Ukraine says it has evacuated 155 people from the military conflict zone in the Gaza strip.

The Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) of Ukraine's Defence Ministry, has released a statement jointly with the Foreign Ministry saying the evacuees arrived in the Moldovan capital Chisinau on a flight from Egypt.

It says in the post on on Telegram that 145 citizens of Ukraine, nine citizens of Moldova and one Palestinian were rescued from the conflict zone.

According to the report, most of the Ukrainian evacuees will return to Ukraine.

"Among the evacuees are many families with children, as well as one Ukrainian citizen who has cancer. Upon arrival in Moldova's capital, she was immediately taken by ambulance to a Ukrainian checkpoint, where she was met by a team of our doctors and taken to a hospital in Odesa," HUR said.

"The operation to save our fellow citizens in the Middle East continues," it adds.

In his evening video address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a total of 214 Ukrainian citizens had been rescued from Gaza, and the number was changing "almost every hour".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israeli forces have completed the encirclement of Gaza City and acknowledged they were fighting on the outskirts of Al Shifa hospital - under which the Israelis claim Hamas has built a military facility.

As part of regular briefing to the Israeli public, Netanyahu adds that Israel had killed "thousands" of Hamas fighters, including those who were involved in Hamas's brutal 7 October attack that killed around 1,200 people.

He added that Israel would maintain military control of Gaza after the war, similar to its military control over the West Bank - which many experts have called a "military occupation".

He paid tribute to the soldiers killed in the fight against Hamas, calling them "wondrous heroes", and also thanked the United States for its moral, financial and military support.

Both Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who spoke after the prime minister, said that rescuing the hostages and "eradicating Hamas" were the top priorities.

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent

The Israel Defense Forces has released further details of the instructions given to the staff of Gaza’s Rantisi and Nasr hospitals before their evacuation earlier this week.

These included audio from a phone conversation between an official at Rantisi and a senior officer in COGAT - the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the branch of the military that deals with Palestinian civilians

The conversation included two men discussing arrangements to get ambulances to evacuate patients.

The hospital official asks about hundreds of displaced civilians camped out at the two hospitals. The Israeli officer tells them to leave via the main entrance at 11.20am and explains in detail which streets they should walk along to leave Gaza City.

And he twice tells the hospital official to make sure civilians are carrying something white to show they are not combatants.

“They will all go out with their hands in the air,” the hospital official says. “Perfect,” the Israeli says.

More here from the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, which reported earlier today on conditions inside Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

It said that "despite regular attacks and shortages", staff had "managed to keep the hospital operational".

However Dr Ahmed El Mokhallalati, a senior plastic surgeon, said that the hospital was operating on "no more 20% or 15% of the staff".

“Those who are staying in Al-Shifa hospital already decided they are dead," he said.

The Israeli military has stated the hospital is not under siege and that those inside will be given safe passage.

Dr Mohammed Obeid, a surgeon, is quoted by the charity as saying that many patients had recently undergone operations "and they cannot walk. They cannot evacuate”.

The charity called for "an immediate ceasefire and for the protection of medical facilities, medical staff and patients."

Image source, Getty Images

If you're just joining us, here are a few points to catch you up on today's developments:

• The Israeli military has said it will help evacuate babies from Gaza's largest hospital, Al Shifa, tomorrow after requests from its managers
• The IDF has acknowledged "clashes" with Hamas fighters in the area around the hospital but denied attacking it. It said it would coordinate with anyone who wanted to leave safely
• A surgeon at Al Shifa earlier told the BBC that power, water and food had all run out, and that the hospital's intensive care unit had been hit
• Two babies in Al Shifa hospital have died due to a power outage and 37 others are at risk of death, say a doctors group. Israeli forces will evacuate babies to a "safer hospital" tomorrow, according to the Israeli military
• The MSF charity says hospitals in the Gaza Strip more generally have been under "relentless bombardment" for the past 24 hours. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says Israeli tanks are within metres of the Al-Quds hospital. The Israeli military has not yet commented on this
• Islamic and Arab leaders have met in Saudi Arabia to discuss Israel's actions in Gaza, jointly demanding a "binding" UN resolution to end Israel's "aggression" in Gaza - and rejecting its description of IDF activity in Gaza as self defence.

