Our reporter on the ground in Gaza, Rushdi Abu Alouf, has been watching aid trucks enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing.

He counted 20 trucks entering Gaza so far, he says. That's the number Israel has said it will allow in.

One of the trucks was loaded with coffins. Others were carrying medicines and fuel.

Palestinian officials say 4,137 people have died in Gaza since Hamas infiltrated and attacked Israel two weeks ago - Israel has been bombarding Gaza ever since.

It's worth noting this death toll includes 471 people that the Gaza health ministry says were killed on Tuesday at Al-Ahli Arab hospital. That number is contested - an Israel foreign ministry spokesperson has said it was "several dozen".

Image source, Getty Images/ Mahmoud Khaled

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is working with Egypt and the Palestine Red Crescent Society to ensure medical supplies reach hospitals in Gaza.

It says vehicles carrying the supplies are in Egypt heading for the Rafah crossing. This morning, a number of aid trucks at the crossing were allowed to enter Gaza - others remain waiting on the Egyptian side.

The WHO says the supplies on the vehicles that are approaching the crossing include:

• "Trauma medicines and supplies for 1,200 people"
• "Portable trauma bags for on-the-spot stabilization of up to 235 injured people"
• "Chronic disease medicines and treatments for 1,500 people and basic essential medicines and health supplies for 300,000 people for three months"

"These supplies are a lifeline," the WHO says, "for severely injured people or those battling chronic illnesses, who have endured a harrowing two weeks of limited access to care and severe shortages of medicines and medical supplies."

Earlier, the UK's foreign secretary said that this morning's delivery of aid into Gaza "cannot be a one-off".

As the trucks were allowed through the gates at the Rafah crossing into Gaza, those present on the Egyptian side began celebrating - take a look at the latest photos:

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Turning away from the Rafah crossing for a moment, the news agency AFP reports that the Israeli government has told its citizens in Egypt and Jordan to leave as soon as possible.

The news agency quotes a statement from Israel's national security council, which says it "raises its travel warnings for Egypt (including Sinai) and Jordan to level 4 (high threat): recommendation not to travel to these countries and for those staying there to leave... as soon as possible".

Earlier this week, the warning level was similarly raised for Turkey and Israeli citizens there were instructed to leave.

Image source, Reuters

We're seeing pictures of empty trucks parked on the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing, waiting to be loaded with the aid coming in from Egypt this morning.

Our correspondent in Gaza, Rushdi Abu Alouf, says the aid - including medicines and food, but not fuel - is being transferred onto smaller Palestinian trucks to be distributed around the Gaza Strip.

On our remote feeds, we can see activity from the Egyptian side - there are forklifts unloading packages from the trucks that approached the gates a short time ago.

Image source, .

Image source, PA Media

The UK's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly says the delivery of "lifesaving" humanitarian aid into Gaza "cannot be a one off".

"This aid is a lifeline for those suffering," he says on X, external (previously Twitter).

"The UK continues to push for humanitarian access to Gaza."

There's a flurry of activity at the Rafah crossing now - take a look at some of the latest photos we're getting from the Egypt-Gaza border:

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

The Rafah crossing has opened, with live footage showing trucks entering the border crossing from Egypt into Gaza.

It's unclear how long the crossing will remain open for. Israel has so far agreed to allow 20 trucks into Gaza.

We can see movement at the border crossing in Rafah - vehicles are beginning to roll towards the gates on the Egyptian side.

Israel has agreed to allow around 20 trucks carrying food, water and medicine - but no fuel - into Gaza through the southern crossing from Egypt.

Here is one of the latest pictures from the crossing:

Image source, EPA

The aid convoy awaiting the opening of the Rafah border crossing is a "drop in the ocean" of the amount required in Gaza, a UN agency says.

Juliette Touma, from the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, says there needs to be a sustainable flow of humanitarian aid.

"What civilians in Gaza really need is sustainable and continuous humanitarian access ... including and especially fuel for the water stations," she tells Radio 4's Today programme.

Israel has agreed to allow 20 trucks carrying aid into Gaza through the Rafah crossing, but has refused to allow fuel to cross the border.

However, Touma says fuel is essential to power water pumps - "water is running out in Gaza," she said. "In some places it has completely run out".

Image source, .

Satellite images show damage at Rafah crossingpublished at 07:42 British Summer Time 21 October 2023

07:42 BST 21 October 2023

As the wait goes on for the aid trucks queuing at the Rafah crossing to enter Gaza, a satellite image shows how the road into southern Gaza has been damaged during the conflict.

BBC Verify has been studying images from the crossing.

You can see the queue of lorries waiting to pass through from Egypt into Gaza - 20 have been given permission to cross.

And you can make out six damaged areas (which we've circled) on the two routes leading away from the border gate into southern Gaza.

This damage does not appear in satellite images of the crossing before 10 October.

In a statement earlier this week, the Israel Defence Forces said they had been carrying out air strikes targeting "northern Rafah" but didn't mention the crossing.

Around 175 trucks with essential medicines, food and water are stuck on Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, according to the news agency AFP, as Palestinians in Gaza wait for life-saving aid.

We've just heard from the US embassy in Israel, who say they've received information that the crossing will open at 10:00 local time (in about 40 minutes).

To recap, the Rafah crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt is the only passage through which the Israelis have agreed to allow aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave. The other crossings, at Erez and Kerem Shalom between Gaza and Israel, have been closed by Israeli forces.

