Matt Spivey
Live page editor

Image source, Reuters

We're pausing our live coverage for today, but before we go here are the latest headlines from across the Middle East:

Israeli strikes have killed at least 87 people in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run authorities. Israel describes the strike as a “precision” attack against a Hamas target.

The UN warns that "nowhere is safe in Gaza" and says the "nightmare" in the territory is "intensifying".

The Lebanese army, which has historically stayed out of clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, says that three soldiers have been killed after a military vehicle was hit by an Israeli air strike.

In Beirut, Israel's military says it carried out a strike on a Hezbollah intelligence headquarters. Hezbollah has not yet commented.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah says it has shelled an Israeli army base in Rosh Pina, northern Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say about 160 rockets have been launched into the north of the country from Lebanon.

Oxfam say four water company staff have been killed in an Israeli strike on their way to Khuzaa, southern Gaza.

The charity group condemns the attacks and say the four men worked for Oxfam partner the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility.

"Despite prior coordination with Israeli authorities their clearly-marked vehicle was bombed", they add.

Oxfam say the attacks are "clear violations of international humanitarian law" and they have demanded an independent investigation into the incident.

The BBC has approached the Israeli military for comment.

Image source, EPA

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) says that fourteen consecutive raids have been recorded in Khiam, a town in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon.

According to a statement from the Israeli military, its air force has been targeting "dozens of terrorist targets" in Lebanon's south over the past day.

Israel are yet to comment on the strikes on Khiam.

Image source, Reuters

BBC Verify examines footage of collapsed building in Beit Lahiapublished at 17:00 BST 20 October 2024

17:00 BST 20 October 2024

By Richard Irvine-Brown and Benedict Garman

BBC Verify has been looking at two videos which show the scene at a building which collapsed overnight in Beit Lahia - one shared by Al Jazeera and one tweeted by the Palestinian prime minister's office.

We have not seen any footage of the moment of the collapse, but we know that the Hamas-run health ministry is reporting that at least 87 people were killed following Israeli strikes in the area.

The footage shows emergency responders carrying away a number of victims - one child whose body is limp and bloodied and at least three adults who are motionless on stretchers. Paramedics can also be seen attending to at least three children who appear to be alive but covered in cement dust and one adult on a stretcher.

Both videos show the same street, buildings and trees with the collapsed building on the corner.

We matched these videos to daylight video, which confirmed that the site was on the corner of Al Lyd and Al Qassam streets - about 55m (180ft) from the Ezdeen Al-Qassam Mosque and 185m (607ft) from the Beit Lahia Boys' School.

We're now getting images of the area where Israeli forces launched a strike last night in northern Gaza.

At least 87 people were killed and dozens injured in Beit Lahia, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

Israel describes the strike as a “precision” attack against a Hamas target and accuses Hamas authorities of sharing "exaggerated" figures.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Israel's defence minister Yoav Gallant says the country are "defeating Hezbollah" and "destroying them in all the villages along the border”.

The goal, Gallant states, is to "completely clean the area" to allow Israel's northern communities to return to their homes and "rebuild their lives".

He also says that Hezbollah prisoners captured by Israel "are in great fear", adding that "Hezbollah is collapsing" as the Israeli force is "hitting them" in Beirut, Nabatieh, Tyre, and other locations.

Image source, Getty Images

In southern Gaza, more than 145,000 children under the age of 10 received a polio vaccination yesterday as part of a three-day rollout, Israel's co-ordination of government activities in territories (Cogat) says.

Cogat, the Israeli military body responsible for managing crossings into Gaza, says the campaign - delivered with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Unicef - will continue today and tomorrow.

The initial phase of the polio vaccine rollout started in September after the first reported case of the disease in Gaza in 25 years, with a 10-month-old baby partially paralysed as a result.

The aim of the campaign is to vaccinate about 640,000 children under the age of 10, according to WHO.

Jonathan Head
Reporting from Beirut

According to the Lebanese army the three soldiers died when a vehicle they were travelling in was attacked by an Israeli warplane, close to the border village of Ain Ebel.

The incident brings the total number of Lebanese soldiers killed since Israel launched its operation against Hezbollah last month to eight.

The US-funded Lebanese army has stayed on the side-lines of this conflict; it is too small and poorly-equipped to fight back against Israel’s invasion, and has been unable to challenge Hezbollah’s formidable military forces for fear of igniting another civil war.

Israel has accused the army, and the United Nations force in southern Lebanon, of failing to disarm the border region, as required under the UN agreement which ended the last war there 18 years ago.

Image source, EPA

Hezbollah says it has shelled an Israeli army base in Rosh Pina, northern Israel.

In a post on Telegram, the group says it launched a "large rocket salvo" on the Filon base around 12:30 local time (10:30 BST).

It comes after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) earlier said sirens sounded in the Upper Galilee area around the same time with about 30 projectiles crossing over from Lebanon.

Some were intercepted by its air force and others fell, it added.

