The head of Israel's intelligence agency is expected to hold talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Qatar later today on a possible ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza.

An Israeli official said that the Mossad chief, David Barnea, would discuss a proposal for a six-week truce during which forty hostages would be freed.

The official said this stage of the negotiations could take at least two weeks - due in part to difficulties that Hamas delegates may have in communicating with the group's leaders inside Gaza.

Earlier this month, weeks of intense negotiations involving Qatari, US and Egyptian mediators failed to secure a truce between Israel and Hamas for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began last week.

Netanyahu’s political juggling actpublished at 12:35 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March

12:35 GMT 18 March

Lucy Williamson
Middle East correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has staked his remaining political reputation on destroying Hamas as an operational force capable of launching attacks on Israel.

But he’s also under enormous pressure to bring home more than 130 Israeli hostages still being held inside Gaza – and the best chance of that probably lies in a ceasefire deal with Hamas.

And so, Netanyahu is sending a delegation to Qatar to resume indirect talks with Hamas leaders, while his army enters al-Shifa Hospital in search of Hamas fighters.

He is adamant that any ceasefire will be temporary, and that Israel will continue with plans for a military operation in the southern town of Rafah, currently sheltering more than a million displaced Palestinians.

The prospect of a pause in the fighting, alongside the promise of a major military campaign: two different strategies for two different goals.

The trick Netanyahu will be hoping to pull off is stopping each of these strategies knocking the other off course.

Image source, Getty Images

Gazans evacuating al-Shifa Hospital and the surrounding al-Rimal neighbourhood have been instructed by Israeli forces to head west, then south to the Israel-designated "humanitarian zone" in Al-Mawasi.

Orders to evacuate to al-Mawasi have been given out to 2 million-odd residents of Gaza in recent months, but the area is a narrow strip of land by the Mediterranean Sea smaller than London's Heathrow Airport.

It has few buildings and largely consists of sandy dunes and agricultural land. The zone, designated as safe by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is just 8.5 sq km (3.3 sq miles).

In February, the UN estimated some tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians were sheltering there.

Image source, .

• Read more about al-Mawasi here

Pictures have just crossed our desk of Palestinians gathering to receive aid outside an UNRWA warehouse in Gaza City.

It comes as a new report backed by the UN says famine is expected between now and May in the north of the Gaza Strip, and earlier this month it reported that 10 children had died of starvation.

Take a look at some of the images below:

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Stephanie Hegarty
Population correspondent

Famine is imminent in northern Gaza and will occur anytime between now and May.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the global body responsible for declaring famine says 1.1m people, half the population of Gaza, are now starving.

In the worst-case scenario the rest of Gaza will also be in famine by July.

The conditions for declaring a famine are strict - 20% of the population must be starving, 30% of children must be severely malnourished or wasted and the death rate from malnutrition must double - to two per 10,000 each day, four per day for children.

The first two have been exceeded in northern Gaza. And the rate of mortality is rising sharply, especially for children.

One in three children under the age of two in northern Gaza is acutely malnourished. Most households in the north have gone entire days and nights without food.

The IPC first warned of a risk of famine in December but says that since then the situation has only worsened.

As we reported earlier, the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has accused Israel of "provoking famine" in Gaza.

Responding on social media, Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz insists his country "allows extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help. Despite Hamas violently disrupting aid convoys".

He says it's time for Borrell "to stop attacking Israel and recognise our right to self-defence against Hamas' crimes".

Image source, Reuters

Germany's foreign minister says that the only resolution to the Gaza-Israel conflict would be a Palestinian state.

"This war and this conflict overall can only come to an end if there is a two-state solution," Annalena Baerbock tells reporters outside an EU meeting in Brussels.

"That’s why it’s decisive for us to make clear that settlements building and the violence of radical settlers does not correspond with international law and here too, we will pave the way for sanctions.”

Joel Gunter
Reporting from Jerusalem

The news network Al Jazeera says that Israeli forces arrested one of its journalists during the raid on al-Shifa hospital.

In a post on the network’s website, it said: "We’re getting reports that Israeli forces have arrested Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul from inside the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

“According to Palestinian writer and journalist Imad Zaqqout and other witnesses, al-Ghoul was beaten severely by Israeli soldiers before he was arrested with dozens of men and women within the hospital.”

The BBC has contacted the IDF regarding the arrest and reports that al-Ghoul was beaten.

EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell says he is confident the bloc will agree sanctions on both Hamas and violent Israeli West Bank settlers today.

The EU has so far struggled to agree sanctions against those responsible for attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, with the US and UK having already imposed similar measures.

Agreement is now expected after Hungary, a close ally of the Israeli government, reportedly signalled its support, having previously been blamed for holding up sanctions on settlers in the West Bank.

Further sanctions against Hamas are also expected.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Borrell says: "It seems that today all will agree on putting sanctions on both Hamas and the violent settlers who are harassing Palestinians in the West Bank."

Joel Gunter
Reporting from Jerusalem

The IDF has announced that one of its soldiers died on Monday in the northern Gaza Strip.

They named the soldier as Matan Vinogradov, 20, from the Nahal Brigade.

Israel’s Kan News reports that Vinogradov died in the operation at Al-Shifa hospital.

The IDF also said that 80 suspects had been arrested in the hospital raid.

Since the beginning of ground operations in Gaza on 27 October, 250 Israeli soldiers have been killed in battle, according to the IDF.

BBC Verify examines IDF al-Shifa videopublished at 11:29 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March

11:29 GMT 18 March

Image source, IDF/Google Maps

BBC Verify is examining a video posted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) this morning.

The video is an edit of several pieces of aerial footage as well as footage from a camera inside a moving vehicle.

It claims to show gunfire towards IDF troops from al-Shifa hospital buildings and an armoured vehicle being struck by an explosive device.

We've matched up most of the footage with buildings in and around the al-Shifa hospital complex.

Further information about the video – known as metadata – suggests the clips were captured in the early hours of the morning.

However, the large number of edits, the poor quality (blurry, grainy and low resolution) and a lack of recent satellite imagery of the area, means it is tricky to confidently draw conclusions from it.

BBC Verify is gathering and analysing other video that claims to show the events at al-Shifa hospital.

We're getting in pictures now of the situation in Gaza, as people are evacuating the areas surrounding al-Shifa hospital following a raid overnight by the Israel Defence Forces.

Gazans have been pictured walking with some of their belongings after they were instructed to relocate to a "humanitarian area".

Here's some images from the scene:

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Joel Gunter
Reporting from Jerusalem

Dr Amer Jedbeh, a 31-year-old surgical resident, has been speaking to the BBC from the hallway of the surgical building inside al-Shifa.

“We are trapped where we are inside the department,” he says.

“A shell hit our building on the first floor, injuring several people. One man died – we could not save him. We are working only with first aid, essentially, we cannot operate because there is no electricity or water.”

Dr Jedbeh says he had been able to go into the ICU because it was in the same building, and two life support patients there had died because the electricity was killed ahead of the beginning of the raid.

“All the machinery is off,” he explains, adding that it was impossible to move between buildings.

“Colleagues from the main building say there are many injured there who need surgery but we cannot get to them and they cannot bring the patients to us.”

Dr Jedbeh says he was on a short rest break when the assault began at 2am, and that an hour later, the Israeli army used a loudspeaker to instruct everyone in the hospital to stand away from the windows and not move from their position.

“The condition here is very critical, we have badly wounded people but no way to treat them. The shooting is still happening, there has been no let up since 2am," he says.

"If a bullet costs them one dollar, it sounds like they have spent three million dollars this night.”

Image source, Getty Images

Humanitarian charity Oxfam says Israeli authorities conducting checks on aid before it is allowed into Gaza have rejected a warehouse of supplies that included oxygen, incubators and water.

In a statement, Oxfam says the reasons for the rejection were not clear, and labelled Israel's checks an "unpredictable and chaotic regime" that "keeps aid snarled up, subjected to onerous, repetitive and unpredictable bureaucratic procedures".

Meanwhile, the head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, Philippe Lazzarini, says the hunger in the Gaza Strip was "man-made" and could be reversed through "proper political will".

Speaking at a news conference in Egypt, he adds: "We are engaged in a race against the clock to try to reverse the impact of the spreading hunger and the looming famine in the Gaza Strip."

Israel has not responded to Oxfam's claims, but Cogat, the Israeli body that coordinates humanitarian aid to Gaza, has previously clashed with Lazzarini and UN organisations on social media, asserting that there is no limit to the amount and movement of aid to Gaza.

Lucy Williamson
Middle East Correspondent

The assault on al-Shifa hospital today underlines the challenges facing Israel’s prime minister in achieving his war goals.

Israel’s army carried out an extensive operation at the same hospital in November, trawling the complex, room by room, for Hamas fighters and evidence of what it said was a key ‘command and control centre’ for the group.

In January, the army said it had dismantled Hamas’s entire command structure in the northern Gaza Strip, reducing its fighters to sporadic attacks “without commanders”.

Now Israeli forces are back inside al-Shifa hospital, to arrest Hamas operatives they say had returned there.

This military operation inside a protected medical facility adds pressure on negotiators in Qatar today, where both sides are due to resume talks on a ceasefire deal.

One of the key sticking points is thought to be the demand from Hamas that civilians displaced by the war can return to their homes in the north.

Israel is reportedly concerned that it could provide cover for Hamas to rebuild its capabilities there.

Joel Gunter
Reporting from Jerusalem

Staff at the Al-Shifa hospital were already in a “terrible condition” before the beginning of last night’s raid, according to the director of emergency medicine.

Speaking to the BBC over the weekend, Dr Mutaz Harara said: “The medical staff here are completely exhausted, we have no place left for them to sleep in the hospital because we have patients or displaced people piled in every area.”

The hospital was receiving dozens of patients every day “from what we call the war of hunger”, Harara said.

“They are suffering from malnutrition, dehydration and other injuries. And the staff is also now suffering from a lack of food. They are working around the clock and they cannot eat properly or sleep.”

Image source, Getty Images

Meanwhile, away from the situation at al-Shifa hospital, the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has been speaking about the need for humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Borrell says Israel is provoking famine in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war.

"In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people," Borrell tells a conference in Brussels.

"This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine."

Image source, Getty Images

Eyewitness have told of how panic gripped those inside al-Shifa hospital after Israeli forces launched a raid overnight.

"Tanks are surrounding us. We are hiding inside the tent. We hear tank fire in the vicinity of the compound," a man says in a call with his brother, which was posted in a WhatsApp group and heard by the BBC.

In unverified footage posted on social media, heavy gunfire could be heard around the hospital.

"The soldiers here inside the complex," another man inside the hospital said in voice message sent to journalists.

"There are dead and wounded, and the soldiers arrested some young men. The situation here is catastrophic," he says.

The Israeli military has told Gazans to leave the area around the al-Shifa hospital.

Located in Gaza City in the north of the Gaza Strip, thousands have already fled since Israel began its operation in October.

The hospital is the largest in the region and is being used as a shelter for displaced people, as well as patients.

IDF Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on social media: “A call to all those present and displaced in the al-Rimal neighborhood and in al-Shifa Hospital and its surroundings: In order to maintain your security, you must immediately evacuate the area to the west and then cross al-Rashid (al-Bahr) Street to the south to the humanitarian area in al-Mawasi.”

Hamas has condemned what it calls a “new crime” and an “aggression” by Israel on the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.

In a statement posted on its Telegram channel today, Hamas says Israel “directly targeted” the hospital buildings “with no regard for the patients, medical crews and the displaced people inside”.

The Israeli army says it has arrested more than 80 people, including Hamas militants, during the overnight raid.

The army raided the hospital after it said it received intelligence that Hamas militants had regrouped and set up a command centre there. The military says that it has gained control of the complex.