ceasefire now would simply leave hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on october 7. a new report reveals that for the first time in 20 years, infant deaths in the us rose. iam helena humphrey. it is good to have you with us. it has now been four weeks since the weeks by hamas killed more than m00 people in israel. israel is continuing to push further into gaza city in its ground offensive with 20 israeli soldiers now reported killed since the operation began. its ground offensive is focused on the north of the territory where it is thought that up to 400,000 people remain despite calls from israel to move south. this was the scene in gaza just a few hours ago. you can see there large

explosions lighting up the night sky. the hamas—run health ministry in gaza says more than 9400 people have now been killed in the territory. hamas is classed as a terrorist organisation by several western governments. meanwhile, diplomatic efforts aimed at assisting palestinian civilians continue. a meeting in thejordanian capital on saturday said there must be an immediate ceasefire in gaza. mr blink and wants humanitarian forces and israel insist there will be no temporary truce until all hostages are released. water will have more on the diplomacy shortly, but we start our coverage without correspondence jon donnisson. there are distressing images from the outset of the report. four weeks into this war, the death and the suffering is

endless. and in gaza, no place is safe. the un says this school in jabalia in the north was hit this morning, killing at least 15 people. thousands had been seeking shelter there. "god will take my vengeance," this young boy says. "i was standing here when the three bombings happened." "i carried a body and another decapitated body "with my own hands. "where should i go?" he says. "they've hit the shelters. "since when has it become normal "to strike shelters?" israel says it's looking in to what happened. and in the north of gaza, its ground offensive is pushing forward, tightening its grip on hamas, who israel says is using civilians as human shields. hamas is outgunned, but these pictures from its military wing

claim to show it fighting back. more than 20 israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive began. as the number of palestinian casualties continues to rise. the us secretary of state met with arab leaders injordan this afternoon. antony blinken again asserted israel's right to defend itself, but... protecting civilians will help prevent hamas from further exploiting the situation. but most important, it is simply the right and moral thing to do. when i see... ..a palestinian boy or girl pulled from the wreckage of a building, it hits me in the gut just as it hits everyone in the gut, and i see my own children in theirfaces. and america is also worried

about this conflict spreading. israel's military has said it targeted a terrorist trying to cross over from lebanon on its northern border last night. less than a mile away in the town of shlomi, volunteers have been preparing food for israeli soldiers amid fears the powerful lebanese militia group hezbollah could escalate this crisis. very serious, very sad. we cry at night. everybody doesn't. .. i don't sleep at night. i watch tv all night. we watched all the terrible cases, everything that's happened. we run. when there's a siren, we run. and when we can, we work. and yes, we are under danger. we're risking our lives. there has been so much fear and grief over the last four weeks. and it's farfrom over. jon donnison, bbc news, jerusalem. a little earlier, i spoke with our diplomatic correspondence paul adams about mr blink and's diplomatic efforts. thank you

so much for being with us. antony blinken shuttling around for a variety of talks. what would you say came out of his visit? it is a broad agenda he has tried to make sure that the conflict does not escalate and spread beyond gaza, trying to secure the release of hostages including us citizens, but also, i think crucially, trying to alleviate the situation on the ground in southern gaza, where the population has been swelled by the arrival of as many as a million people who have fled from fighting further north. the americans believe they are making progress. they say that the number of trucks that are crossing the rafah crossing from egypt into the gaza strip has increased around 100 today and they wanted to increase to several hundred. they also believe that

a mechanism is now in place agreed by the israelis to let fuel in, to keep hospitals going and to keep the whole humanitarian aid relief effort going when that fuel finally runs out. that is quite a key development because the israelis have been refusing any entry of fuel until now. joe biden asked also about whether or not there was progress on creating these humanitarian pauses, said, yes, that there was progress and gave a thumbs up sign. this is not a ceasefire, these are little windows of opportunity where the fighting might be reduced or suspended for a matter of hours in a very particular location again to allow the aid, humanitarian effort to really address the growing needs of the population in southern gaza. i should add that none of that changes the reality for people in the northern part of the gaza strip, that is now completely cut off by the israelis. it is the scene of

intense street fighting and the 300—400 civilians who remain in that area are now effectively on their own. talking about the fighting, as you alluding to there, that going on as the diplomacy does at the same time. what more can you tell us about that operation from idf forces in the gaza strip? they have been pushing closer and closer to gaza city. the main built—up area in the north consists of gaza city, a couple of refugee camps and some surrounding areas. that is the focus of the israeli army's effort at the moment. they believe that that is a hamas stronghold and they are encircling that from all directions and pressing in very, very close to heavily populated areas. we are seeing air strikes and sometimes artillery strikes that are having a terrifying effect on the civilians to remain in that area,

and that may indeed be part of the israeli strategy, because they want all of those civilians out of that area while they conduct their military operation against hamas. the presence of so many civilians is clearly an enormous complication, and it is why we are seeing from time to time, sometimes more than once or twice a day, scenes of civilians being caught up and killed in these military operations. so, the israelis really want to try and force people out. they are saying they will keep the road open to the southern gaza strip for a few hours again tomorrow in the hope that people heed their warnings and get out while they still can. and on that point, with regards to the civilians, do we have any clear idea when civilians, those injured and foreign nationals might be able to get out of the rafah crossing once again?

that is an ongoing effort and one that a lot of governments are involved with, including the americans and the british and others. it all got suspended and stuck today. it is not entirely clear why. it may be because hamas were trying to evacuate woounded people in ambulances and were preventing civilians from leaving while they were still trying to get that done. we do not know who they were trying to evacuate. was at some of their own injured people? we just don't know, but for one reason or another, it seems very few, if any people crossed at all today. the british are saying they are disappointed by that. they had hoped that several dozen british nationals might be able to get out. but their efforts are continuing to get that crossing open. there are hundreds, in fact, several thousand foreign nationals from more than a0 countries still waiting to get out, and there are very concerted international efforts to try and keep that crossing at rafah open. i expect we will see it open

again maybe tomorrow and that that process of gradual evacuation will continue on and off for days to come. paul, thank you for your reporting. and a short while ago, i spoke about secretary blinken�*s visit with john altmann. he is now serving as a director of the middle east programme. at the centre for strategic and international studies. i want to begin with what we have seen from president bryden. he was asked about a humanitarian pause or stop he gave a thumbs up. do you think that we could potentially the humanitarian pauses for civilians in gaza anytime soon? i think we'll see some sort of a pause. with all these israeli hostilities with hamas, there is often something short of a ceasefire, but some sort of delimiting

of free passage for people, of an ability to get relief in, i think we will probably see something, but it is much less than the arab governments were asking for today. i think it is likely to be much less than the us government was asking the israelis for. that's interesting. "much less" than you think the administration was asking the israelis for. is there any gap there between the two? do you think their positions are widening? what kind of conversations do you think are happening behind closed doors right now? well, i think there has been a widening gap in the last several weeks. the us really sees the last two decades as a time where it has gained a lot of experience fighting insurgencies. we fought insurgencies in afghanistan and iraq and against isis in western iraq and syria, and there is really a set of principles about how you do that, how you split the population away from the combatants. how you think about —

how you fight shapes, what you are trying — what you're trying to do at the end shapes the way fight. i think the israelis don't think that counterinsurgency is applicable in this situation. they have been dealing with hostility from palestinians for more than a century and they think they don't need lessons from anybody. it seems to me there are a lot of signs that the americans think, actually, we do have something to say that will be helpful, that will get you out of this endless loop. and the israelis say, "let us handle this". i think those differences are growing. the argument from the israeli government is that a full ceasefire, which of course is a greater undertaking than a humanitarian pause, would essentially allow for hamas to regroup and that is something that us secretary of state anthony blinken repeated on his trip as well to the region. what do you make that?

well, there is also the issue of where does the freeing of more than 200 hostages fit in to this? i think there is a reasonable case to be made that hamas just asking for a ceasefire now rather than making concessions and releasing hostages, i think you can make an argument that this is something we should negotiate, hamas does not want to negotiate it. but what we're seeing is, i think we're going to see an increasing number of palestinian casualties, we're going to see an increasing number of images of palestinian casualties, and there is increasing pressure on israel for the government to release all these — or work to release all these hostages at whatever cost. how that plays out in palestinian politics and israeli politics, we will have to see. another development that we have seen today, john, turkey recalling its israel ambassador, cutting talks with

prime minister netanyahu over that refusal to agree to a ceasefire. do think this could be symbolic or indicative of widening fissures there as well between arab states, the united states and what this could mean for further down the line? turkey of course is in an arab state and president erdogan said last week that hamas is a terrorist or freedom fighters, it is mujahideen. i think turkey in many ways cast its ballot a week ago not with the withdrawal of the ambassador. it does seem to me that from the american point of view, and you have seen secretary blinken advancing this, there is going to have to be an arab role in securing and legitimising a settlement after hamas is pushed from power. the secretary of state is very eager to bring arabs in. the israelis seems much less

interest in it and the arabs are appreciably saying this israeli behaviour is precisely what will get us uninterested in playing any role here and the gap seems to me to be widening rather than narrowing, which is what the us is trying to do. returning to gaza, live pictures you can see of the situation in gaza. just to let you know, to shortly after 6am there. you will be able to see in those live pictures of smoke hanging in the air, and in the 15 minutes orso hanging in the air, and in the 15 minutes or so that we have been on air, counting around two explosions there right now. and the hamas run health ministry has accused israel of carrying out another deadly air strike. quoted by the afp news agency, it alleges that the strike on the alma gaza refugee camp in central gaza has killed over 30 people. israel says it is looking into the incident

and getting information from inside gaza is of course difficult but our correspondent rushdi abu alouf remains there and he sent us this update earlier. today, israel opened the salah al—din road, the axis in and out of gaza for the first time since a couple of days since they started the operation, ground operation in gaza. very few people managed to get out of gaza because the main road was damaged and access for car was almost impossible. but in gaza city, people are starting to flee the heavy fighting around the city. as the israeli ground operation expanded around gaza city from three different directions. the tanks were advancing near gaza city itself, especially the western part of gaza. tonight, again, the israeli air strikes were intensified around the al-quds hospital and also around the shifa hospital, where many solar panels on the roof of the building around the hospital were targeted from the air.

we feel that israel is pushing the civilian population. they are taking the hospital as shelter to flee this place. they bombed tonight, the largest the largest bakery in the place that is feeding most of the bread to the neighbourhood near the shifa hospital, also in the north of gaza strip. fighting was intensified in the north—west part near the coastal road where the hamas militants group saying that they have fired anti—tank missiles and they were engaged in gun battle with the israeli soldiers who are advancing towards the gaza city. here in khan younis, where about a million people displaced from their houses in gaza city and the north, they live in a very difficult situation with the severe shortage of electricity, food and water. as the israel gaza war rages

on, ukraine's president volodymyr zelensky has said it is taking away the focus from the conflict in his country. his comments come as european commission president ursula von der leyen made an unannounced visit to kyiv on saturday for talks on ukraine because my efforts to join the european union. kyiv hopes eu leaders will agree to open formal accession negotiations at a summit in december. now, turning to here in the us, and the number of babies who have died before their first birthday increased for the first time in two decades, according to preliminary data from the centres for disease control and prevention. now, the united states�*s infant mortality rate rose 3% from 2021 to 2022, with over 20,000 deaths recorded last year. the researchers say they are worried this rise could be the beginning of a new trend. as the rate of infant mortality grows in the us, some families are sharing their stories, and earlier i spoke with eric and often young and chris young,

who lost their baby daughter, summer, last year, just two hours after she was born. thank you for taking the time to be with us here on bbc news, we greatly appreciate it, and we greatly appreciate it, and we want to say sorry for the loss your daughter, summer vivienne young, who very sadly passed awayjust vivienne young, who very sadly passed away just two vivienne young, who very sadly passed awayjust two hours after being born. if you are able to, arrochar, can you tell us a bit about your experience, about what happened? yes. we had had a _ about what happened? yes. we had had a completely _ about what happened? yes. we had had a completely normal. had had a completely normal pregnancy to our knowledge. we were actually really lucky. it was a blissful nine months with her. because i'm over the age of 35, we did see a maternal vettel medicine specialist along the way for extra ultrasounds as well as an unfortunately in the final minutes of pushing, we saw a massive deceleration in the heart rate monitor, they had me

a parcel of physiognomy and sommer came out very limp and grey, and i knew instantly something was wrong. so we went from going into hospital assuming we were going to bring our sweet baby girl home, and right at the end of labour, something happened, we think likely a hypoxic event of some sort. doctors were never able to find out what happened despite a pretty significant effort on our side of about six months talking to different specialist trying to figure it out. . . specialist trying to figure it out. ., , specialist trying to figure it out. ., . ,, out. that is so incredibly traumatic _ out. that is so incredibly traumatic and _ out. that is so incredibly traumatic and thank - out. that is so incredibly traumatic and thank you | out. that is so incredibly i traumatic and thank you so out. that is so incredibly - traumatic and thank you so much for telling us about that. you just said you had a healthy pregnancy, you were not able to find out what went wrong. i just want to ask you both, erika and kris, what it was like in the aftermath. i read you described going back to a house with a baby room and no baby. that must have been, it must be incredibly hard.-

baby. that must have been, it must be incredibly hard. yes, i mean, must be incredibly hard. yes, i mean. the _ must be incredibly hard. yes, i mean, the emotion _ must be incredibly hard. yes, i mean, the emotion and - must be incredibly hard. yes, i mean, the emotion and just i must be incredibly hard. yes, i | mean, the emotion and just the hormones — mean, the emotion and just the hormones going for your body when — hormones going for your body when you _ hormones going for your body when you give birth to a child, like my— when you give birth to a child, like my wife was doing, it makes _ like my wife was doing, it makes you want to feel love and care for— makes you want to feel love and care for something, and so we had to— care for something, and so we had to experience days, weeks, months — had to experience days, weeks, months afterwards where we have this longing to care, to do something for a child that was not there. it was just emptiness. and we tried to live our lives — emptiness. and we tried to live our lives just understanding what — our lives just understanding what we _ our lives just understanding what we went through with no explanation and no clear reasoning as to what happened but it_ reasoning as to what happened but it has— reasoning as to what happened but it has reallyjust been a time — but it has reallyjust been a time of— but it has reallyjust been a time of emptiness, has been the best way— time of emptiness, has been the best way to describe it. fine best way to describe it. one thin i best way to describe it. one thing i just _ best way to describe it. one thing i just want _ best way to describe it. one thing i just want to - best way to describe it. que: thing ijust want to pick best way to describe it. iez thing ijust want to pick up on, kris, you said that desire to give your love. 0ne on, kris, you said that desire to give your love. one thing you have done is to make sommer�*s legacy by helping other families and babies through the innovation fund with the march of dimes. ijust

wonder why is that so important to you? i can understand why theyjust to you? i can understand why they just tell us to you? i can understand why theyjust tell us more about that, and also, when we look at the statistics about an increase in infant mortality that we are seeing right now, do you think enough is being done? . . do you think enough is being done? , . , ., done? great question. so the vision we _ done? great question. so the vision we had _ done? great question. so the vision we had for _ done? great question. so the vision we had for our - done? great question. so the | vision we had for our daughter in the — vision we had for our daughter in the future was to be less stem — in the future was to be less stem educated sort of scientist engineer— stem educated sort of scientist engineer professional in the future _ engineer professional in the future. our society is tapping future. 0ur society is tapping many— future. our society is tapping many problems so it would inspire _ many problems so it would inspire me to see a child that we were _ inspire me to see a child that we were able to raise and to grow— we were able to raise and to grow tackle the problem is that the 21st — grow tackle the problem is that the 215t century were facing. but we — the 215t century were facing. but we don't get that, and so we wanted to do something where if she _ we wanted to do something where if she can't— we wanted to do something where if she can't give this gift in her— if she can't give this gift in her life. _ if she can't give this gift in her life, we can make a memory of sommer— her life, we can make a memory of sommer a her life, we can make a memory of sommera gift her life, we can make a memory of sommer a gift for others. and — of sommer a gift for others. and it — of sommer a gift for others. and it has _ of sommer a gift for others. and it has really been our honour— and it has really been our honour to be able to found march _ honour to be able to found march of _ honour to be able to found march of dimes, to partner with the innovation fund and we're hoping — the innovation fund and we're hoping that gives gifts to families and babies in the future _ families and babies in the future, and so whilst one can't

directiv— future, and so whilst one can't directly touch people's lives, we hope _ directly touch people's lives, we hope mma can do so, and that spirit _ we hope mma can do so, and that spirit iives — we hope mma can do so, and that spirit lives on in the positivity of others. we spent a lona positivity of others. we spent a long time — positivity of others. we spent a long time doing _ positivity of others. we spent a long time doing research i positivity of others. we spent a long time doing research toj a long time doing research to try and figure out first what had happened to sommer, and then in lieu of that, or is there something that could be done better in labour and delivery or in pregnancy that could help prevent these poor outcomes? and what are the things that came across is today's chasing reports are actually fraught with challenges. they are very difficult for a human to actually read and decipher, especially in that level two deceleration range, and say what they are really reading is that the heartbeat, but what they can't tell you about is they can't tell you about is the blood oxygenation of your baby. so while doing research one night, chris came across this company called radiant oximetry that is one of the start—up companies funded by the innovation fund. they are

developing technology that can monitor mum and baby's led oxygenation, and that gives you an extra data points that you wouldn't otherwise have, alongside the chasing report to get a clear read of what's going on. and we instantly felt like technology like that may be could have saved sommer�*s life, if we had better cues about what was going on a little bit earlier. and we'll never know. it is possible that truly something hypoxic and catastrophic happened in a split second as she was being born, but because there is no technology that can clearly decipher what's going on in that intrapartum stage outside of the chasing data, we will never know. so we got excited about it, and then we found the innovation fund. we reached out to them and realised with the march of dimes they have a board that is full of people who work in hospital administration. they are researchers and doctors, they

are able to give credence to this start—up they are funding, to help give the momentum that they need to help accelerate through things like fda approval and acceptance and hospitals, and that got us excited. ., ., ., excited. for now we will have to leave it — excited. for now we will have to leave it there _ excited. for now we will have to leave it there but - excited. for now we will have to leave it there but i - excited. for now we will have to leave it there but i want i excited. for now we will have to leave it there but i want to j to leave it there but i want to say a big thanks to both of you, erika and kris, for sharing your story with us on bbc news was to thank you so much. . ~ bbc news was to thank you so much. . ,, i. . ., much. thank you. nice to meet ou. you are watching bbc news full stop thank you for your company. see you soon. hello, there. the impacts from storm ciaran continue to be felt. now, on saturday across the uk, it was a day of sunshine and showers, or some longer spells of rain, for some of us, all driven in by an area of low pressure, but the low pressure has been named as a new storm that's going to be, again, bringing severe weather to europe. western france, gusts hitting 85mph, strong enough to blow over trees, so, again, there's going to be some transport disruption and also

power cuts very likely here. all the while, 15—metre—high waves, that's as big as the waves could get, battering the coastline of portugal and north—west spain, and in italy, in tuscany, where we've seen severe flooding over recent days, this extra rain certainly isn't going to help things. the flooding could get worse before it gets better. now, over the next few hours for the uk, it's still quite unsettled. we've got rain, tending to ease to more showery conditions, across parts of northern england, something a bit drier for a time across the west, and temperatures around 3—7 celsius, as we head into the first part of sunday morning. so it will be a chilly start to the day. i think, through sunday morning, there will be further showers coming and going across eastern scotland, eastern england. otherwise, it's a fine and sunny and dry start to the day. however, into the afternoon we'll see showers build, particularly across western areas. but with the winds flowing in more from a west—north—westerly direction, that's crucial for those in southern england that have been affected by those really heavy showers and flooding, while those winds should push the showers offshore at last, so it should

be a dry day in the far south. for those celebrating great great uncle guy's night, well, a few more showers coming and going, particularly across western areas, some clear spells and you'll need to wrap it warmly. need to wrap up warmly. it will be quite a chilly one. into monday's forecast, then, and things looking unsettled this time across the north and west of the uk, with some showers or longer spells of rain here. a few showers elsewhere across england and wales, but moving through fairly promptly, given the brisk westerly winds, and temperatures continue to run a little bit below average. now, deeper into the new week, we'll replace the mixture of sunshine and showers with more general outbreaks of rain, as we head in towards the middle part of the week. and of course, with the grounds completely saturated, following our prolonged spell of wet weather, we'll have to watch carefully to see if we see more flooding issues, as this band of rain works through. it does clear through and it will be followed again by a mixture of sunny spells and showery conditions towards the end of the week. bye for now.

voiceover: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme.

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