A person living in northern Gaza has described the moment Israeli strikes hit his neighbourhood in Beit Lahia as feeling "like an earthquake hit".

"We rushed outside after hearing the screams of women and children and found that our neighbours had been targeted by massive bombs," says Ahmed Al Hajeen.

Hajeen says the neighbourhood is manly home to "civilians and displaced families", many who fled "high-risk zones" and thought they would be safe there.

He says several people who had been killed were pulled out from the rubble, but many were "still trapped".

Image source, Reuters

The Lebanese army says that three soldiers have been killed after a military vehicle was hit by an Israeli air strike in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon.

The attack happened on the Ain Ebel-Hanin road, which connects the border village of Ain Ebel to the nearby town of Hanin. Israel has not yet commented.

Lebanon's army has historically stayed out of cross-border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, but a number of its troops have been killed in Israeli attacks since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated last month.

Image source, Reuters

Israel's military says around 160 projectiles have been launched from Lebanon as of 15:00 local time (13:00) BST.

This includes the 70 rockets, some of which were intercepted, that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) earlier said were fired into Israel at around 11:00 local time

• Israel strikes northern Gaza: Israeli strikeshave killed at least 87 people in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run authorities. Israel last night said it was checking reports of causalities and accused Hamas authorities of publishing "exaggerated" figures
• Aid efforts: The UN has called for more aid routes into Gaza, saying it is unable to properly carry out its humanitarian operation as there are "just a few unreliable and poorly accessible crossing points" into the territory. The UN's special co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace Process also warned "no where is safe in Gaza"
• Hospitals under pressure: A doctor in northern Gaza called for attacks on hospitals to stop before "our nation is exterminated". Dozens were killed and many were wounded in the latest strikes on Beit Lahia, Dr Eid Sabbah said, "some of who remain under the rubble"
• Fresh attacks on Beirut: Israel's military says it struck a Hezbollah intelligence headquarters in Lebanon's capital, Beirut. Hezbollah has not yet commented

• Rockets intercepted: Israel says about160 rockets have been launched into the north of the country from Lebanon, with some of them intercepted by the country's air defence

The UN's peace process co-ordinator has warned that "nowhere is safe in Gaza", as he called for the war to "stop now".

In a statement, Tor Wennesland adds the "nightmare in Gaza is intensifying".

"I condemn the continuing attacks on civillians. This war must end, the hostages held by Hamas must be freed, the displacement of Palestinians must cease, and civilians must be protected wherever they are. Humanitarian aid must be delivered unimpeded," he says.

"The path ahead will require courage, political will and renewed dialogue."

In its latest update, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says 84 people have been killed and 158 others injured in the past 24 hours.

At least 42,603 Palestinians have been killed and 99,795 others injured, since Israel started its military offensive in Gaza since 7 October last year, according to the health ministry.

On 7 October, a Hamas-led attack on Israel resulted in about 1,200 people being killed and 251 taken hostage. Approximately 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week that fighting will continue until the remaining hostages were brought home.

The UN has called for more aid routes to open into Gaza, saying it's unable to run its humanitarian operation "at the scale needed".

“We can't run a humanitarian operation at the scale needed with just a few unreliable and poorly accessible crossing points,” says the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“Aid has only been facilitated when it has reached the people who need it, when they need it."

Israel has previously said it is targeting Hamas operatives in the north and not stopping the entry of humanitarian aid.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says at least 87 people were killed and more than 40 injured in Israeli strikes on Beit Lahia.

In its latest update, the ministry adds that a number of the victims are still under the rubble and on roads which ambulance crews can't reach.

Hamas-run authorities last night said at least 73 people had been killed in the bombing. Israel said it was checking reports of casualties but believed the figures published by Hamas authorities were "exaggerated" and did not match information held by its military.

The Israeli military said about 70 projectiles were identified from Lebanon into Israel within minutes on Sunday.

Israel's air defence system intercepted some of them, it adds in a post on X.

"Following the sirens that sounded between 11:09 and 11:12 am in the Western Galilee and Upper Galilee areas, approximately 70 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon," the military says.

Warning: The image below may be distressing for some readers

A doctor in northern Gaza has pleaded for attacks on hospitals to stop "before it’s too late” and “our nation is exterminated”.

Dr Eid Sabbah, Kamal Adwan Hospital's director of nursing, says Israeli strikes in Beit Lahia have completely destroyed several buildings, with "more than four, five residential blocks...razed to the ground".

The strikes targeted an entire residential square, Dr Sabbah says, in between Abu Jidian roundabout and Al Qassam mosque.

Dr Sabbah adds that dozens of people were killed and many were wounded, “some of whom reached the hospital, some of whom remain under the rubble”.

He urges for an end to the "siege" on hospitals in northern Gaza and "for life to return to normal...before it’s too late, before our nation is exterminated”.

Image source, SUPPLIED

Here's some of the latest images emerging from Beirut's southern suburbs, where smoke is still rising from residential blocks after the latest round of Israeli air strikes on the Lebanese capital.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images