Image source, EPA

Continuing exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militant groups is "unacceptable", UN Secretary General António Guterres has said.

"I am deeply shocked by the continued air and artillery bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza," Guterres was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency at a special session of UN General Assembly on Thursday.

"If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza."

Guterres added that "indiscriminate firing of rockets by Hamas and other militant groups" towards population centres in Israel was also "unacceptable".

Image source, Getty Images

As efforts to reach a peace deal continue, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke on the phone earlier today with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In a statement her spokesperson said the pair agreed that "initiatives for a speedy ceasefire should be further supported".

Merkel also stressed Israel's right to self-defence in wake of rocket attacks from Gaza, the statement read.

BBC's Rushdi Abualouf in Gaza is reporting that the Israeli government will agree to a ceasefire following a security cabinet meeting at 17:00 GMT.

He is tweeting that sources familiar with the ceasefire talks told the BBC that Israel informed Egypt about its position. Egypt has been actively involved in the talks.

Image source, Reuters

The use of military force by states is governed by international law, which is the rules, norms and standards generally accepted in relations between nations.

But is international law being respected in the Israel-Gaza conflict?

That is a contentious question which we asked Guglielmo Verdirame, a professor of international law at King's College London, to address.

He said the principle of self-defence was one of the primary matters of international law to consider here.

He said Israel is likely to argue that its actions are justified under the right of self-defence, which is enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter, external.

Most international lawyers, Professor Verdirame said, would agree that rockets launched against civilians constitute an armed attack for the purposes of Article 51.

However, the facts underlying self-defence are often in dispute. Professor Verdirame said parties to a conflict seldom agree on who is the attacker and who is the defender - and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts are no exception.

Read more about the legality of fighting in the Israel-Gaza conflict here

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According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a drone shot down by the Israel Defense Forces earlier this week was an Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle armed with explosives.

He was speaking on the occasion of German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas' visit to Jerusalem to show Israel support during the current conflict.

"I described during our meeting that while we are fighting on various fronts, the true backer of much of this aggression is Iran," Mr Netanyahu said at a news conference.

He showed Mr Maas what he said was a fragment of the drone Israel shot down near the Jordanian border two days ago.

"While we were engaged in these hostilities, a few days ago, Iran sent an armed drone, to Israel from Iraq or from Syria... which our forces intercepted on the border between Israel and Jordan. And that I think says everything."

Image source, EPA

We reported earlier (see our 13:18 entry) that senior World Health Organization (WHO) officials called for a humanitarian pause in bombardment of Gaza to allow access for aid.

The UN health agency has now issued an urgent appeal for $7m (£4.9m) to pay for a "comprehensive emergency response" in the Palestinian territories.

"In the Gaza Strip, the severity of injuries is straining an already overwhelmed health system," WHO's Eastern Mediterranean region director Ahmed al-Mandhari was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that a UN convoy is ready to carry into Gaza humanitarian staff and aid - including 10,000 Chinese Sinopharm coronavirus vaccines and testing equipment - and to bring injured people out.

Image source, Reuters

We have been reporting about the possibility of a ceasefire in the current conflict.

But Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has said this would only be possible under certain conditions.

"I think the important thing is: do we come out of this with a situation where we can be assured that the civilian population of southern Israel and Israel as a whole - because as you know Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are also hit - that they can have an assurance that we can expect a sustained period of peace and quiet, that the Israeli civilian population does not have to live in fear of an incoming rocket from the Gaza Strip?" he told the BBC.

Image source, Getty Images

This week, in protest against the bombing of Gaza, Palestinians and Israeli Arab workers have been taking part in general strikes across Israel.

Among those taking part in the strike on Tuesday were thousands of cleaners, public transport drivers and construction workers.

The Israel Builders' Association told local newspaper Haaretz that only 150 of 65,000 Palestinian construction workers showed up to work during Tuesday's strike. Building sites around Israel were at a standstill, reportedly causing 130m shekels ($40m; £20m) in losses.

Yehuda Katav, vice president of the group, said construction has slowed drastically in Israel since the conflict began, with only 6-8,000 turning up to work every day.

“We cannot build without them,” he said.

Responses to the industrial action have surprised some workers, with many being threatened with losing their jobs if they took part.

“This is the perfect time to fix this distortion and start to employ only Jews! Or Arabs who are loyal to the state of Israel and declare so openly,” one resident wrote, according to Haaretz.

Aida Touma-Sliman, a lawmaker from the Arab-majority coalition Joint List, has decried the lack of support for striking workers.

“The day after things calm down, the Israeli public will have to look in the mirror and decide what kind of relationship it wants to have with the minority it lives with," he told Haaretz.

BBC Radio 5 Live

A teenager from Israel and a young Palestinian have been talking to each other about their views of the conflict and their hopes for peace.

Tamar, aged 17, from Israel, and Mohammed, 20, who lives in Gaza, spoke to each other on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Stephen Nolan programme.

Tamar, who had never spoken to someone from Palestine before, said: "We’re all human at the end of the day.

"If the people talk to each other we can maybe find a solution, we can maybe end this conflict."

Mohammed, who had also never spoken to an Israeli, said: "She changes the image that I have about Israeli people… because from what I see Israeli soldiers are always bombing us."

This conversation first went out on 15 May 2021.

Listen back on the free BBC Sounds app.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is gathering his security cabinet for 19:00 local time (17:00 GMT) to discuss a possible ceasefire, Israeli media report.

