We've been hearing a lot about intense fighting that's been taking place in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis over the last few days.

At the start of the war, Palestinians were told to flee there due to the heavy bombardment in north Gaza. But now, people are fleeing from Khan Younis to Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

Here at the latest pictures to reach us from Khan Younis, after Israeli strikes destroyed several buildings.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent in Jerusalem

In one of the strongest comments by a US official about the Israeli tactics in Gaza so far, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said a “gap” remained between the intention of protecting civilians and what is actually happening on the ground. Pressure is mounting from Israel’s main ally, the US, to do more to protect Gaza’s population.

As the Israeli military advances in southern Gaza, the number of Palestinians being killed is rising fast, hospitals are overwhelmed and unable to treat everyone, while tens of thousands of people are on the move, many not for the first time.

The Israeli authorities say they have taken measures to protect the population, including by publishing information online of areas to be evacuated and where to go. Aid groups say this is a system that does not work while residents say nowhere is safe, a view shared by UN officials and rejected by Israel.

As the fighting continues, the humanitarian crisis is worsening, with widespread shortages of food, water and medicine amid limited deliveries of aid.

Blinken’s comments follows several high-profile interventions in recent days about the civilian toll of Israel’s war against Hamas. A dramatic warning came from Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defence, last weekend: Israel risked driving Gaza’s population into the arms of the enemy, turning a tactical victory into a strategic defeat.

Oliver Slow
BBC Live Reporter

I’ve just been speaking with Greg Crowther, from Mines Advisory Group (MAG), who says there will be “thousands and thousands of unexploded items” in the Gaza Strip.

Apart from the week-long ceasefire that ended last week, Israel has been bombing Gaza almost constantly since the war began in early October, as part of its efforts to wipe out Hamas. It accuses the group of hiding among civilians.

“Under such bombardment and ground fighting in such heavily populated areas, it’s impossible not to be indiscriminate, impossible not to create disproportionate human casualties,” Crowther says.

He says that MAG was active in Gaza for two years after the 2008-09 war, when it cleared more than 1,000 items of unexploded ordnance.

“Then you look at the scale of this conflict, and you are looking at a massive amount of contamination,” he says. “We know from experience that a huge percentage [of bombs] don’t explode.”

“There will be thousands and thousands of unexploded items.”

Israel has said it plans to rebuild Gaza once Hamas is defeated, but the large presence of unexploded bombs will be a hindrance to that.

Image source, EPA

It’s just turned 12:20 in Israel and Gaza, and 10:20 here in our London newsroom. For those of you just joining us, here’s a look at the headlines:

• US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has pressed Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza, saying there was a “gap” between its promises and the reality on the ground
• Fighting is continuing in the southern city of Khan Younis – where, at the start of the war, Palestinians in north Gaza were told to flee due to heavy bombardment there
• Fires have broken out in the Jabalia refugee camp, where Israeli tanks have been firing smoke and fire bombs, a local journalist told the BBC
• Hamas says an Israeli soldier who'd been held hostage in Gaza has been killed in a clash between its fighters and Israeli special forces who were conducting a rescue operation. The BBC is not able to verify this independently
• The Palestinian health ministry says Israeli forces shot dead six Palestinians on Friday at al-Fara camp in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank
• Looking ahead, the UN Security Council is set to meet on Friday to vote on whether to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza
• It comes after the UN’s humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said its humanitarian programme in Gaza is "no longer a functioning one”

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent in Jerusalem

Funerals are expected to take place shortly for six Palestinians killed in an Israeli raid of al-Fara refugee camp near Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military has not yet responded to requests for comments.

Witnesses in the camp said that Israeli special undercover forces entered the camp in the early hours of this morning.

One man said that his relative had been shot dead after opening a door to see what was happening.

A small local armed group operates from the camp.

According to the Palestinian Authority, 263 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank since the war in Gaza began.

That exceeds the entire death toll of Palestinians killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict last year.

Caroline Hawley
Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, AFP

Yael Noy doesn't wear military fatigues, but she describes herself as being in battle right now.

"I'm fighting to stay moral when both sides are in such terrible pain. I'm fighting to be the same person I was before," says Yael, who heads a charity called Road to Recovery.

The group of Israeli volunteers drive sick Palestinians - mostly children - from checkpoints in the occupied West Bank and Gaza to hospital appointments in Israel. They can no longer take patients from Gaza due to the ongoing war.

Yael says she was so shaken after Hamas's assault on 7 October that she could barely breathe.

