Civilians are fleeing northern Gaza by car, on the back of trucks and on foot after an Israeli warning that civilians should move south
About 1.1 million people living in northern areas have been told to leave ahead of an expected ground offensive by Israeli forces
The UN described the order as horrendous, while the US urged Israel to take every precaution to avoid killing civilians
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said he was working with Israel to secure "safe areas" in Gaza
Hamas fighters kidnapped at least 150 people and took them into Gaza during brutal attacks on Israel at the weekend that killed 1,300 people
1,900 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched retaliatory air strikes, authorities say
A total blockade is being enforced on Gaza, with fuel, food and water running out
Meanwhile, Reuters says one of its journalists has been killed while working in southern Lebanon
Watch: 'This is ground zero of the Hamas attack'
The BBC's Lucy Williamson has been to the site of the Israeli music festival where 260 bodies were discovered following a massacre by Hamas on Saturday.
Gunshots rung out as journalists were allowed in the area for the first time, accompanied by the Israeli military.
Warning: This post contains details that some may find distressing
Israel's government has taken the decision to share graphic images of children killed by Hamas, as it emphasises the atrocities committed at the weekend.
The prime minister's office posted photos on social media of a dead infant in a pool of blood and the charred body of a child.
A spokesman for the prime minister's office told The Times of Israel that the reasoning was "so that the world will see just a fraction of the horrors that Hamas carried out”.
Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu also showed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Nato leaders graphic pictures of murdered children during their visit yesterday.
Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday and said he had been shown various photographs of the violence inflicted by Hamas, which included photographs and videos of children and beheaded soldiers.
"It's simply depravity in the worst imaginable way," he said. "Images are worth a thousand words. These images may be worth a million."
Image source, ReutersAntony Blinken arriving in Jordan as part of his tour of the Middle East
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, has arrived in Jordan, as he continues his extensive tour of the Middle East.
The US's top diplomat is meeting Jordan's King Abdullah as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman. Abbas, based in the West bank, is a political rival to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Blinken has previously been in Israel, where he promised his country’s unwavering support, saying Israel would “never, ever” be alone – he also told Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it “must operate by the rules of war” in its response to the Hamas attacks.
After Jordan he is expected to visit Qatar, which has longstanding ties with Hamas.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has also just arrived in Israel for talks with the country's defence minister.
Nick Beake
Reporting from Tel Aviv
As the UN calls for Israel to take back an order for civilians to leave Gaza City, the BBC’s Nick Beake has been talking to one survivor of the Kibbutz Kfar Aza massacre who believes an Israeli ground invasion is now justified.
We met 22-year-old Neta Portal at a hospital in Tel Aviv where doctors have now carefully removed each bullet - five in her left leg and one from her right.
She trembles as she recalls slipping in and out of consciousness after the gunmen broke into the residents' safe room in the Jewish community of Kfar Aza and opened fire for the first time:
"They were shooting people. They were shooting the kids. And the people were shouting 'Please no, please no.' I tried to wake myself because I didn't want to die."
With Neta visibly tiring and her nurse despatching herself to retrieve more painkillers, I ask Neta how she thinks the Israeli government should respond to the massacre of her community and the other atrocities.
It is at this point, her fluctuating distress turns to deep anger.
"You want the truth? I don't want the Hamas anymore in my life. We need to destroy them one by one. We need to be strong."
Tom Bateman
BBC Middle East correspondent, Jerusalem
This absolutely changes the entire situation because it’s of course directed at the civilian population to do something they cannot feasibly do.
So they’re now caught between the Hamas-run interior ministry on the one hand saying: don’t respond to the order to move, calling it “psychological warfare”, and the Israelis saying: move, for the protection of your lives.
And it is the civilians and the ordinary people of Gaza that are caught in the middle of this.
There is no way one million people could be safely moved from northern Gaza within 24 hours, says Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City.
She told Associated Press: “What will happen to our patients? We have wounded, we have elderly, we have children who are in hospitals.”
She added that many medics were refusing to evacuate hospitals and abandon patients.
She also spoke to the BBC, telling us: "People have no place to go. That's the point. Hearing bombardments all over the area and asking people to evacuate themselves to another area with this great destruction of the infrastructure and roads and these restrictions of movement, is just something unbelievable."
Meanwhile, an Egyptian politician claims the move is an effort by Israel to force Palestinians to move from Gaza to Egypt.
“In this way the Palestinian cause will be completely liquidated,” Mustafa Bakri, an MP, says on X, formerly Twitter. “Egypt will never agree to participate in this plan, and the Palestinians will not leave their land and will remain steadfast, no matter the sacrifices it costs them."
Gazans have been photographed this morning packing up and trying to move to the south, following Israel's order for everyone in the north of the Strip to relocate.
As we've been reporting, civilians in the area are now caught between Israel's warning - ahead of an expected ground offensive in Gaza - and Hamas telling people to ignore it.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Getty Images
Tom Bateman
BBC Middle East correspondent, Jerusalem
It is impossible for 1.1 million people to leave their homes within 24 hours.
It would involve 40,000 people per hour.
The UN said the order included everyone - all those sheltered in UN facilities including schools and health centres.
That’s why they’ve urged the Israelis to withdraw the announcement, saying that it would lead to calamity.
On the ground convoys of the International Red Cross and United Nations humanitarian agency staff have been spotted travelling south from Gaza City towards the southern part of territory, which may be in preparation for possible evacuation operation.
But it would bring chaos to try to carry out an evacuation order on this scale within 24 hours - with a civilian population in such a densely populated area including children, the elderly, and those in hospitals already packed to capacity with the wounded and those sheltering from Israel’s bombardments.
A Hamas official has described Israel's order for people in the north of Gaza to relocate to the south as "fake propaganda", and has urged citizens there to ignore it.
The militant group has long been criticised by the international community for using civilians as human shields - putting innocent people in danger to protect their fighters.
Hamas took power of the Gaza strip after it won the legislative elections in 2006, before reinforcing its power in Gaza the following year by ousting the rival Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas.
Read more here: Hamas: The Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza
The US will today fly its first repatriation flight to bring citizens home from Israel.
National Security spokesperson John Kirby said they would also be looking into other ways to help citizens leave, by land or sea.
Other countries like Argentina, France, South Korea, Australia and Canada - among others - have been evacuating their citizens from Israel throughout the week.
Japan has also announced it will send a chartered flight to Israel to evacuate Japanese citizens at the weekend. There are about 1,300 Japanese people in Israel but we're not sure how many have already left on commercial flights.
Harry Farley
Religion reporter, BBC News
Three north London Jewish schools are closing today, some citing planned protests in support of Palestinians.
Parents at one school were told to keep their children inside because "of the risk of violence on the streets".
Menorah High School, Torah Vodaas Primary School and Ateres Beis Yaakov, all in Barnet, have sent letters to parents announcing the closures.
The Community Security Trust, a charity providing security advice for British Jews, said schools should remain open.
Good morning to our readers in the UK and also the Middle East, where it's nearly 09:00am in Gaza and Jerusalem (06:00 GMT). If you're just joining us, here's what you need to know:
It's a fast-moving story, so stay with us as we bring you more updates.
The early evacuation order is part of Israel's "humanitarian measures" in the Gaza Strip, says Israeli spokesperson Jonathan Conricus.
In his latest video update posted, external on X, formerly called Twitter, he said their aim was to save lives, adding: "Civilians are not our enemy."
He said the military wants to minimise civilian casualties as it strikes targets in the Gaza Strip, and that it remains fully committed to the laws of international armed conflict.
"We understand it will take time," he said about the evacuation. "It's not an easy process."
About 1.1 million people - half of the entire population of the Gaza Strip - are affected by the evacuation order.
In the last hour we've heard from the Israeli military, which has directly told civilians of Gaza City to evacuate to the south.
"You will be able to return to Gaza City only when another announcement permitting it is made," officials said in the statement addressed to the city, which is the main urban area of the Gaza Strip.
