The Israeli army will use all means to bring back hostages still held in Gaza, its spokesman told a group of foreign journalists in the conflict-scarred city of Rafah, AFP reports.

“We need to do everything, everything we can, in all means, to bring them back home,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told the journalists embedded with the Israeli army. “This is one of the goals of the war, and we will achieve it.”

Rear Admiral Hagari was speaking in front of a shaft in the Tel al-Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah that connects to a tunnel where Israel alleges Hamas shot dead six hostages late last month.

Rafah, in the far south of Gaza, has been hit hard by the fighting, and AFPTV footage on Friday showed streets lined with bombed-out shells of buildings, many partially collapsed with rubble spilling into the streets.

Hagari said the destruction was intended to wipe out the network of tunnels under the city. “You have a maze of tunnels here, a maze of tunnels here in Rafah, underneath the houses. This is why the destruction,” he said. “In order to defeat (Hamas) we need to take control of this underground system.”