Gaza hospital damage revealed in social media imagepublished at 17:14 British Summer Time 12 October 2023

17:14 BST 12 October 2023

Over the past few days BBC Verify has been examining videos and pictures to assess the destruction in Gaza. The previous post on this page gives a sense of the intensity of the Israeli bombardment.

Gaza’s health ministry says seven hospitals have been hit by air strikes.

A picture posted to X (formerly Twitter) by a charity worker on Monday, external shows damage to the International Eye Hospital close to Gaza City.

We’ve been able to verify the location by matching the hospital to older images on Google.

We also know this is a new image because we've found no previous version of it online.

However, we don’t know how the damage occurred – whether it was the result of a direct strike or if the hospital was affected by a nearby blast.

BBC Verify hasn’t been able to find a statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on this hospital. However, the IDF has previously suggested that Hamas members have used hospitals to hide.

We haven’t independently verified this claim.

Around 6,000 bombs have been dropped on the Gaza Strip by Israel since fighting began on Saturday, according to an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson.

Daniel Hagari posted the announcement on X, formerly known as Twitter, alongside a video showing a building exploding surrounded by smoke.

Elizabeth El-Nakla is the mother-in-law of Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf.

She is in Deir Al-Balah in Gaza with her husband's family, and says they have no water or electricity and food is running out.

In a video she filmed, she said she had four grandchildren with her, two of whom had their ninth birthday today.

Image source, Getty Images

French president Emmanuel Macron has been speaking to leaders of different political parties about the crisis. He told them that 17 French citizens were still missing after Hamas launched its attacks at the weekend - including four children.

A foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters that the status of the missing French nationals was considered to be "very worrying".

In addition, the number of French citizens killed in Saturday's attack has risen to 12.

It's gone 18:00 local time in Israel and here are all the latest developments of the day:

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has vowed unending US support for Israel during a visit to the country

• Blinken will travel to Qatar next, where there have been reports of efforts to negotiate the release of women and children held hostage. Israel had denied those reports
• The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff has spoken to the media for the first time since Hamas attack Israel on Saturday and admitted failures in preventing attacks

• Earlier, Israel said the siege of Gaza would not end until Israeli hostages were released
• At least 150 hostages were taken into Gaza during Hamas's deadly attacks on Israel - the number of people killed since the weekend has now risen to 1,300
• More than 1,400 have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched retaliatory air strikes, with 338,000 displaced
• The World Food Programme warned of a "dire situation" in the territory, where Isael has cut off food, water and fuel supplies

Lyse Doucet
Reporting from Sderot

The Mayor of Sderot says he knows what Western leaders should say to Israel.

"They need to say 'take your time,'" Alon Davidi tells us, angrily, when we arrive in this border town.

At some points, Sderot is less than a mile from Gaza’s border. There's a constant crack of heavy artillery.

The mayor - whose community has been the target of Hamas rocket fire for decades - believes Western wobbling is why military operations have failed before.

"Always when we start to make an operation in Gaza, after one week, two weeks, the leaders of Britain, the US, all the countries, say to our prime minister: 'Stop, you need to stop.'"

Davidi called on the Israeli army and government to take "one month, two months" whatever they need to "destroy Hamas and Islamic Jihad and make them disappear from this region".

When we asked if he was angry with his own government for not protecting his town, he said he wasn't. But he called on PM Netanyahu to help him evacuate Sderot.

Image source, Getty Images

More detail on that death toll provided a short time ago by the health ministry in Gaza.

Palestinian officials say 447 children and 248 women are among the 1,417 people killed during Israeli bombardment since Saturday.

Image source, US Pool

After his talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Antony Blinken has now met President Isaac Herzog.

In a short joint news conference, the president thanked the US for "caring" for Israel in its "time of need in one of the darkest hours we've endured" since the establishment of the state of Israel.

Blinken reaffirmed that he was in the country with one message: "The United States stands with Israel today, tomorrow, every day".

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is travelling to Qatar tomorrow to meet with senior officials.

Earlier this week Qatari mediators tried to negotiate for the release of women and children held hostage in Gaza in exchange for 36 women in Israeli prisons.

Qatar had confirmed it was involved in mediation talks, but Israel denied any negotiations were happening when asked by the Reuters news agency.

Rushdi Abu Alouf
Reporting from Gaza City

This morning, I visited the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where 2,000 displaced people are sheltering.

The hospital is struggling to cope with the number of injured people with a very limited amount of fuel left. All but essential treatment has been suspended to focus only on life-saving operations.

I met a woman who was injured. She was lying on a bed and told me she had been waiting hours to get surgery on her leg. She was told by the doctor that she is not on the priority list.

• Read more: Gaza hospitals risk turning into morgues, Red Cross says

Anna Foster
Reporting from the Israel-Lebanon border

Of the 300,000 Israeli reserve soldiers being mobilised right now, a large chunk are being sent to reinforce the northern border with Lebanon.

That's because another militant group poses a threat here too.

Hezbollah - like Hamas - has been designated a terrorist organisation by the UK, US and other countries.

Backed by Iran, it has a strong military and political presence in Lebanon, and wields considerable power in a country without a functioning government or president.

For days there have been exchanges of fire across the border between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.

Palestinian militant groups in Lebanon have been involved too. All of this is dangerous.

If the situation escalates and a new front opens up in this war - plunging Israel into another full-scale conflict with Lebanon - the effect would reverberate around the region.

Image source, Getty Images

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff has spoken to the media for the first time since Hamas attacked Israel last Saturday.

"The IDF is responsible for the security of the country and its citizens," Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said, "and on Saturday morning in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, we did not handle it".

Halevi was also asked about the hostages being held in Gaza - estimated to be at least 150 - and he replied: "The price of war is high and difficult. We will do everything to bring the captives back home."

Frankie McCamley and James Bryant

Image source, Shaked Haran

As we've been reporting, at least 150 people are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

Eyewitnesses have described militants breaking into people's homes or burning them down before putting hostages into vehicles and driving them to Gaza.

Shaked Haran, who left her own house to seek safety, says 10 members of her family were taken from her parents' home, along with her uncle’s carer.

"My father sent my brother the last message that we received. He said that they were in trouble and that they loved us."

When they got through to her father's phone, someone shouted "hostage, hostage" in Hebrew, she says.

By the time Israeli armed forces reached the family's home, it had been burnt to the ground.

Shaked explains why she is speaking to the media: "Right now the feeling in Israel is of complete chaos… we really believe that international pressure can influence the situation in favour of the hostages."

Palestinian health officials say two men have been killed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Witnesses told the Reuters news agency that the father and son were attending the funeral of four men killed by settlers and Israeli soldiers in a separate incident when the attackers opened fire near Nablus.

Dan Johnson
Reporting from Tel Aviv

The pavement outside Tel Aviv's expo centre is covered with boxes being furiously filled and sealed by volunteers.

Donated clothes and shoes are being wrapped and dispatched to support families evacuated from their homes in Israel's south.

Israel's humanitarian response has been instinctive and unified. PM Benjamin Netanyahu is invoking national unity as the head of an emergency wartime government.

But Israelis are still considering the best military option, as the build-up of troops continues close to Gaza.

A young woman named Lyle says: "I wouldn't feel good that our army is going in there because probably there will be losses, but Hamas should be eliminated - period."

Nir Hazot proudly introduces himself as an Israeli patriot who supports an invasion.

"We want the leaders of Hamas, only the leaders. They need to suffer, they need to be in court. It's got to be specific, come with intelligence and get the leaders," he says.

Nick Beake
Reporting from Tel Aviv

A British official at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport tells me all seats for the first UK government-arranged flight out of Israel have now been allocated.

Those travelling have already been sent a text message.

The official said he was unaware when the flight would leave later today. He said it would be a chartered flight, rather than commercial or military.

BA and Virgin flights to and from the airport are currently suspended. El Al - the Israeli carrier - continues to operate flights to the UK.

If you're in Israel and want to receive updates, you can register your presence with the UK government by filling out this form, external.

The death toll in Gaza following air strikes by Israeli forces has risen to 1,417, according to an update, external from the health ministry in the Palestinian territory.

The total number of people injured is now 6,268.

State media in Syria says Israel has targeted airports in its capital Damascus and the city of Aleppo.

State news agency Sana reported that "bursts of missiles" had led to damage to the airports’ landing strips and had put them out of service.

Local media also say that Syrian air defences were launched in response to the attacks.

The UK-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported several explosions in Aleppo.

The BBC has not been able to independently confirm the reported attacks.

The reported airstrikes come a day before the Iranian foreign minister was expected to visit Syria.

Both countries are avowed enemies of Israel, and Iran has long backed Hamas.

Israel frequently bombs targets in Syria linked to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, but rarely acknowledges the strikes.

Image source, .

You can read our country profile of Syria here.

The number of people killed in Israeli has now risen to 1,300 people. These were mostly civilians killed by Hamas gunmen in their homes and at a dance festival.

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent, Jerusalem

Image source, Getty Images

Getting in touch with contacts in the Gaza Strip is becoming much harder. Mobile phone and internet service is poor and without electricity, people are often relying on private generators with their fuel running out.

A resident of Beach refugee camp managed to post a video of the aftermath of an Israeli strike this morning, which local health officials say killed 15 people from two families.

“A huge strike hit one of the most crowded refugee camps without any warning. It’s literally a massacre,” wrote Almeqdad Jameel. His footage shows rescuers struggling to carry out a body through the rubble.

I spoke briefly to a Christian schoolteacher I know, who told me her neighbourhood in Gaza City felt safer today as “the shelling isn’t as close”. She is trying to stay optimistic - “We just hope for a ceasefire so we can go out and get food and drinks.”

For a time, Palestinian writer Abdulhadi Alijla – who comes from Gaza but lives overseas – was unable to reach loved ones back home. “Every day, I find myself grappling with the terrifying possibility that my family might be obliterated at any moment,” he wrote on Facebook.

Image source, Getty Images