flood warnings are still in place across several uk regions, as storm babet continues its rampage. ukraine says six postal workers die in a russian missile attack on kharkiv. 16 other people were injured. hello. israel has confirmed that 212 people are being held hostage in gaza. rear admiral daniel hagari said that israeli strikes overnight killed dozens of palestinian fighters, including the deputy chief of hamas rocket forces. israel has been carrying out

intensive aerial bombing of gaza since the hamas attacks inside israel two weeks ago, in which 1,400 people were killed. the palestinian health ministry says about 4,600 gazans, mainly civilians, have been killed in the israeli air strikes. that includes 55 people overnight. israel's military has warned civilians in gaza to keep moving south for their own safety, as it prepares to increase pressure on hamas, which is designated a terrorist origanisation by the uk, us and other western governments. the israeli defense forces said one of its aircraft also targeted a mosque in the palestinian city ofjenin, in the occupied west bank. israel says the mosque was used by a hamas cell as a base to plan and execute attacks against civilians. the un's humanitarian chief hopes a second aid convoy might be able to enter gaza late on sunday.

if not tomorrow. but he said 20 trucks, the ones that have arrived so far, was just not enough. on saturday, agreement was reached to allow the first 20 lorries carrying supplies to cross the rafah borderfrom egypt. for more about the situation in gaza and wider tensions in the region, i spoke to our middle east correspondent yolande knell. right now, if you look at the gaza strip first of all, the situation is that we've still got tanks, we've got troops massed around the edge of the gaza strip. we have seen israeli military commanders going around and rallying the troops and giving more indications that they are getting ready for a ground offensive. we had the israeli military chief of staff staying to one infantry brigade, "we are going into gaza," saying that quite clearly. the chief military spokesman talking about this intensification of an aerial bombardment

of gaza, ahead of the next phase, to make it safer for israeli troops. so we have seen evidence of that going on overnight, with health ministry officials in the gaza strip — controlled, of course, the health ministry, by hamas. we know that more than 55 people have been killed. we know that there are hundreds of thousands of palestinians in gaza who have not heeded this israeli evacuation order to move to the south from the north of the gaza strip, and there has been this fresh warning from the israeli military that they should heed the evacuation warning, that they should go south. people have been saying they are unwilling to leave or they donot feel it would be safe to leave. and in the bombardment that we saw overnight, there are places in the south of the gaza strip where people have been told to move and they have been hit by deadly israeli airstrikes. in rafah and khan yunis. you are talking about a widening

of the conflict and we have seen worrying developments in the past 2a hours especially. and if we look to the occupied west bank, territory separate from the gaza strip, in the past two weeks. 90 palestinians have been killed by israeli security forces and by israeli settlers. 0vernight, there was an israeli military strike, a rare air strike in the west bank, on thejenin refugee camp — a flashpoint for violence. the israeli military saying it was targeting, in its words, a terrorist cell, hamas planning fresh attacks on israel. now, there were reports from palestinian health officials that at least one person was killed and several people injured there. this is ratcheting up tensions. looking at the north of the country, we have seen more areas of northern israel evacuated, with rising concerns that there could be more than the exchange of fire

that we have seen in recent days with hezbollah, which is armed and trained by iran in southern lebanon, and linked to that, reports of israeli airstrikes over the main airports in syria. that has happened in the past, could you explain? we've seen the people given an evacuation order are very close to the border with syria and lebanon, and dozens of other communities have been told that they should leave their homes and head south. this really is reflective of the worry now that hezbollah could get more involved in what's happening, despite a lot of international warnings trying to put pressure on hezbollah not to get more involved. there have been comments coming from senior figures that they are ready to do so. we have seen in the past few hours continuing exchanges of fire across the border. and then, of course, in syria, too, there are palestinian militants that are present there and we know that in the past, israel has claimed that there have been weapons transferred to hezbollah through the main

