The UN says Israel is still imposing "unlawful restrictions" on aid for Gaza, despite facing increasing pressure to allow more humanitarian supplies in.

Ravina Shamdasani, a UN human rights office spokesperson, says Israel is also carrying out "widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure".

The Israeli agency which coordinates aid into Gaza - Cogat - says a food convoy entered Gaza yesterday via a new northern crossing.

The agency said on X, external that "126 aid trucks coordinated to northern Gaza overnight", adding that two bakeries are operational in northern Gaza "supplying 800,000 pita breads for the local population".

Image source, Reuters

The Hamas-run health ministry says at least 33,843 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since October.

The toll includes at least 46 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement says, adding that 76,575 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip.

The BBC has looked in detail at how the casualty figures for Gaza are counted, here.

The two countries were allies until the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, which brought in a regime that has used opposing Israel as a key part of its ideology.

Iran does not recognise Israel's right to exist and seeks its eradication.

The country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has previously called Israel a "cancerous tumour" that "will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed".

Israel believes that Iran poses an existential threat as evidenced by Tehran's rhetoric, its build-up of proxy forces sworn to Israel's destruction, its funding and arming of Palestinian groups including Hamas and of the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah, and what it believes is Iran's secret pursuit of nuclear weapons, though Iran denies seeking to build a nuclear bomb.

Read more: Why has Iran attacked Israel?

Image source, .

Image source, Pouria Zeraati

An Iranian TV news presenter who was stabbed outside his home in London last month says he thinks Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) should be proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK.

Iran International presenter Pouria Zeraati, 36, was attacked by a group outside his home in Wimbledon, south London.

A spokesperson for Iran International says the IRGC - a major military, political and economic force in Iran - has been targeting journalists and their families.

Counter-terrorism officers are leading the investigation, while the Iran has denied any involvement.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Zeraati says that what happened to him, together with Iran's attempts to "destabilise the peace and prosperity in the Middle East" and the suppression of anti-government protests inside Iran, are some of the reasons "they can be considered as a terrorist organisation".

His comments come as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced renewed pressure to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation after Iran's attack on Israel.

Israel urges new sanctions on Iran's missile programmepublished at 10:38 British Summer Time 16 April 2024

10:38 BST 16 April 2024

Gordon Corera
Security correspondent

As everyone waits to see how Israel responds militarily to Iran, it is also acting diplomatically.

Israel looks less isolated as attention has moved away from Gaza and will be hoping to capitalise on this to place international pressure on Iran.

Israel’s foreign minister said he had written to 32 countries calling for further sanctions on Iran. This includes, he said, sanctions on Iran’s missile programme.

A series of UN sanctions on Iran’s missile programme expired last October because they had been linked to a wider deal on Iran’s Nuclear Programme. Countries including the US, UK and EU have already maintained sanctions though and added new ones.

Israel’s Foreign Minister also called for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be declared a terrorist organisation. The US has already done so but the UK has not.

The debate about whether to go down this path has been difficult and divisive within government. Some favour a ban and others oppose it because they think that the IRGC is part of the state rather than a terrorist organisation, and a ban would lead Iran to close down channels of communication between the two countries.

Image source, Reuters

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi said his country would react to the slightest action against Iran's interests with a "severe, extensive and painful response".

In a phone call last night with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Raisi reiterated that Iran was acting in "self-defence", adding that it had targeted Israeli bases it said were used to carry out a deadly strike on its consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus.

Israel's military chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, said on Monday that Iran's attacks over the weekend "will be met with a response".

It's approaching 11:00 local time in Gaza, where the Israeli army says its military campaign against Hamas is continuing.

Here's a look at some of the latest pictures from the Gaza Strip from the past day.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Despite the ongoing tensions between Iran and Israeli, the Israeli army is continuing its operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli forces began a military operation in the town of Beit Hanoun, in the north east of the Gaza Strip, at dawn today, as dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles entered from the eastern and northern sides and surrounded three schools housing thousands of displaced people.

The raid began with intense air strikes and artillery shelling, followed by the entry of two squadrons of armoured vehicles and tanks.

Mohamed Muhanna, a local activist journalist, tells the BBC: "The Israeli troops advanced in Beit Hanoun and surrounded the schools with heavy fire cover, fire belts, and firing from Quadcopter drones at the school, which houses hundreds of displaced people."

In central Gaza, the IDF says aircraft and infantry have been in action against what they call Hamas compounds in the central Gaza strip.

Image source, EPA

While Israel considers its response to Iran's attack over the weekend, the Israeli military says its troops continue to operate in central Gaza. Here's a reminder of the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave:

• Almost all of Gaza's population - more than 2.3 million people - have been displaced and lack access to sufficient shelter, food, medical services, clean water, and education since Israel's military offensive against Hamas began

• At least 33,797 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, which began after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October
• White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday that aid getting into the Gaza Strip has increased by a large amount in the last few days
• The World Food Programme said it has been using a new route to get aid to north Gaza, where it delivered food parcels and wheat flour through nine convoys
• US House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that a vote on a fresh package of military aid for Israel could come as early as Friday

• Following warnings that famine is imminent in northern Gaza, the UN said it delivered a four-day fuel supply a bakery in northern Gaza on Sunday to enable it to resume operations in an area, which "has recorded the highest levels of catastrophic hunger in the world"

Image source, Reuters

The former head of MI6 Sir John Sawers tells the BBC that he doesn't think it's necessary for the UK to ban Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Israel has called for the Iran's IRGC - the most powerful branch of its armed forces which said it launched Saturday's attack - to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.

Asked about pressures on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to ban the group, Sawers says: "The counter-terrorism legislation was designed to deal with terrorist groups, it's not designed to deal with states.

"Now, Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism, there's no doubt about that, but a state poses a much more substantial threat than a terrorist organisation does," he tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He says that last year, a new Intelligence and Security Act was passed which gave MI5 the powers it needed to defend the country, but he points out that head of MI5 is not calling for the IRGC to be proscribed.

Calls for the IRGC to be proscribed, he says, are more of a "rhetorical position of people in various parts of the political spectrum looking for something to do without really thinking through the substance of it".

Israel's foreign minister says he is leading "a diplomatic offensive against Iran", as the government considers a military response to the missile and drone attack against it early on Sunday.

The foreign minister, Israel Katz, has written to dozens of countries calling for sanctions to be imposed on Iran's missile programme.

“This morning I sent letters to 32 countries and spoke with dozens of foreign ministers and leading figures in the world demanding that sanctions be imposed on the Iranian missile project," Katz posted on X.

He also called for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be declared a terrorist organisation, "as a way to curb and weaken Iran".

He adds: “Iran must be stopped now – before it is too late”.

Israel is assumed to have its own nuclear weapons but maintains an official policy of deliberate ambiguity.

Iran does not have nuclear weapons and also denies it is attempting to use its civilian nuclear programme to become a nuclear armed state.

Last year the global nuclear watchdog found uranium particles enriched to 83.7% purity - very close to weapons grade - at Iran's underground Fordo site. Iran said "unintended fluctuations" in enrichment levels may have occurred.

Iran has been openly enriching uranium to 60% purity for more than two years in breach of a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

However that deal has been close to collapse since US President Donald Trump pulled out unilaterally and reinstated crippling sanctions on Iran in 2018. Israel had opposed the nuclear deal in the first place.

The UN's nuclear watchdog chief yesterday expressed concern about possible Israeli targeting of Iranian nuclear facilities.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Rafael Grossi said Iran closed its nuclear facilities on Sunday over "security considerations", and that while the facilities reopened on Monday, IAEA inspectors were being kept away "until we see that the situation is completely calm".

"We are going to resume tomorrow," Grossi told reporters after a UN Security Council meeting.

When asked about the possibility of an Israel strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Grossi said: "We are always concerned about this possibility."

Olli Heinonen, former deputy director general for safeguards at the IAEA, tells BBC Radio 5 Live that Iran doesn't have full cooperation with the agency yet, meaning its operations are limited.

"There is always the question of ‘what if they [Iran] have more nuclear material somewhere hidden? What if they have some additional facilities that they have not disclosed to the IAEA?’ There is no remote monitoring."

Netanyahu's war cabinet divided over Iran attack responsepublished at 08:06 British Summer Time 16 April 2024

08:06 BST 16 April 2024

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

Israel’s war cabinet met for the second time in 24 hours amid growing rumours that some kind of retaliatory action was imminent. But it was also reported the cabinet was divided about how and when.

Local media said the government wanted to hurt Iran for the attack without causing all-out war. They said ministers also wanted to act in co-ordination with the US.

American officials have already made clear the US would not take part in any military action against Iran. Even though only two days have passed since the unprecedented Iranian attack, there was still space for political disagreement.

Israel’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, accused Netanyahu of presiding over a “total loss of Israeli deterrence”.

Netanyahu later summoned some opposition leaders for a security briefing but Lapid was not included. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanani, sought to justify his country’s attack on Israel.

As we've been reporting, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to speak to his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, later today.

In a statement to the House of Commons on Monday, Sunak said he would "express our solidarity with Israel in the face of this attack" and "discuss how we can prevent further escalation".

Sunak had been due to speak to Netanyahu yesterday, but their call was rescheduled as the Israeli PM was locked in discussions with his war cabinet.

We'll be bringing you any details we get from the call today here on this page, so stay with us.

Image source, EPA

For much of Monday, Israel’s war cabinet were in discussions over its response to Iran’s attack over the weekend.

How Israel will respond remains unclear. Addressing reporters on Monday, Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said Tel Aviv must do everything necessary to protect the state "at the time and in the way we in Israel choose to do so".

He said the Iranian attack was "thwarted with the iron defence campaign," adding that it counted on an "unprecedented coalition" from the UK, US, France and other countries, which "not only thwarted but truly prevented that attack".

Army chief Herzi Halevi told reporters Iran's attacks over the weekend "will be met with a response".

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the international community "must continue to stand united in resisting this Iranian aggression, which threatens world peace".

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke to his Iranian counterpart last night, Beijing state media says, reporting that Iran said it was "willing to exercise restraint" after its attack on Israel.

During the call, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told Wang Yi that Iran had no intention of further escalating tensions, adding that the situation was "very sensitive".

"China appreciates Iran's stress on not targeting regional and neighbouring countries as well as its reiteration on continuously pursuing a good-neighbourly and friendly policy," state news agency Xinhua quoted Wang as saying.

"It is believed that Iran can handle the situation well and spare the region further turmoil while safeguarding its own sovereignty and dignity."

Tehran's foreign ministry readout said Amir-Abdollahian briefed Wang on Iran's "legitimate action" and "warned the White House" that further attacks on Iran's interests or security would invite a "decisive, immediate and extensive" response.

Image source, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT PRESS OFFICE (GPO) / HANDOUT

As we've mentioned, Israel's war cabinet met to discuss its response to Iran's attack.

Here's a summary of what else happened yesterday:

• Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said his country's attack amounted to "exercising the right of legitimate defence" and said it would not hesitate to protect its interests in the future
• British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called on all sides to "show restraint", with a number of other world leaders also urging against escalation
• Both the White House and UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron described Iran’s attack as a failure
• Belgium, France and Germany are among several countries that summoned Iranian ambassadors, adding to growing condemnation and mounting international pressure on Tehran
• US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby claimed the amount of aid getting into Gaza had increased "quite dramatically" in recent days
• But many Gazans are still displaced by fighting and unable to return home, with aid agencies warning that famine is imminent

Israeli military chief vows to respondpublished at 07:05 British Summer Time 16 April 2024

07:05 BST 16 April 2024

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Israeli leaders appear to have concluded that to deter Iran effectively, they must hit back for firing its massive missile barrage.

Visiting the Nevatim air base, which was lightly damaged by the Iranian attack, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, told air force troops that the launch of so many missiles and drones would be met with a response.

The challenge for the war cabinet is to find a way to deliver a powerful message without fuelling a regional crisis.

Iran launched its unprecedented attack in retaliation for a deadly air strike on its embassy compound in Damascus, which is blamed on Israel, and has signalled that it doesn’t seek further escalation.

World leaders have expressed fears there could now be more open warfare between the long-time enemies with the violence emanating from the Gaza war spreading further.

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said G7 countries were working on a package of coordinated measures against Iran. We'll be hearing more from him later today.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for calm, and said his country will do everything possible to avoid an escalation.

While Italy, which currently holds the presidency of the G7 group, said it was open to new sanctions against individuals engaged in actions against Israel.

White House National Security council spokesman John Kirby said Iran’s intent was to cause “significant destruction” and casualties, adding that Tehran did not issue warnings to the White House about its timeframe for launching an attack.

And German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Israel "has won defensively" in its quarrel with Iran, and there must not be an escalation in the region.