this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. hello. i'mjackie leonard, the host of the global news podcast. today, we've teamed up with a new bbc podcast, the conflict, for a special programme, answering your questions about what's going on in israel and gaza. we'rejoined by the host of the conflict, the bbc�*s chief international correspondent lyse doucet, who is in ashdod in israel, north of gaza, and also by our international editorjeremy bowen, who's injerusalem.

so welcome, lyse. a relatively easy question to kick off with. can you give us a sense of the size and location of gaza in relation to israel? who lives there? who's in charge? and who are its neighbours? well, that's a sort of a wikipedia of the gaza strip. the gaza strip is a coastal strip of land on the mediterranean. once on one side, it's on the mediterranean. the other side, the southern side, it's connecting to egypt. and then its other neighbour is israel. it is described as one of the most densely populated places on earth. some 2.3 million palestinians live there and they live with great frustration because they feel they don't really have control over their lives. even though israel pulled out its troops in 2005, it controls the airspace. it controls the sea. it also controls all of the land crossings

into gaza, except the one which goes to egypt, which is called the rafah crossing. we've tried to use various measures to say how big it is for british viewers. it's about as big as the isle of wight. for people who live in north america, it's about the size of washington, dc. and i think i'm right, jeremy, you might correct me, i think it's about 140 square miles. something like that. i'm not sure exactly. i always go with the isle of wight definition. ok, so that was the geography part. to the more complicated part. now, what is behind this conflict? sidney from albany, new york. i know very little about . the history of the conflict between the two sides. i always grew up believing it had to do with religious - differences. i'm 24 years old and was never led to believe anything - different. i want to learn more about the history of the conflict i because i don't remember learning about it in school| and this one.

hi, this is lily from germany. i was wondering, how was l the state of israel founded? how did that impact local. people in what was formerly palestine? why did the following wars break out? - and what is life for - people under occupation in the west bank like? sojeremy, the problem here is how far back do we go? can you attempt a potted history for us? the first part of the question, where did the conflict start? well, i suppose you have to go back to the zionist movement in europe, where in 1897 they had a congress and they decided, among other things, that they would push to get a jewish state within 50 years. in fact, they got one in 51 years in 1948. and there was even by 1897, there was a settlement byjews who were known as zionists. it's a jewish nationalism, if you like. it was a period of nationalism in europe. the czechs wanted a homeland. you know, the the hungarians

wanted independence. and jews were thinking, well, let's get a nation state as well. and they decided they wanted to have one here in palestine. but there was a famous historian, avi shlaim found this great quote. some rabbis who came out here after that first zionist conference looked... they telegrammed back, they telegraphed back to back to europe and said because they were there to survey the territory and they said, "the bride is beautiful, "but she's already married." in other words, there were people here. one of the old sayings about israel was it was a land without a people for a people without a land. but that wasn't true because there were palestinian arabs here. and the fact that when the zionists were coming in, there were to start with,

there was a bit of cooperation, but increasingly there was conflict. and i think asking where this conflict came from, i think it started off with two peoples having very strong claims to the land in their own minds and not being able to agree how to split it and how to share it. now, the british were in charge here between the world wars. effectively. they left in 1948 and they did have a plan to try to split the land into two states. but it was one which the arabs particularly would not accept. they wanted everything. i think that the jews at that time were more of a subtle approach and while they weren't getting what they wanted, they thought, "we'll take a bet and maybe we'll have something extra." so in 1948, israel's war of independence, they won a massive victory.

all their arab neighbours tried to invade it and tried to strangle the state at birth. didn't succeed. but since then, it has had a very troubled history. and one of the questions was about religious differences. well, you know, in the time that i've been here as a journalist and i've been reporting from here and i lived here, too, for, well, more... reporting from here for more than 30 years. the conflict has got more religious. i used to feel it was when it was groups of basically guys in suits in a room, maybe they had a chance of trying to sort it out. but now there are people on both sides who believe they are doing the will of god. and those people were always existed, but now they're in really powerful positions. so that's pretty difficult. if you think you're doing the will of god, you're not going to make a deal about it, are you? well, the latest stage in the crisis started with the unprecedented attacks on israel by hamas, which seemed to come as a complete surprise. we'll talk about the why now shortly. but first, let's have another one of your questions. this is katie. i live in new york.

i want to know what life i was or is like in palestine. and is it those harsh conditions that led l to this breaking point? or did hamas just do this - because they want to eradicate jewish people from the earth and they're just using this i claim of oppression as an excuse to kill| jewish people? so, lyse, would you like to take this one? well, i'lljust pick up on whatjeremy said, is that the longer this conflict goes on, it does acquire more and more of a religious dimension. but it's muslims against thejews and thejewish people feel very profoundly threatened by the attacks that hamas carried out on saturday, it has gone right round the world in jewish communities. but i think predominantly, this is an issue about, yes, the very difficult, evermore difficult, impoverished conditions in gaza, the conditions in the occupied west bank,

the fact that israel continues to exercise control over people's lives, the fact that the hopes of the palestinians for a state of their own seems to recede further and further in the distance. so much so that those who have long hoped for a two state solution, as it calls, a palestinian state and the state of israel side by side, have now begun to believe that the only way forward because simply, in terms of having contiguous land, that it's not possible, it will have to be a one state solution just because one of the most controversial issues of all... sorry, just to interrupt you there, we we re hearing some sirens there and it sounded like some explosions. can you tell us what's going on? well, that's the thud of artillery. we're very close to the gaza border, so that's outgoing. in the night, there's a lot of intense aerial bombardment that goes on around

the clock for gazans. it is in the distance. i'm afraid it is a sound that we hear all day, even here in southern israel. artillery going out, drones in the sky. helicopter gunships, we hear the thud of some of that bombardment in gaza. we only see the, for the most part, hear the sound. and right here, we can't hear, see what's happening on the ground. and it's a frightening moment. it is frightening. are you 0k to continue? you are ok. 0k. that's great. not frightening for us, for the people under them. for the people under them. so i was saying that it's... one of the most controversial issues between the israelis and palestinians is the continuing... the expansion of jewish settlements. and in the past many months, with binyamin netanyahu remaining in power and now governing with the most right—wing government

in israel's history, it is very pro—settler and there's been for most of this year, more and more clashes. the siren is going off, but i think we're fine. we can continue. and i think maybe it's good for our listeners to know that this is the reality of life. there's been a lot of clashes between the settlers and palestinians in the west bank, so much so that it was regarded as israel's more focused on the west bank than they were on gaza. but there are many reasons for this and they are very profound. they're very emotional. they're historical and very personal and political. right. let's have another clip from one of our listeners. given the israeli response - to the hamas attack seemingly resulting in collective i punishment towards the palestinians, i'm curious as to what the average l palestinian civilian— sentiment is towards hamas. is this an organisation - that is largely supported? and that one's for you, jeremy. well, there haven't been any polls in the last week, because i think that for a lot of palestinians and ones i've

spoken to in the last week, there has been horror and incredulity about what has been happening, about the numbers of people that were killed. i think people had no idea that this was coming. so there's that. now, before all this happened, hamas when the hamas took over in gaza in 2007, quite violently, they kicked out the other faction, fatah. there were daggers drawn, literally, in some cases. they had won an election the previous year. so they were popular then. and a lot of that was a protest vote against the ineptitude and the corruption of the other palestinian main group, fatah, and the fact that they hadn't delivered their objective of a palestinian state. and to start with, some people thought hamas were - — palestinians, i mean — were quite a breath

of fresh air. but things have changed, became more authoritarian. and they're not they haven't been so popular in gaza and also here in the west bank. yes, of course, they have their followers, some very, very dedicated followers, often people who are religious. but it's you know, you cannot say that the palestinian national movement, those people who want to have their own state, which is virtually every palestinian i've ever met, that they are, you know, co extensive with hamas because that's not the case. far from it. and so, you know, hamas were not raging the popular group and i don't think this is necessarily going to make them any more popular. but what will happen because what is already happening because of the number of deaths of palestinian civilians, particularly, is there will be a feeling that palestinians and others in the arab world we've seen

a lot of demonstrations today will be angry about what was happening and angry at israel because of the way that they are attacking gaza. well, turning to current israeli politics now, let's get a bit more context. chris hockman from texas, but originally from australia. how much of a factor is the settlements in this situation? how has this changed israeli policy, given that to get support from the right, netanyahu had shifted to a more anti palestinian policy? what's iran's role in all of this? please take that one. well, i've mentioned as one of the one of the primary

including hamas against israel, is the rise and rise expansion ofjewish settlements. jewish settlements was one of the issues that was postponed in the oslo peace accords of 30 years ago. and many now realise that was a huge mistake. they thought they would be able to deal with it. israel has given back some of the control of the occupied west bank, but there are large swathes which are under israeli control and the settlements continue to expand. and also the israeli settlers now feel emboldened by the right—wing government, which has many pro—settler politicians inside prime minister netanyahu's cabinet,

at least the cabinet he had before he formed the war cabinet. so, yes, it is a major issue. 0n iran, this has been asked many times. iran is one of the main backers of hamas and islamichhad. it both helps to arm and finance both groups. but in this particular crisis, the united states and israel have both said that there is no intelligence to suggest that iran was part of the planning and the execution of this assault by hamas. it's very difficult, isn't it, to be accurate, to be sure that the information that you are receiving is true? we've had some questions about how we verify information. hello, bbc, this is zoe in chicago. i'm wondering how news organisations and governments develop counts of those killed and injured so quickly within often just a matter of hours or a day or two. so, jeremy, how do you do that?