airports inside syria. it's not the first time we're hearing reports that israel has struck those airports. there's been no comment from the israeli military on that, but it does really raise concerns that there could be new fronts opening up in this war. the bbc�*s yolande knell. we have been talking about that desperate situation and lack of aid inside the gaza strip. there had been deep pessimism among the united nations that more aid trucks could reach gaza today. now it is thought possibly that some could come in later in the day. yesterday for the first time, an initial convoy of 20 trucks entered gaza. that is since israel tightened its siege on the gaza strip. two weeks ago, following those unprecedented attacks on its soil. 0ur gaza correspondent rushdi abualouf is at one of the aid camps in southern gaza. about 2,000 families

living in these tents. they are people displaced from the north, in gaza. this is, a camp has been built by the owner. this is, a camp has been built by the unrwa. i was speaking to the families here. they said they are struggling to find water. they are struggling to find food. they are struggling to find a bathroom. they said the bathroom here is a real challenge. the security, also, is a real challenge because as you know, hamas has been under really heavy attack by israel for the last two weeks or so, so there is no police around the area to maintain law and order, a few problems, social problems in the area. but those people, they say, we have been given very little food and very little water, very little medicine to the people who are in need for this.

this is an example of how 700,000 people who are displaced from the north are living in a very difficult condition in gaza city. the unrwa is planning to have more and more camps like this, once the egyptians are allowing more tents, more food, more fuel and more medicine. the united nations has called for a ceasefire to get more aid to those who need it. they are also coordinating the aid given out on the ground in gaza if and when it arrives. the united nation's emergency relief co—ordinator, martin griffiths. what we are seeking to clarify, establish and put in permanent place is an inspection regime to make sure that everybody is happy, all the parties involved are happy with what is going in as humanitarian aid. this is not unique to gaza. it is common to every conflict.

we need to have a clear, understood and agreed strategy. now, we thought we had that for today. yesterday, we had a pass. president biden, god bless him, had an agreement with the prime minister of israel to allow the 20 trucks in essentially un—inspected, as a first step. we thought we could get moving today with the inspected regime trucks. we still think, by the way — despite my earlier comments — that we may get some in towards the end of the afternoon. i certainly hope so. and we certainly rely on getting in more tomorrow. but i want to stress a second thing, if i may? 20 is not enough, as you would be the first to tell me.

because we have no intention of anything other than humanitarian aid going in, obviously — to up to 100 a day. that's our aim. we have the capacity for that, we have the trucks for that, we have the aid for that, we can deliver that. that's the plan. as you say, mr griffiths, we are in times of conflict and when you say it's not unprecedented in these times for aid trucks to be inspected, israel says what it's concerned about is that no supplies should come in to help hamas. hamas designated a terrorist organisation by the us, the uk and many other western governments, and that orchestrated and launched those unprecedented attacks on israel, massacring 1,400 people two weeks ago. do you understand israel's concerns, as well as this deepening humanitarian crisis on the ground

amongst palestinian civilians? look, unfortunately for me, i understand very well the concerns of the warring parties. i spent 50 years understanding the concerns of warring parties and their requirements. for example, let's bring it back to today — in gaziantep, near the border with north—west syria we have, for the last eight years, been inspecting trucks moving into north—west syria to make sure they are clean and clear of contraband or of non—humanitarian goods. we know how to do this. martyred griffins, the —— martin griffiths, from the un. lieutenant colonel peter lerner, a spokesperson for the israel defense forces, updated me...

0n israel's military objectives and the bombing campaign. the people of gaza are paying for the failed leadership of hamas. they have failed the people of gaza. our responsibility, primarily, is to ensure and secure the people of israel once more. we can't live in a situation where we are afraid that somebody will come over into our bedrooms and butcher our babies. that is unacceptable and it won't happen. unfortunately, unfortunately, we need to try and be persistent that hamas can never have this, wield this sword of death against our heads. we know what will happen if we do not destroy and dismantle hamas. we're not willing to raise a white flag to terrorism. we can't bow our heads to these terrorist organisations because, if we do, they will chop it off. if we have a look at international law, while there is a right

to defend yourself, there is also obligations to respect the rules of law, taking care of the civilian population. you say that you're listening to the united nations. they are calling for a humanitarian ceasefire. they are saying that the gaza civilians are suffering disproportionately, as aid agencies talk about collective punishment, which is illegal under international law. so would there be a humanitarian corridor, at least, that israel could guarantee for the civilians that it has sent from other parts of gaza to the south? we've sent people from the north of gaza to the south of gaza to exactly differentiate them between them and the terrorists, to get them out of harm's way. and, indeed, the south of gaza is safer than the north of gaza precisely because of our operations. and i would say that we need to keep in mind that what we operate and our... we operate on the basis of the laws of armed conflict, and we are operating within that, within that realm.

