Israeli army takes journalists into a tunnel in a Gaza city it seized and largely flattened

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — One by one, the soldiers squeezed through a narrow entrance to a tunnel in southern Gaza. Inside a dark hallway, some bowed their heads to avoid hitting the low ceiling, while watching their step as they walked over or around jagged concrete, crushed plastic bottles and tattered mattresses.

On Monday, Israel's military took journalists into Rafah — the city at Gaza's southernmost point that troops seized last year and largely flattened — as the 2-month-old Israel-Hamas ceasefire reaches a critical point. Israel has banned international journalists from entering Gaza since the war began more than two years ago, except for rare, brief visits supervised by the military, such as this one.

Soldiers escorted journalists inside a tunnel, which they said was one of Hamas' most significant and complex underground routes, connecting cities in the embattled territory and used by top Hamas commanders. Israel said Hamas had kept the body of a hostage in the underground passage: Hadar Goldin, a 23-year-old soldier who was killed in Gaza more than a decade ago and whose remains had been held there.

Hamas returned Goldin's body last month as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in the war triggered by the militants' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and hundreds taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says roughly half the dead have been women and children.

Israel and Hamas are on the cusp of finishing the first phase of the truce, which mandated the return of all hostages, living and dead, in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel. The body of just one more hostage remains to be returned.

Mediators warn the second phase will be far more challenging since it includes thornier issues, such as disarming Hamas and Israel’s withdrawal from the strip. Israel currently controls more than half of Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to travel to Washington this month to discuss those next steps with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Last year, Israel launched a major operation in Rafah, where many Palestinians had sought refuge from offensives elsewhere. Heavy fighting left much of the city in ruins and displaced nearly one million Palestinians. This year, when the military largely had control of the city, it systematically demolished most of the buildings that remained standing, according to satellite photos.

Troops also took control of and shut the vital Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only gateway to the outside world that was not controlled by Israel.

Israel said Rafah was Hamas’ last major stronghold and key to dismantling the group’s military capabilities, a major war aim.

On the drive around Rafah on Monday, towers of mangled concrete, wires and twisted metal lined the roads, with few buildings still standing and none unscathed. Remnants of people's lives were scattered the ground: a foam mattress, towels and a book explaining the Quran.

Last week, Israel said it was ready to reopen the Rafah crossing but only for people to leave the strip. Egypt and many Palestinians fear that once people leave, they won't be allowed to return. They say Israel is obligated to open the crossing in both directions.

Israel has said that entry into Gaza would not be permitted until Israel receives all hostages remaining in the strip.

The tunnel that journalists were escorted through runs beneath what was once a densely populated residential neighborhood, under a United Nations compound and mosques. Today, Rafah is a ghost town. Underground, journalists picked their way around dangling cables and uneven concrete slabs covered in sand.

The army says the tunnel is more than 7 kilometers (4 miles) long and up to 25 meters (82 feet) deep and was used for storing weapons as well as long-term stays. It said top Hamas commanders were there during the war, including Mohammed Sinwar — who was believed to have run Hamas’ armed wing and was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who helped mastermind the Oct. 7 attack. Israel has said it has killed both of them.

“What we see right here is a perfect example of what Hamas did with all the money and the equipment that was brought into Gaza throughout the years," said Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani. "Hamas took it and built an incredible city underground for the purposes of terror and holding bodies of hostages.”

Israel has long accused Hamas of siphoning off money for military purposes. While Hamas says the Palestinians are an occupied people and have a right to resist, the group also has a civilian arm and ran a government that provided services such as health care, a police force and education.

The army hasn’t decided what to do with the tunnel. It could seal it with concrete, explode it or hold it for intelligence purposes among other options.

Since the ceasefire began, three soldiers have been killed in clashes with about 200 Hamas militants that Israeli and Egyptian officials say remain underground in Israeli-held territory.

Hamas has said communication with its remaining units in Rafah has been cut off for months and that it was not responsible for any incidents occurring in those areas.

Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of repeated violations of the deal during the first phase. Israel has accused Hamas of dragging out the hostage returns, while Palestinian health officials say over 370 Palestinians have been killed in continued Israeli strikes since the ceasefire took effect.

Editor's Note: This article was submitted for review by Israel’s military censor, which made no changes.

Israeli soldiers gather next to the entrance of a tunnel where the army says the body of soldier Hadar Goldin was held in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. Hamas returned his remains to Israel as part of the current ceasefire. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

An Israeli soldier enters a tunnel where the army says the body of soldier Hadar Goldin was held in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. Hamas returned his remains to Israel as part of the current ceasefire. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

Israeli soldiers stand at the entrance of a tunnel where the army says the body of soldier Hadar Goldin was held in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. Hamas returned his remains to Israel as part of the current ceasefire. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

Mattresses and a plastic chair lie on the floor inside a tunnel in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

Israeli soldiers stand at the entrance of a tunnel where the army says the body of soldier Hadar Goldin was held in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. Hamas returned his remains to Israel as part of the current ceasefire. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Aid deliveries into Gaza are falling far short of the amount called for under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, according to an Associated Press analysis of the Israeli military’s figures, as humanitarian groups say the shortfall is severely impacting the strip's 2 million people.

Under the October ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Israel agreed to allow 600 trucks of aid into Gaza a day.

However, Israel’s own figures suggest that an average of only 459 trucks a day have entered the Gaza Strip between Oct. 12, when the flow of the aid restarted, and Sunday, according to an AP analysis. The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT — the Israeli defense body responsible for Palestinian affairs — provided the figures.

