to, quote, wipe out hamas. the bbc confirms young children were among those killed yesterday in an air strike on vehicles leaving northern gaza along an israeli—designated route south. and president biden speaks to the israeli and palestinian leaders as the us steps up efforts to contain the escalating conflict. hello. i'm carl nasman. israel's military says that its forces are ready for the next stage of the war — and that it is planning an attack by land, air and sea. in a statement, a spokesperson

said that the goal of the operation was to �*completely destroy the governing and military capabilities of hamas�*. it comes a week after hamas, which is classed as a terrorist organisation by many western governments, killed more than 1300 people in israel and took dozens hostage. we can show you these live pictures of gaza city right now — where it is shortly after 2am in the morning. in a drone strike, the israeli military said on saturday that it has killed a hamas commander who led part of the assault on israel. ali qadhi is the second hamas chief to have been killed in a day. meanwhile, on the ground in gaza, thousands of civilians are on the move. that's after israel warned over one million living in the north to move south beyond the wadi gaza river here, an order the world health organization has said is a "death sentence" for those already sick and injured. the authorities in gaza say more than 2,200 people have already died in retaliatory israeli bombing including children while attempting to evacuate along a designated safe route.

earlier on saturday, israel's prime minister visited an army post, and asked troops whether they were ready for the next stage. 0ur correspondent lucy williamson reports. every day, hamas sends rockets into israel, and waits for israel's response. after last weekend's attack, israel says these air strikes are just the beginning, and that people living in the north of gaza should leave now. gaza's salahadin road has become a lifeline for people flowing south, a humanitarian corridor labelled "safe". not always. a strike here yesterday killed at least 12 people. the bbc has verified the location. women and children under five among the casualties.

israel says it's investigating. israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, visited the troops gathered at gaza's borders today. "the next stage is coming", he told them. "are you ready?" the israeli army has been pounding gaza from here across the border and also from the air. israel says it doesn't deliberately target civilians, and that this is directed at the people who do. today, israel said it had killed the organiser of last weekend's attack. ali qadi was released from an israeli jail more than a decade ago in a prisoner exchange deal with hamas. israel says it was he who planned the attacks on communities like be�*eri. gunmen arrived there last saturday, caught

on a security camera relaxed, unhurried and well—prepared. they brought everything they needed to kill and kidnap — grenades, gaffertape, plastic cable ties. three members of the gat family are still missing. among them, carmel and her sister—in—law. their family home, shattered. it looks like indiscriminate violence, but it wasn't. this was a targeted attack. some of the people who lived here are now thought to be just a few miles away inside gaza — a different world. be�*eri has lived for years with occasional rockets or infiltrations, but destruction like this signals a different kind of vulnerability, and the build—up of israeli forces here, a different kind of response.

but what will that response mean for hostages inside gaza? i don't know the effort, i don't know the intelligence, i don't know anything. they don't tell us anything. they don't tell us afterwards. nobody calls me to say there is negotiation for them. frankly, nobody really knows if they are taken or not. you're angry about that? i am very angry. there is not even a place for sad, to be sad for me. israel's soldiers are now massing at gaza's borders, their weapons pointing towards both hamas and their hostages. for the army that failed to protect its people at home, how much harder will it be to protect them there? lucy williamson, bbc news, southern israel. the united nations says nearly a million palestinians have fled their homes in the gaza strip in the week since israel launched its military response to the killings and kidnappings by hamas.

the entire enclave is being hit by israeli strikes from gaza city in the north to rafah in the south. the border crossing there with egypt has remained shut since the hamas attacks last weekend. crowds of palestinians and foreign nationals have been gathering at the crossing after news that an evacuation route may temporarily open. you may find some of the images in this report now from jon donnison — distressing. outside the main hospital in rafah, ice cream trucks. the morgue is full. "some of the dead have been here for two days", this man tells us. "these freezers are meant forfood, not bodies." and this is right in the south of gaza, where people are now being told to evacuate to. hundreds of thousands are now

heading in this direction. the question is, where do they go? at the border with egypt, hundreds of palestinians who are lucky enough to have foreign citizenship, are hoping to get out. among them, clutching her british passport, is maryiam. i'm really in fear and every time ijust have to have the thought of me dying in a bomb in gaza. it's not a good thing. every place i go, i run away and ijust find bombs and ifind dead people. and maybe one day i will end up like them. it's a really scary thing for me. sobbing but egypt says it won't open the crossing, even forforeign nationals, until israel agrees to allow aid in. and hamas also controls this border and has a say on who is allowed out. the nearby united nations school is packed with those seeking shelter,

but it was already at full capacity before this latest evacuation order. "as palestinians, what did we do for this to happen to us?", hanan asks. she tells us she ran out of the house barefoot with nothing when israel bombed her neighbourhood, and came straight to the school. at noon today, many were praying — one would think for better times. many of those here are children, still smiling despite it all. around half gaza's population is under 18, and some are old beyond their years. ramez is just 15. this is his fifth war. "i can barely stand it", he says. "and look around you at all these kids. "ask them, �*do you want to live or not?�* "we just want to be secure", he goes on.

"0ur dream is to live, that's all we want." jon donnison, bbc news. 0ur correspondent rushdi abualouf is one of the very few journalists reporting from inside gaza. he's in khan younis in the south of the territory — from where he sent us this update. i am back here in the city of khan younis after taking the journey with hundreds of thousands of palestinians who are displaced from

the north and gaza city and coming all the way from salahaldin road into khan younis. it's been one week since israel launched the retaliation against hamas, following the deadly attack across the border. the situation, the humanitarian situation here is really at the edge of catastrophic. the city, which already had 400,000 people, has to accommodate now more thani million people, feed them, treat them and accommodate them. president biden has spoken to both israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas in another effort to de—escalate when speaking to netanyahu, president biden reiterated his condemnation of the attacks by hamas forces. meanwhile in his call with president abbas, biden offered the palestinian authority support for humanitarian assistance to the palestinian people, particularly those in gaza. joining me now is our north america correspondent, shingai nyoka. presidentjoe biden has had separate phone calls with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas? what more do we know about those conversations? two very important calls with two parties on different sides of this conflict.

ata at a really important time. we understand according to the white house that president biden really gave prime minister benjamin netanyahu his unwavering support. and this ground offensive is being planned and prepared. he also updated him on the military support that the us has said it will give. we also know that the us has promised it will provide weapons for what it says is the speed of war but he also emphasised his concerns about the palestinians and the need to provide safe passage for the civilians. it was something he reiterated in his conversation with the palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas. he says he thinks the arab nations need to roundly condemn

hamas because many have not. he also more importantly really spoke about the need to try and de—escalate this conflict to ensure that other countries don't get involved in those countries he was referring to were iran and syria. what more do we know about the us citizens still in gaza, attempting to leave? the us have advised their citizens in gaza to leave as soon as possible. because of this escalating situation. we understand some of made their way to the border

with egypt and this is at the rafah crossing there. the us has advised that there is around 500—600 dual national people. there was supposed to be an opening on saturday between the hours of ten and five o'clock, around five hours that they had to cross but this was closed and so many of them are still at the border trying and hoping that the opening will be available on sunday. tensions are high in southern israel is the presence of troops builds up there. a short while ago i spoke to our defence correspondent, jonathan beale in ashkelon, in southern israel. can you give us the latest from the israeli militaryjust now? i get the impression that something big is about to happen soon. notjust the israeli prime minister visiting troops massing on the border with gaza this afternoon.

he also spoke with the us president again tonight, joe biden. and the statement from the israel defense force tonight which says they are preparing for a wide range of offensive operations from air, land and sea. and this is the important bit with a significant emphasis on ground operations. and they will have to be significant if israel is to achieve its goal, its stated goal of destroying hamas. now, when will this happen? the answer to that is we simply don't know whether it's hours away, days away. but the rhetoric certainly is stepping up, suggesting something is fairly imminent. and to further complicate the situation we understand that there are many hostages being held inside gaza. will this change any plans for an invasion by the israeli military? we spoke recently to

the families of those with loved ones who have been taken and many of them would not want to see full—scale military operations launched by israel and they would look for negotiations and a potential swap of prisoners. but you do not get the sense that the hostage situation, and it is in the minds of israeli politicians and commanders, that it will not dissuade their goal to destroy hamas.

we don't think they will hold off for that long. to find out more about what an israeli ground operation could look like, i spoke to retired lieutenant general mark schwarts, who served as the us�*s security co—ordinator to israel and the palestinian authority. the israeli military says "the next stage is coming" which is expected to be an invasion of gaza. by land, sea and air. how prepared is the israeli military for this kind of mission? thanks for having me this evening. i'm confident that the israeli military as they've stated publicly that they are increasing their level of readiness and increasing their numbers of reservists into tactical formations. they have received help

with continuing with the ground offensive, and as we can see from your reporters on the ground there, you've got combat formations, in their tactical assembly areas doing final preparations for things that a few days away. there will be logistical sustainment required for dealing with the hard to assess numbers of casualties taking place by the israeli military but there will also be casualties from the terrorists as well and more importantly, the civilians caught in the crossfire of this ground assault and from the sea as well. 0nce once it commences.

interesting to hear your point of view that this may not be imminent but it could take a day or two longer but in the meantime, what kind of defence is hamas capable of putting up? it's happening on their home turf. that point is very important so they are on the home terrain. they've had the ability to prepare above and below the ground, 150—300 miles of underground tunnels so they can move without impunity until such time as their fixed underground, but there is no more complex operation than fighting in this type of environment and they are doing preparations to move the population out of northern gaza. that's where they intend to

initiate their ground assault, i would think. that said, the real hard work occurs where you don't have the ability to use your long—range direct fire weapons systems and it will be building to building, house to house, room to room fighting. an individual readiness, one of the major challenges that the idf will face is the integration of all these reservists. and while they are very capable they still have the majority. it's extremely complex. and we in the united states witness that in the early days of iraqi. of iraq.

the bbc has confirmed that young children were among those killed in an air strike on a convoy of vehicles leaving northern gaza on friday along a route designated by israel. the palestinian health ministry says 70 people died. the israeli military says it's investigating what happened. our team at bbc verify analysed two videos of the strike on the vehicles heading towards southern gaza. both videos have been verified these first images show a lorry carrying at least 30 civilians, moving south. and these are still images taken from a subsequent video from the aftermath of the strike too graphic to show in detail. the video shows men running to a lorry part of the same convoy trying to help those who've been hit. there are at least 12 visible dead bodies in the video. paul brown from the bbc verify team —

has been investigating the authenticity of the gaza convoy pictures. very graphic imagery, very disturbing but it is important to help us understand what is going on and to communicate it to our audience. being able to verify this footage in active conflict areas helps us understand these major developments and weed out disinformation of which there is been an absolute flood over the past week. we tend to use satellite imagery and other online resources to try and get a sense of where and when an incident took place based on the footage that we are looking at. in this particular incidence, we thought there was likely to be this salahdin road which is a major road running north to south, through gaza and was one ofjust two evacuation routes for civilians leaving the north and heading down to the south, presumably to safety. it's a 45 kilometre road, so we scanned the route, starting from the north where figured they would have left from and tried to match details that we saw from this satellite imagery with those we saw in the video.

in this case the layout of several buildings, some road markings and a sign helped us to pin down the location and we even used online tools to analyse the angle of the sun, the length of the shadows, to get an idea of when this incident took place or at least when the footage was shot and it looked around 5:30pm yesterday local time. yeah and that's the key thing, isn't it? it's about a painstaking process to match so many different elements until you get a clearer picture and you're able to say with some confidence that is exactly what it shows. you touched on it, paul at the beginning, this is a war being played out on social media too and there's a lot of disinformation out there. people can be overwhelmed with videos, with statements and pictures and it's about breaking through some of that disinformation and working out exactly what's going on and that's what your team are doing. exactly, that's what we're here for. increasingly, there's footage that comes out that will be misattributed,

it will be old footage that's being presented as new footage. it clouds the whole picture about what's going on and that doesn't help anyone when it comes to real—world consequences, particularly dangerous in situations like this where people are fleeing their homes, trying to find safety. if they're not well informed and the people they are speaking to aren't well—informed, this can be dangerous. that's the point, isn't it? this isn't just about telling the rest of the world going on. it's also a valuable source for the people caught up in this conflict. also interesting too the way that all players in this conflict are using social media to get their message out. just tonight, we know the israeli prime minister putting his statement out, talking to the troops on the border and saying we are ready for the next stage and we can see that video here. using social media as a direct way to address people. yeah. the narratives, counterclaims, all of that is played

out on social media on various channels. it's quite confusing at times, trying to figure out what's going on and that's why we dedicate ourselves to this work and have a whole team working on this around—the—clock. we've been flat out on this particular conflict for the past seven days, trying to figure out what's been happening and where it's happening. the chaos of last saturday, when the attacks began, we were quickly able to ascertain where the breaches in the borderfence had taken place, where attacks on civilians were taking place and that really helps us to build a picture of what's going on in real time, almost, to really give an understanding of the scale of this kind of attack. paul brown speaking to ben thompson.

paul brown speaking to ben thompson-— paul brown speaking to ben thomson. ~ �* , ., ., thompson. we've been monitoring the situation _ thompson. we've been monitoring the situation and _ thompson. we've been monitoring the situation and we _ thompson. we've been monitoring the situation and we know- thompson. we've been monitoring the situation and we know that - the situation and we know that israeli forces say they are ready for the next stage of the war and that an attack would be planned, carried out by land, air and sea. a spokesperson for the israeli military has said that they wish to destroy hamas. this comes a week after hamas. this comes a week after hamas killed thousands of israeli people and took hostages. we will monitor the situation in gaza city and bring you updates. we have more news coming for you at the top of the hour. stay with us.

hello. sunday will be getting off to a cold start in most places and it promises to be a rather chilly day. but not as windy as it was on saturday and there won't be as many showers. high pressure building its way in from the west. notice the isobars quite tightly packed across northern and eastern scotland. still quite windy here and a weak frontal system bringing cloud and showery rain into the north of scotland. something wintry for a time on the higher ground although much of it will turn to rain. southern scotland, northern ireland, england and wales having a fine day after a cold night. long spells of sunshine. some showers around the coast. blustery in the north—east of scotland. temperatures, 7 degrees

in lerwick, ia in st helier but elsewhere 10—13. sunday night will be another cold one, light wind in most places, some mist and fog patches may well develop. breezy in the south and north. also perhaps in the south—east of england. temperatures dropping close to or even below freezing with an area of high pressure still with us. low pressure trying to squeeze in from the south and also from the north. northern and southern parts will turn a bit windy as we go through the day on monday. in between, light wind, early mist and fog clearing, some good sunshine but brisk wind in the north of scotland and the odd shower, and maybe in the south where it will turn quite windy and the strong wind affecting the channel islands. temperatures generally 11, i2, 13 in most places. on tuesday the wind eating a bit in the north easing a bit in the north but conversely picking up across the south. breezy across more of england and wales and some showery rain across the channel islands, the south—west of england but temperatures rising a bit, up to 15, i6. a sign of things to come.

turning much more unsettled in the midweek, weather systems pushing up from the south, potentially quite heavy bursts of rain but temperatures climbing easily to around 16 degrees. it could get warmer than that in places. but we will see some outbreaks of quite heavy rain.

this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. hello, everybody. a very warm welcome to talking business weekly with me, aaron heslehurst. let's go take a look at what's on the show. the battle for the office is back, as big employers demand the return of workers for at least some of the working week. how will the question of where we work be resolved? as office workers are told to show up or face the consequences, will they vote with their feet? we get the latest numbers from online recruitment giant linkedin and find out if people are applying for those in—officejobs. also, i'm going to be hearing from these two. there they are, two of the iconic working—from—home companies. i'm going to be asking big bosses from zoom and slack on how the move back to work is impacting on their businesses and what they're asking their own workers to do. plus, what does all of this mean for the global property

market facing notjust lower occupancy, but also,