Residents of south Gaza city say Israeli strikes heaviest since start of war

Earlier today, Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israeli forces have expanded their offensive and are operating in areas they have not fought in before.

Speaking during a visit to the Hamas border, Gallant said Israel's aim is "for the complete elimination of Hamas".

The main road between Khan Younis and Rafah has been heavily damaged during Israel's bombardment of the southern Gaza Strip.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been ordered by Israeli forces to evacuate their homes and head for Rafah on the Egyptian border ahead of imminent strikes.

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Earlier we heard from US Vice-President Kamala Harris saying the US would not permit the forced relocation of Palestinians - she was speaking during her meeting with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi on the fringes of the COP28 climate summit.

A few hours later, she spoke to reporters in Dubai, saying that Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas, but she said “international and humanitarian law must be respected”.

Harris said Israel must do more to protect civilians and that too many Palestinians had been killed. "So we all want this conflict to end as soon as possible, and to ensure Israel's security and ensure security for the Palestinian people. We must accelerate efforts to build an enduring peace."

Two days into the resumption of military operations in Gaza, it’s becoming clearer how Israel says it intends to avoid civilian casualties - which are once again rising rapidly.

Israel is no longer calling on Palestinians to move to al-Mawasi, a thin strip of territory along the Mediterranean coast which officials for weeks described as the only “safe zone.”

“Unfortunately, we’ve not seen huge amounts of people going there,” Major Peter Lerner told me this afternoon, “so we are adjusting our operational assessment of the situation on the ground.”

During his visit to Israel on Thursday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged Israel to take steps to protect civilians, including “clearly and precisely designating areas….where they can be safe.”

But the new concept is probably best described as clearly designated un-safe areas, with Israel’s new grid map of the Gaza Strip showing areas where Israel intends to carry out military operations on any given day.

Mark Regev, a senior advisor to Israel’s prime minister, said Israel’s messaging – including leaflets, phone calls and online messages – would mean that Gazans would always know where to go to be safe.

“News travels fast,” he told journalists. “The minute one person hears it, it goes to another family and then another family.”

But with airstrikes still happening up and down the Gaza Strip, Gazans feel that no-where is genuinely safe.

Maj Peter Lerner said Israel would continue to hit other “high quality targets”.

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During the seven-day ceasefire, Hamas agreed to release 110 people from Gaza - all of whom had been taken prisoner during its 7 October attacks on Israel. It was part of a deal in which 240 Palestinians were also released from Israeli jails.

Seventy-eight of the hostages released by Hamas were Israeli women and children, while three Russian-Israelis, two women and one man not included in the deal, were also handed over.

Some 23 Thai hostages and one Filipino were also freed as part of a separate deal between Hamas and the Thai government.

You can read more about those released by Hamas here.

BBC correspondent Rushdi Abu Alouf has spoken to sources in Qatar about the talks between Israel and Hamas.

A Palestinian official familiar with the ceasefire efforts has told the BBC the negotiations are completely stalled and there are currently no contacts or attempts to reach a humanitarian truce.

According to our correspondent, the official said the Hamas delegation withdrew after presenting what they claimed were all the necessary proposals to reach an agreement, including the potential handing over of more civilian hostages and the bodies of two children killed in an Israeli air strike.

"They accuse the Israeli delegation of rejecting all the proposals 'because Israel had already decided to resume the war'," our correspondent adds.

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A senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will "facilitate humanitarian support" getting into Gaza as the fighting resumes.

Speaking at a press conference, Mark Regev says Israel will "do everything we can to keep Gazan civilians outside of the crossfire" between the IDF (the Israeli military) and Hamas.

He also urges humanitarian organisations to be on the ground in "designated safer areas where we expect civilians to congregate" until the fighting is over.

Some 50 lorries carrying aid entered Gaza earlier today - the first since the ceasefire deal collapsed on Friday - but aid agencies have warned it is not enough.

Around 200 lorries a day had been getting in for the week of the truce. Previously humanitarian organisations have warned more than 100 are needed daily to support the more than two million people who live in Gaza.

As we've been reporting, southern Gaza has seen Israeli strikes following the collapse of the week-long ceasefire.

Here, dozens of Palestinians are seen outside their homes in Hamad Town, a Qatari-funded development near the city of Khan Younis, after it was bombed by Israeli forces. Multiple sources indicate the residents were warned before the development was struck.

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The next phase of the Israeli offensive will focus on southern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering after fleeing the north.

Overnight, residents say, Khan Younis experienced the heaviest bombardment since the start of the war. That is where Israeli officials believe members of the Hamas leadership are hiding.

People in eastern areas of the city have already been ordered by the Israeli military to move to Rafah, further south.

A ground offensive could be imminent. Despite the resumption of the fighting, US officials said they were still hopeful a deal was possible to pause the hostilities and secure the release of more hostages kidnapped on 7 October that remain in Gaza.

But Israel announced it was pulling out its negotiators from Qatar, following the "impasse in the negotiations".

The initial phase of the truce between Israel and Hamas involved women and children and saw three Palestinians being released from Israeli jails for every Israeli returned.

Now, most of the around 140 captives are men and military personnel, and Hamas is said to be against their release under the same terms.

Today, trucks with aid have been allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt again, after a day in which no supplies were delivered to the territory.

But aid agencies say the humanitarian situation remains desperate. People are struggling to survive amid shortages of basic supplies, including food and water, and crowded hospitals are operating with limited resources.

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Speaking at the COP28 climate change summit, French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will travel to Qatar in order to seek a new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

"This situation demands a redoubling of efforts in order to arrive at a durable ceasefire and to secure the release of all the hostages held by Hamas.

"It is also needed to bring to the people of Gaza the aid that they urgently need."

Macron said Israel's objective of a total destruction of Hamas "needs to be clarified" because it could lead to "ten years of war".

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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it fears the civilian population faces increased suffering following the resumption of fighting and has urged all parties "to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties and harm”.

“Current conditions do not allow for a meaningful humanitarian response, and I fear it will spell disaster for the civilian population,” said Pascal Hundt, in charge of ICRC operations in Gaza.

Hundt said: "The rules of international humanitarian law are clear and must be applied by all parties to the armed conflict.

“Everything possible must be done to avoid or minimize damage to civilian homes and infrastructure such as medical facilities, water and electricity plants."

He added that “hostages must be released.”

Two members of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) have been killed in Israeli strikes in Syria, according to Iranian state media.

Announcing their deaths, the IRGC says Mohammed Ali Ataei Shoorcheh and Panah Taghizadeh were killed while carrying out an "advisory mission" in Syria.

Iranian forces have helped support the government of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad for many years.

Tehran is also a major backer of Hamas and powerful militia Hezbollah, who have also exchanged fire with Israel across the Lebanese border many times since 7 October.

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On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his starkest public statement yet about how Israel should fight the war.

It is worth quoting at length, because it is a checklist of what the US expects from its closest ally.

Mr Blinken said it meant "taking more effective steps to protect the lives of civilians, including by clearly and precisely designating areas and places in southern and central Gaza where they can be safe and out of the line of fire".

"It means avoiding further significant displacement of civilians inside of Gaza. It means avoiding damage to life-critical infrastructure, like hospitals, like power stations, like water facilities.

"And it means giving civilians who've been displaced to southern Gaza the choice to return to the north as soon as conditions permit. There must be no enduring internal displacement."

At the beginning of the war Joe Biden, the US president, visited Israel. While trying to wrap Israel in a warm and powerful embrace, he also warned his allies not to be blinded by rage as they sought justice, as America had been after the al-Qaeda attacks of 11 September, 2001.

Mr Blinken's remarks suggest Joe Biden believes that Mr Netanyahu, with whom he has had a difficult relationship, did not listen.

Read his full article here.

Israel has carried out air strikes near Syria's capital Damascus, the Syrian defence ministry says.

AFP news agency quotes local sources as saying that two Syrian pro-Hezbollah fighters were killed in the overnight raids. Hezbollah militants - like Hamas - are backed by Iran.

Israel has renewed attacks on Iran-linked targets in Syria since the start of the Gaza conflict. There have also been exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah forces across the Lebanese border.

There is no word from the Israeli army on the latest strikes.

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The United Nation's relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says no aid has reached Gaza since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended on Friday morning.

Juliette Touma, the spokeswoman for the UNRWA, tells the BBC: “What we are fearful of is that we go back to where we were in the first weeks where there was an absolute ban, an hermetic siege, on the Gaza Strip - with consequences that continue to be felt even today."

She says there are efforts to renew the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and calls for a ceasefire.

“We are at the doorstep of a humanitarian man-made tsunami in the Gaza Strip,” Touma adds.