The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) released a video showing what it describes as one of Hamas’s “most complex” underground infrastructures extending beneath the southern Gaza city of Rafah. 

According to the IDF, the seven-kilometer-long “root tunnel” runs roughly 25 meters underground, contains about 80 rooms and was used for command operations, weapons storage and sheltering Hamas operatives. 

The video shared on X on Nov. 20 travels through reinforced concrete passageways and large chambers, showing the sophistication and scale of Hamas’s underground network. 

The Israeli military claims the tunnel originated beneath a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound and stretched beneath civilian sites.

ISRAEL’S DOHA STRIKE SENT A DECISIVE MESSAGE THAT TERROR WILL FIND NO SAFE HAVEN

“IDF troops uncovered one of Gaza’s largest and most complex underground routes, over 7 km long, ~25 meters deep, with ~80 hideouts, where abducted IDF officer Lt. Hadar Goldin was held,” the post read.

Israeli analysts say the demolition of this tunnel marks a strategic blow to Hamas and “paves the path to its defeat.”

“The destruction of this tunnel as well as many others like it or similar… as well as other terror facilities pushes Hamas to the edge,” said Professor Kobi Michael, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and the Misgav Institute.

IDF HOLDS MEMORIAL CEREMONY AT BASE ATTACKED BY HAMAS ON OCT. 7 HONORING FALLEN TROOPS 

“It is one of the longest and [most] complicated tunnels that have been discovered, but it is not the only one,” he told Fox News Digital.

Michael explained that Hamas’ root tunnels form the backbone of its underground warfare system. 

“This is an example of a root tunnel, a strategic one that feeds many tactic tunnels and is used for strategic purposes [such] as command and control, weapon storage, manufacturing platforms of weapon[s] and strategic logistics,” he said.

ISRAEL SET TO LAUNCH GAZA CITY OFFENSIVE: HIGH STAKES, HIGH COSTS AHEAD 

“Such a tunnel is usually manned by hundreds of militants and commanders.”

The IDF believes this particular tunnel network may have been connected to the area where Lt. Hadar Goldin, an Israeli soldier abducted during the 2014 Gaza war, was held captive. Hamas returned Goldin’s remains earlier this month – after more than a decade. 

The tunnel’s exposure sheds new light on the extent of its underground operations.

ISRAEL’S COVERT CAMPAIGN TARGETS HAMAS TERRORISTS BEHIND OCT 7 MASSACRE

“I have no idea about the cost but if you take into consideration the amount of the building materials, labor and facilities and its length, it is a matter of millions of INS,” he claimed. “Hamas chose routes under sensitive civilian and humanitarian facilities in order to prevent the IDF from attacking the tunnel.”

As Israel continues operations in Gaza, the destruction of Hamas’s tunnel networks remains central to its strategy to dismantle the group’s military capabilities and prevent future attacks.

In 2014, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he wanted to destroy the tunnels, which Hamas militants used to infiltrate Israeli territory, “with or without a ceasefire.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

According to a 2023 investigation by Reuters, Hamas had said it had been using the tunnels to hide hostages seized in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Israel’s military said its ground forces had uncovered around 1,500 Hamas tunnels and shafts throughout the Gaza Strip, per the report.

Here are the key events from day 1,369 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand on Monday, November 24.