The IDF said Hamas militants are hiding inside tunnels underneath the ciy and inside buildings populated with civilians. It urged civilians to evacuate the city "for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields".
"In the following days, the IDF will continue to operate significantly in Gaza City and make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians," it added.
As we've reported, the order comes as Israel is expected to launch a ground offensive into Gaza with thousands of troops amassing at the border.
The UN has strongly appealed for the order to be rescinded, saying an evacuation could lead to a "calamitous situation" and would have "devastating humanitarian consequences".
As we've reported, the Israeli military has told the UN that everyone living north of Wadi Gaza should relocate in the next 24 hours - the UN says this amounts to about 1.1 million people.
The Wadi Gaza is a river valley located around the centre of the Gaza Strip, snaking across its entire width and ending in the Mediterranean Sea. It is known for its coastal wetlands and biodiversity.
This close-up of a UN map, external, where Wadi Gaza is represented by a brown dotted line at the bottom, shows that the area affected by Israel's evacuation order includes Gaza City, the enclave's largest city.
Image source, UN OCHAIn the last few minutes Israel has issued a response to the UN, defending its evacuation order and saying the international body's statement was "shameful".
Gilad Erdan, the country's ambassador to the UN, said Israel was giving an early warning to the residents of Gaza and was trying to "minimise harm to those not involved" in its military operation against Hamas.
"For many years, the UN has turned a blind eye to the arming of Hamas and its use of the civilian population and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip as a hiding place for its weapons and murder," he said.
"Now, instead of standing by Israel, whose citizens were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists... it preaches to Israel," said Erdan.
"It is better for the UN to focus now on returning the hostages, condemning Hamas, and supporting Israel's right to defend itself,” he added.
We have more from the UN's statement released to the media in the past hour.
It said the UN "strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation".
Liaison officers in the Israeli military had told UN team leaders in Gaza about the evacuation order. That order also includes all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities which includes schools, health centres, and clinics.
The UN Security Council is due to hold an emergency meeting on Friday afternoon in a closed consultation format. The US, UK, China, Russia, and France are permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The Israeli military has told the UN that everyone living north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza in the next 24 hours, says a UN spokesperson.
The UN says this amounts to approximately 1.1 million people - about half the population of the entire Gaza Strip. The affected area includes densely populated Gaza City.
The alert was given just before midnight, Gaza and Jerusalem time (23:00 GMT).
"The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences," the UN said in a statement.
Israel has been preparing for a ground offensive, gathering soldiers, heavy artillery and tanks on the border of Gaza. It has been launching airstrikes on Gaza since Saturday after Hamas militants' surprise attack on Israel.
"Not even a studio in Hollywood can make a horror movie to describe what we have seen here," an Israeli volunteer has told the BBC's international editor Jeremy Bowen.
The volunteer was among a team clearing debris in shattered buildings and collecting bodies in an Israeli kibbutz that is right by the Gaza Strip.
"We're here to give them a proper Jewish burial. To take care of them properly," he said.
Also, our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet has spoken to the mayor of the Israeli town Sderot and asked how he wanted his country to respond to the Hamas attack. Our Middle East correspondent Tom Bateman also gave his reflections on his seven years of reporting from Jerusalem.
You can listen to the full episode of the podcast here.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has issued an emergency appeal asking countries to provide $294m (£241m) in emergency funding for the most urgent needs of Palestinians.
The funds will be used to help some 1.2m people, the agency said.
More than 84,000 people in Gaza became homeless on Thursday, the agency said, adding that there are now more than 423,000 people without shelter there.
"Most residents in the Gaza Strip no longer have access to drinking water from service providers or domestic water through pipelines," the agency said.
Of the region's 50,000 pregnant women, around 5,500 are due to give birth within the coming month. They are "struggling to access essential health services as healthcare workers, hospitals and clinics come under attack."
The UN had previously said it needed $502m to fund Palestinian aid operations in 2023. Less than half of that goal has been fulfilled.