Unprecedented Challenge
Inside the Concrete Maze: Commanders Detail Fight in Hamas's Most Complex Tunnel Network | WATCH
The IDF unveiled the ten-kilometer, heavily fortified tunnel system beneath the Shabora neighborhood in Rafah, known as "White Dror," where the body of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin was held since 2014, revealing a major Hamas command core.
Southern Command officers disclosed today that the tunnel system, identified beneath the Shabora neighborhood of Rafah, was located just five kilometers from the site where Goldin was abducted and where Givati Brigade Commander Benaya Sarel and soldier Liel Gidoni also fell.
The White Dror Network
Military sources reveal that the recovered tunnel, which held Goldin’s remains until their return, stretches for approximately ten kilometers with numerous internal branches and side tunnels. It was built with thick concrete walls to prevent collapse and withstand Israeli Air Force attacks. The tunnel also included heavy blast doors, designed to protect the command centers inside.
Initial basic intelligence suggested the body was in the Shabora neighborhood, but the precise location of the tunnel, which proved to be critical, was only discovered after months of intensive searching. The underground facility served as the core of the Rafah Brigade's command structure, containing communication rooms and approximately 80 living quarters, some used by senior Hamas commanders, including the recently eliminated Rafah Brigade Commander Muhammad Shabana.
Unprecedented Engineering Challenge
The operation to find Goldin’s location required a massive, unprecedented national effort, involving nearly every brigade in the IDF. Lieutenant Colonel H., Commander of the Subterranean and Engineering Reconnaissance Unit, explained the scope: "This is an operation in ten kilometers of complex, branched subterranean terrain to search for a buried soldier. There is no such thing in any other country."
Combat engineers from the Yahalom Unit and Shayetet 13, working under the 162nd Division, described the exceptionally difficult conditions. The tunnel is located 25 meters deep and features complex turns, secret doors, and chambers hidden behind concrete paneling and sand blockades.
Captain M., a company commander in Yahalom, recounted the grueling work environment: "The work was complicated, very complex. You had to come here with the ideology and effort to bring Hadar home. The fighters performed the mission every day, despite the difficulty. It's hard to breathe here, the place is low, there's no reception. There were quite a few risks." He added, "This was not done in laboratory conditions. We went down dozens of meters, and for a year and a half, day and night, we searched for Hadar, while there was fighting all around, oxygen problems inside the tunnel, collapses inside it, terrorists activating charges inside the tunnel."
The forces operating in Rafah were closing in on the precise tunnel location in the months leading up to the final discovery. The mission to bring back Goldin was the first objective assigned to the naval and engineering special forces in May 2024, with work on the exact tunnel segment beginning in June 2024, until Hamas eventually handed over the body.
The discovery of the "White Dror" tunnel exposed the full depth of Hamas's planning and investment in fortifying terror infrastructure and hiding captives within a long, concretized subterranean system, specifically around Goldin’s body, which was considered a key negotiating chip and a national Israeli symbol. The commanders expressed immense satisfaction upon Goldin's return for burial in Israel.