In Gaza, Israel’s military offensive centred on the Al Shifa hospital, the only partially working medical facility in the north of the Strip, for a fourth day, and local residents said they had seen buildings in flames inside the complex, Reuters reports.

Israel claimed its troops had killed more than 50 Hamas fighters over the previous day, taking the number of fighters killed around the hospital to 140.

It said it had located terrorist infrastructure and weapons in and around the facility, showing images of AK-47 automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and other artillery.

Military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari claimed “many Hamas terrorists — operatives and senior ones” had been hiding in the hospital along with Islamic Jihad fighters. “When we entered the hospital, we were finding terrorists fighting against us here in this area,” he said.

Hamas has denied that the hospital harboured fighters and said those killed were wounded patients and displaced persons.

Video footage released by Hamas showed its fighters outside the Al Shifa compound, carrying weapons and firing on Israeli tanks in streets reduced to rubble. The position of the buildings and outline matched satellite imagery checked by Reuters.