Image source, Reuters

It's gone 18:00 in Gaza - and 16:00 here in our London newsroom.

It's still hard to know exactly what is going on inside Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but here's a look at the reported developments over the last few hours:

• The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says its operation inside the hospital is continuing, with soldiers "proceeding one building at a time, searching each floor"
• A journalist inside Al-Shifa earlier told the BBC that "soldiers are everywhere, shooting in all directions"
• Before his phone line cut off, he also said armoured bulldozers had been brought in
• The IDF first entered the hospital on Wednesday. Last night, it showed the BBC what it said were Hamas weapons and other assets found during the raid
• This afternoon, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Israeli forces had destroyed some departments at the hospital
• The head of the facility said it had now run out of oxygen and patients were "screaming from thirst"
• Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of housing a major base underneath Al-Shifa hospital - a claim that Hamas denies
• The BBC has not been able to independently verify today's developments. This all comes amid a major connectivity outage across the Gaza Strip, according to several communications companies in the Palestinian territory

Deirdre Finnerty
Live reporter

Ibrahim AlAgha, an Irish-Palestinian man who had been on holiday in Gaza when the war began, has been speaking to the BBC for the past month.

Today, he sent a message to say he had been safely evacuated to Cairo via the Rafah crossing and will shortly fly home to Dublin with his wife Hamida and their three Dublin-born children.

The journey from Khan Younis to the border wasn’t easy. He says finding a driver willing to take them there was "very expensive".

With fuel shortages in Gaza, the driver told him he had filled a diesel car with a mixture that contained vegetable oil. "It smelled awful, but it was ok," Ibrahim says. "They mix it with some other oils and it just works."

Ibrahim says his children sat in the boot with the luggage while he and his wife, his wife’s parents, and his brother sat in the passenger seats.

When they got to the crossing, they passed quickly into Egypt and then waited for 11 hours to be processed by officials.

"Once my foot left Palestine and entered into Egypt, I was crying… [because] everyone's life is in danger…[and because of] all the nice memories of the nice city that's destroyed now," he explains. "It was very, very sad when we were saying goodbye."

Image source, AlAgha

A little earlier, Israeli military spokesperson Lt Col Jonathan Conricus spoke to our colleagues on BBC Radio 4's World at One programme, as the operation at Al-Shifa hospital continues.

Conricus says the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are working to "expose exactly the extent" of what it claims is Hamas's network underneath the hospital in Gaza City - but signalled this could take "a few weeks".

Hamas has denied operating a military base underneath the facility.

Overnight, the IDF allowed the BBC’s Lucy Williamson inside Al-Shifa - and showed her items they say belonged to Hamas, including weapons and other assets.

The IDF is yet to show evidence of a Hamas base or tunnel complex under the hospital.

However, Conricus says: "We haven't searched the whole hospital yet - not even close."

On any underground infrastructure, he says: "We will be able to assess it and hopefully share some footage of it."

Image source, NetBlocks

NetBlocks, an organisation that monitors connectivity around the world, says live metrics show the Gaza Strip is "in the midst of a major internet outage".

"Telecom services including landline, cellular and wifi are likely to be unavailable to most residents at the present time," it adds in a post on X, external.

Palestinian communications company Jawwal confirmed this, saying that "all telecom services in Gaza have gone out of service as all energy sources sustaining the network have been depleted".

Caroline Hawley
Diplomatic correspondent

The director of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza has given a press statement describing conditions at the hospital.

Muhammad Abu Salmiya says the hospital has now run out of oxygen and water: “The conditions are tragic and those in the hospital are screaming from thirst.”

He describes tanks surrounding the hospital, drones overhead and Israeli soldiers moving inside – particularly in the emergency department.

He says Israeli troops have blown up Al-Shifa’s main water line. At this stage, the BBC isn't able to independently verify what's going on on the ground at the hospital.

There are more than 650 patients at the site, 500 medical staff and more than 5,000 displaced people, he says, though doctors can’t now move between departments.

“Sniping operations continue, no-one can move from one building to another, and we have lost communication with our colleagues,” he says.

He says Israeli forces had removed some bodies from the hospital – where four dialysis patients are now in critical condition.

Image source, .

More information now on the developing situation at Al-Shifa hospital, which Israel's military entered on Wednesday morning.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said Israeli forces had "destroyed the radiology department, blew up the burns and kidney department" and were now "investigating doctors, the injured, and the displaced" at the hospital, the largest in Gaza.

The BBC has not verified the claims but is working to establish what is happening at the hospital.