Israel has only permitted 20 trucks into Gaza at the moment – while the UN says at least 100 are required to deliver the required immediate assistance.

Image source, .

The US Embassy in Israel says it has "received information" that the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will open at 10:00 local time (in an hour).

"We anticipate that many people would attempt to cross should the border open, and US citizens attempting to enter Egypt should expect a potentially chaotic and disorderly environment on both sides of the crossing," it says in a statement, external.

It says if the border does open, it's unclear how long it will remain so for foreign citizens to leave.

The embassy tells US citizens the situation "remains dynamic and fluid and the security environment is unpredictable", advising people to assess their safety before travelling to the border or trying to cross.

Dozens of trucks with essential medicines, food, and water are stuck on the Egyptian side of the crossing - which is the only crossing into Gaza not controlled by Israel. All crossings into Gaza are currently closed.

Image source, .

Egypt is holding a peace summit today that will bring together more than 20 world leaders to discuss the deepening conflict between Israel and the Hamas group in Gaza.

The list of attendees compiled by Reuters include Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, UN chief Antonio Guterres, and several heads of state in the Arab region, among others.

Notably, there are no Israeli, Hamas, US and Iranian representatives on the list. Abbas is president of the Palestinian Authority, which has partial control over the West Bank - it is a rival movement to the Hamas group.

The Egyptian organisers say the main goal is a ceasefire. But expectations of what will be achieved are low, as key players such as Israel and Iran - which back Hamas - won't be present.

Egypt is the only country that has a border with Gaza not controlled by Israel. World leaders have called for Egypt to open the Rafah crossing to allow much-needed aid into Gaza.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Today marks two weeks since Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, killing more than 1,400 people and taking about 200 others hostage.

In retaliation, Israel has been bombarding the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave. More than 4,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there. Here's what else you need to know:

• The first two of about 200 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza were released on Friday in a deal brokered by Qatar
• Family members of US nationals Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie have voiced their relief. Natalie's father told US media he had experienced the "worst two weeks" of his life. The 17-year-old's half-brother told the BBC of his "overwhelming sense of joy"
• The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israel issued an evacuation order for the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza, where more than 400 patients and 12,000 displaced civilians are currently housed
• The World Health Organization chief called the alleged evacuation order "disturbing" and stressed that "it is impossible for these overcrowded hospitals to safely evacuate patients"
• Meanwhile, food, fuel and water resources in Gaza are scarce and humanitarian aid trucks have not yet been able to enter the territory via the Rafah crossing with Egypt - although UN chief Antonio Guterres has raised hopes of this happening today

• A senior Israeli official told the BBC there was “a good chance" aid trucks would enter Gaza on Saturday, but there were "ongoing issues which are being solved"
• And the leaders of Arab and European countries will meet for a summit in Egypt to discuss the crisis, but expectations are low because key players like Iran - and Israel itself - aren't expected to attend

Following the release of Judith and Natalie Raanan, we've freshly updated our article with details of some of those still believed to be Hamas hostages.

An Israeli military spokesman has said that about 200 people are currently in captivity. Hamas has said it has hidden them in "safe places and tunnels" within Gaza.

Israel's military say the hostages include 20 children and between 10 and 20 over-60s. Our article features the stories of people confirmed by the BBC, or credibly reported, to have been abducted by Hamas from Israel.

• Read it here

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

Israel now faces a dilemma.

With around two hundred other hostages of various nationalities still held in captivity in Gaza, there is the possibility that more could be released by negotiation.

But Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas and has hundreds of thousands of troops poised to go into Gaza.

If and when that incursion begins it will be considerably harder for Qatar, or any other mediators, to negotiate the release of more hostages.

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

Right from the moment this crisis began there was one country that was always going to be more key than any other when it came to acting as an intermediary: Qatar.

It hosts both the political office of Hamas and a massive US airbase: Al Udeid.

Six days after Hamas and other militants rampaged through southern Israel, the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met the emir of Qatar and they discussed the plight of the hostages who had been taken into Gaza.

Qatar offered to use its influence with Hamas to help secure their release. Days of delicate negotiations followed, with Qatari mediators talking to both Hamas and the Israelis, even though there is no Israeli embassy in Qatar.

With two American hostages now released, drawing praise from both the US president and the UK prime minister, Qatar is hopeful that more may follow.

Asked what Hamas got in return for the pair's release, a Qatari official said: nothing, it was a goodwill gesture.

The conflict continues to dominate many of the newspapers' front pages here in the UK.

This morning's editions carry photos of Judith and Natalie Raanan - the two US nationals who were seized by Hamas a fortnight ago, before being released on Friday.

Their release raises hope other captives may be freed, The Times writes.

The Daily Mirror carries an image from both sides of the war; while the Daily Mail has an interview with a woman who has been enlisted to fight for Israel.

• You can read a full review of the front pages here

Image source, AFP

As you can see, the sun's up again in this part of the Middle East. It's now been a fortnight since the Palestinian group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing more than 1,400 people and taking about 200 others hostage.

Israel responded with airstrikes. Palestinian officials say more than 4,000 people have been killed in Gaza since 7 October.

Gaza remains under complete siege, with Israel cutting off all essential supplies. World leaders have called for the Rafah crossing to be opened to allow much-needed aid to enter from Egypt. The trucks waiting at the crossing will be the "difference between life and death", UN chief António Guterres has said.

Meanwhile, the release by Hamas of two American women has raised hopes that more hostages may be freed.

• Read more on what's happening in Israel and Gaza