In the past hour we reported that Gaza's sole power plant - now the only source of mains power there - will run out of fuel in around 12 hours.

We've now learnt it could be much sooner - the head of Gaza Energy Authority, Jalal Ismail, says it will stop operating completely today at 14:00 local time (12:00 BST).

The Israeli military says sirens - used to warn Israelis of incoming rockets - are sounding in southern Israel., external

Plestia Alaqad is a journalist from Gaza. She has filmed what it's like evacuating from house to house, showing the effects of the air strikes launched by Israel after Saturday's deadly Hamas attacks.

The BBC's chief international correspondent had to move while filming in Ashkelon, southern Israel, due to black smoke rising and the possibility of rockets landing from Gaza.

Image source, Reuters

Gaza's power plant is currently the only source of electricity there - and it will run out of fuel in 10 to 12 hours, the head of the Palestinian Energy Authority, Thafer Melhem, has told Voice of Palestine radio.

Israel cut off its electricity supply to Gaza on Monday, as it declared a "complete siege".

It said food, fuel and water supplies would also be cut. Gaza is run by Hamas and Israel restricts who and what goods can cross its borders.

About 80% of people in Gaza relied on humanitarian aid even before the latest war began.

On Wednesday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said, external nearly half a million people have not been able to get their food rations since Saturday.

Image source, .

As we've reported, the Israeli Air Force is using planes to attack targets in the Gaza Strip. This morning, they said they had hit 450 targets in the past 24 hours.

The military has just said they are also using ground-based rocket launchers.

Spokesman Daniel Hagari said, external it was the first time they had used this type of launcher against targets in Gaza since the 2006 conflict.

Yesterday, Israel said 1,500 militants' bodies had been found on its territory since Saturday's deadly attacks, and said the border with the Gaza Strip was secure.

But there are still "sweeps" checking for Hamas militants in Israel.

An IDF spokesman, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, said this morning that 18 militants had been killed by Israeli forces in the past day.

“These are the same terrorists who did not flee back to Gaza. That’s why the scans are taking place with a large number of troops."

Here are some of the latest pictures from Gaza, where entire neighbourhoods have been flattened as Israel continues to bombard the area with air strikes.

An hour ago, the Israeli Air Force said the strikes were continuing into Wednesday. Earlier, they said 450 targets had been hit in the previous 24 hours.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, IDF

The Israeli military shared their daily video update earlier, external - here's what IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus said:

• The IDF has rebuilt the barrier around Gaza. It has also sent "infantry, armoured soldiers, artillery corps", plus 300,000 reservists, close to the Gaza border
• They are "close to the Gaza Strip getting ready to execute the mission that we have been given by the Israeli government - and that is to make sure that Hamas at the end of this war won't have any military capabilities by which they can threaten or kill Israeli civilians"
• The death toll in Israel has risen to 1,200 - "the overwhelming majority of them civilians". More than 2,700 people are wounded
• He says "unspeakable atrocities" are being uncovered, including in Kibbutz Kfar Aza where the BBC reported from yesterday. Conricus called it "something out of a scene of an apocalyptic movie, or something related to zombies"
• The IDF has been striking Hamas military sites from the air - Hamas locates their military bases in some civilian buildings, he claims
• Rockets were fired from Syria into Israel - but he said he does not know who's behind them. And missiles were fired from Lebanon by Hezbollah, and Israel retaliated
• Fighting will intensify and the scenes from Gaza "will be more difficult to understand and cope with" in the coming days

As air strikes on Gaza continue, the Israeli military says it has destroyed a site, external that Hamas used to detect aircraft over the Gaza Strip.

The country's air force also tweeted that overnight fighter jets struck over 80 sites in Beit Hanoun in Gaza, "including two bank branches used by Hamas to fund terrorism in the Gaza, an underground tunnel and two operational command centres used by Hamas to direct terrorist activities against Israel".

They also hit other sites including two compounds used for training and storing weapons, it said.

At least 950 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel launched its air strikes on Saturday, the Palestinian Health Ministry says.

Image source, Getty Images

As dawn broke on Wednesday, thousands of Palestinians staged demonstrations against Israel's air strikes on the Gaza Strip in cities across the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian News Agency reported that protestors, external raised Palestinian flags and pictures of victims killed in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Joe Biden for his support in a phone call.

He said the Hamas assault was one of the worst attacks on Jews since the Holocaust. Watch the clip below.

At least 30 people have died in Israeli airstrikes overnight, a Hamas spokesperson has said.

Israeli forces said they attacked 200 targets in Gaza on Tuesday night.

The Israeli army has warned that "fighting will intensify" even as the death toll in both Israel and Gaza continue to climb.

"We have sustained extremely heavy casualties... This, however, will not deter us and it will not weaken our resolve," said the Spokesperson Lt Col (res) Jonathan Conricus in a video update, external.

He added that he hoped support for Israel would continue even once fighting intensified.

"We hope that remains that way even when the fighting will intensify and the scenes coming out of the Gaza Strip will be more difficult to understand and cope with," he said.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

It's almost 8am in Israel and Gaza. Israeli retaliatory strikes have continued overnight and here is what we have been reporting in the last few hours:

• Dozens of Israeli Air Force fighter jets have struck more than 200 targets in the Al-Furqan neighborhood in Gaza, believed to be the hotspot from where Hamas devises and executes their attacks. The Israel Defense Forces say this is the third counterstrike in the area during the last 24 hours.
• The overall death toll has climbed to 2,100, with the death toll in Israel rising to 1,200 while officials in Gaza say 900 people have died
• We've been hearing from survivors in both Gaza and Israel who describe the scale of devastation as something they have never experienced in the decades of conflict between both sides. In Israel, people have described the Hamas attack as a "massacre of civilians". In Gaza, a humanitarian worker told the BBC's Newshour programme that there is "nowhere safe" for people to go.

• US President Joe Biden condemned Hamas' unprecendented assault on Israel as “sheer evil”. The US is boosting military aid to Israel - the first plane carrying US arms arrived in southern Israel on Tuesday evening
• Josep Borrell, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs,said Israel's response in Gaza may have breached international law. "Israel has the right to defend [itself], but it has to be done according to the right of international law, humanitarian law," he said.
• The US says it is discussing with Israel and Egypt about trying to get "safe passage" for Gaza civilians. US national security adviser Jake Sullivan says the parties are "focused on this question" but did not reveal further details.

Plestia Alaqad is a journalist from Gaza who has been video blogging her experience of living through Israeli airstrikes, which she describes as the worst she has ever seen.

The US is talking with Israel and Egypt about safe passage for Gaza civilians as Israel continues to pound the Palestinian enclave.

"We are focused on this question, there are consultations going on," US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House.

Mr Sullivan did not share further details, saying only that discussions "among the operational agencies" are ongoing.

Gaza's Health Ministry said at least 900 Palestinians have been killed and up to 4,600 wounded since Saturday.

Israel's military said it had responded with artillery fire after shells were launched at the Golan Heights, a territory Israel had occupied since 1967.

"Soldiers are responding with artillery and mortar shells toward the origin of the launching in Syria," said an Israeli army statement

The army claims there have been "a number of launches from Syria into Israeli territory".

A military spokesman told AFP it appeared to have been mortar fire.

This was the first exchange of fire between Israel and Syria since Hamas launched an attack on Israel from the blockaded Gaza Strip on Saturday.

On Tuesday, Israel also exchanged fire with militants in southern Lebanon.

One of the more harrowing events over the weekend started out celebratory. But the all-night Supernova desert rave - that coincided with the end of the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot - ended in tragedy as hundreds of partygoers were killed by Hamas gunmen in an unprecedented cross-border attack.

A survivor, Shea Golin, tells BBC Newshour she survived only because she pretended to be dead by lying on other bodies.

"I just lay on the dead people to look like one of them. I was surprised when that woke one girl up. I was so happy that there's someone alive with me, because I thought I'm the only one alive," the 22-year-old said.

Golin and the other survivor - who sustained head injuries - jumped into a car close by and tried to flee. They were eventually rescued by Israeli soldiers.

"All the people were dying. I feel like I was in hell. I get up and I feel like I was in hell," she said.

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

Image source, Getty Images