• Lebanese media says Israel has carried out its deepest strike in Lebanese territory since cross-border violence began some weeks ago. No casualties were reported
• More than 300,000 people have taken to the streets in London to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. We have not had any reports of violence at the protest itself - but police say some 82 counter-protesters have been arrested nearby.

The Israeli military says it will help with the evacuation of babies from the paediatric department of Al Shifa hospital, the BBC's Paul Adams says from Jerusalem.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli army's chief spokesman, said the decision was taken following a request from the hospital administration.

He said the babies would be evacuated to “a safer hospital” tomorrow.

"We are speaking directly and regularly with the hospital staff," said Hagari. "The staff of the Shifa hospital requested that tomorrow we will help the babies in the paediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed."

Al Shifa is the largest medical facility in Gaza City. Earlier today, a doctors group said, external two premature babies died due to a loss of power as fighting raged around the hospital.

It added there was a "a real risk to the lives of 37 other premature infants" still inside.

The Israeli military has denied its forces have fired on the hospital but acknowledged troops were engaged in clashes with Hamas in the streets around the complex.

Frank Gardner
BBC Security correspondent, reporting from Riyadh

Image source, Getty Images

The final communique issued by this hastily convened summit of 57 Arab and Islamic nations was unanimous in calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The hosts, Saudi Arabia, accused the international community of double standards. The Saudi foreign minister said the UN Security Council had failed to live up to its responsibilities by not holding Israel to account for its actions in Gaza.

The head of the Arab League said he hoped the West would heed the message coming from a quarter of the UN’s membership.

Iran and Syria wanted to go further, calling for concrete actions such as the severing of relations between Israel and some countries in the region. This was declined.

In private conversations on the sidelines, a number of Arab ministers told me of their fears that the high number of deaths among Palestinian civilians in Gaza was already radicalising some of their youth.

They also spoke of their disappointment with their western allies, pointing out the West’s condemnation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine while largely failing to do the same with Israel over Gaza.

Condemnation of Hamas and its raid into southern Israel last month was conspicuously absent.

The UN's humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths says there is no justification for "acts of war in health care facilities, leaving them with no power, food or water, and shooting at patients and civilians trying to flee".

"This is unconscionable, reprehensible, and must stop," he says in a statement on X, external.

His comments follow reports of violence around Gaza's Al-Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals. Al-Shifa hospital has reportedly run out of fuel, and Doctors Without Borders said earlier today that civilians and patients were being shot at when trying to leave the medical facility.

"Hospitals must be places of greater safety," says Griffiths, "and those who need them must trust that they are places of shelter and not of war".

Israel's military says it is not striking Al-Shifa hospital and that there is no siege, with the east side of the hospital open for anyone who wants to leave. But it did acknowledge that there was fighting going on around the area.

Image source, Reuters

Arab and Muslim leaders have demanded a "binding" UN resolution to end Israel's "aggression" in Gaza.

In a final communique following the summit of Arab and Islamic countries in Saudi Arabia, the leaders rejected Israel's claims of "self defence" as justification for its military operation and aerial bombardment of Gaza.

Fifty-seven leaders - notably including Syria's Bashar al-Assad and Iran's Ebrahim Raisi - had gathered in Riyadh earlier today to discuss Israel's bombardment of the besieged Palestinian enclave.

A doctors' group says two premature babies have died in Al-Shifa hospital.

In a series of posts on X, external, NGO Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I) says that the neonatal intensive care unit has stopped working because the last generator providing electricity to the hospital was damaged in Israeli strikes.

It says the lives of dozens of others remain at risk - echoing the words of Palestinian health officials earlier.

