How much of the Hamas tunnel network has been destroyed?published at 14:20 British Summer Time 7 April

14:20 BST 7 April

Image source, Reuters

As we've been reporting, the Israeli military says it is regrouping its troops and rotating them out of southern Gaza as it prepares for "another stage in the war".

With that in mind, let's consider how far Israel's got to with achieving one of its stated war aims: to destroy the tunnel network beneath Gaza used by Hamas to move goods and people.

In order to try to assess this, BBC Verify has reviewed all the Israel Defense Forces' comments on the messaging app Telegram referencing tunnels in Gaza, between 7 October 2023 and 26 March 2024.

Of these, 198 mentioned the discovery of tunnels, where the army said it had located tunnels or tunnel shafts. Another 141 messages claim that a tunnel has been destroyed or dismantled.

Most of those did not give precise details or specific locations, so it is not possible to corroborate the extent of the network the IDF has uncovered or destroyed.

Of the messages analysed, 36 referenced striking a total of more than 400 tunnel shafts. However, equating a shaft with an entire tunnel would be misleading, says Dr Daphné Richemond-Barak, an expert on underground warfare who teaches at Reichman University in Israel.

The simple destruction of tunnel shafts leaves the network intact, she says.

"I don't think we've seen a lot of full destruction of tunnels in this war," she adds. The IDF told the BBC that their forces had "destroyed a great deal of the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza".

Hamas has previously claimed the tunnels stretch for 500km (311 miles).

Image source, EPA

Today marks exactly six months since the deadly 7 October Hamas attacks against Israel, in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 250 others were taken hostage.

The attacks led to an Israeli military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

If you are just joining us, here are the latest updates on the conflict as the grim half-year milestone is reached.

• The Israel Defense Forces says the number of its forces in southern Gaza has "declined" as it regroups for the war's next stage
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is "one step away from victory" but insists there will be no ceasefire without the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas
• The World Food Programme has repeated its warning that famine is imminent in northern Gaza, and says children are dying of hunger
• Israel has launched air strikes on the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek, targeting what it says are Hezbollah infrastructure sites
• Tens of thousands of Israelis have been protesting against Netanyahu, calling for a Gaza hostage deal and for elections now
• Families have gathered at the memorial site for victims killed during the Nova music festival in the 7 October Hamas attacks, near the border with Gaza, in southern Israel
• In a statement marking the anniversary, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he supports Israel’s right to defend itself but adds the UK has been “shocked” by the bloodshed of the war and the deaths of British aid workers

The United Nations estimates that almost two million people - most of the population of Gaza - have had to flee due to the conflict.

As the war began last October, Israel ordered civilians to evacuate, issuing evacuation warnings to the population. BBC analysis has found significant errors in the warnings issued by Israel and experts say these mistakes could violate Israel’s international law obligations.

Civilians living north of the Wadi Gaza riverbed, including Gaza City, were warned to evacuate in October. Many headed south after the Erez border crossing into Israel in the north was closed, but Israeli forces have recently been focusing on southern cities.

The main urban areas, Khan Younis and Rafah, have been bombed, and Israeli troops have clashed with Hamas fighters on the ground.

Civilians, including thousands who fled fighting in the north, have been told to moved to a so-called “safe area” at al-Mawasi, a thin strip of land along the Mediterranean coast, close to the Egyptian border.

The UN says more than half of Gaza’s population is crammed into Rafah - previously a town of 250,000 people - where living conditions are “abysmal”.

• Read more here

Image source, .

Plestia Alaqad, who is a journalist from Gaza, has been sharing video diaries of the war for months and has expressed her fears about the trauma being faced by children caught up in the conflict.

"I just think what future these children will have," the 22-year-old has tells BBC from Melbourne, Australia.

"We have uncried tears," she says of the Palestinians. "For me, I am so afraid of the aftermath," Plestia adds.

"I am actually terrified of what will happen when there is a ceasefire. What will happen to the 1.7 million displaced Palestinians? What about the health system or the education system?"

Image source, AFP

Before the Israeli military said it was regrouping its troops and rotating out of southern Gaza today, it said it had recovered the body of hostage Elad Katzir in an overnight raid on the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis on Saturday.

The military said Katzir was killed by Islamic Jihad, and his remains were located using "precise" intelligence.

Katzir, 47, was taken from kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October along with his mother Hanna, 77. His father Avraham was killed during the attack, the army said.

Hanna was released in November during a one-week truce. The recovery of Katzir’s body comes three months after he pleaded for his release in a video issued by his captors.

Katzir’s body was brought back to Israel, the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Securities Authority said.

• Read more here

Image source, Reuters

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is "one step away from victory" but insists there will be no ceasefire without the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Marking six months since the war broke out, Netanyahu tells a cabinet meeting: "We are one step away from victory. But the price we paid is painful and heart-breaking."

