Gaza tunnel where Hadar Goldin’s body was held is 7km long, has 80 rooms, says IDF

The IDF publishes footage showing a major Hamas tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, where it says the body of Lt. Hadar Goldin had been held by the terror group in recent years, before his remains were returned to Israel last week.

The military describes it as “one of the most significant and complex” tunnels found by the IDF to date in the Strip.

It spans over seven kilometers, goes down some 25 meters deep, and includes around 80 separate rooms, according to the military.

“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,” the IDF says.

The IDF says 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.

The roughly 80 rooms found in the tunnel included those used by Hamas operatives to reside in for long periods, to store weapons, and to plan attacks, the military says.

The IDF says it also found rooms used as command posts by 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.

Hamas earlier this month said that it recovered Goldin’s body from a tunnel in Rafah, an area currently under IDF control. The Israeli military in the past year had searched the area for Goldin’s body, although it did not have intelligence on the exact location.

The terror group, a day later, returned Goldin’s remains, more than 11 years after he was killed and abducted by Hamas gunmen during the 2014 Gaza War.

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)