Welcome to live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and the Middle East crisis.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz has announced an expansion of the military operation in Gaza.
He said on Wednesday morning that large areas of the territory would be seized and added to the security zones of Israel.
He said in a statement there would be a large-scale evacuation of the population from fighting areas and called on Palestinians there to eliminate Hamas and return Israeli hostages, saying this was the only way to end the war.
We will bring you more details as soon as we can.