"The destruction and killing have reached an unfathomable scale," the group says, pointing to a lack of electricity, water and oxygen at Gaza's main hospital. "The picture we are now seeing at Shifa is no longer of a humanitarian catastrophe – it is a collective death sentence."

The Israeli military has denied targeting Al Shifa, but has acknowledged fighting is happening "around" it.

Paul Adams
Reporting from Jerusalem

Image source, Getty Images

The Israeli military says it is not targeting Al-Shifa hospital and that it is keeping corridors open for people who want to leave.

In a statement this afternoon, Col Moshe Tetro from Cogat (a branch of the Israeli military) said "there is no shooting at the hospital and there is no siege.”

He did, however, acknowledge that "there are clashes between IDF troops and Hamas terrorist operatives around the hospital".

Israeli forces have virtually surrounded Al-Shifa, but Col Tetro said the east side remained open for people who wanted to leave.

"Additionally, we can coordinate anyone who wants to leave the hospital safely,” he added.

Israel is trying to persuade as many people as possible to leave the hospital and its grounds. Reports suggest that a significant number of the civilians who have been sheltering there for weeks have now left.

Earlier, the Israeli military described the situation at another, much smaller hospital: Rantisi. It said all but a handful of staff and patients had evacuated.

This is clearly what it hopes will eventually happen at Al-Shifa, too.

Medics across Gaza's north will be feeling "completely and utterly broken", a UK-based doctor who has worked extensively in the region says.

Dr Rebecca Inglis is an intensive care doctor who travels to Gaza each year to train medical students in trauma management.

Speaking to BBC News, she relayed stories from her colleagues in Gaza, who were now treating patients as best they could without electricity.

"It's absolutely unthinkable to have the equipment at your fingertips - these are machines they have available - but they're not working," she said. Inglis added that for the patients on ventilators, the lack of electricity "amounts to a death sentence".

She went on to say: "I cannot describe how that would feel to my fellow medical professionals - these are people who are dying of completely treatable problems. They will be feeling completely and utterly broken."

Image source, EVN

London police say some 300,000 people have attended a pro-Palestinian protest calling for a Gaza ceasefire - the biggest such rally since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Officers say they have arrested 82 counter-protesters, from whom they earlier faced aggression. Far-right groups are said to have been among those who've assembled today.

You can follow the latest developments on our separate live page.

Israel's military says it has killed a Hamas commander called Ahmed Siam. It accuses him of previously stopping 1,000 Gazan residents leaving the Rantisi hospital - which we mentioned in our last entry.

A joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) said Siam was killed along with other Hamas fighters "while hiding in the al Buraq school".

The statement said that Siam had previously "held hostage approximately 1,000 Gazan residents at the Rantisi hospital and prevented them from evacuating southwards for their safety".

The statement repeated the claim that Hamas "uses the civilians of the Gaza Strip as human shields for terror purposes".

Siam's reported death hasn't been confirmed by Hamas, or independently verified.

Paul Adams
Reporting from Jerusalem

Image source, Reuters

We've been bringing you lines today from the Al-Shifa, Al-Quds and Al-Ahli hospitals - and our diplomatic correspondent has news from a fourth medical facility in the besieged Gaza Strip.

This morning, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) briefed reporters on the situation at one of Gaza’s smaller hospitals, the Rantisi specialist hospital in the Rimal neighbourhood.

The IDF said the facility had been all but evacuated in the past few days - with no more than about 20 patients in beds still inside, along with a handful of staff.

An officer identified only as Maj Shai, of the Givati Brigade, said that after several days of trying to persuade civilians to leave the hospital, a large group finally left on Thursday, but only after chaotic scenes.

Video that emerged yesterday showed civilians, waving white flags, leaving the hospital courtyard - but coming under fire and having to retreat back inside. Maj Shai said Hamas gunmen were responsible for the shooting. “Hamas terrorists were shooting at them in order to scare them back in.”

Having identified members of Hamas in the crowd and the hospital, he said his unit decided it was too risky to deploy snipers and let everyone go.

