The UN has dismissed claims that it is biased over the Israel-Gaza conflict, insisting: "The only side that we are on is on the side of saving lives."

On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote a letter to members of the Security Council, invoking a UN article not used in decades and urging them to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

Israel said he had reached a new moral low and this was proof of his bias against them.

Speaking on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for Guterres, said it was very rare for a secretary-general to invoke the article, but he had been compelled to do so because of the extent of "appalling human suffering".

Dujarric said there must be a ceasefire, saying any further collapse of the order of society in Gaza "would very easily have a catastrophic impact on the region as a whole".

"I don't think anyone can look the other way," he added. "The members of the Security Council all have a responsibility to use their influence to try to end this crisis."

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent in Jerusalem

Image source, Reuters

Israel's military says it’s advanced right into the heart of Khan Younis and the armed wing of Hamas says combat has been fierce.

Israeli forces have now reached the home of the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and he and other top officials are believed to be hiding in underground tunnels.

“It’s only a matter of time before we get him,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last night.

A senior UN official has warned that two months into the war, “the situation in Gaza is becoming apocalyptic.”

As fighting expands, hundreds of thousands of people have been squeezed into a smaller area of the south, with “meaningful humanitarian efforts” now nearly impossible, the official said.

In New York, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged the Security Council to act on the war in Gaza, invoking a rarely-used power he has under the UN charter.

So far, the council has failed to endorse any resolution calling for a full ceasefire.

Image source, Reuters

As fighting continues in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, we've seen signs of conflict from cameras in southern Israel overlooking the border all morning.

We've heard the distant but constant rumble of what may be explosions and buzz of aircraft engines from these viewpoints.

At times, we've seen large plumes of smoke rising from the tightly clustered buildings in Gaza.

We know fighting continued overnight in southern Gaza's main city. On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers said they had broken through Hamas' defensive lines and carried out "targeted raids in the heart of the city".

You may recall how some premature babies from Gaza's biggest hospital were evacuated to Egypt in late November as the Israeli military carried out a raid on al-Shifa.

While 28 newborns were evacuated, doctors at al-Shifa said several other infants died after the hospital's incubators were cut off due to a lack of fuel.

Below are pictures of babies who were rescued - and who are being cared for at the New Administrative Capital Hospital in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

In the last week, we've seen more US leaders begin to voice disquiet with Israel's tactics.

The US Secretary of State in an interview with CNN yesterday said he believed Israel was taking more steps to protect civilians in their offensive into southern Gaza.

“I said to them very clearly when I was there just a week ago, we cannot have a repeat of what happened in the north in the south in terms of harm being done to civilians,” Antony Blinken told CNN.

“What we’re seeing is areas clearly designated by Israel that are safe areas, where there’s not going to be firing or the military. We’ve seen efforts to make sure that people know that they need to move – and not in the entire city, but just discrete neighborhoods. So that’s positive,” Blinken said.

However UN officials have consistently disputed these safe zones, saying the idea of any "safe zone" is a "dangerous false narrative".

"These are tiny patches of barren land. They have no water, no facilities, no shelter from the cold, no sanitation," a Unicef spokesman James Elder told the BBC earlier this week. Other UN officials and locals have also made similar alarming calls.

The UN has also said there is nowhere left for people in the South to evacuate to.

Image source, Getty Images

The UK's defence secretary has reiterated that he will urge for humanitarian aid to get into Gaza faster, when he visits Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories soon.

Earlier this week, Grant Shapps said Britain was considering sending a UK vessel to provide medical and humanitarian aid in the Middle East.

On Thursday, he said in a statement from his office:"We are working to find the best way to get aid and support to those in desperate need in the quickest and most direct route. That includes options by land, sea and air."

He is due to meet with the Interior Minister of the Palestinian Authority, General Ziad Hab Al-Reeh as well as Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

The United States would object to a buffer zone inside the Gaza Strip, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

No reduction in territory figures among the five principles that the US has said would guide their approach for Gaza after the war, along with no forcible displacement, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade and no use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism.

"If any proposed buffer zone was inside Gaza, that would be a violation of that principle and something we oppose. If it’s with respect to something within Israeli territory I won't speak to that - that’s a decision for the Israelis to make," Miller said.

Israel informed several Arab states and Turkey last week that it had plans to introduce a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of Gaza's border to prevent future attacks, Reuters news agency reported.

Yvette Tan
Live editor

It’s almost 06:30 in Israel and Gaza and 12:30 here in Singapore where we have taken over this live page from our colleagues in London. Here's a glance at the latest developments:

• UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has invoked a rarely used clause in the UN charter and made an urgent appeal for a ceasefire to be declared in Gaza
• He called for the Security Council to "help avert a humanitarian catastrophe" and stressed that the situation was deteriorating rapidly

• His comments were sharply criticised by Israel Foreign Minister Eli Cohen - who called Guterres' tenure a "danger to world peace", saying that calling for a ceasefire in Gaza "constitutes support of Hamas"
• Meanwhile, Israeli forces have encircled the home of Yahya Sinwar, head of the Hamas's political wing in Gaza. An IDF spokesman said he does not to be appear to be there
• Israel's military has advanced into the heart of Khan Younis - the Gaza Strip's second largest city
• Hospitals say they have been overwhelmed and public order is starting to break down, says the BBC's Adnan El-Bursh, who is in the city

Stay with us as we bring you the latest updates.

As we've been reporting, Israel has attacked a call by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a "humanitarian ceasefire". Guterres warned that the humanitarian system in Gaza could collapse and called on the UN Security Council to avert a "catastrophe".

Now the EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has asked European states to back Guterres.

"I ask the EU members of the UN Security Council and like-minded partners to support @UN, external Secretary General @AntonioGuterres, external’s call," he posted on X, external.

"The #UNSC, external must act immediately to prevent a full collapse of the humanitarian situation in Gaza."

France and Malta are the only two EU states among the 15 which make up the current Security Council, external.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen had said on X, external that Guterres' "call for a ceasefire in Gaza constitutes support of the Hamas terrorist organization".

Patrick Jackson
Live page editor

It's just gone 03:00 in Israel and Gaza and 01:00 here in London on 7 December, two months since Hamas launched its devastating surprise attack on Israel, igniting a war which has left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins.

Here's a recap of the main developments after a day of intense fighting in Gaza, and a new diplomatic war of words, as Israeli troops continue their hunt for Hamas operatives:

• UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned Security Council member states that the humanitarian system in Gaza could collapse, urging them to avert a "catastrophe"
• Israel's Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, shaply criticised Guterres, saying his tenure was a "danger to world peace"
• In the south Gazan city of Khan Younis, which Israeli tanks and troops have now entered, hospitals have been overwhelmed since the Israeli air force intensified its bombardment on Friday, BBC Arabic's Adnan El-Bursh reports from the city
• In northern Gaza, witnesses spoke about Israeli tanks surrounding the Jabalia refugee camp
• Israel said it had agreed to allow a "minimal" supplement of fuel into Gaza "to prevent a humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of epidemics" in southern Gaza
• Republican members of the US Senate blocked billions of dollars in new security assistance for Israel and Ukraine

Wednesday also brought a rare bit of good news for some of the most vulnerable people caught up in this conflict - premature newborn babies. A Reuters photographer visited the New Administrative Capital Hospital in the Egyptian capital Cairo where this tiny Palestinian evacuated from Gaza was receiving treatment.

Image source, Reuters

Germany wants the EU to consider sanctions on Israeli extremists responsible for violence in the occupied West Bank, a foreign ministry spokesman says.

It comes after the US this week announced a visa ban on those responsible for the rise in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank since 7 October.

Sebastian Fischer said Berlin welcomed the fact that the US “will now take concrete measures in the form of entry restrictions”.

It was "important to drive this debate forward at European level too”, he said adding that Germany is contributing to discussions on the topic ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.

Image source, EPA

The US has discussed with Israel its timeline for military operations in Gaza, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan says.

Speaking to Reuters news agency during a telephone interview, he said: “We have talked to them about timetables."

He said he did not want to share further information regarding the timetable, but added: "I will just say that we’ve talked through with [Israel] what they’re thinking in terms of the duration and how this falls into a longer-term strategy for addressing this issue that goes beyond just military means."

Israel has not publicly commented on what was discussed with Washington.

Legislation to provide billions of dollars in new security assistance for Israel and Ukraine has been blocked by Republican members of the US Senate.

They're insisting on more funding for tougher immigration control at the US border with Mexico before any other foreign assistance is given.

This marks a significant defeat for President Joe Biden, who'd made an impassioned appeal to Republican congressmen to approve the additional package.