Her parents are from one of the southern kibbutz communities which was attacked - they cowered, hour after terrifying hour. They are now displaced.

"Something was broken in my heart and I said that I would never talk to people in Gaza again," she tells me.

But after a few days, she decided that she couldn't allow the atrocities to change her.

Yael and most of the Road to Recovery volunteers have continued to drive Palestinians from the West Bank to hospitals in Israel their appointments. As soon as she can, she says she'll go and help patients from Gaza again.

Read Yael's story here.

The son of Israel's former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, who is currently a minister in the country's war cabinet, has been killed in Gaza.

Israel's military says 25-year-old Major Gal Eisenkot died in northern Gaza on Thursday.

He was badly injured after a tunnel shaft exploded and later died in hospital, Israeli media said.

Here's more on Maj Gal's death.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images

Israeli forces shot dead six Palestinians on Friday at a refugee camp in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry says.

It claims they were killed at al-Fara camp near Tubas.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa, external says several other people were also injured.

There has been an increase in violence in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began on 7 October.

The Israeli military spokesperson's office said it was checking the report.

Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, says in a statement on social media that it thwarted an early morning attempt by the Israeli military to release one of the hostages held in Gaza.

According to Hamas, the Israeli hostage was killed in the fighting.

They say Israeli aircraft carried out a bombing raid as part of the attack. Israel's military have not commented on the claims.

Rushdi Abu Alouf
Reporting from Istanbul

The Israeli army has continued to bomb Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip, as Israeli tanks advance towards the centre of the camp.

Local journalist Hossam Shabat, who reports on the north of Gaza, said in a recorded message shared on social media:

“We are surrounded by tanks that are firing smoke and fire bombs at a shelter on Abu Zaitoun Street in the Jabalia camp, which is home to 15,000 displaced people.

“For more than three hours, the violent bombardment has not stopped, and ambulances cannot get here: All hospitals in northern Gaza are out of service.

“Fires broke out in many buildings in the camp, terrifying thousands of displaced people who fled their homes to seek shelter in UN schools.”

The cost of food in Gaza has left many unable to afford groceries.

Vegetables and basic foodstuffs have risen in price with some items seeing a tenfold increase or more.

At a market in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, one man said he had to pay 500 shekels ($135, £107) for a sack of flour.

Image source, .

As we've been reporting, Israel says that it will open the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the next few days to allow aid into Gaza. It has been closed since the 7 October Hamas attacks.

The Kerem Shalom crossing is located southeast of Rafah, and is solely a commercial goods junction between Israel and southern Gaza.

It was first closed by Israel along with the Erez crossing in north Gaza soon after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October.

Israel has now agreed to open it to screen goods being taken into Gaza from Egypt.

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Before Israel launched its southern offensive a week ago, US officials told Israel it must limit the toll on civilians – saying too many Palestinians were killed in its operations against Hamas in northern Gaza.

Last night, after meeting the UK's Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his strongest public criticism yet of Israel’s handling of this stage of the war.

"It remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection,” he said.

Israel insists it’s taking steps to minimise harm to civilians. But in recent days, hundreds have been killed, including in areas where people were previously told to seek safety.

In a development that should help smooth the way for more aid to reach those running desperately low on basic supplies, Israel has also agreed to open its Kerem Shalom crossing to screen goods being taken into Gaza from Egypt.

Washington has been pressing for the move.

There is a "gap" between Israel's intent to protect civilians and how the war has been unfolding in Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

"It is imperative – it remains imperative – that Israel put a premium on civilian protection, and there does remain a gap, external between exactly what I said when I was there, the intent to protect civilians, and the actual results that we’re seeing on the ground," Blinken said, at a joint press conference with UK foreign secretary David Cameron in Washington DC on Thursday.

Blinken has made four trips to the region since the war broke out on 7 October.

The US has been talking with Israel about implementing "daily pauses" in fighting and letting the Gazans know where they can go to move out of harm's way.

"Israel has an obligation to do everything possible to put a premium on protecting civilians and maximizing humanitarian assistance," he said.

Image source, EPA

Soldiers in southern Israel marked the first night of Hanukkah with music, doughnuts, and the lighting of candles.

The holiday, also known as the Jewish Festival of Lights, runs from 7 to 15 December this year.

Hanukkah dates back two centuries before the beginning of Christianity.

Their celebration on Thursday night comes exactly two months after the Hamas's attack on Israel.

Image source, Getty Images

The UN's humanitarian programme in Gaza is "no longer a functioning one", UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said.

"There is no exit for the people of Gaza. As a result, hope for the future is, at its best, at a premium," he said.

The notion that there is no place of safety in Gaza relates also to humanitarian operations, Griffiths said.

"[This] means that if you’re planning a humanitarian delivery in Gaza today, you must plan for the likelihood that it will be interrupted, that it may be attacked, that it may be looted, that it may be stopped, it may be diverted, that it may not succeed," he said.

Earlier we heard that Israel has agreed, at the US' request, to open the Kerem Shalom border crossing for the screening and inspection of the humanitarian aid delivered into Gaza via Rafah, another crossing.

Calling for an immediate ceasefire, Griffiths said the destruction of Gaza's health system also means that diseases among the people will only become more widespread.

"There are two horsemen of the apocalypse in Gaza today – conflict, of course, but also disease. And that will only get worse, as we are unable to sustain any supplies to hospitals, any safe water desalination and so on and so forth.

"[The signs] are going in the wrong direction, all of them," he said.

The UN Security Council is set to meet on Friday to vote on whether to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The United Arab Emirates has prepared a draft resolution that will be put to a vote on Friday, said news agencies.

This comes after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took the rare move of invoking Article 99, external of the UN's charter, which allows the secretary-general to bring to the council's attention "any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security".

No one in his role had done this in decades.

In a letter to the council on Wednesday, Guterres said the situation in Israel and Gaza “may aggravate existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security”.

This will be the fifth attempt at finding unity among the council's members. Four previous draft resolutions presented since the war broke out were rejected by the council.

Image source, Getty Images

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent, reporting from Jerusalem

I've been speaking Dr Nasser, a senior clinician sheltering at the European hospital in Khan Younis, the city in southern Gaza which has seen intense fighting over the last few days,

"I will be honest with you, I am very hungry and I have low energy," he says.

Nasser says if he does manage to secure any food, he makes sure his children eat.

"I have not experienced the feeling of being full for weeks," he continues.

He tells me his children are afraid of the dark and the sound of bombing terrifies them.

Palestinians are mourning the death of well-known Gazan writer and literary scholar Refaat Alareer, who was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Wednesday.

Alareer’s father-in-law said he had died along with his brother and sister and four of her children.

He had taught literature at Gaza’s Islamic University, which was destroyed by a series of rapid Israeli air strikes on 11 October.

Israel said the university was an "important Hamas operational, political and military centre in Gaza”.

Alareer was also one of the founders of “We Are Not Numbers”, a Palestinian non-profit set up in 2015 to “tell the stories behind the numbers of Palestinians in the news”.

He had declined to leave northern Gaza following the start of Israeli operations in the area, and two days before he died posted video to social media in which a number of explosions could be heard.

"The building is shaking. The debris and shrapnel are hitting the walls and flying in the streets," he wrote.

In an interview with the BBC in the hours after Hamas's 7 October attack, Alareer caused huge offence by calling it “legitimate and moral” and “exactly like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising”.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a revolt that took place in German-occupied Poland in 1943 and saw Jews use weapons smuggled into the ghetto to try to resist Nazi efforts to transport people to the extermination camps.

Following the outcry over the interview, a BBC spokesperson , externalsaid: "We reported the Hamas attacks and the response by Israel in line with the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines.

"We have included contributors who have condemned the attackers as terrorists and we have reported that Hamas is designated as a terrorist group by many Western governments, including the UK.

"While an interviewee who made comments on the Warsaw Ghetto was robustly challenged on air, we agree his comments were offensive and we don’t intend to use him again.”

Yvette Tan
Live editor

It's just past 06:30 in Israel and Gaza, and 12:30 in Singapore. The war between Israel and Hamas has now passed the two-month mark. Here's a quick look at what happened in the past 24 hours:

• UN Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths has said that Israel's military offensive has meant there is "no place safe left for civilians anymore in southern Gaza", calling it a "repeat of the assault in northern Gaza"
• He added that it also meant the UN had "no humanitarian operation... that can be called by that name anymore", saying that their aid programme had become "erratic, undependable and not sustainable"
• Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled to Rafah near the border with Egypt as intense fighting continues in Khan Younis
• Israel says that it will open the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the next few days to allow aid into Gaza. It has been closed since the war began
• Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages, some of whom were released during a short-lived truce
• Hamas officials in Gaza say Israel has killed more than 17,177 people in its retaliatory campaign, including about 7,000 children

Stay with us as we bring you more updates throughout the day.