peter lerner, spokesperson for the israel defense forces. professor michael clarke is a former director—general of the royal united services institute. he is also a visiting professor of defence studies at king's college london. i asked for his broader assessment of israel's strategy and what he thought might happen next. the invasion was ready a week ago, pretty well. but they've been forestalled, first of all, by some bad weather, then by the round of diplomacy. so tony blinken was in israel, so you can't launch an invasion when the secretary of state is there. thenjoe biden was in israel at short notice. you certainly can't launch an invasion when the president is there. and then rishi sunak was there. that's not a good idea either. so the diplomatic round has finished. and now we've had the release of two hostages, which is hamas�*s attempt, i think, to drip—feed foreign hostages out of gaza,

so as to put pressure on israel, get america to put pressure on israel, to hold off a bit longer in case we can get some more hostages out. but with 212 hostages and a good handful of apparently british, is it nine british individuals missing and american hostages, then they could go on drip—feeding for two or three more weeks. the israelis won't play that game. they won't let hamas control the agenda. and so they're very clear that although the hostage crisis is dreadful from their point of view and will increase the international pressure on them, they won't wait, nor can they afford to wait, from a military point of view. when you've got the military completely cranked up, you've either got to go or stand down, just for logistical reasons. there are any number of logistics issues, which means that when an invasion force is ready, it can only wait for so long before you then have to, as it were, start to withdraw units, refuel trucks and all the rest of it. so, they will go very soon. i'd be very surprised if we're not now hours away,

a couple of days away at most, because they're a week late in this, from their point of view, and they won't wait very much longer. and there's no question that israel does intend to conduct this invasion. they say it to themselves, to their troops, they say it to the outside world. and the mantra of all israeli political and military leaders — it's like cato, the old roman empire, you know, carthage must be destroyed — their mantra is, hamas must be destroyed. absolutely, as you say, and that is different to previous military incursions by the israeli defense forces inside northern gaza. this time, they say, "this is it, we want to destroy hamas." questions around that, then, is it possible to destroy hamas? and then voices also saying, "and if so, what happens afterwards? " yeah, well, it's certainly possible to destroy hamas in a physical sense, and i'm sure the israelis will, which is why i believe

that the invasion — this is my own interpretation — i think the invasion will be at multiple points, by land and by sea. they won't want to give hamas people anywhere to run to. they won't want to give them any safe areas. and so i think they'll try to move in on all areas as best they can, as quickly as as they can, regardless of what happens to a humanitarian aid corridor around the rafah crossing. so i think that that's what they will do. and certainly, they will. .. i mean, any hamas fighters who stay and fight doggedly will die. and that's the message that will go out. and so hamas may choose to fight on the borders and then withdraw into the civilian population, go through the tunnels into sinai and try to live to fight another day. so physically, hamas in gaza, i'm sure, will be destroyed. now, what happens next? the israelis don't know either. in a sense, they they don't know where this road leads. all they are sure about is that after the 7th of october, they have to go down this road. and they will be, i think, hoping that the international

community can somehow create some arrangement, some political arrangement, which puts a new authority in gaza to look after the palestinians. possibly the palestinian authority, but they're very, very unpopular and extremely incompetent. so it might have to be something a bit new, but it won't be hamas. that's what the israelis say. but, of course, they also have the problem is that, of course, you can destroy the physical presence of an organisation, but you can't destroy the idea. and the fact is, and the uncomfortable fact is for israel, that hamas is more popular in eastjerusalem than it is in gaza. it's more popular in eastjerusalem than it is on the west bank. and hamas is more popular on the west bank and eastjerusalem than the palestinian authority ever was. michael clarke, from king's college london. for now, that is it from me and the team injerusalem. we hand

