Israel confirms that two elderly women, Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz, have been released by Hamas but their husbands are still being held
It brings the total number of hostages released by Hamas to four. Two American-Israelis, mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan, were released from captivity on Friday
In its latest estimate, Israel says that more than 200 hostages are being held by Hamas after its surprise attack on Israel on 7 October
French President Emmanuel Macron is visiting Israel today, while China's top diplomat Wang Yi is heading to Washington this week to discuss the conflict
Earlier, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the blast at Gaza's Al Ahli hospital last week was likely caused by a missile fired from within Gaza
Hamas blamed the incident on an Israeli strike, but Israel said a misfiring Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket from within Gaza was responsible
More than 1,400 Israelis were killed when Hamas attacked on 7 October, while Gaza's health ministry says more than 5,000 have been killed since Israel began bombing the territory in response
We are hearing reports that a third convoy of aid has crossed into Gaza from Egypt.
Both Reuters and AFP news agencies say more trucks have just entered via the Rafah crossing.
This follows a first convoy of 20 trucks on Saturday and a second convoy on Sunday of around 14. We'll bring you more details as we have them.
Image source, ReutersA Red Crescent worker sorts baby formula from an aid delivery in Khan Younis
The International Committee of the Red Cross has welcomed the delivery of the first two convoys of aid to Gaza - but says it's just a "drop" of what the population needs.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, charity spokeswoman Imene Trabelsi said there needs to be an ongoing and sustainable plan to deliver supplies - and pointed out that the vast majority of those in Gaza were relying on aid before the latest conflict even broke out.
Trabelsi adds that families forced from their homes are sleeping on the streets without essential items such as blankets because shelters are already full.
"It's not an exaggeration to say it's catastrophic in Gaza." Last week, an IDF spokesman suggested to the BBC there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza., external
As we've reported, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says limited raids were mounted into Gaza overnight.
This is not the beginning of a full-scale ground invasion - but one soldier was killed in Gazan territory. Three other IDF soldiers were injured.
Here's how things are looking on the Israeli side of the barrier this morning:
Image source, EPA
Image source, EPA
Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent, in southern Israel
Western leaders who’ve publicly embraced Israel’s right to defend itself are also sending messages, in public and private, about the need to avoid rushing forward in rage.
US media are reporting that President Joe Biden is urging Israel to delay a ground operation to allow more time to free more than 200 hostages.
A pause would also create space to allow foreign nationals to get out of Gaza, and more desperately needed aid to get in.
The release of two American-Israelis on Friday provided a rare glimmer of hope for other distraught families.
At least 20 more Americans are said to be missing, and may be among dozens of other foreigners now held by Hamas and other groups.
The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is now visiting, and the French President Emmanuel Macron arrives tomorrow, the latest in a procession of Western leaders likely to convey the same messages face-to-face.
Shiri and her nine-month-old son Kfir are among those missing
As we've just reported, Israel says 222 people are being held hostage in Gaza, following the Hamas attacks on 7 October.
Yarden Bibas, his wife Shiri, and their two children, four-year-old Ariel and nine-month-old Kfir, were taken from Nir Oz, a kibbutz in southern Israel.
Yarden's sister Ofri Bibas Levy tells the BBC the family were hiding in their safe room when her brother texted the family Whatsapp group to say "here we go again" - thinking it was rocket fire from Gaza.
Later a friend sent her a video of the family being kidnapped, with Shiri cradling her children.
"I was scared like I've never been scared before," Ofri says.
Three days later she received images of her brother with a head wound and what appeared to be someone holding a hammer. Two weeks on, Ofri doesn't know the fate of the family.
More from Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari, who has confirmed that Israeli soldiers have been carrying out raids inside Gaza.
He told journalists just now that raids "by armoured and infantry forces" were intended "to kill terrorist cells that are preparing for next phases of war".
He also said the Israeli forces were trying to find information on missing hostages.
On Sunday an Israeli soldier was killed and three others hurt by a missile in Gaza.
Hagari also said the number of hostages in Gaza - now 222 - took time to confirm because there are a "quite a lot" of foreign citizens among them.
The Israeli military has given a new update on the number of hostages held in Gaza - saying 222 people are now confirmed to be held captive.
We'll bring you more details when we have them.
Rushdi Abualouf
Reporting from Khan Younis, Gaza
This hospital in Khan Younis is not only overrun by people who are injured, but by hundreds of families who are taking this hospital as refuge.
They are sitting in the ground of the courtyard of the hospital, sleeping on the ground.
Now the weather is getting a little cold in the evening, it's a very miserable situation for those people - but they have no other option, no other place to go.
My family and I are living in a tent in the hospital.
We are still here because we were displaced four times and there is no guarantee - if we find another house - that this house will be safe
So we decided to stay in the hospital. We are trying to live with a little food and a little water.
Rushdi Abualouf
Reporting from Khan Younis, Gaza
Image source, EPAA photo from Sunday shows a truck carrying humanitarian aid crossing into Gaza from Egypt
About 14 trucks have entered with essential medicine, some food - but more importantly four trucks of drinking water.
Water is a real problem here. People in the hospital are giving every patient just one litre of water every day.
About 35 trucks have entered Gaza in last two days - this is considered less than 8% of the daily need of the Palestinians. We used to receive 400 to 500 trucks every day.
But there is also hope for people that after 16, 17 days of being shut off by Israel and Egypt, now we have a little pipeline of life to those in need of it.
Rushdi Abualouf
Reporting from Khan Younis, Gaza
Overnight there were 60 air strikes in this so-called safe area in Khan Younis, where Israel asked us to go.
