Summary

  • Benjamin Netanyahu reiterates that Israel is preparing for a ground invasion of Gaza, but he won't say when it will happen

  • The Israeli prime minister says "this is only the beginning" in a televised address from Tel Aviv

  • Elsewhere, US President Joe Biden says there is no going back to the status quo between Israelis and Palestinians “as it stood on 6 October"

  • UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said earlier he was "shocked" at the reaction to a statement he made on Tuesday about the war between Israel and Hamas

  • He said he clearly condemned the "acts of terror" inflicted on Israel in remarks where he also said the attacks did not happen "in a vacuum"

  • Meanwhile in Gaza, hospitals are stopping all but emergency services as fuel runs out. Israel has blocked fuel from reaching Gaza and accuses Hamas of stockpiling it

  • The UN has said its humanitarian agency in Gaza is facing a similar fuel shortage, saying it may have to shut down in the coming hours as a result

  • The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says almost 6,500 people have been killed since 7 October - Israel has been bombing the territory

  • More than 1,400 were killed in the initial attacks on Israel by Hamas, and more than 200 people are still being held hostage in Gaza

  1. In pictures: Shelters and mourning the deadpublished at 18:59 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    A tent city has been set up in Gaza for Palestinians who have had to flee their homes after Israel called for more than one million civilians in northern Gaza to move south.

    Meanwhile in Israel, mourners attend a funeral of a mother and son killed by Hamas attackers on 7 October.

    Woman walking past tentsImage source, Reuters
    Image caption,

    A woman walks through a UN-run tent camp

    A man cooking food over coalsImage source, AFP
    Image caption,

    Meals are prepared in the UN shelter

    An Israeli flag over a coffinImage source, Getty Images
    Image caption,

    A mother and son's funeral after they were killed in the 7 October Hamas attack

    A man crying at a funeralImage source, Reuters
    Image caption,

    Avida Bachar mourns the death of his wife and son. He was also injured in the attack

  2. Biden says aid not getting through to Gaza fast enoughpublished at 18:44 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    US President Joe Biden has said that aid has not been getting into Gaza fast enough.

    "Not fast enough," Biden replied after a reporter asked him if humanitarian aid was getting into the enclave.

    This comes as the main UN agency in Gaza warned it would stop work within 24 hours unless there were urgent deliveries of fuel, as we've been reporting.

    Earlier, a UN aid spokeswoman said that 20 lorries that had been due to deliver aid today had not entered Gaza, but it was hoped they would be able to do so on Wednesday.

  3. IDF says it targeted cell attempting to infiltrate Israel by seapublished at 18:29 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    Israel Defense Forces say that they targeted "a terrorist cell attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory" and that IDF forces are continuing searches in the area.

    In a post on Telegram, they added that: "Israeli naval forces targeted a cell of divers belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory by sea in the area of Kibbutz Zikim.

    "IDF fighter jets struck the military compound from which the terrorists departed in the Gaza Strip. IDF forces are continuing searches in the area."

  4. London doctor in Gaza City says supplies exhaustedpublished at 18:20 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    A view from the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza CityImage source, Ghassan Abu Sittah
    Image caption,

    A view from the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City

    Earlier, we reported that the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza suffered a blackout last night after it ran out of fuel.

    Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah, a plastic surgeon from north London who is working at the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, says this is "a bad omen" for what will happen in his hospital once the fuel runs out.

    Abu Sittah says that there are now around 1700 to 1800 Palestinians sheltering at the hospital, where 600 Palestinians were brought in dead over the last 24 hours "and three times as many wounded".

    "They're everywhere. They're in the corridor and floors, they're in the wards on the floor. Mattresses everywhere."

    Abu Sittah also says that due to "exhaustion" of consumables and supplies, doctors have to "make compromises in the treatment of patients now on a minute by minute basis".

  5. Over half a million people in UN shelterspublished at 17:57 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    Around 1.4 million of the Gaza Strip's 2.2 million people have been internally displaced already – and there has been a rapid escalation in the numbers since Israel ordered people in the north to evacuate on 13 October.

