Blinken's visit - what's come out of it?published at 10:15 Greenwich Mean Time 6 November 2023

10:15 GMT 6 November 2023

Jeremy Bowen
International editor

Image source, Reuters

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been touring the region again. He's currently in talks in Ankara, Turkey. And we are also being told that the head of the CIA, William Burns, who used to be the top US diplomat on the Middle East, is in the region too.

Blinken is delivering a lot of messages which his audiences like to hear.

On one hand, he tells the leader of the Palestinian Authority, President Mahmoud Abbas, that after the war, the PA should have a role in Gaza. He condemns the settler violence in the West Bank, says he wants to reduce Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza, and improve living conditions.

But when he says these things, he also says to Israel when you have 100% support, militarily and diplomatically, you just have to do it the right way with international law.

In practice, though, I don't quite see what he's changing. I think the Americans appear to be continuing their deterrence of the likes of Iran and their proxies, and that may be having an impact.

Yogita Limaye
BBC News

Image source, Uri Rawitz

"It's been more than four weeks since they were taken. They should have been home yesterday, not today, but yesterday," Uri Rawitz said of the more than 200 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.

His mother 84-year-old Elma Avraham is one of the oldest hostages.

Elma lived in the Nahal Oz kibbutz close to Gaza. Her family found a picture online appearing to show her being taken on a motorcycle by Hamas gunmen a day after 7 October attack.

Uri says his mother suffers from heart ailments and varicose veins, and requires several medicines every day to keep her in good health. He showed us a big plastic bag full of a stock of pills, hoping for what seems impossible – that someone will be able to take them to her. The Red Cross have said their demand for access to the hostages has not been granted.

Image source, Reuters

An Israeli soldier has been seriously wounded after a stabbing in occupied East Jerusalem, near an entrance to the Old City.

The suspected attacker, a 16-year-old from the Issawiya area of the city, has been shot and killed by security forces after stabbing two people on Sultan Suleiman street, Israeli police say.

A second suspect has been arrested and investigations are ongoing.

Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency services, has confirmed a 20-year-old woman has been taken to hospital for treatment with serious injures.

A second man also suffered a minor stab wound in the attack, which the MDA describes as taking place near a gate into Jerusalem's Old City.

We're hearing that internet connectivity is being restored in the Gaza Strip, according to internet monitoring group Netblocks.

Phone and internet services have been down there since yesterday - the third time this has happened since the war began. Netblocks said this blackout has been the second-longest.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society also said telecommunications and internet services in the Gaza Strip were restored. They said it had been "intentionally and forcibly cut off by the Israeli authorities".

We have been unable to verify what caused the blackout.

"This repeated interruption further adds to the suffering of disaster response teams," the PRCS added in a post on X.

Image source, Family handout

An Irishman who was told his eight-year-old daughter had been killed by Hamas in Israel has now been told that she may still be alive.

Dublin-born Tom Hand was initially informed that his daughter Emily Hand, who is Irish-Israeli, was among a group of people killed in an attack on a kibbutz on 7 October.

The Irish embassy in Israel confirmed to Irish broadcaster RTÉ that Emily was now believed to have been abducted rather than killed. An official from the embassy said tests had shown her DNA was not found among victims in kibbutz Be'eri.

Speaking to RTÉ, external on Sunday, Emily's family said the Israeli Defense Forces now believed there was a "high possibility" she was among the people being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

Emily was in Kibbutz Be'eri, about three miles from Gaza, when Hamas launched its attack.

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor, reporting from southern Israel

It’s another morning where communications with Gaza are almost impossible by phone and internet services appear to be down.

Before the lines went completely down, our BBC team in Gaza told us that heavy strikes were taking place. The Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that the military has pushed in beyond the outskirts of Gaza City and completely encircled it.

But the blackout also means that Palestinian ambulances don't know where to go because they can’t receive incoming calls. When it last happened, emergency responders were just driving towards the sound of shelling and hoping to find wounded people to help.

So this only makes things for civilians, even more hellish than they already are.

Image source, EPA

Israel's military are "following a very methodical process", says Dr Jack Watling from military think tank the Royal United Services Institute - saying they are "first isolating parts of the Gaza Strip, and then entering it and clearing".

Last night, the Israel Defense Forces said they had surrounded Gaza City and reached the coastline - effectively cutting the Strip into two halves, north and south.

