Hamas cynically exploited Gaza’s underground terror network, using hostages as shields against Israel’s defensive campaign.
Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat has revealed new details describing how Hamas managed Israeli hostages inside Gaza, exposing the scale, planning, and cruelty of the terror group’s underground system.
According to Hamas-linked sources cited by the newspaper, guarding hostages was a complex and high-risk operation. Despite this, Hamas’ senior leadership—across both its military and political wings—issued explicit orders prioritizing the preservation of living hostages and the concealment of bodies of those murdered, treating them as strategic assets rather than human beings.
Sources told Kan News that living hostages were constantly moved across Gaza to evade detection by the Israel Defense Forces. They were transferred between terror tunnels, civilian apartments, and fortified locations above ground, always under heavy guard.
The report states that deceased hostages were hidden in tunnel graves, cemeteries, and terror-controlled sites equipped to preserve bodies. Many captives were relocated from northern Gaza to the south. In several cases, Israeli forces were reportedly only meters away, yet Hamas guards deliberately misled troops or rerouted hostages through alternative tunnel paths. Some were even held directly beneath IDF staging areas, illustrating Hamas’ deliberate use of human shields.
Following October 7, Hamas’ military wing coordinated with other terror factions holding hostages, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to centralize control, verify hostage identities, and transfer captives into Hamas custody. After the first ceasefire, senior terror commanders met to reassess the status of living and murdered hostages, consolidating control under Hamas due to its superior terror infrastructure.
The revelations reinforce Israel’s position that Hamas operates as a ruthless, organized terror regime—one that embeds its crimes beneath civilians, exploits humanitarian spaces, and weaponizes human lives to obstruct Israel’s legitimate right to self-defense.
