Heavy fighting has continued overnight in the northern Gaza Strip, as Israel's ground invasion continues.

Aid groups say the ongoing fighting makes any attempt to use evacuation routes extremely dangerous.

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Image source, Reuters

Image source, AFP

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say two motor shells were fired from Lebanon. An alert was activated in the Galilee area but the missiles landed in an open area, and no casualties have been reported.

In the update , externalon X, the IDF says overnight its forces attacked an “armed terrorist cell” in Lebanese territory.

Since the current conflict erupted between Israel and Hamas, there've been near daily skirmishes on the border between Israel and Lebanon. The powerful Iran-backed movement Hezbollah has been involved in most of these. You can read more about Hezbollah here.

Image source, .

Image source, AFP

Abdul Qadir Hammad, a doctor from Royal Liverpool Hospital who was stuck in Gaza during a charity trip, is now back in Liverpool. He says that the situation at the hospitals is not a surprise: "The UN agencies have been warning about this for two, three weeks."

Speaking to BBC World Service's Newsday this morning, Hammad says when he came out of Gaza last week, Al-Shifa hospital was on the verge of stopping medical care because of a lack of water and electricity.

Asked if he could speak to his colleagues in Al-Shifa, Hammad says he was able to talk to them on Sunday, adding:

He says the evacuation of babies or severely injured patients is a massive operation, and even if that's achieved, there are no hospitals in Gaza other than Al-Shifa to provide that kind of intensive care for those in critical condition.

Danny Yetom, who was head of Mossad back when Israel still had soldiers and Jewish settlers in Gaza, tells the BBC Israel should not stay too long in the Gaza Strip.

He goes on to say that Israel won't be able to leave Gaza until "all the abductees are back in our hands and we have won the war against Hamas".

He defines winning as "the collapse of Hamas as a body, and losing its chain of command".

Sam Hancock
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

Hello, it's just gone 07:30 here in London, where we've taken on this page from our colleagues in Singapore. In Israel and Gaza, where fighting continues, it's just past 09:30.

If you’re just joining us, or need a recap, here’s some of the key developments from the last few hours.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) says Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City "is not functioning as a hospital any more"
• There is "constant gunfire and bombings" in the area around the hospital, according to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom, which has "exacerbated the already critical circumstances"
• Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 2,000 people are inside Al-Shifa, including patients, medical staff and displaced people
• The Israeli military has reiterated that it's "ready to help" evacuate dozens of vulnerable babies from the hospital - but denies hitting the hospital during fighting with Hamas
• Doctors at Al-Shifa say they fear the remaining 36 newborn babies needing intensive care treatment may die while the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians says without ambulances, the necessary equipment or a hospital to transfer the premature babies to, “there is no indication of how this can be done safely"
• Elsewhere, Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu said during an interview with US network NBC that there “could be” a deal to free remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza - but did not give any details

Image source, IDF

The Israeli army says it has continued to carry out raids on the outskirts of the Al-Shati refugee camp, which lies to the west of Gaza City.

They say their military operations include the Al-Quds University and the Abu Bakr mosque, claiming Hamas fighters are operating there.

They shared pictures of what they say dozens of weapons and pieces military equipment seized during those raids, as well as the ones they say were seized from the residence of a member of the armed faction Islamic Jihad, without giving any names.

Israel told Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip, where Gaza City is located, to evacuate to the south weeks ago. Israeli soldiers have been operating in the area for about a week.

Tom Bateman
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Doctors at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City say they fear the remaining 36 newborn babies needing intensive care treatment may die. They’re being kept in a cardiac surgery room, some swaddled in blankets and surgical drapes without the right support.

Speaking to the BBC, the lead surgeon said they must have fuel to power the generators for incubators and to provide oxygen supply.

Fighting is raging around the hospital; evacuation routes are dangerous and bodies litter the road out, say aid groups.

The Israeli army released a video of soldiers leaving 15 jerry cans of fuel on the side of a street for the hospital but claimed Hamas stopped it being picked up. However doctors say it wouldn’t bring enough power for an hour, while any evacuation of the babies needs specialised mobile incubators.

Israel says it has Gaza City all but encircled as it seeks to build the pressure on Hamas. It accuses the group of entrenching itself under civilian buildings including Al-Shifa - which the hospital denies.

There's more talk of a possible mass release of hostages - among nearly 240 being held by Hamas are children and the elderly. But previous such hopes in exchange for a break in the fighting have come to nothing.

Amid the spiralling number of civilians killed in Gaza, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a UN claim of collective punishment of Palestinians. In a US interview, he called the civilian deaths collateral damage in the fight against terrorism.

Heavy fighting continued overnight in the northern Gaza Strip, as part of Israel's ground invasion.

In the video below, powerful Israeli flares light up the night sky and what appears to be plumes of smoke rise from the aftermath of large explosions.

New Zealand's government on Monday said 11 of the country's citizens left Gaza overnight, entering Egypt via the Rafah border crossing.

The crossing had been shut for three days, but reopened on Sunday. It is the only functioning border for people and goods to leave or enter Gaza, and hundreds of injured people and foreign passport holders done so since 1 November.

Last week NZ officials said they were working with 21 New Zealanders and their families to help them leave the territory.

Three nurses at Al-Shifa have reportedly been killed as "bombardments and armed clashes" around the hospital have intensified, the UN says.

In an update on Sunday, external, the UN says critical infrastructure at the hospital has also been damaged - including an oxygen-generation facility, water tanks and a well, the cardiovascular facility and the maternity ward.

Israel has previously accused Hamas of operating an underground command centre beneath the site of Gaza's largest hospital, which Hamas denies.

Asked whether Hamas was operating inside Al-Shifa, the hospital's head of surgery Dr Marwan Abu Saada said the allegations were a "big lie".

In recent days the area around Al-Shifa in northern Gaza has experienced heavy fighting, with Israel being accused of attacking the hospital directly.

The Israeli military says it is operating in the area of the hospital, but denies attacking the facility.

The United Nations will fly its flag at half mast today, as a "mark of respect" for its staff killed in Gaza.

The UNRWA - the relief agency for Palestinian refugees - said on Friday that more than 100 of its employees have died in Gaza since the Israeli bombardment began.

Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu has been asked if there could be a deal afoot to free an estimated 240 Israeli hostages taken during the 7 October attack.

"There could be," he told US TV network NBC, external's Meet the Press show.

"The less I say about it, the more I'll increase the chances that it materialises."

Mr Netanyahu did not provide any details but said the "one thing" that could force a deal was the "military pressure" his defence force was exerting on Hamas.

But an unnamed US official has argued that a "fairly significant" pause in the conflict would be needed to allow for releases.

PM Netanyahu has rejected growing calls for a ceasefire unless it includes the release of all hostages.

Earlier we reported that the head of surgery at Al-Shifa hospital said the 300 litres of fuel offered by Israel would provide power for just half an hour.

Here's more on what Dr Marwan Abu Saada said:

Dr Abu Saada, says Al-Shifa typically uses 24,000 litres of fuel a day to run its generators.

Even with only one generator running, the hospital still requires 9,000 to 10,000 litres, he says.

He adds that the hospital's intensive care unit and surgical theatre are now running entirely on solar energy

The lack of power means the hospital has been unable to provide renal dialysis to its 45 patients requiring kidney treatment for two days because of a lack of power.

Over the last 30 days, Al-Shifa workers have had to dig four mass graves for unknown patients, while another 100 dead bodies are currently lying in the open outside its emergency department.

“This is a source of outbreak and infection," he says. "This is a disaster."

Image source, .

The dozens of premature babies currently being treated at Al-Shifa hospital cannot be moved safely, a aid organisation has said.

Following the Israeli military reiterating that it has offered to help move the infants to a "safer hospital", Medical Aid for Palestinians says the movement of critical ill newborns is a "complex and technical process".

In a statement on Sunday, the aid organisation's CEO, Melanie Ward, cast doubt on Israel's claims and said she was "deeply concerned by uncritical media reporting".

Ward says the "only safe option" to save the newborns is for Israel to "cease its assault and besiegement of Al Shifa, to allow fuel to reach the hospital, and to ensure that the surviving parents of these babies can be reunited with them".

Last night, the US military said it has carried out air strikes on two Iranian bases in south eastern Syria, following recent attacks against its own military personnel in Syria and Iraq.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the attacks were carried out against sites "used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran-affiliated groups".

In a statement, he said: "The strikes were conducted against a training facility and a safe house near the cities of Abu Kamal and Mayadin, respectively.

"The President has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel, and he directed today's action to make clear that the United States will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests."

On Wednesday, the US launched a "self-defence strike" on what it said was a weapons storage used by the IRGC and its affiliates in the Maysulun region of eastern Syria.

You can watch video of the strikes from earlier this week below:

Image source, IDF

Earlier this evening, the Israeli military gave a media briefing that touched on the situation at Al-Shifa hospital and its military operations in the area.

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israel had "opened designated routes" from hospitals in northern Gaza to the south and was speaking with officials at Al-Shifa to offer "assistance to safely transport the sick and the wounded".

He added that Israel was "ready to help" evacuate the dozens of babies being cared for at the site to another hospital.

Rear Adm Hagari also repeated an allegation that the IDF had left 300 litres of fuel close to the hospital overnight but that Hamas had been "preventing and placing pressure on the hospital" not to collect it.

In the last few hours, Hamas has issued a statement denying that it has stopped officials at the hospital from collecting the fuel.

The site's head of surgery has also told the BBC that 300 litres of fuel would only be enough to power its generators for half an hour.

We reported earlier that Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry has said there are at least 2,300 people still inside the hospital.

The numbers have been provided to the World Health Organisation, who shared them in a post , externalon X, formerly known as Twitter.

The update says there are between 600 and 650 inpatients in the hospital, as well as 200 to 500 health workers and around 1,500 displaced people who have sought shelter.

It adds that the lack of power, water, and food at the site is "putting lives at immediate risk".

The WHO repeats its call for an "immediate ceasefire" and the "active protection of civilians and health care".

Yvette Tan
Live editor

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war - you can read our previous posts here.

It's just coming up to 06:30 in Israel and Gaza - here's more on what's happened over the past few hours:

• The World Health Organization (WHO) says Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City "is not functioning as a hospital anymore"
• WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "constant gunfire and bombings" in the area around the hospital have "exacerbated the already critical circumstances"
• Al-Shifa's head of surgery, Dr Marwan Abu Saada, told the BBC that a third premature baby has died because of a lack of power
• The Israeli military has reiterated it is "ready to help" evacuate the dozens of vulnerable newborns being cared for at the site to another hospital
• Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says there are at least 2,300 people still inside the hospital
• Israel began striking Gaza after the Hamas attacks on 7 October, which saw 1,200 people killed and more than 200 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