"In that sense, yes, they do appear to be following a step by step process", Watling told BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier.

Communications like phone and internet are also reported to be down in Gaza - which Watling says is "important for the Israelis from a military point of view because it reduces the ability of Hamas to report the locations of their fighters and various other things".

But, he warns, there are "severe humanitarian consequences" from what's happened. "We are going to see a lot of civilians killed, especially those who are still in Gaza City because it's now been isolated," Watling adds.

We're still trying to work out what's happened overnight in Gaza.

With nearly all communications down in the Strip, it's hard to get information - but we have just received some photos that show people searching through rubble in the south of the Strip this morning, although we don't know when the buildings were destroyed.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Ankara, Turkey as part of his packed visit to the Middle East - and has just met Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan for talks behind closed doors.

His visit to Turkey comes amid growing anti-US sentiment in the country, as police on Sunday had to stop a group of pro-Palestinian protesters reportedly trying to enter an air base where US forces are stationed.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday called it his country's "duty" to stop the bloodshed in Gaza and save Palestinians from Israel's "oppression".

Relations between Israel and Turkey have worsened since the start of the war, as both countries ordered the return of their diplomats. Erdogan said he had "written off" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a counterpart, but added that Turkey did not want to cut ties with Israel.

The US's top diplomat has already visited Israel - his first stop in the region - as he requested a pause in fighting in the Gaza Strip to ease humanitarian aid. Blinken also held meetings with leaders and ministers in the occupied West Bank, Jordan and Iraq.

• Few reasons for optimism after Antony Blinken's diplomatic dash

Francesca Gillett
Live reporter

There have been more heavy air strikes and explosions in northern Gaza overnight.

Phone and internet services in the Strip are reported to be down - but last night we managed to hear from our journalist in Gaza, Rushdi Abualouf, who told us he thought it had been most intense wave of air strikes since the beginning of the war.

He said the strikes were focused on north-west Gaza, with the Beach refugee camp - also known as the Shati camp - bombed heavily.

And just in the past hour, Israel has said its fighter jets have attacked 450 targets in the territory in the last day.

We're waiting for more details from Gaza, but with communications down it's difficult. We'll bring you more updates as we have them.

According to the latest figures from the Hamas-run health ministry, more than 9,700 people have been killed in Gaza since 7 October. Israel says Hamas killed more than 1,400 people and kidnapped more than 200 others.

Israel says Jordan's air drop of aid into Gaza was carried out in co-ordination with the Israel Defense Forces.

Jordan's King Abdullah II had already said his country's air force had dropped medical supplies into a field hospital in Gaza, saying it was his military's duty to help the wounded who were suffering in Gaza.

In a statement just now, the IDF said a Jordanian airplane dropped "medical equipment and food to the Jordanian hospital in the Gaza Strip".

It's believed to be the first such parachute aid delivery during the current conflict.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

In the last few hours we've heard the latest update from Israel army spokesman Jonathan Conricus, who said the Israeli military "will be able to dismantle Hamas, stronghold after stronghold, battalion after battalion" in Gaza.

Conricus also said Israel has shown "sincere, honest efforts" to "evacuate people from northern Gaza". It comes after Israel said troops had now effectively divided the Strip into two after reaching the coastline.

But they are continuing to call on civilians to flee northern Gaza. He adds that "at the end of our situation, at the end of those efforts, we will be able to have a northern Gaza which is relatively clear of civilian population, and then we will continue to fight".

Some 1.5 million people are displaced in the region, which is currently experiencing a reported communications blackout.

Hundreds of thousands of Gazans moved to the south of the Strip after Israel told them to evacuate there. But as BBC Verify has established, the south has continued to come under Israeli bombing, leading aid workers to say nowhere is safe in Gaza.

Image source, Reuters

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says its ground forces "took control of a Hamas outpost in Gaza" last night. In a post on X, external, formerly Twitter, the Israeli military says that the outpost was fitted with "observation posts, training facilities for terrorist operatives, as well as terrorist tunnels".

It adds, that in the operation "a number of terrorists were eliminated".

The IDF also says that during the last day its fighter jets attacked "about 450 targets... including military compounds, observation posts, anti-tank posts" and more.

On Sunday, Israel said it had "surrounded" Gaza City, as it continues with its aim to eliminate Hamas, a proscribed terrorist group in the UK, US, EU and others, after it launched a series of deadly attacks on 7 October.

As we told you earlier, there has been reports that phone and internet services have been cut again in Gaza.

The Palestinian Red Crescent charity said it was the "third communications blackout" in Gaza since the war began - and they've lost contact with their teams.

The head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said he's "very concerned" about the reports of "another connectivity outage in Gaza, as well as heavy bombardments".

He posted on X, external:

Internet monitoring group Netblocks, external says its the third communications blackout in the past month.

The heads of all major UN agencies have issued a rare joint statement , externalcalling for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" saying "enough is enough".

"For almost a month, the world has been watching the unfolding situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory in shock and horror at the spiralling numbers of lives lost and torn apart," the UN bosses say.

The heads of organisation including UNICEF, the WHO, the World Food Programme - as well as charities such as Save the Children - described the "horrific" loss of life on both sides, and demand the unconditional release of hostages taken by Hamas during its 7 October attacks.

The statement continues:

"However, the horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza is an outrage, as is cutting off 2.2 million Palestinians from food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel."

The statement adds that 88 people working for UNRWA, the agency focussed on Palestinian refugees, had been killed since 7 October, the highest number of UN fatalities "ever recorded in a single conflict".

Image source, Reuters

As we've been telling you, the Biden administration is stepping up its diplomacy in the Middle East to try to secure humanitarian pauses in the war between Israel and Hamas.

The CIA Director, William Burns - a former US ambassador to Jordan - is now in Israel for talks with officials.

He's called for more intelligence-sharing and a greater effort to avoid civilian casualties.

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks in Turkey, the latest stop in his regional tour.

The White House has said Vice-President Kamala Harris will discuss the conflict with unnamed foreign leaders on Monday. It says Harris will advance US efforts to increase the flow of aid to civilians in Gaza.

Israel says it's launched a significant attack in the north of Gaza – there were reports on Sunday night of huge explosions and intense airstrikes. The country's military has said this:

• IDF forces have "surrounded" Gaza City
• Troops have reached the coastline, effectively dividing the Strip into "Gaza North and Gaza South"
• Israel is still "allowing a corridor" for the residents of the northern Gaza Strip and Gaza City to go south
• Israel "will continue to attack strongly and continue to intensify our ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip and greater Gaza City"

The Hamas-run health ministry says almost 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel started its campaign there, in response to the Hamas attacks of 7 October.

Nathan Williams
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

It's gone midnight in London, 02:00 in the morning in Gaza and Israel, and 03:00 in Turkey - where America's top diplomat has arrived for talks.

This follows Antony Blinken's visit to the West Bank and Iraq on Sunday during a diplomatic dash of the region. He's been discussing efforts to prevent the Gaza conflict from spreading and continues to push for a pause in the fighting.

The BBC's Anthony Zurcher points out he is trying to find a middle ground where none currently exists. The Israeli PM has rejected the idea of a humanitarian pause for now, while Israel's Arab neighbours have been calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Turkey's relations with Israel have become increasingly frayed as the death toll in the conflict mounts.

Meanwhile, Israel says its forces have cut Gaza in two after its ground offensive against Hamas reached the Mediterranean coast in the Palestinian territory. A military spokesman said Gaza City was now completely encircled.

There have been airstrikes and huge explosions in the north of the enclave – the most intense since the war began, the BBC's reporter in the Gaza Strips tells us. Phone and internet services have again been cut.

The UN – which is housing many of the 1.5 million displaced Gazans - says 48 of its sites across the Gaza Strip have been damaged since the war broke out.

King Abdullah of Jordan has said his country's air force has been able to airdrop urgent medical and pharmaceutical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in the Gaza Strip.

In a post on social media, external, King Abdullah said it was his military's duty to help the wounded who were suffering in Gaza.

He said Jordan would remain the strongest supporter of those he called their Palestinian brothers. There's been no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.

Image source, Reuters

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA has said 48 of its sites across the Gaza Strip have been damaged since the war broke out.

The agency reminds people that 1.5 million Gazans have been displaced, and it says almost half of them are sheltering in its installations.

As we reported yesterday, the UN says its shelters are increasingly overcrowded and those in the south are unable to accept new arrivals. Many displaced people are sleeping on the streets near UNRWA facilities, it says.

Israel has declared northern Gaza an evacuation zone, with that part of the territory the focus of its military operation against Hamas.