    The UN says, as we've been reporting, that without fuel supplies entering Gaza its humanitarian operation will cease by the end of tomorrow

    There are currently nearly 590,000 people being housed in 150 facilities designated as emergency shelters - most of which are UN-operated school buildings.

    Warnings have been issued about overcrowding, as the UN says this is more than double the capacity of the emergency facilities.

    To give you a sense of the number of people in Gaza who have been displaced since 8 October, we've made this graphic:

    Graphic showing the number of people dispaced in Gaza since Hamas attacks on 7 October. The numbers displaced are 123,538 on 8 october, 423,378 on 12 Octoer, 1 million people on 16 October and 20 October had 1.4 million.Image source, .
  6. UN chief says humanitarian law being broken in Gazapublished at 17:38 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    Let's look back at more of the remarks of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York earlier.

    He said:

    Quote Message

    The protection of civilians is paramount in any armed conflict.

    Quote Message

    Protecting civilians can never mean using them as human shields. Protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than one million people to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and no fuel, and then continuing to bomb the south itself."

    He goes on to say:

    Quote Message

    I am deeply concerned about the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza.

    Quote Message

    Let me be clear: No party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law."

    He did not mention either Israel or Hamas by name.

  7. 'Don't throw fuel on the fire' - Blinkenpublished at 17:30 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    US secretary of state Antony Blinken has urged members states at the UN Security Council meeting in New York to send a united message to stop other states - or other groups - from opening another front in the Israel Gaza conflict.

    "Don't throw fuel on the fire," he said.

    Blinken warned Iran that the US would respond 'decisively' to any attack. "Make no mistake, we will defend our people, we will defend our security swiftly and decisively."

    But humanitarian pauses must be considered in Gaza, Blinken said, to allow aid into the strip.

  8. Without fuel people could die, says UN aid agencypublished at 17:18 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    Tamara Al-Rifai is a spokesperson for UNWRA, Gaza's largest aid agency

    The UN's largest aid agency in Gaza (UNWRA) has restated the importance of fuel in distributing aid to Gaza, saying that addressing the dwindling supply has become "a top urgency".

    Tamara Al-Rifai who is a spokesperson for UNWRA, told the BBC:

    Quote Message

    If we get no fuel we cannot work and people can die."

    Al-Rifai listed the essential services supplies are needed for, including the urgent delivery of emergency aid as Gaza rapidly runs out of food and water.

    "We need fuel so that our trucks can pick up that aid.

    "We need fuel for our water desalination plants so that people can have access to clean water. Hospitals need fuel, for life-saving machines without which people can die."

    Al-Rifai said that there was "frustration" in not being allowed access to supplies as the Israeli authorities have claimed that Hamas is stockpiling fuel.

    She added: "It is not OK to not allow the UN and the larger humanitarian community to have access to something as basic as fuel for our cars."

  9. Macron meets Abbas in West Bankpublished at 16:59 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    Emmanuel Macron and Mahmoud Abbas shaking hands in RamallahImage source, EPA

    French President Emmanuel Macron, who earlier spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has begun a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

    An important reminder, while Abbas and the PA control areas of the West Bank, they have no authority in Gaza - which has been run by Hamas since 2007.

    While speaking at a press conference with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv earlier, Macron called for the international coalition which has fought the Islamic State group to be expanded to combat Hamas.

    General map showing the location of Gaza, Israel and the West BankImage source, .
  10. Israeli ambassador to UN calls for Guterres to resignpublished at 16:36 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    Gilad ErdanImage source, Reuters

    Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, has demanded UN chief Antonio Guterres resign after Guterres said the Hamas attacks did not happen in a "vacuum".

    Erdan said: "There is no justification or point in talking to those who show understanding for the most terrible acts committed against the citizens of Israel — no less by a declared terrorist organisation".

