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Image source, Israel Foreign Ministry

Canadian-Israeli peace advocate Vivian Silver, 74, has been confirmed to have been killed in Hamas's 7 October attacks, after she was initially thought to have been taken hostage.

She co-founded the Women Wage Peace group, which lobbied for a diplomatic resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and helped found Ajeec-Nisped - the Arab-Jewish Center for Empowerment, Equality, and Cooperation.

Kher Albaz, an Israeli Bedouin who worked alongside her, tells BBC World Service she "lived in equality" and used to drive injured Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Israeli hospitals.

"She was a real human being, her view on life was very positive, she was always smiling and looking for ways to make people feel better, always looking for ways to make sure people felt accepted and felt good," he says.

He adds he felt like he has lost a member of his family and says our way of dealing with that loss would be to keep doing the work she had dedicated her life to.

Image source, Getty Images

It's past 05:00 in Israel and Gaza, where Israeli forces are carrying out an operation on Gaza's largest hospital.

This is the first time the military is directly entering Al-Shifa hospital after days of strikes and heavy fighting around the grounds in Gaza City.

The "precise and targeted operations against Hamas" was announced in the dead of night, just after 02:00 local time. Israeli troops had been stationed outside the hospital.

One eyewitness told the BBC's reporter in Gaza, Rushdi Abu Alouf, how hundreds of soldiers had "stormed" the hospital and there were tanks inside the grounds.

It was unclear how many troops have deployed and the immediate objective of the mission was unclear.

However Israel has consistently argued that the hospital has been used by Hamas as a base, and that the group has an operation base buried under the hospital.

On Tuesday, the US for the first time also said it had its own intelligence confirming those claims. It said that Hamas and another Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, "operate a command and control node from Al-Shifa" and they had "stored weapons there".

Hamas has consistently denied those claims and said the White House's corroboration had given the "green light" to Israel to launch the raid on the hospital.

Israel said it had given a 12-hour warning to Hamas authorities that the operations in the hospital must cease - which it said didn't occur. It said for its operation, its "intent" was that "no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields".

We've just seen the first comments from the White House on Israel's raid on Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.

"We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don't want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire," said a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council.

They reiterated President Biden's comments earlier on Tuesday that hospitals and patients must be protected.

Thousands of patients and civilians are believed to be sheltering at Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital, which has come under siege from Israeli forces.

The estimates vary however. The WHO had earlier on Tuesday said there were about 700 patients, 400 hospital staff and 3,000 civilians at Al-Shifa.

The Hamas-run health ministry has said there are at least 2,300 people still inside the hospital - up to 650 patients, 200-500 staff and around 1,500 civilians.

Read more about Al-Shifa and other Gaza hospitals that are on the frontlines of the ongoing conflict here.

Image source, Reuters

Rushdi Abu Alouf
BBC News

Earlier we received an update from Khader Zaanoun, an eyewitness inside Al-Shifa hospital.

This is the latest from him:

“I saw six tanks inside the hospital and more than a hundred commandos soldiers, they entered the main emergency department, some of the soldiers were masked and screamed in Arabic 'don’t move don’t move'."

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the claims.

We are hearing from the White House that US President Biden and Israeli PM Netanyahu have had a phone call discussion.

In a statement, the White House said both leaders "discussed at length ongoing efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, including many children and a number of Americans".

The US is still yet to comment on the Israeli forces' raid at the hospital. We'll get more to you as more lines emerge.

Biden had earlier on Tuesday said the hospital must be protected.

We reported earlier that the IDF confirmed that it is carrying out “precise and targeted operations against Hamas in a specified area in the Al-Shifa Hospital, based on intelligence information”.

In a post on X, external, the IDF also added that it "has publicly warned time and again that Hamas' continued military use of the Al-Shifa hospital jeopardizes its protected status under international law, and enabled ample time to stop this unlawful abuse of the hospital,” it continued.

Al-Shifa is the largest hospital in Gaza, and both Israel and the US claim that Hamas has a command base under it - which Hamas denies.