COGAT said that roughly 18,000 trucks of food aid had entered Gaza from when the ceasefire took effect until Sunday, amounting to 70% of all aid that had entered the territory since the truce.

This means that COGAT estimates that, including the rest of the aid — items that are not food, such as tents and medicines — a total of just over 25,700 trucks have entered Gaza. That is well under the 33,600 trucks that should have gone in by Sunday, under the terms of the ceasefire.

In response to the AP analysis, COGAT insisted on Wednesday that the number of trucks entering Gaza each day was above the 600 mark but refused to elaborate why the figures don't match or provide raw data on truck entry.

COGAT used to give daily figures of trucks entering Gaza during the war but stopped doing so when the ceasefire began. Rights groups say that is because it controls the crossings and has sole access to track how much aid and commercial goods are entering Gaza.

The United Nations and aid groups have often said the amount of aid entering Gaza is far lower than COGAT claims.

The U.N. says only 6,545 trucks have been offloaded at Gaza crossings between the ceasefire and Dec. 7, amounting to about 113 trucks a day. That's according to its online database. The U.N. figures do not include aid trucks sent by organizations not working through the U.N. network.

A Hamas document on Saturday provided to the AP put the total aid trucks that have entered since the truce at 7,333.

This week, the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs, known as OCHA, stressed a “dire” need for more aid for Gaza, saying Israeli restrictions on aid have bottlenecked recovery efforts.

Humanitarian groups say the lack of aid has had harsh effects on many of Gaza's residents, most of whom were forcibly displaced by war. Food remains scarce as the Palestinian territory struggles to bounce back from famine, which hit parts of Gaza during the war.

Starving mothers in Gaza are giving birth to malnourished babies, some of whom have died in hospital, according to a recent report by UNICEF. As winter rains pick up, displaced families living in tents have been left exposed to the elements and without supplies to cope with floods and the biting cold.

“Needs far outpace the humanitarian community’s ability to respond, given persistent impediments,” a UNICEF report said on Monday. “These obstacles include insecurity, customs clearance challenges, delays and denials of cargo at the crossings, and limited routes available for transporting humanitarian supplies within Gaza.”

Israel temporarily stopped all aid entry at least once in response to alleged Hamas violations of the truce. Israel said that Hamas has failed to return the bodies of the hostages in the time period established by the ceasefire, while Hamas has said it struggled to find the bodies due to the destruction left by Israel in the Palestinian territory.

Hamas has also accused Israel of violating the ceasefire terms because of the slow flow of aid, continued closure of the Rafah crossing and ongoing deadly strikes on Gaza.

Since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire began on Oct. 10, the price for a 12-kilogram (26.5 pound) cylinder of cooking gas has shot up to 1,314 shekels ($406), about 18 times what it was before the war.

That has left many residents relying on firewood for both cooking and to stay warm as temperatures plunge ahead of winter, including the 23-member Abed family in the northern city of Jabaliya.

“We are living under the rubble and sleeping on torn sheets. We collect some firewood, and cut sponges to start a fire,” Marwan Abed, 62, told the AP from under the crumbling concrete of his house. He said firewood is the only way “to keep the children warm” and to prepare coffee.

Israel is demanding Palestinian militants return the remains of the final hostage, Ran Gvili, from Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Wednesday that Gvili’s return was a condition of moving to the second phase of the ceasefire.

“Once phase one is completed, phase two will begin,” it said.

Hamas militants and Red Cross crews continued to comb the ruins of Gaza City for the final body this week. The militant group Islamic Jihad claimed it had handed over the last hostage’s body in its possession.

On Tuesday, Hamas called for more international pressure on Israel to open key border crossings, cease deadly strikes on the territory and allow more aid into the strip.

Regional leaders have said time is critical for the ceasefire agreement as mediators seek to push the truce into its second, more complicated phase.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would name members to a panel tasked with governing Gaza and overseeing reconstruction under a 2-year, renewable U.N. mandate, “early next year.” Trump had previously said that he would name members to the so-called “Board of Peace,” a key element of the ceasefire deal, by the end of 2025. He did not detail why the timeline for naming board members has shifted.

“It is going to be one of the most legendary boards ever, everybody wants to be on it,” Trump said. He added that kings, prime ministers and presidents have asked to be included on the board.

The director of the Shifa hospital in Gaza, Mohamed Abu Selmiya, said doctors received on Wednesday the body of a 17-year-old Palestinian teenager who had been run over and crushed to death by an Israeli tank in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Asked about the incident, Israel’s military said it had killed a militant on Wednesday who had crossed the so-called Yellow Line — which divides the Israeli-held part of Gaza from the rest — in northern Gaza.

It said it could not provide any more details on the incident.

Associated Press writers Megan Janetsky in Jerusalem, Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

A thunderstorm is seen over a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Zawaida, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinian children walk through a tent camp after stormy weather in Gaza City Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A young girl looks on as she holds a sandwich at a tent camp for displaced Palestinians on the beach in Gaza City Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israeli soldiers gather next to the entrance of a tunnel where the army says the body of soldier Hadar Goldin was held in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. Hamas returned his remains to Israel as part of the current ceasefire. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

FILE - Hamas militants accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) head to Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City to search for the remains of the final hostage, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

Displaced Palestinians repair their tents at a tent camp on the beach after a stormy weather in Gaza City, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)