had little knowledge about them, Israeli media reported.
Moshe, who was released in a prisoner exchange, shared that after her release, a Shin Bet investigator visited her, asking for information about Gaza’s tunnel network.
She described the tunnels as “a vast, intricate maze extending underground throughout the Gaza Strip,” adding that military force alone would not be enough to recover Israeli prisoners.
Moshe reportedly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him and the Israeli military of being clueless about the extensive tunnel system used by the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza.
During a protest advocating for a new prisoner exchange deal with Gaza, Moshe recounted how the Shin Bet investigator asked her to describe the appearance, structure, and layout of the Gaza tunnels.
According to the reports, this request made it evident to her that Israeli security services lacked significant knowledge about the tunnel system.
Moshe reportedly told the investigator that the tunnels are “a massive underground maze (…), not just a single tunnel, but a complex network of countless passages.”
When asked to draw a map of the tunnels, she responded by saying she was not an artist, further underscoring her belief that the Israeli authorities had no substantial understanding of the tunnel network, the reports stated.
The New York Times recently reported that Gaza’s tunnels pose a significant challenge to the Israeli military, calling them the core of Hamas’s survival strategy.
Israeli intelligence officials estimate that approximately 160 kilometers of tunnels are located beneath Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city in the south.
Ongoing genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,939 Palestinians have been killed, and 94,616 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
