Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem

For the past two days we’ve been bringing you live coverage from Gaza and hearing from people across the territory about the impact of Israeli military action, the 10-week blockade and continued displacement.

A large-scale Israeli ground, air and sea attack killed dozens of people in the north of the Gaza Strip overnight, according to residents and the Hamas-run civil defence agency. The Israeli military said it was striking “terror targets”.

People we’ve been speaking to across Gaza have been telling us of their ongoing struggles to find food and fuel amid the blockade, their exhaustion at being repeatedly displaced, and their fears for the future.

“With each displacement life becomes more tragic than before,” one man said.

US President Donald Trump finished his Middle East trip today, and Israel is looking to intensify its operations, having pledged to indefinitely reoccupy Gaza if a temporary ceasefire wasn’t reached by the time he left.

At this stage, there is no sign of a breakthrough in the negotiations in Doha.

We are closing this live page for today. For more stories on the war in Gaza:

• Latest updates: Nearly 100 people killed in Israeli attack on north Gaza, rescuers say
• On the international stage: US 'troubled' by humanitarian situation in Gaza, Rubio tells BBC
• From BBC Verify: Israeli 'bunker buster' bombs used in Gaza hospital strike, experts say
• Watch: UK surgeon shares footage from Gaza hospital after deadly Israeli strike

Image source, Getty Images

Due to Israeli restrictions on media entering Gaza, the BBC is unable to report from inside the territory.

But, through the day, our reporters have been gathering testimony from contacts inside Gaza on how they are surviving under Israel's blockade. Here's a selection of what we've heard:

• This morning, a survivor of Israel's largest ground assault since March told our Gaza correspondent how they had escaped "only minutes before Israeli tanks encircled the area"
• Another man told us how intense bombing in northern Gaza "came from all sides" shortly before he fled Beit Lahia
• Gazans tell us they're tired of the endless displacement from their homes. “This was the seventh time of being evacuated. Maybe even more. I’ve lost count," graphic designed Adham al-Batrawi says
• For some, there are now questions about where they go - one mother left without "mattresses, blankets, food or water"
• And, with Israel's aid blockage in its ninth week, we've been hearing how Gazans have become creative to survive - even turning pasta into bread

Caroline Hawley
Diplomatic correspondent

I’ve just come off the phone to the distraught mother of 12-year old Rama who, along with another girl, is the first child from Gaza to be allowed into the UK for medical treatment.

Rama needs bowel surgery and was brought to London by Project Pure Hope to be treated with privately donated funds. Her older brother and sisters remain in Gaza.

Rana, her mum, could barely speak between sobs as she told us that Rama’s older brother, Amir, narrowly escaped death on Wednesday night when a tented area of Khan Younis was hit by an Israeli strike. Several of her husband’s relatives were killed.

The sky went dark and Amir was left picking up body parts, she says. He tells her over the phone: "I’m dead myself after what I saw. I won’t recover from this in a 100 years."

When we met Rana at the beginning of the month, she told us that her heart was split in two - one part rejoicing that her daughter Rama is now in the UK, one part terrified for her relatives back home.

Now Rana is so anxious for her son and other daughters she can’t sleep or eat – or enjoy the rare and precious gift she knows she’s been given: medical treatment and decent food for Rama in a safe, secure place.

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem

Image source, Family handout

As we have been reporting, there are still 58 hostages in Gaza, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

I’ve been speaking to Moshe Emilio Lavi, whose brother-in-law Omri Miran was kidnapped by Hamas gunmen on 7 October 2023 from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz.

Moshe says Hamas has released two videos of Omri - one in April 2024 and the other last month.

“In both, he was clearly under duress, looked unwell, and was forced to say things he wouldn’t have said otherwise. But he was alive then, and we have no reason to believe otherwise now,” Moshe says.

He says life since Omri was taken hostage has been “unbearable”.

“Every day, we live in uncertainty - anger, fear, exhaustion - and also camaraderie with other hostage families, and a sense of purpose and mission,” he says.

“We’ve fought, spoken out, travelled, advocated - just to keep Omri’s name alive, to stop the world from forgetting, and to push for a viable hostage deal. “

Moshe says his brother-in-law is “not made for war or cruelty”.

“He’s made for life. For peace. And he’s being held by terrorists who stand for the exact opposite,” he says.

Read more about Omri in this piece by my colleague Paul Adams

How we've been verifying footage of the latest attacks on Gazapublished at 17:28 British Summer Time 16 May

17:28 BST 16 May

By Richard Irvine-Brown

This is the third day in a row our work at BBC Verify has followed a similar pattern following overnight strikes in Gaza:

Night-time footage emerges online, often too dark to clearly identify landmarks which makes verification difficult. However, we are frequently able to trace these videos back to journalists we have previously verified in Gaza.

Those journalists often follow up with videos and images inside hospitals, showing chaotic scenes. Each night we've seen children bloodied - crying or lifeless, bodies wrapped in blankets and medical shrouds, and walking wounded.

On Wednesday, the footage came from the Indonesian Hospital near the Jabalia refugee camp. On Thursday, it was Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.

There are very few hospitals left in operation in Gaza. So we work using previously verified footage to help confirm the new imagery by matching details like signage, wall panelling and the distinctive patterns of floor tiles.

Daylight pictures eventually surface from the sites of the strikes, which then show the rubble and the dead.

Image source, Instagram/Telegram

Caroline Hawley
Diplomatic correspondent

We’ve been hearing how difficult and dangerous life is for everyone in Gaza, but imagine how frightening it is for someone who is seriously sick.

Twenty-year-old Abdel Rahman was diagnosed with kidney failure when he was nine months old, and had a transplant from his brother when he was 13.

Before the war, he had monthly hospital appointments in Israel and the medication he needed. But all that stopped after 7 October 2023.

He is now so ill he recently told his mother, Najwa: “Mum, I’m dying. I’m falling apart. I’d rather die today than keep suffering tomorrow.”

She says he shakes, throws up and is constantly exhausted. She’s desperate for him to be allowed out of Gaza for treatment abroad.

“I went from doctor to doctor every time we had to move,” Najwa tells us. "All they had to give him was cortisol, not the treatment he needs."

And with hospitals being hit by Israeli airstrikes, she says she’s now too scared to even attempt to see a doctor.

"All I want is for my children to live and become something," she tells us by phone. "Now I wish they could go back in my womb. Life here is a living hell."

Lucy Williamson
Middle East correspondent, reporting from Jerusalem

Dr Mohammed Salha told me he was woken in the early hours of this morning, with the news that his nieces and nephews had been killed in the Israeli assault on northern Gaza.

The hospital where he has worked since the first days of the war, al-Awda hospital in Jabalia, now lies in the urban wasteland of northern Gaza. It’s hard to find the scars of this latest assault on towns like Jabalia and Beit Lahiya, already largely in ruins.

He told me that two nieces and a nephew were killed in the attacks overnight, and that two of their bodies were unreachable under the rubble. They were 8 and 10 years old.

When I asked him how he was, he pointed to his throat. “It’s as if I have something stuck here,” he said. “Because I can’t cry. It’s not easy for me to cry in front of people.”

• Yesterday, Dr Salha told us that some departments at his hospital had been shut down due to the scarcity of fuel and medical supplies.

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem

Image source, Supplied

I’ve been speaking over WhatsApp to nurse Randa Saied, who was working at the European Hospital in southern Gaza when it was hit in Israeli strikes this week.

“Suddenly, missiles and shells rained down all around us. We didn’t know if we would ever make it back to our homes alive,” she recalled over message.

“The hospital was filled with screams, overwhelming fear and panic - both among the patients and the medical staff. It was a moment of pure terror and helplessness.”

She said “relentless attacks” had rendered the hospital “completely non-operational.”

As we reported on Thursday, the Hamas-run health ministry announced that the hospital is now out of service.

The Israeli military said its strikes targeted "Hamas terrorists in a command-and-control centre" which it claimed was beneath the facility.

Hamas has denied using hospitals in this way.

Image source, EPA

Earlier, we reported that the Hamas-run civil defence agency in Gaza says that nearly 100 people were killed in the north in Israeli attacks overnight. We're continuing to bring you testimony from those who survived.

One man, Mahmoud Bashir Ali, describes how he and his family were "shocked" this morning by the "sudden arrival" of Israeli tanks and bulldozers at the school where he was taking shelter in northern Gaza.

"The Israeli forces ordered us to evacuate the school," he tells BBC Arabic. "As a result, several people were injured, and others were killed."

Another eyewitness, named as M, describes how "under intense shelling, we were forced to flee".

"This war has taken everything from us," M says. "We can only hope that the world - and the Arab countries - will finally see us, feel our pain, and take action.”

Gaza conflict could enter new phase after Trump leaves Middle Eastpublished at 16:35 British Summer Time 16 May

16:35 BST 16 May

Wyre Davies
Reporting from Jerusalem

Image source, EPA

As Donald Trump’s circus leaves the Middle East after a whirlwind tour that generated several multi-billion-dollar business deals, but which failed to provide the impetus for a new ceasefire deal in Gaza, we perhaps already know what Israel will do next.

Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly warned that the war will be escalated and there is “no way” it will end until Hamas is defeated. So if the security cabinet gives the final go-ahead for Operation “Gideon’s Chariots”, the conflict will enter a new, intensified phase.

The IDF says it will include a large-scale offensive and the displacement of most of Gaza’s residents to a relatively small area in the south of the territory.

For Gaza’s starving, beleaguered and war-weary population of 2.1 million, that means more airstrikes and the prospect of thousands of Israeli soldiers - regular army and reservists - on the ground.

Even though a growing number of Israelis now favour a ceasefire agreement, the return of the remaining hostages and an end to the war, their prime minister says his goal is the total defeat of Hamas.

Although it’s anticipated that badly needed aid would be provided at various IDF relocation centres, after 20 months of war and an 11-week-long Israeli blockade, the population’s food and medical needs will be overwhelming, say aid agencies.

Thereafter, for how long Israeli troops will occupy Gaza and what Netanyahu intends to do with the local population – other than to encourage thousands of them to leave to neighbouring Arab countries – isn’t yet clear.

Smoke seen from hospital where injured people takenpublished at 16:17 British Summer Time 16 May

16:17 BST 16 May

By Richard Irvine-Brown

BBC Verify has confirmed at least one video which shows the arrival of injured people, including one child and one woman, at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, where there have been reports of overnight strikes.

The graphic footage shows a lifeless young girl being lifted off an emergency vehicle and rushed inside the hospital's main entrance. Another person is carried on a stretcher and a woman is helped by two men off the truck.

The hospital is a three-storey octagonal building with high, pointed windows which made it quick to identify.

Hours later, around dawn, two other videos were filmed near the hospital showing thick smoke rising a few hundred metres to the east. We have not yet verified the exact location of where the smoke is coming from.

Image source, Instagram

Image source, EPA

A World Health Organization representative says that over the next four to five months, "half a million people will be in a catastrophic situation" if the Israeli blockade of aid continues.

Speaking to the BBC, Rik Peepercorn says the WHO stocked up well when a short ceasefire was agreed in mid-January, but supplies are now "seriously dwindling".

“We are struggling to provide supplies,” he explains, emphasising: "All the supplies are just across the border."

“And that is probably the most agonising part - that thousands of these trucks are waiting to get in to Gaza."

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem

As we've mentioned, media access to Gaza is restricted by Israel, so the BBC can only share stories from people in Gaza through phone calls, messages, and the help of Palestinian journalists working with us on the ground.

Yesterday, one of our cameramen met six-year-old Ismail Abu Odeh trying to push through a crowd to get food at a distribution point in Gaza City.

Ismail’s mum told us he came back crying and empty-handed after his bowl of food fell on his head as he was leaving the crowd.

His uncle gave him some lentils last night, but there wasn’t enough for his older siblings or parents, who didn’t eat yesterday.

Today, Ismail joined the crowds again, hoping for food and water, waiting with bowls and plastic bottles.

But no deliveries have arrived at the displacement camp today, leaving Ismail in tears.

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem

I’ve been speaking on WhatsApp to 31-year-old Adham al-Batrawi, who’s in a displacement camp in central Gaza.

He says the lack of food is “one of the most difficult parts of our daily life right now”.

“There are no aid distributions at all. And when canned food from aid shipments does reach the market, it’s sold at incredibly high prices - prices that most families simply cannot afford, especially with no income.”

Adham says people have had to “get creative just to survive”.

“We’ve invented ways to cook and eat that we never imagined we’d need,” he writes.

Like others in Gaza, Adham says it’s now impossible to find bread – a staple food. He tells me people have found a way to turn pasta into bread.

He says he’s managing one meal a day. “It is usually something very basic - just enough to get us through the day, but it’s far from enough to meet our energy needs.”

Rushdi Abualouf
BBC News Gaza correspondent

The latest Israeli offensive on northern Gaza, particularly the town of Beit Lahia, is expected to worsen an already dire humanitarian situation.

Known as Gaza’s "vegetable and fruit basket", the northern region has played a critical role in alleviating food shortages during the ongoing war.

Although much of the area’s farmland was destroyed earlier in the conflict, many local farmers had recently begun to reclaim and cultivate small plots during the last ceasefire. They planted crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and molokhia, a modest but vital source of nourishment for displaced families.

"Most of us here in the north are farmers," says Salah Abu Hussein, a resident of Beit Lahia.

"Since returning in January, we’ve worked hard to restore parts of our land. We didn’t produce much, but the few tomatoes, cucumbers and onions we grew helped feed our children and we sold the surplus to people in Gaza City."

Residents fear that the renewed military assault will once again destroy this fragile source of food security.

Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent

Israeli aircraft dropped warning leaflets early on Friday over several areas in northern Gaza, including Beit Lahia, Jabalia refugee camp, Sheikh Zayed housing project, and Tel Al-Zaatar neighbourhood.

The leaflets urged all residents to leave immediately, raising fears that the military operation could expand in one of Gaza’s most crowded areas.

This comes as Israeli forces stepped up their ground and air assault on Beit Lahia, with reports of heavy shelling overnight.

The evacuation orders have caused panic among families who have already been displaced several times since the war began, many of whom have nowhere else to go.

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem

I've just received a voice note from nurse Rewaa Mohsen, who told me yesterday about the struggles of finding food and raising her young daughters in a war zone.

Since we last spoke, Rewaa says her neighbourhood in central Gaza has been evacuated and a building near hers was bombed by Israeli forces.

"Now my house is partially destroyed - no windows, no doors. Just the walls. Everything is on the street," she says. "Thank God that I am still alive with my girls."

Rewaa has two young daughters, one of whom was born just days before the war started.

She left the voice note after returning to her flat to "clean the mess".

"Let's hope to be safe during the days that are coming," she says.

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, Reuters

With reports of hunger becoming harder to ignore, the need for some kind of humanitarian breakthrough is increasingly acute.

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, issued earlier this week, warned that almost a quarter of the civilian population would face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase Five) in the coming months.

Israel continues to insist that there is sufficient food available, but recent reports suggest that concerns have been raised within the Israeli military that widespread starvation is likely unless aid starts to flow soon.

The team behind the recently established Gaza Humanitarian Foundation yesterday urged Israel to "identify and deconflict" areas in northern Gaza suitable for aid distribution and to do so within 30 days.

GHF, which says it will start distributing aid by the end of the month, has been heavily criticised by the UN and other aid agencies for its willingness to work alongside Israel.

"It makes aid conditional on political and military aims," the UN's Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

Unless the row over aid provision is resolved soon, there is a very real possibility that for the first time since the Gaza war began, famine will finally take hold.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

“It was a black night. They were relentlessly bombing us. There were all types of warplanes,” one mother, Sana Marouf said to a trusted freelancer working for the BBC in Gaza City, after fleeing with her family on a donkey cart from northern Gaza.

She said she had seen people “torn to pieces” and that she was fearful of what would happen next.

“I swear I don’t know where we’re going. We don’t have mattresses, blankets, food or water.”

Nael Marouf, also from Beit Lahia in the north of Gaza, but speaking from Jabalia said: “At the end we are innocent civilians. We appeal to the whole world to stop the war. We want to tell the Israelis ‘we want to live with you in peace.’”

“We’re exhausted from displacement. We’re exhausted from war. You’re making us into orphans and the situation is getting worse. Please give us food and water,” he adds.

Image source, Reuters

A man from Khan Younis in southern Gaza tells us that his pregnant sister was killed in her home, as we continue to hear from people impacted by the latest Israeli attacks - which the Hamas-run civil defence agency says have killed almost 100 people.

The unnamed man tells BBC Arabic that Israel "bombed the house while my sister and her husband were inside,” adding that his sister was “five months pregnant".

"There seems to be no solution to our crisis," he says. "We're all just waiting for our turn to die."

And, after Israel confirmed that its military operation continues in Gaza, the man stresses that "there is no safe place in the Gaza strip".