staff, large numbers of displaced people are sheltering in the hospital. our correspodent injerusalem, tom bateman, has more. they have denied ordering it, but they don't deny that an evacuation is taking place. we have had a report from the afp news agency, a journalist working for them at the scene said that via loudspeakers there was an order to evacuate the hospital within the hour earlier this morning. he reported the director of the hospital had been phoned by the military and instructed for everyone to leave, for patients and staff and displaced people to make their way on foot to the seafront. the israeli military has since issued a statement saying there was no order for people to evacuate. it said it was assisting an evacuation operation at the request of the hospital's director. it also said that medical personnel would be able to stay there for people who couldn't get out. but clearly there are further moves now to evacuate people in the hospital. we have had a localjournalist who has been at the hospital and in touch with the bbc repeatedly over the last couple of weeks telling us in the last few minutes, he says, the group he is with has left the hospital. the hospital has been evacuated apart from patients who could not be moved and a small number of doctors. he said, we raised our hands and carried white flags. last night the sounds of gunfire and explosions was terrifying. the bulldozers created huge holes a0 metres deep in at the hospital yard and swept away some buildings. the context to all this is that the military of israel has had the hospital surrounded for days, it has made some raids into it. it has said according to its intelligence there is a hamas command and control centre in and under that compound. we know in these raids it has found some weapons and released pictures of what it said are weapons to support this. but of course we have not seen evidence yet of a command and control centre by hamas. this becomes a really critical issue. we know the israelis have exposed what they have said is a tunnel shaft close to the hospital there, pictures of that were released over the last 48 hours. it would appear that from all of this that those attempts to find more evidence now continue. when we talk about the evacuation of patients, the question always comes up of where these people will go. that is not always a clear answer. do we have any more information from the israeli government or its military on where they say these patients could be taken to that is safe? earlier on in the week they said there was effectively an evacuation corridor from one direction out to the other of the hospital compound, they said that was safe. we heard from at least one doctor inside that it was not safe because of the shelling and bombardment and fighting going on outside. more broadly, israel has always said that people should evacuate to the south of the gaza strip. they generally have created what they call these evacuation corridors, there is effectively two main roads to the south and north of the gaza strip. south in the gaza strip, and along one or either of these routes evacuation corridors to get south. but it is extremely dangerous. the un and the red cross have spoken on several occasions of that route being littered with bodies, that when people reach the line that effectively separates the north from the south with these two points of access, that people are making their way on foot there and are arriving generally exhausted and desperately in need of food and water. agencies have been able to supply some at that particular point. but that would be the route essentially that israel says people evacuating the hospital should take. live now to dr nick maynard, who trained medics in gaza and was carrying out surgeries at al—shifa as recently as may this year. can you tell us a bit about al—shifa hospital? how important is it? al—shifa hospital is the biggest in gaza, it is the main trauma centre. in the many years i have been going to gaza it has always been the leading hospitalfor taking to gaza it has always been the leading hospital for taking trauma victims from the multiple bombardments. so it is hugely significant that al—shifa hospital now is completely disabled. we significant that al-shifa hospital now is completely disabled. we have heard a lot of — now is completely disabled. we have heard a lot of reports _ now is completely disabled. we have heard a lot of reports about - now is completely disabled. we have heard a lot of reports about the - heard a lot of reports about the conditions doctors there are working on there. before the violence broke out, before the hamas attack of october 7, what is it like working as a doctor in a hospital in an area which is controlled by an organisation many governments consider a terrorist group? i have been in gaza _ consider a terrorist group? i have been in gaza on _ consider a terrorist group? i have been in gaza on many _ consider a terrorist group? i have been in gaza on many occasions i consider a terrorist group? i have | been in gaza on many occasions in the last 15 years and have a word in al—shifa hospital on many occasions. i have never seen any evidence of the hospital being run by hamas militia. this contention by the israel defence force that it is a command centre is utterly fanciable, from my perspective. i have no idea what is going on in the tunnels underneath. but i have what every inch of the hospital. more importantly, colleagues of mine, gassing doctors and nurses who i have known for many years and trust implicitly, have lived in the hospital for the last five weeks, and that has been no restrictjin to their movements at all, and there has been no evidence of the hospital itself being used as a command centre —— gazan doctors and nurses. i have heard no credible evidence of the last few days that this hospital is being used as a command centre, with a single caveat that i do not know what is going on in the tunnels underneath. know what is going on in the tunnels underneath-— know what is going on in the tunnels underneath. ~ , ., , .,, underneath. when you see the videos that israel puts _ underneath. when you see the videos that israel puts out _ underneath. when you see the videos that israel puts out showing _ underneath. when you see the videos that israel puts out showing the - that israel puts out showing the tunnels which it says its military has found at this site which you are so used to and experienced in, how does that make you feel when you see those videos? i do does that make you feel when you see those videos?