this is bbc news. two british—israeli sisters killed in a shooting in the occupied west bank have been named as maya and rina dee. in a separate incident, an italian man died — and three british citizens are among the wounded after a car ploughed in to tourists near a beach in tel aviv. in iran, local media report that dozens of girls have been poisoned in several schools across the country. the taiwanese president's visit to the us sparks three days of military exercises from china. the king and queen consort have invited hundreds of volunteers and charity workers

to next month's coronation. two british—israeli sisters killed in a shooting in the occupied west bank have been named as maya and rina dee. the sisters were killed on friday afternoon in the north of thejordan valley, as they drove through tiberias. the attacker was shot dead by police. their mother, leah, remains in a critical condition in hospital, local media reported. the family lived in the settlement of efrat and were immigrants from the uk, the mayor said. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu sent a tweet containing the sisters' names, and a photo of them, on saturday evening. these details come at a time

when the region is seeing an upsurge in violence. our correspondent lucy williamson reports from tel aviv — a warning her piece contains some distressing details and images. last night, tel aviv�*s holiday crowds became targets. gunfire this, the moment when police surrounded the attacker and then shot him dead. people shout you can hear the fear of people filming nearby. the driver was a 45—year—old man from a nearby town who drove his car into pedestrians, killing an italian man named as alessandro parini, and injuring seven others, three of them british. we heard gunfire. we saw shots and then we saw people sprinting across the street, and then we heard sirens and we decided it was time to get out of here. today, the car's journey through the grass is marked with flowers and candles —

tributes to the tourist who died. this is where the attack happened last night, right on tel aviv�*s promenade. hours afterwards, you've got locals and tourists already gathering here. on a warm weekend evening, this place would have been packed with people. one of the doctors treating the injured said some had broken bones and one a fractured spine, but an event like this leaves psychological wounds, too. i think that nobody's prepared ever for this type of situation. you know, it's impossible, ithink, to understand the fact that somebody one day decides to take the life of another person. tensions between israel and palestinian militants have spiralled this week. the flowers along tel aviv�*s seafront today, an uncomfortable reminder that places like this are an easy target against the backdrop of a conflict that seems very difficult to resolve. lucy williamson, bbc news, tel aviv.

despite the security crisis, protests against a planned judicial overhaul in israel have been held for the fourteenth week in a row. it's thought tens of thousands of people gathered for the main anti—government rally in tel aviv and thousands of officers were deployed. the protesters held a minute's silence for the victims of the violence. earlier i spoke to khaled elgindy who explained how this appears to be a serious escalation of tensions. well, we've seen a very serious escalation over the past several weeks. it's just that most of the violence has been directed at palestinians, something like at least more than 80 palestinians already killed since the start of the year. and there's been an uptick in reprisal attacks mostly by

lone wolf palestinian actors opposed to militias. so far, we've seen very little of that, and i think the latest lone wolf attacks are inward direct response to the violence inflicted on palestinian worshipers at the al aqsa mosque. two night in a row, israeli security forces went in and raided the place and beat worshipers who were simply praying. i think that elicited a response we saw in previous years. what was the justification of this raid on the mosque? justification given by the israelis, the official was that palestinians had barricaded themselves in the mosque and have prevented

people from leaving. the reality, based on eyewitness accounts from palestinians who were there and even human rights reporters who have since reported on this situation, the reality is it's quite common for muslim worshipers in ramadan to spend the night in any mosque, but particular, holy sites such as al—aqsa, very popular for muslims to do that during the holy month. the problem is that israelis also don't want muslims to spend the night at al—aqsa because they want to allowjewish visits early in the morning and want to avoid any contact between the two groups, so it's really a way to allow increasing jewish visitation and possibly prayer on the al—aqsa mosque compound, which is also holy tojews as the temple, but under the status quo that has

been in place for many decades, jews are not allowed to pray on this site because it would threaten the muslim claim to that holy site and eventually turn it into a jewish site. that is the fear that palestinians have. well in the last half hour, the chief rabbi of the uk hasjust released a statement about the killing of maya and rina dee. in it he says: "no words can describe the depth of our shock and sadness at the heart—breaking news of the murder by terrorists in israel of maya & rina dee" "daughters of rebbetzen lucy, who is in a critical condition & rabbi leo dee, my dear colleagues."

"we pray for a complete recovery for rebbetzen lucy and also for those injured in the terrorist attack yesterday on the promenade in tel aviv." to iran now where local media reports that dozens of schoolgirls have been poisoned in several schools. this phenomenon began last november and since then there have been reports of poisoning incidents from gases or toxic substances. in some cases students have been hospitalised. bbc persian service's parham ghobadi has more. schoolgirls have been poisoned again across iran today. this hospital in a kurdish town in western iran is packed with students. multiple schools in at least six cities were targeted in possible gas attacks, seemingly that this concerned mother calls it a chemical attack against her daughters, a school in pardis in tehran province. parents are furious.

almost 400 girls are hospitalised here in northwestern city of erbil, according to the city officials. students are seen half conscious lying on the ground. another is fighting for her breath. ambulances and medics are helping others. but it's not like that in every city. this student in the central city of qom says security agents have barred ambulances from entering the school. parents are frustrated. also in qom, or iran's vatican, the epicentre of school poisonings. this phenomenon began in november. no one knows who's behind these attacks. the iranian parliament's has formed a working group to investigate the poisonings. its chief pointed his finger at students. we call on the students to be more careful. these incidents take place partly because they are mischievous. such comments have made many believe hardliners backed by the regime

might be involved to target girls who were at the forefront of the protests that have swept the country since september. it's not only schools — university students were poisoned at this female dorm in tehran on thursday. and today, horror is seen in the face of these children at an elementary school in northwestern city of urmia. girls of all age groups are targeted. now in another worrying development in iran, authorities have announced they will be installing smart cameras in public places to identify women who are unveiled, and not observing the country's strict dress code. for more on that, here's azehdeh moshiri. the mandatory hijab has been at the centre of protests in iran eversince 22—year—old mahsa amini died in police custody after she was arrested for violating the country's strict dress code. now, it led to protests around the world

and across the country. it even led to some women burning their veils during those very same protests. but it also led to something else — women developed a lax attitude towards the mandatory hijab. it wasn't unusual to go to a big city in iran like tehran, the capital, and see several women walking around the streets unveiled. it also led to law enforcement hesitating in how they would respond, given the protests in the country were growing, but that's changing. iran's law enforcement has now announced that they're installing smart cameras on streets in order to identify women who are violating the mandatory hijab law. they also said that they would send warning messages to the violators of the hijab law and violators of public decency. now, this follows a recent incident in mashhad, where a man poured a tub of yoghurt over the heads of two women who were unveiled. all three were arrested. here's a reminder of that moment that was caught on cctv.

now, the issue of the hijab was never something that the islamic republic was going to take lightly. and that's because the hijab is an important symbol of the islamic revolution. it's when the country physically started to look different. it's when a country where women had choice turned into a country where they don't. the smart cameras signal that not only is the mandatory hijab here to stay, but it will be heavily enforced. the operator of ukraine's electricity network says russia has launched more than 12 hundred missiles and drones at its energy facilities so far during the war. the operator described it as the largest attempt ever to destroy a european country's energy system. on friday, ukraine said it could start exporting electricity again,

having overcome what it called �*the most difficult winter'. china has started three days of military exercises off the coast opposite taiwan. beijing — which views taiwan as a breakaway province of china — called the operation a "stern warning" to the island's government. taiwan says 71 chinese planes and 9 ships crossed the taiwan strait median line — an unofficial dividing line between chinese and taiwanese territory. the mobilizations began hours after taiwan's president returned from a trip to the united states, where she angered china by meeting the house speaker kevin mccarthy. i wasjoined earlier by the founder and senior adivsor at china dialogue, isabel hilton. my first question was how important are these drills? they�* re pretty important. there's a very large deployment of ships, a large deployment of aircraft flying into the air defence identification zone, essentially into taiwan's airspace.

the ships are crossing the median line in the taiwan straits, and there was a bit of live fire across one of the islands, which is the island closest to the mainland. so, it's unmistakably large deployment, and beijing is calling it an exercise in encirclement — in other words, saying we can blockade taiwan whenever we want to and this is how we do it. right, understood. the backdrop, the political backdrop is important. if you talk us to the sequence of events in terms of visits to china and the us and how they plan to this. it's been a pretty busy week. the one that has resulted in military exercises was of course tsai ing—wen's visit to the us, which was played pretty coolly in washington. she didn't have any high—level

meetings in washington. she didn't meet president biden, but she did meet kevin mccarthy in california. the thing about kevin mccarthy is that the house has to vote on arms to taiwan, so they uk military support requires the approval of the house. clearly, tsai ing—wen has to maintain warm relations with the house speaker. that's not difficult, they're very much inclinded to support taiwan, much to beijing's fury. we are the european union at the same time, president macron of france with 50 important businessmen, and the president of the european commission, ursula von der leyen, both visiting china. president macron was rather warmly received, ursula von der leyen rather less warmly received because she's conspicuously more critical of china's position on russia and in fact in general, and the relationship

between the eu and china. indeed, this is a very difficult line to tread for, simply because of china's rather opaque role in this war. indeed, china is providing substantial support to russia. if you look at the trade figures, trade has increased hugely. china's been picking up the slack on a lot of energy exports and it's been sending drone supplies and digital information, which is used in the front line. so, china tries to say it's neutral, but actually, it sactions tell you but actually, its actions tell you something different. it's trying to position itself as the peacemaker at the same time.

