Jonathan Beale
Defence correspondent

British Defence Secretary John Healey says the UK is still waiting for confirmation from Israel that the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed.

But he says if it is correct: "I for one, will not mourn the death of a terror leader like Sinwar - someone who was responsible for the terror attack on October 7th."

Healey says he and the government are conscious that it "triggered not just the darkest, deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Second World War, but that it’s triggered more than a year of conflict and an intolerable level of civilian Palestinian casualties”.

As we reported earlier, at least 22 people have reportedly been killed and dozens injured after an Israeli air strike on a building in Jabalia.

Israel says the site, a school building, was being used as a Hamas command centre, which Hamas has denied.

We're now hearing from a doctor at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia where staff are treating many of the wounded.

"We received a lot of patients," says Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, many of which are children and women.

In a recorded message, he tells the BBC that the hospital is small so its emergency department can't take all the patients.

He says hospital staff are working "under stress, under fear, and under sound of the explosions everywhere", and they are in short supply of medicine, medical supplies and equipment as well as staff.

According to BBC sources familiar with the matter, there is currently a growing assessment that Yahya Sinwar is dead, but final confirmation is still needed.

Sinwar is Israel's top target in Gazapublished at 15:29 British Summer Time

15:29 BST

Wyre Davies
reporting from Jerusalem

Yahya Sinwar is Israel’s number one target in Gaza and was accused of having been responsible for organising and directing the 7 October attacks last year, when thousands of armed men broke through the Gaza fence, killing 1200 people and abducting more than 250 hostages back to Gaza.

Graphic images posted online show a figure resembling Sinwar lying in the rubble of a building in the aftermath of intense military activity with clearly fatal injuries.

It’s thought that tests - both physical and biometric - will be carried by the Israelis out to ascertain if it is indeed Yahya Sinwar.

If he has been killed, it would be a significant military success for Israel. Sinwar, 61, was released from an Israeli jail in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap and became a hard-line and hugely influential figure in Hamas who favoured armed confrontation with Israel over diplomatic initiatives.

It was assumed that Sinwar had been spending much of the war located in tunnels under Gaza, surrounded by a human shield of Israeli hostages, especially after he became Hamas’s overall leader following the assassination of Ismael Hanieyh.

But according to reports from the IDF, no hostages were found near the location – which may be significant.

His death would not bring about an immediate end to Israel’s war in Gaza but with continued Israeli military operations against Hamas across the Palestinian territory, in which hundreds of civilians have also been killed, it might bring the end of the war a little closer.

In a social media post in the last hour, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has quoted the Torah to say Israel's enemies cannot hide.

Gallant shares a passage from Leviticus 26 which says: "You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword."

"Our enemies cannot hide. We will pursue and eliminate them," Gallant adds.

Members of Israel's security cabinet have been informed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is very likely dead, two officials with knowledge of the matter have told Reuters.

Anonymous officials have also reportedly told Israel's Channel 12 that Sinwar has been "eliminated".

We're getting more detail now on Israeli efforts to confirm whether it has killed Yahya Sinwar.

An Israeli security official also says DNA testing is underway to confirm whether the person killed was the Hamas leader, AFP reports.

Israel will have the Sinwar's DNA and other biometric data on file from his time in prison there.

Israeli army radio reports the incident occurred during a targeted ground operating in the southern Gazan city of Rafah during which Israeli troops killed three militants, according to Reuters.

The military broadcast also says visual evidence suggests Sinwar was one of those killed, and that DNA tests are being conducted.

The second round of a UN polio vaccination campaign in Gaza is underway, with the first phase completed yesterday in central Gaza.

In a statement earlier, Unicef says 181,429 children were vaccinated with the second dose of the polio vaccine in 14 areas of central Gaza, and vitamin A was distributed to all eligible children alongside it.

Eight health facilities in central Gaza will continue providing polio vaccination and vitamin A doses until 22 October, while the second phase of the programme is due to take place later this month in the south, according to the UN agency.

Unicef says the programme was carried out "amid devastated infrastructure", including the destruction of 75% of critical cold storage facilities used to keep the vaccines at the right temperature.

They add that "attacks killing and injuring children and their families" impacted the vaccination sites.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Yahya Sinwar was named the overall chief of Hamas in August after the killing of his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

He previously served as the group's leader inside the Gaza strip, a position he took on in 2017.

Sinwar currently tops Israel’s most-wanted list. The country's security agencies believe he masterminded the planning and execution of the unprecedented 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel, which killed over 1,200 people and 251 taken back into Gaza as hostages.

He was born in Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza in 1962.

In the late 1980s, Sinwar founded the Hamas security service known as Majd, which among other things targeted alleged Palestinian collaborators with Israel.

He has spent much of his life in Israeli jail - and after his third arrest in 1988 he was sentenced to four life terms in prison.

Sinwar was among 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli Arab prisoners released by Israel in the 2011 exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive for over five years in Gaza by Hamas.