It comes as a new round of truce talks are due to begin in Egypt later today.

Netanyahu says that despite growing international pressure, Israel will not give in to "extreme" demands from Hamas.

Obstacles to peace larger than ever six months into warpublished at 12:56 British Summer Time 7 April

12:56 BST 7 April

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor

Six months after the Hamas attacks on Israel, war, disease, starvation and death ravage Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel is deeply divided, as its prime minister struggles to keep his promise of total victory. The United States, Israel's most essential ally, has turned against the way it is fighting the war.

With Iran vowing vengeance for Israel's assassination of a leading Iranian general in Syria, and months of cross-border conflict with Iran's ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, the risks of an all-out Middle East war are increasing.

Kibbutz Nir Oz is right on Israel's border with Gaza. It feels like a time capsule still stuck in the horrors of 7 October 2023. Just after first light on that morning, Hamas broke through the wire. By the time the Israeli army arrived in the early afternoon, a quarter of the 400 or so Israelis who lived there had either been killed by Hamas or taken hostage.

One grim irony is that Nir Oz is part of a left-wing movement whose members traditionally support the idea of peace with the Palestinians. Six months after Hamas crossed into Nir Oz, Ron is not ready to make any concessions to Gaza.

• Read Jeremy Bowen's fully analysis piece here

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tells the BBC that the military is regrouping and conducting preparations for its next stage in the war.

Lt Col Peter Lerner says: "This is another stage in the war effort."

It comes after reports this morning that the IDF has withdrawn all of its ground troops on active manoeuvres from southern Gaza.

Lerner says the IDF's military campaign is "continuously evolving".

"The war is not over. War can only be over when they [hostages] come home and when Hamas is gone."

He says the military completed its mission in the Khan Younis area and its troops will rotate out.

"It is a decline in the forces but there are more operations that need to be conducted. Rafah is clearly a stronghold. We need to dismantle Hamas' capabilities wherever they are."

Image source, EPA

The US, the European Union and other Western countries have all condemned the Hamas attack on Israel.

The US, Israel's closest ally, has over the years given the Jewish state more than $260bn in military and economic aid, and has promised additional equipment.

The US has however criticised Israel over the scale of the Palestinian death toll and sharp differences have emerged between the two allies over the war.

Russia and China have both refused to condemn Hamas, and say they are maintaining contact with both sides in the conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed US policy for the absence of peace in the Middle East.

Iran, Israel's arch-enemy, is a key supporter of Hamas, as well as Hezbollah, whose militants have been exchanging fire with Israeli forces almost daily since Hamas's attack.

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent, in Re'im, southern Israel

A crowd of smiling, laughing, faces stare from fields in southern Israel.

They’re photographs of the killed and kidnapped in a memorial to that fateful day when Hamas gunmen turned their celebration at the Nova Music Festival into bloodshed.

More than 370 festival goers were shot, beaten, or burnt to death; more than 40 were dragged across the Gaza boundary nearby.

Today, candles are being lit in the sea of Israeli flags and flowers, teddy bears, and other mementos to young lives brutally cut short. Families who lost loved ones gathered for a press conference and prayer as buses kept pulling up, bringing students, soldiers, mourners.

“Before October 7th, I could imagine peace,” reflected Shimon Buskila, whose 25-year old son Jordan perished that day.

Anger still seethes over Israel’s shocking security failure, mixed with raw grief. “October 7th is a tragedy that could - and should - have been avoided.”

Israel says it has pulled all ground troops from southern Gazapublished at 11:59 British Summer Time 7 April

11:59 BST 7 April

Sebastian Usher
Middle East analyst, in Jerusalem

The Israeli military says it has withdrawn all ground troops on active manoeuvres from southern Gaza.

An Israeli army spokesman says that only one brigade is remaining for now, after a major operation in the southern city of Khan Younis was completed.

That battle saw widespread destruction, with Palestinians displaced on a major scale, while large numbers of civilians were also killed in the fighting.

A possible Israeli incursion into the southernmost town of Rafah has been looming for weeks.

More than a million Palestinians have taken refuge there. It is unclear for now if this move by the Israeli military gives any fresh indication of what might happen there.

Image source, Reuters

Dr Khaled Saleh is the president and chief medical officer at the charity FAJR which aims to advance orthopaedic medical care in underserved countries.

Speaking to the BBC from the European Hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza, he says the situation across the Strip is desperate.

"About 80% of the hospitals - if not more - and in general the infrastructure to support medical care, have been decimated," he says.

"And as a consequence of that we're seeing a number of significant casualties, significant delayed care, lack of supplies have been an issue, and combined with the current famine, decreased supplies available to replenish their immune systems are causing chronic and medical issues."

This morning, Nato's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was questioned by the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg on a range of issues, including the Israel-Gaza war.

