Image source, Getty Images

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has also touched on Israel's bombing of Lebanon.

He says the US has raised concerns with the Israeli government over the nature of the campaign in Beirut in recent weeks, largely due to the civilian toll.

Miller adds that there are strikes the US would consider appropriate for Israel to carry out and that Washington would continue to watch the situation very carefully.

More now from US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller who says he didn't think it was appropriate to "send a letter and just say this has to happen overnight".

Miller says they felt they should give Israel an "appropriate" period of time to implement the changes requested.

He adds there is a US legal requirement for the administration to ensure recipients of US military assistance do not arbitrarily deny or impede the provisioning of US humanitarian insistence.

Earlier, we reported the US has written to Israel's government giving it 30 days to urgently boost humanitarian aid access in Gaza or face having some US military assistance cut off.

Now, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says the letter was intended to be a private diplomatic communication and they did not intend to make it public. Now that it has been released, he says he's happy to confirm it.

He says the current levels of aid making it into Gaza are "very low" and the US has previously secured increases after raising concerns.

Miller adds that Washington hopes Israel will make the changes recommended and that the result will be "a dramatic increase in humanitarian assistance".

Image source, Getty Images

In Jabalia, an area which has seen heavy fighting as Israeli troops are conducting a new ground operation, a local says "people are trapped".

Nidal al-Arabeed tells the AFP news agency that "more than 10" of his family members have been killed by Israeli air strikes on the city.

“If they don't die of shelling, they will soon die of thirst and hunger because the siege is getting tighter,” he says.

Israel has issued evacuation warnings to residents in Jabalia and nearby areas, after saying Hamas was trying “to rebuild its operational capabilities” in the region.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned that the operation would involve “systematic strikes and the radical destruction of terrorist structures”.

Earlier this month, the Israeli military said it was launching a new ground operation in northern Gaza involving "systematic strikes and the radical destruction" of what they call "terrorist structures", targeting Hamas.

The operation was launched in Jabalia, as well as two neighbouring northern towns, nine days ago as Israel says it was targeting regrouping Hamas fighters who aim to launch attacks. Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed since.

The UN said on Sunday that more than 50,000 Palestinians had fled the area, but around 400,000 remain there.

Food aid was delivered into northern Gaza on Monday for the first time in two weeks, and the offensive has caused bakeries, medical points and shelters to close too.

Image source, Reuters

Amnesty International says in a statement that Israel needs to "immediately allow the unhindered entry of essential supplies, including food and fuel to Gaza".

Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa’s regional director Heba Morayef says people have been forced to "choose between starvation or displacement, while their homes and streets are relentlessly pounded by bombs and shells".

Morayef adds the organisation received reports of refugees in the Jabalia camp "scared to leave their homes, even to look for a bag of flour for fear of being shot".

The Israeli body overseeing crossings into Gaza, COGAT, said on Monday 30 lorries carrying flour and food had been allowed in. UN workers say they hope another 30 will be let in today but warned Jabalia remains unreachable because of the ongoing Israeli airstrike campaign on the area.

As we've just reported, the US has written to Israel's government giving it 30 days to urgently boost humanitarian aid access in Gaza or face having some US military assistance cut off.

Hezbollah said it has targeted Israeli bulldozers and a tank near a south Lebanon border village.

Hezbollah fighters targeted "three bulldozers and a Merkava tank on the outskirts of Ramia with guided missiles", causing a fire and casualties, the Iran-backed group posted on Telegram.

Israel is yet to comment.

Image source, EPA

As we've been reporting, the Biden administration says Israel needs to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza in the next 30 days or risk a cut in some US military aid.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been telling us about the state of aid distribution on the ground in Gaza.

Not enough aid is getting in, the agency's Matthew Hollingworth tells the BBC.

"We have not had the access and space to do our work," he says.

"Nothing is going in to north of Gaza. We just had a breakthrough of 12 truckloads go in – but it's not enough. We need deliveries every single day," he says.

