Image source, Getty Images

It's nearing 21:00 in Gaza and Israel and after another intense day of fighting, here are some of today's main developments:

• US national security adviser Jake Sullivan has met the Israeli PM and defence minister on his visit to the country
• Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told him destroying Hamas would take "more than several months", while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would fight until "absolute victory"
• Meanwhile, the BBC's US partner CBS reports that US officials have been told by their Israeli counterparts that the current phase of the battle should be over in two to three weeks
• Sullivan's visit comes after US President Joe Biden said earlier this week that Israel was starting to lose international support with its "indiscriminate bombing"

• On the ground in Gaza, the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah have been hit by fresh strikes
• Israel says it has arrested more than 70 Hamas members at a hospital in northern Gaza. Meanwhile, health officials in the Hamas-run territory accuse Israeli forces of preventing medical staff from providing care at the same facility
• The head of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said he was "absolutely horrified" by a video of one of its schools being blown up. The Israeli military has not commented on the video but said its troops had been fired on from an UNRWA school in the area
• Meanwhile, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israeli forces said they had found weapons, explosives laboratories and tunnel shafts in a three-day raid on the city of Jenin. Eleven Palestinians have been killed

Image source, Getty Images

An official from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has described fear and desperation in Gaza as Palestinians wonder "where their next meal will come from".

Addressing reporters, Carl Skau reiterated the WFP's line - first published at the weekend - that half of Gaza's population was starving and nine out of 10 people were not eating every day. He said the agency had managed to survey Palestinians during the recent week-long pause in fighting.

Skau said he couldn't answer a question on whether starvation-related deaths had occurred in the territory.

He said the WFP had observed "increasing desperation... and anger" at its distribution sites, due to a "breakdown of law and order" which he described as a growing problem.

And he stressed that the agency's own staff were "living this crisis" themselves, while also trying to solve it.

A fresh line or two now from Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu - as quoted by the Reuters news agency.

A statement from his office says he's reiterated he'll fight its war with Hamas until "absolute victory".

Netanyahu is said to have discussed wider regional threats with Jake Sullivan, the visiting White House national security adviser - including the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

Image source, Reuters

Two US officials have told CBS News, the BBC's US media partner, that Israel has told the US the current phase of their offensive against Hamas should be completed in two to three weeks.

One official said this would not mean an end to military operations, the outlet reports, but would bring about a reduced intensity and a lower level of bombing with more targeted strikes as the Israelis pursue the remaining leadership of Hamas.

It comes after Israel's defence minister Yoav Gallant told White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan that destroying Hamas would take "more than several months".

"But we will win and we will destroy them," he was quoted as saying.

Gaza cemetery damage confirmed by satellite imagerypublished at 17:41 Greenwich Mean Time 14 December 2023

17:41 GMT 14 December 2023

BBC Verify has been looking at video claiming to show evidence of damage caused by Israeli vehicles to graves in a cemetery in northern Gaza.

Social media posts show several deeply-rutted tracks in the earth, and damaged headstones littering the ground at al-Faluja cemetery near the Jabaliya refugee camp. We’ve confirmed the location by comparing tall buildings visible in the video with existing imagery online.

A satellite image from 10 December reveals what looks like bulldozer activity in part of this cemetery. Disturbances to the earth in the image on the right are not visible in an image of the same area taken four days earlier.

An IDF social media post on 9 December shows Israeli soldiers fighting in the Jabaliya area close to the cemetery. We've approached the IDF to ask if its forces entered the cemetery causing the damage visible in these images.

Image source, EPA

In the US, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - more commonly known as AOC - has just been speaking at a rally in Washington calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

She urges leaders to "stand for" peace and a ceasefire between the Israeli military and Hamas.

In a brief speech, AOC says the credibility of the US "is on the line" - as is the "credibility of our commitment to human rights," adding:

Her words come on the same day White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan arrived in Israel for talks with Israeli ministers, including PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

Internet and phone networks in the Gaza Strip have gone down, the region's main telecommunications company has said.

In a post on X, external (formerly Twitter), Paltel confirms "all telecom services" in Gaza have "been lost due to the ongoing aggression".

"Gaza is blacked out again," the firm adds.

Mobile phone and internet services have gone down several times in Gaza since war broke out, including one outage about a month ago caused by a lack of fuel for back-up generators to power the network.

Image source, Twitter

More now from the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, who earlier described being "absolutely horrified" when he saw a video showing one of its schools being blown up in northern Gaza.

“Schools, medical and UN facilities are not and should never, ever be a target. Unfortunately, in Gaza, they have quite often become just that,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva.

In the video, first posted online on Tuesday, Israeli soldiers can be heard cheering and clapping in the background as large explosions demolish white-and-blue school buildings in the town of Beit Hanoun.

The Israeli military has not commented on the video, but on Saturday it said gunmen had shot at its troops from an UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun.

Lazzarini said UNRWA had recorded 150 incidents since the beginning of the war in which its facilities were hit directly or indirectly, leading to the killing of more than 270 people.

As the fighting continues between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, so too does the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave.

Residents from a camp in southern Khan Younis - where many Gazans were originally told to flee when moving away from fighting in the north - have been recounting their experiences to the BBC .

One woman told BBC Arabic's Radio Gaza programme they have no clothes or water. "We are tired from going back and forth and moving water, it is a never-ending process," she said, adding that there's no electricity and water gets into the tents.

Image source, Reuters

A man described the difficulties as the weather gets worse:

And a mother said her children are "very sick", describing them as eating "like the birds" due to a lack of food.

Imogen Foulkes
Geneva Correspondent

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric, has arrived in Israel, where she will meet government officials, speak to the families of hostages and visit the occupied West Bank.

The ICRC has been criticised by some groups in Israel for what they describe as the organisation’s failure to visit hostages.

The ICRC has repeatedly called for access to them, but says it cannot do so without agreement from both warring parties.

In an earlier statement the Red Cross said it did not know where the hostages were, and could not "force its way in" to Gaza to gain access to them.

Spoljaric is likely to use her meeting with the Israeli government to call for better humanitarian access to Gaza, where aid agencies warn that inadequate supplies and restricted access because of the fighting mean they can longer provide any meaningful assistance.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

The head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has described extremely difficult conditions in Rafah in southern Gaza, following a recent visit to the Strip.

Philippe Lazzarini explains Rafah does not have the infrastructure to host the more than one million people who have fled there from other parts of Gaza, many of whom have been forced to move more than once.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, he says the city has quadrupled in population, with the situation worsening since Israel's offensive in the south began in recent weeks

Lazzarini says there are tens of thousands of people living outside UNRWA shelters.

Those that found space inside are the “lucky ones", he says, compared to the people outside living "in the open, in the cold, in the mud, and under the rain".

Lazzarini adds that it is increasingly difficult to get aid to the shelters because of the sheer number of people crammed into the areas outside.

Nearly 1.9 million people - more than 85% of Gaza's population - have been displaced since Israel began retaliatory bombardments following the Hamas attacks on 7 October, which killed 1,200 people.

Lazzarini also describes acute hunger in Gaza, with desperation driving many to stop aid trucks to steal food, which is then eaten “on the spot”.

Image source, Yoav Gallant

As well as meeting the the Israeli prime minister, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan has also held talks with the defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

According to a statement from the Israeli government, Gallant told Sullivan that destroying Hamas will require "more than several months".

Gallant thanked Sullivan for his visit, telling him it was not easy to destroy the infrastructure built by Hamas in Gaza.

"It will require a period of time - it will last more than several months, but we will win and we will destroy them," he said.

The American's visit to Israel comes amid growing international pressure over the rising death toll and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Away from Gaza, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces have shot and killed an unarmed teenage boy inside the Khalil Suleiman hospital compound in Jenin, according to the charity Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).

In an update on X (formerly Twitter), external, MSF says earlier this morning Israeli troops also stopped ambulances taking discharged patients home outside the hospital in the north of the occupied West Bank.

Paramedics and ambulance drivers were "ordered out of the ambulances, stripped and made to kneel in the street" while the patients were left inside the vehicles, it adds.

MSF says all this took place "in full view of our team".

Separately, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank said in a post on Telegram that a 17-year-old boy was killed in Jenin after being shot in the chest by Israeli troops. It is not yet clear if this is the same incident.

As we've been reporting, the Israeli military has been carrying out an operation in the city for three days - with 11 Palestinians reported killed up until this latest incident.

Israel says it has confiscated dozens of weapons and taken out sites used to manufacture bombs. The BBC has asked the IDF about MSF's account of the shooting of the teenager.

The ministry of health in the West Bank is operated by the Palestinian Authority, and is separate from the Gaza ministry of health, which is controlled by Hamas.

Image source, EPA

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Image source, Amos Ben Gershom /GPO

A meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US national security adviser Jake Sullivan is under way in Tel Aviv.

Sullivan arrived in Israel for talks with top officials, as Israeli forces continue the offensive against Hamas in Gaza and disagreements with the US deepen.

Yesterday, Netanyahu said nothing would stop the war, in reference to growing international pressure for a ceasefire amid mounting civilian casualties and a severe humanitarian crisis.

Sullivan is expected to push for a timeline for the end of the war and for Israel to increase efforts to protect civilians.

The visit happens just days after President Joe Biden made his strongest comments yet about the Israeli military conduct, saying Israel was starting to lose support internationally with its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza, something that has been rejected by Israel.

Gaps are also widening over who should govern post-war Gaza. The US supports the view that the Palestinian Authority, which currently administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, take over control of Gaza - something that Netanyahu has rejected for now.

Some in Israeli media suggest that Netanyahu, by openly disagreeing with the Biden administration, is trying to appeal to his right-wing base.

Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, is under pressure for the security failings that did not prevent the Hamas attacks on 7 October.

Lucy Williamson
Reporting from Jenin

Videos have emerged of Israeli soldiers reciting Jewish prayers from inside a mosque in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

The soldiers, who did not remove their shoes, are filmed inside the prayer hall, using the microphone to broadcast the prayer from the mosque’s loudspeakers.

Asked to respond to the videos, the Israel Defense Forces said their behaviour was “serious and in complete opposition to the values of the IDF”. It said the soldiers had been immediately removed from operational duty.

Israeli forces had been carrying out a days-long operation in Jenin, conducting house to house searches in the refugee camp there. The army said it found dozens of weapons, and also explosives laboratories, tunnel shafts and observation posts.

Eleven Palestinians were killed during the operation, including a chronically ill 13-year-old child who was prevented from reaching the hospital.

Image source, Getty Images

If you're just joining us, welcome. It's just past 16:00 in Israel and Gaza, and 14:00 in our London newsroom. We're following a few different developments today - here's a recap of where things stand:

• White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan is expected to press for Israeli strikes against Hamas to be more precise, as he meets Israeli leaders in Jerusalem

• Ahead of Sullivan's visit, Israel's ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, rejected a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, saying: "Absolutely no... the Palestinians never wanted to have a state next to Israel"
• British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reiterated his support for a two state solution, saying it "is the right outcome"
• On the ground, intense fighting has continued in the Gaza Strip, with the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah hit by Israeli air strikes
• Israel says it has arrested more than 70 Hamas members at a hospital in northern Gaza - while health officials in the Hamas-run territory accuse Israeli forces of preventing medical staff from proving care at the facility
• The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to alarm aid agencies, with the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the region describing the lack of clean water, sanitation, food and shelter as "a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster"
• In the occupied West Bank, an Israeli operation in Jenin continued into its third day - 11 Palestinians have been killed, while the IDF says it has found dozens of weapons and also explosives laboratories and tunnel shafts
• UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has announced that "extremist settlers" responsible for violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank will no longer be permitted to come to the UK

Israel's military says it has arrested more than 70 Hamas members at a hospital in northern Gaza, as health officials in the territory accused Israeli forces of preventing medical staff from providing care.

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, Avichay Adraee, said the fighters had "surrendered with their weapons" at Kamal Adwan hospital.

Writing on X, he also posted a series of images showing men stripped to the waist giving up what appear to be guns.

A spokesperson for the Hamas-run health ministry accused Israeli forces of preventing medical staff from providing care to 10 injured people at the hospital, reportedly causing two of them to die. Adraee did not comment on those specific allegations.

It comes after the UN reported that the hospital had been "surrounded by Israeli troops and tanks for days, with armed clashes reported nearby".

Since the war began on 7 October, Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled northern Gaza, which was the earlier focus of the war.

Image source, Getty Images

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has just issued an update, saying 179 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in the last day.

The total number killed since the fighting erupted has risen to 18,787, with nearly 51,000 more people wounded, the ministry says.

Israel began its offensive on Gaza after Hamas crossed the border on 7 October, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages - some of whom were released during a week-long truce last month.

Image source, Getty Images

Earlier, the IDF announced it was pausing fighting in the al-Salam neighbourhood of Rafah, to give residents the chance to get water and food and other much-needed items.

It lasted for four hours and ended at 14:00 local time (12:00 GMT).

Rafah lies on Gaza's southern border with Egypt, where many Palestinians fled when the war began on 7 October.

The crossing is also where aid into Gaza is coming in from.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Image source, EPA

With no running water, many Gazans are resorting to washing and doing their laundry in the Mediterranean Sea. However, the lack of electricity means that sewage cannot be pumped away leaving the water contaminated.

A Palestinian doctor told the BBC that this was increasing the spread of disease. “The sea water is especially polluted next to the shelters where some people bathe their children,” says Dr Khalil al-Degran at Deir al-Balah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital.

“We’ve got a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster,” says Lynn Hastings the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The vast majority of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has fled their homes.

Many are sleeping rough, leaving them vulnerable to illnesses. The World Health Organisation has estimated about 360,000 cases of disease – including meningitis, jaundice, chickenpox and upper respiratory tract infections.

Outbreaks of diarrhoea among small children are a particular problem.

UNRWA, the UN body responsible for Palestinian refugees, has drawn attention to the increasingly insanitary conditions in its overcrowded shelters. It says that for those in Rafah, there are 486 people for one toilet.