Netanyahu has so far made no comment on the reported cabinet meeting, but he said on Wednesday he was “determined” to continue fighting until “peace and security” were restored - despite strong US pressure for "de-escalation".

Hamas officials were quoted on Wednesday by CNN as saying that a truce could be "imminent, possibly within 24 hours".

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) now say most targets they were aiming at in Gaza have been hit, Israel's ynetnews.com website reports.

Image source, Reuters

As the conflict rages on, people on the ground are deeply affected in their everyday lives.

"We stayed for two days trying to just get some water bottles from our neighbours," Asmaa Ambumezied, who lives in Gaza, told the BBC.

"But I'm only one person in Gaza while other people, particularly in Gaza City, have lost access to electricity and lost access to even internet services for the past week, particularly after hitting the roads and electricity company... across the Gaza Strip."

Israeli resident Adele Raemer in Kibbutz Nirim, southern Israel, says a two-state solution is the only way to broker peace:

"The people in Gaza have to be able to rehabilitate Gaza so that their lives will be better, and so that they will have something that they're not going to want to lose.

"In order for that to happen, the other side has to just say the words: 'We recognise Israel's right to be here, and we're here too, we're not going any place, neither are you, let's sit down and talk.'"

Image source, Getty Images

US Senator Bernie Sanders is preparing to introduce a resolution which aims to stop a $735m (£520m) American weapons sale to Israel.

According to a draft seen by the Washington Post, external, the resolution expresses disapproval for the sale of precision-guided bombs.

“At a moment when US-made bombs are devastating Gaza, and killing women and children, we cannot simply let another huge arms sale go through without even a congressional debate," Sanders told the Post.

Over in the House, Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a similar resolution on Wednesday.

But the move to halt the arms sale appears unlikely to succeed. The Democratic chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees have already approved it.

An Israeli army patrol on Thursday dropped three smoke bombs and opened fire in the air "towards farmers" in Lebanon's Marjeyoun plain, the Lebanese state-run National News Agency is reporting.

A reporter at the Hezbollah movement's Al-Manar TV tweeted that Israeli soldiers in "confusion and fear" had fired smoke bombs at farmers and shot over their heads.

Israel has not commented on the reports.

On Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said four rockets had been fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, causing no injuries.

No group has said it launched the rockets.

The IDF said they had responded by hitting "a number of targets" in Lebanon.

It is one of the region's tensest frontiers, where Israel forces face those of the Lebanese army and Iran-backed Hezbollah, and peacekeepers attempt to maintain calm.

Several militant groups operate in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006.

Here are some images from Gaza and Israel 11 days into the fighting.

Image source, Reuters

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The country's national emergency medical service says the number of people in Israel killed in the violence has risen to 13.

Ten were killed as a result of a "direct hit, explosion blast, and shrapnel", while three others suffered critical injuries on their way to bomb shelters and died from their wounds, it said.

As we reported earlier, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says Israeli strikes have now killed 230 people, since the latest round of fighting began.

Image source, EPA

Senior World Health Organization (WHO) officials have called for a humanitarian pause in bombardment of Gaza to allow access for aid as the health system in the territory faces critical shortages, Reuters is reporting.

"The closure of entry and exit points for patients and humanitarian health assistance and the severe restrictions on the entry of medical supplies is exacerbating this public health crisis," WHO regional director Ahmed Al-Mandhari told the news agency.

The WHO is a specialised UN agency responsible for international public health.

Image source, Reuters

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has filed a lawsuit against a nationalist rival for comparing him to Israel's prime minister, according to the state news agency.

Meral Aksener, leader of the Iyi Party (Good Party), said in parliament this week that Erdogan used similar tactics to Benjamin Netanyahu to hold on to power.

"Erdogan's Israel version, Benjamin Netanyahu, did not hesitate to target the lives of civilians and children to scupper his political rivals and protect his seat," she said.

Erdogan has called the comments "immoral", and said: "Netanyahu has never been and will never be our friend."

His lawsuit is seeking 250,000 liras ($30,000; £21,000) in damages.

The UN Human Rights Council has announced there will be a special session on 27 May to address "the grave human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem".

"The special session is being convened per an official request submitted... jointly by Pakistan, as co-ordinator of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, and the State of Palestine," the council said in a statement.

It did not say how many of the Geneva-based organisation's 47 member states had backed the call - but at least a third must come out in support for a special session request to be granted.

Israel has so far made no public comments on the issue.

Image source, Getty Images

As fighting rages on, it's unclear whether a ceasefire will happen this week in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

The latest round of violence followed a month of rising tensions in Jerusalem, though the conflict has gone on for decades. So how did it start?

Read more in our simple guide: The conflict explained

As fighting continues into its second week, one story has captured the attention of local media - for more positive reasons.

An Arab Christian woman has been given a new lease of life after receiving a kidney donation from a Jewish man who was murdered by Arab rioters last week.

Yigal Yehoshua, 56, died after he was hit on the head with a brick in the city of Lod, near Tel Aviv. His family decided to donated his organs, and a kidney transplant was arranged for Randa Awis, a 58-year-old resident of Jerusalem.

After nine years of waiting for a new kidney, Ms Awis said she was overwhelmed that the procedure could finally take place.

"I thank Yigal's family, from heaven they will be comforted and Yigal is in a better place," she told local news outlet N12. "This Jewish kidney has now become a part of me."

"I wish for peace between us Jews and Arabs," she added. "We are all human beings."