over to you in the studio in london. thank you very much indeed. here in the uk, about 500 homes in the nottinghamshire town of retford are being evacuated because of flooding caused by storm babet. the county council has declared a major incident and urged everyone to leave. the river idle has reached record levels — and they are still rising, threatening the town. there are also severe flood alerts in three parts of the neighbouring county of derbyshire. storm babet is disrupting train services in yorkshire and east anglia, and along the east coast main line to edinburgh and aberdeen. the environment agency says flooding from the storm, which has hit scotland and the north—east of england particularly badly, could last until tuesday. 0ur reporter phil bodmerjoined us from catcliffe, in south yorkshire, which was hit by flooding overnight. this is the main street, as you mentioned there. the swans, you can see just swimming off there. this is where traffic would normally run, but it's under several feet of water.

you can see the phone box, the old public telephone box, the red phone box in the distance there. the water level has dropped slightly from where we were earlier on this morning, but this is going to take some time to clear up. as you mentioned, 250 homes were evacuated yesterday. and let's talk to a couple of residents who themselves were taken out of their homes and spent the night away because their house is underwater. chris and sophie, thank you forjoining us today. chris, just explain what happened. we was knocked up by a neighbour, john, at 3 am saturday morning. we were told to move some stuff and get out because the water was going to come over the top. and previously, we'd been promised it wasn't going to come over the top. and in 2007, all the work that was done, millions

of pounds, they said in 2007 it should never happen again. is there a feeling of the community being let down because the promises were actually this shouldn't happen again? we've got the flood defences, but here we are back in the same position? we seem to be sacrificed here, we've had all new buildings and houses and industrial units built around us. this is a big scene and we're at bottom of it and this is what happens. so in other words, you've just got to get on? yeah, that's it. yeah, that seems to be the answer. sophie, how does that make you feel? feel forgotten about, to be honest, that we're just left with this. the water's not moving. we don't know when we could go back into our houses to assess what damage we've lost. and yes, we should say, you took me to your house this morning, but we can't get there because it's several hundred metres away. and in the middle of it is this water, which is two or three feet deep. yeah, it was a lot deeper than this yesterday as well. but for it to not go down at all, we just, we can't believe it. in 2007, the water went away. it's not going away.

and we need answers as to why. do you... you said about there's lots of development that's happened here. do you think that's part of the reason that this floodwater is not going? 100%. all around us used to be fields and now it's all properties and businesses. it's all tarmac and concrete. so, yeah, it's going to run down to us, and the river obviously can't take it. and it sounds like they're not prepared to do anything. you had to move out of your house last night. where did you spend the evening? on saturday, saturday morning, we were in community centre and we stayed there. and last night, we stopped at sophie's parents. and i should say you're now standing in the clothes that you left your house in the early hours of, what, saturday morning? well, because we had no idea, we may have thought, oh, we might get a couple of feet. that's it. we never thought it could be this bad. so we've got no trainers, coats, everything still where it was. we weren't prepared. we moved things a couple of feet off the floor. sophie, what do you do next? where are you going tonight, for instance? we're going to stay at my parents again tonight. but now it'll be a case

of all the inconvenience of ringing the insurance, seeing what they're going to do, whether they'll put us up in a hotel. and that's what everybody in the community is doing. people from there, yesterday, have gone to try and stay at hotels and things like that. yeah. what's generally the feeling in the community? the community is coming together quite well, but obviously, everybody's devastated with what's happened. we've got the nursing home near us as well. they've had to evacuate, so it's just awful. can ijustjump in on that one? we are absolutely fuming. we've really, really been let down and we need some answers. about half of the staff on a drilling platform in the north sea have been flown from the site, after four of its eight anchors came loose during storm babet. all 89 crew members of the stena spey, which is nearly 150 miles from aberdeen, were accounted for before the evacuation. the governor of ukraine's eastern kharkiv region says six people have died in a russian missile strike on a mail depot. 16 others were injured at the distribution centre in kharkiv — which is ukraine's second largest city. the victims are all said

