hello, i'm carl nasman. the number of israelis and palestinians killed in spiralling violence continues to climb more than a day after hamas militants stormed into israeli territory from gaza. and we have now learned that several american citizens are also among the dead in israel — that's according to a us national security council spokesperson. you are looking at live images from gaza city. we've seen air strikes occasionally lighting up strikes occasionally lighting up the night sky with rolling blackouts in gaza and you can see the relative darkness there, making it challenging for hospitals to treat the wounded. more than 123,000 palestinians have been displaced, the numbers coming from the un office for co—ordination of humanitarian affairs.

at least 73,500 sheltering in dozens of schools. and overnight in israel, palestinian militants targeted southern towns like ashkelon with a barrage of rocket attacks. here's more of what we know at this hour. the israeli military says more than 700 israelis have been killed. more than 250 bodies have been found dead at the site of a music festival in southern israel. the gaza ministry of health says 413 palestinians have been killed by israeli air strikes in gaza, including 78 children and 41 women. israel says it is still trying to regain full control of eight areas where hamas militants infiltrated following saturday's attack. the number of israeli civilians and soldiers taken hostage has been put at 100 by the israeli embassy to the us, though some have been freed. in northern israel, hezbollah rockets targeted three military positions with israel responding with barrages of artillery into southern lebanon. at a meeting of the un security council, the organisation's middle east envoy called for all countries to exert diplomatic efforts

to restore calm. well, as we have been reporting, it's thought that more than 250 people killed in israel by hamas militants were young people attending a music festival in the southern israeli desert. videos posted on social media showed hundreds fleeing the supernova festival which was held near the small settlement of re�*im, a kibbutz near the gaza strip, as caroline hawley reports. moments before, at a festival that brought together young people from across israel, a carefree crowd. they have no idea of the horror about to erupt. images posted on social media show people running for their lives. witnesses say that after rockets were fired, palestinian gunmen began attacking from several directions. "don't kill me," she pleads, as noa argamani and her boyfriend, avi natan,

are both taken captive. both are still missing, thought to have been ta ken into gaza. today, noa's father spoke through his anguish to israeli media. translation: i asked to see the video and then i saw - that it was definitely her. she was so scared, so frightened. i always protected her and, at this very moment, i couldn't. noa is 25, with a passion for travel. she'd been messaging a friend just before she was kidnapped, and then the live location ended. it's just us waiting and hoping, really hoping and praying that everything is good, that she will come back home safely, her and her boyfriend and everyone that is in captivity now. also taken from the festival, shani louk, a tattoo artist from germany, pictured

here on holiday in mexico. herfamily recognised her in a video of palestinian gunmen celebrating her capture on a pick—up truck. the images of shani herself are too upsetting to show. translation: we were sent a video in which i could - clearly see our daughter unconscious with the palestinians and them driving around the gaza strip. i ask you to send us any help or news. jake marlowe's family and friends are also desperate for news. he's a 26—year—old british man who was working at the festival. he's reported to have told his mother he loved her and promised to keep her updated, before his phone began ringing out. 0n the road next to where the festival was taking place, the aftermath. we don't yet know what's happened to all those who came in these cars to party, to celebrate. shellshocked reunions with those who survived. but the brutality of the attack, the terror of it, will now be seared into

the psyche of a nation. caroline hawley, bbc news. the israeli president isaac herzog delivered this statement. translation: animals, yes, monstrous animals who are indiscriminate, who slaughter and kidnap influence and old women, who carry out a killing spree of innocent young people at a party, young people whose only sin was being israelis who wanted to be happy, who wanted to celebrate. these heinous acts began in the middle of the sabbath, on a jewish holiday, tossing the attack. it's an unforgivable sin. a sin that was led not only by a murderous terrorist organisation but by an evil axis whose basis is in iran and whose malignant cells repeatedly worked to undermine us, ourspirit, oursovereignty

us, our spirit, our sovereignty and us, ourspirit, oursovereignty and who we are as a people and the country. the brothers and sisters, we are in a warfor our home and we will win. as the conflict escalates, the us has stepped up its support for israel, deploying an initial emergency military assistance package. the us navy is moving several aircraft carriers, guided missile cruisers and destroyers to the eastern mediterranean. it is sending additional equipment and resources, including munitions, that will arrive in the coming days. defense secretary lloyd austin maintains that this is merely a measure to "bolster regional deterrence efforts". the united states provides israel more than $3 billion in security assistance each year. the hamas militant group told reporters that the us providing an aircraft carrier is "actual participation "in the aggression against our people". well, lawmakers on capitol hill are calling for further us action, adding more pressure on the house of representatives to quickly choose a house speaker.

