Every day, from 5 a.m. to midnight, the guards holding Israeli hostage Tal Shoham used an electric demolition hammer to dig further into the soft Gaza clay, Shoham revealed in a recent interview with ABC. Released last month during the first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Shoham explained that the tunnel-building teams worked in nine-hour shifts. Since the terrorist organization’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Hamas has survived Israel’s heavy airstrikes by expanding its intricate network of tunnels under Gaza, known to Israeli officials as “the Metro.”
For over 200 days, Shoham and three other hostages were confined to a 120-square-foot tunnel shaft, nearly half of the 505 days he spent in Hamas captivity. Shoham recounted being led on a two-and-a-half-hour walk through this sprawling underground system, which Hamas claimed connected northern and southern Gaza. He was astounded by the vastness of the tunnels. Shoham was told by his captors that it was possible to walk for five days from Gaza City in the north to Rafah in the south, with new branches being dug every day. Hamas took great pride in this extensive tunnel network.
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