to be civilian workers. let's ta ke let's take you live now to the situation in gaza. and i think first, we are going to take you to the rafah crossing between egypt and gaza, which of course early yesterday, we saw 20 trucks moving through that crossing, bringing much—needed aid to gaza. we are now wondering whether that crossing will be opened once more today to allow aid into gaza. it is much—needed. the military spokesman has said that israel today is intensifying its air strikes on gaza and warning any palestinians still in the north of the territory to flee south. meanwhile, we have been hearing from the palestinian health ministry, which is controlled by hamas, and it has been telling us thatjust over 4600 people have now died in the gaza war. of course, as always, we will have much more on this story

throughout the day. you can also go on to the bbc website where our live page has been updated minute by minute from our correspondent on the ground in gaza and israel, but also here in the uk. i am back in a couple of minutes with headlines. stay with us on bbc news. hello there. part two of the weekend is looking a lot quieter than what we've had over the past few days. we have no weather warnings in force, but numerous flood warnings still remain in force, as river levels are yet to peak through today and perhaps even into tomorrow. today, then, plenty of dry weather around, lighter winds too, because we've got fewer isobars on the charts. there's yesterday's wet weather pushing north of scotland. so a lot of dry weather around through the morning, plenty of sunshine. into the afternoon, it stays fine, unsettled for most of us. just the chance of a few showers

continuing across parts of western scotland, north—west england, perhaps western wales and in towards south—west england. most places, though, will be dry, with variable cloud, sunny spells continuing, top temperatures of 15 or 16 degrees in the south, around 10 to 12 degrees across scotland and northern ireland. so as we head through this evening, it stays dry. there'll be a very pleasant end to the day. 0vernight, though, with that cooler air mass, light winds, clear skies will be the recipe for some mist and fog patches to develop across central, northern england, scotland and it will also turn quite cold here. we're likely to see temperatures dipping to freezing. so a touch of frost here, but less cold across the south. we start to see a weather front pushing up here. temperatures — 10 degrees in belfast, 10 or 11 across southern england. now, as we head into monday, we've got a new area of low pressure moving up from the near continent. that will bring rain and wind later in the day. but monday promises to be a fine start. we should see some good spells

of sunshine after that chilly morning, with some early mist and fog. plenty of sunshine across northern england, scotland, but the sunshine turns hazier across england and wales, start to see some splashes of rain pushing in here later in the day. skies also turning cloudier for northern ireland, but it will be turning a bit milder, 15, 16, maybe 17 degrees. further north, low teens. the wet weather pushes across england and wales during monday night, in towards the north sea. but we'll see another frontal system on tuesday pushing in across the south and the west later in the day. but there will be some good spells of sunshine in—between these systems, stretched from south—east england, across towards northern ireland and western scotland, as temperatures, low to mid—teens. but it does look like it's going to remain pretty unsettled for the rest of the week. very autumnal, low pressure systems bringing spells of wind and rain, followed by sunshine and showers. that's it from me. take care.

this is bbc news, the headlines... israel warns it will intensify the attacks on gaza, before its expected ground offensive. it also says it struck a hamas cell sheltering in a west bank mosque. the un's humanitarian chief hopes a second convoy of aid might enter gaza late on sunday — but insists it's not enough. agencies describe conditions in gaza as catastrophic. they are struggling to find water. they are struggling to find food. they are struggling

to find a bathroom. the bathroom here is a real challenge. syrian state media says israeli missiles struck international airports in damascus and aleppo. the reports say one person was killed. scheduled flights are being diverted to latakia airport. ukraine says six postal workers die in a russian missile attack on kharkiv. 16 other people were injured. now on bbc news, israel—gaza: why is there a war? israel is calling this its 9/11. a massive co—ordinated and deadly raid by hamas into southern israel. this event is the biggest catastrophe of the state of israel ever. praying.

it was unbelievable the casualties that we saw.