Tom Bateman
BBC State Department correspondent, Washington DC

The US has written to Israel’s government giving it 30 days to urgently boost humanitarian aid access in Gaza or face having some US military assistance cut off.

The letter amounts to the strongest known written warning from the Biden administration to its ally, coming as Israel’s attack on northern Gaza has seen mass forced displacements of civilians to the south.

The letter - sent two days ago - was signed by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. It says the US has “deep concern” about “the deteriorating humanitarian situation”.

It adds that Israel last month denied or impeded nearly 90% of humanitarian movements between north and south Gaza.

It states that evacuation orders have forced 1.7 million people into a narrow coastal strip where they are at “high risk of lethal contagion”.

The letter demands “urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory”.

It says Israel “must, starting now and within 30 days” act on a series of concrete measures to boost aid supplies, adding that failure may “have implications for US policy”.

It cites US laws which can prohibit military assistance to countries that impede delivery of American humanitarian aid.

It calls on Israel to end the “isolation of northern Gaza” by reaffirming that there will be no “no Israeli government policy of forced evacuation of civilians” from north to south.

The contents of the letter, reported by the journalist Barak Ravid, have been verified by the BBC.

Image source, REX/Shutterstock

The Lebanese health ministry says 2,350 people have been killed since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalated last month. They add that 41 people died in air raids on Monday.

While Israel and Hezbollah had maintained an uneasy truce following the end of a full-blown war in 2006 the Lebanon-based group began launching rocket attacks on northern Israel last October in support of Gaza group Hamas.

After months of Hezbollah attacks, on 1 October the Israeli military launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese health ministry adds 10,906 people have been injured since Israel escalated its cross-border operations.

Image source, AFP

We reported earlier that the UN Human Rights Office is calling for an independent enquiry into the airstrike on the Christian-majority village of Aitou in northern Lebanon which killed 24 people, including 12 women and children on Monday.

The AFP news agency has been talking to residents in the village of Aitou who blame Hezbollah for turning them into a target.

One woman, Adele Khoury, said: "Who do I blame? Who will I blame except Hezbollah? Who dragged us to war except them? They dragged us into this war and it is never ending."

The village has been hosting several families who had recently moved from southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Another resident of the village, Sarkis Alwa, said he didn't want the community to take in any more displaced people from the south.

A former Israeli military intelligence chief has told the BBC that he expects Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites in one of its "rounds" of attacks against Iran.

"Not only do I expect that, but I expect the international community to support us," Yossi Kuperwasser tells the BBC.

"Look how dangerous Iran is without nuclear weapons," says Kuperwasser, a former director general of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Israel Defense Forces intelligence head.

It comes as reports suggest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has assured US President Joe Biden that Israel will only target Iranian military infrastructure in response to the missile attacks earlier this month.

"I believe this is true," Kuperwasser tells the BBC, "because everybody has to understand this is not going to be a one-time attack by Israel."

Given Israel will be launching multiple rounds of attacks against Iran, "we have to make sure the Americans know we are attentive to their concerns about wide-scale regional war".

"The nuclear sites will have to be dealt with in the next round, if it's not going to be dealt with this round," Kuperwasser says.

Jonathan Head
Reporting from Beirut

This speech was aimed mainly at a Lebanese population weary of a war which has brought their country to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Promising ultimate victory against Israel, Hezbollah’s deputy leader pleaded for patience, warning that Israel would, he said, reshape Lebanon and the wider Middle East if it defeated Hezbollah.

Sheikh Nassem also said Lebanon and Palestine could not be separated – there has been speculation that Hezbollah might break its solidarity with Hamas and seek a ceasefire after losing much of its leadership to Israeli air strikes.

Those air strikes have been increasing, with two hundred reported on Monday across Lebanon.

The UN children’s agency Unicef says 400,000 children have now been displaced by the conflict, most in the past three weeks, and more than a million have lost their access to education as towns and villages have been evacuated and schools used to house families who’ve left their homes.

Image source, Reuters

Back to Lebanon, Hezbollah's deputy secretary general Sheikh Naim Qassem warns Israelis that the only solution to the current war is a ceasefire.

