Image source, Getty Images

We're pausing our live coverage of developments in the Middle East now. But before we do, here are some of the main updates from today:

• The UN has warned that half of the population in the Gaza Strip is starving. A World Food Programme official also said nine out of 10 people in the Palestinian territory could not eat every day, as a result of the Israeli siege. Israel said it was doing everything it could to get more aid in
• The director of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis told the BBC that his team had “lost control” in the face of a high numbers of dead and injured arriving. Khan Younis - the largest city in southern Gaza - is surrounded on two fronts by Israeli tanks, which have been moving towards one of its main streets. Israel says it's fighting house to house in the city
• Israel accused Hamas of using a UN-run school and a mosque in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza to fire at its forces; a claim that the UN said it couldn't verify due to constant bombing in the area
• The death of another Israeli hostage – Sahar Baruch, 25 – has been confirmed by his kibbutz and a hostages’ group. It comes a day after Hamas released a video claiming to show the aftermath of a failed Israeli rescue operation in Gaza
• Hamas attacked Israel nine weeks ago to the day - killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages, some of whom were released during a short-lived truce
• The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza today gave an update to its own toll - saying Israel had killed more than 17,700 people in its retaliatory campaign, including more than 7,000 children

Head here for our new report detailing more of Saturday's headlines. And for analysis by our international editor Jeremy Bowen on a "messy and dangerous" future for Gaza - here's where to go next.

Image source, Hostages and Missing Families Forum

The UN agency which supports Palestinian refugees has insisted it has a "scrutiny and screening process for all its staff" and that it shares employee lists with the host governments of the countries it works in.

Juliette Touma, UNRWA's director of communications, gave a statement to the BBC in response to claims made by Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Regev was discussing footage - verified by the BBC - which showed a group of men in Gaza stripped to their underwear, kneeling on the ground and being guarded by Israeli soldiers.

He said it was possible that some of the men shown were UN workers - but that did not "automatically" mean they were not also Hamas members.

Touma also said UNRWA shared with Israel its staff lists for Gaza and the occupied West Bank - adding that even though the lists were sent once a year, the agency has never received a response.

In the last few hours, there's been more reaction to a move on Friday by the US to veto a resolution at the UN Security Council, which called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

• The leader of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas alleged that the move made the US complicit in what he called war crimes. (The PA governs areas of the West Bank not under Israeli control, and is separate to the Hamas government which operates in Gaza)
• Iran condemned the US for its support of Israel, and warned of an "uncontrollable explosion" of the situation in the Middle East
• A group of Arab nations who earlier met America’s top diplomat called on the US to pressurise Israel into a ceasefire, stressing the importance of international humanitarian law
• But Israel has praised the US; an earlier statement from the foreign minister echoed the American view that the ceasefire would have helped Hamas stay in power in Gaza
• The UK also echoed the US on Friday - saying it could not vote in favour of a resolution that does not condemn "the atrocities Hamas committed"

Some new figures to bring you, which have just been released by the Hamas-run health ministry.

Officials there say the Gaza death toll has risen to 17,700 since 7 October.

Image source, Getty Images

BBC Arabic has been speaking with people in Gaza who have been displaced by the fighting.

They include Khaled, who says he has been forced to move at least six times since the war began. “There is not a single place that is safe,” he explains, adding that there is no water or food available, or gas for cooking.

Even those with money cannot use it, he says, because of the lack of availability of every day items.

“Those who don’t die from the war are doomed to die from the inexistence of life’s essentials. The situation is catastrophic,” he says.

Another man says he has been displaced four times, and was among those forced to leave northern Gaza near the start of the war.

He is now staying at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, where he says people are suffering from starvation.

“The prices here are very high and the people don’t even have the money to buy anything,” he says.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is doing “everything we can” to get aid into the Gaza Strip, a spokesperson says, while defending the actions of troops in the territory.

“We’re opening up more crossings, [letting in] more trucks, to move them into the Gaza Strip,” IDF spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht earlier told the BBC.

He explained that all trucks entering the enclave needed to be checked for security purposes.

Humanitarian assistance is desperately needed in Gaza, aid agencies warn, after Israel shut its border crossings after 7 October, preventing the usual supplies of food, water, fuel and medicine from entering.

Some aid has entered through the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border, but this has not been enough. Israel has agreed to open the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza in the coming days.

Asked about the IDF’s actions in Gaza - where officials from the Hamas-run health ministry say more than 17,400 people have been killed - Lt Col Hecht said the IDF was "doing everything we can to get civilians out of harm's way".

A senior UN aid official has given an updated indication as to how bad the food and aid issues are in Gaza.

Deputy director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) Carl Skau warns that nine out of 10 people in the Palestinian territory can’t eat every day - and that half the population is starving.

In an interview with Reuters, he says nothing had prepared him for the fear, chaos and despair he encountered on visiting Gaza.

As intense fighting continues across the territory, Skau insists only a fraction of the food supplies needed are coming in.

He adds that conditions on the ground are making deliveries almost impossible.

We've now updated this list article to reflect today's confirmation that Israeli hostage Sahar Baruch, 25, has been killed in Gaza - as stated by his kibbutz and a hostages' group.

Baruch is the latest confirmed Israeli death after the Hamas attacks nine weeks ago to the day, which also killed Sahar's brother Idan. Earlier this week, Israel calculated that 130 people were still missing.

Image source, Family handouts

Image source, Reuters

Here in the UK, thousands of pro-Palestinian protests calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war have marched through the streets of central London.

Police said as the march formed up, officers identified a man with a placard making comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany.

"He has been arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence," officers said in a social media post.

A second arrest was made for an offensive placard as the as the march reached Parliament Square.

Among other places, rallies have also been held at the COP28 climate change summit in Dubai:

Image source, Reuters

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem

People in Gaza have been giving us their reactions to the US blocking a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Some residents told us they were not surprised by the outcome of Friday night's vote, as they had expected the US to use its veto powers.

“This war won’t stop until the US says so,” one woman said.

Another resident, Alaa al-Saqa, said he felt like people in Gaza were viewed only as “numbers and breaking news”. He described the US’s move to block the resolution as a “farce”.

Image source, Rafat abu Danhe

Rafat abu Danhe said he had “a lot of hope” that the resolution would go through and was “very upset” that it didn’t. “We have only Allah standing with us,” he said. “We are telling all nations - Western and Arab - that we need a ceasefire, because we are living in a tragedy right now.”

As we’ve been reporting, the UK abstained in the vote, while the 13 other countries in the 15-member Security Council voted in favour of the resolution.

The US has defended its position, calling the resolution "imbalanced" and "divorced from reality".

Meanwhile, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, has thanked the US for blocking the resolution, which he said would “enable Hamas’ terrorists to stay in power in Gaza and does not condemn Hamas or call for the release of the hostages”.

Image source, Getty Images

The United Nations says the new system for inspecting aid for Gaza at the Kerem Shalom crossing is being tested.

Earlier this week, Israel said the crossing would be opened - but only for the inspection of aid lorries entering Gaza. Until now, aid trucks have been inspected at Nitzana - 25 miles (40km) south along the Egyptian-Israeli border - before travelling to Gaza via the Rafah crossing.

Under the new system, aid will still enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing - but the UN's World Food Programme says relief also needs to enter via Kerem Shalom to alleviate the desperate situation in Gaza.

The UN says there's enough food available in Egypt and Jordan to reach one million people in Gaza in a month.

Earlier this week, the UN's humanitarian coordinator warned there was "no longer any humanitarian operation worthy of the name in southern Gaza."

Image source, Getty Images

Israel’s army has accused Hamas of using “civilian infrastructure” to launch its operations. It said the group had used an UNRWA school and a mosque in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza to fire at its forces.

Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s director of communications, told the BBC she could not verify the claims because the area around it was “constantly bombed”, but reiterated that schools should be “protected at all times” and should “never be used for military or fighting purposes”.

Image source, Getty Images

Let's revisit some of the main headlines of the last few hours:

1. Medics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis say they are overwhelmed as fighting continues in the city in southern Gaza. The hospital boss told the BBC his team had "lost control" as hundreds of dead and wounded people reached the facility
2. Khan Younis is surrounded on two fronts by Israeli tanks; the Israeli military says it's fighting house to house and "shaft to shaft" - a reference to tunnels allegedly used by its enemy, Hamas
3. The death of an Israeli hostage in Gaza has been confirmed by his kibbutz and a hostages' group, following reports of a failed Israeli rescue mission. The statement did not mention the cause of Sahar Baruch's death, but said campaigners would demand the return of his body
4. The Israeli military has confirmed ground fighting with Hamas has continued in multiple areas of northern Gaza, and that it's targeted Hezbollah targets in neighbouring Lebanon
5. Reaction continues to Friday's veto by the US of a resolution at the UN Security Council that called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The UK abstained in the vote

Image source, Hostages and Missing Families Forum

Dr Ahmed Moghrabi is the head of the plastic surgery and burns unit at Nasser Hospital, which Rushdi mentioned in his post below.

He spoke to the BBC after finishing work late on Friday night and fought back tears as he described the toll of the last few weeks on him and his family. "Yesterday I spoke with my wife (about) if we could just flee and leave all this behind us... Because I couldn't stand more."

He went on: "My wife, my children, they don't want to stay here because of these sounds of executions.

"I have a daughter, three years old. She always asks me (for) some sweets, some apples, some fruits. I can't provide. I feel helpless."

Only a few days ago on Wednesday, Dr Moghrabi spoke of a desperate situation - you can remind yourself of that interview below.

Rushdi Abu Alouf
Reporting from Istanbul

I have just heard from the director of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Nahed Abu Taima.

He told me: "We lost control in the face of the large number of injured people arriving at the hospital.

"Hundreds of wounded and martyrs arrive at the emergency department.

"With the continued Israeli bombing of several areas in Khan Younis, we are forced to treat the injured on the ground and in the corridors of the departments in light of the lack of medical supplies."

Jeremy Bowen
International editor

At the end of the war that started on 7 October lies a big, unknown place called the future. The old status quo was dangerous and painful, especially for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation – but it was familiar.

Then, after 7 October, it was smashed by the Hamas attacks, and Israel’s response.

For more than a century, Jews and Arabs have been confronting each other - and sometimes going to war - over the small, highly coveted piece of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea.

Perhaps the safest, saddest bet is to assume that the conflict, reshaped, will go on. After all, that is what happened after every other Middle East war since 1948, when Israel won its independence.

But there are other options. Head to this piece to read what key figures, including Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden and others, want to happen once the war is over.

As we just reported, the confirmation of Sahar Baruch's death comes a day after a video was released which was claimed by Hamas to show aftermath of a failed Israeli rescue operation.

The footage - which has not been verified by the BBC - appeared to show a man speaking several weeks ago. Blood was seen on the floor - as well as military equipment, which Hamas claimed to have captured.

The video ended with gruesome images of a bloodied body, which appeared to be of the same hostage.

Israel said two of its soldiers were seriously injured in an attempt to rescue one of the hostages still being held in Gaza. A military spokesman said no hostage had been found but that a number of Hamas gunmen had been killed.

It was not clear if he was talking about the same incident described in the Hamas video, and the statement announcing Baruch’s death did not specify details.

Image source, Hostages and Missing Families Forum

One of the Israelis being held hostage in the Gaza Strip, Sahar Baruch, 25, has been killed in the territory, his kibbutz and families of hostages said in a statement.

“We will demand the return of his body as part of any hostages release deal. We won’t stop until everyone is home,” the statement said.

It comes after Hamas’s armed wing released a video on Friday which it said showed the bloody aftermath of a failed Israeli operation to free a hostage.

Rushdi Abu Alouf
Reporting from Istanbul

Image source, Getty Images

The second key area of the Israeli operation is the south, and Khan Younis.

This morning, about 50 people were killed in the middle and the south of the Gaza Strip. The health ministry, run by Hamas, says it can’t count the number of people killed in the north.

Khan Younis is surrounded by Israeli tanks from eastern and northern sides. The tanks are slowly moving towards the Jalal Street, which is one of the main streets that lead to the heart of the city.

And now most of the people who were displaced back on 13 October - from the north to Khan Younis - have to leave again to Rafah.

People keep talking to me about a map issued by the Israelis, giving warnings to civilians to move. They say they can’t understand the mechanism of this and where they should go.

• Gaza humanitarian zone not humane, evacuees say

Rushdi Abu Alouf
Reporting from Istanbul

Image source, EPA

The humanitarian situation in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza is extremely dire. For the last five days, tanks have surrounded the area from all directions. Thousands of people still remain inside the camp.

I received text messages this morning from a resident who was displaced and who moved to Jabalia. He said they had been without food and without water for the last five days.

Dozens of similar messages reached some local radio stations that operate in the southern Gaza Strip about the continuation of the Israeli raids on the Jabalia camp.

Islam Badr, an activist in the Jabalia camp, sent a voice message, saying: “It’s 08:00 on Saturday morning. The Israeli artillery continues its bombardment of the Jabalia camp.”

We understand none of the aid allowed into Gaza has reached northern Gaza and Gaza City since the ceasefire.