Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem

On Friday, we spoke to Basheer al-Ghandour after he fled from his home in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza amid a large-scale Israeli ground, air and sea attack.

"It came from all sides - air strikes and warships. My brother's house collapsed. There were 25 people inside," he said at the time.

Basheer said 11 people in the building were injured and five killed, including his nieces, aged five and 18, and a 15-year-old nephew. He and others tried to free relatives from the rubble, but fled before they were able to rescue his sister-in-law "because of how intense the bombing was".

We have just been speaking to Basheer, who is now in Gaza City, over text message.

He says that he and other of the family returned to the area on Saturday to retrieve his sister-in-law’s body. They buried her, before once again leaving the home and heading further south.

How is Israel planning to deliver food aid in Gaza?published at 14:06 British Summer Time 19 May

14:06 BST 19 May

BBC has been looking satellite imagery indicating that Israel has been preparing a series of sites in Gaza that could be used as distribution centres for delivering aid.

While allowing some limited aid in, the IDF has said it will "act to deny Hamas's ability to take control of the distribution of humanitarian assistance".

Images analysed by BBC shows that land has already been cleared, with new roads and staging areas constructed at several locations in southern and central Gaza in recent weeks.

Our investigation has more on these secure distribution centres.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Global experts have warned of looming famine in Gaza but Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not make humanitarian arguments when he explained the decision to let in “minimal” food supplies.

Instead, he said aid would have to be allowed to enter for “practical and diplomatic” reasons, adding that the policy was recommended by Israeli military officials.

In a video statement posted on his Telegram , Netanyahu acknowledged that Israel’s “greatest friends in the world” - key to sending weapons and defending the country at the UN Security Council - had said they “could not handle images of mass starvation”.

Netanyahu did not mention names but last week, visiting the Gulf, US President Donald Trump himself said: “We’re looking at Gaza and we’re going to get that taken care of.”

Israeli right-wing politicians and activists have been quick to assail the Israeli PM’s abrupt policy change - far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has called it “a grave mistake”.

However, it’s notable that another hardliner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, rushed to smooth over the decision and urge the Israeli public to focus on the big picture.

Smotrich - who advocates building new Israeli settlements in Gaza - stressed that the current military offensive was meant to force Palestinians to the south of the Strip “and from there, with God’s help, to third countries,” permanently displacing them.

He went on: “It’s a historic shift – no less – and that’s what matters.”

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem

A woman living in an area in central Gaza that is under Israeli evacuation orders has told me she will not leave her home.

“Yesterday, they added our block to the area that should be evacuated,” the woman, who has asked to remain anonymous over fears for her safety, says.

“We didn’t go anywhere because there is no place to go,” she says.

Asked if she can see Israeli troops in the area, she replies: “Not yet”.

Another woman who is under evacuation orders in Khan Younis in southern Gaza tells me this is her "worst nightmare".

"It's not so easy to displace from your home," she says.

As we have been reporting, the Israeli military has issued evacuation orders for huge swathes of Gaza. People have been told to head to the Mawasi area for safety.

In the past 24 hours, 136 people have been killed in Israel's military campaign in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory.

It brings the total number of Palestinians who have been killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas up to 53,475.

A further 364 people have been injured, the health ministry adds, bringing the total number of injuries since 7 October 2023 up to 121,398 people.

This post has been updated after the health ministry released amended figures.

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem

A short while ago, I received a voice note from the director of al-Awda hospital in Jabalia, northern Gaza, who says internet services there are now down, while Israeli military operations continue in the area.

"We are now without internet. I'm using an eSIM but it's very weak," Mohammed Salha says.

He adds that he can hear bombing in the area and the sound of drones shooting but describes the situation as “less [severe] than yesterday”.

He says two women gave birth in the hospital yesterday, and that doctors are continuing to perform operations on injured patients but that they are facing "severe shortages" of medical supplies and fuel under the Israeli blockade.

A number of hospitals in Gaza have stopped operating following Israeli strikes and military action.

Mohammed says the closure of the Indonesian Hospital over the weekend threatened al-Awda’s operations because it relied on it for stores of oxygen and for its intensive care unit.