Sixty votes were needed to start debate on the multi-billion dollar aid bill.

The voting went along party lines, with every Senate Republican voting no. Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who generally votes with Democrats, also voted No. He has expressed concerns about funding Israel's "current inhumane military strategy" against the Palestinians.

Full story.

The producers of the Israeli Nova music festival have created an exhibition in Tel Aviv to remember the more than 360 people who were killed when Hamas gunmen attacked the festival on 7 October. Forty others were taken hostage.

According to Reuteres news agency, organisers have used original equipment from the festival, which took place in southern Israel, to reconstruct it.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

A little earlier, we heard from Lynn Hastings, the UN's regional humanitarian chief, who said the situation in Gaza is "probably one of the most serious" because "people are actually trapped".

She told the BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen: "There is nowhere to go for anybody inside Gaza – they can’t get out through Egypt or Israel. They are literally being chased from corner to corner by the Israelis."

Asked whether enough international pressure was being brought to bear on resolving the crisis, she said the UN, member states and the Israeli government all have obligations.

Referencing allegations that the UN isn’t doing enough, Hastings said it’s up to the Israeli government "to let us do enough, and right now the conditions inside Gaza are not permitting us to do our job and deliver humanitarian assistance".

"But member states also have obligations. There’s the security council, everyone has to think about what they can do, which levers they can pull to make sure that we get a ceasefire, the hostages are released and we get a solution," she added.

Israel's Security Cabinet has agreed to allow a "minimal" supplement of fuel into Gaza "to prevent a humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of epidemics" in the territory's south.

In a statement, the Israeli prime minister's office says the amount of fuel will be decided on by the cabinet, based on the humanitarian situation in the Strip.

Adnan El-Bursh
BBC Arabic, in Khan Younis, Gaza

Young men in jeans and flip-flops stand in line in front of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, as if they are watching a funeral procession.

It's another night in the tense gloom outside the accident and emergency department.

Medical personnel in scrubs are poised to receive more casualties. Voices are raised and men crowd around.

Public order is starting to break down - people are traumatised and exhausted.

A car pulls up, its horn blaring and lights flashing. A young man is pulled out and put onto a stretcher, then rushed inside.

Then another car arrives, covered in dust, and a child who is only four or five is helped out. He is able to walk.

Hospitals in Khan Younis - the Gaza Strip's second largest city - have been overwhelmed since the Israeli air force intensified its bombardment of the south on Friday.

Israeli tanks and troops have also now entered the city, after the ground offensive was widened following the collapse of a temporary truce with Hamas.

Read the full story from Adnan here

Some 800,000 residents in northern Gaza are now without any access to health services, Dr Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry, has said.

He added that the Israeli military had “eliminated a medical presence in northern Gaza”.

The BBC cannot independently verify these claims.

Image source, EPA

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan has reacted angrily to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, and reiterated calls for him to resign.

"Today, the secretary-general has reached a new moral low," he said.

He added that the call for a ceasefire was "actually a call to keep Hamas' reign of terror in Gaza".

"The distorted positions of the secretary general only prolong the fighting in Gaza, because they give hope to the Hamas terrorists that the war will be stopped and they will be able to survive," he said.

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Image source, Reuters

Tensions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank have been high since the Hamas attacks on 7 October, amid raids by the Israeli military that have resulted in hundreds of arrests and deadly attacks carried out by extremist settlers on Palestinian civilians.

Today, an Israeli settler was put on administrative detention, the Israeli defence ministry said, the third such order against a settler suspected of posing a threat to national or public security since the October attacks.

The man, who has not been formally identified, will be held for four months.

The US, Israel’s main ally, has repeatedly warned Israeli authorities that they must act to stop violence by settlers.

A day earlier, the Biden administration started imposing visa bans on dozens of individuals involved in violence in the West Bank and their families, a state department spokesman said.

The policy will also deny visas to Palestinians who have committed violent acts against Israelis.

Violence from settlers against Palestinians was already at a high level before the Hamas attacks, and has since worsened dramatically.

Palestinians say the settlers are better armed and more aggressive, and accuse the Israeli authorities of letting them act with impunity.

The international community considers all Israeli settlements as illegal under international law – though this is disputed by Israel – and their existence, and continuing expansion, is one of the key obstacles in the creation of a future Palestinian state.