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woman: two retiring executives turn their focus to greyhounds, giving these former race dogs a real chance to win. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, your purpose, and the way you give back. life well planned. announcer: 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" . i am samantha simmonds. . you are watching "the context" on bbc news. >> this street, this road deserted now, one of the main roads has seen this kind attacks last -- hamas attacksss last october but this operation looks different. >> we take the measures necessary to prevent terror

activities in israel, and we will do whatever is necessary. >> night is falling in here now in the west bank, and i think there will be fear among the palestinian population being in those cities in the north of the west bank that it could be another difficult night. ♪ samantha: israel carries out its largest major military operation in the occupied west bank for 20 years. at least nine people have been killed across four cities. we will get all of the reaction. also tonight, with donald trump indictment again and debates just around the corner, we will look at the state of the u.s. presidential election. and sir keir starmer's wide reset with europe. the prime minister was in berlin to announce a new u.k. and germany tweedle to tackle science, technology, trade, and business that is not a reversal

of brexit, he says. and of course we are keeping one eye on paris, where the opening ceremony for the paralympics is underway. thousands of athletes from around the world set 22 sports s starting tomorrow morning. we start in the middle east, where at least nine people have been killed in the biggest israeli operation in the occupied west bank for 20 years. last month, the international court of justice ruled israel's continued occupation of the area captured in 1969 breached international rule. violence has been increasing in the occupied west bank since hamas's deadly attack in israel on the seventh of october. the u.n. saying more than 650 palestinians have been killed by israeli soldiers. attacks have been launched from the occupied west bank against israelis. since 1993, control of the west bank has been divided across three zones where there is

either full control by the palestinian authority, partial control shared with israel, or where israel is in full control. unlike in gaza, hamas has no control there. israeli forces went into cities on a scale that has not happened for decades. israel says it has been conducting a counterterrorism operation with foreign minister describing the situation as a war that must be won. a senior palestinian official has accused israel of trying to escalate the war in gaza, warning of dire and dangerous results. the palestinian president has cut short a visit to saudi arabia because of the attacks. with me now is our international editor, jeremy. welcome to you. what do you make of this operation? jeremy: it is a serious escalation of what was going on. the west bank itself has been spiraling into deeper violence since october 7 last year when

hamas attacked israel. what has of course not been on the scale of gaza, it has been steady and steadily getting worse. this operation by the israeli army, which israel says is basically an operation to try and hit people they call terrorists who would attack their civilians and these people who israel says are backed by iran, this is a significant escalation of what went before. it is also a reminder that for all the talk of iran and someone, fdamentally what this is about is this long-running immutable conflict between israelis and palestinians for control of the land. samantha: what is your view on iran and the claim by the foreign minister of israel counts that their main foe is trying to establish an eastern front against israel in the west bank? jeremy: i don't know what he is

basing that on. there has been various reporting from other journalists the iranians are trying to funnel weapons in. i don't think that would be any sort of surprise. i have been in some of the west bank towns. i have seen young men carrying modern, brand-new american assault weapons, which on the black-market costs more than $20,000. so clearly it is not something they could have bought themselves. someone is paying for those. but, you know, what we always have to remember with this is that all of this comes out of this long conflict between israelis and palestinians. responding to the latest reports of who may be responsible is important, but the fundamentals of it is that there is this long occupation, the long conflict. and despite many attempts to find a military solution,

at least by israel, that has not succeeded. samantha: israel's foreign minister is talk about temporary evacuations of people in the west bank. do we know about the skill of that, where they will move to, and how much that could be? jeremy: no, we do not know detail about that. a lot of what the israelis argument in terms of destroying civilian infrastructure is quite reminiscent of what they have been doing in gaza for the best part of the year. if they go down the path of issuing evacuation orders in a specific area, say a refugee camp perhaps in one of the towns of the west bank, that is very like what they do in gaza. and i think there would be fears because there is an extra fight in the west bank that does not exist and that is the presence of armed and militant jewish settlers. question i will be raising now. if palestinians moved out of an

area, with settlers then move in? would they then refused to budge? there are also active implications. that is why it may well be that the army would not want to do that. but we will see. samantha: when you talk about the settlers as well, another development. the u.s. has imposed sanctions on a jewish west bank settlement, an israeli nonprofit. that is according to the u.s. what do you make of that development? is it significant? jeremy: the americans have done this kind of thing before, though not very much. these are settler organizatio which was involved in the expulsion of palestinians from their homes and also a prominent security official in one of the most militant west bank settlements. so these are people who really are at the sharp end of the movement. i think the important thing to know is essentially these are symbolic acts by the americans.

it will not change a great deal because the settlers have support from within the israeli cabinet. prime minister netanyahu actively or tacitly supports a great deal, not everything, but a great deal of what they do. and he disappointed to be the senior israeli official dealing with the west bank a man who has been doing it for a while now, who was one of the ultranationalist prop up his coalition, who is very much of the idea as is the official position of the israeli government that this is jewish land and there is no prospect of palestinian independence or freedom. samantha: ok, jeremy, thank y. let's get some analysis now with a former israeli diplomat and prime ministerial advisor. thank you for being with us. what is your assessment of the largest by the israeli military

in the west bank and some 50 years? >> hello, samantha. to begin with, i agree with 99.9% of what jeremy just said in terms of putting this in a broader context of an immutable conflict that has no solution. now, as for this attack specifically, there are two things to bear in mind. one is that it is designed. it could very well be at was a counterterrorism operation. let's not dismiss that. it could be it was based on intelligence and preemptive action to foil a terror attack. let's not dismiss that. but if you look at it slightly from a border angle, borderlands, this is designed to weaken the palestinian authority. if you recall, samantha, ever since october, ever since october 7, the beginning of the war in gaza, prime minister

netanyahu has been reluctant and dismissive and defiant in engaging the u.s. in a so-called postwar gaza scenario. according to the americans, the palestinian authority should extend its governance to gaza. secondly, for many years, at least since 2018, he has been vetting and encouraging the funneling of funds and strengthening of hamas in gaza. yes, that is exactly what he was doing. in order to, and he said this publicly, to weaken the palestinian authority so as to not be pulled into or lured into a peace process, which she is not interested in. so if you put the operation of the last 24 hours in that context, weakening the palestinian authority in the west bank, with whom security

forces israel has cooperated for a long time in a very effective way, if you put it into that context, things become much clearer. samantha: what is your view on the is really justification that they say iran is trying to establish that eastern front against israel and the west bank? -- in e west bank? alon: again, if a certain dividual or a terror cell has connections to iran, i cannot refute that, but to accuse iran of everything, this is almost science-fiction. it is consistent with the prime minister, who is trying to distance himself from the debacle of october 7 by saying this was not just hamas terrorism. this was a civilizational war. israel is in a 360 degree front from all directions. the epicenter of this anti-israeli campaign is in iran. the iranians are employing a web of proxies.

they are doing it in gaza with hamas, in lebanon with hezbollah, and southwest yemen and the red sea with the houthis, and they are doing it in the west bank. so, you know, ascribing responsibility and collusion to iran, it works wonders wh the narrative and exempts mr. netanyahu from having to deal with gaza, having to deal with lebanon. it is all about iran. and look, samantha, he for months has been trying to drag the u.s. into a conflict with iran. so far, unsuccessfully. i don't think he will ever succeed in doing that. his iran policy has been a successive failure. but he keeps on, as you suggested, pointing to iran as the source of all evil and terror activity no matter what. samantha: ok, thank you very much for being with us and for your analysis.

moving now to a senior fellow at the middle east institute and former advisor to the palestinian authority. welcome to you. thank you for being with us. what is your assessment of this operation by the israeli military in the west bank today? >> yeah, i think this is the latest in a series of very dramatic and alarming escalations by the israeli government, by prime minister netanyahu. we have had escalations on the lebanon border with iran, the assassinions of hamas leaders and others, and now this massive military operation in the west bank. i think it is pretty clear to everyone that these escalations are intended to do a number of things. one is to satisfy the extremist flank of this ruling coalition of benjamin netanyahu, who would

like nothing more than to deepen their control in the west bank, to remove -- frankly, they talk openly about removing palestinian populations and replacing them with jewish settlers. but it is also i think serving the personal needs and interests of the prime minister himself, who as we just heard would like to see a prolonged and expanded war in order for him to remain in power. if he can draw the united states into it, all the better. and he has managed to do it i think quite successfully. his poll numbers are now up. people areo longer asking the questions about what went wrong and who is responsible for the failures october 7. he has bought himself considerable latitude with his ruling coalition. and i think the question people have to ask themselves in the u.k. and certainly in washington is, is it worth igniting the

region on fire over and over again in order to save the political career of benjamin netanyahu, who as we have seen will do nothing, will spare no effort to remain in power? samantha: there continues to be huge protests in israel against him and his leadership and demand of the hostages to be returned. israel says it has evidence iran is increasing its financing and equipping of militant groups in the west bank. you are a former advisor to the palestinian authority. is it? khaled: i don't think it is a secret that iran has provided support to various groups, various armed palestinian groups in the west bank and in gaza. i don't know that there has been any dramatic change in that regard. but as we heard from alon just a moment ago, iran is a very convient bogeyman.

it is important to the constituency of this extreme government in israel. but it also resonates with parallel constituencies with republicans in the u.s. congress, with conservatives in europe, playing this civilizational card of the islamic bogeyman epicenter in iran. i think it serves a certain ideological narrative. samantha: the islamic state is committed to the destruction of the state of israel, isn't it? israelis would say and the government would say it has a right to defend itself. khaled: against what? what exactly is israel defending itself? samantha: against militants who are supplied by and supported by a regime that wants to see its destruction. khaled: yeah. first of all, i don't know that it is actually true. we have to take the assertions of this, again, very extreme government with a grain of salt.

this is a government that defines human rights workers, international humanitarian aid workers as terrorists or a front for terrorists. so we have to be careful in wholesale adopting the language and assertions of thi again, very extreme government. so we have to see where there is evidence. but also, these armed groups, who are they attacking? they are attacking an invading --or the most part, they are attacking armed israeli soldiers who are invading their towns and villages. i don't think that would qualify in anyone's definition with the exception of israel as terrorism. the other question is, are these kinds of military operations that kill people, that destroy infrastructure, that besieged hospitals, are they reducing the amount of armed

resistance, or are they creating more armed resistance? samantha: it has been reported today that hamas has set several of its militants have been killed, so big we -- so israel would argue that they need to eradicate these people and that is what the war in gaza is all about. khaled: well, that is clearly not what the war in gaza is all about because gaza has been destroyed as a siety where 2.3 million people live. they destroyed universities, hospitals, most of the infrastructure. they have displaced almost the entire population. so clearly what is happening in gaza goes well beyond hamas. and is clearly intended to punish the entire population. for example, the starvation, famine. this is a man-made famine in gaza. the world food program, human rights watch, numerous other international humanitarian and human rights groups have said

that israel is using starvation as a weapon. if those tactics are going to be imported into the west bank, people need to be very, very alarmed. and so there is a likelihood that what israel is doing is, you know, it is launching this operation, waiting to see what sort of international outrage there is. and if it is muted, then they know they have a green not to continue to escalate. samantha: ok. thank you very much for joining us. khaled: thank you. samantha: around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. ♪

samantha: donald trump has been hit with a new indictment over his efforts to overturn his loss to joe biden four years ago. government lawyers were forced to amend their case because of a landmark supreme court ruling that former president have

brought immunity from prosecution. the new indictment reroutes the like whichf the acquisitions and never referred to his status as a political candidate rather than a sitting president. donald trump is accused the department of juste are trying to resurrect a dead witch hunt. in just two weeks, he will take to the debate stage ainst kamala harris for the first time on september 10. donald trump confirmed late tuesday he will take part in the debate after raising questions about the host network abc's political bias against him. before the debate has even started, the two campaigners are already debating behind-the-scenes about the terms, particularly whether microphones will be muted when the other person is speaking. they have his campaign is arguing the microphones should be live throughout while trump's campaign argued for the exact same turns for a june debate with cnn. let's speak to jennifer, who is unelected delegate for kamala harris, a republican strategist,

who is chief of staff or marco rubio's presidential campaign. great to have you on the program. if i can start with you and bring in those new charges against donald trump, how worried do you think he will be? does it raise this issue again ahead of the election? >> well, look, i think voters vote for president trump or they don't and the concern for those issues primarily vote for the former president anyways so at the end of the day, this campaign right now is not about the political basis. the gop base, they are fired up for former president trump and will turn out for him. the democrat base, they are fired up for vice president harris and wl turn out for her. this election will come down to maybe as little as 45,000 voters. what do they care about? affordability on housing, food, fuel, insecurity is a big issue, and crime. those are the issues that will drive this race, the swing voters were undecided.

at the end of the day, they care about was issues. if former president trump stayed on this issues, there have been better days for him going into november. samantha: before the debate, we got the first interview with kamala harris tomorrow alongside her vp teammate, haven't we? that is the first interview she will have given since she stood as the democratic candidate. there has been a lot of criticism about why she has not given an interview, whether she is hiding her record, whether she will be able to stand up to scrutiny. how do you think she will fare and what are the pitfalls for her? >> she is an incredible strong person who is ady to lead as president on day one. she has been a prosecutor, united states senator, vice president of the united states. she has traveled extensively around the world and met with world leaders so i think she will do extremely well in her interview and in this debate, but there is still this question about how the debate will happen.

because we see that debates really do matter. with the last debate, joe biden did very poorly and he wound up exiting the campaign. now the old candidate is don-old trump, and whether he can stick to the issuematt talked about will be in question, and we interesting to see if he goes on a tangent or is able to focus on those swing voters and their concerns. samantha: i must ask you about a tv interview she is going to get tomorrow but don't worry because i want to talk about the debate as well on september 10. matt, what do you think? the debate is about whether or not microphones should be muted. this is muted while one another are answering questions so the other cannothip in. why do you think donald trump does want them muted? >> i will defer to the candidates. you asked the candidates on why they would want those muted or not and i suspect what some

people will be looking for in this debate is a viral moment like we had in past debates when you had interruptions on both sides of the political aisle from both political candidates. we saw that in 2020, 2016, not just general election debates but primary debates. the end of the day, i go back to the swing voters. in this debate for both of these candidates, those are the voters they have to win over. there are places like wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, and they will not care about whether or not microphones are muted. they don't care about the rules of the debate. they care about policy over personality and it goes back to affordability, border security, crime. those are issues that will be looking at and they will be analyzing candidates at the end of the day and recognizing their records onhose issues and what they will do with those issues the next four years. that is what the voters will be focused on. the candidates talk about those issues, and whoever does that will not only win this debate but this election.

samantha: do you think the debate will count with the critical swing voters? jennifer: absolutely. and remember when this debate is taking place, the day before the anniversary of the september 11 attack. it is a time when americans are thinking about national security. keep in mind that donald trump's top national security advisers are not supporting him. we will see a strong kamala harris. samantha: we must leave it there. thank you very much for your time. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. annocer: 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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