Netanyahu's spokesman: Hamas brought its tunnels under Gaza to perfection Caliber.Az interview with Ariel Bulstein

Caliber.Az had an interview with Ariel Bulstein, an official from the Israeli Prime Minister's office, in which he spoke about Hamas' vast network of tunnels.

"Initially, immediately after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, most of the hostages were taken to underground tunnels and hospitals in Gaza," he said.

"The first thing is the underground tunnels. You must have heard in recent months about this underground city of unbelievable proportions, the likes of which have never been seen in the history of mankind. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups in Gaza have managed to create, strengthen and almost perfect it over the past decade and a half. These tunnels are longer than the Moscow metro, the largest in Europe. It is something unbelievable, it is something more than 500 kilometres of underground fortifications. These are full-fledged underground communications that a car can drive through. They have all they need to stay there for years, not months. They took our hostages to these tunnels, a significant number of them immediately after October 7.

Two days ago, one of our military units discovered one of these tunnels under the city of Khan Younis in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Between 20 and 30 hostages' DNA was found in the tunnel. There were also drawings made by one of the young hostages, a five-year-old girl, during her 50-day captivity. She was then released in the first phase of the deal to free our hostages. She has identified her own drawings now that our army has opened this tunnel.

The second type of prison, where our hostages were taken on October 7 and where a large number of them were held during the first weeks and even the first months of the hostilities, are hospitals. The fact is that the terrorists initially, even before the attack on Israel, used hospitals in Gaza as command centres. They realised that Israel would not attack hospitals. Shifa Central Hospital served as a colossal arsenal for Hamas. And there were hostages there as well. Several hostages were killed by terrorists inside the hospitals. This is another bloody link in the Hamas attacks of October 7 and after," Bulstein said.

He also added that if there were to be a Palestinian state, it would have exactly the same goals as those openly declared by all the Palestinian movements.

"They are aiming to destroy Israel. They don't have the goal of creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel. They have had such an opportunity. Israeli governments have offered it to them, more than once. Time and again they have rejected it. For example, the Oslo Accords and what happened after Oslo. They said we don't accept the existence of Israel, even within symbolic borders.

And unfortunately, the Palestinians are still openly saying that today. This is the official position not only of Hamas and Islamic Jihad but also of other Palestinian movements. So there is no possibility of agreeing to it. It would be suicide for Israel. Incidentally, there is no shortage of Arab states in the world. There are over 20 Arab states in the world. Most of the population of Jordan, for example, are the same Palestinians. Their aim is the destruction of Israel. They don't even try to hide it. And even Fatah (Palestinian National Liberation Movement), just look at their emblem. It has a map of the Middle East with no Israel on it," Bulstein said.