Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh says three of his sons have been killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza
Haniyeh, who lives in Qatar, tells Al Jazeera that several of his grandchildren were also killed in the attack
It follows reports in a Hamas-affiliated news agency in Gaza that Hazem, Amir, and Muhammad Ismail Haniyeh died in a strike in Beach refugee camp
The IDF has confirmed its aircraft has "eliminated" the three brothers, describing them as "Hamas military operatives"
Haniyeh says the deaths will not affect the militant group's demands in ongoing ceasefire negotiations
The news comes as Palestinians in Gaza are marking Eid-al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, amid the continuing conflict
Palestinians have been marking the Muslim festival of Eid in Rafah in southern Gaza today.
Many have been visiting the graves of loved ones, while others have been performing prayers.
Image source, EPA
Image source, Reuters
Image source, AFP
Image source, ReutersA drone view shows Palestinians holding Eid al-Fitr prayers by the ruins of al-Farouk mosque in Rafah
As we've been reporting, Muslims around the world, including those in Gaza, are marking the festival of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
It is the "festival of breaking the fast" and is usually a period of great celebration, with families and friends coming together and sharing large meals.
Many Muslims attend prayers at their mosques in the morning and it is also common for children to receive either money or small gifts from their elders.
But in Gaza, the festival is very different this year amid the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel.
Read more about Eid al-Fitr here.
Palestinians in Rafah have been speaking to BBC Arabic's Gaza Lifeline programme about the difference between this year's Eid al-Fitr and previous Eid celebrations.
Haroun Al-Medallal says that “despite the pain, destruction, displacement, and continuous shelling by the Israeli army, we are a life-loving people".
Speaking from a shelter in Rafah, he says some Palestinian women are making cookies as they try to put a smile on the faces of orphaned children who have lost their parents and homes.
Alaa al-Eddah similarly tells the BBC that "sadness overcomes everyone" because of the record number of people who have been killed.
Previously, he says, they visited "relatives and neighbours to congratulate each other on Eid, and the children used to rejoice," but now they "live in displacement".
However, he insists they will remain steadfast, celebrate Eid, call relatives, and visit the people whose loved ones have been killed.
Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/ShutterstockGaza's Hamas-run health ministry says 33,482 Palestinians have been killed and 76,049 injured since the beginning of the war.
The war began when Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 240 back to Gaza as hostages.
Palestinians are gathering to mourn the deaths of 14 civilians killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike last night.
According to AFP news agency, the home of a family was hit in the strike.
The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reports that the majority of casualties were women and children.
Photos show people gathered at the nearby al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah mourning the dead.
The BBC has not independently verified the strike.
Sarah Amer is 11 years old
Eleven-year old Sarah Amer, who also spoke to the BBC's Gaza Lifeline, remembers playing in the amusement park and riding on swings during Eid last year.
"Now, everything has changed and we no longer feel the joyful atmosphere of a feast. Eid has not come at all.
"There is no Eid, instead there are dead people, wounded, and injured. This is a holiday of war, so how can we rejoice and celebrate when there are people being killed, prisoners, and wounded?"
And Tala Abu Amr, 7, "misses the taste of happiness".
"There is no Eid, no Ramadan, we miss the joyful atmosphere of Eid, and we do not feel alive at all," she says.
Tala Abu Amr is 7 years old
Khalil Abu Hassanein is 13 years old and is currently staying in a hospital in Khan Younis
BBC Arabic’s Gaza Lifeline programme has been speaking to children in Gaza about Eid - the holiday which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
For 13 year-old Khalil Abu Hassanein, who used to live in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, last year's Eid was one of the most "beautiful times".
"We used to bake cookies and cakes, buy new clothes, and get ready for receiving Eid."
He is now staying at a hospital in Khan Younis and says "Eid has no taste" because of the suffering of the injured and the dead.
Image source, ReutersIf you are just joining us, here is what's been happening today.
Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem
Image source, EPAIsraeli soldiers at a checkpoint along the border with Gaza in southern Israel
A truce between Israel and Hamas was never going to be easy.
But international pressure is growing. Perhaps the biggest sign is the Biden administration sending William Burns, the head of the CIA, for the latest round of mediated talks in Cairo.
In Israel, there are angry calls from the families of the hostages held in Gaza, who are urging a deal for their release, saying time is running out to save them.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also facing pressure from hardline allies who support his coalition, and are against the idea of making concessions to Hamas.
They say the war must continue, which would include an offensive into the southern city of Rafah, where 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering.
Hamas says it is analysing the latest proposal, which includes the release of 40 hostages in return for 900 Palestinians from Israeli jails.
A final decision will probably be made by Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza who is thought to be hiding in tunnels surrounded by guards and hostages.
Read more from Hugo here.
Some Palestinians have been returning to their homes in the southern city of Khan Younis after Israeli troops withdrew from the city on the weekend.
But for many residents, they have returned to find their homes turned to rubble.
Image source, EPA
Image source, EPA-EFE/Rex/Shutterstock
Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
Image source, ReutersIsraeli foreign minister Israel Katz
If Iran attacks from its territory, "Israel will react and attack in Iran," Israel's Minister for Foreign Affairs Israel Katz says.
In a statement posted on X this morning, external, in both Hebrew and Persian, he warned Israel would respond with force, tagging Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
This is the latest escalation in a series of threats exchanged between Israel and Iran.
Khamenei said on Wednesday that Israel "must be punished and it shall be" after Iran's consulate was attacked in Syria on 1 April.
Iran said an Israeli strike had killed seven military advisers. "When they attack the consulate, it is as if they have attacked our soil," Khamenei said in a speech marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Israel has not said whether it was behind the attack.
Iran supports groups that have waged war on Israel since it launched its military offensive in Gaza, following the 7 October Hamas attacks in southern Israel.
Image source, STR/EPA-EFE/REX/ShutterstockPeople sit on rubble at the site of an airstrike in Habbariyah, southern Lebanon
The commander of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (Unifil) is warning of the danger of escalation on the border with Israel.
In a message to mark Eid, Aroldo Lázaro calls for the "cessation of hostilities and a move towards a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution to the conflict".
"The danger of escalation is real," he writes on X, external.
"There is no military solution to the current confrontation and violence; a political and diplomatic solution is the only way forward."
Tensions in the region have increased following the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas and subsequent war.
Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah have exchanged almost daily strikes across the border since the outbreak of fighting in Gaza.
Image source, Rushdi AbualoufThe BBC's Gaza correspondent Rushdi Abualouf with his father
The BBC's Gaza correspondent Rushdi Abualouf has marked the celebration of Eid by posting a picture of his father on X, formerly Twitter.
"For the first time I’m not spending the Eid holiday with my brothers and sisters and I won't be able to kiss my father's hand on the morning of Eid, like every year."
Earlier he described how markets in Gaza are usually "filled with the sound of Eid takbirs echoing in the city streets."
Quote MessageThis year there is no sweets or joy, only pain, sadness, and mourning.
Rushdi Abualouf, Gaza correspondent
Image source, ReutersEden Golan will represent Israel at the song contest in Sweden this May
The Eurovision Song Contest's organisers are condemning the abuse and harassment of artists over Israel's participation in the competition.
Israel's contestant, Eden Golan, has been receiving death threats on Instagram, according to reports by celebrity website Walla Celebs.
Jean Philip De Tender, Deputy Director General of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises Eurovision, says in a statement, external it is "unacceptable and totally unfair" for artists to receive online abuse.
This year's competition will take place in Sweden next month amid pressure on other artists, including the UK's Olly Alexander, to boycott the competition due to Israel's war in Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says fighting is still taking place, external in the centre of the Gaza Strip, where it says it "eliminated a number of terrorists" in the last day in a face-to-face encounter.
It says the air force attacked dozens of targets in several areas, including military sites, launchers and tunnel shafts as well as attacking a Hamas squad that threatened Israeli forces.
Dozens of worshippers in southern Gaza have gathered to hold prayers for Eid al-Fitr, an important holy day for Muslims across the world, by the ruins of the al-Farouk mosque in Rafah.
The mosque was destroyed in February during an Israeli offensive.
More than a million Palestinians are sheltering in the southern city after being forced to flee their homes.
Gaza: Rafah residents hold Eid prayers by destroyed mosque
Tom Bateman
BBC State Department correspondent, Washington DC
Image source, ReutersUS President Joe Biden's pressure on Israel after last week's deadly attack on aid workers did not go far enough and will fail to stem the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, according to current and former US officials who have spoken to the BBC.
They said internal dissent in government was growing and called for tougher action on arms transfers.
Israel said it would open new aid routes after Biden threatened to reassess policy following Israeli strikes that killed seven workers from food charity World Central Kitchen (WCK), including a US-Canadian citizen.
But the tougher line was "too little, too late", said Annelle Sheline, an official working in human rights who quit the state department in protest a fortnight ago.
She said the White House "could have done this months ago and prevented famine in northern Gaza".
The US-Israel relationship is currently experiencing its most serious strain in decades, after Biden's phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that amounted to a defining moment in the six-month conflict.
Read more from Tom here.
Image source, EPA/Rex/ShutterstockPalestinians are returning to the city of Khan Younis, where heavy fighting has left buildings in ruins
On a day usually marked by celebrations, some Palestinians returning to their homes this Eid al-Fitr - the holiday which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan - are reckoning with the destruction left behind by the war.
Israel has effectively ended ground operations in the southern city of Khan Younis and displaced people are returning to discover whether or not their homes are still intact after weeks of heavy fighting.
Mohammed Saggah, a returning resident, told AFP news agency: "This house, my home, was a five-storey building and was home to more than 80 people. There is nothing left."
Another woman said she had returned to "a ruined place - no water, no electricity, no columns, no walls and no doors, there's nothing”.
Quote MessageGaza is not Gaza anymore.
Image source, ReutersSpanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez speaking at a press conference in Jordan on 2 April
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says Spain is ready to acknowledge a Palestinian state and that such recognition would be a step towards resolving the Middle East conflict.
In an address to the Spanish Congress this morning, he says it is "in Europe's geopolitical interests" as he tries to gather support from EU leaders for this acknowledgement.
He also describes Israel’s response to Hamas’s October attack as "completely disproportionate”.
Sánchez has been one of the most outspoken critics of Israel since it launched its military offensive in response to Hamas' 7 October attacks.
His most recent remarks follow those of Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong's, who has suggested the country could recognise Palestinian statehood to increase momentum towards peace.
Image source, EFE/REX/ShutterstockUnicef spokesman James Elder tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme it would not be possible to keep people safe while a ground invasion on Rafah took place.
He says it is unrealistic to think that the people who have been sheltering there could move. "You really have either rubble... or the beach - and as a Palestinian friend said living on a beach is accepting you are going to die."
Elder says ahead of such an offensive, aid organisations would generally pre-position aid in preparation but it is not possible because there is nowhere to do so, as warehouses have been destroyed and it is "not ethical to pre-position aid when there are people round the corner that definitely need that aid today".
While more aid has been getting into Gaza recently he says it is "simply not enough".
"We must look to intent. If there was discussion about really keeping people safe as hostilities continued we wouldn’t see one toilet for 900 people in Rafah, one shower for 3,500 people, we wouldn’t see these restrictions on aid," he says.
"We might see these hostilities but we’d see people at least not being killed on the ground from disease and lack of water as they are from the sky."