Gaza latest: Order to attack Rafah to be given 'very soon'; Al Jazeera blasts 'criminal' bureau ban

That's all for tonight, but we'll be back again tomorrow with the latest updates and analysis.

Photographers on the ground in Rafah have captured buildings hit by strikes.

Children and adults can be seen inspecting the rubble, while others sit watching on dislodged bricks.

CIA director Bill Burns is expected to meet Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel next week, Axios reports.

The intelligence chief was in Cairo, where ceasefire talks were taking place, today.

He was reportedly then travelling to Qatar for an emergency meeting with its prime minister tomorrow.

Mr Burns' diplomatic moves come after talks faltered over disagreements on the so-called 'day after'.

Hamas reiterated its demand for an end to the war, which Benjamin Netanyahu flatly ruled out, seeking to dismantle Hamas.

By John Sparks, international correspondent

A week that started with cautious optimism for a breakthrough in negotiations between Israel and Hamas has ended, perhaps unsurprisingly, with the prospect of peace in Gaza looking as distant as ever.

It has taken two days of talks in Cairo, with a delegation from Hamas - and intermediaries from Egypt, Qatar and the United States - to expose the limitations of this exercise.  

There were indications in the lead-up to these talks that the parties had things to usefully discuss - even areas where they could reach agreement.

Israel was apparently open to a six-week cessation in hostilities in exchange for the release of some 30 Israel hostages by Hamas.

Several hundred Palestinian prisoners currently sitting in Israeli jails would also have been released as part of the deal. 

That was something the US secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, described as "extremely generous". 

The head of Hamas's political bureau, Mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, seemed engaged, stating that delegation members would be traveling to Cairo with "positive and flexible positions". 

However, there was a fundamental flaw in all this. What follows a temporary ceasefire? What comes next? 

Hamas wants any truce to lead to a permanent ceasefire. The Israeli government is committed to the organisation's total destruction. 

It is a contradiction that both sides, and all the intermediaries and concerned world leaders, would be hard-pushed to solve.

It seems there can't be agreement in the short-term without an agreement down the track.

The Israeli prime minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, rounded on the issue in his first recorded comments on the talks. 

"While Israel showed willingness, Hamas remained entrenched in its extreme positions, first among them the demand to withdraw all our forces from the strip, end the war, and leave Hamas intact - the state of Israel cannot accept this."

The threat of an Israeli incursion into Rafah, now packed with well over a million civilians, has hung over these discussions with many regarding it as a negotiation technique.

Yet if Netanyahu is committed to the destruction of Hamas, as he says he is, his forces are likely to invade Rafah anyway. The Israeli minister of defence, Yoav Gallant, suggested today that it could happen imminently. 

All in all, it proves the limits of a negotiation between two sides who are deeply committed to the undoing of each other.

The likely consequences seem desperately predictable.

A Hamas rocket attack on an area near the Kerem Shalom crossing has killed three Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli media.

A further 11 were wounded, said the Times of Israel, citing the IDF - four more than previously reported.

Approximately 10 rockets were fired, halting the movement of aid trucks at the nearby crossing, an Israeli government agency, COGAT, said.

Northern Gaza is now suffering a "full-blown famine", a top UN official has said.

Cindy McCain, director of the World Food Program, is the most prominent international official so far to say: "There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it's moving its way south."

Though not an official declaration, she told NBC News she believed famine had taken hold based on the "horror" on the ground.

"It's horror. It's so hard to look at and it's so hard to hear," she said.

A UN-backed report in March said famine was imminent and likely by May in northern Gaza, and could spread across Gaza by July. 

Earlier today we reported how Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant threatened that an order to carry out a "powerful" operation in Rafah could come "very soon".

The city, on Egypt's border, is host to more than a million Palestinian refugees who fled the north after the Israeli military ordered them to do so.

Pictures taken by Reuters photographers on the ground showed displaced Gazans living in tents on the sand.

In one image, women mourn next to the bodies of Palestinians at the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital.

Beyond the geopolitical twists and turns this afternoon, US correspondent Mark Stone has this report...

It's the story of two families in worlds far apart - connected by their little girls, Julia and Annabel. 

They both live with Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC), a genetic disease with only 1,000 confirmed cases worldwide. 

Annabel Frost lives with her family in Washington DC: Julia Abu Zeiter with her family in a tent in Rafah, Gaza.

Without urgent medical care, Julia will die. The Frosts knew they had to help the Abu Zeiters. 

This is a story about the kindness of strangers and the race to evacuate a girl living with the rarest of diseases.

Read more here... 

If you're just joining us, here is a recap of the key moments that have taken place today.

Ceasefire talks falter: CIA chief Bill Burns is reportedly travelling to Qatar for an emergency meeting with its prime minister after optimism drained from talks in Cairo.

Both sides appeared to reach irreconcilable positions: Hamas reiterated its demand for an end to the war, which Benjamin Netanyahu flatly ruled out, seeking to dismantle Hamas.

The Hamas delegation said it would leave Cairo tonight to consult with its leadership.

"The latest round of mediation in Cairo is near to collapse," one official briefed on the talks told Reuters.

Rafah assault: Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said that, with Hamas refusing its proposals, Israel was ready for a "powerful operation" in Rafah and "the order will arrive very soon".

Israel has been warning for months it plans to send troops into the southern city bordering Egypt, where more than a million displaced Gaza residents have taken refuge. 

Al Jazeera banned: The Israeli government ordered the offices of Al Jazeera news be closed down in the country, with police raiding its premises this afternoon.

The order included confiscating broadcast equipment, preventing the broadcast of the channel's reports and blocking its websites.

Satellite and cable TV providers swiftly suspended the channel, in what is believed to be the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet.

Mr Netanyahu claimed Al Jazeera reporters had "harmed Israel's security and incited against soldiers", accusing them of being a "Hamas mouthpiece".

Al Jazeera said the move was a "criminal action" and the accusation that the network threatened Israeli security was a "dangerous and ridiculous lie" that put its journalists at risk. 

The network said it reserved the right to "pursue every legal step".

Aid crossing attack: Hamas attacked near Israel's main crossing point for delivering humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Kerem Shalom aid deliveries were suspended, with Israel's Channel 12 TV channel reporting 10 people were wounded, three seriously. 

The Israeli military reported 10 rockets were launched at the crossing, while Hamas said it targeted Israeli soldiers in the area.

Al Jazeera and the Israeli government have had a fractious relationship for a long time, says international correspondent John Sparks.

The Israeli cabinet moved to ban the broadcaster today, with policing raiding one of its offices in Jerusalem.

"Al Jazeera, the network and its correspondents, have been outspoken, have been highly critical of the Israelis, certainly their conduct in Gaza - they have had correspondents on the ground since the conflict began," said Sparks.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government has accused Al Jazeera of being biased in favour of Hamas.

"This goes to show that the war in this region takes many forms," said Sparks, adding it is in part a war for international public opinion.

"What the Israelis are showing today is that they are sensitive to what the Al Jazeera network, their correspondents, have been saying."