As Israel tightens the noose around the southern Hamas stronghold of Khan Yunis, the IDF soldiers uncovered a tunnel where several hostages were kept under appalling conditions.

The Israeli soldiers, who captured the tunnel defended by Hamas terrorists, found five prison cells in its underground central chamber. The 20-meter-deep tunnel had been booby-trapped and the hostages were moved out ahead of the Israeli advance.

“The tunnel was located in the heart of a civilian area in Khan Yunis, and its entrance was from the house of a Hamas terrorist,” the Jerusalem Post reported Sunday morning. “The tunnel had security doors and explosives designed to protect the terrorists.”

The military “located prison cells with toilets and a mattress, and they were closed with bars, where 20 hostages were held at different times in harsh conditions without daylight in dense air with little oxygen and terrible humidity that makes it difficult to breathe,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari revealed.