Britons in Gaza urged to prepare for Egypt border crossing to open
The UK Foreign Office is telling British nationals in Gaza to prepare in case the Rafah border crossing into Egypt is opened.
The crossing, in the south of Gaza, is currently the only route out of the territory, with Hamas controlling who can pass through.
Negotiations over allowing foreign nationals to leave Gaza via the crossing are continuing, with Egypt currently refusing this until Israel allows a convoy of aid trucks on its side to enter Gaza.
When it does open, it will likely only be for a short time. More details can be found here.
We do not know how many Britons are currently in Gaza.
As we’ve been reporting, lorries carrying aid have been queuing for hours waiting to enter Gaza.
The map below shows where the Rafah crossing is. Israel has told Gazans to move from the north of the region, including Gaza City, to south of a watercourse known as Wadi Gaza.
.Copyright: .
Israeli soldiers gather near Gaza ahead of ground offensive
The IDF says it is planning an attack by land, air and sea – but we don’t know when an anticipated ground offensive will happen.
Late on Saturday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops preparing for the attack.
Video footage showed him in a bullet-proof vest talking to heavily armed soldiers in settlements that had been targeted by Hamas militants’ in last Saturday’s attack, when they infiltrated Israel.
“Are you ready for what is coming? More is coming,” he says in a video.
Intense Israeli air strikes continued overnight. Millions of Gazans have been told to evacuate the north of the region – with many fleeing by vehicle or on foot.
Martin Divisek/EPA-EFE/REX/ShutterstockCopyright: Martin Divisek/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
Tanks have been gathering at the Gaza border since earlier in the weekImage caption: Tanks have been gathering at the Gaza border since earlier in the week
Safe route for fleeing Gazans open soon for three hours, Israel says
Thousands of Palestinians are continuing to flee northern Gaza ahead of Israel’s expected ground offensive.
In its latest update on evacuations, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense League (IDF) says civilians still in northern Gaza must head south between 10:00 and 13:00 local time (07:00 and 10:00 GMT).
They should use a single route running from Beit Hanoun towards Khan Yunis, it says, adding that it will not target the route during those hours.
The IDF has shifted the times for an evacuation window over the past few days.
The deadline for the original 24-hour window, announced on Friday, passed on Saturday afternoon. At the time, Israel designated two routes – one of them was the same route the IDF has mentioned today.
The World Health Organization has condemned the evacuation order, and says forcing hospital patients to relocate would be “a death sentence”.
EPACopyright: EPA
Hamas trying to stop civilian evacuations, Israeli military claims
We heard a little earlier this morning from Israeli military spokesperson Jonathan Conricus in his daily briefing on X, formerly known as Twitter.
He claimed that “Hamas is actively preventing civilians from leaving” northern Gaza to the south – and accuses the group of “the lack of any value for human life”.
Israel has warned 1.1m Palestinians living in north Gaza to evacuate south ahead of an expected ground offensive, and thousands have been fleeing by vehicle or on foot. Hamas has told Palestinians to ignore the order.
Conricus then showed an aerial image, which he claimed were two Hamas vehicles blocking a convoy.
Here’s what you need to know this morning
EPACopyright: EPA
Good morning to our readers in the UK and Middle East. It is 09:00 in Israel and Gaza, and 07:00 in the UK.
Here’s what you need to know, if you’re wanting to catch up on the conflict:
Thousands of Gazans have been fleeing the north of the territory after Israel warned the 1.1 million inhabitants to leave ahead of an expected ground invasion. The UN’s aid agency has called the mass movement of people an “exodus”
PM Benjamin Netanyahu said the “next stage” of the conflict “is coming” and late last night the Israeli military said it plans to attack by land, air and sea, but gave no timings or specifics
The World Health Organization has condemned the evacuation order, and says forcing hospital patients to relocate would be “a death sentence”
As the conflict enters its eighth day, more than 3,600 people have been killed on both sides. More than 1,300 people were killed in Israel last weekend in an attack by Hamas, while more than 2,300 people have been killed in Israel’s bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip launched in the aftermath, authorities say.