The statement also called on “all Hamas terrorists present in the hospital to surrender” while reiterating that the IDF had “facilitated wide-scale evacuations” of the complex.

The BBC could not immediately verify the Israeli report.

Aid workers say the situation inside Al-Shifa is “dire” and the Hamas-run health ministry says there are thousands of people using the complex to shelter from Israeli bombing.

The facility is also running out of fuel, officials say, which has made it near impossible for staff to help patients in need of emergency care - including premature babies that have been taken off incubators due to power cuts, doctors say.

Earlier, one doctor told the BBC that about 200 people have been buried in a mass grave at Al-Shifa, after decomposing corpses piled up in the hospital complex.

Hamas has issued a response to Israel's storming of the hospital, specificying that US President Biden is wholly "responsible" for the raid.

It "holds the occupation [Israel] and President Biden fully responsible for occupation army's raid of Al Shifa medical complex", according to a Reuters translation of the statement.

They said the White House backing Israel's claims that Hamas uses Al-Shifa for military purposes had been a "green light" for Israel to launch the raid.

Rushdi Abu Alouf
BBC News

An eyewitness inside Al-Shifa hospital tells me that Israeli soldiers have begun storming it.

“The soldiers fired a smoke bomb that caused people to suffocate," says Khader Al-Zaanoun.

"I saw the soldiers entering the specialised surgical department,” Khader told me before contact with him was cut off.

The area around Al-Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital, has become the focus of fighting in recent days. Thousands of people are believed to be sheltering there.

Officials say the hospital is running out of fuel - and there's concern over the emergency care needed, with doctors saying premature babies have been taken off incubators because of power cuts.

As we mentioned earlier, patients have been buried in a mass grave following a pile-up of decomposing corpses.

A spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says Israel informed them that it would "raid the Al-Shifa hospital complex in the coming minutes", according to the Al Jazeera news network.

Ashraf al-Qidra said officials in Gaza had told the Red Cross about the warning.

As we mentioned in the post below, Israel has confirmed it is carrying out an operation at the hospital, where it says Hamas has a base - allegations the group denies.

The situation at the hospital is said to be rapidly deteriorating, with reports that up to 200 bodies have been buried in a mass grave there.

People are dying after vital hospital equipment failed because of power cuts, its director said.

The Israeli military says it is carrying out a "precise and targeted operation against Hamas" in part of Al-Shifa Hospital "based on intelligence information and an operational necessity".

In a statement on social media, external, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) say their forces "include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment."

They say the intent is that "no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields".

The IDF goes on to say that it had recently told Gazan authorities that all military activity within the hospital had to end but that it had not.

The BBC could not immediately verify the Israeli report.

Thousands of civilians including patients and medical staff are said to be sheltering in and around the hospital.

Hamas denies using the hospital for its operations and has called for an international committee to come in and inspect.

Earlier, the US said it had intelligence that Hamas had a command centre under the hospital.

Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has dominated our live blog coverage today, with intense fighting encroaching hospitals in Gaza and deadly clashes erupting in the West Bank.

But earlier today Hamas fired more rockets at Israel, as it has been doing regularly since the initial 7 October attacks. The group said it had "bombarded" Tel Aviv with a "missile barrage" as a result of the rising Palestinian death toll.

A 20-year-old man was taken to hospital with serious injuries after Hamas's assault, Israel's Magen David Adom emergency service said, while a 43-year-old woman sustained minor injuries.

Image source, Reuters

Away from Gaza for a moment, in recent weeks we've seen repeated clashes between Israel and its northern neighbour Lebanon at the border.

The group Human Rights Watch said earlier that an Israeli strike in Lebanon that killed three children and their grandmother just over a week ago should be investigated as an "apparent war crime". The family were travelling in southern Lebanon when their car was hit on 5 November, Lebanese state media said.

Human Rights Watch has now said it found no evidence of any military targets in the area and that the strike was unlawful - with the group's researcher Ramzi Kaiss saying it showed a "reckless disregard for human life".

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said at the time that "Hezbollah targets were attacked in the north in response to an anti-tank missile attack that killed an Israeli civilian".

