In the past couple of hours, americas top diplomat, Antony Blinken, has arrived back in israel from egypt, where he was trying to persuade officials to reopen the border point. Egypts Foreign Minister is reported as saying israel had not yet taken a stance that would allow the crossing to open. Over the weekend, hes held talks in six arab states, wanting to alleviate gazas humanitarian crisis and stop the war escalating. He returns to israel, as it prepares a major Ground Operation in the gaza strip. We are expecting a News Conference shortly involving Antony Blinken and we will bring you that as soon as it begins. This is a fast moving story, but here are some other key points. The United Nations is warning that Hospital Fuel Reserves in gaza are likely to run out in the next 2a hours potentially Endangering Thousands of patients. Conditions in the territory are worsening, with shortages of food, water and aid. At least 2,750 people have been killed. Palestinian sources say israels airforce struck twenty targets in gaza overnight, with the detonations among the heaviest seen in the past nine days. The un chief, antonio guterres, has warned that the middle east is staring into the abyss. Hes demanded hamas immediately release hostages and has told israel to allow in aid. The israeli Prime Minister, benjamin netanyahu, says his military is ready to begin a Ground Offensive at any moment, aimed at crushing hamas. The bbc has now learned that 199 israeli hostages are being held by hamas and about 1,400 israelis have been killed since the seventh of october attack. 0ur Correspondent, nick beake, has the latest. In gaza, families who have been forced from their homes are heading south to the border with egypt. But this, the Rafah Crossing, has remained closed to them, trapping palestinians as well as foreign nationals. They say theyve lost everything in israels response to hamas� s killing of civilians just over a week ago. This gaza strip and palestine, this is like, they think theres no people here. Theres people here theres people here live its not right some say they have done exactly as israel ordered and left the north of gaza only to be bombed in the south. Translation no electricity, | no water, no nappies, no milk, corpses in the street. We fled to the un school, we thought it was safe, but they targeted it and people died. Across the border, a convoy of aid trucks has built up but there is still no deal with egypt to allow them in. Israel cut off supplies of food, medicine and other essentials to more than 2 Million People in gaza after the hamas attacks. Translation there have been reports of humanitarian aid being allowed into gaza in return for letting foreigners leave. At this stage i would like to state the crossings are closed and there is no such decision. There is no ceasefire and we are continuing our operational activity. Israel says it is preparing for a major operation by air, land and sea. Its most powerful ally is warning against an occupation of gaza. I think it would be a big mistake. Look, what happened in gaza in my view is hamas and the extreme elements of hamas dont represent all the palestinian people. Fighterjets are leading israels military campaign. The bombs obliterating whole buildings in densely packed Gaza Neighbourhoods and continue to kill civilians. Israel says its targeting hamas fighters and weapons. In tel aviv, one of many memorials to the 1300 israelis killed in hamas attacks. The government here says the scale of the atrocities justifies its response. Most israelis seem to support what their military is doing in gaza, that hamas crossed a line. And hamas continues to fire rockets into israeli towns and cities, and that only hardens public opinion. People are also worried and angry that 199 hostages are still being held in gaza. There is no sign of the imminent release of those hostages, nor any breakthrough that would allow those in gaza to escape from this misery. Nick beake, bbc news, tel aviv. Ive been talking to mohammed ghalayini. Hes an Air Quality Scientist who lives in manchester, but returned to his home town of gaza city last month, while on a career break. Currently he is in the city of khan younis, in the Southern Gaza strip and explained what the situation is like there. I just want to take a moment to acknowledge, like, whats been happening over the past few days especially in gaza and in israel, of course but particularly in gaza where i am. I think upwards of 2,000 palestinians have been killed and that number isnt really coming through the media all the time, or being focused on. More than half of those are civilian women, children and other civilians. Yeah, so. I found myself in gaza because, as i said, i was visiting, as you said, on a career break. I came home to reconnect with family. I wanted to make professional links to kind of reverse the brain drain, so to speak. It was all going quite well until, yeah, until last week, i think, or 10 days ago now ive lost track of time. Tell me what happened on saturday morning. That saturday the 7th of october. Yeah, i was actually going to help family with the olive harvest, so i woke up actually quite early, and thats when i first knew that something was amiss, when i saw the rocket trails from, you know, various places being fired towards israel. And, you know, ithought Something Big was happening because there were a lot of rockets. And then, you know, news started filtering through of the attack. Which, you know, i condemn violence against civilians in any form but i think its really, really important when looking at the hamas attacks to look at them in the context of a very prolonged occupation and repression of palestinian human rights. Its really, really important to not forget that and in the response that is coming, to really stop and think, is this just a continuation of more of the same that will then result in more of the same down the line for israelis and palestinians . Or can we please im talking to the us now, to the uk governments and others can we take a step back and rein it in, and find a way tojust and lasting peace . Whats happening where you are now in khan yunis . How bad is it for you in terms of getting hold of food and fuel and things like that . Yes, there are big food and fuel. Fuel is probably the major shortage right now. Food is. And then fuel, then, people are dependent on fuel to get water, because, you know, the pumped water in gaza, theres no municipal pumped supply right now, so people pump using their own home motors in their homes, to pump the water up to tanks, so thats the issue with the water supply. Drinking water is another story because Drinking Water, you cant get Drinking Water from the municipal supply you have to buy Drinking Water separately, and thats kind of being distributed very, very sporadically by people on donkey carts, and we dont know how long that will continue. In terms of food, you know, weve been able to get food from day to day, but we have no facility for cooking. People that i know that are sheltering in un schools and probably, like, there are thousands if not 100,000 people sheltering in un schools i dont know the exact figure but they. I asked some people, what are you getting to eat . And they said weve got a can of sardines and a can of corned beef, no bread, so people are really struggling. People in gaza live hand to mouth. People dont have savings or stocks. People are dependent on, you know, one breadwinner will support 20 or 30 people. So, yeah, people are really struggling. Lets bring you some live pictures coming in from hamas and you can see big plumes of smoke in the background. The israeli air assault still carries on. I think there are around 20 targets hit overnight i believe and we heard they are amongst the biggest detonations we have seen in the nine days and since this began. The un says its currently in deep negotiations to try and get first aid into gaza. That is the main issue right now. The main issue is fuel, food and other supplies in and out of the country. Antony blinken is back in israel and you are expecting at some point in the next few minutes or half an hour or so a Press Conference. He has been very busy trying to travel around states around israel trying to get some sort of a guarantee that this wont escalate into a regional issue or a regional issue particularly involving other countries because weve heard earlier on that i have been some exchanges of fire between Northern Israel and southern lebanon. Hezbollah which is iranian backed a very strong in the Southern Parts of lebanon. Speaking to our corresponding earlier. There are live pictures within gaza. We know there are thousands of people waiting on the border between gaza and egypt. They had been talk at one point of the day that it would be opened. There is no hope it could be opened. There is no hope it could be opened for a few hours today to try to get some sort of aid into gaza and also to get some people out. Its important to point out that there are around 500 palestinians with us passports so us citizens in effect you are stuck in gaza. 0ur Correspondentjon donnison has the latest from gaza. Amid the destruction in Southern Gaza, the homeless and the hungry in their hundreds of thousands are trying to survive. And the United Nations is now warning of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. We have nothing that we need to live, says this man, who fled south. We are living in a dump and if we move we will die. Amid the detritus are not enough toilets, there are fears about the spread of disease. There is food, but not enough. All this will feed less than 2000 people, says amir, just a fraction of those in need. There are long queues to get bread, but it is being rationed. We have been waiting here since six in the morning, he tells us, just to get food to feed the kids. We will run out of flour, the baker says, in two days maximum. Clean water is also in short supply. Fuel supplies needed to operate filters are dwindling. This is all the clean water i can get, he says. We left our homes in the north because we thought there would be aid, but where is it, he goes on. Give us electricity, give us water. And all the while, the hospitals in the south, like in the rest of gaza, are overwhelmed with casualties from the old to the very young. Ten days, four days . Those are the victims. Those are the injured here in the hospital. This little baby was born amid the chaos less than a week ago. What kind of life lies ahead of her . Jon donnison, bbc news. That wasjohn that was John Reporting from that wasJohn Reporting from jerusalem. Benny gantz is a former israeli general and Opposition Leader whos now part of israels war cabinet. 