The IDF clearly regards the near-total evacuation of Rantisi hospital as a model it would like to see repeated elsewhere, especially Al-Shifa.

But that hospital is much larger, and the operation there is clearly much more complex.

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Beirut

Lebanon’s state news agency says an Israeli drone struck a vehicle in an area some 50km (30 miles) from the Lebanon-Israel border - the deepest Israeli strike inside Lebanon in the cross-border violence sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.

The report said a “pick-up truck transporting bananas” was hit in the Zahrani area on the Lebanese coast, without causing any casualties.

Hours later, the Israeli military said fighter jets had struck “a number of terror infrastructure sites” used by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, “in parallel to artillery strikes”. It was not immediately clear whether these attacks were related to the one reported by the Lebanese state news agency.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire almost every day along the border for more than a month. Most of the attacks have been contained to military sites and open fields, with both sides apparently taking steps to avoid a major escalation.

The incidents happened ahead of a speech by Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, on the group’s Martyrs' Day. This marks the deadly attack on an Israeli military headquarters in the Lebanese city of Tyre during the First Lebanon War in 1982.

In a speech earlier this month – his first since the Israel-Hamas war broke out - Nasrallah said all options were on the table for the group, without announcing any immediate escalation of attacks.

Image source, Reuters

One of three surgeons working at Al-Ahli hospital says the facility is now "the only functioning hospital" in Gaza City.

Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta has sent the BBC a voice note from Al-Ahli, where he says doctors have set up a field hospital to keep it running after it was hit by missiles in October.

"We are three surgeons; myself - a plastic surgeon, an orthopaedic surgeon and general surgeon. And we have now over 150 patients in the hospital on mattresses on the ground," Sitta said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent says Israeli tanks are now 20m (65ft) from the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City.

"Direct shooting at the hospital, creating a state of extreme panic and fear among 14,000 displaced people," the organisation posted to X (formerly Twitter), external.

It comes after a surgeon in the separate Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza's biggest medical facility, said that the nearby bombardment and gunfire was constant.

Al-Shifa and Al-Quds are both in northern Gaza. Israel has called on civilians to flee south, but doctors have said that is not an option for everyone.

We'll bring you more as you get it.

Image source, Reuters

More now from the joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh, where 57 countries are gathered to discuss Israel's bombardment of Gaza.

Emir Tamim bin Hamad al Thani of Qatar said he hoped for a "permanent ceasefire", adding that his country would continue negotiations for the release of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October.

Doha has emerged as an important mediator during this conflict, working to negotiate the release of several hostages.

The Qatari leader condemned Israel's "targeting" of civilians, and rejected the "false allegations" that Hamas has tunnels under hospitals.

Israeli forces say Hamas are using civilians as human shields, and have built military infrastructure around and beneath medical facilities in the enclave.

• Read more about the labyrinth of tunnels under Gaza here

Al Thani adds that Arab and Muslim countries "should not stop at releasing [a] statement of condemnation”, but take steps to deter further Israeli offensives in Gaza.

Frank Gardner
BBC security correspondent, reporting from Riyadh

Image source, EPA

In the glittering surroundings of Riyadh’s luxury Ritz Carlton Conference Centre, Arab and Muslim leaders are taking turns to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza and demand an immediate ceasefire.

The host, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, said Israel bore responsibility for what he called crimes committed against the Palestinian people.

Jordan’s King Abdullah told the summit that what he referred to as "the ugly war" must stop or the region would spiral into a major conflict.

The Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke of genocide being committed against his people and called for them to be given international protection.

But Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi went further.

Marking his first visit to Saudi Arabia since the two rival countries patched up their differences in March, he called for Israel’s army to be designated a terrorist group. He accused America of expanding the war.

Earlier Algeria called on countries to break off relations with Israel.

But others here are reluctant to go that far. That’s why the final statement is likely to focus on the minimum goals shared by all the delegates: an end to the fighting, a condemnation of Israel’s actions and a renewed effort to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.