In this case, there were cages for 12 hostages, nine of which are still held by Hamas, and three of which were returned to Israel during the November 23-30 hostage exchange deal.

For both discoveries, the cages were only found after delving deep into a very extended tunnel with a variety of defenses until arriving at an unusually large space with many Hamas terror management functions, including the cages for the hostages.

IDF intelligence estimates that Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar and other top Hamas leaders used these hostages as human shields to protect them from IDF attacks.