Image source, PA Media

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel were motivated not just by "hatred" but also by an unease that Israel was forging new ties within the Middle East.

Speaking at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in London, Sunak said Hamas feared that "a new Middle East is being born which would see Israel normalising its relationship with its neighbours."

The prime minister spoke of his visit to Israel following the attacks and his meetings with the families of British victims.

"I sat with them, held their hands and saw the profound pain in their eyes. I heard the existential fear that the Israelis are feeling," he said.

Sunak described Hamas as posing "a fundamental challenge" to the idea that the Holocaust could never happen again - referencing statements made by senior operatives that they would repeat 7 October "time and time again."

As we've been reporting, doctors are reporting desperate conditions at Gaza City's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, because of fighting nearby and fuel shortages.

Asked by reporters about the situation there, US President Joe Biden said "the hospital must be protected".

"It's my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action relative to the hospital," Biden said, adding that he was "in contact with the Israelis" on the matter.

His comments came after a spokesman for the US State Department said the US did not "want to see civilians caught in the crossfire" and would "love to see Hamas vacate the hospitals that it's using as command posts immediately".

"We would love to see Hamas takes some of the fuel reserves it's sitting on and use that to supply hospitals in northern Gaza," Matthew Miller added.

Hamas and the Al-Shifa hospital have both denied Israeli assertions that there is a Hamas command centre beneath the facility.

Dr Mohamed Abu Selmia, manager of the Al-Shifa hospital, has told the BBC about the deteriorating situation there, where in recent days 32 people have died.

He said among them were three premature babies and seven people who died due to a lack of oxygen. Several other patients who need dialysis risk dying in "the next couple of days" as the treatment is no longer available, he said.

The BBC asked Abu Selmia if the Israeli army had made any contact regarding the evacuation of patients or premature babies.

He replied: "No, they haven’t reached out, instead we reached out to them... but until now we have received no response. There are negotiations regarding evacuating premature babies but until now nothing has happened."

Abu Selmia said the hospital has been in touch with the Red Cross to try and co-ordinate the burial of the bodies, of which there were about 150 in the hospital - but was told that was currently not feasible. He added - detail which some readers may find distressing - that dogs were eating the corpses.

He repeated the call for the IDF and the Red Cross to help evacuate patients: "We don’t want any of the patients... to die, we want them alive, we want them to receive the medical care they need in a place that can provide them," he said.

IDF bids to back up its claims about Hamas and hospitalspublished at 21:04 Greenwich Mean Time 13 November 2023

21:04 GMT 13 November 2023

Nick Beake
Reporting from Jerusalem

The Israel Defense Force's chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari set high expectations, promising his briefing would expose to the world that Hamas uses hospitals as an “instrument of war.”

The BBC has no way of verifying the claims made this evening.

Hagari showed himself in one video pointing to what he called a covert “terror tunnel” which reached 20m below ground.

He said an electrical panel and protruding cables proved solar panels had been powering a bunker and this was being explored further by an Israeli military robot. There was no further evidence presented for the existence of a command centre but Hagari said investigations continued.

Attention then shifted to the inside of the Rantisi hospital, which Hagari explained was a basement that was “disconnected” from the rest of the complex and had been used as an “armoury”.

In another room, a piece of rope next to a chair leg was highlighted as proof that hostages had been held here – along with the existence of a poorly plumbed toilet.

In one of the final videos, Hagari drew back curtains to reveal a wall with no windows. He said this would have been intended to conceal the true location of the building in any films that Hamas would want to make.

A neat, makeshift calendar on the wall was said to bear the name that Hamas gave their 7 October attacks and the ensuing days had been ticked off.

Hagari said there were already enough signs to show that Hamas - and hostages – had been in the hospital and that more investigations were under way.

Image source, Israel Defense Forces

Tulip Mazumdar
Global Health Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

The lives of dozens of tiny premature babies, shown to the world huddled together on surgical beds, hang in the balance.

Due to an outage of fuel at Al-Shifa hospital, clinicians there say the babies have had to be removed from one of their key lifelines - incubators.