If you're just joining us, or are in need of a recap, here's the latest from the Middle East conflict:

In Gaza:

• The Israeli military says it's checking possibility that the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed- without making clear when or where this took place
• This comes after the IDF conducted what it called a “precise strike” on a compound in Jabaliain the north, with reports of at least 22 killed and dozens wounded
• The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “too many people” will diein the one-month timeframe the US has given Israel to improve aid access

In Lebanon:

• The Israeli military issued several evacuation warnings to people inside or near buildings in southern and eastern Lebanon today
• Strikes were reported in the village of Tamnin al-Fawqa, in the southern Bekaa region, as well as a village near the coastal city of Tyre
• The Israeli military also said it “struck and eliminated” a Hezbollah battalion commander, Hussein Muhammad Awada, in the south

Away from Gaza, a UN peacekeeping ship brought down a drone off the coast of Lebanon this morning.

Unifil spokesperson Andrea Tenenti confirms it is the first incident of its kind during the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

He says a drone of "unknown origin" approached a Unifil ship off the southern Lebanese coast.

Tenenti adds the ship used "electronic countermeasures" which caused the drone to fall and explode on its own and Unifil are "looking into the matter".

Tensions between the UN force and the Israeli military have grown in recent days, with UNIFIL accusing Israel of deliberately attacking its infrastructure and injuring peacekeepers as part of its ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

Israel says it is fighting Hezbollah in positions that have been established near Unifil bases and denied deliberate strikes, as well as calling for the UN troops to withdraw from the south - which Unifil has rejected.

Image source, Reuters

The Israeli military says it's checking the possibility that the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed in Gaza.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces says the identity of "three dead terrorists" had yet to be confirmed.

"In the building where the terrorists were eliminated, there were no signs of the presence of hostages in the area," the IDF adds.

We'll bring you more on this as we have it.

Before the school strike that killed nearly two dozen people was reported, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza released an update saying 29 people had been killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours - with 93 others injured.

It also says at least 42,438 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli military action in Gaza since the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, with 99,246 wounded.

Hamas has issued a statement condemning the Israeli strike on a school building in Jabalia, northern Gaza.

The group rejects Israel's claim that the school was a Hamas command centre as "mere lies".

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

At least 22 people are reported to have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli air strike on a school building in northern Gaza, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence Agency.

The Israeli military says the site in Jabalia was being used as an operational meeting point for Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives.

Footage from the school-turned-shelter in Jabalia shows blood on the floor and fires among the tents - with a local official saying there’s no water to put out the blaze.

Israel’s military began a ground offensive in the area two weeks ago, saying it was rooting out regrouping Hamas fighters. It’s released names of a dozen of those it says were at the scene when it attacked in what it described as a “precise” strike.

UN officials say there are tens of thousands of Palestinians who are stuck in Jabalia in increasingly desperate conditions; with food running out.

In the last hour, the Israeli military says it has conducted a "precise strike" on a compound in Jabalia, northern Gaza, that it says was previously the Abu Hassan School.

Multiple sources, including the UN, are reporting that there have been multiple casualties in the strike.

The IDF says "dozens of terrorists" were in the compound at the time, and that they were operating a command and control centre used "to plan and execute terrorist attacks" against Israel.

We'll bring you more as soon as we get it.

Returning to events unfolding in Lebanon, the Israeli military has reportedly struck a village near the coastal city of Tyre in the south of the country.

This comes after the Israeli military warned residents in and near a building in al-Hawsh, just south of Tyre, to evacuate.

The IDF has issued a total of seven evacuation warnings to people inside or near buildings in southern and eastern Lebanon today so far, saying it is targeting Hezbollah facilities in these areas.

Image source, Reuters

On Sunday

The US sent a letter to the Israeli government giving it 30 days to boost humanitarian access to Gaza, or risk having some military assistance cut off.

It accused Israel of halting commercial imports to Gaza, denying or impeding nearly 90% of humanitarian movements between the north and south in September, placing excessive restrictions on dual-use goods, and bringing in new customs requirements for humanitarian staff.

Israel insists that aid lorries are getting through and says shortages are being caused by Hamas hijacking supplies and selling it on for inflated prices.

On Monday

The first aid in two weeks entered Gaza. The UN confirmed that almost 30 lorry loads entered the north on Monday and another 12 lorry loads the following day.

But the UN's acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya described it as a "trickle" and said that “all essential supplies for survival are running out” in the territory.

On Wednesday

The US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council the US was watching to ensure Israel’s actions in Gaza do not amount to a “policy of starvation”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously dismissed accusations that Israel was starving Gazans as “an absurdity”.

The Israeli military says it has “struck and eliminated” a Hezbollah battalion commander, Hussein Muhammad Awada, in southern Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces also say they have “eliminated more than 45 terrorists".

Operations are continuing in Gaza, they say, with troops on the ground throughout the region.

Image source, Reuters

The EU's foreign policy chief has appeared to criticise the one-month timeframe the US has given Israel to improve aid access in Gaza, saying "too many people" will die in the region in that time.

As we've been reporting, the US sent a letter on Sunday telling Israel it had 30 days to boost aid access in Gaza, or it would risk losing some US military assistance.

Speaking to reporters earlier ahead of an EU leaders' summit in Brussels, Josep Borrell said: "The US has been saying to Israel that they have to improve humanitarian support to Gaza, but they gave one month delay."

"One month delay at the current pace of people being killed. It's too many people," he added.