Earlier we heard from a spokesperson for the IDF, who said the Israeli military has contacted the families of 199 people who are being held hostage in Gaza - though he did not give details of their nationalities.

We know the hostages include at least 13 children and at least eight over-60s - including at least two over 80.

The UK's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Sunday that up to 10 British people may be being held in Gaza.

The US has also confirmed a number of its citizens have been captured by Hamas, and that 13 of its citizens are missing.

Thai officials say 17 of the country's nationals are also being held in Gaza, while France says 13 of its citizens remain missing. Eight Germans, two Mexicans and one Russian-Israeli are among the hostages - their countries have said.

Many other nationalities are among those who remain missing.

Hamas has said it has hidden its hostages in "safe places and tunnels" within Gaza, and has threatened to kill them if civilian homes are bombed by Israel without warning.

• Read about some of the people we have confirmed to be hostages here.

Image source, Reuters

Let's bring you some thoughts on the Rafah crossing situation from here in the UK.

The armed forces minister has told the BBC he hopes there will be "opportunity to get people out of Gaza, particularly British nationals".

But he sounded a "note of caution", saying "Hamas gets a vote" and they are "extraordinarily unreliable" and he was "not 100% confident" that it would happen.

James Heappey said there is "nothing we can do directly" to get British nationals out of Gaza.

He said the government was "speaking directly" and "working closely" with Egypt on the issues of bringing aid into Gaza and of allowing British nationals out.

Officials want to avoid an exodus into Egyptpublished at 10:26 British Summer Time 16 October 2023

10:26 BST 16 October 2023

Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent, reporting from southern Israel

Image source, Reuters

Thousands of people are massing close to the crossing desperate to get out - including about 1,000 foreign nationals.

Desperately needed aid has been piling up on the Egyptian side of the border - everyone wants that aid to start moving in, but there has to be a safe corridor.

Egypt has also said it will set up a field hospital near the crossing, and will treat Gazans in its nearest hospital in north Sinai.

Officials are anxious to avoid an exodus into Egypt, knowing this could become permanent, and de-populate the Gaza Strip.

This is a key part of this developing war - the Americans are making this a top priority:

While they stand by Israel, they want to do everything possible to minimise the suffering of civilians.

But that suffering is already enormous.

Almost half of the wounded coming to hospital in Gaza are children, some of whom are sole survivors of their families, a doctor has told the BBC’s Today programme.

Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a surgeon who normally works in the UK, arrived in Gaza last Monday and has remained in the northern zone, working in a hospital there.

On Sunday he said two girls, aged four and five were brought in with burns and a head injury.

“They were the only ones dug out of the family home as survivors. Every day we have cases like these,” Abu-Sittah said, explaining that most people were staying put in the evacuation zone.

"Becoming refugees is such a formative part of Palestinians' identity, people just do not want to go through this again,” he said, adding that areas deemed safe were bombed just as ferociously as other ones.

Image source, Getty Images

We've been covering reports this morning that Egypt might be about to open the Rafah border crossing for aid to get in and foreign nationals to leave Gaza.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied that a ceasefire is in place to allow this to happen.

Now Hamas official Izzat Al-Rishq has told the BBC there is "no truth" in the reports of a truce to allow "the opening of the Rafah crossing".

Uncertainty and danger in Middle East is acutepublished at 09:58 British Summer Time 16 October 2023

09:58 BST 16 October 2023

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor, reporting from Ashkelon

Image source, Reuters

As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Tel Aviv, there’s a sense the waiting period will continue while he is here.

He is hugely concerned about regional escalation of this war and in particular very worried about Hezbollah - the big ally of Iran getting involved.

So, America is moving a phenomenal amount of force into the Mediterranean – two carrier battle groups.

What’s also interesting – and I haven’t seen this before – is although Israel always receives backing from the Americans to defend itself, it isn’t a blank cheque this time.

There are repeated reminders from the Americans that Israel has to do this "the right way", as Blinken says.

This is because they are concerned that a steep rise in deaths of Palestinians civilians will up the temperature considerably in the region.

That sense of uncertainty, danger and volatility here in the Middle East is particularly acute right now.

Israel Defence Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari says 199 people are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, revising up an earlier number of 155 given yesterday.

Speaking in a media briefing, he says the military has "updated the families" of all hostages.

Anna Foster
Reporting from the Israel-Lebanon border

Image source, EPA

We've been in some communities near Israel's border with Lebanon over the last few days talking to people. Most of them have moved already - they didn't wait for this morning's official evacuation order.

We've spoken to families who have packed up their things, taken their children and left to move south to safety. We've been in villages that are already three-quarters empty or more.

In some cases the only people now there are members of the military and members of local security teams who stayed behind to help the soldiers.

When we were on the border yesterday, at one point there was more than an hour of firing back and forth across the border. The communities on this side of the border are so close you can see the border wall. In some villages you can see the Hezbollah observation posts on the other side.

So you can see why people are nervous, and why some of them chose to leave before this official evacuation order came.

The Israeli military says it plans to evacuate residents away from the Lebanese border in the north of the country.

The reason the border has been deemed unsafe is because, in addition to Hamas in Gaza, Israel is also fighting Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon which is committed to Israel's destruction.

Like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah has been designated a terror organisation by the UK, US and other countries.

One Israeli civilian was killed in a Hezbollah missile attack on a village on Sunday, and Israel has carried out overnight strikes on Lebanon.

Over the weekend, Israel announced the closure of an area up to 4km from the border.

Image source, .

• Read more about the situation at the border here.

"This is war that Hamas started, and Israel will finish," the Israel ambassador to the UK told the BBC this morning.

Tzipi Hotovely was in Israel when the murdereous attacks by Hamas began on 7 October.

"Every Israeli is traumatised by the Hamas massacre in innocent people. As the days go by, the atrocities are exposed," she told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"We heard that 80% of the bodies were tortured, young women being raped, young babies being beheaded, those kind of atrocities, barbarism - pure evil the world hasn't seen since World War Two."

She said Israel planned to wipe out Hamas in Gaza, saying: "Hamas won't exist in the Gaza Strip. Israel can not afford a terror organisation in its borders."

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent, reporting from southern Israel

Image source, Reuters

So many eyes here and around the world are on a possible reopening of the vital Rafah crossing from Gaza into Egypt.

But reports of a temporary ceasefire in southern Gaza have been quickly quashed by the Israeli prime minister’s office.

BBC sources in Cairo speak of an agreement in principle on a temporary ceasefire. But it appears there are still difficult issues to sort.

The Egyptians have made it clear they won’t open the passage until there are guarantees for the safety of their staff.

Israel wants to inspect all lorries travelling into Gaza to ensure they aren’t carrying weapons.

Image source, Reuters

Crowds of people wanting to leave Gaza have gathered at the Rafah border crossing, after earlier reports suggested it could be temporarily reopened.

Any reopening of the Gaza-Egypt crossing would allow desperately-needed aid into the area, and some foreigners to leave.

However, at the moment the crossing remains closed.

Rafah, which is on the border between Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Hamas-governed Gaza, is the only crossing into the territory not controlled by Israel.

A spokesman from Israel's military says he's unaware of any ceasefire in southern Gaza, after news agency Reuters cited Egyptian security sources saying there would be a truce to coincide with the opening of the Egypt-Gaza border crossing.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht told the BBC: "There is no agreed ceasefire that I'm aware of. I'm seeing all these reports too. There's nothing I confirm."

Israel appears to deny reports of a truce in southern Gaza, half an hour after security sources in Egypt told Reuters a ceasefire had been agreed to coincide with the reopening of the Rafah crossing.

A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office says: "There is currently no truce and humanitarian aid in Gaza in exchange for getting foreigners out."

Israel's military has announced a plan to evacuate communities in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon.

Residents of 28 communities that lie within 2 kilometres (1.24 miles) of the border will be moved into "state-funded guesthouses", the Israel Defense Forces said.

One Israeli civilian was killed in a Hezbollah missile attack on one of the villages near the border on Sunday, according to the Israeli military.

Israel has carried out overnight strikes on Lebanon, targeting military infrastructure belonging to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. No casualties have been reported.

The head of the Hamas media office says they have no information about a humanitarian truce being agreed in southern Gaza, according to Reuters.

Salama Marouf tells the news agency they have received no confirmation from the Egyptian side about intentions to open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

A bit more now on the developing news on the Rafah border crossing.

Two Egyptian security sources have told Reuters news agency the ceasefire in southern Gaza will last for several hours - although they have not been clear on the exact duration.

They also said Israel, Egypt and the US have agreed Rafah will be "open until 14:00 GMT" on Monday as a one-day initial reopening.

Asked for confirmation, the Israeli military and the US Embassy in Israel had no immediate comment, Reuters adds.

The US, Israel and Egypt have agreed to a ceasefire in southern Gaza to coincide with the reopening of the Rafah border crossing, two Egyptian security sources have told the Reuters news agency.

Reuters said the ceasefire was to begin at 06:00 GMT - now - amid media reports that the Egyptian-controlled crossing would reopen at the same time.

We aren't able to confirm yet whether the crossing has opened.

The US anticipates the situation at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza will "remain fluid and unpredictable" amid reports it will open at 09:00 local time - around now.

Issuing advice to Americans in Gaza, external, the US state department says it is unclear whether or for how long people will be permitted to transit the southern crossing.

"If you assess it to be safe, you may wish to move closer to the Rafah border crossing – there may be very little notice if the crossing opens and it may only open for a limited time," it says.

Officials are working on "potential options for departure" for Americans in Gaza.

Egypt's Rafah border is Gaza's only exit route not controlled by Israel. It is now the only possible road out of Gaza after Israel blockaded all other exits.

The crossing lies in the south of Gaza on the border with Egypt's Sinai peninsula, a sparsely populated desert region. The cities on both sides of the border are known as Rafah.

Egypt has tightly restricted the opening of the crossing as relations between Hamas and Egypy have been badly strained.

Our correspondent Lyse Doucet reported from the crossing in July 2014. It was opened sporadically in July and August that year, amid fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants - but only for the injured, the ill, and foreigners.

The recent Israeli airstrikes have also hit the border crossing, according to media reports over the past week.

Image source, .