GAZA HIT BY INTENSE STRIKES AS ISRAEL CLAIMS IT HAS NOW SPLIT THE STRIP INTO TWO

 Huge explosions have been heard across northern Gaza as intense bombing continues - with Israel saying it has hit 450 "targets" in the past day

1. Our reporter in the Gaza Strip says the air strikes overnight on Sunday night felt like the most intense since the war began
2. Internet and phone communication were down in the territory overnight, but are now being restored
3. The Israeli military says troops have reached the coastline in the south of Gaza City, effectively dividing the Strip in two.
   
   
   
4. Meanwhile, all major UN agencies have said "enough is enough" in a rare joint statement, as they repeat calls for a humanitarian ceasefire
5. The US's top diplomat Antony Blinken is meeting his counterpart in Turkey as he continues touring the region to push for pauses in fighting
6. Israel began bombing Gaza after Hamas killed more than 1,400 people in Israel and kidnapped more than 200 others
7. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 9,700 people have been killed in the Strip since 7 October.

8. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been touring the region again. He's currently in talks in Ankara, Turkey. And we are also being told that the head of the CIA, William Burns, who used to be the top US diplomat on the Middle East, is in the region too.

   Blinken is delivering a lot of messages which his audiences like to hear.

   On one hand, he tells the leader of the Palestinian Authority, President Mahmoud Abbas, that after the war, the PA should have a role in Gaza. He condemns the settler violence in the West Bank, says he wants to reduce Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza, and improve living conditions.

   But when he says these things, he also says to Israel when you have 100% support, militarily and diplomatically, you just have to do it the right way with international law.

   In practice, though, I don't quite see what he's changing. I think the Americans appear to be continuing their deterrence of the likes of Iran and their proxies, and that may be having an impact.

9. Internet and phone services reportedly back in Gaza

   We're hearing that internet connectivity is being restored in the Gaza Strip, according to internet monitoring group NetBlocks.

   Phone and internet services have been down there since yesterday - the third time this has happened since the war began. Netblocks said this blackout has been the second-longest.

   The Palestinian Red Crescent Society also said telecommunications and internet services in the Gaza Strip were restored. They said it had been "intentionally and forcibly cut off by the Israeli authorities". We have been unable to verify what caused the blackout.

   "This repeated interruption further adds to the suffering of disaster response teams," the PRCS added in a post on X.

10. MORE DETAILS AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67324897