The UN has warned that Gaza’s civilians face the “immediate possibility” of starvation, and that overcrowding and lack of clean water are speeding the spread of diseases as winter approaches. Deliveries of already scarce food and other supplies have been halted in recent days because of shortages of fuel for trucks and a communications blackout, now in its second day, that has made it impossible to coordinate deliveries, aid agencies said.

The Israeli military has said it has retrieved the body of a soldier, Noa Marciano, who had been held captive by Hamas in a building near Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital. It comes after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Thursday they had found the body of Yehudit Weiss, one of about 240 hostages taken on 7 October, in a building near the hospital.

A doctor at Shifa has said Israeli forces had “found nothing” during searches of the hospital complex, and that food and water were running out. “It’s a totally terrifying situation,” Ahmed El Mokhallalati told Reuters. “They are shooting all the time, all the areas.”

Israeli security forces have mounted a major raid in the city of Jenin, destroying roads and killing between three and five Hamas militants in the latest instance of surging violence across the occupied West Bank. Hamas said three of its fighters had died in the raid, which began late on Thursday night and lasted about eight hours. Israeli military officials said their forces had killed at least five militants.

At least 11,470 Palestinians, including 4,707 children and 3,155 women, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the Israel-Hamas war broke out six weeks ago, according to the Palestinian health authorities. The vast majority have been killed in Israeli airstrikes. In recent days, the Palestinian health ministry in the West Bank has started updating the Gaza death toll, AP reported, after the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza stopped publishing updates after ministry officials based in Shifa hospital lost electricity and connectivity. The conflict was triggered by a Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October that killed more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians.

Israel’s national security adviser has said the country’s war cabinet had agreed to allow two tanker trucks of fuel to enter the Gaza Strip each day – a quantity he described as “very minimal”. Tzachi Hanegbi said the fuel would be allowed for Gaza’s communications system and water and sewage services, and that the aim was to prevent the spread of disease.

Civilians in parts of south-east Gaza have been told in leaflets dropped by Israeli aircraft to move into a smaller “safe zone” in the coastal town of Mawasi, which covers just 14 sq km (5.4 sq miles), prompting warnings from the heads of 18 UN agencies and international aid groups. There are already 1.6 million displaced people in Gaza, more than two-thirds of its population. Most fled the north after similar warnings that nowhere in or around Gaza City would be safe for civilians.