IDF reveals major Hamas tunnel where it says Hadar Goldin's remains were held for years

Army acknowledges detaining Hamas health official Marwan al-Hams, who was thought to know where Goldin was buried, as it tried ‘dozens of covert operations’ to find soldier killed in 2014

By Emanuel Fabian

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21 November 2025, 9:55 am

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Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday revealed footage of a major Hamas tunnel where it said the remains of Lt. Hadar Goldin were held for much of the past 11 years until being returned earlier this month as part of the Gaza ceasefire.

Israel carried out “dozens of covert operations” over the past six months in an unsuccessful bid to locate Goldin’s remains, the IDF and Shin Bet security agency said, including the abduction of a Hamas health ministry official thought to know where he was buried.

Hamas returned Goldin’s remains on November 9, a day after declaring it had recovered the body from a tunnel in Rafah, in an area of southern Gaza currently under IDF control. Israel had searched the area for the past year, but did not have intelligence on the precise place where Goldin, who was killed fighting in Rafah in the 2014 Gaza war, was buried.

In the footage published Thursday, the IDF said the tunnel where Goldin’s remains were held was “one of the most significant and complex” found by the military in Gaza to date, and ran under residential and humanitarian areas.

According to the military, the tunnel spans over seven kilometers (4.3 miles), runs about 25 meters (82 feet) deep, and houses around 80 separate rooms, including spaces that Hamas operatives used to shelter for long periods of time, as well as for weapons storage and to plan attacks.

Some rooms served as command posts for senior terror commanders, including the former commander of Hamas’s Rafah Brigade, Muhammad Shabana, who was killed alongside top Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar in May, the military said.

Footage released by the IDF on November 20, 2025, shows a major Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza, where it says the body of Lt. Hadar Goldin had been held by the terror group in recent years. (Israel Defense Forces)

The military, which accuses Hamas of using Gaza civilians as human shields, said the tunnel ran under humanitarian zones near the Strip’s Egyptian border, including a site belonging to UNRWA, the UN Palestinian refugee agency, which Israel accuses of collaborating with Hamas.

“The route runs beneath a densely populated residential neighborhood near the Philadelphi Corridor and continues through sensitive civilian areas, including a UNRWA compound, mosques, clinics, kindergartens and schools,” said the IDF.

It added that the tunnel was uncovered by the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit and the Shayetet 13 naval commando unit, as other forces of the Southern Command operated in the surrounding area, said the IDF.

This image released by the IDF on November 20, 2025, shows the inside of a major Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza, where it says the body of Lt. Hadar Goldin had been held by the terror group in recent years. (Israel Defense Forces)

Among the unsuccessful operations Israel carried out to find Goldin’s remains was the abduction in July of Dr. Marwan al-Hams, who oversees Gaza’s field hospitals on behalf of the Strip’s Hamas-run health ministry, the IDF and Shin Bet said.

Al-Hams was nabbed by undercover Israeli forces on July 21 in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, while he was visiting a Red Cross hospital in the area. Israel had not previously acknowledged detaining the doctor.

According to the IDF and Shin Bet, al-Hams was “involved in declaring the death” of Goldin following the soldier’s abduction, and was “suspected of knowing where he was buried” in the major Rafah-area tunnel revealed by the military on Thursday.

Al-Hams remains held by Israel. A Hamas source cited by CNN in October said Israel had refused to release al-Hams and Kamal Adwan Hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya as part of the current Gaza ceasefire. Israel also detained al-Hams’s daughter Tasneem in October, in a bid to apply further pressure on her father, but released her earlier this month, according to Israeli and Palestinian media.

Lt. Hadar Goldin, killed in Gaza on August 1, 2014. (Courtesy)

Under the present Gaza ceasefire, Hamas has returned the final 20 living hostages, and the remains of 25 deceased hostages, including Goldin, out of 28 deceased hostages held in Gaza when Israel and Hamas agreed to the truce-hostage deal on October 9.

The remaining deceased hostages are Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, Dror Or, and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak, whose bodies were snatched to Gaza after they were killed during the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza. Goldin was the last Israeli hostage held in Gaza since before the onslaught.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.