Our team in Jerusalem has repeatedly tried to phone or send messages to three doctors at Al-Shifa since this morning, but has been unable to reach them. We don't know to what extent this is a localised issue or related to the telecom companies in Gaza running out of fuel.

As we've been reporting, an eyewitness has reported shooting at Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital.

We've had a fresh update from an official from the Israel Defense Forces.

• They say soldiers from a special forces unit are "continuing to operate" at the hospital. The operations is described as "complex and ongoing"
• The official also says that "soldiers are proceeding one building at a time, searching each floor, all while hundreds of patients and medical staff remain in the complex". They add that the activity is happening in a "discrete, methodical and thorough manner"
• The same official reiterates the IDF’s claim that there is "well-hidden terrorist infrastructure in the complex" – something Hamas denies
• And they again say they have found weapons and "intelligence materials" – as well as "command and control centres and communications equipment" belonging to Hamas

Rushdi Abu Alouf, our reporter in Gaza, hasn't been able to get back in touch with his contact Khader after receiving the information below from Al-Shifa hospital.

But before his phone line cut off, Khader also said armoured bulldozers had been brought in.

Earlier, Gaza's Hamas-controlled health ministry said Israeli armoured bulldozers had "destroyed parts of the southern entrance" of the medical complex.

A contact of our reporter in Gaza says there's been shooting at Al-Shifa hospital.

Khader, a journalist inside Al-Shifa, had a phone call with the BBC's Rushdi Abualouf - in which he said: "Soldiers are everywhere, shooting in all directions."

He said soldiers had "stormed all departments" of the hospital, destroying the southern part of the building's wall and dozens of cars.

We await more information on this reported development. The BBC's not been able to independently verify it.

Israeli soldiers entered the hospital more than 36 hours ago. Last night, they said they were "continuing the precise and targeted operation against Hamas" at the site.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

The ongoing Israeli operation at Gaza's biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, comes as the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry, external warns that 26 of Gaza's 35 hospitals are no longer operational. It says the remaining nine are only "partially functioning".

This is not the first warning of its kind. Yesterday Hamas officials in Gaza said 25 hospitals were out of use. And last Friday, the World Health Organization, external stated that two thirds of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip were "not functioning at all".

The Palestinian health ministry is part of the Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank - and does not have any control over Gaza.

Earlier, we reported that Israel's opposition leader Yair Lapid had called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down over his government's handling of the war.

A former senior political adviser in the US - Israel's major ally - has said Netanyahu is in a "precarious position politically" at home. Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Ben Rhodes said he anticipated a change of leadership at the end of the military operation in Gaza.

Rhodes - who was deputy national security adviser under US President Barack Obama - suggested that the operation was a matter of "political survival" for Netanyahu.

He said he had "no confidence" that the Israeli PM would lead the operation "humanely" or look to pursue peace, adding: "Nothing about Netanyahu's actions over the last 15 years suggest he has any interest in that."

Israel has repeatedly said its attacks are directed against Hamas operatives and infrastructure and that it minimises harm to civilians.

Image source, Reuters

The UN's high commissioner for human rights says that one in every 57 people living in the Gaza Strip "has been killed or wounded in the past five weeks", based on Hamas-run health ministry figures.

Volker Türk highlights the pain and "anguish" of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians as the fighting in Gaza continues, in a statement following his visit to Egypt and Jordan.

He adds that civilians in Gaza - "who for years have been profoundly impoverished behind barbed wire fences" - are enduring an intense bombardment that has seldom been experienced this century.

Read his full statement here, external.

If you're just joining us, or need a recap, here are some of the key lines we have been reporting.

• Israeli forces have dropped leaflets in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, warning people in four towns to evacuate their homes. Similar leaflets were dropped over northern Gaza weeks ahead of Israel's ground offensive
• In northern Gaza, the Israeli army is continuing to search the Al-Shifa hospital - which it says is used by Hamas as a military base; something Hamas denies
• The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group - separate from Hamas - says its fighters are still involved in "fierce clashes" with Israeli forces near the hospital complex
• Palestinian media say around 50 people have been killed by an air strike in the central Gaza Strip
• The Israeli military says its fighter jets have struck the house in Gaza of the Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who has been living in Qatar for several years
• In the occupied West Bank, Israel says it security forces have killed three gunmen who attacked a checkpoint south of Jerusalem
• Meanwhile, Israel's main opposition leader Yair Lapid has called for PM Benjamin Netanyahu to step down over what he says is the government's poor handling of the war against Hamas

A former top US political aide says he's observed a "recalibration" over the last few weeks in the way the Biden administration is approaching its ally Israel.

Ben Rhodes, who was deputy national security adviser under President Obama, suggested the current administration initially hoped it could have an impact on the Israeli military operation by "embracing" the country's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.

But this has not been borne out, he told BBC Radio 4 this morning. Rhodes noted that the US had asked for more humanitarian pauses but Israeli had "largely ignored that advice".

Rhodes suggested this signalled a growing distance between the two countries, though he said the US was "still generally supportive".

As we've reported, Israeli soldiers are continuing their search of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City - the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip.

Late last month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) accused Hamas of having its main base base underneath Al-Shifa. It gave a presentation that used 3D modelling to visualise an alleged network of underground tunnels and control rooms. Below is a screengrab.

A spokesman said there was a connection from the hospital to the tunnels, and it had “concrete evidence” that “hundreds" of Hamas fighters had hidden in the hospital after the attacks on Israel on 7 October.

The US later said its own intelligence corroborated the Israeli statements about the use of the hospital by Hamas - though Hamas has consistently denied it.

Israel said its troops had entered the hospital about 36 hours ago. They have allowed the BBC’s Lucy Williamson inside, showing her items they say they've found - including 15 guns, bullet-proof vests and other items including laptops.

The IDF is yet to show evidence of a Hamas base or tunnel complex under the hospital as it said existed in last month's presentation.

Image source, Israel Defense Forces

Israeli forces dropped leaflets in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza overnight, warning people in four towns to evacuate their homes and head to shelters, Reuters and the Times of Israel report.

The leaflets warned people to find safety in Bani Shuhaila, Khuzaa, Abassan and Qarara - towns that were home to more than 100,000 people, before the south was overwhelmed with displaced people.

"For your safety, you need to evacuate your places of residence immediately and head to known shelters. Anyone near terrorists or their facilities puts their life at risk, and every house used by terrorists will be targeted," the leaflets said, according to Reuters.

Weeks ago, similar leaflets were dropped over northern Gaza ahead of the ground offensive.

Also on Thursday morning, the Hamas-run Gaza interior ministry said Israeli helicopters have "fired at citizens' homes east of Khan Younis".

In October, the population of Khan Younis went from 400,000 residents to more than a million as hundreds of thousands left northern Gaza.

Thousands of displaced people are now living in makeshift camps, hospitals and school grounds in Khan Younis.

The Hamas-run interior ministry says two Palestinians have been killed and a number injured in Rafah, in southern Gaza, as a result of action by Israeli aircraft.

The IDF has not commented on this, and the BBC cannot verify the information.

The focus of the Israeli campaign against Hamas, and the fiercest fighting, has been in the north of the territory - and Israel has urged civilians to move to the relative safety of the south.

Hundreds of thousands have done so, many along an evacuation route along the main highway which the IDF regularly opens.

Image source, .

Image source, Rex Features

This morning's attack on a checkpoint in Jerusalem comes at a time of rising violence in the occupied West Bank - following the deadly Hamas assault on Israel on 7 October.

As we reported earlier, Israeli police say they killed three gunmen who opened fire on the checkpoint. The attackers were from Hebron, a city in the West Bank, police say.

The UN says 182 Palestinians, including 46 children, have been killed by Israeli forces since 7 October. Another eight, it says, have been killed by Israeli settlers.

Palestinian news agency Wafa says more than 2,700 people have been detained there by Israel since 7 October.

Following today's attack, Israel's national security minister was quoted in local media, external saying that the Palestinian Authority (PA) - which governs parts of the West Bank not under full Israeli control - has "similar views to Hamas". He said the PA should be "dealt with... exactly like we are dealing with Gaza".

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, is holding a news conference in Geneva.

To watch his news conference - and his responses to questions from journalists - press the large play button at the top of this page.

Image source, Reuters

As we've just reported, the Israeli army is searching the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City - which it says is used by Hamas as a military base.

At the same time, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group - which is separate from Hamas - has just said its fighters are still involved in "fierce clashes" with Israeli forces near the hospital complex.

The Israeli military has not commented on the new claim, which the BBC can't verify.

IDF forces entered the hospital, the main facility in the Gaza Strip, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, in what it called a "targeted operation against Hamas".

Later the army said it had found an "operational centre" in the hospital, sharing images of what it said were Hamas weapons and equipment. Israeli soldiers have today continued searching Al-Shifa.

On Wednesday night, Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of Israeli military operations in Gaza, said: "Tonight we conducted a targeted operation into Shifa hospital. We continue to move forward."