Image source, Reuters

As we've been reporting, the Hamas-run government in Gaza says 80 people were killed in overnight strikes.

Israel's military has confirmed it launched extensive attacks on the strip, targeting "Hamas operatives and terrorist infrastructure".

The IDF says tunnel shafts, military headquarters and munition warehouses were destroyed.

On Tuesday, the IDF said it hit at least 400 sites, and the day before, 320. It has not yet put a number on the number of strikes on Wednesday.

Eight Syrian soldiers were killed and seven wounded by Israeli strikes on military positions in the southern province of Daraa, state media reports.

Syria's state news agency SANA says the attack happened around 01:45 local time on Wednesday.

Israel's military confirmed it attacked Syrian targets, external - saying its fighter jets carried out a strike on military infrastructure and mortar launchers after rockets were fired across the border.

Image source, EPA

Away from Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out a drone strike overnight near the city of Jenin in the West Bank.

Israel said it was responding to "armed terrorists" who "fired and hurled explosive devices at Israeli security forces".

Three Palestinians were killed, the director of Jenin Governmental Hospital said.

It brings the total number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank since 7 October to 103, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, external.

Doctors at a Gaza hospital managed to save an unborn baby by emergency caesarean section - after its mother was killed during an airstrike.

Our correspondent in Gaza, Rushdi Abualouf, reported last night that the mother was badly wounded during an Israeli strike on the city of Khan Younis.

The baby's father was killed during the strikes, while the pregnant mother was taken to Nasser hospital, he added.

At the time, the mother was still alive - "fighting for her life and for her baby's", he said.

Numerous reports, citing the hospital, now say the mother died. Her baby survived the caesarean section and is in a stable condition.

The Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip says at least 80 people were killed by Israeli strikes overnight.

A statement from the government's media office said "more than 80 people" were killed and "hundreds wounded" after raids by Israel, according to the AFP news agency.

Israel has been targeting Hamas in Gaza since gunmen launched their attack on Israel on 7 October, killing more than 1,400 people.

The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 5,800 people have been killed in Gaza since then.

The BBC's Fergal Keane reports on the impact the Israel-Gaza war is having on children in Gaza.

The territory's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 2,300 children have been killed since 7 October.

Image source, EPA

If you are just joining us, here are some highlights from Tuesday's UN Security Council meeting in New York.

• UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire to end "epic suffering" in Gaza and that "no party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law"
• He also said the Hamas attack on October 7 "did not happen in a vaccum". That drew an angry response from Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who wrote on X, describing Guterres' statement as "shocking" and "disconnected from the reality in our region". He added that he would cancel his meeting with the UN chief

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that every country has the right to defend itself and that "we must unequivocally condemn Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack against Israel". But he added that "humanitarian pauses must be considered" to protect civilians in Gaza

• Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called for a ceasefire, expressing "regret" over the Security Council's failure to adopt a resolution calling for one

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We've just heard from our correspondent in Gaza, Rushdi Abualouf, who says hospitals have shut down all but the emergency departments as vital fuel reserves that keep the operations running dwindle.

"Most other departments in the hospital are shut because they want to minimise the amount of fuel they are spending," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"They are just focused on saving life missions," he said, so that people need life saving treatments like kidney dialysis are still able to receive that.

It's a very catastrophic situation, he added.

Mads Gilbert, from the Norwegian Aid Committee, spoke to the BBC's Newshour from Egypt, where he is waiting to enter Gaza.

He said his colleagues inside the strip have painted a "horrific scene" of what is unfolding there.

"Imagine a hospital with 5,000 to 15,000 civilian refugees, overcrowded with patients needing surgical care, and then the lights are going out. I think you can imagine how difficult that is," he said.

There are scores of people seriously injured as a result of Israeli bombing, he said - and the stress of the situation is sending pregnant women into premature labour.

More challenges lie ahead, he added, because limited access to clean water and food can cause huge disease outbreaks.

Inside hospitals, key equipment - like ventilators, monitors, infusion pumps and neonatal incubators - are stalling without electricity.

He also described watching a video a doctor in Gaza had sent him - it shows another doctor squatting outside the hospital, shocked after learning his entire family had been killed.

Dr Gilbert said medical staff are trying to keep up with the workload while struggling with fear and grief for their own families.

Referring to a famous Italian epic about hell, he added: "It makes Dante's Inferno look like a tea party."

Image source, Reuters

The UN's aid agency in Gaza has been stressing just how catastrophic running out of fuel would be.

It underpins all their operations in the blockaded region, they say.

"Fuel deliveries must be let in to ensure people have clean drinking water, hospitals can remain open and life-saving aid operations can continue," The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on X.

For example, fuel is is needed to pump water from wells or the ocean, and to make it drinkable. It is also needed for bakeries and food suppliers to cook. And then it takes more fuel to to transport essential supplies to where they are needed.

There are also concerns about the impact on healthcare. Other UN agencies have estimated that one-third of hospitals in Gaza and nearly two-thirds of primary health care clinics had shut due to damage or a lack of fuel.

And doctors have been detailing how key equipment is stalling - one told the BBC already stretched staff are being forced to ventilate patients by hand.

As several countries around the world call for "humanitarian pauses" in the fighting to deliver much-needed aid to Gaza, UN relief workers in the territory have warned they will run out of fuel by Wednesday night.

But the Israeli military has accused Hamas of stockpiling fuel, posting a satellite photo of a dozen fuel tanks, external inside the Gaza Strip it says contain 500,000 litres of fuel.

“Ask Hamas if you can have some," it said in response to the UNRWA.

Yael Noy was born and raised in a community in Israel nearby to Gaza City and runs an organisation called Road to Recovery, which ferries Palestinians to hospitals in Israel for medical care.

She was horrified when her kibbutz was attacked on 7 October: "My parents were there and all of my friends were there," she told the BBC's Newshour Programme.

Some of her volunteers were killed and others have been kidnapped, she said - including 85-year-old peace activist Yocheved Lifschitz, who was freed yesterday.

But Noy has vowed to continue her work, speaking of the desperation Palestinians - her "good friends" - are feeling.

"From the first day of the war, we didn't stop. We take, every day, patients from the West Bank," she said.

"I will keep on doing it. Because I think the most important thing now, for me, is to stay human, even though what [has] happened - to stay good, to stay with my open heart, not to change."

People caling for the release of over 200 hostages being held by Hamas gathered outside the UN headuqarters in New York on Tuesday.

The rally took place as the UN's Security Council met to discuss the Israel-Gaza war.

Image source, Getty Images

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Christy Cooney
BBC News

The latest developments lead many of Wednesday's front pages.

The Financial Times reports on comments by UN Secretary General António Guterres, who told a meeting of the body's Security Council on Tuesday of "clear violations" of international law in Gaza.

"Protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than 1 million people to evacuate to the south [of Gaza], where there is no shelter, no food, no medicine and no fuel, and then continuing to bomb the south itself," he said.

It further quotes Mr Guterres describing the Hamas attacks as "appalling" but adding that they did not "happen in a vacuum" and do not justify the "collective punishment of the Palestinian people".

Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the UN, has described Mr Guterres's remarks as "shocking" and called on him to resign, the Daily Mail reports.

The Daily Telegraph says Israel's foreign minister cancelled a meeting with Mr Guterres because of the comments, asking him, "In what world do you live?"

The Guardian is one of a number of papers to carry a picture of 85-year-old Yocheved Lifschitz, one of two hostages released by Hamas on Monday, shaking the hand of one of her captors as she is freed. The Daily Express calls the handshake a "peace gesture in the face of evil" and Ms Lifschitz a "symbol of humanity”.

The Times reports that, while Ms Lifschitz spoke positively about the way she was treated once in captivity, she also said the Hamas militants had gone "wild" during the actual kidnapping. "They attacked our houses. They killed and kidnapped both old and young with no distinction," she said.

Ahal Besorai is a British lawyer whose sister, Yonat Or, has been killed in the conflict. He believes her husband and their children are still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

"It was very difficult. I cannot stop thinking that this is some kind of psychological game with Hamas, with our feelings and our fears," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One.

"It's true that there is some hope. If they've released them, maybe they're inclined to release some children and women," he adds.

Besorai explained that someone saw his sister's family being pulled out of their home by the attackers. He added that they assumed they were kidnapped and traced Yonat's phone to Gaza.

Besorai says he searched, without success, through the Hamas videos "just to try and trace any of them".

"I did see an enormous amount of atrocities beyond imagination.

"I don't run scenarios in my head because it just gets me into very dark places, so I'd rather stay on the side of hope."

Hamzah Abbas
BBC News

Emad Abuaassi, who we heard from earlier, has tried to cross the Rafah border with his family multiple times after hearing that it might be open.

"Every time we go to the border it's very dangerous to drive in the road because every car gets attacked. I don't want to put myself, my wife and my kids in danger."

He added that every time they go to the border, they suffer because they spend all day in the sun and there are rockets flying over their heads.

"I don't want to go unless we know for definite the border is open."

He sent a further voice note, explaining how he felt about making the journey to the border: "The dangerous bit is to reach the border. And the dangerous bit again is to get back home from the border."

Image source, .

Earlier we heard from Jordan's Queen Rania who asked why the international community isn't pleading for a ceasefire.

While countries like the US, Australia and Canada have called for "humanitarian pauses", they've stopped short of publicly advocating for a ceasefire.

"I have no expectation that a terrorist organisation would respect international law or any call for a ceasefire," Canadian Defence Minister Bill Blair told reporters on Tuesday.

"Quite frankly, Hamas has to be eliminated as a threat, not just to Israel, but to the world."

Earlier top White House and US State Department officials also said now is not the right time for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told the UN security council that he will work with China's foreign minister Wang Yi to ensure the Israel-Gaza war doesn't escalate into a wider conflict.

"Members of this council, and permanent members in particular, have a special responsibility to prevent this conflict from spreading," Blinken said, adding that he was looking forward "to continuing to work with my counterpart from the People's Republic of China to do precisely that".

Wang is scheduled to visit the US on Thursday. Although the purpose of his visit is to set the stage for an official trip by China's leader Xi Jinping next month, the crisis in the Middle East is widely expected to be on the agenda.

China's special envoy to the Middle East, Zhai Jun, has already visited several countries in the Middle East with an aim to broker a ceasefire.

China's growing influence in the region was evident earlier this year when it brokered a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia - the rivals agreed to restore ties and held their first official talks since 2016.

Image source, Getty Images

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Abdullah Teish's daughter was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit their home in Khan Younis.

He described how he didn't want to let her go as he carried her in his arms and kissed her feet.

"This is my daughter, I want as much time with her as I have before we bury her. They wanted to cover her face, but I told them no, we do not cover the faces of martyrs."

Teish carried her through the streets, surrounded by rubble where strikes had flattened entire buildings.

Image source, Reuters

Yochedev Lifschitz was taken into Hamas tunnels under Gaza, and was held there for two weeks - before being released on Monday.

At a news conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, she gave measured details about her kidnap. In this episode of our 5 Minutes On podcast, the BBC's Katya Adler reflects on Lifschitz's story - one that offers precious information for Israel's security forces, relief to her family, and hope for the relatives of those still held there.