Ashitha Nagesh
BBC News Community Affairs Correspondent

Image source, Nasser Alshanti

Foreign nationals, including Britons, who have fled Gaza only have 72 hours - three days - in Egypt before they need to leave.

Hundreds of foreign nationals were evacuated from Gaza into Egypt through the Rafah Crossing on Friday.

Nasser Alshanti, an academic from Manchester, told BBC News his pregnant daughter Yosra is effectively "stuck" in Egypt because her husband isn't a British citizen, and they are worried they won't be able to leave before the three days are up.

Yosra was raised in the UK and moved to Gaza for university in 2015, where she met - and then married - Ibrahim. The couple had lived in central Gaza since then, until they had to flee in the first week of the war when their neighbourhood was bombed.

You can read the full story here

Anthony Zurcher
Travelling with the US secretary of state

Image source, Reuters

For three days, the US's top diplomat, Antony Blinken, has been dashing around the Middle East, trying to contain a situation that threatens to spin out of control. Israel on Friday.

Jordan on Saturday. The West Bank, Iraq and Turkey on Sunday.

Every stop posed its own challenges and gave reason to be pessimistic that much progress is being made. The central challenge facing the US secretary of state is that he is trying to find a middle ground where none, at the moment, exists.

On Friday, Blinken encouraged Israeli leaders to make temporary pauses in hostilities in order to ease humanitarian aid and encourage hostage releases - a move the Israeli prime minister quickly rejected.

The next day, he met representatives of Israel's Arab neighbours. They all called for an immediate ceasefire. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Israel was committing war crimes.

At roughly the same time back in the US, President Joe Biden was asked whether progress was being made toward securing those humanitarian pauses. He gave a thumbs up and replied "good".

The president's optimism stood in stark contrast to the mood on the ground here in the Middle East.

Read more from Anthony Zurcher here

Image source, Reuters

The former UK PM Boris Johnson is on a joint trip to Israel with ex-premier of Australia Scott Morrison, to "express solidarity and support" after the 7 October attacks by Hamas.

They met opposition leader Yair Lipid, who thanked them for their support.

The pair also visited Kibbutz Kfar Aza, which was attacked by Hamas.

Johnson described the 7 October massacre, in which 1,400 people were killed and more than 200 were kidnapped, as the worst single attack on the Jewish people since World War Two.

Image source, EPA

As we have been reporting, the top US diplomat Antony Blinken has just arrived in Turkey where he is due to meet Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan for talks on Gaza.

It comes a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the Gaza Strip to be established as part of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state at the end of the war with Israel, adding that he would not support any plans "gradually erasing Palestinians" from history.

Ankara has called for an immediate ceasefire, where Blinken has dismissed the notion and pushed for a humanitarian pause.

Turkey does not consider Hamas a terrorist organisation – unlike countries including the US and UK. It has long hosted its members and supports a two-state solution.

Frayed relations between Israel and Turkey have worsened since the start of the war, with both sides ordering their diplomats to return.

And yesterday, Erdogan said he had "written off" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a counterpart. He did state, however, that Turkey did not want to cut ties with Israel.

Image source, Reuters

We've just had the first picture of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Turkey, as part of his regional diplomatic tour.

As a reminder, Blinken has already held meetings with leaders and ministers in Israel, the occupied West Bank, Jordan, and Iraq.

Image source, EPA

As we reported earlier, the internet and phone networks are down again in Gaza.

The boss of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says they are "very concerned" by the blackout, and by the "heavy bombardments".

"Without connectivity, people who need immediate medical attention cannot contact hospitals and ambulances," he says., external

"All channels of communication must be restored immediately."

Body armour and black helicopters - how Blinken travelled to central Baghdadpublished at 21:12 Greenwich Mean Time 5 November 2023

21:12 GMT 5 November 2023

Anthony Zurcher
Travelling with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Image source, Reuter

Night had fallen by the time Antony Blinken’s plane landed in Baghdad. It was a fitting environment for a visit that was shrouded in secrecy.

The secretary of state and his staff had transferred from their standard State Department passenger jet earlier to an unmarked C17 Air Force cargo plane earlier in the day in Cyprus.

As they walked onto the airport tarmac in Baghdad, they quickly donned body armour and helmets and boarded two black helicopters for the short flight to the US embassy in the central part of the city.

After meeting with embassy officials and attending a security briefing with the US military, Blinken and his entourage took a motorcade to Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani’s office.

Islamic militants based in Iraq have launched a series of drone and missile attacks on US forces stationed in Syria and Iraq recently, and this was certainly a prime topic of the conversation. The talk lasted more than an hour.

After it concluded, the secretary returned to the Baghdad airport, again by motorcade and helicopter.

Only after he began his brief news conference at the airport with those of us in the press pool did the US officially confirm that the visit had taken place. Then it was back on the C17 for a fast and steep ascent from Iraq and on to Ankara, Turkey.

As Israel continues air strikes on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military says air raid sirens are sounding across central Israel, due to rockets being fired from Gaza.

"Millions of Israelis are running to bomb shelters," the IDF said on X, external, alongside a map showing warning locations.

The IDF recently said, external that 8,000 rockets had been fired at Israel since 7 October.

Image source, IDF

Earlier, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said: "We attack with great force. Tonight and every day, tonight there is now a significant attack."

Now we've just heard from our reporter in the Gaza Strip, Rushdi Abualouf, who thinks tonight has seen the most intense air strikes since the beginning of the war.