0ur Correspondent anna foster put a question to him. Lets take a listen. You are you are concerned you are concerned enough to move lots of people from the border, do you think they will be a war with hezbollah in the north . I you think they will be a war with hezbollah in the north . You think they will be a war with hezbollah in the north . I hope not but thank you hezbollah in the north . I hope not but thank you very hezbollah in the north . I hope not but thank you very much. Hezbollah in the north . I hope not but thank you very much. I hezbollah in the north . I hope not but thank you very much. I want i hezbollah in the north . I hope notj but thank you very much. I want to cross live now but thank you very much. I want to cross live now to but thank you very much. I want to cross live now to jerusalem but thank you very much. I want to cross live now to jerusalem and. Cross live now tojerusalem and speak to our correspondent tom bateman. The big fear of Antony Blinken who we are waiting for a Press Conference from today, the big fear he has is that this will end up becoming a regional conflict. Right from the start becoming a regional conflict. Right from the start that becoming a regional conflict. Right from the start that has becoming a regional conflict. Ti grit from the start that has been one becoming a regional conflict. 11 grit from the start that has been one of his four priorities about trying to manage this crisis is to stop it engulfing the wider region and the risks are self evident because youve heard about whats happening on the northern border, weve had in the last few hours an iranian official saying there is an inevitable chance that if the humanitarian crisis isnt resolved in gaza and if supplies are not allowed in that they will be further confrontation. Weve had similar threats over the last two or three days by the iranians. They were saying yesterday that the finger is on the trigger over all of this is their wait Israeli Ground troops to go in. So the rhetoric has been this Maximalist Point for days now. Antony blinken trying to do what he can to cool the temperature over the wider regional issue but clearly one of the things that worries the americans is as both the humanitarian catastrophe and its really hard to overstate the desperate nature of things in gaza at the moment, i mean water is running out. The United Nations Refugee Agency that runs services and most of gaza said overnight that gazais and most of gaza said overnight that gaza is being strangled. So the rest of the region are seeing whats happening they are and that is causing shock and outrage. That feeds into the kind of rhetoric we are hearing from the iranians and it builds up the temperature. And all of this before an Israeli Ground assault has even begun which is going to massively ramp up the number of civilian casualties. Antony blinken has been talking to just about every regional leader over the last three days. We know the turkish president spoke to the iranian president the last few hours and these lines of communications, you have a nato ally there speaking to the iranians, so the conversations are going on but at the moment this crisis seems to be escalating and at the same time still no development on whether or not that rough crossing between gaza and egypt will open. Still no movement on saturday. And egypt will open. Still no movement on saturda. , ~ , movement on saturday. Thank you very much. Movement on saturday. Thank you very much around movement on saturday. Thank you very much. Around the movement on saturday. Thank you very much. Around the World Movement on saturday. Thank you very much. Around the world and movement on saturday. Thank you very much. Around the world and across much. Around the world and across the uk, you are watching bbc news. Lets look at some other stories making news. Further School Strikes are due to take place in scotland after a union voted to reject the latest pay offer for support staff. Unison, the union that represents administrators, Catering Assistants and janitors, said a Rolling Programme of strikes in schools and nurseries will take place in the coming weeks with dates announced within days. Parliaments Behaviour Watchdog has recommended that conservative mp peter bone be suspended for six weeks for bullying and sexual misconduct. It follows a complaint made by a former member of staff, over alleged behaviour which took place over 10 years ago. The suspension will have to be voted on by the House Of Commons to be approved. More foreign prisoners are to be deported to their home countries under plans to tackle overcrowding injails. Justice secretary, alex chalk is due to set out plans in the commons today for reducing the Prison Population in england and wales. Figures show thatjails are approaching full capacity with the number of inmates at an all time high. Youre live with bbc news. The threat of an Israeli Ground invasion in the north of gaza has led to Tens Of Thousands of people moving to the south of the territory around khan younis. Thats created a huge strain on the supplies of food and water in the area. Emergency kitchens such as these have been set up to provide thousands of meals each day. The cooks are having to use wood as a source of heat. Theres also been some damage to buildings in this area. Like the rest of gaza, few supplies are coming in. 0ur Correspondent in gaza, rushdi abu alouf, who shot these pictures, sent this update on what has become a struggle to find enough to eat. This long queue for people waiting to buyjust bread. The bakery resumed open this morning after a small shipment of wheat arrived from Southern Gaza. Hundreds of people are waiting to get it. I asked some of them, and they believe not all of them indeed will have the chance to get this bread. They will only give each person five pieces of bread for about every one of those have, like, two, three, five families fleeing from the north, from the south, everywhere, and they are taking khan younis as a refuge. 11 journalists have been killed by israeli air strikes in gaza since the seventh of october, according to the committee to protectjournalists. And a journalist from the News Agency Reuters was killed by an israeli missile in southern lebanon. 37 year old Issam Abdallah was providing a live video signal when a shell landed. He was killed and six other journalists were injured. Aljazeera and afp journalists were also wounded working in southern lebanon. Jonathan dagher is head of the middle east desk at reporters without borders. He can tell us more. Its a dangerous place right now for journalists on the ground. Yes. Its a dangerous place right now for journalists on the ground. Yes, one ofthe journalists on the ground. Yes, one of the most journalists on the ground. Yes, one of the most dangerous journalists on the ground. Yes, one of the most dangerous places journalists on the ground. Yes, one of the most dangerous places in journalists on the ground. Yes, one | of the most dangerous places in the world right now forjournalists. We are denouncing a bloody week for journalists in the middle east with more than seven journalists killed in the past seven days and the reason we are talking only about seven when numbers are even more is the only verified journalists were killed during the course of their work and we have verified seven but we are still verifying other pieces we are still verifying other pieces we have and they have been more dualist deaths in the past week. We are asking italy authorities to stop the indiscriminate bombing that is killing journalists on the ground in gaza and we are asking all parties to protectjournalists who are covering this conflict. When we talk about the killing of the journalists we are talking about six in gaza so far and one was a photojournalist for writers who was killed at the lebanese Southern Border on friday night. Lebanese Southern Border on friday niuht. , . Night. How difficult it made eoles night. How difficult it made peeplesjobs. Night. How difficult it made peoples jobs, this night. How difficult it made peoples jobs, this fear night. How difficult it made peoples jobs, this fear of l night. How difficult it made peoples jobs, this fear of being targeted inadvertently . Evidently ournalists targeted inadvertently . Evidently journalists are targeted inadvertently . Evidently journalists are living targeted inadvertently . Evidently journalists are living in targeted inadvertently . Evidently journalists are living in the targeted inadvertently . Evidently journalists are living in the fear. Journalists are living in the fear of being hit by an air strike. They could lose their lives at any moment and we can only imagine what this kind of fear and terror is. Journalists are telling us they have never experienced terror such as this one even though this is not the first time they have covered a war in gaza. Besides this daily fear of death they have been a lot of injuries. There are journalists who are living where they have lost Family Members and homes and they have had to evacuate their homes. So obviously they are living in a different psychological situation on top of the risks. Not to mention the difficulties at a logistic level. Electricity cuts and internet cuts. Nearly impossible to get information out. We are really worried about a blackout if this continues in their own correspondence, we can reach her once or twice a day so we are living under the stress of it she safe. A lot of journalists are under the stress of it she safe. A lot ofjournalists are currently under the stress of it she safe. A lot of journalists are currently