The UN has confirmed it is not bringing aid into Gaza today because it cannot communicate with staff on the ground - with phone lines and internet down for a second day - and there is not enough fuel for distribution.

Speaking to the BBC's Yolande Knell, Juliette Touma from UNRWA - the UN relief agency that aids Palestinians - said this could change quickly if communications and fuel were restored.

Earlier this week, a tanker delivered fuel to Gaza for the first time since the war between Hamas and Israel began in October, but it has already run out.

As we've been reporting, the UN World Food Programme says supplies of food and water are "practically non-existent" and Gazans are now facing the "immediate possibility of starvation".

Image source, Getty Images

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that Hamas is "endangering everyone, by embedding itself with civilians in hospitals, schools and civilian residences".

Speaking to the US News channel ABC on Thursday, Blinken was asked if he was confident that there were command centres in the tunnels under Al-Shifa hospital. He firmly said: "Yes."

He was also asked if the US supported Israel being in Gaza after the end of the war, and answered: "We don't."

Blinken continued: "There cannot be a re-occupation of Gaza by Israel. Just as Gaza cannot continue to be used as a platform to launch terrorist attacks.

"We should move forward where Palestinians have political rights and they have the ability to govern themselves in their own state."

Western powers increasingly uneasy over Israeli actionspublished at 10:27 Greenwich Mean Time 17 November 2023

10:27 GMT 17 November 2023

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

Almost day by day, the tone of Israel’s allies is hardening.

Overnight, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Benny Gantz, a key member of Israel’s war cabinet. He said there was “an urgent need for affirmative steps to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank, including by confronting rising levels of settler extremist violence”.

About 200 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied territory since the 7 October attack on Israel. Arab diplomats are concerned there could be an explosion of violence in the West Bank that could escalate the conflict.

Blinken called Egypt’s foreign minister and stressed “the importance of concrete steps to minimise harm to Palestinian civilians in all of Gaza”. He also called his Jordanian counterpart and voiced his “deep concern” at a strike on a Jordanian medical facility in Gaza.

All this after the US for the first time chose not to veto a UN resolution that failed to condemn Hamas.

Image source, EPA

And it's not just the Americans. Earlier this week, the British PM gave a speech warning that too many Palestinians were losing their lives. And yesterday, the French president repeated his call for a humanitarian ceasefire, saying Israel’s right to defend itself did not justify bombing civilians.

Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has suggested his country has “two or three weeks” before international pressure for a ceasefire could become overwhelming.

Here's the moment Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted to CBS that Israel had been "not successful" in its aim to minimise civilian casualties in Gaza - but blamed Hamas.

As Israeli forces continue their operations in northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have issued handout photos of their soldiers conducting operations in the region.There are no BBC journalists in northern Gaza, and we have been unable to reach contacts there due to a communications outage.

Image source, Israeli Defense Forces

Image source, Israeli Defense Forces

Image source, Israeli Defense Forces

Image source, EPA

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says almost the entire 2 million population of Gaza is in desperate need of food assistance, warning that civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation.

No WFP bakeries are operating any more due to a lack of fuel, and only a quarter of food shops are open, the agency says. The small quantities of food available at the shops are sold at alarmingly inflated prices.

A lack of fuel and electricity means cooking has become impossible for many. The lucky eat canned foods, but some are surviving on whatever raw ingredients they can find, including raw onions and aubergines, WFP says.

"There is no way to meet current hunger needs with one operational border crossing," McCain said, calling for another access point for aid to be opened.

The UN has said it is not able to use the one available crossing - at Rafah - to deliver aid today because of the lack of fuel and phone connections.

As we've been reporting, Israel says it found the body IDF soldier Corporal Noa Marciano in a building near the Al-Shifa hospital.

Spokesman for the IDF, Daniel Hagari says Israeli intelligence led soldiers to the exact location of her body., external

Her body has been returned to her family in Israel, he said.

Cpl Marciano was one of the more than 200 hostages abducted by Hamas on 7 October and taken into Gaza.

Joel Gunter
Reporting from Jerusalem

At least three Palestinians were killed and 10 wounded last night in an Israeli military raid on a hospital in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the chief surgeon confirmed to the BBC.

The three dead all had multiple injuries indicative of a blast, said Tawfeeq al-Shobaki. Some of the wounded appeared to have been injured in a blast and others by bullets, he said, leaving two in critical condition.

The Israeli military said it had killed five gunmen during the raid and seized six rifles.

Jenin refugee camp has been repeatedly raided by Israeli forces since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel. A week ago, 14 were killed and at least 20 others wounded.

Dr al-Shobaki said Israeli forces arrived at the emergency entrance to Ibn Sina during the raid and demanded that the medical staff leave the hospital.

“Our emergency staff refused to go out but the staff from the Red Crescent were ordered to go out with their hands up,” he said.

Video shared on social media showed paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent, with their hands up, being ordered out of the hospital by the Israeli forces.

The local Wafa news agency reported that the paramedics were searched and two were arrested.

Let's quickly catch up with another line from the Israeli prime minister's interview with the BBC's US partner, CBS.

Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces' efforts to keep civilian casualties to a minimum in Gaza had been "not successful" - though he blamed his enemy.

Netanyahu said the Israeli military was working to eradicate Hamas, but the group was using civilians as "human shields". Hamas "don't give a hoot about the Palestinians," he said.

More on that Israeli raid in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.

