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brook: these are people who are trying to change the world. startups have this energy that energizes me. i'm thriving by helping others everyday. people who know, know bdo. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". >> you are watching bbc news. a warm welcome to our viewers on pbs. we are listening to the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken who is in tel aviv. he had meetings today with the israeli prime minister, and the palestinian president. let's continue to listen. mr. blinken: hamas can lay down its arms, surrender the leaders,

who are responsible for the slaughter, the torture, the rates of october 7 hamas could renounce its stated goal of eliminating israel, killing jews, and repeating the atrocities off october 7 -- of october 7 again and again. meanwhile, everyone around the world who cares about protecting innocent civilians, innocent lives, should be calling on hamas, indeed, demanding of hamas that it immediately stop its murderous acts of terror -- of terror and deplorable use of men, women, and children as human shields. in our meetings with israeli leaders here and in jerusalem, and palestinian leaders, we discussed our continued focus on preventing the conflict from spreading the west bank, to israel's northern border, or the broader region. i raised our concerns about steps that could escalate tensions in the west bank,

including subtler violence and proposals and parts of the israeli coalition government to expand settlements. i made clear expectations about addressing these issues. we also focused on what we can, what we must do now, to prepare for the day after the conflict. to create the conditions for a durable and lasting peace. . building on the principles i sent out a few weeks ago during the g-7 meeting in tokyo. breaking out of the cycle of violence, cycle of conflict, ensuring israel's enduring security, demands improving the lives of palestinians in the west bank in immediate tangible ways, and providing them with a credible path toward their legitimate aspiration for statehood. an palestinian arab leaders we will discuss practical steps to make real a just and lasting peace. and what each of us is prepared to do to help achieve it.

we have no illusions this is going to be easy. we will surely have disagreements along the way. if we are going to move forward on practical steps toward lasting peace, lasting security, we have to be willing to work through these disagreements. because the alternative, is more terrorist attacks. more violence. more innocent suffering. it is unacceptable. that is why united states is here. and we are leading toward this goal. with that, i am happy to take some questions. > the first question goes to reuters. reporter: hello, mr. secretary. you have said that the yet -- that the u.s. is urging israel to protect civilians before starting its operations in southern gaza. i'm wondering, you have talked about what you made clear to prime minister netanyahu and the war cabinet. what concrete and specific assurances have you gotten from

them, if any, based on what you heard from them today? are you confident israel will follow the international laws of our in southern gaza when it resumes its military operations? my second question is, you and others in the administration have repeatedly said the united states wants to see a revitalized palestinian authority to rule gaza and the west bank. could you tell us what exactly the u.s. vision is for a revitalized pa, and doesn't include a reshuffle in the leadership? thank you. sec. blinken: thanks. as i said, we made clear the imperative that before any operations go forward in southern gaza, that there be a clear plan in place that puts a premium on protecting civilians, as well as sustaining and building on the humanitarian assistance getting into gaza. and the israeli government agreed with that approach.

there are concrete steps where it is not appropriate for me to detail here tonight. that we know and we heard can ensure, to the best of anybody's ability, that that happens. it is obviously challenging, given the particular conditions israel has to deal with in getting to hamas and making sure that it can't represent the threat that it posed on october 7. but again, israel understands the imperative of protecting civilians, the imperative of humanitarian assistance, and we will continue to work to ensure that that carries forward in practice. again, ai said, to the prime minister, to the war cabinet,

intense is where you start. it is vitally important. i'm very confident in the intent, but results, of course, are fundamentally what matters. with regard to the palestinian authority, we have said, and deed i had an opportunity to discuss today with the president the need to reform, the need to revitalize, revamp the palestinian authority, so that it can most effectively meet the aspirations of the palestinian people, and deliver for them. there are a number of things that go into the, including, for example, reform so that it more effectively combats corruption. that it engages and empowers civil society. that it supports free press and open media. and a number of other things. leadership choices, these are up to the palestinian people.

and palestinians themselves. but there are a number of things we think would be critical to making sure the palestinian authority can be effective in helping to advance the aspirations and the needs of its people. >> that is the u.s. secretary of state speaking to the press in tel aviv after his meetings in ramallah and jerusalem today. two or three things to pick out. it is interesting he prioritized the concerns over eight in gaza, not enough is in gaza at the moment. he wants more aid to be fast tracked. benjamin netanyahu said he will resume the operation in gaza. i made it clear to mr. netanyahu, he says, that is operations have to be put in place, protections for civilians. netanyahu and the war cabinet, he said, agreed with the need for this approach. it is a more nuanced approach from the americans. there is support for a continued israeli operation.

but he is emphasizing, as he has done before, but and is lives must be protected on all sides. secretary blinken, we will perhaps get reaction to that through the course of the program. we are keeping our eye on moving parts in israel. we are inspecting another number of hostages and the release of palestinian prisoners in the west bank. . we have news on two hostages who were released today. back with her family tonight, a 21-year-old abducted from the supernova music festival, we labor call was one of the first people to appear in a hostage video released by hamas. . this was the moment that will warm your heart, when she was reunited with her family after almost eight weeks. she is back home safe again. so too is the 40-year-old who was kidnapped from could boots come far as our. we hope in the next hour, we will have details on the release of six more who were on today's

list. also of course, 30 palestinian prisoners are set to be released tonight. we are keeping our eye on that person outside of ramallah. 22 if the palestinians that will be released our children, and eight of them are women. let's go live to oliver mctiernan, the director of forward thinking who has worked in hostage negotiations for over 20 years, played a key role in the negotiations surrounding the release of the israeli soldier held hostage for five years. before we came to eric, we have had another video released by hamas which is quite upsetting to watch. they are holding a person in gaza, we will not show the video because it has been filmed under duress and it is extremely upsetting. but yesterday, you will recall that hamas has claimed his wife and their young boys could fear him who had become symbols route this were killed, they said, by

an israeli bomb. they are saying tonight they have offered to return the three bodies, the mother and the bodies of the two children. and that israel has refused. what do you make of that? oliver: first of all, christian, i think the practice of showing videos of people being held is quite immoral. because it obviously creates anxiety, increases the anxiety of the relatives. i first would think that is an important point to make. i can believe that the deaths did occur, given the extent of the destruction in northern gaza. we've been told that it is now accepted that the hostages are not in one place. if they are not in one place, it is obvious, the risk of some of them being killed will waiting

to be released is very real. i think it is very sad that it has happened in this case. i hope somehow that the whole thing will be resolved, so that the family will be able to deal with the emotion that it has caused to them. christian: yes. if it is true that they have been killed, they would then release him so he can grieve properly and bury his family. correct? oliver: yes. i would agree entirely. but in a war situation, we have talked before about this. in a normal negotiation for the release of hostages, there is a process and calmness. it is not just carried out publicly, there is no press conference. sign of life is given privately to the negotiations, to the family. this situation, i think, is quite out of the ordinary.

we are not only caught in a real war where people are dying, but we are also caught in a propaganda war. that cometh to me, is the despicable part of it, because it is costing more and me lives and prolonging the pain of relatives. christian: if you put that with the return of the women today and the emotional reunion we have just shown our viewers, it tells you what a roller coaster this is for the families. they genuinely don't know whether their loved ones are alive or dead. oliver: yes. i agree. the one family i am in touch with, their relative was released today, and i know what relief that will bring them. christian: the israelis talk about 140 who are left in captivity. how many of those would you suppose are women and children? oliver: very difficult to say. because october 17 -- 7 was

chaotic. what we've seen. i think to be able to know who survived it, who has been kept by whom, i think it would be a nightmare. but i keep coming back, the only hope we have of seeing all the hostages returning safely is for a complete cease-fire. we have talked before about the incompatibility of two objective saying, i'm going to eliminate hamas, and other same time, i'm going to negotiate with hamas to ensure the secure release of the hostages. i ink that incompatibility, and we saw it reflected in the secretary of state blinken's remarks tonight, i don't think it is recognized those are competing objectives. and they put -- they are not only prolonging the process, but i think to put the lives of those who were being held in

captivity, it puts them at risk. christian:christian: a quick final one, oliver. i'm sure you have spoken to hostages who have been released in the past. how much information and intelligence do you think the israelis will have gleaned in these seven days from the other hostages? broadly speaking, we are not allowed to interview them, or we are discouraged from speaking to them. is that purely to preserve any intelligence they may have passed on? oliver: i would hope first and foremost it is a humanarian principal. they need space. they will be traumatized. christian: of course. oliver: they need to come to terms with that. but of course the intelligence services will try to get information. i think from my experience, the way he was held for five years, how he was being held, was not ever discovered. i think in a way, the intelligence that they would gather would be very, very

limited. and it would only apply to exact the where they were being kept. it would not give insight to anyone else. that is being held hostage. christian: oliver, always good to talk to you. . thank you for your thoughts this evening. oliver: lovely pair thank you. christian: let's bring in paul adams who has been watching the press conference in tel aviv over the last 10 minutes or so. i was just saying to our viewers, there is new omsk support quite clearly from the resumption of operations in gaza. and again tonight, the secretary of street -- estate stressing the lives of civilians must be put first. paul: yeah, this was a very interesting and important press conference by antony blinken. he spent the first three minutes or so talking about the ongoing effort to try to secure their release of hostages. what you have just been talking to oliver about. i think he spent the rest of the time talking about frankly what happens when this process ends.

i think everybody knows that we are in the talent of a process now that is going -- we are going to return to war fighting pretty soon. perhaps within a matter of days. the secretary of state's message to the israelis about what happens at that point was really, really important. i want to check my notes here, he talked about before israel resumes military activity, it needed to make sure that the humanitarian scene was set with proper provisions for aid, proper understanding of designated areas where people would be safe. not the safe area, the single safe area of the israelis have been talking about for weeks now. but specific designated areas inside u.n. facilities, particular locations, hospitals, schools, where they would let the know civilians they would not be hit.

he also said there should be no enduring internal displacement. and that people should be allowed to return to the northern part of the gaza strip, as soon circumstances permitted. he laid down a challenge to the israelis. he said, you have one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world. you off to be able to do this. it will be difficult but you can do it. intent matters, he says. but so does the result. he said without giving details of the israeli government had, broadly speaking, agreed with this approach, and wasoing to act accordingly. christian: just a word on this video that has been released by hamas tonight. how is not being received in israel? this video, and all the circumstances surrounding it. what sort of pressure does that put on the israeli government? paul: it does. i think it is worth noting that this video, just like the one several weeks ago in which a

female hostage -- there were a group of three women and one of them delivered another pssionate appeal to the netanyahu government. i was very prevalent of today's video, very redolent of that one. it was a painful video to watch. most israelis, i would hazard a guess almost all israelis, have not seen it. enough -- and have not heard it. it is being alluded to, not broadcasts. the israeli and little terry says it is seeing it as psychological warfare. but it is deliberately not being shown to the israeli public. it is too painful, and the kind of pressure it may generate would also be difficult for the government. i think it is regarded as yet another piece of psychological warfare by an organization that continues, to a certain degree, to dictate the pace of events. or how much longer, who knows?

christian: and finally, you said you think it could resume within days. you think past 5:00 in the morning, 7:00 your time deadline, you think they may find reason to extend another day or two? paul: we were in this position last night. we did not know, at this hour. and for several hours, whether or not we were going to see another group of hostages released. and it was only literally before 7:00 this morning that we got confirmation that the process was going to continue. we could be in that situation tomorrow morning. my instinct is we have a couple more releases still left. while the remainder of the children, their and older women are released. we don't quite know how many of those people there still are. as oliver says, it is a