The Israeli military says it is reviewing the death of a Reuters journalist who was killed on Friday in southern Lebanon while covering the conflict
The US says it is sending a second aircraft carrier to the region “to deter hostile actions against Israel”, its longtime ally
Gaza death toll reaches 2,300 – health ministry
The number of people killed in Gaza has climbed above 2,300, according to authorities there.
In total, 2,329 Palestinians have been killed and 9,714 have been injured, according to the health ministry.
It is just over a week since Hamas gunmen infiltrated Israel to attack both civilians and soldiers. More than 1,300 people have been killed in Israel.
Israel has been carrying out retaliatory air strikes in Gaza ever since, and a ground offensive is expected.
‘I’m totally helpless’ – husband of new mother missing since Hamas attacks
Joel Gunter
in Jerusalem
BBCCopyright: BBC
Celine Ben David Nagar pictured with her husband Ido and their baby daughter Ellie.Image caption: Celine Ben David Nagar pictured with her husband Ido and their baby daughter Ellie.
Last Sunday morning, Celine Ben David Nagar should have been getting ready for her first day back at work after six happy months on maternity leave.
Instead, she was thought to be somewhere inside Gaza, in the hands of Hamas, and her family was 24 hours into a nightmare that is now a week long.
Celine, 32, had set out early on Saturday morning with two friends to attend the Nova music festival in southern Israel, but they turned back when they heard rockets ahead.
The group found their way to a public bomb shelter near Sderot and hid. It was from there, at 07:11, that Celine sent her final message to Ido, her husband and the father of their baby daughter, Ellie.
“Soldiers are coming,” Celine wrote. “God, it was a mistake to come here.”
In Egypt, an aid convoy has been waiting for hours to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
Pictures show a long queue of lorries carrying supplies from Egypt and Turkey waiting at the city of Arish, near the crossing.
In recent days the checkpoint has been closed due to Israel’s aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip which has reportedly damaged the Palestinian side of the crossing.
This has prevented people from leaving or entering Gaza through the checkpoint. It also means aid has been held up at the border, and aid agencies have urged authorities to let their convoys through.
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Aid workers and drivers wait by the trucks carrying suppliesImage caption: Aid workers and drivers wait by the trucks carrying supplies
Hamas, Israel and Egypt all exercise degrees of control over who and what can pass through the checkpoint, meaning it is often closed and processing can be slow.
Several foreign governments, including the UK and the US, have urged their citizens in Gaza to move closer to the Rafah crossing so they can leave when the crossing reopens. They have warned any reopening would last only for a very limited time.
On Saturday US officials said they had been working to get hundreds of Palestinian-Americans to leave via Rafah, though it remains unclear whether they succeeded.
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
The aid convoy was organised by Egyptian non-governmental organisationsImage caption: The aid convoy was organised by Egyptian non-governmental organisations
Gaza is being pushed into an abyss, says UN aid agency
It is not clear at this stage just how many people are moving from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south but according to the UN relief agency which operates inside the territory, it is “an exodus”.
Earlier UNRWA’s director of communications, Juliette Touma, told the BBC: “This is the worst we’ve ever seen, This is hitting rock bottom. This is Gaza being pushed into an abyss, there is tragedy unfolding as the world is watching. This is Gaza.”
She added: “According to colleagues on the ground, there is an exodus. People are leaving. Those who can, with their cars, some are walking, some are carrying mattresses.
“People are terrified,” she said. “Terrified.”
Saturday’s pictures from Israel and Gaza
It’s now 6am in Israel and Gaza. Here’s a quick look at how Saturday unfolded on the ground, as Israeli airstrikes on Gaza continued.