at the Southern Border of gaza. Some of them want to be evacuated and some of them want to stay to continue covering despite the risks. A lot of them want their families out. They are trapped between the bombing and the closed borders. The closed borders. Thank you for oininu the closed borders. Thank you for joining us the closed borders. Thank you for joining us i the closed borders. Thank you for joining us ijust the closed borders. Thank you for joining us. I just want the closed borders. Thank you for joining us. I just want to the closed borders. Thank you for joining us. Ijust want to refute i the closed borders. Thank you for| joining us. Ijust want to refute joining us. Ijust want to refute reiterated that there are many journalists working on the ground both within gaza and israel and trying to do a very difficultjob. Before we leave you are you live to jerusalem where the israeli Prime Minister is given a Press Conference. We are getting a few bits of details about what hes saying. He said that victory in gaza will take time. He is now talking in hebrew so we cannot take it live but we will bring you the lines as and when we get them. But we do know so far that the Israeli Ground offensive is imminent. We are not sure what the timings are or what the plans are but we have been hearing that it could be happening any our. So far we have been seeing in the last hour or so a number of israeli air missiles hitting gaza. Last night 20 targets were hit and some of those detonations were the biggest we have seen in nine days. We now know that more than 3000 people have been killed in gaza by the strikes and we also know that 199 israeli hostages are in gaza being held by hamas after they were kidnapped from israel. I am back in a few minutes time with all the latest on this developing story. Stay with us here on bbc news. The second named storm of season the is on its way later on in the week so its wet and windy weather on the cards but we week of two halves. The last few days will be mostly dry with sunshine but from mid week onwards the weather will turn increasingly windy with some heavy rain. The storm will head its way from the south west and move towards our shows. From the south west and move towards ourshows. Increasingly from the south west and move towards our shows. Increasingly heavy rain developing from wednesday onwards and lasting through thursday and friday. Lots of wet weather on the cards for many of us. Today, quite quiet out there. A lot of high cloud across england and wales. Some sunshine for Northern England and scotland and Northern Ireland. Temperatures are somewhere between 11 and 1a celsius. Tonight, we will see that Thickening Cloud Continuing to moving. Some splashes of rain for the channel islands. The breeze picking up. Further north we have lighter winds and clearer skies so the lowest temperatures will be across parts of scotland and Northern Ireland and Northern England. Tuesday, still relatively quiet. Some Early Morning mist and fog will clear away from central areas and then sunshine for Eastern England and scotland but claudia in wales and south west england. Temperatures around 11 degrees for most of us. As we move through to thing into wednesday this low pressure will move in from the bay of biscay. The isobars squeezing as well so were going to have that windy spell of weather developing wednesday. Some outbreaks of rain initially for scotland and for Northern Ireland and wales. So the wind is picking up around that area. 35 miles analogous of win so enough to cause some disruption. Temperatures starting to improve a little bit. Lets take a look at the Rainfall Accumulation we are expecting between wednesday and saturday and take a look at these colours across the east of scotland. So enough to cause significant disruption so keep your eyes on the latest warnings. Goodbye. Youre watching bbc news. Thousands of people wait at the border between egypt and Gaza Washington hopes the crossing the build up of israeli us secretary of state Antony Blinken returns to israel as he tries to head off a wider regional conflict. More now on the war in the middle east where the Rafah Crossing between gaza and egypt remains closed, despite reports it could re open. For days, Tens Of Thousands of palestinians have been arriving at the crossing, as conditions in gaza steadily worsen. They had been warned to move south from northern gaza, before what is expected to be a major Ground Offensive by israel. The operation is in response to an attack by hamas which killed 11100 people in israel last week. 0ur Correspondentjon donnison has more from jerusalem. Ive been speaking to people in gaza all morning and just listen to the language that the United Nations is using, talking about fears of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. One of the towns you saw in that report was khan younis. Now, normally, about 400,000 people live there. There are now more than a Million People needing to be fed and sheltered. 0ur Correspondent in gaza, who provided a lot of those pictures, is saying, look, its not happening