— those videos? i do have to question the veracity — those videos? i do have to question the veracity of _ those videos? i do have to question the veracity of it. _ those videos? i do have to question the veracity of it. they _ those videos? i do have to question the veracity of it. they showed - those videos? i do have to question the veracity of it. they showed a . the veracity of it. they showed a video of eternal about three weeks ago which they claimed as a hamas tunnel, and i recognised it as an underground vent next to a hotel that i stay in in gaza. i do question the veracity of some of this. i see the pictures of the weapons and armour meant they have discovered in the hospital. they showed one yesterday of weapons next to an mri scanner. mri scanners work by huge magnets, so it is inconceivable that metal arms would be stored next to an mri scanner. i am hugely sceptical about many of the images put out there.- the images put out there. israel insists its forces _ the images put out there. israel insists its forces have _ the images put out there. israel insists its forces have been - insists its forces have been assisting hospital with evacuating patients. can you give us a sense of the conditions doctors are working under from what you hear from your colleagues and friends in gaza? thea;r colleagues and friends in gaza? they certainl do colleagues and friends in gaza? they certainly do not _ colleagues and friends in gaza? iia: certainly do not describe colleagues and friends in gaza? "iia: certainly do not describe the colleagues and friends in gaza? ii21: certainly do not describe the israel defence force as assisting the evacuation. i have been watching al jazeera this morning and been in contact with a doctor who herself is in contact with people they are, and that they are working under the most appallingly hostile conditions. the patient is being evacuated, it is almost inconceivable to me that they will survive. this notion it will be evacuated to a safe area is a ludicrous notion, if you ask me. the rules are almost impassable, that at no function hospital in gaza at the moment. the only hospital that was an admission hospital, that has stopped functioning two days ago. there is nowhere for these patients to go. we have heard about the newborn babies, we have heard about the ventilated patients, all of whom have died in the last two or three days. ifearthose have died in the last two or three days. i fear those patients have died in the last two or three days. ifear those patients being evacuated will die because there is no safe place for them to go. drjack watling — senior research fellow for land warfare at the royal united services institute, gave us his military assesment of the current idf operation. the israeli defence forces pushed into gaza north of the gaza river, they managed to break through to the ocean, and then pivoted north and have essentially cut gaza city from the sea. they are now conducting deliberate clearance operations into the urban terrain to try and fight their way through positions held by hamas. obviously there is still a lot of civilians in those areas as well. what we see at the moment is a fairly slow and methodical clearance of dense urban terrain to try and identify tunnels, infrastructure, and to destroy hamas's infrastructure in gaza city. you talk about this deliberate and slow military operation. but as you mentioned, these are areas where there are a lot of civilians. is this an appropriate military method that israel is taking? are they going about things, from an analytical political point of view, in the right way? the initial strikes we saw used very heavy ordinance, partly because they were trying to target subterranean infrastructure. there was a debate about the proportionalityjudgments made i think in that instance. but the law is actually very forgiving in that context because it is largely down to the commander tojudge. the israeli defence forces have followed a very sound military logic. they have tried to be fast in their initial strikes to disrupt hamas. they have then tried to secure the ground lines of communication in order to isolate hamas. then it has used pauses in fighting to try to encourage civilians to leave, and then conduct assaults into specific areas. from a military point of view, it makes sense. but there is a wider issue, we saw the same thing in mosul and raqqah, civilians don't always leave and they can't always be supported. the law is very permissive in terms ofjudgments of proportionality. and so, many, many civilians are being killed. one of the key moments of focus right now is the al—shifa hospital. israel says there are tunnels underneath the hospital that hamas uses as military bases and which they say potentially have kept hostages in. hamas has denied that. but at the core of this, we are talking about military operations around a hospital where there are patients civillians and medical staff sheltering. can you talk about the complications around this as a military operation? you have civilians relying on the hospital for medical treatment and for shelter. but at the same time you have hamas, which has built an extensive underground infrastructure, it does go near and under civilian buildings, schools and hospitals, for example. we have seen hamas use that infrastructure to fight from. basing command command control there is something they have done. for the israelis there is always this calculus around military necessity, where is the military objective, and the need to engage those fighters when they are deliberately fighting from the middle of the civilian population. one of the challenges is that international law, as written, essentiallyjudges proportionality in the moment. so, if i apply this military effect to try and kill this fighter that is engaging me, the hospital has lost its absolute protection because it is being used for military purposes. i still have to make a proportionalityjudgment, but that is only about the civilians that are the immediate collateral damage of the strike. whereas if you damage something like a hospital critical to civilian infrastructure, that has collateral damage that lasts for years because there is no longer treatment and a refuge. so i think there are some real deficiencies in how we deal with this because this is going to be a recurring problem. it is notjust an issue in gaza today, it is one that will crop up again and again in conflict. in terms of resources, the idf are relatively well resourced military organisation supported by intelligence bodies. how does that stack up against