well, in terms of the numbers of people who've been killed or wounded, i think sometimes it is an approximation and it still is at the moment in terms of those who were killed in that hamas attack because frankly. still finding bodies they don't really know. today in israel, there was a photo opportunity arranged by the israeli army and they took journalists to a series of refrigerated containers, shipping containers, which are overflow morgues. and in there there are dozens of bodies and body bags which are awaiting identification. and i was only a couple of days ago at one of those kibbutzim that were overwhelmed by hamas, and they were still finding bodies. so it's a that's a bit of an approximation in terms of other things, like, for example, how many people have been killed in the west bank in violence between settlers, the israeli army, armed palestinians?

we keep a running total and so do other organisations, which we add to as necessary. so, yeah, we do know. i mean, for example, on our office whatsapp today, i had i was writing a script to do with what's been happening around here and some of the political developments. and there were some confrontations between the israeli army and palestinian demonstrators in the west bank. and by 4:00 this afternoon, we saw that 11 the figure was that 11 palestinians had been killed. now, that came from what's considered to be a fairly accurate source, which is the palestinian health ministry. but, you know, we would be also double checking it against other accounts. and we keep, as i say, our own running totals for things in terms of verifying things like those videos. you see that. i mean, one thing that's really changed reporting and since the advent of the smartphone and the internet is the fact that so much video

is around that we see so much that we even, what, 15 years ago we would never, ever have seen and which has a a direct political impact as well, which we can talk about on another occasion. but those videos, we have a great big department at the bbc and so do other news organisations where we try and work out where they came from. there were various ways of using open source intelligence, geolocation, sometimes bringing in people who come from that town or that country. and we're an international organisation for the bbc, so we can do that who say, you know, is that really the main high street of homs in syria? so we try and prove things. we don't just stick them out there. and we hear a lot about just how intractable a conflict this is. and of course, our listeners have questions about how to resolve it. first, there was this suggestion about a short term solution. hi, this is sam oppenheim, a new york city public school teacher. and my question is,

would israel consider a humanitarian corridor and a temporary cease fire that could allow women and children out of gaza, for example, into egypt or an army camp or all the way to the west bank. i understand that the israeli military is looking for a military solution. but in all the interviews that you've posted on the bbc podcast, they claim to value civilian lives of innocent non hamas actors. so could israel put weight behind those statements, please? israel is under huge pressure now, most of all pressure from its own people after these atrocities committed by hamas. there is deep, deep anger and fear in this society and a very strong feeling of the need to retaliate, to use their phrase, to crush hamas. but there is also pressure on israel from its closest of allies, including

the united states, to make how they respond, to use the phrase use by the us. how you respond matters as well that there are rules of even in war. and one of the most important rules is not targeting civilians. that is a war crime. and so israel seems to be listening to that. there's also discussions with egypt about trying to keep that crossing open. but egypt has its own concerns. it doesn't want a huge influx of palestinians onto its territory. but — and the rafah crossing couldn't be — it can't take, it can't move people quickly enough through it. israel does not want to be delayed. it's not in a mood to compromise in any way. the clock — the clock for its military operations matters more than the clock on the time it would take to open a humanitarian corridor, there's not even a window, much less a corridor now. and i think we'll see in the days to come how many how far they're willing to heed these expressions of concern which grow ever louder about the price that civilians will pay for israel's military operations, which, of course, israel has

a lot of support for that from its allies, too. 0n the subject, the question are asked about maybe women and children going to egypt or a camp or west bank or something like that. the the israeli instruction for people to go south has raised a lot of ghosts of the past. a lot of the people in gaza are descendants of people who became refugees when israel was created. and they either were in 1948, something get on for a million palestinians were either evicted from their homes or fled the war. and they have never and they their descendants, those people and their descendants were never able — have never been able to return, except in a very, very small minority of cases. so, palestinians, when you say, well, "just leave for a while, you'll be able to come back," frankly, they don't believe it. and finally, the biggest question of all.

