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We've got more reaction from UK politicians to bring you. The spokesman for the opposition Labour Party on foreign issues, David Lammy, has said there must be humanitarian access to Gaza.

Speaking at the Labour Friends of Palestine event on the fringes of his party's annual conference, Lammy condemned what he described as "terrorist" attacks from Hamas, but said Israel's response must be proportionate and "in line with international law".

"There will not be a just and lasting peace until Israel is secure, Palestine is a sovereign state and both Israelis and Palestinians enjoy security, dignity and human rights," he added.

Layla Moran, the foreign affairs spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats - another opposition party - told BBC News that her family members in the West Bank were "very scared" but were "so far safe". Moran is of Palestinian descent.

Asked about her recent tweet that condemned attacks on marginalised communities, Moran said there have been some "horrific antisemitic attacks in London", but said she also had Muslim friends who were concerned about a potential rise in Islamophobia in the city.

The BBC’s Frank Gardner joins Hanna Notte, a Berlin-based analyst on Russian policy in the Middle East, to unpick what the latest developments in Israel and Gaza mean for the war in Ukraine.

You can listen today's episode here, which is presented by James Waterhouse and Vitaly Shevchenko.

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf is calling on the UK government to lobby Israel to introduce a ceasefire and allow civilians safe passage out of Gaza.

Yousaf has described how his wife’s parents - who live in Dundee in north-east Scotland - were visiting family in Gaza when Hamas attacked Israel.

They are now trapped there because the Rafah border crossing into Egypt “has been bombed and is now closed".

The first minister said his in-laws and their relatives in Gaza had survived a “terrifying night” of bombing, adding: “The house they're in was shaking. The kids were screaming as they heard rockets drop nearby.”

Yousaf said the UK government should “call on its friend and ally” Israel to introduce “an immediate ceasefire” in order to open up a humanitarian corridor which could allow people out of Gaza and medical supplies in.

The Israeli government, he said, had “made it pretty clear what they're going to do to Gaza and the implications of that".

He said he completely understood “Israel's right to protect its citizens from terror”, but added that “the collective punishment of 2.2 million people, the vast majority of whom are innocent civilians, simply could not be justified".

The normally staid State Department Briefing got heated today, highlighting again the Biden administration’s rock solid support for Israel.

There were animated exchanges about Israel’s decision to cut off electricity and supplies to Gaza.

And criticism of the State Department for not condemning extremist rhetoric from Israeli lawmakers that indicated disregard for Palestinian civilians trapped between Hamas and Israel’s counter offensive.

Spokesman Matthew Miller said the US expected that Israel would act in accordance with international law.

But “some of the questions seem to pretend that Israel should not be able to conduct operations to defend itself" he said.

“We always mourn the loss of civilian life,” he shot back as one questioner suggested he was accepting “baby killing”.

“But the Hamas terrorists who launched this terrorist attack knew it would produce the loss of Palestinian civilian life. They ultimately bear the responsibility for those.”

Here in Ashkelon, we were told this evening to head to safe rooms amid reports that Hamas militants had crossed from Gaza.

The Israeli military later put out a statement saying its soldiers, backed by air support, had "exchanged fire with a number of terrorists in the Ashkelon industrial area".

It said "three terrorists" had been killed, while searches of the area were continuing.

Numerous rockets have been launched at the city this evening, after Hamas set a deadline of 17:00 local time (15:00 BST), warning residents to leave.

A mother and daughter from the Chicago area are among those missing in Israel.

Friends and family members fear that Judith and Natalie Raanan are being held hostage by Hamas.

They have been in the country since early September and were at the Nahal Oz kibbutz in southern Israel, close to Gaza, when the attacks began. They haven't been heard from since.

Rabbi Meir Hecht said that Judith, 59, is a member of his congregation at Chabad of Evanston, north of Chicago.

"Judith is a warm, kind, generous, giving person," he told the BBC. "She's always here to help others in the community and does whatever she can to be a friend."

Natalie Raanan, 19, recently graduated from nearby Deerfield High School.

In a statement, the high school said it had no further information but that counselling services were available to students.

• You can read more here.

Tim Franks

BBC Newshour, reporting from Tel Aviv

The last time Yonatan Zeigan spoke to his 75 year-old mother Vivian was Saturday.

Vivian lives in Be’eri - a Kibbutz in southern Israel a few kilometres from the frontier with Gaza. She called her son as Hamas gunmen swept in. Yonatan heard gunshots ring outside his mother's home, and hasn't been able to speak with her since.

"We decided to stop speaking, so she won’t be heard – and started corresponding on WhatsApp,” Yonatan tells me in a quiet voice, a slight tremor visible in his fingers, as we sit on the balcony of his small apartment in Tel Aviv.

“She was still joking with me, because that’s the woman she was. And then she wrote me: they’re inside the house.”

There were, he says, “no more jokes. Just messages of love.” And then he lost contact altogether. Yonatan doesn’t know whether his mother was killed or kidnapped.

Yonatan says his mother volunteered for decades and led grass-roots groups aiming to spread peace and equality. Until recently she had driven ill residents of Gaza who’d managed to secure exit visas to Israeli hospitals.

There are reports that Israeli authorities have taken steps to disrupt the supply of crypto donations to Hamas.

Hamas has been accepting donations in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum for years and researchers have previously noticed spikes in funds during times of conflict.

Cryptocurrency donations have successfully raised millions over the years offering a way for people to donate anonymously without fear of breaking laws funding organisations designated as terrorists by some governments.

Without the need for banks anyone can send funds from their own crypto wallet to another.

However, with the help of cryptocurrency analysis firms, Israel has become adept at blocking crypto wallets that it says are being used to fund terrorism.

Ahmed Madi, a Swedish man living in Gothenburg, was on the phone to his wife Yasmine in Gaza - who was there with their two young daughters.

Minutes later, he got a call saying they were all dead. A missile had hit their home.

Four-year-old Nawal was a Swedish citizen, but her one-year-old sister Sila and mother weren't, according to the girls' cousin Mohammed Hassan. That's why they weren't in Sweden, he tells the BBC.

"Those girls were desperate to come to Sweden, to be with their dad," he says.

A fourth member of the family has also died, he says - and others are in hospital.

Mohammed describes the helplessness of being abroad with family who are trapped as the bombs fall.

"You can't help innocent people who are suffering. You just sit around waiting to see if they die."

A number of countries say their citizens have been caught up in the latest hostilities. France is one of the latest countries to offer an update - saying eight of its nationals have been confirmed dead in attacks by Hamas.

Peter Gillibrand

BBC Newsnight

A leading British-Palestinian war doctor has warned that the health system in Gaza could “collapse within a week”.

Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah has been helping wounded Palestinians since the late 1980s.

He’s been operating at Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, and says that the system is "already on its knees because of the siege".

"Having 3,000 wounded within 72 hours means the health system in Gaza will not cope…unless a humanitarian corridor is set up and aid is brought in," he says

Speaking to BBC Newsnight between operations, he says that the hospital was already at capacity: "The beds are full, the operating rooms are operating at maximum capacity. We’re already seeing the depletion of the tools.”

He says it’s the bloodiest assault he's seen in Gaza: “Because people are being injured in their homes, around 30-40% of the injuries are children."

Quote Message: In war you try to discharge cases early so you can free up beds - but these patients are all coming from houses that have been destroyed, so you cannot send them back to the street, and that’s where the system completely comes to a halt." from Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah

• Viewers in the UK will soon be able to watch tonight's edition of Newsnight on BBC Two - at 22:30 BST

Earlier we reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was planning to go to Israel in the coming days in an act of solidarity. The US State Department has now confirmed that he'll set off tomorrow on his trip, which will also see him visit Jordan: another American ally. The visit will last until Friday.

In Israel, Blinken will meet with senior officials, and "reaffirm the United States’ solidarity with the government and people of Israel," according to a statement.

"He will also discuss measures to bolster Israel’s security and underscore the United States’ unwavering support for Israel’s right to defend itself," the statement adds.

As Israel rushed onto a war footing on Saturday morning, young army reservists around the country were already moving faster than the military machine.

"From 6.30am, we were itching to know why we weren't being called up already," said Michael Goldberg, a 24-year-old reservist in Jerusalem.

He had woken up early to a flood of videos of Hamas's devastating attack. He had only recently returned to Jerusalem, to visit family after moving to the US six months earlier. Watching the attack unfold, he knew instantly that he would not be returning to the US.

"There is a tremendous amount of fear," he said. "But you are also inspired in ways you have never been before. I realised that this is the defining moment of my life."

Israel's army relies on this enormous reserve contingent, made up of civilians who have completed their compulsory national service but can be mobilised again for duty until the age of 40.

• You can read more about Goldberg's story, and how reservists are flocking to fight for Israel, by clicking here

Our correspondent Gary O'Donogue just mentioned American troop movements in the region - which gives us a chance to mention that a strike group has arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.

After the latest attacks on Israel were launched on Saturday, the US said it was deploying its carriers to deter any actor seeking to escalate the situation or widen the conflict.

The forces that have arrived include the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford - with its eight squadrons of attack and support aircraft - as well as a guided-missile cruiser and guided-missile destroyers.

US President Joe Biden's words earlier were unequivocal; his backing for Israel unqualified.

Israel has often been frustrated with American presidents publicly backing their right to defend themselves, while couching those words in terms of restraint and proportionality.

There was none of that this time around. Israel has the right and the duty to respond, he said.

In effect, the president has given Tel Aviv carte blanche to respond as it sees fit within the rule of law.

The words are also being backed up with concrete actions; munitions to supply Israel's air defences are already en route; and the deployment of the Carrier Strike group 12 to the Eastern Mediterranean.

This is an explicit warning to Hezbollah and Iran - don't mess with us.

Updates continue to arrive thick and fast - so if you're just joining us, or need a recap, here's what we've been reporting in the last few hours:

Whole families killed in Israeli village: Details of a massacre - said by the Israel Defense Forces to have been committed by Hamas - were revealed today after reporters visited the village of Kfar Aza near the Gaza border. Soldiers say Hamas stormed in, burnt homes and killed entire families - including babies - with an Israeli officer describing how some had been beheaded.

Israeli anger at the military: The BBC's Jeremy Bowen provided some on-the-ground analysis from that same community, in which he described how "the horror and rage of Israelis has been mixed with incredulity that the state and the military failed in its fundamental duty to protect its citizens". He also said no-one imagined Hamas would be able to breach Israel's defences and kill so many people.

Biden condemns "blood-thirsty" Hamas: At a White House press conference, US President Joe Biden said Hamas "did not stand for the Palestinian people" and accused it instead of using Palestinians "as human shields". He also pledged that the US "has Israel's back" and said he'll ensure it can defend itself.

Hamas confirms deaths of two officials: Zakaria Abu Muammar and Jawad Abu Shamal, members of the Hamas political bureau, have been confirmed dead by the Palestinian militant group. They are reported to have died after a raid in Khan Yunis early this morning.

Heavy bombing of Gaza continues: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it will continue to attack Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. The latest death toll there is now more than 900, with reports of "terrifying explosions" from the BBC's Rushdi Abu Alouf. Meanwhile, the toll on the Israeli side is more than 1,000.

The health ministry in Gaza says in its latest Facebook post that 900 Palestinians have now been killed during Israel's recent airstrikes - with around half of these women and children. It says 4,500 others have been injured.

In the separate West Bank, 21 Palestinians have been killed and dozens have been injured.

The BBC's Rushdi Abu Alouf gives further detail on the intensity of these strike on Gaza in his post below.

"Where do we go? Is there a safe place left in this neighbourhood, which was so quiet and beautiful?" residents of an apartment block in Rimal asked me, with heavy sarcasm.

I had just spent the most difficult seven hours of my life inside there, as Israeli warplanes carried another wave of air strikes in retaliation for the Palestinian militant group's unprecedented assault on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

The Israeli strikes also caused significant damage to dozens of residential buildings, the offices of telecommunications companies and faculty buildings of the Islamic University of Gaza.

Terrifying explosions shook the area throughout Monday night. Children were screaming and nobody had a moment's sleep.

It was a night that the residents of Rimal - Gaza City's wealthiest neighbourhood and usually its quietest - will not forget for a long time.

As dawn broke on Tuesday, the intensity of the strikes decreased and people discovered the extent of the destruction. The south-western neighbourhood's infrastructure was severely damaged and most roads leading to it were cut off.

As I drove around it felt as if there had been an earthquake. There was rubble, shattered glass and severed wiring everywhere. Such was the devastation that I did not recognise some of the buildings that I passed.

• Read more from Rushdi here

The Israeli military adds in a follow-up post that its soldiers are "responding with artillery and mortar shells toward the origin of the launching in Syria".

We'll have more for you on this development when we get it.

The Israeli military says it's identified "a number of launches from Syria aimed for Israel".

"Part of the launches crossed into Israeli territory and presumably fell in open areas," it continues in its post on X, though gives no further details.