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

Arab states reject hostage progress as condition for fighting pausepublished at 20:10 Greenwich Mean Time 5 November 2023

20:10 GMT 5 November 2023

Lyse Doucet
Reporting from Jerusalem

“A very, very detailed, very blunt, very open conversation.”

That’s how Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi described yesterday’s meetings in Amman between Arab foreign ministers and the US’s top diplomat Antony Blinken, which saw Arab states calling for an immediate ceasefire - instead of the humanitarian pauses now being pushed by Washington.

He told me Israel’s linkage of humanitarian pauses to movement on the release of hostages was “totally unacceptable”.

He said all Arab states were calling for the release of civilians, but he accused Israel of “taking 2.3 million Palestinians hostage” by denying them essential services and destroying their homes.

Last week, Jordan recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv, the first Arab state to take this step.

“Everything is on the table,” he replied when I asked whether Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel could be at risk.

But, he added, “unlike the Israeli government we are not acting out of pure rage...and are not losing sight of the broader picture".

Daniel Hagari, the Israeli spokesman, also referred to the cross-border violence with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

As we reported earlier, reports in Lebanon say four civilians were killed by an Israeli air strike on a car today.

Hagari did not address that directly, but said: "The IDF attacked Hezbollah terrorist targets in southern Lebanon, this in response to the firing of an anti-tank missile that killed an Israeli citizen.

"The IDF carried out several additional attacks on terrorist infrastructures and terrorist squads and vehicles driven by terrorist squads."

While Antony Blinken was speaking in Baghdad, Israel's military spokesman Daniel Hagari updated the media on their operation in Gaza. He says:

• 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"

As a reminder, 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.

Israel raises questions about how pause would workpublished at 19:07 Greenwich Mean Time 5 November 2023

19:07 GMT 5 November 2023

Paul Adams
Reporting from Israel

During his brief, unannounced visit to Baghdad, the US Secretary of State was asked by my colleague Anthony Zurcher why he had not yet been able to secure Israeli agreement for a humanitarian pause in Gaza.

Antony Blinken said it was a “process” and that Israel had raised important questions about how such pauses would work.

These, he said, were being worked through. One of Israel’s main concerns is the fate of around 240 hostages – Israelis and foreigners – still being held in Gaza (although Hamas claims that as many as 60 have already been killed in Israeli airstrikes).

Humanitarian pauses, Blinken said, needed to improve the chances of getting hostages released.

Earlier, Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel could not agree to a pause without some sign of movement on the hostage issue. This might include letting the International Committee of the Red Cross visit the captives, something Hamas has not yet agreed to.

But while Israel’s focus is on the fate of the hostages, the US administration is acutely conscious that with each day that passes without some respite from Israel’s military assault, Gaza’s desperate humanitarian situation just gets worse.

Blinken said that 100 trucks a day were now entering Gaza through the Rafah crossing, but he said this was "grossly insufficient".

The US Secretary of State was responding to a question from the BBC's Anthony Zurcher in Baghdad.

As a reminder, Blinken held a series of meetings, external with regional leaders and ministers in Jordan yesterday, including representatives from Lebanon, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

Blinken has also spoken of US efforts to ensure the war does not spread to other parts of the Middle East.

There are concerns that other regional actors may become involved. “This is the very vital and urgent work of American diplomacy,” he said.

As we reported earlier, there has been more cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah - an Iran-backed militia - in Lebanon today.

Speaking about his ongoing efforts for humanitarian pauses in order to allow more aid into Gaza, and to allow more civilians to leave, Blinken says Middle Eastern leaders he has spoken to during his tour have welcomed the idea.

"I think everyone would welcome humanitarian pauses, there's no doubt about that," he says.

As a reminder, a humanitarian pause in fighting is not the same as a ceasefire - pauses are shorter and are purely for humanitarian needs, rather than part of a longer political process.

As part of his regional tour, Antony Blinken - who earlier visited Israel and the occupied West Bank - is now in Iraq.

We'll bring you the latest here.

As we reported earlier, Muhammad Al-Alul, a photojournalist, lost five members of his family in the Al-Maghazi camp blast.

He later held the bodies of his children in a morgue. He broke down while describing to the camera what had happened.

Hezbollah-Israel cross-border violence has been frequent, but containedpublished at 17:46 Greenwich Mean Time 5 November 2023

17:46 GMT 5 November 2023

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Lebanon

Image source, Reuters

Cross-border violence between Hezbollah, the heavily armed Iranian-backed Lebanese group, and the Israeli military has been frequent since the Israel-Hamas war broke out almost a month ago.

But, so far, the attacks have been contained, and most of the targets have been military sites and open fields, with both sides apparently taking steps to prevent a dangerous escalation.

Thousands of people have left border villages on the Lebanese side. Many, however, have stayed, and some are even returning to their homes.

The news that four civilians – three children and their grandmother – were killed in an Israeli strike, as reported by Lebanese state media, could lead to an intensification of the violence. Pictures of their burnt-out car are already being widely shared on social media and local television.

In a speech last Friday, the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, left the door open for further attacks if civilians were killed in Lebanon, saying the group would return to the “civilian-for-civilian rule”.

Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah lawmaker, told the Reuters news agency that “the enemy [would] pay the price for its crimes against civilians”.

At least seven other civilians – including Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah – have been killed along the border in Lebanon in the past month.