On Sunday, Israel released video showing what it characterized as a tunnel created by Palestinian militants beneath the Gaza Strip’s main hospital, which is the target of its search-and-destroy missions against Hamas in the war’s seventh week.

While admitting to having hundreds of kilometers of underground tunnels, bunkers, and access shafts across the Palestinian enclave, Hamas has denied that these are located in civilian facilities such as hospitals.

In an update on operations in Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital, the Israeli military said its engineers had uncovered a tunnel 10 metres deep and running 55 metres to a blast-proof door.

“This type of door is used by the Hamas terrorist organisation to block Israeli forces from entering the command centres and the underground assets belonging to Hamas,” said a military statement accompanied by video showing a narrow passage with arched concrete roofing, ending at a grey door.

The statement did not say what was beyond the door. The tunnel had been accessed through a shaft discovered in a shed within the Shifa compound that contained munitions, it said.