Israeli Army Reveals: We Were Two Meters Away from Golden's Body and Could Not Reach It

SadaNews Translation - The Israeli army revealed this evening, Tuesday, new complications it faced in the tunnels of the Gaza Strip, which it did not expect to be of such a complex engineering scale.

According to Israeli officers who accompanied several representatives of Hebrew media to the tunnel from which the body of Israeli officer Hadar Goldin was retrieved, who was captured in 2014 by members of the "Al-Qassam Brigades," the military wing of Hamas, and remained buried in the tunnel, during the operation in Rafah that began in May 2024, the army worked several times in the tunnel, but could not uncover the location of the body.

Two officers told Israeli reporters, as translated by SadaNews: "We realized after Hamas elements had retrieved him that we were two meters or a meter away from the specified location where Hadar was being held, but unlike other similar cases, we did not have accurate intelligence information or a terrorist brought in to indicate the location." According to his statement.

According to a correspondent for Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, the Israeli army spent a year and a half searching for Hadar Goldin's body, but it turned out to be in a secret location inside the tunnel, and no unit was able to uncover this location which was within a wall.

According to the correspondent, the tunnel extends about 10 kilometers, containing countless branches, communication and command rooms, and many secret doors, and it served as a large complex with two strategic extensions underground, one heading north to a location that served as Yahya Sinwar's headquarters in Khan Yunis; the other heading south near the Egyptian border, reaching Sinai. According to his claims.

The Israeli officer noted that the tunnel was continuously used by Rafah Brigade Commander Mohammed Shabana, who was assassinated along with Mohammed Sinwar.

The officer claimed that Israel had intelligence information indicating that Shabana was obsessed with having a Palestinian doctor visit Goldin's body from time to time to ensure it was properly preserved underground.

After the retrieval of Hadar Goldin's body, the Israeli army detonated the tunnel, amid speculation that Goldin's body had remained there for many years.

An officer in the "Yahalom" engineering unit stated that over two years of war, he had never seen such a tunnel... there were many secret openings, and its total size was equivalent to several football fields. According to his statement.