The Israel Defense Forces says its troops killed at least five gunmen during clashes overnight.

It follows an earlier update from Palestinian medical sources that three people had been killed.

It's not immediately clear if the slightly contrasting tolls related to the same incident.

Image source, Reuters

Earlier we reported that the Israel Defense Forces has raided the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian medical sources say that three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike on the city, with the Palestinian news agency saying Israeli troops have surrounded a hospital there.

Nearly two hundred Palestinians have been killed in the occupied-West Bank since the conflict started on 7 October.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Israel’s ban on fuel entering the Gaza Strip since the war began nearly six weeks ago has been a constant complaint of humanitarian workers.

For the first time this week, a small amount was allowed to enter for UN vehicles, but it’s already run out.

The lack of fuel has also cut internet and phone services.

So now, the UN’s biggest agency in Gaza says it’s no longer able to bring in and distribute aid., external

Image source, CBS

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken to CBS Evening News in the US, telling the channel there were “strong indications” that Israeli hostages were being held at the Al-Shifa hospital and this was “one of the reasons we entered".

Netanyahu said there were no hostages at the hospital when forces entered the hospital on Wednesday, claiming: “If there were [hostages], they were taken out”

Israel says it has further intelligence about those being held, but Netanyahu said: "the less I say about it, the better".

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of housing a major base underneath the Al-Shifa hospital - which Hamas denies.

Netanyahu did not elaborate on what information Israel had to suggest that hostages were being held at Al-Shifa.

Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining us this morning, here's where things stand right now:

• Israel says it has found the bodies of two hostages near Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza - Yehudit Weiss, a 65-year-old recovering from cancer, and Israel Defense Forces Corporal Noa Marciano
• The IDF says it found a tunnel shaft and a "booby-trapped vehicle" on hospital grounds during its raid on Al-Shifa
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS News in the US there had been "strong" intelligence indications that Hamas were keeping hostages at the hospital, but they had been moved by the time the IDF closed in
• Three Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli drone attack on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, according to Palestinian medical sources
• Meanwhile Israel says its security forces have killed three gunmen who opened fire at a checkpoint on a road leading into Jerusalem from the West Bank

Image source, IDF

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has recovered the body of 19-year-old Israeli Corporal Noa Marciano from “a structure adjacent to the Shifa Hospital”.

The announcement comes days after the soldier’s death was confirmed.

Cpl Marciano was one of about 240 hostages taken by Hamas gunmen during the 7 October, which killed 1,200 people.

Her body has been taken back to Israel, where tests were carried out that confirmed her identity.

On Thursday, Israel revealed that the body of another hostage, Yehudit Weiss, was found in a structure next to the Al-Shifa hospital.

Activists in South Korea have called for a ceasefire in Gaza, by placing 2,000 pairs of shoes in downtown Seoul. The shoes symbolised Palestinian civilians killed in the war.

More than 11,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Image source, IDF

In the last few hours, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has posted images and videos on X (formerly known as Twitter) which they say show Hamas' tunnels under Gaza hospitals. Israel had announced they had found these sites earlier.

The BBC cannot immediately verify these images.

"Inside the Shifa Hospital complex, a Hamas terrorist tunnel was uncovered," tweeted the IDF in a statement accompanying a video which, they claimed, showed the entrance to an underground passage in the grounds of the Gaza City hospital.

The IDF also shared pictures from what they said was the inside of "another terrorist tunnel" in Gaza's main children's hospital, Al-Rantisi.

Earlier this week, the IDF also released a video from the same hospital announcing the discovery of weapons and explosives purportedly found in that medical centre.

In its latest post it has shared a picture of "a large amount of weaponry and ammunition" found in Al-Quds hospital.

Israel says Hamas is operating within and beneath hospitals and the US says it also has intelligence supporting Israel's claim.

Hamas and hospital authorities have consistently denied these claims.

A top negotiator who has been involved in recent talks around the release of some of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza has told the Associated Press he hopes for an agreement within a week.

Abbas Ibrahim - Lebanon's former intelligence chief - said a deal could be close if Israel budged.

It's expected that under the deal being discussed, some of the estimated 240 Israeli hostages taken into Gaza would be released in exchange for some Palestinian children and women currently held in Israel's prisons.

Ibrahim said Hamas's conditions at minimum include "the freedom of movement for people inside Gaza from south to north or from north to south. This is one of the issues where there remains disagreement.

"But in my view, things will go toward a positive end. There will be an exchange and there will be a humanitarian pause."

Ibrahim has been involved in talks since the war began six weeks ago, including on evacuations of civilians and humanitarian truces.

As we've reported, there've been accounts of fighting and troop activity coming out of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

AFP news agency says a large deployment of Israeli troops raided the refugee camp in the city. Meanwhile Reuters says three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike, citing the head of the Palestinian ambulance service.

Several Palestinian news sources say Israeli soldiers have entered the city's Ibn Sina hospital, halting ambulances and forcing medical workers to leave.

Video is being shared which appears to show workers in red bib uniforms filing out with their hands up. The BBC cannot immediately verify the video.

The same outlets also report that the Palestinian Red Crescent says their workers at the medical site have also been detained.

Jenin has been repeatedly raided by Israel since the latest conflict began. Last week, 14 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid - one of the deadliest recent incidents of its kind in Jenin.

In the last few hours we've been hearing of reports of an Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Jenin.

Footage filed by news agencies shows people running as stun grenades and shots ring out, as well as an Israeli tank on the streets of the city.