Watch view of Israel’s southern front in Sderot where Israeli forces are gathered

Watch a view of Israel’s southern front, where Israeli forces are gathered as fighting with Hamas continues.

Rishi Sunak will arrive in Israel on Thursday 19 October, as he prepares to meet leaders in the Middle East and call for any increase in violence to be avoided.

The prime minister will hold talks with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, and president Isaac Herzog as he starts a two-day trip that is expected to take in a number of capitals in the region.

He will urge Middle East leaders to “avoid further dangerous escalation”, saying that “too many lives have been lost” already in the Israeli-Hamas war.

Mr Sunak’s visit comes after Joe Biden flew into Israel on Wednesday in a diplomatic bid to prevent fighting from spiralling into a larger crisis.

The US president urged Israel not to be “consumed by” rage in the wake of Hamas’s deadly attack on 7 October and to avoid making the same “mistakes” that the US did after September 11, 2001, following the Islamist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.