The Israeli military has repeatedly attacked what it claims are Hamas command-and-control centres based in hospitals or gunmen sheltering there. Hamas denies using hospitals in this way.

Image source, Reuters

We can now bring you some lines from a press conference held this morning by Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

He says the little amount of food entering the Strip will not reach Hamas: "The bare minimum will reach the population - simply so the world doesn't stop us and accuse us of war crimes."

"What will enter in the coming days is very little: a few bakeries distributing pita bread to people, and public kitchens providing one daily serving of cooked food."

Civilians, he says, will receive one pita and a plate of food - "that's it".

He adds that Israel's military is "destroying everything that remains of the Strip", describing the territory as "one big terror city".

He says civilians will be moved out of combat zones as the army leaves "no stone unturned".

"The population will reach the south of the Strip, and from there, with God’s help, to third countries," he says.

As we've been reporting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will take control of all of Gaza.

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem

I’ve been speaking to another man displaced in al-Mawasi in Khan Younis with his wife and two children, aged nine and two, and other family .

“Food is becoming severely scarce,” Abd Al Fatah Hussein tells me over WhatsApp message.

“Getting access to food, medicine and hygiene products has become extremely difficult - almost impossible - due to the shortage of these items and their high prices if they are available.”

He says he and his family are currently able to eat one meal a day thanks to “significant rationing”.

He says his children are living with “intense fear… due to the sounds of Israeli aircraft, explosions and gunfire”.

As we have been reporting, people under evacuation orders are being told to head immediately to al-Mawasi for safety.

Let's return now to the aid situation in Gaza.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says it has been approached by Israeli authorities to resume limited aid delivery.

In a statement a few moments ago it adds: "We are in discussions with them now on how this would take place given the conditions on the ground."

The Israeli army has told residents living in Khan Younis, Bani Suheila and Abasan to "evacuate immediately" ahead of an attack.

The IDF's Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X, external that the IDF will launch an "unprecedented attack to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organisations in this area".

"You must evacuate immediately west to the Mawasi area," he writes, adding that Khan Younis will be considered a "dangerous combat zone".

Image source, Reuters

British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians says Israel struck the medical supplies warehouse of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, overnight.

The organisation says it took place "as Palestinians who were killed and wounded from other attacks were being brought to the hospital".

Among the damaged medical supplies were those the organisation had provided to Nasser Hospital.

"We are just seeing all our work being burned to ashes," a spokesman says.

Gaza's health ministry has also shared images of the damage to the complex this morning.

Palestinian media reports that there were dozens of strikes in the city. Israel has not commented directly on the incident.

Israel's air force says it attacked more than 160 targets, external throughout Gaza in the past 24 hours.

Several trucks carrying humanitarian aid have been pictured at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza.

So far, there's been no reported activity at the crossing.

Aid trucks have also been lining up in the city of Arish in Egypt, Reuters reports.

Earlier this month, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) - the largest provider of aid in Gaza - said more than 3,000 trucks were stuck outside the territory.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

We can now bring you more lines from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, from a video posted on his Telegram this morning.

"We are engaged in massive fighting - intense and substantial - and there is progress. We are going to take control of all areas of the Strip, that’s what we’re going to do," he says in the video.

Addressing criticism of the blockade, Netanyahu says it has been necessary since the start of the war in Gaza for Israel to prevent a famine "both from a practical and a diplomatic standpoint".

"Simply put, others will not us; we will not be able to complete the mission of victory," he says.

"Therefore, we decided to provide minimal humanitarian aid during the war. We advanced with this approach, and of course, we discovered that Hamas was looting some of this aid. So we halted the humanitarian aid."

Netanyahu goes on to say that Israel was "approaching the red line", with senators and friends of Israel telling him "we cannot handle images of starvation, of mass starvation".

He says a "minimal, basic bridge" is needed "just enough to prevent hunger".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said in a new video posted on his Telegram that Israel will take control of all of Gaza and prevent Hamas from looting aid entering the territory.

It comes after the Israeli government said it would allow "basic" amounts of food into Gaza following an 11-week blockade.

We'll be bringing you further lines from this shortly.