    On X, the ambassador said: "I call on [Guterres] to resign immediately."

  11. 'Every day we say it can't get worse, and then it does'published at 16:25 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    Deirdre Finnerty
    BBC News

    Ibrahim AlAagha sits with family members
    Image caption,

    Ibrahim (R) is worried about shortages of food, fuel and other supplies

    Earlier today, Ibrahim AlAgha, a 38-year-old Irish citizen in Khan Younis, Gaza, cycled past a shuttered supermarket and petrol station to get bread from a bakery he knew would be open.

    He was able to buy some today, but not as much as other days. His household - which includes 90 people - will eat only one meal today.

    Ibrahim says the bread queues are getting longer and longer every day, stretching past the apartment blocks along the street to the pedestrian crossing. He has noticed that people who can’t find shelter are sleeping on mattresses on the streets of Khan Younis.

    “Every day… we just say there can’t be anything worse than this, but the next day it does actually get worse,” he says.

    Ibrahim says he is seeing fewer cars on the roads. He worries about fuel running out in Gaza and the impact that this would have on bakeries and hospitals. A medical centre next to the bakery has now closed its doors. Rubbish is piling up on the streets and he is concerned that this will spread diseases.

    In the house where Ibrahim is sheltering, he says the mother of a 13-month-old infant who is lactose intolerant has run out of formula for her son, and the group haven't been able to find more. She is boiling dates and feeding him what she can - but says the situation is difficult.

    Everyone in the house is “hopeless, really hopeless,” he says. “I don’t know what to say.”

    • Read our earlier story about Ibrahim here

  12. UN chief says 7 October attack did not happen in a vaccuumpublished at 16:15 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York, secretary general Antonio Guterres said that "the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel "did not happen in a vacuum”.

    Guterres added “The Palestinian people been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their lands steadily devolved by settlements and plagued by violence. Their economy stifled. Their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing."

    But he also said: "the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas and those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.

  13. Five injured in rocket strikes on central Israelpublished at 15:55 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    Five people have sustained minor injuries after a large barrage of rockets fell on central Israel, the emergency services have said.

    Two of the five were injured by shrapnel - a 45-year-old man in Be'er Ya'akov and a 40-year-old man in Holon.

    The remaining three, two elderly people and a 35-year-old woman in Kal, were hurt on the way to a shelter, the update says.

    Local media are describing the bombardment, which set off air raid sirens around central Israel, as among the largest launched since Hamas attacked on 7 October.

  14. Vigil held in London to mourn children killed in Gazapublished at 15:38 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    In central London, people have taken part in a vigil run by Medical Aid for Palestinians to mourn the children killed in Gaza.

    Attendees wrote the name of Palestinian children, killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, on the palm of their hand.

    They did this to emulate children and adults in Gaza who began having their names written on their hands and bodies in order to be identified in case of being killed in the conflict.

    People attend a vigil to mourn the children killed in Gaza with attendees displaying the names of dead children on their palms at the event organized by non-profit organization 'Medical Aid for Palestinians' at Parliament Square in London, Britain, 24 October 2023Image source, EPA
    Image caption,

    People raised their hands with the names of children killed in Gaza

    An attendee displays names of killed children on her palm at an event organised by Medical Aid for Palestinians non-profit organisation at Parliament Square in London, Britain, 24 October 2023.Image source, EPA
    Image caption,

    A woman wrote the names of killed children on her palm

    People attend a vigil to mourn the children killed in Gaza with attendees displaying the names of dead children on their palms at the event organized by non-profit organization 'Medical Aid for Palestinians' at Parliament Square in London, Britain, 24 October 2023.Image source, EPA
    Image caption,

    People gathered in Parliament Square in London for the vigil

    People attend a vigil to mourn the children killed in Gaza with attendees displaying the names of dead children on their palms at the event organized by non-profit organization 'Medical Aid for Palestinians' at Parliament Square in London, Britain, 24 October 2023Image source, EPA
    Image caption,

    Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says almost 5,800 people have been killed since 7 October

    People attend a vigil to mourn the children killed in Gaza with attendees displaying the names of dead children on their palms at the event organized by non-profit organization 'Medical Aid for Palestinians' at Parliament Square in London, Britain, 24 October 2023Image source, EPA
    Image caption,

    Medical Aid for Palestinians organised the vigil in London

  15. Hamas fires rockets at Tel Avivpublished at 15:16 British Summer Time 24 October 2023
    Breaking

    Air raid sirens have gone off in central Israel after Hamas launched rockets at Tel Aviv in the last few minutes.

    The Israeli emergency services say no injuries have been reported so far in Israel's second largest city or elsewhere, other than some people slightly hurt while heading for shelter.

  16. Displaced Gazan: 'We need a ceasefire now'published at 14:52 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    Faysal Shawaa is in Gaza but has been forced to leave his home, with his wife and son. He told BBC Radio 4 the situation he's in is very difficult.

    "We lack in everything; food, medicine and of course there is no electricity. We are lucky we have solar energy that comes two or three hours a day."

    Shawaa said other than that "it is miserable" and that they are waiting for some good news "to end the bombardment of the Israeli army everywhere."

    He added: "In Gaza they are killing people every minute. They are destroying infrastructure, buildings, everything is destroyed.

    "We have nothing left in Gaza."

    Shawaa explained that every night they hear the air strikes nearby "everywhere" and that "we need a ceasefire now. We need a solution for the situation.

    "Every year we have some kind of Israeli invasion in Gaza, they destroy Gaza and then we rebuild Gaza. Enough is enough."

  17. Gaza health authority says hospitals in the Strip have 'completely collapsed'published at 14:33 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    al-Wafa Rehabilitation hospital in Gaza CityImage source, Getty Images

    The Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza has put out a statement on Telegram saying that hospitals in the Gaza Strip have "completely collapsed".

    "We confirm that 12 hospitals and 32 health centers are out of service, and we fear that more will be out of service in the coming hours due to targeting and running out of fuel," the statement said.

    It also warned that "hospital doors remaining open does not mean that they are providing service to the flood of wounded people".

    The statement added a plea for the international community to supply hospitals with fuel, to send "specialised medical delegations to rescue those wounded in the Israeli aggression" and called for "all retired colleagues and volunteers from all specialties to join hospitals immediately."

  18. The UN's Gaza agency says people need food, water and mattressespublished at 14:12 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    As we've been reporting, UNRWA director of communications Juliette Touma has warned that the aid organisation - which runs the largest humanitarian operation in Gaza - will have to stop operations tomorrow if there is no more fuel.

    Touma says the agency has 150 shelters, most of which used to be schools.

    "Just in those shelters we have 600,000 people who have come seeking shelter. They need food, they need water, they need sanitation services. They need mattresses, they need protection."

    She said if this work stops, people in Gaza will be "even more desperate."

  19. UN says Gazans could become 'more miserable and desperate'published at 13:50 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

    More from UNRWA - the UN agency providing aid relief in Gaza. As we reported below - it's warned of a possible halt to operations.

    Juliette Touma, director of communications at the aid agency, explains: "We need a flow of supplies into Gaza and we need fuel."

    Speaking to the World at One on BBC Radio 4, she says if the UN agency stops its operations, people in Gaza "will be more miserable and desperate than they already are."

    The Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus has said that Hamas is stockpiling fuel.

    Touma also said that six more UNRWA staff have been killed, bringing the total number of the agency's staff who have died in Gaza to 35. “We are grieving the loss of our colleagues," she said.

  20. UN agency says its Gaza operation will end tomorrow 'if we don't get fuel'published at 13:40 British Summer Time 24 October 2023
    Breaking

    The UN's agency looking after Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has warned of a potential end to its aid work in the Gaza Strip.

    Juliette Touma tells BBC Radio 4's World At One programme that "if we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip as of tomorrow (Wednesday) night".