The IDF says it has permanently sealed over 16 km of the underground Hamas tunnel complex in Rafah where Lt. Hadar Goldin was held after being killed and abducted in 2014. The tunnel — which included 80 rooms and served as a Hamas command center — was buried under 30,000 cubic meters of concrete. It ran beneath a residential neighborhood, mosques, kindergartens, clinics, a school, and an UNRWA clinic, according to the military.
The IDF announced Monday night that it has permanently sealed the 16-kilometer Hamas tunnel complex in Rafah where Lt. Hadar Goldin was held after being killed and abducted in 2014. The military confirmed that the tunnel, which included roughly 80 rooms and served as a Hamas command center, ran beneath a residential neighborhood, mosques, kindergartens, clinics, a school, and an UNRWA medical facility — details first reported by The Zioneer in Monday’s initial update.
As The Zioneer reported at 20:37 Jerusalem on Monday, combat engineers used over 30,000 cubic meters of concrete to neutralize the network, pouring concrete through multiple access shafts. By 20:37, the IDF had also released footage of the sealed complex, corroborating its own earlier confirmation of the operation. The timeline of reporting — from the initial announcement (version 1) through the footage release (version 2) and final sealing confirmation (version 3) — shows consistent military messaging across the evening.
Goldin, an officer in the Givati Brigade, was killed and abducted by Hamas during a UN-brokered ceasefire on August 1, 2014, the opening day of Operation Protective Edge. His remains were returned to Israel for burial in November 2025, more than a decade after his capture — as The Zioneer has previously reported. The tunnel’s location near the Philadelphi Corridor made it a central node in Hamas’s underground infrastructure.
What remains open: The IDF has not specified when exactly the concrete sealing operation began or ended, nor whether any further intelligence was recovered from the sealed complex before its neutralization.
4 developments
- DevelopingIDF captures Hezbollah UAV storage tunnel with ~50 kamikaze drones, says IRGC built it
- StrongIDF destroys massive Iranian-funded terror tunnel in southern Lebanon
- DevelopingIDF seals Hezbollah tunnel system in Tebnit amid abduction fears
- StrongIDF keeps dozens of Hezbollah operatives trapped underground in south Lebanon, prevents rescue attempts
Source and signal
- Internal intake