Image source, PA Media

UK PM Rishi Sunak rejects the comments made by UN chief Antonio Guterres, in which, as we've been reporting, he said the events of 7 October did not occur in a "vacuum".

"Obviously we don't agree with that characterisation put forward," a spokesperson for Sunak said.

"We are clear that there is and can be no justification for Hamas's barbaric terrorist attack which was driven by hatred and ideology."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the German government says it does have confidence in Guterres in light of his comments.

More now on the row that broke out last night, after the UN chief Antonio Guterres said the Hamas attacks on 7 October - in which more than 1,400 were killed in Israel - did not occur "in a vacuum".

The comments drew angry comments from Israel's foreign minister, who said there "can be no cause for such a massacre".

Now Israel says it will refuse visas to key UN officials.

"We need to shock the UN," Israel Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan told Israeli media.

He said the UN lead on humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths wanted to come to Israel - and had been refused.

"I, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, informed them of the refusal," said Erdan.

"He will not be able to come here to the region. Their agencies constantly need to bring in new people, certainly at a time like now. They will be refused."

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says the total death toll from Israeli strikes has now reached more than 6,500 people since 7 October, including 2,704 children.

In the past 24 hours, 756 Palestinians including 344 children were killed in Israeli strikes, the ministry adds.

It said the southern region of the Gaza was heavily hit in the most recent wave of strikes.

Yad Vashem, the Jerusalem-based Holocaust memorial centre, has criticised UN Secretary General António Guterres for saying on Tuesday that the the Hamas attacks on Israel earlier this month "did not happen in a vacuum".

In a statement issued today, the centre's chairman Dani Dayan says:

But he adds that what happened tests "the sincerity" of world leaders, intellectuals and influencers that visit the Yad Vashem memorial and pledge "Never Again" - a phrase associated with preventing the horrors of the Holocaust from ever being repeated.

Guterres has not directly responded but earlier on Wednesday, he highlighted other parts of his Tuesday speech, posting on X: "The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the horrific attacks by Hamas. Those horrendous attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people."

It is almost 14:00 in Gaza and Israel - and midday in our London newsroom.

Here are some of the latest pictures from the conflict.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, reuters

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described Hamas as "a liberation group" waging a battle to protect its land, in comments that will cause deep anger in Israel.

Hamas - or in some cases its military wing - has been designated a terrorist group by Israel, the US, the EU and the UK, as well as other countries.

More than 1,400 people were killed in Hamas's attacks on Israel on 7 October, mostly civilians targeted in communities near the Gaza border.

In a fiery speech in Turkey's parliament, Erdogan said he was cancelling plans to visit Israel.

He said he had shaken the hand of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, but that Netanyahu had abused Turkey's good intentions.

The two leaders met last month at a UN summit in New York - in what was seen at the time as another significant sign of improved relations between their countries.

Image source, Reuters

Jabalia is the largest of the Gaza's eight refugee camps. More than 116,000 people live in an area of 1.4 sq km (approximately 0.5 sq miles), according to the UN.

Khalid is an aid worker in Jabalia. He tells the BBC's World Service radio that nearly "everything" has run out with "all basic needs near to done".

"There is real starvation," he adds, with bakeries now out of flour.

In recent days, some vehicles carrying aid have been allowed into Gaza to bring vital supplies - but aid agencies say it's nowhere near enough.

Khalid says the stock sent to Jabalia is enough "for one shelter only".

The Israeli military has published video which it says is of an attempted infiltration by Hamas divers yesterday.

The Israel Defense Forces say at least two Hamas fighters attempted to access Israel via the sea at Zikim - just north of the Gaza Strip - after entering a nearby beach in Gaza via a tunnel.

They were killed after being attacked by fighter jets and soldiers from Israel's navy, who also destroyed a weapons storage facility being "used by the terrorists".

The IDF did not specify how this attempted sea infiltration took place, although the video it published shows strikes on the sea surface.

Shortly after the IDF issued the update, Hamas's military wing posted a picture on Telegram of two men in specialist scuba diving gear carrying assault rifles.

As Anna Foster just reported, Israel has evacuated villages near Lebanon because of cross-border exchanges of fire.

Now in the past half hour, Israel's military says it has used fighter jets and artillery, external to target a "terrorist squad" that tried to fire from Lebanese territory towards Israel.

The update comes after spokesman Daniel Hagari earlier said the IDF destroyed "five Hezbollah terrorist cells" in the past 24 hours that had tried to launch missiles and rockets against Israel.

Israel and the US have previously warned Iran-backed Hezbollah - Lebanon's most powerful military force - against opening another battle front in the region.

Anna Foster
Reporting from the Israel-Lebanon border

At a meeting point south of the border, piles of brand-new first aid supplies are waiting to be given out.

Rucksacks stuffed with wound dressings and medical kit are piled against a wall, with more waiting on plastic-wrapped pallets nearby.

Along with body armour, it’s being handed to local security teams who are staying behind in the evacuated towns and villages in northern Israel to help the soldiers who’ve now moved in.

This load of equipment is being donated by a charity that encourages co-operation between Jews and Christians.

They’re also working to improve bomb shelters here in the north, as regular daily exchanges of fire continue between Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and IDF forces along the Israeli border.

There are still real concerns that this war could escalate and draw in the wider Middle East region.

Is Israel hesitating on its ground invasion of Gaza?published at 10:31 British Summer Time 25 October 2023

10:31 BST 25 October 2023

Jeremy Bowen
International editor, reporting from Israel

Image source, Reuters

It’s very clear there is hesitation – first of all because of those warnings the US have given about the difficulty of the task ahead in entering Gaza.

An example of very difficult urban conflict they have been pointing to is the operation to eradicate IS from the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2017.

I was there and I saw a large force of Iraqi commandos, many of them very well-trained by the Americans, backed up by the US air force, the RAF and others, including western special forces. Their operation had to work house, by house, by house.

It took months - and thousands of civilians were killed in the course of that effort.

That’s not the only reason for hesitation – the presence of hostages in Gaza is a real issue now for Israel. In releasing some hostages, Hamas are playing some very clever psychological games because they are implying there may be a way to get some of these people out in one piece.

If Israel had moved quickly, the head of steam behind that might not have grown up in quite the way it has.

For example, one of the leading Israeli newspapers Haaretz - albeit one usually critical of the Israeli government - said yesterday in its main editorial that there should be no military action while there are hostages in Gaza.

But I spoke to the former prime minister and former head of the Israeli army, Ehud Barak. He said look, difficult choices may have to be made - we cannot let Hamas get away with this. He was basically saying the Israelis may just have to go ahead.

The current Israeli prime minister Bejnamin Netanyahu - despite his tough talk - is renowned for being very hesitant, not to say dithering, on these kinds of hard decisions.

Rushdi Abualouf
Reporting from Khan Younis, Gaza

Nasser hospital in Khan Younis is the main medical centre for Gazans in the south.

The hospital says life-saving operations will be stopped very soon as they struggle to find a source of fuel. Blood and life-saving equipment is also running out.

We are on the edge of a catastrophic situation.

People are not suffering only from death and airstrikes. The UN says about one million people have been displaced - around half the population.

Here, people are sleeping in the courtyard outside the hospital and in the street.

I visited one of the UN schools where people from the north of Gaza are sheltering. They are given one litre of clean water a day and very little food - and there is very limited access to the bathroom.

The school used to have 500 students, now it's housing 5,000 people. The space and facilities are not enough accommodate these people.

I saw a two-bedroom house yesterday where 120 people were sheltering. Someone living there told me there is no oxygen to breathe.

Fears of regional escalationpublished at 09:56 British Summer Time 25 October 2023

09:56 BST 25 October 2023

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from southern Lebanon

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, there have been fears that violence could escalate to different fronts.

From southern Lebanon, the Lebanese group Hezbollah and its allied Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad have carried out attacks on Israel, which has been retaliating.

The strikes, so far, have been contained, but many still remember the devastating month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel, in 2006.

Escalation, however, could also happen away from here. Iran supports an alliance it describes as the Axis of Resistance.

It includes Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist organisation by the UK and the US, as well as groups in Syria – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is an Iranian ally – and Iraq and Yemen.

Several attacks have targeted US troops in Iraq and Syria in recent days, while missiles and drones launched from Yemen, potentially targeting Israel, were intercepted by a US Navy warship last week.

Most of the focus has been on what is happening along the Lebanon-Israel border, but risks are high across the region.

As we reported earlier, Syrian state media says eight soldiers were killed by Israeli air strikes in Daraa overnight. Israel says it hit military infrastructure and mortar launchers after rockets were fired across the border.

We've just heard from Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari, who has accused Hamas of setting up roadblocks to stop people evacuating from the north of the Gaza Strip.

Hagari says Israel targeted those roadblocks overnight "to allow the population to evacuate"

Speaking at his daily briefing to journalists, Hagari had a message for people in northern Gaza - saying Hamas and its leadership "are exploiting you, they are using your homes, your schools, hospitals, underground, under your homes, near schools and hospitals, they are hiding there".

Earlier this month, Israel warned people in the north of Gaza to head south. But strikes on southern areas, including the city of Khan Younis, have continued.

Hagari was also asked whether the IDF was preparing a possible air strike on Iran.

He said Iran was "destabilising the Middle East" and "we need to keep watching all the time" - but said they are focused on the fighting in Gaza.

Image source, Getty Images

UNRWA, the UN agency set up for Palestinian refugees, says its shelters are so overwhelmed they are housing four times their capacity.

The agency says nearly 600,000 people are sheltering in 150 facilities. These include schools and healthcare sites.

It tweeted, external that many people are sleeping in the streets as it cannot take in any more.

Image source, Getty Images

The UN is warning that its fuel in the Gaza Strip may run out tonight - our correspondent there says hospitals are already rationing care to critical cases only.

On Tuesday night, the UN said, externalone third of hospitals and nearly two-thirds of primary healthcare clinics in Gaza had already shut down due to damage from the war and a lack of fuel.

Israel cut off electricity to Gaza following the Hamas attacks on 7 October - which means the territory is dependent on backup generators that run on fuel.

Image source, EPA

A row broke out in New York on Tuesday night, as the UN Security Council met to discuss the Israel-Gaza war.

• UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the Hamas attacks on 7 October – in which more than 1,400 people were killed – did not occur "in a vacuum", pointing to "56 years of occupation" by Israel of the Palestinians
• The comments drew an angry response from Israel's foreign minister, Eli Cohen, who said there can be "no cause for such a massacre". "In what world do you live?" he asked Guterres -later saying he would cancel his meeting with the UN chief
• Gilad Erdan, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, called on Guterres to resign, saying he "is not fit to lead the UN"
• Guterres later highlighted other parts of his speech, writing on X that the "grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the horrific attacks by Hamas", and that "horrendous attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people"
• Israel now says it will deny visas to UN officials - with Erdan telling Israeli radio that Martin Griffiths, the Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, had already been denied a visa. "The time has come to teach them a lesson," Erdan reportedly said

As we've been reporting, the UN in Gaza - the biggest aid provider - says its fuel will run out tonight, unless it gets fresh supplies.

Our correspondent there says hospitals are already limiting services to critical cases only.

Dr Richard Peeperkorn, from the World Health Organization, tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme from Jerusalem: "We have teams on the ground in Gaza and we know from the ground that fuel is absolutely limited.

"The hospitals we work with, they all run the generator at minimum levels, only for life-saving operations."

As a reminder, Israel says there is fuel in Gaza - but it is being stockpiled by Hamas.

These photos have just arrived, showing the damage in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, after another night of Israeli air strikes.

As a reminder, Israel says its strikes targeted Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels and weapons sites.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Najla Shawa is among hundreds of thousands of people who left their homes in Gaza City and moved south after Israeli military warnings.

She and her two daughters, aged nine and six, are now in a house where 57 people are sheltering.

Shawa, who works for Oxfam, tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We take shifts to sleep because there isn't room, it's very terrifying at night, but I tell myself 'it's OK, it's not on top of me yet'."

As she speaks, the sound of her daughters echoes in the background.

"Unfortunately, they know more than they should at such an age," Shawa says.

But they still sing songs and draw. "They even organise themselves and do some classroom activities," she says.