According to some US media reports, White House officials have suggested Israel could finish its large-scale military operations in southern Gaza by January and then move to more targeted attacks on Hamas.

Citing multiple senior administration officials, CNN, external says there is concern from White House officials over how the IDF's offensive will pan out in the coming weeks, adding that the officials have warned Israel to limit damage and civilian casualties.

But a senior official quoted in the report says they aren’t comfortable using the word “receptive” to describe Israel’s response to US advice.

“We are in a high-intensity operation in the coming weeks, then probably moving to a low-intensity mode,” an Israeli official told CNN.

There appears to be no let up in the fighting in southern Gaza as Israeli forces continue to warn residents about their operations targeting Hamas south of the Strip - especially in the Khan Younis area where Israel says it believes Hamas leaders are hiding.

Khan Younis was the focus of fierce fighting yesterday and "urgent instructions" given to civilians , externaltoday suggest that will continue, according to IDF spokesman for the Arabic media, Avichay Adraee.

The IDF has said it will not allow civilians to use the Salah al-Din road - the main road crossing the length of Gaza used as an evacuation route from northern Gaza.

The road is a "battlefield" and "extremely dangerous" to reach, Adraee posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Despite the warnings, mass casualties have meant the main hospital in southern Gaza has become overwhelmed - medics say wards are desperately overcrowded with patients stretched out on bloodstained floors.

The scale of the fighting means 600,000 people are under evacuation orders in southern Gaza, according to the UN.

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor, Khirbet Zanuta

Image source, OREN ROSENFELD

A few nights ago, the school in Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian village in the hills south of Hebron, was destroyed along with most of the houses, by a bulldozer.

Its tracks lay fresh and undisturbed in the sand when we arrived. The village was empty as its population of about 200 Palestinians left around a month ago, after sustained pressure and threats from Jewish settlers who live in nearby outposts that are illegal under both Israeli and international law.

In three days of travelling through the area, Palestinians consistently told me that since the war in Gaza started on 7 October, Jewish settlers here are better armed and much more aggressive.

Violent attacks, including fatal shootings of Palestinians by armed Jewish settlers in the West Bank have risen sharply.

Read more here.

Rushdi Abu Alouf
Reporting from Istanbul

Image source, Reuters

As the war enters its third month, Israeli tanks are advancing to Khan Younis’s city centre, the hometown of Hamas military wing general commander Mohammed Dief, and the movement leader Yahya Sinwar, who Israel believes is the mastermind of October 7 attack.

Fighting in the north is focusing on another Hamas stronghold, Jabalia, and the neighbourhoods of Gaza City, Zaytoun, Shejaiya, Al-Daraj, and Al-Tuffah.

The war has entered the most important and complex stage, as tanks approach the three most important Hamas strongholds (Khan Younis, Jabalia, and Shuja’iya).

Many believe that Hamas has more military strength there and will be more able to confront the Israeli troops in their strongholds.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians are still living in those areas, and the possibility of more civilian casualties is very high.

The humanitarian situation is a catastrophe. Most basic goods are not available and most water consumed is not drinking water.

Neven Hassan, a mother of five, told me: “We eat one meal a day - mostly a small piece of bread and canned beans.

"I can’t find milk for my six-month-old baby, all my daughters and my son are sick, they drink unclean water and we can’t find any blankets to cope with the cold weather."

She said the sharp drop in temperatures makes it harder, as the majority of the population lives in primitive tents and does not have suitable clothing or adequate shelter.

Image source, Getty Images

Israel's foreign minister Eli Cohen has said the residence visa of Lynn Hastings - the United Nations' humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories - will be revoked over what Cohen said was her refusal to speak out against Hamas.

Accusing the UN of "bias", Cohen wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter: "Someone who did not condemn Hamas for the brutal massacre of 1,200 Israelis, for the kidnapping of babies and the elderly and for the horrific acts of abuse and rape, and for using the residents of Gaza as human shields, but instead condemns Israel, a democratic country that protects its citizens, cannot serve in the UN and cannot enter Israel!"

Israel has consistently criticised the United Nations for its response to attacks on 7 October carried out by Hamas.

Hastings has been a vocal critic of Israel’s offensive in Gaza and has led appeals for increased humanitarian aid in Gaza.

On Monday, a statement by Hastings read: "The conditions required to deliver aid to the people of Gaza do not exist. If possible, an even more hellish scenario is about to unfold, one in which humanitarian operations may not be able to respond."

She said a lack of clean drinking water, sanitation and poor nutrition for people is a "textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster".

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent in Jerusalem

Israeli forces say they're now "in the heart" of the southern city of Khan Younis, where it’s thought Hamas leaders could be hiding.

They say they’re also engaged in intense firefights in the north of the territory and there’s been continuing fierce bombardment including of areas where Palestinians have been told to seek safety.

The UN says that more than 80% of people in Gaza have now been driven from their homes and that fighting is preventing aid from being distributed outside a small corner of the territory.

With American officials starting to voice disquiet about the human cost of the war, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said last night, the only way to finish it quickly was to use crushing force against Hamas.

Earlier, his war cabinet also came under attack at a meeting with families of the remaining 138 hostages in Gaza. There were angry outbursts from some relatives who believe there’s no immediate plan to rescue their loved ones.

Image source, Reuters

Yesterday evening, the head of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that over 600,000 people are under evacuation orders in southern Gaza. "Nearly half of them were already forced to leave their homes previously," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

He also warned that, for Gazans, "there is nowhere to go as shelters, including UNRWA, are beyond & over their capacity."

We've been hearing from Israeli authorities about their efforts to get citizens to move out of the most intense fighting areas in Gaza, including the city of Khan Younis in the south.

"We are dropping leaflets with QR codes that opens a map guiding Gazans to safer areas," IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari has said.

The IDF has urged civilians to move to Rafah near the Egyptian border, or to al-Mawasi, a thin strip of territory along the Mediterranean coast.

But Palestinians in the affected areas have spoken of trouble accessing the online map, and UN officials have called the idea of any "safe zone" a "dangerous false narrative".

"These are tiny patches of barren land. They have no water, no facilities, no shelter from the cold, no sanitation," Unicef spokesman James Elder told the BBC on Tuesday, in an apparent reference to al-Mawasi.

More on that story here.

Israel is being urged by the international community - including close ally the US - to do more to limit civilian casualties.

Hamas officials say at least 16,248 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the conflict, about three quarters of them women and children.

Defending Israel's war strategy, former PM Naftali Bennett has told the BBC that Israel has been showing restraint in Gaza.

"If we wanted to harm civilians, we could have won the whole war in one day on October 8th," he said.

"We could have indiscriminately bombed Gaza."

"It could have been the easiest thing in the world... [but] we're not doing that."

You watch more of his interview below.

Lucy Williamson
Middle East correspondent, Jerusalem

Image source, BBC/Dave Bull

The BBC has seen and heard evidence of rape, sexual violence and mutilation of women during the 7 October Hamas attacks.

Several people involved in collecting and identifying the bodies of those killed in the attack told us they had seen multiple signs of sexual assault, including broken pelvises, bruises, cuts and tears, and that the victims ranged from children and teenagers to pensioners.

Video testimony of an eyewitness at the Nova music festival, shown to journalists by Israeli police, detailed the gang rape, mutilation and execution of one victim.

Videos of naked and bloodied women filmed by Hamas on the day of the attack, and photographs of bodies taken at the sites afterwards, suggest that women were sexually targeted by their attackers.

Few victims are thought to have survived to tell their own stories.

You can read the full story here.

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent, reporting from Jerusalem

Image source, EPA

Israeli leaders say the battle for the southern Gaza Strip is well under way.

In a news conference last night, the Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, said what had already happened to Gaza City was now happening in Khan Younis.

With US officials starting to voice disquiet about Israel’s tactics, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had words for those he said were trying to pressure Israel: the only way to finish the job quickly was to use crushing force against Hamas. That approach is once again killing large numbers of civilians and sending others fleeing for safety.

In a meeting earlier with recently released hostages and the families of those still being held by Hamas, the prime minister found himself under attack.

In a leaked recording of the meeting, one former hostage, who hasn’t been identified, accused Netanyahu of putting politics above the safe return of the remaining 138 hostages. Her outburst was greeted with applause.

A five-year-old Israeli girl has returned to school after being held hostage with her mother Daniele.

Daniele and Emilia were kidnapped on 7 October during a visit to stay with family in Kibbutz Nir Oz. They were two of 23 Israeli hostages released on 24 November.

In footage posted by Israel's ministry of education, she could be seen walking through the gates of her nursery before being surrounded by friends welcoming her and telling her they'd missed her.

Israeli settlers who attack Palestinians in the West Bank will face targeted action against them according to the top US diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The US has announced a visa ban on Israeli extremists responsible for violence in the territory but added that the ban would also apply to Palestinians accused of violence.

The ban will affect "dozens" of extremist Israelis and some of their family members said state department spokesman Matthew Miller, who added that US law forbade the naming of any individuals.

Attacks have surged in the West Bank since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by Hamas's assault on southern Israel on 7 October. In recent weeks Palestinians speaking to the BBC accused settlers of using the war in Gaza as an opportunity to seize land.

More than 700,000 Jewish people live in more than 250 settlements built since Israel's occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. The vast majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, though Israel and the US dispute this interpretation.

Full story.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has challenged the international community to speak out against the sexual assaults, rapes and mutilations alleged to have taken place on 7 October during the attacks by Hamas on Israel.

Addressing the nation, he said he expected all "civilised leaders, governments, nations to speak up against this atrocity".

“I say to the women's rights organisations, to the human rights organisations: you've heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation - where the hell are you?" he said.

The BBC has seen and heard evidence of rape, sexual violence and mutilation of women during the 7 October Hamas attacks.

Image source, Reuters

The resumption of fighting in Gaza has intensified the hunger crisis in Gaza, a UN aid agency said, as it called for a humanitarian ceasefire.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said it reached about 250,000 people during the seven-day pause in fighting that ended on Friday.

But it says the distribution of aid is now "almost impossible" and the continuation of the conflict "endangers the lives of humanitarian workers".

The WFP stressed that humanitarian workers "safe, unimpeded, and sustained access" to Gaza so it can "distribute life-saving assistance throughout the territory".

"WFP calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and urges all leaders to work with the utmost urgency to find political solutions that can end the suffering of families on all sides of this harrowing conflict," it said in a statement.

Jay Savage
Live editor

It’s just gone 06:00 in Israel and Gaza, and 15:00 here in Sydney, after what Israeli forces called the "most intense day" of fighting since their ground operation started in late October. In the latest developments:

• The Israeli military says it has reached “the heart of Khan Younis” after bombarding the Gaza Strip’s second biggest city
• IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari described it as the "Hamas stronghold" in the south and said Israeli forces were “determined to eliminate the terrorists and damage the infrastructure, as we did in the north”
• The UN says the resumption of fighting has intensified a food crisis, and warns "no place is safe in Gaza"
• Meanwhile, the BBC has seen evidence of rape, sexual violence and mutilation of women during the 7 October Hamas attacks
• Israel says that 138 hostages are still being held but "there is no possibility right now of bringing everyone home", according to PM Benjamin Netanyahu
• The Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October killed 1,200 people, with around 240 others initially taken hostage
• Hamas's media office says at least 16,248 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, including more than 7,000 children and nearly 5,000 women

Stay with us for live updates and analysis. You can read more of our earlier coverage here.