A senior spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP) has said the raids at several aid distribution centres in Gaza on Saturday were "expected" because of the "difficult conditions facing people".

Speaking to the BBC earlier, Abeer Etefa said: "The bottom line is that people are desperate, they are hungry."

Etefa suggested that Saturday's phone and internet blackout may have contributed to the events at the warehouses and distribution centres. The WFP had to halt its distribution of food because it was unable communicate with teams on the ground, she said.

"We're resuming today now that the service is coming slowly back."

Ahmed Najar is in London but his entire family including his parents and siblings are currently in Gaza.

Ahmed describes to BBC 5 Live how his family has tried to “navigate their way through the bombardment” of Gaza by Israeli forces.

“How could I be convinced of what Israel is trying to achieve when whole entire neighbourhoods are being demolished and people are being killed?” He says.

Despite ongoing communication difficulties across Gaza, Ahmed was able to speak to his nephew.

“He described the situation as horrific, an intensive bombardment in the north of Gaza.

“They feel extremely lucky to have survived the last couple of nights”.

Image source, Reuters

While the Israeli military expands its operation in Gaza, families of some of the hostages being held by Hamas and other militant groups have expressed concern about the intensifying attacks.

Revealing that more Israeli troops had entered Gaza overnight, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari insisted in a news conference earlier that a "top priority" of theses forces was to "bring the hostages back home".

He referred to 230 hostages. Previously officials have spoken of 229 people being held hostage in Gaza after the mass murders and kidnappings by Hamas on 7 October.

"We embrace the families and will continue to accompany them," said Hagari on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Israeli President Isaac Herzog is due to meet representatives of families of the hostages later today.

• You can read more about the hostages being held by Hamas here.

Ruth Comerford
Live reporter

I just spoke to a spokesperson for UNRWA about Saturday's break-in to several warehouses in Gaza.

It is estimated "thousands" broke in to the second largest centre in Deir al-Balah, where supplies of humanitarian aid are stored and distributed by the UN. The raid took place during the day, the agency confirmed.

Items that were stolen include wheat flour and hygiene products, though the agency were keen to reiterate "no fuel was taken".

UNWRA has not clarified whether security will be tightened up at the other warehouses in Gaza, or whether they are expecting extra supplies.

To date, just over 80 lorries carrying humanitarian aid have been allowed into Gaza.

Israel has refused to allow deliveries of fuel into Gaza because it says it could be used for military purposes by Hamas, which it classes as a terrorist organisation - as do the UK, US and other powers.

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem

The Palestinian Red Crescent says it has received warnings from Israeli authorities to evacuate the Al-Quds hospital in northern Gaza.

In a statement on X, external, formerly known as Twitter, it said it had “just received serious threats” that the hospital was going to be bombed and should be immediately evacuated.

The message it received said: "You must immediately run away from the combat zone in the hospital perimeter and surrounding shelters, to the humanitarian zone in the south."

It continued: "You are in the combat zone and your life is at risk".

The Palestinian Red Crescent says that “since this morning, there has been raids 50 meters away from the hospital".

Norwegian doctor and activist Mads Gilbert told me he had just spoken to a senior anaesthesiologist in the hospital who “confirmed the threats and also confirmed that they had had a discussion among the staff and decided not to leave their patients”.

“This hospital has hundreds of patients and thousands of internally displaced in and around the hospital compound,” he said.

An Israeli military spokesman declined to comment when asked about the reports during a media briefing, Reuters news agency reported.

Previously, the military had said Hamas "wages war from hospitals" in Gaza by using these facilities as bases and "terror infrastructures" - a claim Hamas denies.

Rocket shards have fallen in Rishon LeZion in central Israel, according to Israeli media citing the police. No casualties have so far been reported.

Sirens have rung out in different parts of Israel over the past few days, including this morning, warning of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.

Most of the rockets fired into Israel are disabled by Israel's air defence system, known as the Iron Dome. Three people were injured in Tel Aviv after a rocket hit an apartment block on Friday.

The BBC's international editor Jeremy Bowen, who is reporting from southern Israel, says he heard the booms of the Iron Dome late into the night as it intercepted the rockets fired into the country from Gaza.

When the sirens blare, he says, your hear families running to bomb shelters and staircases - the strongest part of the building - to take cover.

Image source, REUTERS

A short while ago, the Israeli military gave an update to the media at a televised briefing - let's give you a recap of what was said.

Speaking in Hebrew, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari explained: "Overnight we increased the entry of IDF forces into the Strip, and they joined the forces already fighting there.

"We're gradually expanding the ground activities and the extent of our forces in the Gaza Strip.

"The ground operation is complex and involves risks for our forces too.

"We will do everything in our power - from the air, sea and ground - to ensure the safety of our forces and to achieve the war's objectives."

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor

Image source, reu

I'm about 10 kilometres from Gaza, and from the moment I woke up this morning, there's been a continuous drumbeat of Israeli artillery fire into Gaza.

A really worrying development though, is the news from the UN Palestinian agency saying that thousands of people have broken open their warehouses in Rafah, where they have a large logistical base. There had been some stockpiles of food and hygienic supplies, but a press release from UNRWA says there’s been massive looting at the warehouse.

On the ground in Gaza, it's very hard to follow exactly what's going on because the Israelis have been very quiet about their operations. While some connectivity and telecommunications have been restored, most of Gaza was cut off from the rest of the world for more than a day.

We know for sure that Israel has gone in, and we know for sure that this is their ground operation. There's a large Fog of War around it, but this is the grand operation they've been talking about for the last three weeks.

Let's bring you some of the latest images from Gaza which have just come to us.

As you can see, there is an intense search and rescue effort in Khan Younis after buildings were destroyed in parts of the city.

Some of the photos are too graphic to show. They include images from the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, some of which show body bags being lined up on the ground. At least three dead children are visible in the images.

We want to reflect the gravity of this conflict, and its toll on civilians, while being sensitive about what you, the audience, are exposed to.

Yesterday, civilians in Gaza were again told to head south - where the Israeli military says humanitarian efforts will be expanding.

We do not know from these images when exactly the buildings shown were destroyed - the area has been targeted by Israeli strikes over the past few weeks.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Chris Partridge
BBC News weapons analyst

Yesterday we looked at Israel’s air campaign in Gaza, but what action is being taken against Israel?

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US think tank, has been publishing its analysis of the conflict. Its work gives us a clearer overview of this latest crisis in the Middle East.

Hamas is designated a terror organisation by the UK and many other western governments. It has a military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, which are said to have fired nine rockets towards Israel yesterday, injuring civilians in Tel Aviv.

Image source, .

The ISW said it couldn’t independently verify the impact points of the rockets, but stated that Israeli Iron Dome missile defence systems intercepted three of the projectiles.

In northern Israel, Iranian-backed groups including Lebanese Hezbollah carried out 12 attacks, says the ISW, targeting Israeli radar and sensor sites and other military targets.

Image source, .

Israel hit back with multiple air and artillery strikes, many of which have been documented by the Israeli Air Force, external.

Late last night, our team in Israel was told by a contact in Gaza that air strikes had hit close to the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, which is the biggest hospital in the Strip. The person had been to the hospital and said people there were "terrified".

Israel's military has said Hamas's main base of operations is beneath the hospital. Hamas has rejected that claim and some of the doctors working there have called for the hospital to be protected.

Our source's claim aligns with what our reporter on the ground, Rushdi Abualouf, was hearing from his base in southern Gaza yesterday: people in Gaza City told him of air strikes on roads near the hospital.

And this morning, the Associated Press reported that Israeli warplanes had carried out strikes overnight near the hospital, citing Gaza City residents.

We have verified a video that was filmed yesterday from inside the hospital. The footage is too graphic to show. In it, we can see a packed room with many patients on trolleys, including a child with severe injuries.

Image source, EPA

Eylon Levy is a spokesperson for the Israeli government and he insists the country is "sick with worry" for the fate of the 230 people taken hostage three weeks ago.

He tells BBC Radio 5 Live the 7 October attack by Hamas was “one of the most spectacular massacres in human history”, and that Israel is “determined that that will never happen again”.

“This isn't a war that Israel started," Levy says. "This isn't a war that Israel even expected. It's a war that Hamas launched and declared against us.”

Levy repeats the vow to “destroy Hamas” - and urges civilians in Gaza to “get out of harm's way”.

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) say warplanes attacked "over 450 military targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip" over the last day.

In a post on X, external, the IDF say the targets included military headquarters, observation posts, and anti-tank firing positions.

The post adds that the ground troops had also been involved in the fighting.

Let's briefly head to London to bring you some fresh comments from the UK government's Culture Secretary who has been asked about the situation in Gaza.

Michelle Donelan has just told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg political show that the government wants to see a pause in hostilities in the Israel-Gaza war in order to get critical aid to people.

"We continue to call for a pause," she says adding that getting aid in is "absolutely essential".

She explains the UK has so far donated and flown over 21 tonnes of aid to the Strip equating to the value of £13m.

On Wednesday, Rishi Sunak called for "specific pauses" in the Israel-Gaza war to allow more aid into Gaza.

As we've been reporting, thousands of Gazans broke into distribution centres and warehouses of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) "taking wheat flour and other basic survival items like hygiene supplies".

Images from AFP news agency showed people carrying food bags on Saturday as they stormed the supply centre in Deir el-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Israel's military has said troops are on the ground in Gaza - and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that commanders had been deployed in various places in the Gaza Strip.

In the last hour, the Telegram account of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, reported armed clashes with Israeli troops and vehicles in the north-west of the territory.

There were similar reports yesterday, from the same Telegram account, of fighting in north-west Gaza, and we also verified the location of a video released by Israeli military showing its vehicles very close to north-west Gaza.

Overnight, the same al-Qassam Telegram account reported clashes with Israeli troops east of Gaza City. We are working to verify a video claiming to show fighting in the same area that was posted this morning, and we'll bring you more about the situation on the ground as we get it.

As Israel continues air strikes in Gaza, families of Israeli hostages held there by Hamas have been speaking of their increasing worry for their loved ones.

"How do they know they didn't kill my cousin?" a cousin of an Israeli hostage exclaims during an interview with the BBC.

Uri Goren says that the family are yet to hear anything about his cousin, Tal Haimi, who has been missing since the 7 October attack and is believed to have been taken to Gaza as a hostage.

Goren says that he and other families find it "unfathomable" that retrieving the hostages "is not Israel's top priority."

"When they are shelling Gaza from the air...how do they know they're not bombing my cousin?"

He accepts that some politicians have discussed the importance of recovering the hostages but adds: "I want to see them do something concrete about it."

Goren calls for a temporary humanitarian ceasefire to retrieve the hostages saying: "The only way to get them all back safely... is to stop the war."

On Saturday Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with some families of hostages and promised to do everything possible to bring them home.

Thousands of Gaza residents have broken into warehouses and distribution centres in the south and middle of the strip, taking flour and other basic supplies, the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says.

"This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza," UNRWA said in a statement., external

"People are scared, frustrated and desperate. Tensions and fear are made worse by the cuts in the phones and internet communication lines."

The UNRWA statement released on Sunday does not specify which warehouses were raided or when this happened.

The UN's humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said on Thursday that aid had been "barely trickling" into Gaza in the past week, while Israeli bombardment was intensifying.

Rushdi Abualouf
Reporting from Khan Younis, Gaza

The return of communications was a relief to some here in Khan Yunis, but it was also a shock to others.

My friend called me crying profusely.

He said: “I wish they had kept the connection cut off. I just learned that my mother-in-law and most of my wife’s family were killed in an Israeli raid yesterday, and others are still under the rubble.”

As the internet service is restored, most people are holding their phones close to their faces trying to call relatives and friends, as the network is overwhelmed by the growing number of calls.

The hospital here in Khan Younis has become the hub for almost everything, including those who are trying to charge their phones.

On my way to the hospital this morning, there are more people are out in the streets and hundreds are queueing to get bread.

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from southern Israel

As we’ve been reporting, connectivity is returning to Gaza today and we are slowly starting to hear back from people on the ground.

WhatsApp messages that we sent on Friday night are finally showing two ticks, indicating that they have been received.

One contact left a short message this morning letting us know that he is “OK”.

Another, whose family had stayed in central Gaza for fear of being caught in a strike on the road if they travelled south, attempted to call after finally receiving our messages but the connection was too weak to speak.

Internet monitoring service NetBlocks posted network data on X - formerly known as Twitter - showing that internet connectivity was being restored on Sunday.

• Read more: The messages of fear that trickled out while Gaza was disconnected