chair of the house foreign affairs committee michael mccaul is demanding his colleagues quickly bring a resolution to the floor condemning hamas with or without a speaker in place. with no speaker in place, the house is unable to bring any legislation to its floor, including requests for emergency funding for israel. however, the chamber is entering uncharted territory under acting speaker patrick mchenry when congress returns on tuesday. —— under acting speaker patrick mchenry. when congress returns on tuesday, republicans are expected to begin closed—door deliberations over who they will pick as their nominee with a potential vote as soon as wednesday. earlier, i spoke to axios senior contributor and director of syracuse university's institute for democracy, journalism and citizenship, margaret talev about the us response to the conflict in israel. thank you so much for being here. we are hearing that us navy ships and aircraft are being located closer to israel. what do you think that move signals in terms of us involvement in what is taking

place in the region? this is israel's 9/11 is how many in the region are talking about it. the us is extraordinarily concerned. you know, what president biden was hoping these next months would involve is the normalisation of saudi and israeli relations and now, what the us is facing, what israel is facing, what is the world looking on at is the actual possibility of notjust a war between israelis and palestinians but a full—scale middle east war potential for btoadening of the conflict, for iran—backed groups, for rival groups, hezbollah and other organizations, iran getting involved. this is a real potential for a powder keg moment. how big are the risks, then, of this conflict becoming much broader and seeing other groups getting involved? it is a real concern and exactly because of the warming of relations between the saudis and

israelis, the notion that notjust donald trump and joe biden wanted this normalisation but that, in fact, the saudis and israelis wanted it, is a threat to the balance of power for iranians. some of this may depend on israel's actions against palestinian civilians in the coming days. some of it may be a broader strategy than that. this all comes in a moment here in the us where there has been all kind of chaos on capitol hill. there's currently no speaker of the house. how much could that affect the ability of the us to respond to what is taking place? there are real concerns about that. in the short term, the biden administration and the pentagon has resources and dollars authorised that can help but that is not a permanent situation and because there is no house speaker, congress cannot do anything.

senate is out on recess, house republicans have been engaged in this circus over who they want to lead their party. those next elections are supposed to happen on tuesday and the ousted house speaker kevin mccarthy is now saying that that act of destabilisation has weakened the us�*s ability to respond. i do think there is an understanding now uniformly among house republicans in the congress that they need to move quickly to choose their next speaker. the third candidate has sort of dropped out. it is now a contest between jim jordan and steve scalise and they are both saying israel needs us support. it's intersting, one of the dividing lines inside the republican caucus in recent months has been whether the us should continue backing ukraine financially, sending ukraine money and training to protect itself against russia. i think what we're seeing

in this case is the republican party uniformly together around the idea of siding with israel and protecting israel and giving israel the resources it needs. but even so, having said that, this is a party that is in chaos. the us inaudible ambassador to israel needs to get - confirmed and cannot get confirmed until it happens. a memberfrom the republican side has been holding out nominations. all of this us political drama now really coming into focus and i think the republican party internally saying to itself, "ok, we need to wrap this up. "we are "we a re really "we are really in a crisis moment now." you mention this saudi deal between the us and israel, that that could be effective. what options are on the table, not only for long—term solution in the region of peace but even for something more short term? i think when it comes to something like normalisation of relations between the saudis and the israelis, really the only two people

who can bring that deal infor landing are the saudis and israelis. former president trump was in favour of this. president biden hoped to seal the details of this on his watch. but i think you're going to see a lot of arab nations in the region be very careful and very measured in how much they rush to israel's defence right now or how much they want to protect at least palestinian civilians. all of this now could complicate any agreement and for netanyahu, who has been such a divisive figure internally because of his efforts at overriding the judicial system to strengthen himself, is now at least momentarily going to have support of most of the world around him because it civilians have been —— of the world around him because civilians have been attacked and killed. margaret talev, thank you. well, former congresswomanjane harman gave me her take

on the us response to the conflict. she made 25 trips to israel and the region while serving in congress. congresswoman, we appreciate you joining us. you have made several trips to israel and the surrounding region when you were a member of congress. i want to start by asking you what your reaction is to the events we are seeing unfolding in israel and in gaza. simply horrific. it is easy to say the attacks were unprovoked, they were a surprise, but it is a complicated history and it is very disappointing that we have not found a way forward and i think some good news is that president biden has been talking about and anthony blinken secretary of state to give us something we can do to break out of the cycle of violence to move forward. the israelis are right to condemn the violence

and so is the us, the uk in a statementjust issued and i hope that un does as well but i also think we have to be working together on a solution that will break out of violence. you have extensive experience in the region. it did seem, over the past several months, that the tensions really had been escalating between the two sides, between palestinians and israelis. do you think more could have been done or perhaps this type of violence was essentially building and building up and getting ready to explode. gaza is a tiny landmass and exploding is about 3 million people, the right comment going forward. several things could happen. antony blinken mentioned he thinks one of the motivations was to derail the possible agreement between saudi arabia and israel which, also,

if it happened, would contain a path forward for a palestinian state. that may sound absolutely absurd right now, given the level of violence, and it would not happen right now, but this grievance by palestinians has been festering over years and this is an opportunity to think about whether the neighbourhood, certainly including saudi arabia, but also other gulf countries that have been condemning israel only, i think that is very wrong for the breakup violence, for them to step up and be part of the solution and that solution will rein in or could iran's abhorrent behaviour as well, and offer a path for a responsible leadership and a responsible set of steps by palestinians hopefully toward some day an independent state. thank you so much forjoining us. thank you.

around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. indian officials say that at least 77 people are now known to have died in the floods which struck the north—eastern region on wednesday. more than 100 others are still missing and thousands more have been trapped because bridges have been destroyed. the authorities are struggling to evacuate residents, leaving more than 3,000 people still stranded. us senate majority leader chuck schumer is leading the first congressional trip to china in four years. schumer and five other senators arrived in shanghai for a three—country tour that will also take them to south korea and japan on saturday. the bipartisan delegation will meet with top government and business leaders. pope francis has called for an end to attacks in israel and gaza during his weekly address in st peter's square on sunday, saying that terrorism and war bring no solutions but only death. the pope also said he was

praying for "all of those "who are experiencing hours of terror and anguish". you're live with bbc news. in afghanistan, thousands of people have been displaced and more than a thousand killed after a 6.3 magnitude quake struck near the city of herat on saturday morning. it devastated at least a dozen villages close to the iranian border. the taliban administration in afghanistan says food, drinking water, tents and medicine are urgently neeeded as thousands are now without shelter. let's return to our top story now — and the escalating conflict between israel and hamas. one of the major concerns is that other regional players may be drawn in. israeli tanks have moved along the border with lebanon as tension mounts between israel and lebanon's powerful armed group hezbollah. the israeli military says it fired artillery into an area of lebanon where cross—border fire was launched.

0ur middle east correspondent quentin sommerville sent this update from lebanon's southern border with israel. hezbollah, which is a militant group, but a very powerful militant group has a huge arsenal at its disposal. some very sophisticated long—range weapons that strike much further than just israel's northern border but deep inside israel. there is a warning that came with the attack today this was an act of solidarity with the palestinian people, hezbollah said. later in the day, we heard from a senior hezbollah official who said the group would not remain neutral in this conflict. he gave a warning to the united states and israel to stop. he said if they continued to escalate this conflict then it could end up involving the entire region. that is a very real concern, but it does not seem we have seen an attempt of that here today.

it is worth remembering while hezbollah is a powerful group in lebanon, it is not lebanon. it does not represent all of lebanon and this is a country that is still in chaos and still suffering from economic crisis, whether it is huge unemployment, there is not a president, political gridlock, this is a country that has suffered a series of crises and cannot face another. hamas has claimed assistance from iran helped it carry out its attacks on israel, and iran's senior leadership have been expressing their support. on sunday, us secretary of state anthony blinken spoke to nbc�*s meet the press about possible iranian involvement in the attacks. hamas would not be hamas unless it has the support it has from iran. we have nothing that shows us that iran was directly involved in this attack, planning and carrying out but thatis planning and carrying out but that is something we're at carefully and we need to see

whether the facts lead. we know iran has had a long relationship hamas. in one of the reasons we have been aggressively for things like hamas. earlier, i spoke to president of the middle east policy council and non— resident senior fellow at the atlantic council, gina abercrombie winstanley. i want to ask you first of all about this moment. given the scale of the attack and the casualties on both sides, can you put this into perspective? could this now be the start of an even larger period of violence? well, i have to begin as everyone does with expressing deep condolences for israel and this heinous attack. it absolutely has the possibility to spread much more throughout the region, beyond gaza. west bank and your recent report

with regard to lebanon. least available right now and most in need is time and wisdom. the first responsibility of a state is to protect its citizens, that is what the government of israel has to do and needs to get in place again so people have confidence in their ability to do so. so that means holding hamas fighters to account and means getting their hostages released. in the coming days and weeks, we need to find a day to support israel by finding a way to get to the core issues which are at the bottom of all of this. we have talked a lot about the potential intelligence failures that may have led up to the attacks we saw in israel. in your mind was there not also a broader failure of diplomacy?

no. diplomacy has been ongoing throughout the last months and years. it has been quiet diplomacy. i believe at this point people might argue the focus of it might have been in the wrong direction, certainly all the efforts the administration has made to expand a number of countries that are at peace with israel were for the benefit of israel and the region in general. trying to build a region of peace. however, the focus on the state of the palestinians was not certainly, not publicly first and foremost. although conversations have been having, discussions have been held, i think secretary of state antony blinken mentioned israelis and palestinians were brought together in sharm.

it is not that the diplomacy was not being tried and pursued. however, the core issues remain the core issues. the fact that every day palestinians have these grievances which might set an atmosphere where hamas might have found more support than they should have because to carry out an attack in this way again is to set one's humanity aside. that is not the experience of many who have worked with palestinians and certainly not in the gaza strip, that is not what is generally found. what options do you think now may be on the table? where do you see this conflict going from here? the first responsibility is to protect citizens. prime minister benjamin netanyahu's government has to put in place a sense of safety and security.

that is where his focus is going to be. there have been a number of statements throughout the world within the united states certainly that this is a non—partisan statement that the standing with israel in the face of such an incredible attack is unquestioned. when you think about the number of deaths in israel and compare them to the number of people who were killed in 9/11 in the united states, it is thousands more proportionately. you have to keep that in mind when we think about what our reaction was and how we would react to the government of israel, trying to hold these people into account. we will live —— leave you with live images of gaza city, we have seen a plume of smoke emerging among the rising sun

on the horizon, you see the buildings, we will continue to track that story for you on bbc news as the number of israelis and palestinians killed has now totalled more than 1000. more updates coming at the top of the hour. stay with us here on bbc news. hello. the weekend weather brought some extremes to the uk. we had the very wet weather in scotland, and then on sunday, it was exceptionally warm across so many other parts of the country. in northern ireland, 22.6 celsius — the warmest 0ctober day since the �*60s. about 2a in wales — that's the warmest in over a decade. and in london, nearly 26 celsius — about the warmest day in october since 2018. now the rain from scotland is petering out, some areas have had about a month's worth of rainfall recently. and the overall weather pattern is still showing a dip in the jet stream here, which is shunting that warmer atmosphere from the south. so once again, it will be

exceedingly warm, not just here in the uk, but across many parts of western and also central europe this week. so the headline is one of a warm start this week — but not completely dry, there is some rain on the way — particularly where we don't want it in western parts of scotland, but that's not until tuesday. so here's the forecast, then, for the early morning. a lot of bright weather around little dribs and drabs perhaps in the western isles. still relatively cool in the north of scotland, around 13—15, but look at that — northern ireland, wales, england, widely into the 20s, perhaps even the mid—20s, again in london and the southeast. now a cold front is approaching and will bring some fresher weather, but again, rain to parts of scotland on tuesday. look at that rain reaching the northwest first, then it spreads into central scotland. but still very mild, 17—18 here, snd we're still talking about the low—to—mid—20s on tuesday widely across the uk. and then, tuesday into wednesday, we'll start to see a change

coming in from the north. so a weather front will spread southwards across the uk. it will bring some rain, stronger winds for scotland and much fresher, much cooler, if not even colder conditions in the very far north of scotland — temperatures here barely making ten degrees in lowick, 11 in stornoway, 1a in newcastle, but still warmth with some cloud and rain on wednesday in the south, about 20—23 celsius. the temperatures will return to close to the seasonal norm, at least towards saturday, sunday, but it's stilljust the other side of average. so warmer than average, i think, over the coming days.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. in politics, making a pledge is the easy part. making it happen is a whole lot more challenging. take the climate change promise made by the uk and a host of other governments to deliver a net zero economy by 2050. wholesale decarbonisation within a generation. right now, prime minister rishi sunak is rowing back on the speed of that planned green transition. why? well, my guest is former conservative environment minister, lord deben.

is political short—termism in danger of costing the earth? lord deben, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. you are a lifelong conservative. you're also pretty much a lifelong campaigner for the environment. right now, does it feel like those two commitments are incompatible? oh, no — they'rejust temporarily in abeyance because the government is so fixated on trying to do something to rescue the next

election that they're