Incubators are small beds enclosed by clear hard plastic that can re-create the conditions inside the womb. They can also support all the additional care these vulnerable babies need because they can be used in combination with procedures such as delivering food, medication or blood through an intravenous tube.

Without this specifically controlled environment, many premature babies (defined as those born before the 37th week of pregnancy) might not survive, particularly those born a few months early.

Around 1 in 10 babies are born prematurely around the world. Approximately 900,000 died in 2019 because of complications according to the latest figures from the WHO. This mostly happens in places with poor healthcare in low-income countries.

Breathing can be a particular challenge for babies born early as their lungs are not fully developed. Depending on how premature a baby is and other medical factors, they may need oxygen or, in some cases, to be put on a ventilator which can breathe for them. But ventilators need electricity. If power goes, some babies can be helped with their breathing manually, but this would require a dedicated person doing that 24/7.

Israel says it would help evacuate babies from the hospital to a "safer" facility, however moving premature babies in general, let alone in the middle of a war zone, can be fraught with danger. In the UK, there are specialised neonatal transport services, where babies have specifically adapted transport incubators to ensure minimal movement.

The charity ActionAid says three new-born babies have died since Saturday after their incubators had to be turned off at Al-Shifa hospital

The WHO has once again called for an immediate ceasefire.

The total death toll in Gaza Strip since 7 October rose to 11,240 on Monday, according to the media office of the Hamas-controlled government in the territory.

The figure includes 4,630 children and 3,130 women, the media office spokesperson said.

As we reported on Sunday, the WHO says it has confidence in the death figures provided by the Hamas-run authorities.

As he concludes his remarks, Hagari says: "This is not the last hospital like this in Gaza and the world should know that".

"Whoever gives money to this hospital... is giving Hamas help," he adds.

"We will free our hostages from Gaza and free Gaza from Hamas for the sake of the people of Israel and for the people of Gaza as well."

During the press conference, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari also said he had been to Gaza, to Rantisi children's hospital himself, and filmed what he described as "concrete evidence" that "Hamas uses hospitals as an instrument of war".

He said that in the basement under the Rantisi hospital, Israeli troops found "a Hamas command and control centre" where there were "suicide bomb vests, grenades, AK47 assault rifles, explosive devices, RPGs and other weapons, computers and money".

Hagari showed video of what he said was the entrance to a tunnel that was next to both a school and the hospital, with an electrical panel he said connected solar panels with wires that went down into the tunnel.

Video footage showed a deep shaft with a ladder down the side. "It's nothing else but a terror tunnel," Hagari told reporters.

Image source, IDF

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari has been holding a press briefing showing what he says is evidence of Hamas infrastructure at Rantisi hospital.

Hagari says the video shown to the press shows Hamas equipment - explosives, suicide vests, and even a motorcycle used in the 7 October attacks - hidden in a basement under the hospital.

He says the Israeli army also spotted baby bottles, a makeshift toilet and a small kitchen in the basement, which he says points at Hamas holding hostages here. "This is a war crime... This is a crime against humanity," he says.

Hamas has consistently denied hiding its fighters underneath hospitals.

Image source, IDF

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman has said that a number of senior Hamas operatives have been killed over the last few days, including Hamas's former head of Military Intelligence.

The IDF's Daniel Hagari said that Mohammed Khamis Dababash, who used to head up Hamas's intelligence unit and was "also involved in a 2002 terror attack that led to the death of five Israelis, had been killed".

Other key Hamas figures that the IDF says have been killed include the Head of the Anti-Tank Missile Array of the Khan Yunis Brigade, Yaakub A'ashur.

Others are Tahsin Muslem, Jihad A'azem and Munir Hareb - they all had significant roles as Hamas operatives, according to Hagari, and have also been killed.

Lipika Pelham
BBC News

Image source, IDF

Yakir, a 33-year-old Israeli, was called up along with hundreds and thousands of reservists, immediately after the attacks by Hamas on 7 October in which 1,200 people were killed and some 240 taken hostage.

"I haven't told my family I am going inside Gaza. I don't want them to be worried. Only my boyfriend knows I'll be inside."

"I don't know what kind of mission I'm going to get, or if I will even come back alive."

Yakir says he put himself forward for active duty and tells me he is fighting to live in a world in which Hamas - which Israel, the UK and other countries consider a terrorist organisation - no longer exists.

He was speaking to me hours before the mission was due to start, and said he had permission from his superiors to speak to the BBC.

You can read the story here.

Deirdre Finnerty
Live reporter

I've been speaking to Jana and Farah, two Gazan girls aged 13 and 11 who are sheltering in a farmhouse in Khan Younis along with about 90 other people. The girls say they eat about one meal a day, a sandwich with some meat if there is any, or some rice.

“We barely have anything,” Jana says. “It’s very challenging to live like this.”

Internet signal in the house is limited, but when they are able to connect, the girls tell me they try to watch K-Pop videos or message their friends. Jana organises beads by their colours in a plastic box and makes bracelets, and Farah crochets chequered squares.

“These are probably the only things we got to get from our house”, Jana says. “It’s very frustrating.”

“It’s really too much to handle,” Farah adds.

Jana tells me this is the second time in under six months that her family has been displaced by war. Her parents, she says, are stressed out and tired. She says her father, Ezzeldin, had his own business in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, and the family had lived there for over a decade before the war there forced them to return to Gaza.

“I thought that this would be safer,” Jana says. “I got new stuff in Gaza and then we lost it again.”

Image source, Ezzeldin Alborno

Image source, Maxar Technologies/Reuters

A senior doctor at the Al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza has told the anti-poverty campaign group, ActionAid, that the hospital is using battery power to help with the delivering of babies and the treatment of the injured.

Al-Awda Hospital has closed its main generators and has been without electricity or fuel for three days, the doctor says.

Despite this, using power and light from batteries, the doctor says it has delivered 16 babies by caesarean sections on Sunday.

"We are now receiving about 18-20 newborn deliveries every 24 hours. I think this number will increase in the next days because people will come to Al-Awda Hospital from Gaza City.

"We are providing our services to injured patients from the northern area because Al-Awda Hospital is the only hospital in the northern area that is active and working."

Earlier, the Hamas-run health ministry told AFP news that all hospitals in the north of the enclave were "out of service".

Israel's defence minister has said that "Hamas has lost control in Gaza", according to the AFP news agency.

Yoav Gallant was speaking in a video broadcast on Israel's main TV stations.

According to the AFP, he said: "Terrorists are fleeing southward. Civilians are looting Hamas bases."

"They don't have faith in the government anymore," Gallant added.

We'll bring you more on this as we get it.

Image source, EPA

Let's turn our attention back to Gaza and last Thursday, the US said it understood Israeli forces would begin to implement four-hour “humanitarian pauses” in northern Gaza each day, in order to permit civilians to leave, increase the flow of aid, and enable hostage releases.

But Israeli officials did not directly confirm that, speaking instead about “local tactical pauses”.

“We are undertaking localised and pinpoint measures to enable the exit of Palestinian civilians from Gaza City southwards,” said Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. “These things do not detract from the war fighting.”

Today, the Israeli military posted a map showing what it said were the locations of eight local pauses, external it had put in place since last Wednesday. Most were in areas north-east of Gaza City, but today’s was in the southern city of Rafah and lasted four hours.

The military has announced the pauses on social media. It has said it had also communicated to civilians in Gaza via the media, text messages and airdrops of leaflets.

The UN said yesterday that the flight of tens of thousands of displaced people from the north continued through an evacuation corridor designated by the military. But it warned that hundreds of thousands remained in the north and were struggling to survive.

Ashitha Nagesh
BBC News Community Affairs Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

A group of British-Palestinians have sent a letter to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asking for an urgent meeting.

The letter has been sent by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) “on behalf of members of the Palestinian community in the UK with families and loved ones living in Gaza”.

The group says that calls for humanitarian pauses are "inadequate", and that by not calling for a ceasefire the government "is putting our loved ones in danger and is contributing to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis".

“It also ignores our voices as British citizens with friends and family under attack in Gaza," it adds.

The BBC has contacted the Prime Minister's office for comment.

Rishi Sunak has previously said he supported "specific pauses" in the conflict, to allow humanitarian aid to be sent to Gaza, "as distinct from a ceasefire".

Since the Hamas attacks on 7 October, the UK PM has visited Israel and said he "absolutely" supported Israel's "right to defend itself, in line with international law".

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Lebanon

Image source, Anadolu Agency

Let's move away from the situation in Gaza and take a look at the Israel-Lebanon border, where for weeks the Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Israeli military have continued to exchange fire.

But the last few days have been particularly tense, fuelling fears that the powerful Iranian backed militia could drag Lebanon into another war. On Saturday, an Israeli attack hit an area about 50km (30 miles) from the border, the deepest Israeli strike inside Lebanon in the violence sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.

A day later, an anti-tank missile attack by Hezbollah hit two electrical company workers in a community in northern Israel, killing one. In a separate attack, seven Israeli soldiers were wounded, the military said.

Today, there were more attacks, from both sides. In Lebanon, two people - reportedly fighters - were killed. Lebanese media also said an Israeli attack hit an area where a group of journalists was working in the border village of Yaroun.

This happened exactly one month after a Reuters journalist was killed in an apparent Israeli strike in southern Lebanon.

Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, said in a speech on Saturday that the group was using more powerful missiles and explosive drones against Israeli targets, and that the offensive would continue.

Shortly afterwards, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told Israeli troops that Hezbollah – a Shia Islamist group that is supported by Iran - was "making mistakes", adding: "What we’re doing in Gaza we can do in Beirut."

A senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the BBC that Hamas do not want to accept solutions for the lack of fuel needed to save the premature babies at Al-Shifa hospital and that "they want pictures to show a crisis".

Mark Regev, who is also the former Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom said, "We bought fuel especially for the babies, for the incubators... nobody wants to see these babies coming to harm."

Regev blamed Hamas for turning Al-Shifa hospital "into a warzone" saying that they had "deliberately built" their military infrastructure under the hospital - which both Hamas and the hospital deny.

He also restated Israel's claim that its forces were not deliberately targeting hospitals, saying that Hamas had "used those babies to shield its military machine".

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, the situation in hospitals in Gaza continues to be desperate.

At Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital, the largest in the territory, power cuts and a lack of fuel are causing severe difficulties, with particular international concern for the fate of dozens of premature babies no longer able to stay in their incubators.

Christian Lindmeier, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, told the BBC that as well as the premature babies, the hospital is unable to carry out kidney dialysis for 45 patients who need it. He said 600 patients remained in the hospital, and other people sheltering in the hallways.

Doctors in Gaza say dead bodies are beginning to pile up both inside and outside the hospital, and Lindmeier also described this, saying the hospital was functioning more like a cemetery.

Image source, Reuters

It's just past 18:45 in Gaza and Israel, and 16:45 here in London. If you're just joining us or need a recap, here's where things stand:

• Concerns are growing about the situation in Gaza's largest hospital Al Shifa, where doctors warn more than 30 premature babies could die without fuel to power incubators
• The Israeli military says Hamas rejected fuel it offered to support the babies, denying claims by staff that they would be attacked if they collected it
• The head of the Hamas-run ministry of health has told the BBC that more than 100 corpses were piled up in the courtyard at Al Shifa, with no fuel to power the mortuaries

• The World Health Organization says Al Shifa is "not functioning as a hospital anymore" while the deputy health minister has told AFP news agency all hospitals in the north were out of service
• The Israeli military says Hamas has a command centre under Al Shifa and hides its operations in civilian sites
• The UN's refugee agency, UNRWA, says the depot it's been using for fuel has run dry and from tomorrow it will no longer be able to deliver fuel to medical facilities and pick up aid supplies arriving from Egypt
• A Palestinian woman has told the BBC Israeli forces entered a clinic west of Gaza City and told 800 displaced people who had been sheltering there to leave, separating out the young men - the Israeli military says it's looking into the allegation
• A Turkish ship has arrived bringing equipment and supplies to set up field hospitals on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza