We’re pausing our live coverage on the conflicts in the Middle East for now, but we’ll be back in the morning with all the latest updates.

Gaza hit by heavy Israeli attacks

Israel’s military has conducted several operations across Gaza over the last 24 hours.

Health officials say at least 38 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern city of Khan Younis.

In the north, at al Shati refugee camp, medics told the Reuters news agency that at least 20 people had been killed in another Israeli attack.

Nearby, Palestinian officials and medics at the Kamal Adwan Hospital said Israeli tanks fired on the building last night and that Israel Defence Forces troops stormed inside (see 12.20 post).

The World Health Organisation director-general said he had “lost touch” with personnel at the hospital since reports of the attack emerged, and a spokesman says hundreds of people have been wounded (see previous post).

Journalists killed in Lebanon
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister said an Israeli airstrike that killed three journalists in Hasbaya was a targeted attack and a “war crime”.

One cameraman and a broadcast engineer from TV channel Al Mayadeen, plus another camera operator from Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV, were killed in the attack in southern Lebanon.

The strike hit a group of chalets that had been rented by various media outlets.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said the international community “must act to stop Israel’s long-standing pattern of impunity in journalist killings”.

Lebanon’s health minister says 11 journalists have been killed and eight wounded by Israeli fire in Lebanon over the last year.

Blinken’s trip to the Middle East and UK

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has been in London today meeting with Arab leaders to discuss bringing an end to the war in Gaza.

Mr Blinken met Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, this morning (see 10.11 post), followed by the Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi.

The top US diplomat has already completed a three-nation trip to the Middle East, visiting Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The US is hoping the recent assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza will provide the spark needed to bring about a ceasefire.

Mr Blinken revealed yesterday that Israeli and US negotiators will meet in Qatar in the coming days to discuss a ceasefire.

“We’ve had very good and important conversations this week, including this morning, on ending the war in Gaza and charting a path for what comes next,” Mr Blinken said in London today.

“Those conversations will continue, but I think this is a moment of urgency and importance that we’re trying to seize.”

In other news:

• The UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL, says its officials were fired on by Israeli troops this week (see 12.35 post);
• Israel’s foreign minister says UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres is “complicit in war crimes” after he mourned the death of an aid worker who Israel claims was a Hamas commander (see 11.00 post);
• Israel’s military says it attacked “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites” at a Lebanon-Syria border crossing last night, leaving just one crossing between the two countries remaining (see 11.20 post);
• Evidence of potential war crimes collected by British spy planes operating over Gaza could be handed to the International Criminal Court, the UK has confirmed (see 12.02 post).