efforts are underway for the palestinian president mahmoud abbas to visit moscow. it is not yet confirmed when the trip will take place, the bbc has not confirmed the visit, and there's been no official confirmation from the kremlin. meanwhile, prime mister benjamin netanyahu says that israel will use enormous force against hamas. the israeli defense force reports that more than 1,200 targets were hit in the gaza strip between saturday and monday morning, with more strikes continuing through the day and night. israel's defence minister ordered a complete siege of gaza, which would cut off food, fuel, electricity, and water supplies. the bbc�*s diplomatic editor paul adams reports if israel wants to deal hamas a decisive blow, the ground operation will complicate matters for civilians and hostages in gaza. the white house says it has no plans to send

troops into israel, but pledged support for it as it fights back against hamas, the us releasing a statement along with four other nations condemning the attacks and calling for peace in the middle east. in other developments, the armed wing of hamas has threatened to kill israeli hostages if palestinian civilians are not warned about impending air strikes. there's been international condemnation of the taking of civilian hostages. israel says some 100 civilians and soldiers have been kidnapped. but both israel and hamas have denied reports of a possible prisoner exchange. so far in this conflict, at least 900 people have been killed in israel, and almost 700 people have been killed in gaza following israeli military action. right now we're looking at a live pictures of gaza city, where we've seen flashes of explosions in the past hour or so. israel's allies, including the us, germany, italy, france and the uk have released a joint statement

criticising the weekend's surprise strikes by hamas, saying: so let's get the latest from the ground now. 0ur international editor jeremy bowen is in the southern israeli city of ashkelon, just 13km — or about eight miles —

north of the gaza strip, and has this report. inside gaza, it looks every bit as if palestinians are feeling the full force of israeli military power. israel says hamas is responsible for the suffering of gaza's civilians. and its retaliation for the hamas attacks has only just begun. hamas has threatened to start killing its israeli hostages. the air strikes rolled on, hour after hour. palestinian armed groups, undeterred, kept up their own barrage of israel. 0ur bbc team was in ashkelon in southern israel, not far from the gaza border when a salvo came in. ashkelon is so close to gaza that there is no more than a ten—second warning.

israel is moving in more fire power. the next stage of the offensive against hamas looks certain to be a ground offensive, much bigger than other incursions since hamas took over in gaza in 2007. lines of cars outside a military base on the road to gaza were parked by reservists as they reported for duty, getting ready, saying their goodbyes. parents came to the base for a few minutes with their sons. we are praying and hope for the best. amidst tough times now. and we are telling him to try and concentrate on his mission, without thinking too much about other friends that got injured or killed.

israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu broadcast to his nation. he said hamas has made a mistake of historic proportions. "we will," he said, "be exacting a price that we be "remembered by them and other enemies for decades." and now israelis are waiting for the government and army to act. sderot, the israeli town close to gaza littered with the debris of war felt like the essence of israel's trauma, almost deserted except for forces. hamas has rocketed sderot for years but has never before stormed in. at the centre of the hamas killing ground was the police station. they broke in and used it as a fire base to shoot civilians as well as soldiers. blood from israel's dead and wounded smears the walls. even here in what is always a front line town,

for israelis, this was not supposed to happen. they expected their military, backed up by the intelligence services, to protect them. and the fact that that didn't happen means recriminations about who might be responsible have already started. but at the same time there is a strong sense of national unity, with a country under attack, about what happens next. in the places that hamas attacked israeli military as well as the few civilians left are jumpy, still shocked. a ground offensive didn't feel imminent. and in gaza, a few miles away, casualties come into the main hospital. the first few hundred of many more. it will get worse. palestinians and israelis once more caught on the anvil of war in a conflict a century old that is as deadly it has ever been.

a little earlier, i spoke withjeremy bowen and began by asking him about the scale of the this crisis for the middle east and what the signficance would be for the region. well, the significance of what's happening is that hamas has inflicted a grievous blow on israel. and israel is in the process of inflicting a series of massive blows against the palestinians in gaza. and in a broadcast this evening, benjamin netanyahu, the prime minister, said they hadn't reached full intensity on that, and they would do things that would, essentially, deter their enemies for generations. there are also concerns, of course, that the scale of what's happening could lead to wider trouble between israelis and palestinians elsewhere and perhaps even a wider war. there were some incursions,

very small ones, from lebanon earlier on today. so a variety of worries. because essentially, this was an unprecedented attack, and they're now into new territory. things are not following the usual routines. this is unexpected. and i think that everybody is very worried about what is coming down the road. 0k, and jeremy, just briefly, given the sophistication of the hamas attack, the capability of israel to respond — what you think is a way out of this? i'm not sure there is a possible way out of this. i think the logic of war has taken over, now. 0nce israel does what it is planning to do, there are massive political questions about what happens to gaza, what happens to the palestinians and the israelis, and questions about the fact that there has been no political process for ten

years between them. within gaza itself, our bbc teams are reporting that power cuts and infrastructure damage have already severely impacted the area. nevertheless, they have been able to get some of their reporting out to us. bbcjournalist rushdi abualouf has this update from inside a building on the gaza strip. this is by far the biggest ever israeli air strikes in gaza, in this scale, in this intensity. this is the biggest. in this building, its a 7—storey building where, like, 20 to 30 families, they live in this building. i could hear the screaming of the kids, the — they were shouting. in the background, if you can see, its total black. most of the electricity supplies in gaza are not functioning, internet is down in every corner of this city. because many of the buildings

that housing internet providing company and today they destroyed the headquarters of the palestinian telecommunications company, causing ever the problem to be bigger and the internet to be down in more areas. talking about the humanitarian situation, gaza has been suffering for three days without electricity. the crossings, most of the crossings are closed except the rafah crossing with egypt, and it only allows people to go in and out — no goods. no fuel is coming, no medicine for hospitals. health ministry issued a statement today warning that within 48 hours the essential medical supplies are running out in the hospital. nearby explosion and they need urgent supplies to be able to provide services to many people. they said, "we are struggling to cope with the situation,

"we are struggling to cope with the "number of injuries, people who are arriving "to the hospital from different places." the us defense department has described the weekend's actions by hamas as "isis—level savagery". in a briefing to reporters, a senior defense official added that the us is working to working to expedite israel's requests for more munitions and air defence. the official added that "planes have already taken off" to deliver some of the support requested. additionally, the uss ford strike group is expected to arrive in the area "very soon", they said, with capabilities ranging from intelligence gathering to long—range strikes. that includes the carrier and accompanying cruisers and destroyers. the defense department is also working with israel and other partners to contain the conflict to gaza. us officials also say they have not seen corroboration of iran being directly involved in the planning of saturday's attack.

well, a short time ago, i spoke to retired us army lieutenant general mark schwartz. he last served as the us security coordinator for israel and the palestinian authority. thanks so much forjoining us. this attack wasn't anticipated by israel. how could hamas have put together what appears to be quite a sophisticated and brutal offensive and seemingly go undetected by israeli intelligence? caitriona, thank you for having me. i would first like to express my sincere condolences for the excess of 900 lives lost — israeli lives lost — in the terrorist attack, and over 11 us citizens who have also been killed. and obviously thousands more have been wounded to date, as well as innocent palestinians who have been caught, you know, in the midst of this tragedy that has been ongoing since saturday.

i think what — the assessment is now, after 72 hours post attack, the level of discipline that the hamas exercised in surveying of technical communications to plan this operation, this raid that they conducted, and incursion into israel, and the terroristic acts that followed, i think that was the key — is that they are an enemy and a terrorist organisation that learns notjust from other terrorist organisations in the region, but also from their own experiences, and they knew that by communicating and planning using any type of technical means that the operation would have been compromised. so i think that, in my assessment, based on what i've heard, in open source reporting, that that is the most likely way they were able to successfully this off. a man with a nom de guerre of the guest, mohammed deif, is the commander of the military wing of hamas, is purported to behind the attack.

given your expertise in the region, what do you know about him? are i know he has been wanted by the state of israel and certainly by the us and israeli allies for in excess of a decade and a half. i'm sure he is taking full credit for the planning and orchestration of the attack as it bolsters his prestige among hamas and other terrorist organisations in the region. his whereabouts are unknown. if they were known he would no longer be on this earth. us department of defence has announced a big tranche of military support going to israel, including moving the uss ford strike group into position. what impact will that have? firstly, it will assist with strategic deterrence. our president was clear

that he wanted to send a strong signal of support to prime minister netanyahu and the citizens of israel but as important to other terrorist organisations in the region, specifically state sponsors of terrorism such, as iran and hezbollah, that any involvement of piling onto the atrocity that took place over the weekend would, you know, the united states would be able to respond and support its allies. deterrence is number one. numbertwo, israel runs out of targets. they have been doing target development since the largest ever exchange of indirect fire imprecision munitions in the gaza strip. eventually they will run out of targets, so target development to continue to go after hamas infrastructure and hamas leadership that still resides inside of gaza,

their logistics and weaponry, the united states and the capabilities are being brought forward into the mediterranean will assist with that. 0k, and if we look to the hostage situation, there are reports of about 100 hostages. as a retired member of the special ops forces and with many tours in the middle east, what do you know about what the international community can do to rescue those hostages, if anything? it is an extremely complex problem. you have reported certainly since the start of the crisis the complexity of the environment of the gaza strip, in excess of 2 million people in a tightly constrained and urban environment, makes it very hard to locate where the hostages are, let alone conduct an operation where you can, you know, mitigate not only the loss of civilian casualties,

palestinians in the area, but also bring the raid force or assault force in and come out successfully with the hostages coming out unharmed. i have heard reports today there is ongoing inaudible around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. in afghanistan's herat province, recuers are searching for survivors of saturday's powerful earthquake there. it flattened nearby villages and killed more than 1,000 people. more than 500 people are missing, according to the united nations. blocked routes and communication lines have delayed aid to the remote rural area dotted with mud brick homes. environmental lawyer and anti—vaccine activist robert f kennedyjunior says he's now running for the white house as an independent. it's a reversal of his plans to run against president biden as a democrat. the 69—year—old is a member of one of the country's most famous democratic families. speaking in philadelphia, kennedy says he wants a "new declaration of independence" from the media, corporations, and major

political parties. this year's nobel prize for economics has gone to claudia goldin from the united states. the royal swedish academy of sciences said the harvard university professor had advanced the understanding of how women impact labour markets. you're live with bbc news. we were speaking earlier about washington's military commitment to israel, and let's dig a bit deeper now. the us already provides about $3.3 billion in military aid to israel. much of the 3.3 billion is said to be "in the pipeline", according to us officials. separately, military officials say there are stockpiles of american ammunition and arms throughout israel, worth $2 billion. both countries must sign off for them to be used. mike lawler is a republican congressman from new york and member of the house committee on foreign affairs. he spoke to me earlier. congressman mike lawlor,

thanks indeed forjoining us. a number of your constituents are in israel at the moment and they have been in touch with you. what do they need, what can you do for them? well, certainly i represent one of the largest jewish communities in the united states in my congressional district, the 17th district of new york, and at any given point, hundreds of my constituents are in israel, and many were there this past weekend for the holidays and they are stranded there, and so we have been in touch with many of them as well as the state department at the white house, the embassy, and israeli officials, to try to help them through this. a lot of people are obviously concerned and fearful, given the circumstances on the ground, so we are working to try to expeditiously help people get home to safety and security.

now, we know hamas has taken a significant number of people hostage. the us state department has said there are some americans still missing and unaccounted for. what should the us be doing in that situation? obviously we don't fully yet know the extent of those being held hostage, but with hamas threatening to murder these hostages and execute them, on television, obviously the situation is perilous, and so i think the united states needs to do everything we can in cooperation with the israeli government to get these hostages back safely, and the bottom line is hamas is a terrorist organisation, and they have shown their true colours and the savage brutality with which they displayed killing hundreds and injuring thousands, and they need to be held accountable,

they need to be taken out, period. and so i think the united states needs to do everything we can to support israel in this war, both in terms of military support, equipment, personnel, intelligence, funding, to help ensure israel successfully wins and defends its right to exist, and defends thejewish people. we have seen israel mount a blockade of the gaza strip, launching hundreds of missiles in there every hour. are you concerned at all about a humanitarian crisis there? of course we are concerned for innocent civilians anywhere they are, but in this instance, hamas has waged war, with the backing of iran, to wipe israel off the face of the earth, and i think it is imperative that israel defend

itself, and that the united states support them. unfortunately, in conflicts like this, there are going to be civilian casualties. you do your very, very best to limit that but it's a reality of war, and this is a war, and it is good versus evil. there is no moral equivalency here. some of my colleagues in congress and back in new york are trying to equivocate, and blame israel for hamas�*s terrorist attack on saturday, and that to me is just unconscionable, and has no place in our government. let alone in the public discourse. and congressman, just speaking of — you mentioned congress and the us doing everything it can come of the house of representatives is somewhat

i suppose hamstrung at the moment, in that there is no speaker. legislation can't be passed. the house is in recess. how big a problem is that? it is a challenge, this is why you don't remove a speaker mid term without cause. there was no justification for this. it has obviously paralysed the house and created a constitutional crisis. the eight republicans and 208 democrats that did this for personal and political reasons were foolish. and so the house obviously needs to elect a new speaker, and we need to do so expeditiously, so that we can get back to the work of the american people and make sure that congress is fully able to execute on anything that may need to be done in support of the state of israel. very briefly, do you think that process will be concluded this week and you'll have a speaker concluded this week and you'll have a speaker back in position? it is hard to say. i think there will be a lot of discussion. we are meeting tonight

in the house, and the republican conference, and we will see where that conversation goes, but obviously there is a lot at stake here both domestically and internationally, and the american people expect us to govern as a house republican majority, so we will have to get back to work very quickly, and elect a speaker. congressman mike lawler, thank you very much forjoining us. thank you. president biden is due to give remarks on the situation in israel on tuesday. he last spoke on saturday in the immediate aftermath of the strikes. in the interim, the white house says president biden was interviewed by the special counsel investigating his handling of classified documents. a white house spokesman says the "voluntary" interview was conducted over two days, ending monday. the president has defended his handling of the materials that were found at an office and his delaware home. that's all from us here in washington. i'm caitriona perry. we leave you with these images

of the white house — lit up in blue and white as a show of support to israel. you're watching bbc news. hello again. monday felt like another warm, summer's day — except, of course, it wasn't summer. no, its october. it's meant to be a lot colder than this. these blue, sunny skies sent temperatures soaring, particularly across england and wales — the warmest spot, east malling in kent, 26 degrees celsius. now, average for these cities at this time of the year is 15 or 16 degrees, so ten degrees above average. even the temperatures we had on monday were in excess of what we'd see in a typical july day, so that's why it felt like summer. now, you can see the clear skies that we had across england and wales, but lurking out in the atlantic, we've got more rain—bearing cloud around, and that's not good news for scotland, where we still have the bulk of the flood warnings in force across the nation. it's here where, of course,

we saw torrential rain and flooding over the course of the weekend, and with more rain developing over the next few hours, that's not going to be exactly welcome rain that arrives. further southwards, across england and wales, we keep those clear spells over the next few hours. one or two mist patches and a few fog patches developing, but it's a mild start to the day on tuesday. i think the biggest concern, though, will continue to be this area of rain affecting scotland. in the grand scheme of things, 50 millimetres falling from this weather front over the mountains of western scotland isn't a huge amount, but given that we've got flood warnings already in force, the ground saturated after what fell over the weekend, then this rain could cause some further extra issues. it does trickle southwards, reaching northern ireland and the far north of england, as well, late tuesday afternoon. south of that, it's very warm again. 0nce we've lost those mist and fog patches, temperatures could hit 2a degrees in the warmest spots. now, tuesday night sees this band of rain pull away from scotland, so hopefully things will begin to improve here, to a degree. but we've got some heavier rain

setting in place further southwards across england and wales, and this rain band through wednesday slowly moves across wales, the midlands, into east anglia, perhaps not reaching the far south until after dark, where it will continue to be warm, with temperatures in the low 20s. but otherwise, those temperatures coming back down closer to average levels for october. now, heading into thursday, we've got some more rain moving overnight and into friday, affecting parts of england and wales. so rain, at times, probably best sums up the weather picture. that rain clears away into the weekend, with temperatures dropping back closer to the october averages.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. october the 7th 2023 is a date that will haunt the history of israel. a day of mass murder, of collective trauma, of vulnerability exposed. the scale and brutality of the assault hamas launched from gaza took israel's vaunted military by surprise. it prompted an israeli declaration of war. already, gaza is under heavy,

costly israeli bombardment. what looks like a massive invasion force is being prepared. my guest is danny danon, an mp in the ruling likud party. to israelis, to palestinians, to the outside world, this feels like a moment of maximum danger. where will it end? danny danon in tel aviv, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me, stephen. we are having this conversation some two—and—a—half days after hamas launched that unprecedented, brutal assault on israel.

you've had a little bit of time to reflect.