UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly was asked this morning whether the UK is giving a "green light" to the Israeli government.

His response was that Hamas is to blame for the suffering of the Palestinian people.

But he says he is concerned about deaths in Gaza, especially ahead of any Israeli ground operation. More than 2,300 people have died in Israel's bombing campaign, Palestinian authorities say.

"They [Israel] do have a duty to minimise civilian casualties and I've raised this in every conversation I've had with the Israeli government about this issue," Cleverly said.

The foreign secretary is also asked whether the UK has raised any potential war crimes allegations with Israel - after the Norwegian Refugee Council's general secretary said forcing civilians to move south counted as such.

"The UK government is absolutely committed to the adherence of international law," the foreign secretary said. He insisted the British government raises any breaches with Israel.

Finally, Cleverly admitted the UK government has been trying to get the Rafah crossing open through talks with Egypt and Israel and has so far been unsuccessful.

As we have been reporting, the UK government is urging British nationals in Gaza to be ready in case the Rafah border crossing into Egypt is opened.

The crossing is currently the only route out of the territory. Hamas, Egypt and Israel all exercise degrees of control over who can pass through.

The UK Foreign Office (FCDO) says British nationals should check the status of the Rafah crossing before travel, adding that any movement into Egypt beyond that point "is at your own risk".

It is also important to note that the FCDO has strict travel advice, external for certain parts of Egypt.

The FCDO warns against all travel to North Sinai and anywhere within 20km of the Egypt-Libya border, except the town of El Salloum.

All but essential travel is advised against for the northern part of South Sinai, the eastern part of the Ismailiyah Governorate east of the Suez Canal, the Western Desert, the Hala’ib Triangle and the Bir Tawil Trapezoid.

Mohamed Madi
BBC News

Dr Muhammad Ghuneim, 28, is an emergency doctor at the Al-Shifa medical complex, the largest hospital in the Gaza strip. He says like almost all the staff there, he hasn’t been able to leave since the bombardment started a week ago.

“All the staff need to go home to see their families, but they can’t because of the number of people coming in that need help. They are checking every single ambulance to see if anyone from their neighbourhood."

Around 60% of casualties coming into the hospital are women, children and elderly, he says. The hospital is running out of medical supplies, with fuel powering the generators expected to run out today.

“That means no surgeries, no oxygen for patients. We feel so helpless, like we can’t do anything.”

Dr Ghuneim, who studied global health in Aberdeen, Scotland, but has otherwise lived in Gaza his whole life, says he has no interest in leaving.

“We don’t need a path to leave Gaza. We just need a humanitarian path to support Gaza with medical supplies and humanitarian aid.”

“I am calling every single human in the world - to protest in the street, and ask your government to help stop this aggression,” he says.

Israeli air strikes into Gaza continue - and the military has this morning claimed that the latest wave of strikes have killed Billal Al Kedra - the Nukhba commander of the forces in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.

The Israelis say he was responsible for mass killings of Israelis at kibbutz Nirim, in southern Israel, last Saturday, after Hamas militants infiltrated Israel in a surprise attack.

Joel Gunter
in Jerusalem, Israel

Last Sunday morning, Celine Ben David Nagar should have been getting ready for her first day back at work after six happy months on maternity leave.

Instead, she was thought to be somewhere inside Gaza, in the hands of Hamas, and her family was entering a nightmare that is now a week long.

Celine, 32, had set out early on Saturday morning with two friends to attend the Nova music festival in southern Israel, turning back when they heard rockets ahead.

They hid inside a bomb shelter, but Hamas found them

"Soldiers are coming," Celine texted her husband Ido. "God, it was a mistake to come here."

Celine is now missing - thought to be among the estimated 150 hostages taken into Gaza. Ido Nagar broke down in tears as he tried to describe his wife.

"She is an amazing woman and an amazing mother,” he said. “We have a six-month old baby. This was supposed to be her one last party to enjoy before she returned to work.

“We agreed that I would pick her up at midnight, but she never came home."

• Read the full article here

The BBC's Rushdi Abualouf travelled to Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza, from Gaza City, in the north, with his family.

He says authorities in the southern city are struggling to cope with the influx of refugees.

Israel has told 1.1 million residents of northern Gaza to evacuate to the south ahead of an expected ground invasion.

Watch the scenes in Khan Younis on Saturday as babies and adults were rushed into local hospitals, and young children slept on streets - their families watching on.

A mass evacuation of civilians from the north of Gaza is underway, with thousands of people fleeing to the south of the territory on foot or in vehicles.

Israel has warned 1.1 million people to leave. That number of people can be hard to imagine - so we've tried to visualise it for you below.

Image source, ,

Joel Gunter
Reporting from central Israel

In the week since the Hamas attack on Israel, the country’s authorities have been faced with the enormous task of identifying and burying the many hundreds of dead.

Some of the key stages of that process, from finding and collecting the human remains, to washing and wrapping the bodies for burial, has fallen to a group of ultra-orthodox volunteers known as Zaka.

Zaka is called in to deal with the aftermath of the most traumatic fatal events. They give their service for free, because they believe that it is holy work to ensure dignity is provided to the dead.

Baroch Frankel, a 28-year-old volunteer, has been working around the clock since last Saturday, both at the sites of the attack and at a military base where the identification takes place.

"Zaka is a sacred service because you ask no thanks," Frankel said. "The dead cannot pay you back."

Yacoub Zechariah, a 39-year-old deputy mayor of a small city in Israel, was on his fourth straight overnight shift at the military base when he pulled the bodies of an entire family of five down from a truck.

"Seeing an entire family killed is something that breaks a human being," Zechariah said. "We are people of faith and we know that everything comes from God, but this is difficult for us to understand."

• Read the full piece: The volunteers giving dignity to Israel's dead

It has just passed midday in Israel and Gaza. Here's an abridged recap of the latest headlines:

• Israeli troops are gathering near Gaza ahead of an anticipated ground offensive
• An evacuation window for the safe passage of civilians in the north of Gaza to the south will stay open for another 35 minutes before closing at 13:00 local time (10:00 GMT)
• Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office is telling British nationals in Gaza to prepare in case the Rafah border crossing into Egypt is opened. An aid convoy has been waiting for hours to enter Gaza at the crossing
• In other news, an Israeli civilian has been killed and two others wounded in northern Israel by a missile shot from Lebanon, Israeli emergency services say
• As tension at the Israel-Lebanon border rises, Hamas says three of its fighters infiltrated Israel through the border, and were later killed
• More than 1,300 people have been killed in Israel since last weekend, while the number of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza is 126
• More than 2,300 people have been killed in Israel's bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip launched in the aftermath, Palestinian authorities say

Image source, EPA

The head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, Husam Zomlot, describes the current situation in Gaza as one of "horror" and carnage".

Zomlot represents the Palestinian Authority (PA), which runs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, while Hamas controls the Gaza Strip.

Speaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, he calls on the UK government to "stick to its own historic, legal and political responsibilities" and to stop "giving the green light" to the Israeli government.

Pressed repeatedly over support for Hamas in Gaza, Zomlot says most people don't ally with a particular political faction. For those who do, he claims the majority align with Fatah, which runs the PA.

We're turning our attention briefly to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, where several key international figures are speaking about the Israel-Gaza war.

Mark Regev, senior adviser to the Israeli PM, rejects criticism by humanitarian bodies that some of Israel's actions could amount to war crimes.

Israel has cut off power and water to Gaza and more than 2,300 people have been killed in Israel's bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip. Its air strikes were launched in the aftermath of Hamas' attack last weekend, which killed more than 1,300 people in Israel.

On the casualties in Gaza, he said: "Those numbers are put out by Hamas... There is no distinction between combatants and non-combatants."

The BBC yesterday verified a video showing the aftermath of a strike on a convoy of civilians fleeing northern Gaza. At least 12 bodies were visible in the footage.

Gaza authorities say it was an Israeli strike - but Regev says that "Israel does not target non-combatant innocent civilians". He says some footage coming out of Gaza may be staged, but he does not go into detail on that point.

The militant group Hamas - designated a terrorist organisation by the UK, the US, and other nations - has told Palestinians to ignore Israel's orders to evacuate northern Gaza.

More now on the death of a man in northern Israel, which we reported earlier. He was killed by a missile fired from Lebanon.

Israeli emergency services have confirmed that the man was a civilian. The others injured in the attack were civilians, too.

These are the first Israeli civilian casualties on the country's northern border in the last week.

The Lebanese group Hezbollah said it had launched guided missiles at the Israeli community of Shtula.

For more on rising tensions at the Israel-Lebanon border, read this post from our correspondent Hugo Bachega.

Image source, EPA

The Israeli military says at least 279 of its soldiers have been killed since 7 October, when Hamas launched its surprise attack. Israel's total death toll, including civilians, is more than 1,300.

In an update, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says that the number of confirmed Israeli hostages being held in Gaza is 126.

Previously, Israel said around 150 people were being held captive in Gaza.

Hugo Bachega
in southern Lebanon

One man was killed and two others wounded in northern Israel, Israeli emergency services say, as violence across the Lebanon-Israel border escalates.

The Lebanese group Hezbollah said it had launched guided missiles at the Israeli community of Shtula.

The Israeli military said it responded with artillery fire.

It also announced the closure of an area up to 4km from the border.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have exchanged rockets and shelling since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

• For more on the border situation, read our earlier post: Three Hamas militants infiltrate Israel from Lebanon and are killed

Nick Beake
Reporting from Ashkelon

There is a lot of activity above us this morning. Much more than this time yesterday.

You can hear the distinctive buzz of surveillance drones as well as the roar of Israeli military planes heading for Gaza.

The sorties are often followed by a boom which echoes in the distance.

We’re about seven miles (11km) from the wire marking the beginning of the territory that Hamas controls.

Hundreds of thousands of Israeli troops have been taking up positions ahead of a full-scale incursion that the government says is coming.

We don’t know the significance of the increase in air activity here, nor can we say when this promised operation will begin in earnest.

Dr Natalie Roberts, the executive director of the charity Médecins Sans Frontières UK, says evacuating hospitals in the Gaza Strip with hours’ notice is an “impossible task”.

Israel has called for Gazans to leave the north of the territory ahead of an expected ground offensive.

“There's nowhere for them to go anyway," Dr Roberts said. "The hospitals in the south are completely overwhelmed and there's no electricity across the Gaza Strip now.”

The IDF posted on X this morning to notify people in Gaza of a safe route they could use, running from Beit Hanoun in the north towards Khan Younis in the south (see map in the post below). It says it will not target the route between 10:00 and 13:00 local time (07:00 and 10:00GMT).

But Dr Roberts says space is becoming an issue in the southern regions of Gaza.

“There's a sense of, not just despair, but of panic.

“No one knows if they'd be allowed to return home afterwards.”

Image source, Reuters

The evacuation route for Gazans fleeing the north of the territory opened a short while ago.

Israel says civilians should travel along the route between 10:00 and 13:00 local time (07:00 and 10:00 GMT).

It runs from Beit Hanoun in the north down towards the city of Khan Yunis in the south, as shown in the map below.

Hamas has told Palestinians to ignore Israel's evacuation order.

Just now, the US embassy in Israel has said it has offered Americans and their immediate relatives in the country evacuation by sea.

Those eligible will leave from the northern Israeli port city of Haifa for Cyprus on Monday.

Boarding begins at 08:00 local time (05:00 GMT), the embassy says. US citizens must arrive at Haifa port passenger terminal no later than 09:00 AM local time (06:00 GMT).

Boarding will proceed in order of arrival and is on a space limited basis, it adds.

The passage to Limassol Port, on the north coast, is expected to take approximately 10-12 hours.

Hugo Bachega
in southern Lebanon

The arm of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Lebanon has confirmed that three of its members were killed while infiltrating Israel from southern Lebanon early on Saturday, amid an escalation in cross-border violence.

The group said the men were “able… to blow up the border fence” and “target the surveillance and access checkpoint” near the northern Israeli farming village of Margaliot.

It said they were targeted by Israeli airplanes.

On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had killed “from the air” three “terrorists” in that area.

Tensions are high along the Lebanese-Israeli border, amid fears this could become another front in the war.

Hezbollah, the heavily armed Lebanese group, and the Israeli military have exchanged rockets and shelling in recent days, while Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have also carried out attacks against Israel.

This morning, the IDF said it was carrying out strikes on an area in Lebanon after a suspected shooting toward the border community of Shtula.

The UK Foreign Office is telling British nationals in Gaza to prepare in case the Rafah border crossing into Egypt is opened.

The crossing, in the south of Gaza, is currently the only route out of the territory, with Hamas controlling who can pass through.

Negotiations over allowing foreign nationals to leave Gaza via the crossing are continuing, with Egypt currently refusing this until Israel allows a convoy of aid trucks on its side to enter Gaza.

When it does open, it will likely only be for a short time. More details can be found here.

We do not know how many Britons are currently in Gaza.

As we've been reporting, lorries carrying aid have been queuing for hours waiting to enter Gaza.

The map below shows where the Rafah crossing is. Israel has told Gazans to move from the north of the region, including Gaza City, to south of a watercourse known as Wadi Gaza.

Image source, .