Gaza crisis: UN claims Israel did not allow evacuation from shelter before strikes - as it happened

The Israeli military says that this morning Tel Aviv was targeted by Hamas rockets and asks Parisians to consider what they would do if rockets flew at the Eiffel Tower:

An hour ago the IDF tweeted that 13 rockets had been fired out of Gaza Thursday and hit Israeli territory and seven additional rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome system.

Update: In an email a reader challenges the news value of the above image:

And when reposting the IDF PR images of Paris under rocket fire... Well, I don't know what to say about that, it's just not journalism to let those images be reposted without strong comment.

There's a demo on Saturday in London, 12 midday outside the Israeli embassy, please send a journalist to cover the story!

We invite strong comment – please let us know what you think of the 'What would you do?' campaign below the line.

NBC News reports that Gaza ambulances have come under attack in Shuja'iya:

The Guardian's Peter Beaumont (@petersbeaumont) has visited a UN-run school sheltering displaced Palestinians that was hit by Israeli shelling – or possibly air strikes – Thursday.

Peter confirms a Gazan ministry of health report saying at least 10 people were killed and many wounded in the attack.

Reuters quotes the director of Beit Hanoun hospital, where wounded people were transported:

The director of a local hospital said various medical centres around Beit Hanoun were receiving the wounded.

"Such a massacre requires more than one hospital to deal with it," said Ayman Hamdan, director of the Beit Hanoun hospital.

More than 140,000 Palestinians have fled 17 days of fighting between Israel and Gaza militants, many of them seeking refuge in buildings run by the U.N. UNWRA agency.

Peter Beaumont is on his way to a United Nations Refugee Agency school reported to have been hit in an Israeli airstrike or shelling. Initial reports of more than 10 dead. More details soon.

More than 700 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge 17 days ago. According to Palestinian medics 736 Palestinians have now died - more than 165 of these children. Israel has lost 32 soldiers and three civilians including one Thai national have been killed in Israel.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned a decision by the United Nations Human Rights Council to launch an inquiry into whether war crimes had been committed during Israel's latest military offensive. He vowed to continue to destroy tunnels created by Hamas.

British foreign secretary Philip Hammond has warned that international sympathy for Israel is running out in a visit to the region. At a news conference Hammond said that the British government was "concerned" about civilian casualties and urged both parties to work towards a ceasefire.

Israel's finance minister Naftali Bennett has given an unapologetic interview to Sky News, accusing Hamas of using their own civilians as human shields, adding that "you fight back - there is no proportionality when you fight terror."

Asked about growing support for Hamas in the face of increasing bloodshed in Gaza, he called supporters of Hamas "immoral", adding:

We want to live side by side, it's them who are running after us. We handed them the land and they turned it into a fortress of terror.

Audrey Landmann, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical coordinator in Gaza has told Sky News that the situation in Gaza is deteriorating rapidly. Medical supplies are stuck at the border and rescue teams are unable to operate safely in Gaza.

She said the situation was worsening daily, adding that at the last count more than 150,000 were now gathered in shelters, many more trying to find safety in their homes. Some medical supplies had passed over the border yesterday, but others were stuck, she said.

The hospitals are overstretched because the health system was already fragile..now its putting lot of pressure on the system.

The main problem is not availability of food and water, the main problem is the security. There is no way to move safety for humanitaitan aid workers to provide this help because of the constant shelling.

The Palestinian news agency Ma'an is reporting that Hamas have killed eight Israeli soldiers in northeastern Gaza City.

The Hamas-affiliated al-Qassam Brigades said on Thursday that they had killed eight Israeli soldiers in northeastern Gaza City in what was potentially the deadliest attack on the military since the ground invasion began last week.

Al-Qassam Brigades said that they infiltrated into the eastern part of al-Tuffah neighborhood earlier on Thursday and launched an attack on Israeli soldiers deployed there.

The group claimed to have destroyed an armored personnel carrier with an RPG 29, a rocket-propelled grenade.

An Israeli military spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment.

The Brigades also declared that their fighters clashed with Israeli soldiers in two areas in northern Beit Hanoun.

On Sunday, Hamas fighters killed seven Israeli soldiers in a similar attack on an armed personnel carrier.

Palestinian resistance groups have engaged the Israeli military in intense clashes across the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the ground invasion last week, with the military admitting 32 dead and hundreds of wounded

Earlier today the UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Baroness Amos, described the plight of Gazan civilians who were trapped in increasingly desperate conditions. She told the BBC:

We are extremely concerned with the deteriorating humanitarian situation," she told the BBC.

We have over 118,000 people now who are sheltering in UN schools. People are running out of food. Water is also a serious concern.

With about 44% of Gaza not able to be used by Palestinians who are fleeing their homes, the situation is even more dire.

In a joint press conference with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem this morning foreign secretary Philip Hammond called for a swift ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Hammond put the blame for the latest outbreak of fighting firmly on Hamas while reiterating Britain's support for Israel's right to defend itself. He said:

Britain has also been very clear that Israel has the right to defend itself and its citizens but we are gravely concerned by the ongoing heavy level of civilian casualties. We want to see a ceasefire quickly agreed.

We welcomed the earlier ceasefire proposal by Egypt. We are disappointed that Hamas has once again apparently rejected ceasefire proposals.

Netanyahu thanked Hammond and said Israel would continue in its attempt to dismantle Hamas's network of tunnels penetrating into Israeli territory. He said:

I thank you for keeping your moral focus and your moral clarity. We shall need it in the days ahead.

The Palestinian death toll has now reached 718. It is thought that among those 165 are children.

Netanyahu expressed regret for civilian deaths but said, the responsibility lay with Hamas.

"This use of human shields is extraordinarily cynical, it is grotesque, it's inhuman", he said.

He condemned a decision by the United Nations Human Rights Council to launch an inquiry into whether war crimes had been committed during Israel's latest military offensive. He said:

It is a travesty of justice, it is a travesty of fairness, it is travesty of common sense, it is a travesty of truth.

It will not prevent us from continuing to defend our people, to protect them against rocket attacks and to dismantle the vast terror tunnel network that we have seen that is geared to penetrate our territory.