Image source, Reuters

As we've been reporting, Israel has announced it will allow a "basic amount of food" to enter Gaza after blockading the territory for 11 weeks.

Since early March, Israel has blocked all shipments of humanitarian aid, including food and medical supplies, from entering Gaza.

The blockade has been condemned by world leaders and aid agencies, with Israel facing increasing pressure to lift it.

The UN has warned of a "critical risk" of famine for the 2.1 million Palestinians living in Gaza. Other aid agencies have said the blockade could be a war crime and amounts to a policy of starvation.

The BBC spoke to Palestinians in the territory, who have described their struggle to find even one meal a day.

"My children go to sleep hungry," a father of six says. "Sometimes I sit and cry like a little kid if I don't manage to provide food for them."

The Israeli government insists there is "no shortage" of food in Gaza and that the "real crisis is Hamas looting and selling aid".

It says it is putting pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages - some 58 hostages remain in Gaza, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

A group representing the families of hostages held in Gaza warns Israel's military offensive, named "Gideon's Chariot", poses a "severe threat" to hostages.

In a report, it says the expansion of fighting "dramatically increases" the risk of harm to hostages.

"The current policy is killing the living and erasing the dead. Every bombing, every delay, every indecision increases the danger," the group's Professor Hagai Levine, who co-authored the report, says.

"If we continue this way, we will lose both the living and the dead. We must bring everyone back."

Image source, Reuters

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem

I've just been speaking to a father of two displaced in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, who says increasing numbers of people are arriving at his camp in search of safety.

"It has not stopped for 10 days. The safe place has become impossible to live in with these numbers, and the food shortage has reached extreme levels. We can hardly move," the man, who asks not to be named over fears for his safety, tells me on WhatsApp.

"There is no safe place at all. Death pursues you everywhere and in every way," he says.

The IDF last night ordered people in neighbourhoods elsewhere in Gaza to "immediately move" to "well-known shelter centres" in al-Mawasi for their safety.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

As we've been reporting, Israel launched "extensive ground operations" in Gaza over the weekend, as part of what it calls Operation Gideon's Chariot.

The military said on Sunday there were five divisions operating in the Gaza Strip, aiming for "complete control" in "the places where we operate". It said it was moving the population from areas of fighting.

Meanwhile, Israeli air strikes continued overnight, where hospitals say more than 100 people were killed in the past day. Sites targeted included the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, the southern city of Khan Younis, and the Jabalia refugee camp.

The Israeli military said on Sunday "the only thing that will stop us is returning the hostages home". There are 58 hostages in Gaza, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent, in Cairo

A senior Hamas source told the BBC on Sunday evening that "no breakthrough or progress has been achieved so far in the ongoing negotiations in Doha due to continued Israeli intransigence".

The source said Hamas has expressed willingness to release all Israeli hostages in a single phase, "on the condition of reaching a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire agreement — something the Israeli side continues to reject, as their negotiating team lacks the mandate to decide on key issues".

"Israel is obstructing any opportunity to reach a deal," the source added, stressing that Hamas "rejects any partial or temporary arrangements".

The official reiterated that Hamas seeks a comprehensive package deal that includes the release of all hostages held in Gaza in exchange for an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners, a permanent ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and the entry of humanitarian aid.

According to the source, "Israel wants to retrieve its hostages in one or two batches in return for a temporary truce".

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Image source, Reuters

With global experts warning of famine, Israel’s continuing blockade of Gaza – which it said was to put pressure on Hamas – has caused an international outcry.

Finally, Israel’s prime minister announced the change in policy, saying a "basic"amount of food would enter, as a "starvation crisis" would jeopardise Israel’s new military offensive.

While Israel insists it’s sticking to its controversial plans for a new aid system, for now, the UN – which has supplies piled up at Gaza’s crossings – has confirmed that it’s been approached about resuming deliveries.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military is continuing its most extensive ground operations since ending a ceasefire two months ago. Doctors say dozens of children were among those killed by bombing in the past day. Direct strikes on northern Gaza’s main hospital forced it to close.

While negotiators for Israel and Hamas remain in Qatar, both sides say there’s been no breakthrough in a new round of indirect talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal.