Image source, Reuters

President Biden has finished speaking - while we've already heard a lot of what he said, here's a quick summary of the key points.

• On the Gazan hospital blast last night, he said he was "outraged and saddened" at the enormous loss of life - and the evidence points to "an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza"
• On aid, he said he had asked the Israeli cabinet to agree the delivery of "live-saving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza" based on the understanding it would go to civilians not Hamas - and that Israel had agreed aid could "begin to move from Egypt to Gaza"
• On US funding, he announced US$100m "new US funding for humanitarian assistance to both Gaza and the West Bank" - there was also the promise of an imminent and "unprecedented" defence package for Israel, which he said he would ask Congress for later this week
• To Israeli people, he said their country was "born to be a safe place for the Jewish people of the world" and pledged that the US would do "everything in our power" to achieve that once more

"Israel, you're not alone," says Biden, adding that the United States "will walk beside you on those dark days".

Israel will be a safe and secure Jewish and democratic state "today, tomorrow and forever", he says.

"May God protect all those who work for peace, God save those who are still in harm's way."

Biden continues, saying it's important sometimes to take a step back and remember what we all are - "human beings" created with "dignity" and "purpose".

He says the US is about turning to the light from darkness - and adds "that's what the terrorists seek to destroy, because they live in darkness".

"But not you, not Israel," Biden says in a direct appeal to the Israeli people.

Countries like Israel and the US are "measured by the power of our example", he continues, which is why "we must keep pursuing peace and create a path so that both Israeli and Palestinian people can live in security, dignity and in peace".

More now from US President Biden.

He says now that Israel is a Jewish state, but like the US, it's also a democracy that doesn't "live by the rule of terrorists, you live by the rule of law".

When conflict flares, Israel lives by the law of wars, Biden continues. He says that sets it apart from terrorists because they believe in the fundamental dignity of every human life.

"You can't give up on what makes you who you are," he says.

"If you give that up, then the terrorists win," he adds.

The US president says the Palestinian people are "suffering greatly as well", and speaks of the Palestinians who have lost their lives.

I was "outraged and saddened" at the enormous loss of life in Gaza following the explosion at the hospital last night, he says, adding that the evidence at the moment points to "an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza".

The people of Gaza need food, water medicine and shelter, he says.

“I asked the Israeli cabinet.. to agree to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza based on the understanding that there will be inspections, and that the aid should go to civilians and not to Hamas," he says.

"Israel agreed the humanitarian assistance can begin to move from Egypt to Gaza," he adds.

If Hamas diverts or steals the aid, he says, "it will have demonstrated once again they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people".

Biden adds he is working with partners in the region, such as Egypt, to "get trucks moving across the border as soon as possible".

He also announces US$100m "new US funding for humanitarian assistance to both Gaza and the West Bank".

Biden says his message to any state or "hostile actor" thinking of attacking Israel is "don't, don't, don't".

He says the attack on Israel has been described as its 9/11, but he says for a nation as big as Israel it was like 15 9/11s.

The attack will have caused Israelis "shock, pain, rage" that "I and many Americans would understand", Biden says.

Justice must be done, Biden says, but cautions Israelis not to be consumed by rage.

Biden now commends the Israeli first responders who've been working to help those caught up and wounded in the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

He speaks of "retired soldiers running into danger once again" and "civilian medics" running rescue missions.

"The state of Israel was born to be a safe place for the Jewish people of the world," the US president says, adding if the country didn't exist today "we'd have to invent it".

He says that, while it may not feel it right now, Israel "must once again" be a safe place for Jewish people and promises the US will do "everything in our power" to make that happen.

Biden goes on to say that later this week he'll ask the US Congress for an "unprecedented" defence package of Israel.

"There's no higher priority" than the release and safe return of the hostages taken by Hamas, says Biden.

He speaks about what it's like to feel the "black hole" of loss - having lost his own son - sympathising with the Israeli families who have their lost loved ones.

This is what I know, he says, that "they'll never be truly gone".

"Something that's never truly lost is your love for them and their love for you," he says.

US President Biden is speaking in Tel Aviv.

Speaking about 7 October he said the Hamas attacks "recalled the worst ravages of Isis". He said there was "no excusing the violence" and "the brutality would cut deep anywhere in the world".

"Seventh of October became the deadliest day since the Holocaust" for the Jewish community, he says. "The world watched then, it knew. The world did nothing."

He continues: "We will not stand by and do nothing - not today, not tomorrow, not ever."

"Those who are waiting desperately to learn the fate of a loved one," he said, referring to those who had been taken hostage, "you are not alone".

"We are pursuing every avenue to bring home those being held by Hamas".

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

US President Joe Biden, was asked by journalists during his visit in Tel Aviv what "what makes you sure Israel wasn’t behind explosion in Gaza?"

He responded: "The data I was shown by my defence department."

The president has been meeting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Posting on X, external, formerly Twitter, Biden said he had asked "tough questions" of his counterpart.

Earlier today, Israeli officials presented evidence they said showed the deadly explosion at the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in Gaza City was caused by a misfired rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

Hamas - which blamed Israel for the blast - accused Biden of being "blindly biased", Reuters reported.

Earlier, US President Joe Biden spoke to relatives of those affected by the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October.

The president, who is visiting Tel Aviv, also met emergency services representatives.

Biden chatted and hugged them as they spoke about what they had witnessed and experienced.

More than 1,400 people were killed in the attacks, with 4,200 injured and 199 people taken into Gaza as hostages, including children and elderly people.

Image source, US Pool

Image source, US Pool

Image source, Reuters

Image source, US Pool

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent, Jerusalem

Image source, EPA

As we've just reported, the UK's foreign secretary is expected to soon visit Egypt. During this conflict there have been ideas circulating that Israel wants to relocate Gaza’s 2.3m residents to Egypt’s Sinai desert.

They were addressed at a news conference by the Egyptian president earlier.

"What is happening now in Gaza is an attempt to force civilian residents to take refuge and migrate to Egypt, which should not be accepted," Abdul Fattah al-Sisi said.

He warned that were this to happen, the Egyptian people could "go out and protest in their millions".

Cairo has already warned that if Palestinians left their land, it could "liquidate" Palestinian hopes of statehood.

But it would also be very dangerous for the Egyptian government if it was seen as complicit in any such deal – igniting public anger in the Arab world.

Any influx of people would also deepen Egypt’s current economic crisis and raise security fears in its restive Sinai region.

Sisi suggested that as Gaza is in effect under Israeli control, Palestinians could instead be moved to Israel’s Negev desert during its offensive against Hamas "till the militants are dealt with".

Hundreds of lorries of aid have built up in the northern Sinai, awaiting a deal to allow it to be sent through Egypt’s Rafah crossing into Gaza.

It is the Palestinian territory’s only crossing point that is not controlled by Israel, but Israeli approval will be needed to allow it to open. In recent days, it has been hit four times by Israeli air strikes.

Speaking in the UK Parliament earlier, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly confirmed he would travel back to the Middle East today, having visited Israel last week.

It is understood he will go first to Egypt with further visits to Qatar and Turkey being considered.

Survivors of the blast at the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza on Tuesday have been speaking of the moments after the explosion.

Fadel Naim, head of orthopaedic surgery at the hospital, says he found the hospital full of dismembered bodies and wounded people after hearing a huge explosion.

"People came running into the surgery department screaming 'help us, help us, there are people killed and wounded inside the hospital'," Naim tells Reuters.

He tried to save whoever "could be saved, but the number was too great for the hospital team to be able to save... we saw them alive but we couldn't help them".

Gaza resident Adnan al-Naqa tells AFP the "entire square was on fire, there were bodies everywhere, children, women and elderly people".

Fatima Saed, who was in the hospital when the blast occurred, says she "felt" the fire. Watch her comments below:

Lucy Manning
BBC News special correspondent

Image source, Family Handout

The family of Lianne and Yahel Sharabi, Britons murdered by Hamas gunmen, have shared new tributes to them.

Lianne and Yahel were killed during the massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri on 7 October. Sixteen-year-old Noiya and the girls’ father Eli are still missing.

In a statement, their immediate British family say: “There is a Yahel-shaped hole in our lives that can never be filled.”

They say she loved “riding her bike at breakneck speed around the kibbutz, playing football, singing and dancing to Tik Tok and YouTube with sister, Noiya, and, on occasions her British cousins.

"She was a bright student and had a keen interest in the natural world. We will never know what she could have become - a vet, an entertainer, a naturalist, maybe even the first Israeli woman in space.”

They say Lianne, her mother, who was born in the UK, was “the light of our family’s life".

"She would help anyone in trouble, be it physical, emotional or financial. She was funny, with a dry sense of humour."

They add: “We will miss our girl to the end of our days and keep her in our hearts forever, tucked away with the fondest memories of her 48 years. Goodnight, sleep tight, sweetheart.”

As well as updating the number killed, Dr Ashraf Al Qudra, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, again blames Israel for the blast at the hospital site on Tuesday.

And he says since Israel began its air strikes on Gaza, 3,478 people have been killed, with 12,065 injured.

As we've been reporting, Israel insists it's not to blame for the hospital explosion.

It says the evidence from the ground, plus intercepted conversations, shows it was caused by a misfired rocket launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants at Israel, from within Gaza.

Image source, Reuters

The Palestinian Health Ministry has just said, external 471 people were killed in the blast at the hospital in Gaza on Tuesday, with 314 injured.

We'll bring you more from their statement soon.

Image source, EPA

It's just gone 13:00 in London and 15:00 in Israel. Here's a reminder of the main developments today:

An IDF news conference: The Israeli military's spokesman Daniel Hagari spoke to reporters earlier and said:

• The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PiJ) militant group caused the blast at a Gaza City hospital on Tuesday with a misfired rocket
• The "only location damaged" was a car park outside the Al Ahli hospital (pictured above) "where we can see signs of burning"
• He said an Israeli missile - which is what Hamas said caused the explosion - would have caused bigger "craters and structural damage", and insisted it was the PiJ who were to blame

Biden arrives in Israel - and blames 'the other side': Joe Biden and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to reporters in Tel Aviv, with Biden saying it "appears" the hospital attack was not caused by Israel

Questions remain over blast: Despite Hagari laying out Israel's explanation, Islamic Jihad has denied blame. Arab governments also condemned Israel - and cancelled a planned summit with Biden in Jordan

Palestinian death toll rises: The number of people killed in Gaza since the recent war began has risen to 3,300, according to the Palestinian health minister

As we reported earlier, Joe Biden says it "appears" as though the hospital blast on Tuesday evening was caused by "the other team" - that is, not Israel.

He was speaking alongside Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference in Tel Aviv

Watch his comments above.

Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official, has told a news conference in Lebanon that the US - and all Western countries that support Israel - "hold full responsibility for the war against civilians in Gaza".

Hamdan's comments came after the blast at the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza. Hamas - which runs the Gaza Strip - blamed the explosion on Israel.

The IDF has since claimed it was caused by a failed rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, and that failed rocket launches from Gaza are increasing.

Israel has been carrying out air strikes on Gaza since Hamas militants launched waves of deadly attacks on Israel on 7 October.