The Israeli army has shown off exposed tunnel shafts in the Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah that were uncovered by Israeli troops in southern Gaza.

The tour for international journalists included a stop at an entrance to an underground chamber where the Israeli military says the bodies of six Israeli hostages, killed by Hamas, were recovered on September 1. The military did not allow reporters into the tunnel, citing security reasons.

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters that a "maze of tunnels" exists, while standing next to a shaft located in what appears to once have been a child's bedroom in a destroyed house.

The military said the six hostages were killed on the night of August 29 and their bodies were recovered by troops around two days later.

The Tel al-Sultan tunnel is part of what the military has said is a large network uncovered by troops operating around Rafah, near the border with Egypt. Troops have uncovered around 13 kilometers of underground tunnel routes over the past few months, the army said this week.

Israeli soldiers move next to destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip. – AP

Apart from rare, military-escorted visits, foreign reporters have not been allowed to enter Gaza since Israel invaded the enclave after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 that killed some 1,200 people by Israeli tallies, and saw more than 250 taken as hostages.

The escorted tour was a rare glimpse of Gaza's southern city of Rafah and the Philadelphi corridor, the narrow strip that borders Egypt and which Israeli troops seized in May. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel must keep control of it under any ceasefire deal, a demand rejected by Hamas — and Egypt.

The corridor itself is a bleak place.

A fresh asphalt road ran along the border fence, replacing what had been a shattered route. It passed large swaths of dirt dug up by Israeli bulldozers and a few isolated piles of flattened buildings. In the distance stretched the demolished skyline of Rafah. On the other side of the border the deserts of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula were visible.

An Israeli soldier stands at the entrance of a tunnel where the military says six Israeli hostages were recently killed by Hamas militants. – AP

Netanyahu said a number of tunnels found in the corridor going under the border were used by Hamas to smuggle in weapons. Egypt said it sealed off all the tunnels on its side years ago.

Rafah's nearby district of Tel el-Sultan was a landscape of destruction, months into Israel's offensive in the city. Giant piles of wreckage that had once been homes of Palestinian residents lined the roads. A few shattered concrete skeletons of apartment buildings still stood.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said troops were still fighting Hamas militants operating from tunnels underneath the district.

"We are gathering all the DNA and the forensics to find and hunt those terrorists who committed this horrific crime," Hagari said.

Israeli forces moved into Rafah in May, forcing some 1.4 million Palestinians to flee — including residents of Rafah and hundreds of thousands of people who had taken refuge in the area from other parts of Gaza. They are now dispersed around southern and central Gaza.

The journalists on Friday's escorted tour were unable to visit other parts of the city. Israel has barred international journalists from entering Gaza independently since the Hamas attack on October 7 that sparked the war, though it has previously taken reporters on a small number of escorted visits to other parts of Gaza.