Dutch lawmakers join passersby inside replica of Hamas tunnel in The Hague

Outside a train station in The Hague, five teenagers pause to study an imposing structure: a 24-meter (79-foot) dark tunnel with just a faint light visible at its end.

Having missed an explanatory board, they debate its meaning briefly. Rachel Meijler, an Israel-Dutch gallery owner, explains that it’s a replica of the tunnels where Hamas has kept hostages from Israel since October 7. Her nephew, Laor Abramov, 20, was murdered by the terrorists at the Supernova music festival, she adds. The students fall silent and venture into the cramped space, one of them bending slightly.

Brought to the Netherlands last month at Meijler’s initiative, the tunnel opened to the public yesterday in The Hague, the seat of the Dutch government, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, where Israel is facing disputed genocide charges over its war on Hamas in Gaza.

“The tunnel has been on display in Amsterdam for a month but The Hague is the more strategic place,” says Ronny Naftaniel, a former leader of Dutch Jews. “Theoretical knowledge is different to the stuffiness and discomfort one feels inside the thing,” he tells The Times of Israel.

Multiple lawmakers visit the tunnel. Ulysse Ellian, a lawmaker for the People’s Party for the ruling Freedom and Democracy, comments after the visit: “It’s unthinkable that there the hostages are kept in these conditions, day in day out.”