We've been receiving some photos from Gaza, where heavy rain and thunderstorms have been moving across the Strip tonight.

As our reporter in Khan Younis, Rushdi Abualouf, said earlier, even with a makeshift tent many displaced people are going to struggle in these conditions. Here are the latest pictures from Khan Younis - and a lightning bolt over Gaza as photographed from Ashkelon, southern Israel.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Hamas has just responded to comments made by the US tonight, that there is intelligence showing the group has a command centre under Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Hamas denies it has bases under hospitals.

"These statements give a green light to the Israeli occupation to commit further brutal massacres targeting hospitals, with the goal of destroying Gaza's healthcare system and displacing Palestinians," Hamas said.

Earlier, Gaza's health ministry also reacted to claims made by the IDF about a different hospital - Rantisi. The IDF released a video claiming Hamas was using the hospital building to hold hostages and store weapons.

"The Israeli occupation's presentation about Rantisi Children's Hospital is a theatrical farce with no credible evidence worthy of response," the ministry of health said, saying the video was staged and giving a bullet point list of bits of the video it disputes.

The health ministry added: "In conclusion, even if there were any security or military reasons as claimed, is it acceptable under international humanitarian law to destroy hospitals and burn them with patients, medical staff, and displaced individuals inside, based on the possibility of a security objective?"

What we see in IDF video claiming to show Hamas use of hospitalpublished at 22:11 Greenwich Mean Time 14 November 2023

22:11 GMT 14 November 2023

We've been reporting on Israel's claims - now backed up by the US - that Hamas has a base under Al-Shifa hospital. But as well as Al-Shifa, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have also made allegations about another Gaza City medical facility - Rantisi children's hospital.

On Monday night it released a six-minute video purporting to show evidence that Hamas had used the now-evacuated hospital building to detain hostages and store weapons.

The video has a large number of edits. It begins in the vicinity of the hospital where IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari stands outside a building which he says is the home of a senior Hamas figure. He then shows an underground shaft, which he says is a tunnel entrance.

In the video, Hagari does not enter the tunnel – saying the doors inside are bullet and explosive proof.

He is then shown at the “back side of the hospital”, outside a damaged building with the same distinctive colour scheme of Rantisi. There is no continuous take showing Hagari entering the hospital itself.

Image source, IDF

The video then shows Hagari inside rooms said to be in the basement of the hospital. World Health Organization branding is pictured on a wall-mounted control unit.

Hagari points out various pieces of “evidence” - including a cache of weapons laid out on the floor - that he says shows that the area was used by Hamas fighters to store weapons and hold hostages.

A key item is a document on the wall which he says shows a schedule for fighters guarding hostages. The top of this document mentions the “al-Aqsa flood” – Hamas’ codename for the 7 October attacks.

Hagari calls it a “guardian list, where every terrorist writes his name [and] has his own shift”. However, the Arabic words actually translate to the days of the week, not names.

He also points out a curtain hanging over a white-tiled wall, which he says could be used as a backdrop for hostage videos. Of the hostage videos released by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad which we have seen so far, none have shown a matching pattern in the background.

BBC News has not visited the site and is not able to independently verify any of the allegations made by the IDF.

Hamas denies hiding under the cover of hospitals - a longstanding Israeli allegation. Its health ministry called the video "a theatrical farce".

We've been reporting a lot on Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa in recent days, as Israeli forces surround it. Israel says Hamas are operating from tunnels beneath the medical facility. Hamas deny this, but in the last few hours the US said it had intelligence that backs up Israel's claim, saying the group stored arms at Al-Shifa and were prepared for an Israeli attack.

At the same time, aid workers have been describing the situation inside the hospital as "dire". The Hamas-run health ministry say there are thousands of people not only inside the hospital but also in its courtyard as they seek shelter from Israeli bombing.

The hospital is running out of fuel, officials say - and there's concern over the emergency care needed, with doctors saying premature babies have been taken off incubators due to power cuts.

A doctor at the hospital earlier told the BBC that about 200 people have been buried in a mass grave at Al-Shifa following a piling up of decomposing corpses.