confusing, messy picture. but there are still some. and i think the gernment will allow space to get those people out because this process has run successfully for a week now, before it takes the decision to go back to war. christian: paul adams in jerusalem. thank you very much. let's get quick thoughts from an expert on the region,xecutive director of the middle east policy cancel. . thank you for your patience while we were watching the secretary of state. exactly what israel plans is not clear. but it would seem quite obvious the path appears to lie in the south. do you think the u.s. administration has the leverage over israel to ensure what secretary blinken is setting out is followed? >> the united states certainly has the ability to have leverage over israel. they have yet to exercise that. that is why we are just now seeing very loud cries within

u.s. domestic policy spaces for restrictions on u.s. aid to israel. as i'm sure you are aware, in the past, we have never placed restrictions on aid to israel. and therefore, we have tied our own hands and not been able to exercise leverage. christian: there is a broad spectrum of policy suggestions out there from senator chris murphy, to senator bernie sanders. murphy saying there should be a condition set that if they breach humanitarian law, that weapons should not be supplied. sanders says it should be banned on the israelis raining in settlement or oppression of people in the west bank. why do you think the biden administration is reluctant to add conditions to the aid? >> as you know, for a very long time, u.s. foreign policy towards israel has been bipartisan. enter quotpresident biden and many former presidents, there has been no sunlight between the

shoulder of the united states and our ally, israel. more and more americans are pushing back on that and questioning the rationality behind that, and whether or not that is a responsible way to manage our funding. it is very interesting because in the united states, if the u.s. federal government were to give money to a state, let's say the state of texas or alabama, it would most certainly be restricted and have a number of demands in association with receiving that aid. it is very interesting that we have had this policy for soong where we are giving money to a foreign country without demanding anything in return. as we hear time and time again from this administration, they keep saying that they are asking the tough questions behind the scenes. but i have yet to hear why they think that is sufficient in garnering results. christian: thank you very much.

i'm sorry, we are squeezed for time. i hope you will come back and talk to us some more. thank you. plenty of time on this program we have focused on the scale of the destruction. but it is not until it is plotted on the maps that you see it for what it is. this is the north of gaza, the red marks indicate the damage, until th22nd of november, the day before the cease-fire was agreed. more than a million people lived here on october 7. many of them fled to the south. where there is less damage, still considerable, the only spot israel says is safe is that red box paul was talking about on the coast, the humanitarian zone which they have urged people to flee to. one of the people behind these maps which we keep showing you, which plenty of networks are also using, is jaymond at oregon state university. thank you for being with us. i just want to explain to people

something about the technology you are using. what a lot of people will not understand as you are not relying on overhead hemorrhages. one is the difference between satellite radar which you are using, and commercial satellite imaging? >> yeah. our approach uses open satellite radar data from european space energy -- agency copernicus program. we are sensitive to different things in terms of what kind of damage may occur under different conditions. with radar, we can see damage, or monitor day or night, regardless of atmospheric or weather conditions. we also look at the built environment, cities, villages, towns, structures, from the side. it is not an overhead view. we are not just seeing damage to the roof, which is typically all you can see from high-resolution fidelity imagery. we are also sensitive to lateral damage and different kinds of various damage, one of the

active areas we are exploring. christian: which is highly unique and it gives an accurate picture. we just heard antony blinken talking about people going back to the north. from the imaging you have looked at, how likely is it that one million people could move and live in the north? >> i can't comment on the safety of migration back to the north, but we can comment on the scale of destruction in the north. it is severe. our eimates are putting at least 50% of structures in north gaza and gaza have likely been damaged since the start of the war. if a million people return, it is very unclear where they will live. christian: is there consistency in the data? ? you are looking at small changes. what is the algorithm looking for? >> we are looking for sustained, significant drops, the stability of the built environment. cities broadly are pretty stable

over time. a structure is built, its days looking the same. when we have aerial bombardments at the scale that we see in this conflict, the echo as you described it, changes. we detect the timing of the change, and we make sure it is large enough, persistent enough to register as a signal of damage. christian: it is really interesting. we are grateful for you coming on the program. thank you very much. do stay with us. we will keep it across events for the middle eas narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. man: bdo. accountants and advisors. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs.

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♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned.