The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that Gaza has become "worse" than hell on Earth in a BBC interview.

Her comments came as aid distribution in Gaza was stopped for a day. Here's a look at the key developments in the Israel-Hamas conflict today:

• The Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said aid distribution centres were shut today for "update, organization and efficiency improvements works", and would reopen on Thursday

• The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Gazans would be "prohibited" from entering the distribution centres or travelling on roads leading to them today - describing routes as "combat zones"
• It comes after dozens of deaths were reported close to the aid sites in recent days

• ICRC's Mirjana Spoljaric tells the BBC's Jeremy Bowen that Palestinians in Gaza have been stripped of human dignity

• Elsewhere, at least 12 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter in western Khan Younis, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency and a health official said

We're ending our live coverage now - thank you for reading.

Image source, SALVATORE DI NOLFI/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

The UN's head of humanitarian relief has condemned "horrifying scenes of Palestinians being shot, wounded or killed in Gaza while simply trying to eat".

In a statement, Tom Fletcher says that "a series of deliberate choices" have "systemically deprived two million people of the essentials they need to survive".

Fletcher repeats calls for independent investigations into dozens of deaths near aid distribution sites, and urges Israel to "open the crossings" to allow more supplies into Gaza.

"We must be allowed to do our jobs," he says. "We have the teams, the plan, the supplies and the experience."

The UN has previously warned that more than two million people are at risk of starvation in Gaza.

Image source, Reuters

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is an Israel and US-backed aid distribution group. It began operating in Gaza last month.

The organisation has faced extensive criticism from the UN and other humanitarian agencies, which say its strategy puts lives at risk and appears to "weaponise" the provision of aid.

But Israel says that the GHF is needed to distribute food and other aid without supplies falling into the hands of Hamas.

Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas steals large quantities of supplies and that the UN - previously the dominant aid organisation in Gaza - has not prevented it from doing so, a claim both Hamas and the UN have denied.

The UN and other high-profile humanitarian groups have refused to work with GHF.

Tom Bennett
Reporting from Jerusalem

Image source, Getty Images

Our team has just spoken to Za‘rab Za‘rab, a father from Beit Lahia.

“I have no home left,” he says, explaining that he and his family were displaced from northern Gaza and forced to relocate to the south.

“I’m injured, and I have disabilities in my leg, stomach, and shoulder,” he adds.

“I just want to bring food to my children, but I swear I can’t. I can’t even secure a nutritional supplement for them."

He and his family once depended on a soup kitchen, he says - but now that's closed.

“Now I’ve gone to several organisations, I begged them, pleaded with them, told them I’d do anything they want in exchange for my children staying alive.”

“These two children,” he says, pointing at his two sons. “What’s their fault? What did they do?”

Image source, Reuters

Elsewhere in the Middle East, the Israeli military has confirmed it launched strikes on targets in Syria overnight.

Missiles hit Syrian government weapons systems after two projectiles were fired from Syria into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the IDF said.

Israeli media reported that the projectiles were the first launched from Syria since an alliance of rebel groups overthrew Bashar al-Assad's regime last December.

Syria's foreign ministry said the Israeli attack caused "significant human and material losses" in Deraa province, accusing Israel of aggravating tensions in the region.

In a statement, the Syrian foreign ministry said: "Syria has never been and will never be a threat to anyone in the region."

You can read more about tensions between Israel and Syria here.

Tom Bennett
Reporting from Jerusalem

Image source, Getty Images

We've just received a voice note from Denise Potvin, a nurse working in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis and Gaza City with the NGO Doctors without Borders (MSF).

She says that everyday people are “trying to find basic survival needs like food, shelter, water, sanitation".

Potvin says they are currently treating people with skin disorders, respiratory disorders and those who are "desperate for food".

Her team is currently running malnutrition programmes for pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under five.

“You can see the desperation,” she says. “You can feel it.”

Since the war in Gaza began in 2023, Israel has barred foreign media from entering the territory, except on rare visits with military escorts. WhatsApp messages are one of few ways the world can find out what's happening there.

Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent, in Cairo

Image source, Getty Images

Armed men and desperate civilians looted a humanitarian aid convoy in southern Gaza City, according to eyewitnesses and footage circulating on social media.

A video posted by activists shows hundreds of people fleeing the scene carrying sacks of flour and boxes of food taken from trucks, while gunfire is heard in the background.

Nahed Shehieber, head of the Association of Truck Owners, says in a Facebook post: “Thirty trucks belonging to the Emirati Al-Fares Al-Shahem charity, in coordination with the World Food Programme [WFP], were completely looted in Gaza City.”

Eyewitnesses report that hundreds of people, including dozens of armed individuals, had been waiting for the convoy, which arrived at the Nabulsi roundabout, on the south-western edge of Gaza City, at around 02:00 local time (00:00 BST).

The convoy was en route to WFP storage warehouses.

The incident underscores the deteriorating security situation in Gaza, as Hamas’s policing and security apparatus has largely collapsed.

Scenes of lawlessness, rampant gun violence, and inter-family conflict have become a near-daily occurrence across the besieged territory.

Caroline Hawley
Diplomatic correspondent

I’ve been speaking to the nurse in charge of UK-Med’s field hospital in al-Mawasi, which treated 30 patients from yesterday’s shooting near an aid distribution site.

Mandy Blackman says they were mostly men because of the strength needed for people to walk miles to pick up their food, and then carry their box of provisions away.

But one patient was a woman, five months pregnant, who needed surgery for gunshot wounds to her abdomen in order to save her life, and the life of the unborn baby. Another patient was about 14.

One, she says, was a man who’d been beaten with bricks by someone trying to steal the food he’d just picked up.

“People are desperate and scared,” she says.

The nurse says the hospital has received no new food aid, and is still only able to give patients one simple meal a day, with high energy biscuits in the morning for children and breast-feeding mothers. “They are still hungry,” she adds.

The situation at the hospital has deteriorated since she arrived back in Gaza last month, she tells me, adding that it shows in the faces of the staff working there, who are also hungry and tired.

“They have no hope. I see, with each day, their shoulders droop even more. It’s sheer despondency."

UK Foreign Minister Hamish Falconer strongly criticises the Israeli government during a statement in the House of Commons.

"We are appalled by repeated reports of mass casualty incidents in which Palestinians have been killed when trying to access aid sites in Gaza," he says.

Falconer condemns the new Israel-backed aid distribution network, saying that it is inhumane, fosters desperation and endangers civilians.

The "unjustified block" on aid delivery must end, the minister adds, and Israel must immediately allow the UN and its partners to deliver aid at scale.

He repeats the UK government's call for a ceasefire and for hostages held by Hamas to be released, adding that the group can't be allowed to play a role in the future governance of Gaza.

Image source, UK Parliament

UK Foreign Office Minister Hamish Falconer is making a statement in Parliament on Gaza.

We'll bring you the key lines here - follow along by tapping watch live above.

Chaos and turmoil at aid centres proves they aren't workingpublished at 13:33 British Summer Time 4 June

13:33 BST 4 June

Jeremy Bowen
International editor

What we can conclude from the pause in aid today is that the system isn't working, and that there's severe structural problems in the way that they're doing it.

The previous system that worked during the ceasefire, which the Israeli's don't want to have anymore, was run by the UN and international agencies where they distributed aid around the Gaza strip.

In the current system there is a hub and Palestinians go there. But what's happened is thousands and thousands of Palestinians arrive and it gets chaotic.

We saw what happened with the Israeli military opening fire and a lot of people getting killed. Clearly, that kind of turmoil is not acceptable.

The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) say their systems work, and if food does get stolen it's not in a significant quantity.

Earlier, I spoke to the ICRC's president and she was deeply concerned about what is happening in Gaza. She called it a failure in humanity, the pursuit of total war and total victory, and the stripping of the dignity of the Palestinians.

What she says is that it's not just about Gaza, but the future - because without rules of war then ultimately many of us might end up suffering.

As we reported earlier, the BBC's international editor Jeremy Bowen has been speaking to Mirjana Spoljaric, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

She spoke about her grave concerns over the treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza, and appealed to world leaders to intervene - warning the consequences of the conflict could be felt around the globe if action is not taken.

You can watch a section of that interview below:

Meanwhile in London, Prime Minister Keir Starmer responds to a question about Gaza in the House of Commons.

He says: "We have strongly opposed the expansion of military operations and settler violence, and the blocking of humanitarian aid."

He adds that further actions against Israel will be considered, including sanctions.

Starmer continues: "We need to get back to a ceasefire. We need the hostages who've been held for a very long time to be released and we desperately need more aid at speed and at volume into Gaza, because it's an appalling and intolerable situation."

Image source, Reuters

"Unfortunately, there is no safe place in Gaza," Mahran Khodr tells Reuters news agency from Gaza City, the scene of a deadly Israeli strike overnight.

He explains they fled an area further north in Gaza and moved to Gaza City because they were told it was safer.

"Even those sleeping in tents became exposed to danger at any moment," he said at the site of the strike.

"Where do we go? We are dying of hunger every day, and there is also bombing. Our children have become (like) skeletons."

Image source, PA Media

The BBC has rejected incorrect White House criticism of its Gaza coverage, describing a claim it had taken down a story as "completely wrong".

At Tuesday's White House briefing, President Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the BBC of taking "the word of Hamas" when reporting on the number of people killed in a shooting near an aid distribution site on Sunday.

She also claimed, wrongly, that the BBC had retracted a story.

"The claim the BBC took down a story after reviewing footage is completely wrong. We did not remove any story and we stand by our journalism," the BBC said in a statement.

Karoline Leavitt criticised the BBC for changing the number of casualties in the story's headline. The corporation said its coverage was updated with new figures throughout the day, which is "totally normal practice on any fast-moving news story".

The numbers were "always clearly attributed, from the first figure of 15 from medics, through the 31 killed from the Hamas-run health ministry to the final Red Cross statement of 'at least 21' at their field hospital," the statement said.

• Read the full story to find out more

Dozens of people have ed a three-day anti-war march in Israel, according to the group behind the protest.

Standing Together is a small but growing anti-war group of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel.

It says in a post on X that participants are marching from Tel Aviv to the Gaza border as part of a "movement". The group is calling for an end to the war and the release of Israeli hostages.

In an update, the group says it has reached the Kerem Shalom border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

It says it "stands against the attempt by far-right activists to disrupt the entry of aid to hungry people in Gaza".

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Tom Bennett
Reporting from Jerusalem

Dr Marwan Shafiq al-Hams, who runs field hospitals in the Gaza Strip, told our team yesterday the situation at medical facilities is becoming increasingly desperate.

“We originally had space for 25 beds,” he told us. “Now we have 42 patients hospitalised in the intensive care unit at Nasser Medical Complex. They need blood, and we cannot find any.”

“These wounded and injured individuals already had anemia before the injury,” he added. “Now they have severe anaemia.”

“Our blood supply is running out.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned in March that Gaza needs at least 4,500 blood units per month to meet urgent demand but, at the time, had access to fewer than 500.

The BBC's Anna Foster last night hosted a special debate on the war in Gaza.

Our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet was ed by Michael Kleiner, president of the Supreme Court of the Israeli Likud party.

We also heard from Afif Safieh, who was involved in talks that led to the first official US-Palestinian dialogue, and Baroness Helena Kennedy, Labour peer and human rights lawyer.

Daniel Levy, a member of the Israeli delegation to the peace talks with the Palestinians in the 1990s and former adviser in the Israeli prime minister's office, was also on the show.

• You can listen to the full debate here

Tom Bennett
Reporting from Jerusalem

Muhannad Abed was trying to collect aid at a distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) yesterday, when - according to witnesses, medics and Gaza authorities - Israeli forces opened fire.

"The shooting was direct," he tells our team. "People couldn't even go out into the street."

He says his neighbour was wounded.

“We found a crowd of people, everyone took something, just enough for themselves, and left.”

On their way back, he says, they saw multiple bodies of people who had been shot.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops fired shots after identifying suspects who moved towards them "deviating from the designated access routes".

“How are we supposed to provide food">As we've been reporting, the GHF has said it would close aid sites today for "update, organisation and efficiency improvements works”.

Jeremy Bowen
International editor, in Geneva

Image source, Getty Images

Gaza has become worse than hell on Earth, according to the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric.

Speaking in a BBC interview at the ICRC headquarters in Geneva, Spoljaric says humanity is failing. States are not doing enough to end the war, end the suffering of Palestinians and release Israeli hostages, she adds.

Palestinians, she says, have been stripped of human dignity. International humanitarian law is being hollowed out.

What is happening in Gaza, she says, sures any acceptable legal, moral and humane standard.

The ICRC is an international organisation that operates in war zones. It has over 300 staff in Gaza, most of whom are Palestinians.

Its surgical hospital in Rafah, in southern Gaza, is the closest medical facility to the area where many Palestinians have been killed during chaotic aid distribution in the last few days near sites run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The ICRC says that yesterday morning its Rafah surgical teams received 184 patients, including 19 people dead on arrival and eight others who died of their wounds shortly afterwards. It was the highest number of casualties from a single incident at the field hospital since it was established just over a year ago.

The ICRC is considered the custodian of the Geneva Conventions. The fourth, agreed after World War Two, is designed to protect civilians in wars.

The rules of war, Spoljaric says, apply to all parties.

The Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 were no justification for current events, she says. Spoljarić says the ICRC is deeply concerned about talk of victory at all costs, total war and dehumanisation.

• We will bring you Jeremy's full interview with Mirjana Spoljarić on our website later today