The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released a video that went viral Friday of one of their dogs exploring a Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip.
“A tunnel route — used as an underground base by the Hamas terrorist organization — was uncovered by our troops beneath the area of Issa within Gaza City. This multi-level structure served as an underground post — for storage, hideouts, command and control, and movement of operatives between different areas — and has since been destroyed by troops. Watch the IDF’s K-9 Unit reveal the hundreds of meters long tunnel network,” the IDF tweeted. (RELATED: Israel Begins Flooding Hamas Tunnel Network With Seawater)
A tunnel route—used as an underground base by the Hamas terrorist organization—was uncovered by our troops beneath the area of Issa within Gaza City.
This multi-level structure served as an underground post—for storage, hideouts, command and control, and movement of operatives… pic.twitter.com/iNMDohErqO
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 22, 2023
The video displayed the dog running through the tunnel for the purpose of uncovering the interior layout of the underground base. The video, which has already received over 100,000 views on Twitter, highlighted where an electricity box, blast door and hideout spaces were located.
The dog belongs to the Oketz unit of the IDF, a unit tasked with “counter-terrorism, search and rescue, and other specific purposes”, an IDF press release said.
In one tragic incident during the Israel-Hamas war, GoPro footage from a fallen IDF dog picked up the voices of hostages crying out for help in Hebrew, Ynet reported. The footage was only picked up three days after the same hostages were accidentally killed by IDF soldiers, according to the outlet. This event reportedly occurred Dec. 10, five days before the three hostages — Samer Talalka, Alon Shamriz and Yotam Haim — were reportedly accidentally killed by friendly fire on Dec. 15.
The war between Hamas and Israel started when Hamas invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1200 Israelis and taking over 200 hostages into the Gaza Strip, including Americans. Israel responded with a military operation and deployment of troops to the Gaza Strip.
A brief truce in the fighting between the two forces ended Dec. 1 after Hamas released some of the hostages in several rounds. Israel claimed Hamas violated the ceasefire agreement and responded with airstrikes.