but there's very little sign that it's exercising any influence on putin for the good, so it's a pretty hollow claim. unless china can put some real action behind that 12—point plan, which is now 12 weeks old, then it's going to lose credibility. the former first minister of scotland nicola sturgeon has vowed to "fully cooperate" with police after the arrest of her husband, the snp's former chief executive — during an investigation into the party's finances. in her first public comments since peter murrell�*s arrest, ms sturgeon said recent days had "obviously been difficult" as she gave a short statement outside the couple's glasgow home. there is obviously nothing i can say about the ongoing investigation. much as there are things i might want to say, i'm not able to do so, other than to say that as has been the case, there will continue to be full cooperation. the last few days have obviously been difficult, quite dramatic at times, but i understand that is part of a process.

a 12—year—old boy has appeared in court charged with the murder of 60—year—old marcia grant. ms grant died on wednesday in sheffield after being hit by a car. the boy is too young to be named publicly. as well as murder, the defendant was also charged with possession of a bladed article. the bbc�*s olivia richwald was in sheffield crown court. the defendant is too young to be publicly named. he's 12 years old. he appeared here at the city's youth court with two charges. the first is the murder of marcia grant and the second is possession of a bladed article. the defendant appeared in the dock wearing a blue shirt which was too big for him and a navy knitted jumper. he displayed no emotion and he didn't speak but nodded to confirm his name, age and address. and the hearing only lasted about half an hour. the case was sent to

sheffield crown court and the boy remanded into youth detention. marcia grant was hit and killed on wednesday evening in the greenhills area of sheffield. her family have described her as warm and loving, a mother, grandmother, sister and friend and the pillar of her community. this case will next be heard on tuesday, april 11th. there's uncertainty about access to a widely used abortion pill in the united states after conflicting court rulings. a federaljudge in texas suspended government approval of miff—ip—riss—ton , after anti— abortion activists claimed it wasn't safe. the biden administration appealed against the ruling and a federal judge ruled access to the drug must be preserved in 17 states.

samantha simmonds explains. this row is all about this drug, mifepristone, which has been in common use for 20 years as a widely used anti—abortion drug. it was given full fda approval and tested for its safety back in 2000, as you can see from this headline here in new york times. now, though, a trump—appointed judge in texas — this man, judge matthew kacsmaryk — has ordered a hold on the approval of the drug after an anti—abortion group argued that its safety was never properly tested. one of those isjonathan keller of the california family council. we are encouraged that the federal judiciary is finally taking a look at the approval of mifepristone and really holding the fda to account for cutting corners and failing to protect women and children with the approval of the drug originally. well, the biden administration immediately appealed against that ruling. on top of that, a federaljudge in washington state ruled that access to the drug must be preserved in 17 states and challenged the attempt to block it. vice president kamala harris says that banning the drug sets a dangerous precedent. it is contrary to what makes

for good public health policy to allow courts and politicians to tell the fda what it should do. this is a drug that the fda approved as safe 20 years ago, and has been proven to be safe for 20 years. since roe was overturned, removing constitutional protection for abortions last year triggering a wave of state—by—state bans, the us abortion battle has increasingly focused on abortion pills. banning them would be another win for the anti—abortion movement. so, what happens next? well, the ban on mifepristone doesn't actually go into immediate effect, so nothing will change in the short—term, and the duelling court orders actually mean it's likely the issue will escalate to the us supreme court. earlier i spoke to our correspondent jessica parker who started by telling us where the legal situation currently stands.

obviously what happened with roe versus wade is the supreme court overturned that, but opened the door for individual states to ban or severely curtail abortion access, which has led to a kind of patchwork of access across the united states. we've seen it all being played out in the courts as well, and this particular court ruling, or the two we've had in the last day or so, some are describing it as the most significant abortion—related rulings since roe v wade was overturned because of what is potentially seeking to deal with the implications in terms of maybe limiting access or taking away the approval of a pill that's part of a two—stage regiment used by many women across america, accounting for over half of abortions. but i have to say, i've reported from countries before, like malta, where abortion is banned, but many women still use or order

these pills illegally. what is the role of the fda here? the food and drug administration are the ones that approved this pill over two decades ago, and legal experts say the fda has now been left in a pretty tricky situation because you have one ruling saying that approval is suspended. the biden administration is seeking to put a block on that and it doesn't kick in for another seven days, and then you've another ruling from washington state applying to 17 democratic states and the district of columbia as well that says that access to the pill should be retained. one legal expert speaking earlier was basically saying the fda might just have to use its discretion here because it can't follow both, and then wait for how this plays out in the courts, and as many people are saying, could end up in the supreme court eventually.

more than 850 community and charity representatives from across the uk have been invited to attend the coronation of king charles next month. invitations to the ceremony have been extended to hundreds of british empire medal recipients and young people from groups chosen by the royal family, as helena wilkinson reports. among those who'll be at the coronation service will be heads of state and other royals from around the world, but at the heart of the congregation will be hundreds of local heroes from across the country. likejulian and maria study—morton from london. during the pandemic, they arranged food parcels for people in need. just tell us the moment that you found out that you were going to be invited. well, julian phoned me, i was out and he said, "have you looked at your emails?" and i said, no. he said, "well, we've got this email." "i think it's a scam." well... "don't touch anything." "don't click anything. "

and then we found out it wasn't a scam and he burst into tears. and i did as well. we still can't quite believe it, but it's amazing. i just can't think of the words. it's very emotional, it's very strange because... ..there seem to be so many other people who should be there or could be there or have a great call on being there, and i'm not giving them my ticket. around 2,000 guests are expected to be invited to the coronation service, which isjust a month away. for some, there are already important decisions to be made. what are you going to wear, maria? well, it depends on the weather. so it's got layers. i think it's going to have and flat shoes. and a hat. and a hat, but flat shoes, definitely. helena wilkinson, bbc news. an adorable bunny has hopped up the ranks at a police station in the us where it has helped officers by keeping spirits up while he scurries about. percy the rabbit was rescued by the yuba city police deparment in california last year, and he hasjust been promoted

to the rank of "wellness officer" in time for easter sunday. hello there, good evening. it's been a beautiful day of weather for most of the uk with lots of blue sky and sunshine, as captured by our weather watcher here in derbyshire, but a bit more cloud towards eastern coastal areas. still even, here, some sunny spells breaking through, and it's more or less the same again tomorrow — in fact, it could feel a little warmer for most, but there will be some rain later on in the day out towards the north and the west. most of us won't be seeing that rain until early on bank holiday monday morning. but overnight tonight, it's set to stay dry. lots of clear spells, especially through the central swathe of the country. out towards eastern coastal areas, some cloud, cloud thickening, too, across northern ireland. more cloud and a bit more of a southerly breeze, so frost—free without so much mist and fog as we start off sunday morning. so, easter sunday, lots of sunshine

around for the vast majority of us. it will be quite cloudy towards eastern coastal areas — again, the cloud just coming in from the north sea, but that should break up, especially through the afternoon, so a sunnier day here. cool underneath the cloud across aberdeenshire, outbreaks of rain moving into northern ireland from our weather front, approaching western scotland by the end of the day. temperatures slightly higher, between 15—17 celsius quite widely. if we see 18 celsius — always possible, especially across central, southern england — it will be the warmest day of the year so far. but of course, it's not set to last, the dry, warm weather, because we've got outbreaks of rain from these weather fronts, sweeping eastwards from sunday night into bank holiday monday morning. it's a much milder start to the day on bank holiday monday, outbreaks of rain clearing the east anglian coast as we head through the morning. there will be some bright and sunny spells behind, but also some rather hefty showers, and raining for much of the day — longer spells of rain towards the south coast, especially across the channel islands. temperatures gradually

dropping throughout the day. this is how we'll end the afternoon, between about 10—14 celsius, so obviously not as warm with all that wet weather around, and it's staying unsettled as we head through much of the rest of next week. a deep area of low pressure swinging across england and wales, into scotland as we head through tuesday night and into wednesday. some strong gusty winds potentially on this and some outbreaks of rain. here's the outlook for our capital cities as we head through next week. as you can see, it is going to be really very unsettled, wet and windy, especially towards the northwest, and also feeling a lot cooler.

this is bbc news — the headlines two british—israeli sisters killed in a shooting in the occupied west bank have been named as maya and rina dee. the sisters were killed on friday afternoon. their mother remains in critical conditions. in response to a separate incident, israel mobilised its police and army reserves following deadly attacks in tel aviv. on friday, an italian tourist was killed and the attacker was shot dead by police. in iran, local media report that dozens of girls have been poisoned in several schools across the country. this phenomenon began last november, with several reports of poisoning incidents from gases or toxic substances. ome of the girls were hospitalised. china begins three days of military excercises off

the coast opposite taiwan, following president tsai ing—wen's trip to the united states.