More from Mohammed Ghalayini, a British-Palestinian citizen who is sheltering in Gaza with relatives, including his two half-brothers.

Despite only being teenagers he says they have already seen their share of conflict. He adds that the continued bombing "frays the nerves".

"There was very intense bombing today till around noon. The house was shaking. Last night there was bombing too. I was trying to keep a bomb diary but lost track," Ghalayini says.

He says his brothers are "holding up ok, but every day is a psychological trauma for them. And at times their resilience betrays that trauma."

One of them turned 13 yesterday, but it wasn't much of a party. "We sang him happy birthday and I got him a chocolate bar. My friends from Manchester sent him a group photo," Ghalayini says.

"A Palestinian writer wrote that in Gaza we count our age in how many wars we've been through. Everyone here... is at least five wars old."

Laura Gozzi
Live reporter

Image source, Mohammed Ghalayini

Mohammed Ghalayini is a British-Palestinian scientist who lives and works in Manchester and travelled to Gaza a few weeks ago to visit family and friends.

Now that the only border crossing out of Gaza is only sporadically open, even with a British passport, he can't leave - but he doesn't want to leave his non-British relatives behind, he says. He is now sheltering in an office block in Khan Yunis with his father, half-brothers, uncle and others.

"We’re sleeping on thin foam mattresses on the floor, there’s 16 of us here, four children, one person who has special needs, two elderly people," he says.

"Our water supply is sporadic so we’re rationing it – I’ve diverted grey water from the sinks to buckets so we can use it to flush the toilet, we’re rationing our drinking water, and we’re eating what we can find – but it’s a makeshift diet.

"We have some bread, some cheese and some za'atar [bread dip]. Water is dependent on electricity, but there's only electricity when someone can find fuel to power a generator," Ghalayini says.

Israel has continued its air campaign in northern Gaza ahead of an anticipated ground offensive by its army.

As we have been reporting, air, land and sea operations are expected in retaliation for the attacks by Hamas on Israel last weekend, which killed 1,300 people.

More than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli air strikes in the past week.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Let's bring you some fresh comments from Pope Francis who this morning called for humanitarian corridors in order to allow the delivery of essentials to the Gaza Strip.

"Humanitarian law must be respected, especially in Gaza, where it is urgent and necessary to guarantee humanitarian corridors and help the population," said the Pope after his traditional Angelus prayer in Rome's Saint Peter's Square.

Image source, EPA

There is practically no other option for Israel at this stage than the one Benjamin Netanyahu's government is pursuing in Gaza, a former Israeli prime minister has said.

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4's The World this Weekend, Ehud Barak went on to say that the purpose of such a strategy was to ensure that Hamas' military capabilities were "erased" and that governance of the Gaza Strip was handed to the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority.

He also insisted that Israel is fully committed to international law, but must "rid" Israel's border from the control of Hamas, which he called an "al-Qaeda Daesh type of operation".

More now from the doctor in southern Gaza that the BBC spoke to in the last hour.

Israel has told the hospital to evacuate, he says.

As a reminder, Israel has told everyone in northern Gaza to flee to the south. The doctor's hospital - the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah - is in the southern-most part of the Gaza Strip.

Dr Jamal Hams says staff are refusing to evacuate because they have a "duty to their patients"

"Nothing has happened. I do hope there is nothing because we will not evacuate the hospital," he insists.

"We have many people in the hospital - 60 of our patients are children," he told the BBC, before the line cut out.

The Israeli military has so far not responded to a BBC request for comment on the claim that it has ordered the hospital to evacuate.

Image source, EPA

Iran has warned that an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza could escalate conflicts across the Middle East.

The comments came during a meeting between Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the AFP news agency reports.

"No-one can guarantee the control of the situation and the non-expansion of the conflicts," he said, according to an Iranian foreign ministry statement.

Amirabdollahian said anyone who is interested in preventing the current crisis from growing must prevent the "current barbaric attacks" by Israel against "citizens and civilians in Gaza".

The Iranian official also criticised the US for its total support of Israel.

Iran's top diplomat was in Qatar over the weekend as part of a regional tour that includes visits to Iraq, Lebanon and Syria as well.

In Qatar on Saturday, he also met Hamas's leader Ismail Haniyeh - who is based in the country.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan tells CNN that Israeli officials have informed him that water pipes in southern Gaza have been turned back on.

Speaking on CNN's State of the Union, Sullivan says Israeli officials informed him of the development in the last hour.

The Israeli military declared a "complete siege" of Gaza six days ago, with food and water running out across the territory.

The US has warned that escalation of the war between Israel and Hamas could lead to the prospect of Iran getting directly involved in the conflict.

Speaking on the BBC's US partner CBS News, White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan warned of the possibility of a new front being created on Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

"We can't rule out that Iran would choose to get directly engaged some way. We have to prepare for every possible contingency," he said.

There have been exchanges of fire across the border between the Iranian-backed militia group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Israeli forces, with Palestinian militant groups in the area involved too.

Image source, Reuters

Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent, reporting from southern Israel

Some days in Ashkelon, the air raid sirens never seem to stop. Rami Safon learned to take all of them seriously.

“There were about 10 sirens so I decided to leave our safe room for a coffee, but my wife pulled me back.” A rocket then slammed into their sixth-floor apartment, blowing a hole in the balcony and shattering glass from the front picture window to kitchen cabinets in the back.

Rocket fire from nearby Gaza is random and indiscriminate. Rami’s apartment is the only one hit in this cluster of modern high-rises in an Ashkelon neighbourhood.

A drive through other areas shows the impact on a few other blocks. More than two-thirds of Ashkelon’s residents are said to have left. In this pretty seaside southern Israeli city of nearly 150,000, about half of the population, including Rami’s family, are from Russia and former Soviet-bloc states.

When I ask him about the deaths and destruction across the border in Gaza, his voice hardens. “Of course I am very sorry. Unfortunately, the war inflicted on us cannot be fought with silk gloves. Hamas is the new ISIS.”

As we mentioned in our last post, our colleagues on the BBC News Channel have been talking to Dr Jamal Hams, medical director of the Kuwaiti Hospital in south Gaza.

He says the hospital, in Rafah, received a phone call from the Israeli military saying it needed to be evacuated within two hours.

Hams says the hospital is "purely civil" and is the only medical facility open in the area treating civilians injured by Israeli strikes.

Rafah is right on Gaza's southern border with Egypt. There are other hospitals elsewhere in southern Gaza.

He tells the BBC the hospital has decided not to evacuate "whatever the result" - adding that otherwise "there will be no way for any injured people to get emergency treatment" in the area.

"Even their homes are not safe so we are keeping them here... There's no place for us to go to because we are under siege."

The only hospital in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, has been told to evacuate by Israel, it has said on social media.

Israel’s military has ordered all residents in the north of the Palestinian territory to leave their homes and head south, but it has continued to hit targets in the south of the strip with air strikes.

The BBC has spoken to a doctor at the hospital who said he and others were given two hours to leave. That was roughly two hours ago, the doctor says. We have seen similar deadlines given to hospitals in the north of Gaza extended after they expire.

The hospital's administrator has refused to leave the facility, where there are a number of sick and critically injured patients.

We'll bring you more on this shortly - including quotes from the doctor the BBC has interviewed.

We have contacted the Israeli military for comment.

Thomas Mackintosh
Live reporter

It has just gone 15:30 in Israel and 13:30 here in London - let's bring you a quick recap of the key events as the situation in and around Gaza continues to unfold.

• Israel's military says it is preparing to "destroy" Hamas, with tanks and troops gathering for an expected ground offensive into Gaza
• People in the north of the territory have been told to move to the south, with Israel saying it will allow a safe route for a limited time
• But the World Health Organisation (WHO) has criticised the order to move hospital patients from the north, saying it is tantamount to a death sentence
• Thousands are heading to the Rafah crossing at the south of the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt, but that crossing remains closed. UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told the BBC attempts to open it have been unsuccessful so far
• Clashes have also intensified on Israel's northern border with Lebanon; at least one person in Israel has been killed after a missile attack
• PM Benjamin Netanyahu has convened a cabinet meeting of his country's expanded emergency government

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent, Jerusalem

Israel has been continuing to subject Gaza to the most intense bombardment it’s ever seen.

But overnight, Palestinian militants continued to fire rockets - some even reaching Tel Aviv.

It appears the expected ground assault by Israeli troops has not yet begun.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have now left their homes. After Israel instructed those in the northern half of the strip to head south, UN schools and other makeshift shelters are packed with displaced people.

Despite international efforts, no aid is currently being allowed into Gaza where water, electricity and food imports have all been cut.

And the World Health Organization (WHO) has condemned Israeli orders to evacuate more than 20 hospitals in the north, saying it could be tantamount to a death sentence for some of the sick and injured. It’s pointed particularly to those on life-support and babies in incubators.

A week on from the deadliest attack Israel has ever seen on its civilians, vigils and protests have been taking place demanding that the government should bring home dozens of people whom Hamas is holding hostage.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists the country's expanded emergency government is working around the clock and together with a united front.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu vowed Israel's unity relays a clear message to the nation, enemy and wider world.

A moment's silence was held for victims of the Hamas onslaught last Saturday.

The Israeli leader told the cabinet that the military knows the "entire country" is behind them and understand "this is a fateful hour".

If there is something you would like to know about the current conflict and its origins, send us a question and our correspondents will answer on the BBC News website in the coming days.

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Image source, .

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor, reporting from southern Israel

Our BBC team has been filming in the area bordering Gaza.

Smoke is rising from the northern part of Gaza Strip and there is steady artillery fire into Gaza from Israeli guns.

But nothing I’ve seen here this morning feels like the brink of action. Perhaps the Israeli army needs a few more days.

The BBC's international editor Jeremy Bowen is in southern Israel close to the Gaza boundary - where he took pictures of Israeli soldiers and armour moving forward near Nahal Oz kibbutz.

Image source, PA Media

The wife of Scotland’s first minister has begged for the children of Gaza to have a chance at life as Israeli strikes continue.

Nadia El-Nakla’s parents left Dundee to visit relatives in the territory and are now trapped there after Israel ordered a total siege in response to Hamas's attacks of 7 October.

She and her husband - SNP leader and First Minister Humza Yousaf - faced an emotional call in the middle of the night as the family left the building in which they were staying - thinking it was about to be bombed.

El-Nakla said this can stop if those in power want it to and she called on the UK government to send supplies there instead of spy planes.

Speaking to the BBC earlier, Yousaf said there should be a ceasefire to allow for a humanitarian corridor to be opened to enable innocent people to escape.

The SNP conference unanimously passed an emergency motion sending solidarity to victims in both Israel and Gaza.