hi, it's alex from colchester. my question is, what is the solution? what would it take from both sides for a lasting peace to be brought about? which of you wants to go first, jeremy? always. well, i'll have a go if you like. go ahead, jeremy. there was a peace. once upon a time, there was something called the peace process. back in the 90s, it raised an awful lot of hopes. the idea was that through negotiation, there would be a palestinian state alongside israel. now, for a number of complicated reasons, which we don't have time to get into, that did not work. they tried to it was in intensive care for a while. diplomats, particularly some very hard working americans, tried to jolt it back into life, but it didn't succeed. perhaps it was never going to succeed. perhaps the differences between the two sides were too great. and for the last ten years

or so since the americans last had a go at trying to revive that peace process, the conflict has effectively been left to fester, and a feeling has grown up, particularly, ithink, among mr netanyahu, the israeli prime minister, and him and his allies, and also some of his allies abroad as well, that it could be managed, that it was a conflict that could be contained and israel could get on with other things like dealing with iran, like maybe having a rapprochement with saudi arabia, and they could build a new middle east. but there was always this terrible problem of the arab—israeli the palestinian—israeli conflict. and i would argue it's really central to the problems of the region. and i think that that has been shown once again by the tragic, horrendous, brutal events, starting with that hamas raid. so you could say that perhaps there was a moment back in the 90s when they might

have got close to it, they might have had a chance, but that moment went away. and i've thought for some time that an explosion was coming. i didn't expect it the way it was, the optimistic way of looking at it. if you want to find a cloud somewhere, i mean, if you want to find a silver lining somewhere in the cloud is that perhaps this willjolt all parties. i'm not talking about hamas. i'm talking about palestinians talking about israelis, their allies, into doing some kind of a deal to at least talking about doing some kind of a deal. that's the optimistic one. the pessimistic one is we go even further down from here. and please, the mantra was land for peace and for the palestinians. the land meant returning to the borders of the territories seized by israel in the 1967 war or land swaps, so that they had enough territory to make an effective and a cohesive palestinian state. and when those negotiations first started and they were

hope that they could be concluded, there had to be a corridor which connected gaza with the west bank. so i think for the majority of palestinians, a palestinian state control over their own lives is what they want. and i think israelis would want to be out of palestinian lives that they either would for a long time they talked to peace, then they talked about separation. they don't want to be have each other to interfere and especially not in the way they're doing now. the big question is, what does hamas want? israelis get really worried and angry that the hamas has not changed its charter, its founding charter, which calls for the destruction of the state of israel. now, in recent years, they have come up with documents which talked about their readiness to have to accept that there could be a state if write to virtue principles like the right of palestinians to return our our respected by israel, its carried out that it's possible that they could move towards some kind of an agreement.

but i think what this current crisis tells us is that hamas is divided. there are political leaders in hamas who didn't know about this assault, who don't support this assault, who were trying to move. away from the rule of the gun, but the military wing, which seems to be the one in charge. now, the big question is what do they want? our thanks to lyse doucet. her podcast is called the conflict, and you'll find it wherever you find your bbc podcast. you will also find the global news podcast there as well. our thanks as well to jeremy bowen, our international editor. i'mjackie leonard. and until next time, goodbye. hello. sunday will be getting off to a cold start in most places and it promises to be a rather chilly day but it won't be

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 still quite tightly packed across northern and eastern parts of scotland — still quite windy here — and a weak frontal system bringing cloud and some showery rain into the north of scotland. something wintry for a time up over higher ground, although much of that will turn back to rain. southern scotland, northern ireland, england and wales having a fine day after what will be a cold and, in places, frosty start. long spells of sunshine. just a few showers around the coasts. still quite blustery in the north—east of scotland but lighter winds elsewhere. temperatures — 7 degrees in lerwick, 14 for st helier. elsewhere, generally 10—13 degrees. now, sunday night will be another cold one. light winds in most places. some mist and fog patches could well develop. a little bit breezy in the south and in the north. just the odd shower in the north of scotland and also, perhaps, in the south—east of england.

but in between, temperatures dropping close to or even below freezing with our area of high pressure still with us, but low pressure trying to squeeze in from the south and also from the north. so, it is northern and southern parts that will turn a little bit windy as we go through the day on monday. in between, light winds, early mist and fog clearing, some good spells of sunshine but brisk winds in the north of scotland — maybe the odd shower here. also maybe the odd shower in southern england, where it will also turn quite windy. that strong wind also affecting the channel islands. temperatures generally 11, 12 or 13 degrees in most places. now, on tuesday, i think the winds will ease a little bit in the north but, conversely, they'll pick up across the south. turning breezy across more of england and wales and some showery rain, perhaps, across the channel islands, the south—west of england but notice temperatures rising a little bit — up to around 15 or 16 degrees. a sign of things to come. it is going to turn much more unsettled through midweek. weather systems pushing up from the south. some potentially quite heavy bursts of rain but with southerly winds, temperatures climbing easily to around 16 degrees. it could get a little warmer than that in some places

but we will see some outbreaks of quite heavy rain.

live from washington, this is bbc news. israel masses troops near gaza as it prepares for the next phase of its military operation to, quote, "wipe out hamas." thousands of people flee the north of gaza, amid israeli evacuation orders as the humanitarian crisis in the territory deepens. and president biden speaks to the israeli

and palestinian leaders as the us steps up efforts to contain the escalating conflict. 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,