But the most intense air strikes were around Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City - where the director of the hospital, for the third time, received a call from Israeli intelligence asking them to evacuate the hospital.
He told me this morning they have 500 patients in the hospital. Another 1,500 people are sheltering in the hospital - they decided not to leave because he said there is no place to go.
He said there were 10 strikes within 100 metres of his hospital.
Some people who fled northern Gaza after Israeli forces told them to leave are now heading back, says the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Thomas White from the UNRWA tells the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: "It's very dangerous in the north but people are losing their lives in the south as well."
White said 8,000 people were taking shelter in his organisation's warehouse complex and surviving on just one litre of water a day and small amounts of bread.
As a reminder, the Israeli military says it hit 320 targets across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours.
Image source, ReutersKhan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, was hit overnight
Image source, ReutersIsraeli President Isaac Herzog has claimed in a Sky News interview, external that a guide to making chemical weapons was found on the body of a dead Hamas fighter.
The guide, discovered on a USB storage device, was "al-Qaeda material" on how to weaponise cyanide, a highly toxic chemical, said Herzog.
It was found in Kibbutz Be'eri, where Hamas rampaged through on 7 October, killing dozens of people and taking hostages.
"We're dealing with ISIS (Islamic State group), al-Qaeda and Hamas," said Herzog, who also posted about his claims., external
Hamas is a proscribed terrorist group, external in the UK and other countries.
"In this material, there are instructions how to produce chemical weapons, this speaks about arson, speaks about various chemicals that come out and produce chemical weapons, simple as that."
Update 3 February 2025: This post was edited to remove the words "militant" and "soldier" in descriptions of the Hamas fighter and to add that Hamas is a proscribed terrorist group in the UK and other countries
It's just turned 09:30 in Israel and Gaza - and 07:30 in our London newsroom.
Israeli strikes have continued throughout Gaza overnight, and we're now beginning to receive images of some of the damage.
Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, was among the areas hit:
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Reuters
Image source, ReutersThe Palestinian interior ministry has just said, external17 people were killed and dozens injured by two separate Israeli strikes in northern Gaza.
One hit a house in Jabalia while another hit an apartment in the Al-Faluga neighbourhood this morning, officials said.
Another 10 were killed in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, the ministry added.
Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent, in Jerusalem
Image source, Getty ImagesIsrael’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says the military’s campaign in Gaza "may take a month, two or three, but at the end there will be no more Hamas".
Gallant was speaking after operational briefing at the Israeli Air Force Operations Command and Control Centre.
“In terms of the operational aspects of manoeuvring, at the end of the day, nothing will stop the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)", he said.
"This should be our last manoeuvring operation in Gaza, for the simple reason that afterwards there will be no more Hamas."
The minister expressed his appreciation to the air force and said the next stage, a widely-anticipated ground operation, "will come soon".
How soon remains unclear.
In the next two days, visits are expected from the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the French President Emmanuel Macron.
Israeli forces have attacked 320 targets across the Gaza Strip in the last day, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Posting on X, external, formerly Twitter, the IDF says it targeted Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels and operational headquarters.
It also says it hit positions that could "endanger" its forces being prepared for "manoeuvre" - that is, a ground invasion - in the Gaza Strip.
In a separate update , externalon its activity in northern Israel, the IDF says its forces struck four Hezbollah cells on the border with Lebanon.
Good morning to our readers in the UK, Middle East and Europe. It's now just past 09:00 in Gaza, which saw continued bombardment from Israel overnight.
Here's what happened in the last few hours:
This has been Tessa Wong and Joel Guinto in Singapore - we're now handing over the live page to our colleagues in London.
An Israeli soldier has been killed during a local raid in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said.
Three other IDF soldiers were wounded - one moderately and two lightly - in the attack, said spokesman Daniel Hagari on social media. , externalHagari said soldiers had been searching for missing Israelis and clearing the area when it happened.
"An anti-tank missile fired at a tank and an engineering vehicle during a local raid carried out earlier today in the Gaza Strip, in the Kissuf area," he wrote.
It's not known exactly where he was killed. The Kissuf area is on the Gaza border, and the Times of Israel says, external it happened on the western side of the border fence, within Gaza.
Image source, ReutersThe aftermath of a strike in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Monday morning
Overnight strikes across the Gaza Strip have led to "large numbers" of deaths and injuries, according to a statement from the Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza.
Posting on Telegram, the ministry said the strikes hit last night and early this morning. It did not provide the exact number of casualties. It said a number of homes were hit "without warning".
The ministry also shared a series of images which appear to show blasted buildings and emergency service personnel picking through the rubble for bodies in the aftermath.
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces has said that if people can't stand with Israel in its war against Hamas, there is something "very wrong" with their morals.
Lt Col Jonathan Conricus was speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which had asked him about a brewing debate in Sydney over whether the town hall should be lit up in colours of the Israeli flag.
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore has said she will block the light display's proposal due to be filed today, since it will go against the city's "values of inclusiveness and harmony".
Conricus said: "It is very clear here. We are not the aggressors. We did not start this war. We did not go into their communities and take women and children. We are now defending ourselves. If you can't take a stand with that, I think there is something very wrong with your morals."
He added he was directing his message to "ordinary persons, people of power and elected officials".
Rights groups, aid agencies and UN experts have criticised Israel's bombardment and blockade of the Gaza Strip, which they said amounted to "collective punishment" of Palestinian civilians there.
When the blue and white Israeli colours were projected onto the Sydney Opera House earlier this month, pro-Palestine groups had staged a rally around the national icon.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe Sydney town hall at night
Image source, ReutersThe Israeli colours were earlier projected on the Sydney Opera House, sparking a pro-Palestine rally