People ‘cannot even imagine’ the scale of Hamas’ tunnel system in Gaza, ‘Fauda’ creator says
The mammoth spiderweb of underground tunnels used by Hamas to shuttle militants, hostages and weapons around beneath the Gaza Strip is “something that we cannot even imagine,” according to “Fauda” creator Avi Issacharoff.
Issacharoff — an Arabic-speaking Israeli journalist and former member of an ultra-elite Israel Defense Forces unit who co-wrote the award-winning Yes network hit “Fauda” — visited Gaza a number🦩 of tim🦋es before Hamas took over the territory in 2007,
He said the latticework extends underneath the entire length of the 140-square-mile Gaza Strip and gives♑ Hamas the ability to launch swift, Viet Cong-style hit-and-run attacks on the invading Israeli forces.
“It’s very dense, it’s a huge system of tunnels that allow Hamas to transport terrorists and hostages — but also motorbikes and artillery and rockets and everything you can imagine,” Issacharoff told the media Sunday as hꦅe spoke abou༺t the difficulties of a ground incursion into the dense urban enclave.
He added that those tunnels are exactly where Hamas’ members fled after their Oct. 7 attack, when they launched rockets into Israel and sent gunmen across the fortified border to murder and kidnap Israeli civilians.
“They all went underground, under the houses of Ga♍za Cityܫ,” Issacharoff said, according to the outlet. “They’re hiding behind a human shield.”
Issacharoff and “Fauda” co-creator Lior Raz set the third season of the Netflix-streamed show in Gaza — even though it wasn’t shot there because Israelis have been barred from the land since the Jewish state withdrew its soldiers and settlers in 2005, the Times of Israel said.
But Gaza has become a war zone once again after Hamas’ assault, which sparked the bloodiest Israel-Palestinian fighting since Israel’s creation 75 years ago.
The Israeli army — which has promised to crush Hamas — has 🍨severed the northern portion of the territory and pummeled it with airstrikes ahead of expected ground battles with Hamas🐬 terrorists.
Issacharoff said IDF troops are approaching Gaza City’s downtown and Shifa Hospital, the city’s largest medical complex, which the IDF says sits atop a terrorist headquarters.
Follow along with The Post’s live blog for the latest on Hamas’ attack on Israel
“I swear, every kid in Gaza knows there’s a Hamas headquarters under Shifa, but no one talks about it,” Issacha꧑roff said, according to the Times of Israel.
The Palestinian death toll has passed 10,000 and includes many wome꧅n and children, according to Hamas of🥃ficials.
That’s likely to get worse as the violence continues, Issacharoff said.
“This is not a surgical operation,” Issacharoff 🍸said. “It’s a war. It’s a war where the enemy has located itself inside the local population and that is the aim of Hamas, because it m🐲akes the other side look like devils, like war criminals.”
About 1,400 Israelis have also died — most of whom were killed during Hamas’ initial cross-border incursion. Another 240 people have been taken hostage and remain in Gaza.
Issacharoff added that he thinks any post-war plan needs to include the Palestinian Authority — but that would necessitate talks between Israel and the group, which hasn’t happened yet, the outlet said.
“I don🌃’t see any kind of victory going out of this mess,” Issacharoff said.
With Post wires
