israel attacks gaza from the air and from the sea. 50 targets hit in overnight strikes. hello, this is al jazeera live from doha. also on the show - at least 16 people, including four n.a.t.o. servicemen are killed in a suicide attack in afghanistan. japan braces for typhoon nayoguri. hundreds of thousands urged to seek shelter. and can brazil do it without

neymar? excitement builds ahead of the world cup semifinal against germany. now, israel launched a renewed offensive against gaza - the military saying it bombed at least 50 sites, including o homes. medics say 14 people at least have been injured in the latest round of attacks. >> translation: at around 3:20am we had a call from the army asking us to leave the houses. they attacked 10 minutes after the evacuation. the house is destroyed. for the latest john hendren is in gaza and joins me live. what does the situation look like as the dust settles and the morning rises there? >> this whole conflict escalated dramatically overnight. the israelis hit four homes

overnight. apparently not trying to target the people inside the homes, as you saw there. they called and warned them to get out, then demolished the homes from the air. often they fired a warning shot ahead of time, we are told. that was 50 attacks there overnight from the israelis. there were apparently 80 rocket attacks coming out of gaza overnight. there was an extremely aggressive exchange of fire on both sides overnight. that considerably escalates the conflict. we talked to a hamas spokesman who said they are not looking to escalate the conflict. nevertheless, this frees their hand to retaliate against israel. in the words of the hamas spokesman, and we talked to the parliamentary leader of ham a and he said they are not looking for a conflict, but if israel

wants war "we'll give it to them." >> there's no intermediary operating between the countries, the two sides, egypt performs that function. hamas leaders tell us that egypt is not involved, and that means there's no ceasefire talks going on as the conflict escalates. >> at the same time israel has been moving troops and tanks around. what are the israelis saying about that? >> the israelis say what they are doing is a gradual escalation of the conflict. they say they are trying to stop the rocket attacks coming out of gaza. of course, this tit for tat between the two sides seems to be doing nothing more than escalating those attacks. we are told that there were 16 rocket attacks on beersheba over the past 24 hours. that's significant. it's about 50km away from the gaza strip , where i am right now. that means those are

medium-ranged rockets, an escalation in the breadth of the attack zone, and the hamas leaders say they are free, if they choose to do so, to increase the attack zone further. they have long-range rocket with a capability of reaching the business center of tel aviv. >> thank you for that, john hendren in gaza. >> prime minister binyamin netanyahu is facing pressure for the crackdown on hamas. >> reporter: the sound that all is not well here. this is the regional council, next to the gaza strip. this is outgoing artillery fire. there has been an increase in the number of rockets lapping here -- landing here, and the mayor says the israeli government needs to do more. >> government, security ministers and prime minister came and have gone. we need to understand there's an

army and policy. we need to know how to use the arms. in the face of terror you need to leave it on the head and remove the missiles from the ground. >> israel's foreign minister cited what he called a soft approach towards gaza as one of the reasons he pulled out of a joint party union. it doesn't affect the government for now, but it is seen as a blow to binyamin netanyahu's governance. >> the borders are burning inside israel. the division between jews and israelis is higher and higher. there's hate, there's no leadership. it's the weakest point. >> while they struggle with how to contain protests and racism, there has been a stream of rockets across the border. >> gaza is lying over the

distance. they have no control of the border. firing rockets is one of the only ways to assist in the siege. this man says the israeli government doesn't do enough to move towards peace. >> i'm waiting for both sides, especially hour side to do something to understand the other side, to respect them, the aspire eightses, to respect the narrative. you don't have to agree. you don't have to accept it, you can respect it. >> reporter: the view is not common. both sides are here to stay. he argues that the only way to move forward is through dialogue. a top u.s. diplomat has been asked to leave bahrain after leeing with a big political group. the isn't secretary of state for

democracy, human rights and labour is accused of interfering in domestic affairs. the the u.s. state department is looking into the situation. >> our team has seep the statements and is in touch on the ground to figure out with the government what has happened here. i suspect we'll have more later, once we have an update on the ground. reports for the statements came out in the last hour or so. >> suicide bomber has killed 16 people in eastern afghanistan. four n.a.t.o. servicemen, two afghan police officers, and 10 civilians are among the dead in tar wan province. we go live to kabul. let's start with the latest attack. who did it and why. it comes at a sensitive time, doesn't it. >> that's right. we understand the taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in parwan province, in the same valley near the bagram base.

n.a.t.o. forces are there investigating an attack. along with the dead there are seven afghan civilians wounded, and six n.a.t.o., according to local officials. n.a.t.o. will only confirm the four dead. these attacks. very worrying, especially at this delicate time, political time with the presidential election results very much in doubt. the preliminary results put ashraf gardeny in the lead yester -- put ashraf ghani in the lead. everything is to play for. abdullah abdullah supporters reject the results. they are meeting a couple of miles that way to protest the results. >> so what will their next step be after rejecting the results. to what extent will they hold off until the final results, do we know? >> we are not sure what will happen, it's getting heated. we are about 1,000 abdullah abdullah supporters that have

gathered. they have torn down the photographs of hamid karzai, president hamid karzai, which is in most government offices and police force. they have been shouting death to hamid karzai, death to the election, the head of the election commission. the next step formally here is the election complaints commission takes over the counting process and they will recount 7,000 ballots, 3 million votes. abdullah abdullah wanted more. he wants 11,000 recounted, but did not want the results released at all. tensions are running high among supporters. last night in kabul we heard a lot of shooting. some that the results showed him millions ahead. many protesting the vote. in some areas they took down the picture and put up banners declaring abdullah abdullah president. now, the concern is they might try to declare a parallel

government. some of the supporters indicated they might do that. secretary of state john kerry issued a statement saying that would not be a good thing. it could jeopardise the united states aid to afghanistan, a very, very difficult thing for this country with its perilous economy, dependent on international aid. >> jennifer glasse live in kabul. >> hundreds of thousands have been ordered to evacuate their holes in japan -- homes in japan as a powerful typhoon moves over the area. it's weakening but causing winds of 250 k/hr. our meteorologist is with us in the studio. first of all, it's weakening, but it's a big deal. >> yes. it's not quite a big a deal as yesterday. yesterday we looked at the stom with sustained winds of 250 k/hr, with gusts up to 300. it was powerful. if it was within the atlantic it would be called a borderline

category 4 or category 5 h hurricane. it's eased a little. we are seeing the sustained winds of 200 companies , with gusts of 250. still strong, the equivalent of a category 3. >> okainawa it's not the ended show. >> the eye didn't make landstorm so they didn't see the equivalent of a category 3. it's heading north. it will ease, but picked up the moisture from the sea. if it loses the energy, you'll see a lot of rain. that part of japan where it's going to hit is saturate. it has a lot of water. when it hits, the winds may not be a problem. the rain will. we are likely to see flooding,

and landslides as well. that will be the major problem. >> thank you so much for that. >> now, staying with jap january shinzo abe is the first -- japan shinzo abe is the first premier to address australia. he met with tony abbott and signed agreements to boost trade and defense ties. 41 asylum seekers returned to sri lanka by the australian government arrived in court. they were intercepted by australian authorities near the cocos islands in the indian ocean. sri lankan police say they'll charge the group with leaving the country illegally. 103 asylum seekers, mostly tam ill, are still in australian custody. in ukraine, the government is promising to rebuild slovyansk after taking the city back from pro-russian separatists. scott heidler reports on those that stayed behind.

>> reporter: on the outskirts of a strong hold, evidence that a battle for slovyansk was hard fought. no doubt that the ukranian army was wasting no time. vehicles move on after gaining control of the city. this, says the people, who live through months of shelling and attacks, get back to normal life. the minister of internal affairs paid them a visit, people asked about the way forward. >> translation: it's clear if russia seconds supplying tanks, the situation will be solved in the next two weeks. >> reporter: this woman stayed in her apartment block to help others that could not leave. it was shelled several times. >> we hope, as they promised, the government will help to reboot our homes. we are left with hopes. we lived here for 41 years, and have nowhere else to go. >> now that slovyansk is under

the control of the central african republic many are heading south to other battles. officials tell us those battles are different to what happened here. the tactics for the fighters and the ukranian army have to change. hundreds of fighters flooded south to donetsk. the city's largest concern over casualties is greater. the ukranian army will need a different battle plan. three bridges on main roads into donetsk were blown up. this one 30km north. the ukranian army leaves the scene of one battlefield as victors, but heads into a new one, that could have different rules. . >> the anti-government fighters in ukraine are trying to barricade themselves inside the eastern city of donetsk. the pictures are said to show a group of armed men stealing a world war ii tank from the local

war museum in donetsk. the men say they have the expertise to make it battle ready again. still to come - bringing electricity to the masses - the renewable energy project offering a ray of hope. plus... >> after the injury of a star striker, nervous brazilians face germany with hope. >> it's a chilling and draconian sentence... it simply cannot stand. >> its disgraceful...

the only crime they really committed is journalism... >> they are truth seekers... >> all they really wanna do is find out what's happening, so they can tell people... >> governments around the world all united to condemn this... >> as you can see, it's still a very much volatile situation... >> the government is prepared to carry out mass array...

welcome back. let's recap the headlines here at al jazeera now. [ gunfire ] israel launches more air strikes against gaza. the israeli ministry saying it targeted 50 sites, including homes. medics say 14 people have been injured. the taliban is claiming responsibility for a suicide bomb attacks that killed at least 16 in afghanistan. four n.a.t.o. service me, two n.a.t.o. police officers are among the civilians dead. hundreds of thousands have been ordered to ehave beening ute their homes -- evacuate their homes. the storm is weakening, but there's a risk of flooding and landslides. over the past month almost 800,000 people fled the ongoing pakistan offensive against the taliban in north waziristan. the pakistani military launched operations in the area.

officials say many of those forced to leave their homes are in the district of banu. >> nigeria's government says it's closer to finding more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by boko haram. the girls were taken from a school in the town of chibok. officials say they made a number of arrests in connection with the case. >> we are moving through offer finding them. we have identified a number of leads in the course of this exercise. that led to the arrest of, you know, the intelligence of boko haram. and also some of the female recruiters, and other areas. >> nigeria is one of the biggest energy producers, but

three-quarters of the population has no access to electricity. now the government is trying to boost supplies by investigating in renewable energy sources. >> we have this report. >> up until february people in derumi, a village of 3,000 on the outskirts of abuja have no access to electricity, etch has power, thanks to solar energy. people like timothy joseph, who runs the local barber shop. he was spending $500 a day on a generator to power his tools, before solar power was introduced. now his electricity is free. >> i used to do my business. now i'm saving my money. that's what i'll use to have my family. >> a solar panel is attached to the roof of the shop to catch the sun's rays.

converting it into energy. it's part of a project providing electricity to 16 local governments. if the pilot is a success it will be rolled out to 774 local governments across nigeria. around 3,000 people here have access to electricity because of the solar panels that have been installed. that's hardly enough. around 120 million nigerians don't have access to any electricity at all. energy companies say solar power can solve the electricity crisis because the abundance of sunshine. the problem is managing and maintaining the technology. >> if you are just deploying the technology without training the people how to use the system, and without any many years, then it is not sustainable, and soon

people will say "it's not working." >> the government is enforced to invest in renewable energy, because it failed to invest in electricity. despite being an energy producer. >> for scholar to work, not only will it have to invest in training beapeople, it will havo invest in managing the parts back home. >> a military helicopter crashed in vietnam, killing 19 people. the aircraft was minutes into a training mission when it came down in a small village, 40km west of happen -- hanoi. the cause is under investigation. washington joins colorado in legally selling marijuana for

recreational roof. we have a report from seattle. >> reporter: james can't wait to fill the cases, open the doors of cannabis city and start selling. there may not be enough weed to go around. he'll start with 10 pounds sold by the gram. >> that gives us 2,200 packages, the first 2,200. >> you be done by wednesday is this. >> that's the prediction. >> reporter: throughout the marijuana industry in washington there's concern demand will outstrip supply the first week, pushing prices up. >> we'll be in the range of $15-$20. >> more than 300 stores will be licensed, but on the 20 this week, and only a handful of shops, including cannabis city are expected to open. >> there has been a lot of red tape, you know, and a lot of hoops for the producers and processors to go through. we had to jump through heaps,

and they have had to jump through a lot. >> this is a pinch point where we get an indication that the roll out will be like a dribble out. >> this is one of two companies approved by the state. edis the founder. shouldn't you be swamped testing recreational samples. >> we should be. >> reporter: what happened? >> we had a delay in the licensing process at the end of last year, and producers and processes are not ready. >> reporter: we don't have enough pot. >> we don't have enough pot. >> by contrast in colorado, it was a success, first-day sales estimated at $1 million. it had a booming and well regulated medical marijuana industry, and the switch to retail pot was smooth. in washington medical marijuana is unregulated and not written in to the new law. the business of pot for fun has

been built from the ground up. growers and processes got licences in march. and the first legal crop has not been harvested. >> it's hard to get up and running. it's the only place that i can get product from are those peep, and they are struggling. >> store owners and state regulators expect a bumpy beginning, and supply problems to ease in the months ahead. many brazilians are on a different trip. the excitement for the world cup semifinal. without the star player many wonder if brazil has what it takes to send germany home. we test the mood among fans on both sides. >> at the market, famous for its cheese. nervous brazilians stock up on snacks ahead of the semifinal in germany. >> translation: we will be eating a lot, especially our

nails. brazilians are as anxious as excited about-facing a strong opponent without their star striker, neymar, who suffered a fractured vertebrae in the quarterfinals. >> translation: we are nervous because both teams are good. neymar's absence is a heavy blow. >> brazilians know the team needs more than skill, which is where spiritualist comes in. >> at the market at rio de janeiro. he lights candles in a replica of a football pitch, with brazil's team, including the ailing neymar. >> translation: i will wipe my hand at him like this. he's looking great in the little corner, together with all 12 and lots of luck. lots of luck that brazil wins. >> and for good measure he'll tie the legs of a german player. back in this area people tell us

they have a better weapon. >> we didn't have neymar, but we have 200 million brazilians cheering for the team. that's their strength. >> for this crucial game the german team will wear red and black jerseys, the colours of one of brazil's popular football clubs. people say they are furious and wearing the colours will increase brazil's desire to beat the germans. >> a few matters away we wonder if the fans are intimidated. >> the beer tastes like home. >> now, nervous smiles and laughs all around, mixed with a suspense that is almost unbearable as they face the prospect of losing the world

cup. >> one of the greatest footballers of all time, alfredo stefano died after suffering a heart attack. a former real madrid star fell ill in spain days after his 88th birthday. sarah coates reports. >> reporter: the word legend is over-used in football. it's the perfect way to describe alfredo de-stefano. he was nicknamed "the bond arrow", and helped to turn the club into a winning side, winning europe's top club competition five times. >> alfredo de-stefano changed the history of the club and football. he helped the transformation of real madrid into a sporting institution. he is real madrid. >> reporter: born in buenos

aires, and playing for three countries, it was his achievements bringing him fame, scoring 307 goals in 396 games for real madrid, including 49 goals in the european cup in 58 appearance, a record that saw him mentioned in the same breath as pele and maradona. sepp blatter said: >> the man was humble about his achievements claiming he never deserved his accolades. the life-time presidency, and tributes suggest most football fans around the world felt differently. a rare treat for people in china's north-east province. they saw this - the northern

lights. visitors to the north pole village got the best view. the lights are frequent in this part of the country. this display was unusually bright. more on the lights and other stories we are following if you head to aljazeera.com. [♪ music ] >> to hear them tell it ,