ReutersCopyright: Reuters
A Palestinian searches under the rubble in the aftermath of Israeli strikes on GazaImage caption: A Palestinian searches under the rubble in the aftermath of Israeli strikes on Gaza
ReutersCopyright: Reuters
A Palestinian child wounded in Israeli strikes is brought to a hospital in Khan YounisImage caption: A Palestinian child wounded in Israeli strikes is brought to a hospital in Khan Younis
ReutersCopyright: Reuters
Palestinians gather around the rubble in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Khan YounisImage caption: Palestinians gather around the rubble in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis
EPACopyright: EPA
Outside the Gaza border, Israel has deployed armoured vehicles and troops in large numbersImage caption: Outside the Gaza border, Israel has deployed armoured vehicles and troops in large numbers
‘I just find bombs, dead people’ – British-Palestinian girl in Gaza
Video content
Video caption: ‘I just find bombs, dead people… it’s really scary’ – British-Palestinian girl in Gaza‘I just find bombs, dead people… it’s really scary’ – British-Palestinian girl in Gaza
A young British-Palestinian girl has spoken of her fears of being killed, as she waited to cross the border into Egypt at Rafah, in southern Gaza.
Mariam went to visit her family in Gaza before Saturday’s surprise attack on Israel by Hamas.
Analysis
War rekindles resonant themes for both sides
Jeremy Bowen
International Editor
For Palestinians it’s what they call the Naqba – the Catastrophe – their name for Israel’s victory in its independence war in 1948.
It resulted in up to something like 900,000 people becoming refugees after they fled the war or were forced out at gunpoint by Israeli forces.
Many Palestinians living in Gaza now are from those families and still registered by the UN as refugees.
They’ve heard statements by nationalist extremists, some in the Israeli government, who say Israel should have thrown out all the Arabs in 1948. The idea of “transfer” of Palestinians to neighbouring Arab countries has been much discussed since the early days of Zionism a century ago.
Palestinians in Gaza are now saying things like “It’s all happening again. This happened to my great-grandfather, this happened to my father, and it’s happening to me.”
As for the Israelis, their state was founded to protect the Jewish people. And what is also significant is that, on the Israeli side, politicians – and ordinary people too – are talking about the Holocaust.
A leading Israeli journalist after a visit to one of the border communities attacked by Hamas wrote that he realised he was seeing the worst massacre of Jews anywhere in the world since the Holocaust and the worst in what he called “the historic land of Israel” since the Middle Ages.
For both sides these are immensely powerful and resonant themes.
BBC Verify
Deadly strike on convoy fleeing northern Gaza
As we reported earlier, the BBC has verified footage of a strike on a convoy of civilians fleeing northern Gaza.
This is footage that was filmed close to the scene of the strike where some civilians, including young children, are known to have died.
The truck that was hit is not in shot but several damaged and burning vehicles are seen in the vicinity.
The incident took place a few kilometres south of the outskirts of Gaza City.
Video caption: Palestinian convoy hit while fleeing northern GazaPalestinian convoy hit while fleeing northern Gaza
Worry in UK as Israel-Gaza anxiety spreads
Aleem Maqbool
Religion editor, BBC News
ReutersCopyright: Reuters
People gathered in Manchester’s St Peter’s Square on Wednesday after Hamas’s attacks in IsraelImage caption: People gathered in Manchester’s St Peter’s Square on Wednesday after Hamas’s attacks in Israel
The Israel-Gaza war is reverberating around the world. In Manchester – a diverse city with large Jewish and Muslim populations – people are anxious about what it could mean for their communities.
As well as the profound sense of connection that comes with shared history and trauma, a relatively small global community of 16 million Jews means that many in the UK know people in Israel.
“We believe that every single Jew shares a bit of the same soul,” said Eli Dresner on Wednesday at a vigil in Manchester. “We’re all family, we all come from the same place. Even if I don’t know them, if I see another Jew, they are family.
“I’ve got family in Israel who have all been called up to serve, and almost everyone here will know someone who is stuck,” he adds.
300 killed in Gaza on Saturday – Palestinian health ministry
Some 300 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, according to Palestinian health ministry figures reported by Reuters news agency.
Those killed were mostly children and women, the ministry said.
Another 800 people were injured, it added.
Russia asks UN Security Council to vote on Israel-Hamas ceasefire draft
Russia has asked the United Nations’ Security Council to vote on Monday on a draft resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict that calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and condemns violence against civilians and all acts of terrorism, Reuters news agency reports.
Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said no changes had been made to the text since it was given to the 15-member body on Friday and that he expected the vote to be scheduled on Monday afternoon.
The draft resolution circulated last week calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected humanitarian ceasefire, the secure release of all hostages, and the distribution of humanitarian assistance and the safe evacuation of civilians in need.
Hamas and Iran to ‘continue co-operation’ after Israel attack
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is reported to have met Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Qatar.
Amir-Abdollahian agreed to continue co-operation with the group to achieve its goals, according to a Hamas statement quoted by Reuters news agency.
During their meeting in Qatar’s capital Doha, Amir-Abdollahian praised Hamas’s attack on Israeli targets a week ago as a “historic victory” that had dealt a setback to what he said was Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
US sends second aircraft carrier to region – Pentagon
The US has announced it is sending a second aircraft carrier to the region in order “to deter hostile actions against Israel”, according to a statement from the Pentagon.
The USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier is being despatched to the eastern Mediterranean to support the USS Gerald R Ford and its accompanying warships, which are already in the region, it says.
What’s the latest?
It’s just after midnight here in London. The Israel-Hamas conflict is now entering its eighth day, here’s what we know:
It’s been a week since Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,300 people and taking hostages
More than 2,200 people have been killed in Israel’s bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip launched in response, according to Palestinian figures
Israel has told some 1.1 million Palestinians living in north Gaza to evacuate to the south of the strip
The evacuation order was given as the Israeli military plans a ground offensive into Gaza by land, air and sea, it says in a statement – but gives no timings or specifics
Hospitals in the north of Gaza have been told to evacuate. The World Health Organization has said forcing some patients to relocate “could be tantamount to a death sentence“
Earlier, US President Joe Biden spoke to both Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu and P
Live Reporting
Edited by Samuel Horti
Get involved
Britons in Gaza urged to prepare for Egypt border crossing to open
The UK Foreign Office is telling British nationals in Gaza to prepare in case the Rafah border crossing into Egypt is opened.
The crossing, in the south of Gaza, is currently the only route out of the territory, with Hamas controlling who can pass through.
Negotiations over allowing foreign nationals to leave Gaza via the crossing are continuing, with Egypt currently refusing this until Israel allows a convoy of aid trucks on its side to enter Gaza.
When it does open, it will likely only be for a short time. More details can be found here.
We do not know how many Britons are currently in Gaza.
As we’ve been reporting, lorries carrying aid have been queuing for hours waiting to enter Gaza.
The map below shows where the Rafah crossing is. Israel has told Gazans to move from the north of the region, including Gaza City, to south of a watercourse known as Wadi Gaza.
Israeli soldiers gather near Gaza ahead of ground offensive
The IDF says it is planning an attack by land, air and sea – but we don’t know when an anticipated ground offensive will happen.
Late on Saturday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops preparing for the attack.
Video footage showed him in a bullet-proof vest talking to heavily armed soldiers in settlements that had been targeted by Hamas militants’ in last Saturday’s attack, when they infiltrated Israel.
“Are you ready for what is coming? More is coming,” he says in a video.
Intense Israeli air strikes continued overnight. Millions of Gazans have been told to evacuate the north of the region – with many fleeing by vehicle or on foot.
Safe route for fleeing Gazans open soon for three hours, Israel says
Thousands of Palestinians are continuing to flee northern Gaza ahead of Israel’s expected ground offensive.
In its latest update on evacuations, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense League (IDF) says civilians still in northern Gaza must head south between 10:00 and 13:00 local time (07:00 and 10:00 GMT).
They should use a single route running from Beit Hanoun towards Khan Yunis, it says, adding that it will not target the route during those hours.
The IDF has shifted the times for an evacuation window over the past few days.
The deadline for the original 24-hour window, announced on Friday, passed on Saturday afternoon. At the time, Israel designated two routes – one of them was the same route the IDF has mentioned today.
The World Health Organization has condemned the evacuation order, and says forcing hospital patients to relocate would be “a death sentence”.
Hamas trying to stop civilian evacuations, Israeli military claims
We heard a little earlier this morning from Israeli military spokesperson Jonathan Conricus in his daily briefing on X, formerly known as Twitter.
He claimed that “Hamas is actively preventing civilians from leaving” northern Gaza to the south – and accuses the group of “the lack of any value for human life”.
Israel has warned 1.1m Palestinians living in north Gaza to evacuate south ahead of an expected ground offensive, and thousands have been fleeing by vehicle or on foot. Hamas has told Palestinians to ignore the order.
Conricus then showed an aerial image, which he claimed were two Hamas vehicles blocking a convoy.
Here’s what you need to know this morning
Good morning to our readers in the UK and Middle East. It is 09:00 in Israel and Gaza, and 07:00 in the UK.
Here’s what you need to know, if you’re wanting to catch up on the conflict:
Gaza death toll reaches 2,300 – health ministry
The number of people killed in Gaza has climbed above 2,300, according to authorities there.
In total, 2,329 Palestinians have been killed and 9,714 have been injured, according to the health ministry.
It is just over a week since Hamas gunmen infiltrated Israel to attack both civilians and soldiers. More than 1,300 people have been killed in Israel.
Israel has been carrying out retaliatory air strikes in Gaza ever since, and a ground offensive is expected.
‘I’m totally helpless’ – husband of new mother missing since Hamas attacks
Joel Gunter
in Jerusalem
Last Sunday morning, Celine Ben David Nagar should have been getting ready for her first day back at work after six happy months on maternity leave.
Instead, she was thought to be somewhere inside Gaza, in the hands of Hamas, and her family was 24 hours into a nightmare that is now a week long.
Celine, 32, had set out early on Saturday morning with two friends to attend the Nova music festival in southern Israel, but they turned back when they heard rockets ahead.
The group found their way to a public bomb shelter near Sderot and hid. It was from there, at 07:11, that Celine sent her final message to Ido, her husband and the father of their baby daughter, Ellie.
“Soldiers are coming,” Celine wrote. “God, it was a mistake to come here.”
Read more here.
Aid convoy stuck at Egypt-Gaza border
In Egypt, an aid convoy has been waiting for hours to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
Pictures show a long queue of lorries carrying supplies from Egypt and Turkey waiting at the city of Arish, near the crossing.
In recent days the checkpoint has been closed due to Israel’s aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip which has reportedly damaged the Palestinian side of the crossing.
This has prevented people from leaving or entering Gaza through the checkpoint. It also means aid has been held up at the border, and aid agencies have urged authorities to let their convoys through.
Hamas, Israel and Egypt all exercise degrees of control over who and what can pass through the checkpoint, meaning it is often closed and processing can be slow.
Several foreign governments, including the UK and the US, have urged their citizens in Gaza to move closer to the Rafah crossing so they can leave when the crossing reopens. They have warned any reopening would last only for a very limited time.
On Saturday US officials said they had been working to get hundreds of Palestinian-Americans to leave via Rafah, though it remains unclear whether they succeeded.
Gaza is being pushed into an abyss, says UN aid agency
It is not clear at this stage just how many people are moving from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south but according to the UN relief agency which operates inside the territory, it is “an exodus”.
Earlier UNRWA’s director of communications, Juliette Touma, told the BBC: “This is the worst we’ve ever seen, This is hitting rock bottom. This is Gaza being pushed into an abyss, there is tragedy unfolding as the world is watching. This is Gaza.”
She added: “According to colleagues on the ground, there is an exodus. People are leaving. Those who can, with their cars, some are walking, some are carrying mattresses.
“People are terrified,” she said. “Terrified.”
Saturday’s pictures from Israel and Gaza
It’s now 6am in Israel and Gaza. Here’s a quick look at how Saturday unfolded on the ground, as Israeli airstrikes on Gaza continued.
‘I just find bombs, dead people’ – British-Palestinian girl in Gaza
Video content
A young British-Palestinian girl has spoken of her fears of being killed, as she waited to cross the border into Egypt at Rafah, in southern Gaza.
Mariam went to visit her family in Gaza before Saturday’s surprise attack on Israel by Hamas.
War rekindles resonant themes for both sides
Jeremy Bowen
International Editor
For Palestinians it’s what they call the Naqba – the Catastrophe – their name for Israel’s victory in its independence war in 1948.
It resulted in up to something like 900,000 people becoming refugees after they fled the war or were forced out at gunpoint by Israeli forces.
Many Palestinians living in Gaza now are from those families and still registered by the UN as refugees.
They’ve heard statements by nationalist extremists, some in the Israeli government, who say Israel should have thrown out all the Arabs in 1948. The idea of “transfer” of Palestinians to neighbouring Arab countries has been much discussed since the early days of Zionism a century ago.
Palestinians in Gaza are now saying things like “It’s all happening again. This happened to my great-grandfather, this happened to my father, and it’s happening to me.”
As for the Israelis, their state was founded to protect the Jewish people. And what is also significant is that, on the Israeli side, politicians – and ordinary people too – are talking about the Holocaust.
A leading Israeli journalist after a visit to one of the border communities attacked by Hamas wrote that he realised he was seeing the worst massacre of Jews anywhere in the world since the Holocaust and the worst in what he called “the historic land of Israel” since the Middle Ages.
For both sides these are immensely powerful and resonant themes.
BBC Verify
Deadly strike on convoy fleeing northern Gaza
As we reported earlier, the BBC has verified footage of a strike on a convoy of civilians fleeing northern Gaza.
This is footage that was filmed close to the scene of the strike where some civilians, including young children, are known to have died.
The truck that was hit is not in shot but several damaged and burning vehicles are seen in the vicinity.
The incident took place a few kilometres south of the outskirts of Gaza City.
Read more here.
Video content
Worry in UK as Israel-Gaza anxiety spreads
Aleem Maqbool
Religion editor, BBC News
The Israel-Gaza war is reverberating around the world. In Manchester – a diverse city with large Jewish and Muslim populations – people are anxious about what it could mean for their communities.
As well as the profound sense of connection that comes with shared history and trauma, a relatively small global community of 16 million Jews means that many in the UK know people in Israel.
“We believe that every single Jew shares a bit of the same soul,” said Eli Dresner on Wednesday at a vigil in Manchester. “We’re all family, we all come from the same place. Even if I don’t know them, if I see another Jew, they are family.
“I’ve got family in Israel who have all been called up to serve, and almost everyone here will know someone who is stuck,” he adds.
Read more here.
300 killed in Gaza on Saturday – Palestinian health ministry
Some 300 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, according to Palestinian health ministry figures reported by Reuters news agency.
Those killed were mostly children and women, the ministry said.
Another 800 people were injured, it added.
Russia asks UN Security Council to vote on Israel-Hamas ceasefire draft
Russia has asked the United Nations’ Security Council to vote on Monday on a draft resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict that calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and condemns violence against civilians and all acts of terrorism, Reuters news agency reports.
Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said no changes had been made to the text since it was given to the 15-member body on Friday and that he expected the vote to be scheduled on Monday afternoon.
The draft resolution circulated last week calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected humanitarian ceasefire, the secure release of all hostages, and the distribution of humanitarian assistance and the safe evacuation of civilians in need.
Hamas and Iran to ‘continue co-operation’ after Israel attack
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is reported to have met Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Qatar.
Amir-Abdollahian agreed to continue co-operation with the group to achieve its goals, according to a Hamas statement quoted by Reuters news agency.
During their meeting in Qatar’s capital Doha, Amir-Abdollahian praised Hamas’s attack on Israeli targets a week ago as a “historic victory” that had dealt a setback to what he said was Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
US sends second aircraft carrier to region – Pentagon
The US has announced it is sending a second aircraft carrier to the region in order “to deter hostile actions against Israel”, according to a statement from the Pentagon.
The USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier is being despatched to the eastern Mediterranean to support the USS Gerald R Ford and its accompanying warships, which are already in the region, it says.
What’s the latest?
It’s just after midnight here in London. The Israel-Hamas conflict is now entering its eighth day, here’s what we know: