As we mentioned earlier, the Israeli military says it has regained control of the border with Gaza.

The IDF spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said there had been no incursions over the past day.

He said engineers were mining the areas where parts of the fence are destroyed.

Hamas militants broke through the barrier in multiple places before launching their attack on Saturday.

Image source, .

Image source, Getty Images

People in Gaza are saying the Israeli bombing campaign has "never been this bad", an Oxfam aid worker based out of the West Bank has told the BBC.

Busha Khalidi says her family in Gaza have lived through years of "escalations" from Israel's military and live under a blockade, preventing them from leaving or seeking education.

"There's no water, there's no electricity, there's no fuel and supplies are dwindling," she tells BBC Breakfast.

Khalidi says contact with her family is sporadic, with mobile internet services also down in Gaza.

Describing the situation in the blockaded territory as "dire", she says Israel's decision to "collectively punish an entire population is cruel".

Israel's military has advised any Palestinians leaving Gaza to go to Egypt.

"I am aware that the Rafah crossing is still open," Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht said in a briefing. "Anyone who can get out, I would advise them to get out".

The crossing on the Egypt Gaza border is normally a lifeline for Gazans. You can see more on it in this clip from 2014.

The military also says the border fence with Gaza is now secure - we'll have more on that soon.

The Israeli Air Force has just issued an update saying it has hit 200 Hamas and other militant group targets in Gaza with airstrikes overnight.

Writing on social media, the IAF said dozens of fighter jets launched strikes on the Rimal and Khan Yunis areas, destroying targets, including command and control, a weapons storage site they say was inside a mosque, and the home of an alleged Hamas commander.

Palestinian health officials say at least 15 people were killed in an Israeli attack in the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip.

BBC Arabic filmed some of the destruction left by the airstrike.

And a warning: some viewers may find these images disturbing.

The number of Thai citizens killed in Hamas' mass assault on Israel has risen to 18, Thailand's foreign ministry has said.

We reported yesterday that 12 Thais had been killed and another 11 kidnapped by Hamas militants.

A spokesperson for the ministry says it is asking Israel to assist with the release of Thai nationals taken hostage.

You can read more on the reaction from Thailand here.

Alice Cuddy
BBC News, reporting from southern Israel

Gilad Karplus told us about his experience at the deadly Supernova festival and how he survived.

More than 260 bodies have reportedly been recovered from the festival site, according to rescue agency Zaka.

“There were rockets, then they started firing. It was coming from different directions, and getting louder and louder,” he recalled.

“I saw people going down. As we saw that, we just jumped into a jeep and drove into the fields.”

Gilad said that at one point he was chased through the fields by eight armed men on motorcycles, dressed in Israeli military shirts.

One shot at the car and fragments of a bullet went through the back of his hat, and hit him in the head.

“I started bleeding. I didn’t know what the situation was – if I had a bullet in my skull or what. I just knew I needed to hold my head as tightly as I could so I wouldn’t bleed out.”

Gilad and his friend then hid in a kibbutz, hoping someone would come to rescue them.

We met Gilad today after a hospital appointment to have the dressing changed on his head wound, which he says is a “reminder of how lucky I was”.

“The whole morning when that situation happened I felt like an injured animal that was being hunted down… I don’t want to be in that position ever again.”

Frank Gardner
Security Correspondent

There is an assumption in some quarters that the threat to Israel from Hamas can somehow be eliminated once and for all with a full-scale invasion on the ground.

History would suggest this is unlikely to be the silver bullet some are hoping for.

When Israel invaded Gaza in 2014, more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed, with each funeral generating ever more radicalised young men.

Since then, Hamas has continued to fire rockets across the border.

Its armed wing is believed to number around 30,000 fighters, most of them fanatical in their determination to defend Palestinian land. They know their tunnels, cellars, bunkers and backstreets better than the invaders.

Such a densely populated piece of territory is no place for tanks, which would be highly vulnerable to ambush.

From a purely military standpoint, a ground assault could result in short-term success, eliminating most of Hamas’s commanders.

But in the absence of a lasting peace deal, Hamas would likely regenerate itself, calling up a new generation of angry, radicalised young fighters.

"It's been chaos," said Raphael Poch, a spokesperson for Israel's national volunteer emergency medical services United Hatzalah.

He told the BBC's Newsday programme he was jolted awake early Saturday morning by the barrage of rockets that were a part of Hamas' brutal attack on Israel, which has so far killed some 900 people.

In the harrowing hours that followed, Poch said: "a member of our volunteers was injured, and one was killed while trying to save lives of other people who were injured."

About 1,500 volunteers across Israel were brought in to help provide medical services to people. Poch described how they transported the injured by helicopers and ambulances to the nearest hospitals.

New volunteers continue to step in to replace those who are tired and need rest, he added.

"We're going home to home in the towns where people are told not to leave or exit their houses because it's too dangerous, bringing them food and water and medical supplies," he said.

"We're doing everything we can."

Image source, Getty Images

The BBC has been hearing from Doron Kempel, former deputy chief of the Sayeret Matkal - Israel's elite commando unit.

"The challenge is how to know enough about where the hostages are and how to time the assault such that you can at one time break into wherever they’re being held and save as many of them as possible," he tells BBC's Newsday programme.

He adds that what confuses the situation is the hostages are not within areas of Israeli control.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has said he is "very disappointed" with China's statement, following the Hamas cross-border attack on Israel.

Senator Schumer was speaking in Shanghai, where he is on his first congressional visit to China since 2019.

China's foreign ministry on Sunday, in response to the situation in Israel, asked "relevant parties" to end to hostilities and protect civilians, and said the way out of the conflict is the implementation of a "two-state solution".

Schumer also said he had asked for China to use its "influence" on Iran to "not allow the conflagration to spread".

Barbara Plett Usher
US State Department correspondent, BBC News

The US has started sending munitions and military equipment to Israel and is moving navy warships and combat aircraft into the region in a show of support.

The fleet was already in the Mediterranean Sea, so it didn't have far to go. And it is not unusual for the US to deploy naval vessels in the region when there are flare-ups.

It hasn't done so during previous battles between Hamas and Israel, which have been self-contained. But this isn't about Hamas. The Pentagon is worried the conflict may spread.

A senior defence official said the warships and planes are meant to demonstrate a concrete commitment to Israel's defence, and to deter any country or militant group from joining the fight.

Chiefly that means Iran, which backs Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement, as well as Hamas.

The US will be part of Israel's lengthy and punishing response, although National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said there was no intention to put US boots on the ground.

Reuters News Agency is reporting that efforts are under way for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to visit Moscow, citing Russia's RBC news outlet.

The Palestinian leadership is split between Mr Abbas' Palestinian Authority (PA), which controls parts of the West Bank, and the militant group, Hamas, which governs Gaza.

"An agreement has been reached that Mr Abbas will come here to Moscow," Abdel Hafiz, Palestinian envoy to Moscow is reported as saying.

"We are awaiting an official statement from the Kremlin... about when the visit will take place," he adds.

UNICEF has warned that the humanitarian situation in the conflict zone is "rapidly detereorating", and said aid workers need to have safe passage to bring lifesaving services and supplies to children and families.

UNICEF is the UN agency that provides humanitarian and developmental aid to children globally.

“I remind all parties that in this war, as in all wars, it is children who suffer first and suffer most,” UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement , externalon Monday night.

“I am also deeply concerned about measures to block electricity and prevent food, fuel and water from entering Gaza, which may put the lives of children at risk," she added.

She also called for the "immediate and safe release of any children being held hostage in Gaza so that they can be reunited with their families or caregivers".

We said earlier that the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt had been closed - and then reopened but for humanitarian cases only - and now we've heard from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

He and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - talking in a phone call - have said the "voice of reason" should prevail in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

An Egyptian presidency spokesman is quoted by Reuters as saying that the pair agreed the ongoing escalation threatens the region's stability.

Let's pivot for a moment to explaining some of the military hardware that is being used.

The Iron Dome was created after Israel's war with Hezbollah in 2006.

It uses radar to identify and destroy incoming threats before they can cause damage.

The all-weather system was specially designed to help combat shorter-range rudimentary weapons like the rockets fired from Gaza.

More than 4,500 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel since the surprise attack began, according to Israeli military figures.

Read more here:

How Israel's Iron Dome missile shield works

Image source, .

While some Western landmarks have been lit up in blue and white to show support for Israel, there have also been large gatherings in London and New York in support of Palestinians.

Image source, EPA

Image source, Getty Images

California Congressman Brad Sherman has told BBC News that the conflict in Gaza may last for “months”, but he believes it is necessary to ensure safety for Israeli citizens.

“You can’t just pretend this didn’t happen and just leave them [Hamas] with the sophisticated military power that they’ve demonstrated. You’ve got to disarm Hamas,” Sherman says.

The member of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee says the priority for the US right now should be aiding Israel, "not only militarily but diplomatically as well”.

Sherman says that Hamas may have felt obliged to launch an attack out of the fear that Saudi Arabia would reach a peace deal with Israel that was being brokered by the Biden White House.

“They did this because they had to,” Sherman says.

When asked about his concern for the next phase in operations, he says that people should prepare for the likelihood that Hamas will execute prisoners.

“You have to defeat Hamas,” says Sherman. “You cannot reform Hamas.”

Brandon Livesay
Live reporter

It's just after 02:20 in Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Power cuts and infrastructure damage have severely impacted the area.

The image above shows clouds of smoke billowing over buildings in Gaza, lit from beneath by flames sparked by an Israeli air strike.

Updates from the region have slowed because of the early hour there. But we have been hearing a steady flow of information from governments in the US and Europe.

The Pentagon and the White House have both held news briefings recently.

We learned that US warships are heading to the eastern Mediterranean, and planes loaded with ammunitions were en route to Israel.

A joint statement was also released by the leaders of the UK, US, France, Italy and Germany.

The leaders said they were united in support of Israel.

The latest information we have is at least 900 people have been killed in Israel and almost 700 people have been killed in Gaza.

Stay with us as we continue to bring you updates.