He says that since Israel targeted Lebanon, Hezbollah "have the right from a defensive position to target any place".

He adds that Israelis in northern Israel will be under constant threat if Israel keeps attacking Lebanon and Gaza, and says "the solution is a ceasefire... the resistance [Hezbollah] will not be defeated because this is its land".

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

This is not the first time the UK has imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers.

The previous Conservative government announced sanctions in February and May on settlers responsible for violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

This latest round is focused on organisations: three so-called settler outposts, unofficial settlements that are often illegal even under Israeli law; and four organisations which have supported violence in the West Bank.

These sanctions have nothing to do with the discussion today about whether the UK should sanction two hard right Israeli ministers.

Any sanctions have to meet tough legal standards and take many months to work up.

Officials made clear the juxtaposition of the stories was a coincidence.

We now have more on the police officer who was killed in a shooting in Israel earlier today.

The Israeli police say the officer was killed on Route 4, a main road in Israel, when the gunman, who they called a "terrorist", fired at a police car, then continued shooting at other passing cars, injuring four more people.

An Israeli government spokesperson says there have been "almost daily attacks" relating to "terror" in the recent weeks, adding: "We know that this terrorist incitement seeks to kill Israelis, within Israel - make no mistake. Our security forces are on extremely high alert."

Earlier this month, an Israeli policewoman was also killed in a shooting in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.

"This incessant incitement comes from Hamas and Iran," the spokesperson says, "they will not succeed."

The UK government has announced sanctions on three illegal settler outposts and four organisations that it says have "supported and sponsored violence against communities" in the West Bank.

The government says the measures follow an unprecedented rise in settler violence in the West Bank over the past year.

Strict financial restrictions will be placed on those who commit these acts, the government adds.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy says “the Israeli government must crack down on settler violence and stop the legalisation of settler outposts".

Lammy says he visited the West Bank earlier this year and saw an "environment of impunity".

This is the third time the UK has announced sanctions targeting settler violence in the West Bank.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

An advance team of US military personnel, along with Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery components, have arrived in Israel, the Pentagon says.

More US personnel are expected to arrive in the coming days to operate the system to protect Israel from missile attack.

US President Joe Biden has said it is meant "to defend Israel", which is still expected to retaliate against an Iranian strike involving more than 180 ballistic missiles fired at Israel on 1 October.

Pentagon press secretary Maj Gen Pat Ryder says the deployment of the Thaad battery to Israel "underscores the United States’ commitment to the defence of Israel and to defend Americans in Israel from any ballistic missile attacks by Iran".

Ryder adds the battery will be fully operational "in the near future".

Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining us, here's the latest:

"Desperate situation" in Gaza: The UN has delivered food aid to northern Gaza for the first time in two weeks, calling the situation there "desperate". Fighting between Israel and Hamas continues in the area, and there have been many civilian casualties in recent days, according to the UN.

Cameron considered sanctions on Israeli ministers: Former Foreign Secretary David Cameron says he had been planning to sanction two Israeli ministers, describing them "extremist". He also urged the current Labour government to consider doing so. The UK Foreign Office declined to comment.

Peacekeepers to stay in Lebanon: The UN said its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon will hold their positions, despite repeated demands from Israel that they move.

Israel to continue striking Hezbollah: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said late on Monday that Israel would continue strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon “without mercy”, including targeting Beirut.

Policeman killed in Israel shooting: A policeman has been killed and four people wounded in a shooting in Israel, Israeli police says. The identity or motive of the gunman is not yet clear.

Image source, Getty Images

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati says he has been given “some kind of a guarantee” by the US that Israeli attacks on Beirut and its southern suburbs would be reduced.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Mikati also says his government wants a ceasefire and the implementation of Resolution 1701 - the agreement which ended the last war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

Earlier unconfirmed reports said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had suspended attacks on Beirut at the urging of the US government, but Netanyahu said late on Monday that Israel would continue strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon “without mercy”.