what hamas has on the ground? hamas has a fairly significant number of fighters and it has built up a substantial arsenal of anti—tank weapons and also rockets, which can continue to be fired at israel if hamas is not under attack. many of its fighters are fairly determined. having said that, it doesn't have the same sensors that the idf has, it doesn't have armoured vehicles. so, hamas is very decisively losing this fight, they are being deliberately cleared out of the terrain and inflicting fairly few casualties in the process, partly because the idf is using firepower to reduce the number of times they need to expose their infantry in this terrain, and therefore they are using firepower to reduce their own casualties, which is an understandable judgment, but obviously has serious implications for the civilians. some of the biggest names in entertainment — including disney, comcast and warner brothers discovery — have become the latest companies to pause their advertising on x , after the platform's owner, elon musk, responded approvingly to an anti—semitic post earlier this week. the company's owner denies it was anti—semitic. he's said this morning he will be filing what he called "a thermo—nuclear lawsuit" against all those who colluded in a fraudulent attack on x. openai, the artificial intelligence firm behind chapgpt, has sacked its ceo sam altman — saying it's lost confidence in his ability to lead the company. the board said mr altman had not been "consistently candid with his communications", hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities. our technology editor, zoe kleinman, has more. this is such an extraordinary announcement and the whole of the ai community is really quite astonished and shocked. if you haven't heard of sam altman and you haven't heard of this company, openai, you've probably heard of their most famous product, which was chatgpt, the viral ai chat bot that exploded onto the world literally a year ago in two weeks' time. the firm was gearing up for the first anniversary of this product that's arguably changed the world. we don't know a lot about what's happened here. the board on openai says that it had lost confidence in mr altman, it said that it was worried he hadn't been consistently candid in his communications, and they questioned something about his honesty, which begs the question that there's something that he has or has not told them, and somehow he's been caught out. and i think a lot of people now are sort of scrambling to try to work out what's going on. he has posted on x, the site that was formerly twitter, and he says, you know, he's had a good time at openai and he's looking forward to what's coming next. i think it's pretty obvious that he did not know that this was coming. just last week, he gave a big speech in which he was very optimistic and confident about the future of chatgpt and the future of openai. he was here in the uk at the beginning of the month at the world's first ai safety summit. he's very much part of the furniture and a very powerful figure in the whole of the west's ai community. and i think all eyes are now going to be on what he does next and what comes out about why he's suddenly and so dramatically been fired. protests are continuing in madrid today, as prime minister pedro sanchez wins another term in office. after weeks of haggling, mr sanchez won a four—seat majority by securing an amnesty deal for catalans involved in a failed bid to secede from spain in 2017. the amnesty deal with the catalan nationalist party led to protests in the spanish capital, which in some cases have turned violent. today, the main political parties against the deal — the people's party and the extreme—right—wing group, vox — will rally on the streets. our correspondent, guy hedgecoe, has been monitoring events from madrid. we are expecting this demonstration in central madrid to be very big. it has the support of the main parties on the right. it is being organised by civic organisations with links to the mainstream and far right. so we are expecting it to be extremely big. but this is nothing new. you mentioned the recent protests, there had been nightly protests outside the socialist party headquarters for the last two weeks. there were again last night, there are constant clashes between protesters and police. we have seen pretty much every week these much bigger weekend matches. i think this one is expected to be particularly big because of the fact that pedro sanchez did manage to form that majority earlier this week. so there is that anger of those who are against the amnesty and who are expected to turn out today. that majority for the socialist leader, pedro sanchez, is a small majority. what has he been saying about these demonstrations? he has been talking about them as an example, in many cases, particularly with the more violent demonstrations, of it being a reflection of the far right, in particular the vox party, saying that this is what the far right wants, it is in favour of these violent protests. he has been saying that is why it has been a good thing that i've formed this government, a government based mainly on left wing support, but also the support of those regional nationalists as well, saying that this left—leaning government is keeping the right out of power, and it is a right that would probably include the far right in it. so he is saying that is a good thing and we have to push ahead with our progressive social agenda and try to forget about the noise on the street. but obviously that is not going to be an easy thing for him. where does the catalan separatist movement go from here? i think they now feel they have an opportunity right now because they really are the focus of the political debate at the moment. because they are supporting this government of pedro sanchez. they have this amnesty agreement with him, which doesn't come into effect until next year. in the meantime there is a feeling they will try to push for their ultimate aim, which is a referendum on catalan independence with the blessing of madrid. pedro sanchez has repeatedly said he will not allow a referendum, a scotland—style referendum, if you like, that is not constitutional. however, he did say that about the amnesty a few weeks ago before changing his mind. so i think there are many people wondering if there is enough pressure from the independence movement he might change his mind. he insists he will not hold that referendum. but i think the independence movement is looking at this as an opportunity to try and push for further concessions from the centra