Trump’s plan

• United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Geneva that “a tremendous amount of progress” was made during talks in the Swiss city on Sunday and that he was “very optimistic” that an agreement could be reached in “a very reasonable period of time, very soon”.
• Rubio also said that specific areas still being worked on from a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine, championed by US President Donald Trump, included the role of NATO and security guarantees for Ukraine.
• Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s delegation, echoed Rubio’s sentiments, telling reporters that they made “very good progress” and were “moving forward to the just and lasting peace Ukrainian people deserve”.
• Trump had earlier posted on Truth Social saying that Ukraine was not grateful for US efforts. “UKRAINE ‘LEADERSHIP’ HAS EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS, AND EUROPE CONTINUES TO BUY OIL FROM RUSSIA,” Trump wrote.
• The US president’s post prompted a quick reply from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who wrote on X that his country was “grateful to the United States … and personally to President Trump” for the assistance that has been “saving Ukrainian lives”.
• Zelenskyy later said in his nightly video address that Trump’s team in Geneva was “hearing us [Ukraine]” and that talks were expected to continue into the night with “further reports” to come.
• US media outlet CBS reported that Zelenskyy could visit the US this week for direct talks with Trump, but that it would depend on the outcome in Geneva.
• French President Emanuel Macron said the European Union (EU) should continue to provide financial support for Ukraine and that he remains confident in Zelenskyy’s ability to improve his country’s track record against corruption, adding that Kyiv’s path to EU membership would require rule of law reforms.
• Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused EU leaders of deliberately prolonging the war, which he claimed Ukraine has “no chance” of winning. He also described ongoing EU support for Kyiv in the conflict as “just crazy”.

Fighting

• A “massive” Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Kharkiv killed four people and wounded 12 others on Sunday, according to local officials. The wounded included two children aged 11 and 12.
• The acting head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko, said that the region experienced a “difficult day”, with repeated Russian drone and shelling attacks that killed a 42-year-old woman and a 39-year-old man, and wounded at least five people.
• A Russian shelling attack killed a 40-year-old man working in a field in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, the State Emergency Service wrote in a post on Telegram.
• The governor of Russia’s Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, said that a Ukrainian drone attack on the Shatura Power Station, a heat and power station ​120km (75 miles) east of the Kremlin, ignited a fire. The attack cut off heating to thousands of people, before it was later restored, Vorobyov said.
• Russia’s Federal Air Navigation Service also said temporary restrictions were in place at Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport after three Ukrainian drones headed for the capital were shot down.
• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says an explosion on a Polish railway line that is a key route for aid deliveries to Ukraine, including weapons transfers, was an “unprecedented act of sabotage”, pledging to find those responsible.
• Oil prices fell as loading resumed at the key Russian export hub of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea after being suspended for two days following a Ukrainian attack.

Weapons

• Ukraine and France signed an agreement for Kyiv to buy up to 100 Rafale fighter jets over the next 10 years during a meeting between Zelenskyy and Macron in Paris.

GENEVA (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was expected in Geneva on Sunday for talks with Ukraine and its European allies on the latest U.S.-proposed peace plan for the war-torn country.

Ukraine’s Western allies have rallied around Kyiv in a push to revise the plan, which is seen as favoring Moscow despite its all-out invasion of its neighbor.

The Ukrainian delegation will be led by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andrii Yermak, and will be bolstered by representatives from France, Germany and the U.K. Apart from Rubio, others in the U.S. delegation are expected to include Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.

The 28-point blueprint drawn up by the U.S. to end the nearly four-year war has sparked alarm in Kyiv and European capitals, with Zelenskyy saying his country could face a stark choice between standing up for its sovereign rights and preserving the American support it needs.

The plan acquiesces to many Russian demands that Zelenskyy has categorically rejected on dozens of occasions, including giving up large pieces of territory. The Ukrainian leader has vowed that his people“will always defend” their home.

Speaking before Sunday’s talks, Alice Rufo, France’s minister delegate at the Defense Ministry, told broadcaster France Info that key points of discussion would include the plan’s restrictions on the Ukrainian army, which she described as “a limitation on its sovereignty.”

“Ukraine must be able to defend itself,” she said. “Russia wants war and waged war many times in fact over the past years.”

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Saturday, Trump said the U.S. proposal was not his “final offer.”

“I would like to get to peace. It should have happened a long time ago. The Ukraine war with Russia should have never happened,” Trump said. “One way or the other, we have to get it ended.”

Trump didn’t explain what he meant by the plan not being his final offer and the White House didn’t respond to a request for clarification.

___

Associated Press writers Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Poland and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine