The Israeli president is asked by Laura Kuenssberg about the situation at Al-Shifa hospital, the largest hospital in Gaza.

A doctors' group says two premature babies have died because of a lack of electricity at the hospital, while a surgeon said the facility had run out of water, food and power.

"That is not true," Herzog says about there being a lack of power at the hospital. "There is a lot of spin by Hamas. There is electricity in Shifa, everything is operating."

Herzog says the army is speaking to managers at the hospital, and claims that Hamas has its headquarters underneath the building. He claims that it was, in fact, Hamas that bombed Al-Shifa.

Israel has been accused of attacking the hospital - which it denies - with a number of medical organisations warning of a dire situation.

The World Health Organization has expressed "grave concerns" for the safety of staff and patients at the hospital who have become trapped by the fighting.

The BBC has been sent pictures of at least 20 newborn babies being kept in a surgical theatre at Al-Shifa hospital.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel said two premature infants have already died, with a "real risk" to the lives of 37 others.

Next, Laura Kuenssberg interviews Israel's President, Isaac Herzog.

Speaking about the Israeli military's campaign in Gaza, he holds up a copy of Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf, which he says has been translated into Arabic and was found on the body of a Hamas fighter in northern Gaza.

He shows what appear to be post-it notes within the book, where someone had been reading it.

Next, Herzog is asked about whether Israel listens to its allies, including France and the US. France has called for a ceasefire in the conflict, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said too many Palestinians have been killed.

In response, Herzog says: "Of course we listen to our allies but first and foremost we defend ourselves.

"Unfortunately, there are tragedies - we don't shy away from them. But many of the tragedies are done by Hamas."

UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has been speaking to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg this morning about whether he believes Israel's actions in Gaza are proportionate.

"The UK believes strongly that Israel must act within international humanitarian law," he says, adding that it is a "sad fact" of war that people will lose their lives.

Pressed on whether Israel's actions are proportionate, Shapps says if the UK had been subject to an attack "and we knew where those terrorists had gone, no one would be saying 'stop going after them'".

"How can we ask Israel not to go and destroy those bunkers?," he adds.

Asked about the UK's efforts in securing the release of British hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, Shapps says he could only say "that we are working our socks off to get them released".

Rushdi Abualouf
BBC journalist in Gaza City

Around two hours ago, I went to buy some supplies for my children from the village of Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis.

A nice man invited me to have a cup of hot tea.

Suddenly, four bombs fell around us in quick succession.

Stones flew over our heads. There were sounds of screaming, and glass flying around us.

I felt that death was very close this time.

I quickly ran towards the area. A block of around 10 houses had been destroyed.

People were covered in dust and blood.

A man was carrying an injured little girl, screaming: “Call an ambulance!”

I saw four dead and more than a hundred injured, and I heard the voices of those trapped under the rubble screaming for help.

The Palestinian health ministry says a man has been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank in the early hours of this morning.

The 34-year-old was shot in the town of Burqa, the Palestinian Authority-run ministry said.

Another three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces yesterday, according to the ministry.

Its statement said one of those killed was from the town of Jenin while the other two were from Arraba, a town in the north of the West Bank.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz said two of them were aged 22 and 23, and Al Jazeera said the other was 19.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) governs parts of the West Bank that are not under full Israeli control. Its health ministry is separate to the one run by Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

The leader of PA, Mahmoud Abbas, yesterday said that the West Bank and Jerusalem were facing daily aggression. Earlier this week, Israel's military said it was conducting counter-terrorism raids in Jenin.

Image source, Getty Images

An evacuation corridor is being opened from the Al-Shifa hospital to Gaza's main road south, the Israeli military's Arabic spokesman has announced.

In a post to X (formerly Twitter), external, Avichay Adraee says a route is available from the hospital via Al-Wahda Street through to Salah Al-Din Road.

The post again encourages people to move to the south of the Gaza Strip and confirms another temporary pause in fighting around Jabalia from 10:00 until 14:00, local time (08:00 until 12:00 GMT).

An Israeli military spokeswoman earlier told the BBC that Israeli forces were "in touch" with staff at Al-Shifa, and reiterated that they were not firing at the hospital.

"I would like to clarify that the IDF is not targeting the Al-Shifa hospital. We are responding to fire that is being launched by Hamas adjacent to the hospital which I think just symbolizes the disregard that Hamas has certainly for hospitals and other civilian areas," Libby Weiss said.

"But we are in touch with the staff at Al-Shifa hospital and will help evacuate that hospital as we already did with the Nasser and Rantisi hospitals."

Image source, EPA

Gaza's Hamas-run border authority yesterday announced the Rafah border crossing into Egypt would open today, after remaining closed yesterday.

The Rafah crossing, which connects Gaza to Egypt, is the main route in and out of the strip not controlled by Israel.

It has become the focus of international efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to the 2.2 million people living in Gaza, where access to basic supplies such as water, fuel and medicines is severely limited.

In recent weeks, people with non-Palestinian passports have been able to evacuate Gaza through the crossing.

We don't know yet know what time the gates will open today, but we will keep an eye on it throughout the day.

Image source, .

Nick Beake
Reporting from Jerusalem

Moving dozens of babies from intensive care is a delicate process at the best of times, but today we’re told it will be attempted from Al-Shifa hospital, which is now at the heart of the fighting in northern Gaza.

We’re waiting to see how the process will happen.

Israel says it will help the evacuation but staff inside Gaza’s biggest hospital seem unclear on the details - with the head of surgery warning that other hospitals in the territory don't have the expertise or facilities to look after the reported 37 babies who were being cared for at Shifa’s neonatal unit before it lost electricity.

The photos sent to the BBC last night – showing more than 20 babies – appearing to be in need of oxygen treatment is a striking illustration of how urgently these youngest of patients must be helped.

Israel maintains there is still a safe exit route out of the hospital for patients - and others who had sought refuge there - to start on the journey further south into Gaza.

But with heavy fighting on their doorstep and stories of evacuees being fired on, many inside the hospital feel any attempt to leave is fraught with the greatest of danger.

More from the UN - whose agency the World Health Organization (WHO) last night said it had lost communication with its contacts at Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital.

The body says it assumed its contacts had joined "tens of thousands of displaced people and are fleeing the area", amid "horrifying reports of the hospital facing repeated attacks".

The WHO expressed "grave concerns" for the safety of staff and patients there who have become trapped by the fighting, including "babies on life support and displaced people who remain inside the hospital".

In its social media post, external, it went on to call for an "immediate ceasefire in Gaza as the only way to save lives and reduce the horrific levels of suffering".

It also called for more more "sustained, orderly, unimpeded and safe medical evacuations" of critically injured and sick patients into Egypt via the Rafah crossing.

The UN says one of its offices in Gaza City was shelled overnight, with "reports of deaths & injured" among civilians sheltering there.

"This is wrong on every count," the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Achim Steiner says in a post on X (formerly Twitter), external.

"Civilians, civilian infrastructure & the inviolability of UN facilities must be always protected."

Image source, Reuters

Good morning. We're re-launching this live coverage. Here's where things stand just now:

• The Israeli military says it's agreed to help evacuate vulnerable babies from Gaza's main hospital today
• Concerns from doctors for dozens of newborns at Al-Shifa hospital are growing - after a doctors' group said two had already died due to a lack of electricity
• The BBC has been sent pictures of at least 20 infants being kept in a surgical ward at the hospital. They are lined up on adult hospital beds, with several appearing to need of oxygen treatment that is not available
• The Israeli military has been accused of attacking Al-Shifa, which has been effectively shut down due to a lack of water, power, staff and medical supplies. It denied the hospital was under siege but acknowledged fighting in the area. It said the east side of the hospital was open for the safe passage of those who wanted to leave
• Israel accuses Hamas of using tunnels under the hospital as a command centre, which its enemy denies
• The charity MSF has warned that hospitals more widely in Gaza have been under "relentless bombardment"
• Thousands of Palestinians continue to flee south, in hope of finding shelter and safety from the more intense fighting and air strikes in the northern Gaza Strip
• Meanwhile, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again rejected calls for a ceasefire, saying the war will continue until Hamas is destroyed and all its hostages released

We're pausing our live coverage for the next few hours, so here's a quick recap on where things stand in the Israel-Gaza war.

The Israeli military has denied accusations of carrying out attacks Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa - but has acknowledged "clashes" with Hamas fighters in the area in the north of the strip.

A surgeon at the hospital in Gaza City told the BBC the hospital had run out of water, food and electricity - and that the intensive care unit had been struck.

Israel said it would help to evacuate babies to "a safer hospital" on Sunday, after medics said two had died and 37 others were at risk of harm.

Away from Gaza, in the occupied West Bank, dozens of people attended the funerals of 11 Palestinians killed in a reported Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp.

Meanwhile, Israeli defence minister has warned the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, that Israel can do in Beirut what it's doing in Gaza. Yoav Gallant said the Iranian-backed group could drag Lebanon into war.

It all comes after Israel launched a retaliatory offensive in Gaza as a response to Hamas's deadly 7 October attacks, which killed around 1,200 people while more than 240 others were taken hostage.

The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza since - of whom more than 4,500 were children

Tom Bateman
BBC News

The BBC has been sent pictures of at least 20 newborn babies being kept in a surgical theatre at Al-Shifa hospital, as doctors warn they may die.

The neonatal intensive care unit has stopped working due to the lack of electricity, doctors said earlier.

“I’m afraid if we leave these children in this unit in this condition we are allowing them to die… they are premature babies”, said Dr Marwan Abu Saada, head of surgery, in a voice note passed on to the BBC.

The pictures show infants wrapped in blankets and lined up in rows on adult hospital beds. Many of them appear to have tape on their faces suggesting the need for oxygen administration.

Doctors have warned for at least a fortnight that the number of available incubators was being reduced due to the power shortage amid the ongoing Israeli siege.

Dr Abu Saada said the babies need intensive care, life support equipment and artificial respiration.

Earlier, Physicians for Human Rights Israel said two premature infants have already died, with a "real risk" to the lives of 37 others.

As we’ve been reporting, the Israeli army said it would help evacuate babies from Al-Shifa to a “safer” hospital on Sunday, following a request from the hospital administration.

Dr Abu Saada said his understanding was discussions were “open” through the Red Cross but said the bombardment near the hospital meant it was extremely dangerous and there was no other facility in Gaza that could accommodate so many premature infants. He said the hospital instead urgently needs fuel to restore power.

The Israeli military has continued to hit the Gaza Strip with air strikes today, as soldiers continue to operate as part of its ongoing ground operation against Hamas.

Meanwhile, as the battles have intensified around Gaza City, thousands of people continue to flee the violence and evacuate to the south.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Paul Adams
Reporting from Jerusalem

Reports from Gaza’s beleaguered hospitals paint a grim picture of deteriorating conditions inside. Electricity, food and fuel are in short supply and war is raging all around.

At Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, the staff say the building has been hit, damaging the intensive care unit.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders says the hospital has been hit several times.

But Israeli officials paint a very different picture.

Speaking in Arabic, Colonel Moshe Tetro said there were clashes nearby between Hamas and Israeli forces, but no shooting at the hospital itself. And no siege.

Anyone who wanted to leave, he said, could do so. To say otherwise, he insisted was a lie.

One of Gaza’s much smaller hospitals, Al-Rantisi, has been more or less evacuated, leaving just a handful of patients and staff inside.

Israel, which accuses Hamas of using hospitals as cover for its fighters, is trying to persuade others to follow suit.

And, for the first time, Israel looks set to get directly involved in evacuating patients.

The IDF’s chief spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said the staff at Al-Shifa had asked for help in rescuing babies from the hospital’s paediatric department.

He said this would happen tomorrow, but didn’t give any details.

In his address earlier this evening, Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah "do not make that mistake and start a war".

The Israeli prime minister was responding to an earlier speech by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah we've just reported on.

Any war, Netanyahu threatened, would "decide the destiny of Lebanon".

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who spoke after Netanyahu, used even stronger language in his warnings to Lebanon and Hezbollah.

He said the Israeli Air Force was operating on the Israel-Lebanon border, and the military more broadly was prepared for any escalation.

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Beirut

Image source, EPA

Hassan Nasrallah, the influential leader of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, has said the group has stepped up its offensive against Israel in the past week and that attacks from southern Lebanon will continue, describing it as a “support front”.

Addressing his supporters for the second time since the Israel-Hamas war started earlier today, he said Hezbollah – which is considered a terrorist organisation by the UK, the US and others – was striking deeper into Israeli territory, with weapons that include explosive drones and a missile with an explosives payload between 300 and 500kg.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire almost every day along their border for more than a month - but so far, most of the attacks have been contained to military sites and open fields.

In his first speech last week, Nasrallah said Hezbollah was already doing enough to help Hamas in Gaza, by keeping Israeli troops busy on the country’s northern border. For those expecting him to announce any escalation, he had a message today: the actions on the ground will speak for themselves.

In his televised speech, Nasrallah also talked about recent attacks carried out by militias against US bases in Iraq and Syria as well as attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen. Like Hezbollah, these groups are part of the so-called Axis of Resistance, an alliance of forces in the region supported by Iran.

Tehran, he said, gave those groups political, military, and financial support, but did not make decisions on behalf of them.

Image source, STR/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Gaza's Hamas-run border authority has announced that the Rafah border crossing into Egypt would reopen on Sunday for foreign passport holders and dependents.

The land crossing between Gaza and Egypt's Sinai peninsula is the only entry into the strip not controlled by Israel.

Rafah has been opened a number of times for the last couple of weeks for evacuations of foreign passport holders and some injured Gazans.

The crossing is also crucial for aid trucks going into Gaza.

Evacuations from Gaza into Egypt, including for Palestinians needing urgent medical treatment, were suspended on Friday.

Egyptian and Palestinian sources told Reuters this was due to problems transporting medical evacuees from northern Gaza.

Earlier this evening in Tel Aviv, a protest was held calling for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces say Hamas has taken at least 239 people hostage in Gaza, including women, children and the elderly.

• Read more about the people taken hostage here

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati, a senior plastic surgeon at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City says that Israeli forces have "bombed continuously at Al-Shifa hospital and the surrounding areas" since last night, according to Reuters.

The hospital building has been destroyed, he says, and is now "totally out of service".

Civilians who were sheltering in the building and many patients requiring urgent treatment have since fled - some of whom were reportedly shot at, according to the medical aid organisation Doctors Without Borders

Image source, Reuters

Several medical personnel have also been forced to flee, leaving the hospital with "no more 20 or 15 percent of the staff."

“Those who are staying in Al-Shifa hospital already decided they are dead," says Dr El Mokhallalati.

Al-Shifa has been bombarded "for more than 24 hours now", he says, and those that remain have stayed because "it’s our mission to take care of our patients."

International organisations and governments must "push Israel to stop this attack on a totally civilian hospital which is full of patients," he concludes.

The Israeli military has denied accusations of attacking Al Shifa - but has acknowledged "clashes" with Hamas fighters in the area.