Stoltenberg recently condemned the strikes which killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers in Gaza, and Laura asked him if he felt Israel had gone too far.

In reply, the Nato chief said it was "very important [that] Nato allies, including the US, convey a very clear message to Israel that they have to do more, significantly more, to protect civilians and to protect aid workers”.

He also welcomed efforts by the US, UK and others to facilitate an agreement on a ceasefire.

The United Nations estimates, external that around 35% of buildings in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed in the conflict with Israel.

By analysing satellite imagery collected on 29 February and comparing with previous images of structures in the area, the United Nations Satellite Centre identified more than 31,000 destroyed buildings and almost 17,000 severely damaged buildings, with a further 40,762 moderately damaged structures.

This represents an increase of nearly 20,000 damaged buildings since the analysis was last done in January. Other estimates have suggested the scale of destruction is even higher.

Analysis carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University in January suggests between 144,000 and 175,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed.

That's between 50% and 61% of Gaza's buildings.

Image source, .

Sense of urgency and despair over fate of hostagespublished at 11:22 British Summer Time 7 April

11:22 BST 7 April

Sebastian Usher
Middle East analyst, in Jerusalem

Image source, Reuters

The mood in Israel is sombre as is to be expected six months after the 7 October attack lodged a deep new trauma within the country. But there's also urgency mixed with despair over the fate of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.

This morning's front page in the leading Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, conveys this, with a stark headline, reading 'There is not another day' surrounded by the faces of the hostages.

On Saturday night, Tel Aviv was once again the heart of protests demanding that the government do everything in its power to ensure that they are brought home safely.

Those pleas have increasingly coalesced with demands for elections in an effort to remove the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power.

But the deep divisions within Israel that were on open display before 7 October - through months of demonstrations against government plans to curb judicial power - were also in evidence at the protest, as at one point a car rammed into protesters.

We're getting reports that the Israeli military has withdrawn most of its troops from southern Gaza.

According to the reports, which cite the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), only one brigade remains in the south of the Strip.

While the reports aren't yet confirmed, we're working to get more information and we'll bring you updates as soon as we have them.

The Hamas-run health ministry says 33,175 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel's military offensive began.

In an update, it says a further 75,886 people have been injured in the enclave during that time.

Israel has said it has killed thousands of Hamas fighters and destroyed much of the vast network of tunnels beneath Gaza, which Hamas has used to carry out attacks.

Image source, EPA

Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Programme (WFP), has reiterated a warning that famine is "imminent" in the north of Gaza.

"If we wait much longer, we're going to go over the edge and not be able to recover from it," she tells the BBC.

She hopes that with the opening of the Ashdod Port and Erez Gate in northern Gaza, food will get in at scale but adds that it can't stop there.

"Children are dying, as we speak, they are dying of hunger, that's why it's important we feed those who are desperately hungry."

She says the WFP will not halt its operations in Gaza but says "this is dangerous work". Food charity World Central Kitchen paused its operations in Gaza earlier this week after seven of its aid workers were killed in an Israeli air strike.

"It was unconscionable that WCK was hit, it's a terrible situation; there's been more aid workers than those who have been killed and we're sorry for all of them."

Image source, Getty Images

One who is critical of Israel's approach to the war is Prof Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the London-based Chatham House think tank.

Speaking to Radio 5 Live this morning, he says that after six months of war, things have gone "catastrophically wrong".

"The hostages are still in captivity. They’re in social hell. More than 33,000 Gazan people have been killed, many of them civilians," he tells BBC Radio 5 Live.

"Obviously, Israel suffered a terrible atrocity in the hands of Hamas but it went to war instead of [having] a strategy and political objective which is achievable.

"More revenge and vengeance is not a way to conduct a war, hence where we are now.”

He says what will determine a ceasefire is the international pressure put on both sides to reach an agreement.

Image source, Reuters

As anti-government protests continue in Israel calling for the release of all hostages still held in Gaza, let's consider how popular Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is by now.

Netanyahu has been a dominant political figure for the last 40 years. He was re-elected for a fifth time in November 2022, leading a right-wing coalition.

He has faced ongoing pressure in Israel for failing to prevent Hamas’s attack on 7 October, as well as so far proving unable to rescue all of the Israeli hostages. But his leadership was facing criticism before the attacks.

Last July, Israel’s parliament passed a highly controversial law to limit the Supreme Court’s powers, preventing the court from overruling government actions it considers unreasonable.

That decision spurred mass protests and prompted hundreds of military reservists to threaten to refuse to report for service.

In January, the Supreme Court voted to strike down the judicial reform, threatening to further undermine confidence in his government. Netanyahu's Likud party said the decision opposed "the will of the people for unity, especially during wartime".

Netanyahu is also facing a corruption trial, which has been delayed both by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Israel-Gaza war, having been charged with fraud, bribery and breach of trust. He has described the charges as a “witch hunt”.