Image source, Getty Images

International humanitarian agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has announced that 22 of its staff members were able to leave Gaza on Wednesday.

In a statement, the medical charity said all its international staff that had been unable to leave the territory have now “successfully crossed the Egypt border via the Rafah crossing”.

It added: "A new team of international staff, including a specialised medical team, has already been identified and is ready to enter Gaza as soon as the situation allows, to support the humanitarian and medical response."

The agency said about 2 million Palestinians are still trapped in Gaza under shelling, including 300 Palestinian MSF staff and their families. More than 22,000 injured people remain in Gaza with limited access to healthcare, it added.

"Many of our Palestinian colleagues continue to work and provide lifesaving care in hospitals and across the Gaza Strip, while the most basic protections for hospitals and medical personnel are not guaranteed," MSF said.

Images are coming in all the time from Gaza that give a sense of what is going on.

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

A warning, you may find some of these photographs distressing.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Khalid bin Salman

Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi defence minister, has met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ahead of the top diplomat's trip to Israel.

Bin Salman, the brother of the country's de-facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, said the two met to "review our close and strategic relations, as well as the efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region".

Their meeting comes as a host of leaders in the Middle East have been sharply critical of Western support for Israel. Jordan, a major US ally, removed its ambassador from Israel on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia had been in the process of normalising relations with Israel, but has issued a series of condemnations of it in recent weeks.

Last week Saudi officials warned a delegation of US senators that an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza would be “extremely harmful”.

Image source, EPA

It's gone midnight in Gaza, where nightfall hasn't stopped foreign nationals from queuing at - and sometimes being allowed to cross - the Rafah border with Egypt to leave the Gaza Strip.

If you're just joining us, or need a recap, here are some of the latest developments:

• More than 400 foreign passport holders and injured Palestinians have been allowed to leave Gaza for the first time in more than three weeks - with British and US citizens among them
• The Rafah border crossing, until today, had only been opening to allow humanitarian aid for Palestinians into Gaza
• Images surfaced from a blast in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza - a day after Israel carried out an air strike, targeting a Hamas commander it said, in a different part of Jabalia
• The UN's human rights office condemned Tuesday's attack, saying the number of civilian deaths "could amount to war crimes" by Israel
• The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which has not yet commented on the most recent Jabalia blast, said in one of its latest updates that 16 of its troops have been killed this week
• And in the US, President Joe Biden has said his administration is "working non-stop to get Americans out of Gaza as soon and as safely as possible"

Image source, .

Fergal Keane
Reporting from Jerusalem

Tala Abu Nahleh's mother is a Jordanian citizen. Her family had been called by the Jordanian embassy and told to go to the Rafah crossing, which today opened to allow civilians to leave Gaza for the first time since the fighting erupted.

Foreign passport holders were going to be allowed through. So were the wounded and the seriously sick.

Tala's 15-year-old brother Yazid is disabled and suffers from seizures. He can only move from one place to another with the aid of a wheelchair. The hospitals in Gaza have run out of the medication he needs, while the bombing has exacerbated his condition.

There are six in the family and Tala is the sole financial support. She won scholarships and studied in the US and Beirut, Lebanon. Confident and articulate as she is, it is easy to imagine her guiding her family through the challenges of life beyond Gaza's borders.

• To read more of Tala's story, head here

There have been a few updates from the Israeli military today about its operation in Gaza - here's what we're hearing.

In a briefing, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari said joint action of their ground, sea and air forces had seen troops "break through the forward Hamas perimeter the northern Gaza Strip".

He also said that, guided by "precise intelligence from the Intelligence Branch and the ISA", the IDF had used fighter jets to "eliminate" Muhammad Atzar, a Hamas anti-tank commander.

In a separate briefing, Israel's Brig Gen Itzik Cohen said the IDF's forces were now "deep" into the Gaza Strip - "at the gates of Gaza City", he added.

As we've been telling you, hundreds of people have left Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

Among that number include injured Gazans who have been taken to hospitals across the border.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Egyptian Health Ministry

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

The US president also speaks about the 239 people held captive by Hamas in the wake of its unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October.

We "continue to hold in our hearts hundreds of families and loved ones including small children and elderly grandparents, including American citizens, being held hostage," he says.

"My administration continues to work around the clock to reunite those families. We're not going to give up, period.

"I am optimistic but then I am an optimist."

US President Joe Biden has been speaking about the opening of the Rafah border crossing.

He says thanks to "concerted American leadership, safe passage for wounded Palestinians and foreign nationals has started".

American citizens were able to exit today, he said, as part of the first group of "probably more than 1,000", adding that the process will continue over "the coming days".

"We're working non-stop to get Americans out of Gaza as soon and as safely as possible," he says.

The opening of the crossing is the result of "intense and urgent diplomacy" with partners in the region, including Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, Biden says.

The president also thanks Qatar, a country that has "worked so closely with us" to support negotiations and facilitate the departure of citizens.

On the entry of aid into Gaza, Biden says "the number of trucks continues to increase significantly, but we still have a long way to go".

As we've been reporting, civilians from Gaza have today crossed the Rafah border into Egypt for the first time in more than three weeks.

Hundreds of wounded people and foreign nationals have been allowed to leave - we don't yet know how long this will last. The crossing has been opening intermittently since 21 October, but only to let humanitarian aid in.

Hamas and Egypt normally exercise control over who can pass through the crossing that connects Egypt to the southern Gaza Strip, but it was shut following retaliatory strikes on Gaza after Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel on 7 October.

There are two other border crossings from and into the Gaza Strip - Erez and Kerem Shalom - both are shut at the moment.

As such, Rafah is now the only crossing point for aid meant for Palestinians. Some 217 trucks have been allowed in so far; Israel has refused to allow fuel to cross the border for fear it will be used militarily by Hamas.

• For more on the Rafah crossing, head here

Image source, .

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

As we told you earlier, there have been reports today of a blast in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza. There are now some photographs from news teams showing a large crater and people searching among the rubble of damaged buildings.

The BBC Verify team have identified the location as the Fallujah neighbourhood after analysing video material.

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

This comes one day after Israel carried out an air strike and separate ground operation in different parts of Jabalia, leading to reports of many casualties.

Jabalia lies in the northern part of Gaza which Israel has declared an evacuation zone as it continues its heavy bombing campaign against Hamas.

The BBC has asked the Israeli military about today's explosion. Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry say dozens of people have been killed. The BBC has not been able to verify the number of casualties.

Image source, EPA

Among the more than 400 people who managed to leave Gaza today were 22 members of staff from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), otherwise known as Doctors Without Borders.

In a statement, the charity says all its international staff that had been unable to leave the territory have now "successfully crossed the Egypt border via the Rafah Crossing".

It adds that it has already identified a new team of international staff which will enter Gaza "as soon as the situation allows".

More than two million people remain in Gaza, the charity pointed out, including 300 Palestinian MSF staff and their families.

"We reiterate our call for an immediate ceasefire," the charity said, stressing that it needed to "move medical supplies and personnel into Gaza immediately to be able to respond to the desperate needs on the ground".

Earlier we had a look at the conditions for those still trapped in Gaza, which you can read here.

The UN's human rights office has posted on X, external, formerly Twitter, about Tuesday's Israeli airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp:

The Jabalia camp was rocked by a large explosion yesterday afternoon.

Pictures taken at the scene by news agencies in the immediate aftermath showed several large craters surrounded by destroyed buildings. Children could be seen among the dead and injured, as people searched through the rubble for survivors.

The Israel Defense Forces later confirmed the strike, saying it had killed a senior Hamas commander, and targeted “underground terror infrastructure” beneath buildings that collapsed.

It also said it was looking into "reports of collateral damage and non-combatant casualties".

Read more detail about what happened in Jabalia here.

Lucy Manning
BBC News Special Correspondent

At least 14 Britons were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel, the BBC understands.

Another three Britons are still missing. The UK authorities are urgently working with the Israeli authorities to establish what’s happened to them, and are in contact with their families.

Those killed include mother and daughters Lianne, Noiya and Yahel Sharabi, Nathanel Young from London who was serving in the Israeli army, and photographer Danny Darlington.

Father of three Bernard Cowan also died in the Hamas attacks as well as Jake Marlowe, who was working at the music festival, soldier Yosef Guedalia and Manchester United fan Yoni Rapoport.

The previous number known to have been killed was 12. Several were Israeli-British dual nationals.

Image source, Getty Images

Here's a little more from the Foreign Office statement on British nationals leaving Gaza.

It says UK teams are on the ground providing assistance, and that it will "continue working with partners to ensure the crossing is opened again, allowing vital aid into Gaza and more British nationals to leave safely".

The Foreign Office said it was regularly updating all British nationals registered with it.

The statement added:

The UK Foreign Office says the first British nationals have passed through the Rafah border crossing from Gaza into Egypt.

It did not say how many Britons had left the territory, but said a list of British nationals that want to leave Gaza had been agreed with Egyptian and Israeli authorities.

An Israeli soldier has been killed today, the Israeli military says in an update.

According to the force's website, external, 15 soldiers died on Tuesday.

In the last few minutes, a spokesperson for the US State Department has given an update on the status of American citizens in Gaza.

Matthew Miller says "a number of American citizens" have passed through the Rafah crossing today and are in Egypt.

"We expect exits to continue over the next several days," he tells reporters, adding that American families in Gaza would be periodically receiving emailed instructions on when, where and how to leave.

He estimates there are around 400 American citizens in Gaza who have expressed a desire to leave.

When pressed for further details, Miller describes the process as "ongoing" and "very fluid", and says "we will not stop until we've gotten all of our people out".

Western intelligence braces for rising terror threatspublished at 17:42 Greenwich Mean Time 1 November 2023

17:42 GMT 1 November 2023

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

The warning from the director of the FBI this week was stark.

Addressing a Senate panel alongside the US Homeland Security Secretary on Tuesday, Director Christopher Gray said the terror threat to Americans had been "elevated throughout 2023" but after 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel it had risen "to a whole other level".

It is a concern shared on both sides of the Atlantic with the UK prime minister chairing a Cobra crisis meeting on Monday attended by MI5 and counter-terrorism policing to discuss how to mitigate the increased threat of terrorism.

The UK government suspects Iranian agents may be actively stoking unrest amongst the recent pro-Palestinian protests in British cities.

Currently, the UK national terror threat level, set by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, remains unchanged at substantial - meaning a terrorist attack is thought "likely".

But, the surge in violence in the Middle East has led counter-terrorism officials to worry about two areas of increased threat.

One of those comes from the growing international outrage at the very high level of civilian casualties amongst Palestinians caused by Israel's air and artillery strikes on Gaza as it seeks to eliminate Hamas’s fighting capabilities.

The other is the risk extremist groups could be inspired by the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October.

The FBI director told senators those actions "will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago".

Earlier today, Palestinians' biggest telecommunications provider Paltel, announced "a complete interruption of all communications and internet services" in the Gaza Strip

It is the second such report since the start of Israel’s ground operation in Gaza.

The Paltel notification on social media said the cut off was "due to international routes that were previously reconnected being cut off again".

Global network monitor Netblocks confirmed a new blackout, adding it would mean "a total loss of telecommunications" for most of the territory's more than two million residents.

Those near Gaza's boundaries with Israel and Egypt might be able to pick up some signal if they have an international sim card.