As we've been reporting, getting aid into Gaza is big on the agenda again today.

Yesterday, the US agreed a deal with Egypt and Israel to allow aid through the Rafah crossing, possibly on Friday. Food, water and medicines will be allowed in, but not fuel which is also desperately needed.

The Rafah crossing is the only one not controlled by Israel, which is blockading Gaza. See our maps from Gaza here.

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

Aid workers say they have been waiting on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing for days now as they wait for permission to be let in and distribute emergency supplies.

Mohsen Sarhan from the Egyptian Food Bank told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme there are 120 aid trucks stationed at the border with Gaza and "seven or eight cargo planes loaded with supplies, coming from Turkey".

Sarhan added that he and and his fellow aid workers are becoming increasingly frustrated at not being able to help. "We're very angry because we know people over there have run out of water, they have even run out of body bags."

Sarhan said he and his team will not be leaving until they can get in to Gaza to distribute the emergency supplies, adding: "We just want the killing to stop for us to be able to get in."

Image source, No 10 Downing Street

Following on from that picture of Sunak and Netanyahu, a Downing Street spokesperson has also provided details of Sunak's earlier meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Sunak reiterated that the UK stands with Israel and "firmly believes in the country’s right to self-defence in line with international law".

The statement said that Sunak and Herzog "agreed on the importance of getting urgent humanitarian support to ordinary Palestinians in Gaza who are also suffering".

We've just had this picture, from the UK government, of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meeting Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Image source, UK government

Image source, Twitter/X

It was reported this week that one of Taylor Swift's bodyguards was heading back to Israel to join the army.

The Israeli ministry of foreign affairs has now confirmed the news, sharing a photo of the soldier with the pop star, external, and using reworked lyrics from one of Swift's songs: "Hey Taylor Swift, we promise you’ll never find another like him."

The bodyguard has not been named, but the post says: "We love you Eran."

Some 360,000 reservists have been called up to Israel's military since the 7 October attacks - many of whom came back from abroad on special flights arranged by the Israeli government.

Upon arriving in Tel Aviv, Rishi Sunak told reporters the Hamas attacks on 7 October were an "unspeakable, horrific act of terrorism", and reiterated that the UK stood with Israel.

Lucy Manning
BBC News special correspondent

Image source, .

A British-Israeli man, Yonatan Rapoport, known as Yoni, is now known to have been murdered by Hamas.

He was killed in the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri on 7 October. He had two children, Yosefi and Aluma.

He was a big Manchester United fan and planned to take his son to Old Trafford next month, for his son's first game there.

At least eight British nationals were killed in the Hamas attacks. The UK government say seven more are missing, and two known to be kidnapped.

Image source, No 10 Downing Street

The UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Israel this morning, arriving in Tel Aviv at about 09:00 local time.

He's already met Israeli President Isaac Herzog - and photos are now coming in of him meeting families of those who have been taken hostage.

He will later meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As he arrived, Sunak pledged to stand with Israel and said Israelis had suffered a "horrific act of terrorism". He is also expected to use the trip to press for humanitarian aid in Gaza.

In a new update, the Israeli military says at least 306 of its soldiers have been killed since 7 October.

Yesterday, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said more than 1,400 Israelis in total were murdered by Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces' spokesman Daniel Hagari also says he cannot rule out the possibility of Palestinian militants still being on Israeli territory following the initial Hamas attack.

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor

Image source, Reuters

We don’t know exactly what the tone was of the private American meetings between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But it is interesting that a central part of Biden’s speech referenced 9/11 and recalled that, in the pursuit of justice, America did things they regretted.

So it was a polite, friendly warning in public to the Israelis. And the newspapers here this morning are reporting that Biden was trying to change what they call here “the rules of the game”.

And Israel will have to listen because it needs two things - money from US Congress, and the deterrent to Hezbollah in Lebanon of the two US carrier battle groups in the eastern Mediterranean, which are immensely powerful projectors of force.

Israel needs that strong message to Iran, because a second front would be militarily extremely challenging for them.

Image source, Getty Images

Palestinian media are reporting that the first and only woman in Hamas's political bureau has been killed in an air strike. The political bureau is Hamas's main decision-making body.

Jamila al-Shanti, the widow of Hamas co-founder Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, founded the women's movement in Hamas and became the first woman elected to the political bureau in 2021.

There was no detail about the location of the strike in the reports.

Once the visits stop, I expect the ground invasion to beginpublished at 09:21 British Summer Time 19 October 2023

09:21 BST 19 October 2023

Jeremy Bowen
International editor, at the Israel-Gaza border

Image source, Reuters

It’s interesting that tonight Joe Biden is due to make an address from the Oval Office.

He’ll wrap up a request for more money for Israel with a request for more money for Ukraine.

And you can see the way in which events and visits are coming together. Allies are coming over here to Israel – the US, Germany and now Britain, also a member of the UN security council.

We’ve seen the troops and the tanks on the border here where I am reporting – the build-up is there.

Reservists have, in the last few days, been given time off to change their socks, see their families.

So once these visits, where the Israelis will have been explaining what their plans are, are over, I fully expect Israel to go ahead with a ground invasion of Gaza.

Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a doctor from London working in Gaza, has been describing what happened on Tuesday night, when a blast occurred at the Al Ahli hospital.

"I was in the operating room when the missile struck," he said. "The ceiling of the operating room fell on us.

"There were hundreds of dead, there were amputated parts, there were people with primary amputations."

He added that 40% of patients he sees are "children and all of them... have lost one or two parents and unfortunately these kids have a long, long recovery road in front of them".

Aid deal is glimmer of hope - but questions remainpublished at 08:53 British Summer Time 19 October 2023

08:53 BST 19 October 2023

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, EPA

The aid agreement announced by Joe Biden yesterday offers a tiny glimmer of hope for more than two million desperate Palestinians trapped inside the Gaza Strip.

President Biden said a first group of 20 trucks could cross into Gaza from Egypt tomorrow, after potholes in the access roads are repaired.

If this goes ahead without a hitch, dozens of other trucks could follow.

But many questions remain.

Where will the aid go? Yesterday, the Israeli military urged Palestinians to move to al-Mawasi, an area on the coast, close to Rafah.

There, the Israelis said, "international humanitarian aid will be provided".

How many people will be able to reach al-Mawasi, at a time when air strikes are still being recorded up and down the Gaza Strip?

And what are the mechanisms for making sure the aid does not fall into the hands of Hamas, a condition insisted upon by Israel?

Israel says the aid will consist of food, water and medicine only. But at the time when electricity is intermittent, due to Israel’s blockade, the UN says fuel is also desperately needed.

As the death of Carmela and Noya Dan was announced, the Israeli military updated the number of people known to have been taken hostage in the 7 October Hamas attacks.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari says the military has notified the families of 203 hostages being held in Gaza.

That's an increase on the previously announced hostage total of 199.

Image source, Israel/X

The Israeli minister of foreign affairs has announced that two of the hostages taken captive by Hamas on 7 October have been found dead.

Carmela Dan, 80, and her 12-year-old granddaughter Noya Dan were taken prisoner in Kibbutz Nir Oz. Israel did not say where the bodies were found.

In a message on X, Israel said:, external "We are devastated to announce that Noya and her grandmother Carmela’s bodies were discovered yesterday.

"Thank you to all of you who shared her story to help us bring her home. Our hearts are broken."

On Wednesday afternoon, a day after the blast at the hospital, Palestinian health authorities said 471 people had been killed.

Like other details about the incident, that is contested.

Israel's foreign ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat said the death toll was "several dozen".

With lack of access to the site for independent organisations, the number is difficult to verify.

Our reporter Rushdi Abualouf visited the scene the morning after the attack.

UK MP Tom Tugendhat, a Home Office minister, tells BBC Breakfast the UK is still not certain about what caused Tuesday's blast at the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza.

"Until the intelligence services in the UK have given me their professional opinion I'm not going to be able to answer that question," he says.

He says "we're in touch constantly", and wants an answer "as soon as possible" but "without premature rush to judgement".

The Palestinian authorities blame Israeli strikes for the blast at the hospital. Israel says it was caused by a rocket fired from Gaza, intended for Israel.

Read our BBC Verify piece here. Although our findings are inconclusive, three experts told us the aftermath was "not consistent with what you would expect from a typical Israeli air strike with a large munition".

As we've reported, Israel says it hit "hundreds" of sites in Gaza in the past 24 hours.

Here are the first pictures we've received from Gaza and the border this morning.

Image source, EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Rishi Sunak's visit to Israel isn't the only Middle East diplomacy taking place today.

In Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping has told Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly that a ceasefire is the most urgent task in the Israel-Gaza war.

Before the outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hamas, China had been working to expand its influence in the Middle East.

Earlier this year, it brokered high-level talks between bitter rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia, the first in seven years.

China has refused to condemn Hamas for the attacks of 7 October - though it says it opposes acts that harm civilians.