the united nations says the targeting of thousands of people in lebanon with exploding pagers and walkie talkies could amount to a war crime. fresh revelations about former harrods owner mohamed al fayed — the bbc�*s told extra precautions were put in place at fulham football club to protect female players from its late owner. people in sri lanka are voting in the first election since the country's economic meltdown two years ago. hundreds of paratroopers are re—enacting one of the major us and british operations against germany in the second world war. hello, welcome to bbc news. we start this hour with the latest on the tensions in the middle east. the united nations human rights chief has told the security council that the targeting of thousands

of people in lebanon with exploding pagers and walkie talkies, widely considered to have been carried out by israel, was a violation of international law. volker turk said he was appalled by the breadth and impact of the attacks, which left at least 37 dead and thousands injured. hezbollah has confirmed that its senior military commander, ibrahim aqil, was among those killed in friday's israeli airstrike on a building in the southern suburbs of beirut. the israeli envoy at the un danny danon has not mentioned the explosions but said his country would do whatever it took to defend itself. let's start with those comments from the un human rights chief volker turk. these attacks represent a new development in warfare. where communication tools become weapons, simultaneously exploding across marketplaces, on street corners and in homes as daily life unfolds. authorities have reportedly dismantled unexploded devices in universities, banks and hospitals. this has unleashed widespread fear, panic and horror among people in lebanon.

as we said, israel's representative to the un, danny danon — did not mention the exploding pagers and walkie talkies directly, but stressed israel's right to defend itself. we will not allow hezbollah�*s terror to dictate the future of our nation. if hezbollah does not retreat from our border and back to the north of the litani river through diplomatic efforts, israel will be left with no choice but to use any means within our rights to defend our citizens and enable the evacuees of the north to return to their homes.

emergency teams are still searching for people who are blue to missing. the suburb here in beirut that was hezbollah�*s stronghold. this was a major attack. hezbollah now say that at least 13 senior members of the group were killed, including two top commanders, ahmed wahbi and ibrahim aqil. so again another major blow for hezbollah. this happens just days after those explosions targeting pagers, walkie—talkies used by the group in a major security breach for hezbollah. this is obviously humiliating to this group. they want to be seen as a powerful, sophisticated enemy by israel. so here in lebanon

people are obviously waiting to see how hezbollah is going to respond. this is a major escalation in this conflict with israel but i think hezbollah doesn't have many options to give a strong response after these attacks because it has given repeated indications that it is not interested in a major war with israel. it is important for iran to have an really strong hezbollah here next to israel. iran doesn't seem to be interested in a major confrontation either but this is a group that is under pressure. it needs to be seen to be given a response after this wave of humiliating attacks and major setbacks after the israeli attacks. and, daniel, when it comes to the israeli attacks, a major setback for israel itself because you have the un describing this, the attacks

with the walkie—talkies, the pagers as a violation of what he calls humanitarian law. that's right. i don't think the israeli — that's right. i don't think the israeli government will see that— israeli government will see that as _ israeli government will see that as a _ israeli government will see that as a setback. there has been — that as a setback. there has been a — that as a setback. there has been a lot— that as a setback. there has been a lot of criticism by the un of— been a lot of criticism by the un of israel and the is quite a contentious relationship between the un and israel, i think— between the un and israel, i think it — between the un and israel, i think it is _ between the un and israel, i think it is fair to say. the israeti _ think it is fair to say. the israeli military has been speaking since yesterday about the strikes in beirut. they are seeing — the strikes in beirut. they are seeing this as a major blow against _ seeing this as a major blow against hezbollah, killing senior— against hezbollah, killing senior commanders from the group — senior commanders from the group and other figures. they are saying that when they carried _ are saying that when they carried out the strike those people _ carried out the strike those people were meeting in a basement in a residential building in beirut to plot attacks against israelis. in the — attacks against israelis. in the context for this is really a week— the context for this is really a week of escalation by israel. at the — a week of escalation by israel. at the beginning of the week, israet— at the beginning of the week, israel formally set out a war goat— israel formally set out a war goal relating to the north, it was — goal relating to the north, it was the _ goal relating to the north, it was the first time, there are four— was the first time, there are four war— was the first time, there are four war goals and until this

week— four war goals and until this week there were three. they were — week there were three. they were related to gaza and hamas. the new — were related to gaza and hamas. the new one this week relates to 60,000 israelis who have been — to 60,000 israelis who have been displaced in the north of the country due to rocket fire from — the country due to rocket fire from hezbollah. the israeli government have said they're going — government have said they're going to — government have said they're going to return as people home. how they— going to return as people home. how they haven't said is how they— how they haven't said is how they are _ how they haven't said is how they are going to do that. but after— they are going to do that. but after setting that goal we have seen _ after setting that goal we have seen a — after setting that goal we have seen a wave of attacks against has been — seen a wave of attacks against has been ay and that includes the walkie—talkie and pagers explosions. not only that but very— explosions. not only that but very intensive air strikes on thursday. _ very intensive air strikes on thursday, the air strike on beirut _ thursday, the air strike on beirut yesterday. we saw a change _ beirut yesterday. we saw a change in language from the israeti — change in language from the israeli leadership, talking about— israeli leadership, talking about a _ israeli leadership, talking about a new phase in the war, about— about a new phase in the war, about the _ about a new phase in the war, about the centre of gravity in this war— about the centre of gravity in this war moving north. we saw a division — this war moving north. we saw a division of— this war moving north. we saw a division of the israeli army moved _ division of the israeli army moved north from the south. but ithink— moved north from the south. but i think despite all that it is also — i think despite all that it is also unclear exactly how israel will achieve this goal. yesterday, hezbollah fired around _ yesterday, hezbollah fired around 200 rockets into northern israel. so, you know, ithink— northern israel. so, you know, i think that _ northern israel. so, you know, i think that is why there is stilt— i think that is why there is still quite a lot of speculation here in israel and

elsewhere about what else might happen, — elsewhere about what else might happen, what else the israeli government might do. there is speculation about whether there ntight— speculation about whether there might be — speculation about whether there might be a ground incursion into— might be a ground incursion into southern lebanon to create the so—called buffer zone that would — the so—called buffer zone that would be _ the so—called buffer zone that would be the goal of which to protect— would be the goal of which to protect israeli citizens in the north — protect israeli citizens in the north as _ protect israeli citizens in the north. as we are heading into the weekend there is a real feeting _ the weekend there is a real feeling of what next? what might — feeling of what next? what might happen this weekend and what _ might happen this weekend and what might happen in the coming days? _ what might happen in the coming days? so— what might happen in the coming da 5? ., days? so as we mentioned escalating _ days? so as we mentioned escalating tension - days? so as we mentioned escalating tension there. l days? so as we mentioned - escalating tension there. hugo just back to you in beirut in lebanon. reminders of the context of this. of course you know the region extremely well. when it comes to those attacks, those rocket launchers and attacks from israel into lebanon and lebanon back into israel, the high percentage does actually come from israel into lebanon, is that right? exactly. we have seen that israel has been responding hard to those rockets that have been fired by hezbollah. hezbollah says it is supporting palestinians in gaza with this

campaign of targeting mainly military positions in northern israel and has been saying that these attacks are going to continue unless there is a ceasefire in gaza. and we know that all the efforts so far to try to reach a deal to reach a ceasefire in gaza have failed. so hezbollah has always been seen as a much more powerful enemy than hamas. it has tens of thousands of missiles, including precision guided missiles that can strike deep inside israel. hezbollah hasn't used those more sophisticated missiles in this conflict yet. so there is obviously the possibility that if we see a major escalation in this conflict, a war between hezbollah and israel, that places deep inside israeli territory could be targeted by those missiles. i think it is going to be very interesting to see what the powerful hezbollah leader will have to say after

these latest air strikes. again, a major setback for hezbollah, and see how the group is going to respond. hugo bacheaa group is going to respond. hugo bachega therefrom _ group is going to respond. hugo bachega therefrom beirut. - group is going to respond. hugo bachega therefrom beirut. in the past hour lebanon's minister of health gave a press conference in which he said that the death toll from israel's air strikes had risen to 31 in beirut and he said among them were three children and seven women. israeli air strikes targeted a meeting of commanders of his brother's forces, and killed 13 of them. ahead of that press conference, lebanon's minister of health spoke to us on bbc news. this was a residential building

and we are still clearing the rubble to see whether there are any survivors. up until now the number of people who were killed was much higher i can report than the one that came yesterday and we will be issuing a report very soon with the latest tally, that includes three children and three women. the reports from hezbollah is that two of its commanders were included within those who were killed in that attack. how is the health service coping with the amount of casualties that you are seeing currently? you know, i think it is a bit overwhelming in the sense that lebanon have been suffering from multiple crisis as you know. we have had a portion of our health care workers who have left the country as a consequence of the financial crisis. and that is why preparing for this conflict and these attacks that are ongoing has become pretty much challenging. now we have activated our disaster management plans,

anticipating a large number of casualties and indeed on tuesday we received almost 3000 casualties in a matter of a few hours. one of the things that is making it more difficult is that really we are seeing also a lot of civilians that are being injured. these indiscriminate attacks unfortunately are also resulting in a lot of these civilians and the geographical location is so wide because these pagers were used by many people in their daily lives. that meant that almost 90 hospitals had to be involved in the response to that attack. as we were saying a little bit earlier, the united nations high commissionerfor human rights was saying that this is a violation of international law, the use of these civilian devices such as pagers and walkie—talkies. i assume you would be in accord

and agreement with that? i think it is a very clear violation. as i said, the international humanitarian law is very clear that there is an onus, even during conflict, for civilians to be isolated or not to be targeted. but unfortunately what we are seeing within the recent conflicts is the parties involved are making no effort to differentiate the civilians and unfortunately that means it is making it much more difficult for health systems such as ours to prepare for the result of these attacks. israel argues that it has to continue targeting hezbollah members because of the conflict on the border. what is your response? i think irrespective of how you want to justify the conflict but the fact that the international

humanitarian law is very clear in the way that it organises conflict in the sense that during conflict civilians must be not targeted. and whoever is doing the targeting, whether it is israel or anybody else, this is a violation of international humanitarian law that should be stopped. the only problem with israel is that they have bigger weapons so to speak and therefore the tallies of what they are doing is much, much higher and more difficult to deal with. help us for our international audience to understand in terms of the population of lebanon. how many people are hezbollah members? i don't think anybody knows. hezbollah is a non—state actor and as you know we don't have, nobody has a good idea of how many members there are. but the fact is those children and those women who were killed were not

members of hezbollah. those were citizens who happened to be nearby. and when those explosive devices, communication devices exploded, they exploded in hospitals, they exploded in markets, they exploded on the streets and therefore u nfortu nately involved everyone else. emergency teams are still searching for people who are blue to missing. the suburb here in beirut that was hezbollah's stronghold. this was a major attack. we have a live page where our colleagues in the region are updated with the latest lines as well so you can be very much up as well so you can be very much up to date here on bbc news, so do stay with us as we continue to monitor that volatile

situation in the region. voting is under way in sri lanka to choose a new president who it's hoped can repair the country's finances after its catastrophic economic collapse two years ago which sparked mass protests and toppled the government. there are a record 38 candidates vying to be the next president, but none is a women. our south east asia correspondent samira hussein is in colombo. there has been a steady stream of people coming into this polling station to vote but of course live television and there is no one right this second! but these elections are really important because they are the first presidential elections since those mass protests. you will remember these phenomenal photos of people storming the presidential palace. well, that protest ended up toppling the government and i actually have a guest with me now. he was one of the protesters at that time.

i want to know what do you think has changed since those protests so long ago? i think people have started to understand the power that they have as a citizen and how much influence they have on governance and how important it is to elect people...people have learnt how important it is to elect a responsible person and how much they need to give more attention as to what these people are, who they are and what they're capable of. what are the biggest issues for you in this election? i think for me the economic crisis is something that affects everybody but for me personally the economic crisis and especially the accountability and the justice aspect when it comes from the part of the state. we have still not seen any sort of accountability taken

by those who are responsible for the economic crisis orfor the ministers and the parliamentarians who are not simply accused but were found guilty or were found attached to some sort of a scam. so there is this constant getaway. like, when you are in power you get to get away with it. but since the uprising, people are now calling for more accountability and justice and i think that is something that whoever comes into power will have to deliver. just to be clear, a lot of the blame for that economic crisis is named at the feet of politicians after decades of mismanagement. i'm wondering how hopeful you are for sri lanka's future? the supreme court itself decided, gave a verdict on who is responsible for the economic crisis. i think that is a good place to start. the supreme court named those

who are responsible for it. but we're also seeing in the current state where there is a conflict between the judiciary and executive. so whoever comes into power, maybe this election will send a message as to how much the demands are of the people. so i think this will be a turning point for sri lanka. excellent, thank you very much for your time. that is a political activist who participated in those protests two years ago. in terms of when we will get the results, it is going to take a little while because as you pointed out there are 38 candidates that are running in these elections, so we don't expect to get a clear sense of the winner until sometime tomorrow. a former manager of fulham's women's football team has told the bbc precautions were put in place to protect female

players from mohammed al fayed when he owned the club. mr al fayed, who died last year, has been accused of sexual assault by dozens of women who worked for harrods, which he sold in 2010. the department store says it's "utterly appalled" by the allegations. simonjones has the latest — and a warning, his report contains descriptions of sexual violence. how widespread was mohamed al fayed's alleged offending? dozens of women have come forward to say they were sexually assaulted by him when they worked at harrods. lawyers say they are also representing women employed by al fayed at the ritz in paris. and now there are questions about the late billionaire's 16 years in charge of fulham football club. a former manager of fulham's women's team says extra precautions were put in place to protect female players from mohamed al fayed. gaute haugenes, who managed the side between 2001 and 2003,

said members of staff became aware that he liked young, blonde girls. as a result, players were not allowed to be left alone with him. the club said it was deeply troubled by the disturbing reports relating to harrods, adding: lawyers representing al fayed's accusers told a news conference more and more alleged victims were coming forward. we don't at this stage represent any women who, for instance, sustained attacks at fulham football club, but our investigations are obviously ongoing. it is highly unlikely that there are not victims out there from these other places of work, wherever he went. there will be victims.

one former harrods employee spoke of what happened to her. mohamed al fayed, my boss, the person i worked for, pushed himself onto me. i fell to the floor with him still on top of me but i managed to kick free. he just laughed at me. he then composed himself and he told me in no uncertain terms that i was never to breathe a word of this to anyone. harrods said the department store today is a very different organisation from the one owned and controlled by al fayed between 1985 and 2010. it has reached financial settlements with the majority of people who have approached it since 2023. the ritz paris says it strongly condemns any form of behaviour that does not align with the values of the establishment. a man now branded a monster — the legal team representing many of his accusers says it has not ruled out launching proceedings against al fayed's estate. simon jones, bbc news.

we do have much more of course on our website and guidance on where to get help if you have been affected. where to get help if you have been affected. let's get some of the day 5 other news now. a new zealand pilot has been freed after more than 18 months in captivity in indonesia's papua region. phillip mehrtens was held by an armed faction of the west papua national liberation army after he landed a small commercial plane in a remote, mountainous area. he's now having medical check—ups. the us state of south carolina has carried out its first execution in 13 years, just days after the key witness for the prosecution proclaimed that the death row inmate was innocent. freddie owens had been convicted of killing a shop worker during an armed robbery in 1997. on wednesday, his co—defendant in the crime, steven golden, told the state supreme court that owens had not even been present when the robbery took place. but the court rejected a last minute motion

for a stay of execution. pope francis has criticised police action against protesters in his home country, argentina, where president javier milei has implemented an austerity plan to try to curb hyperinflation. in a video released in a video released by the vatican, the pope said by the vatican, the pope said he had seen video of police he had seen video of police repression, as he put it, against workers and pensioners. repression, as he put it, there are reports of there are reports of explosions at a russian explosions at a russian ammunition warehouse following a ukrainian ammunition warehouse following a ukrainian drone attack. drone attack. the site is in the krasnodar region, the site is in the krasnodar region, which borders russian—occupied which borders russian—occupied crimea. crimea. the russian ministry the russian ministry of defence said it brought of defence said it brought down 18 ukrainian drones down 18 ukrainian drones in the krasnodar in the krasnodar region overnight. region overnight. from kyiv, our from kyiv, our correspondentjessica parker, correspondentjessica parker, told us more. told us more. let me run you through what we let me run you through what we have heard from some official have heard from some official sources this morning as sources this morning as those reports emerged of an those reports emerged of an ammunition depot inside russia ammunition depot inside russia

being hit following a ukrainian being hit following a ukrainian drone attack. this drone attack. this appears to have been part of a wider the ukrainian drone attack, so the russian ministry of defence have said around 100 drones

russian ministry of defence have said around 100 (in they kyiv of course, although they haven't officially commented this morning on these latest reports, they will mark that up as a victory as they have ramped up drone attacks in russia. although of course what they really want is to get permission to use western long—range missiles to hit targets inside russian territory. and you have got to imagine that that is going to be top of the agenda as president zelensky heads to the us next week, where among those he is going to meet will be the us president, outgoing us presidentjoe biden. jessica parker there in kyiv with the very latest and we have ever special section on our website on the ongoing war in ukraine. another story that we keep in a very close eye on of course is the tensions that are escalating in the middle east. let's have a live shot of the lebanese israeli border, where we know that on friday hezbollah attacked with 200 rockets launching from lebanon and we are keeping an eye obviously on the developing story there.

hello. friday brought storms to southern parts of the uk, even a damaging tornado but at the same time some parts of the uk also sunny and warm. in kew gardens temperatures reached 25 celsius. the days ahead are looking very different. it is turning unsettled, turning autumnal, a jet stream will send weather fronts in our direction and there is a fair amount of rain on the way, particularly across the southern part of the uk and this time next week some parts of the country could be 10 degrees cooler by day. in terms of rainfall this weekend you can see where most of it will be, this is the potentialfor rainfall here. perhaps 50 millimetres or so in some parts of england and wales. so it is a mixed bag this weekend. certainly some sunshine on the wake particular across northern parts of the uk but also heavy showers at times. so through the early hours maybe some showers returning to southern parts of the uk, cracks of

thunder. not a cold morning by any means, temperatures of 1a in london, typically 12 or 13 whether you are north or south. further showers on the way on saturday, particular across england and wales. later in the day they could become heavy and move further north but at the same time a lot of sunshine in the forecast. around the irish sea, the northern ireland, the western parts of scotland, 18 degrees in glasgow but i think quite cloudy and much cooler on that north sea coast. and notice the showers here in the north—west through the course of saturday evening. and then on sunday the showers become more widespread and heavier across parts of england and wales. again, the best of our weather on sunday will be in the north—west of the uk so once again sunny spells for the western isles and not looking bad there in belfast, not so great for south of all the cloud and rain. monday, low pressure over the uk, a fair amount of cloud, outbreaks of

rain and the air will start to come in from the north. temperatures will start to drop the northern scotland, 12 degrees. in the south still relatively warm, holding on to the mid possibly high teens. here is the outlook for the week ahead, you can see the big drop in the temperature in the south, 1a degrees in london. but look at edinburgh, by tuesdayit but look at edinburgh, by tuesday it is only around 11 degrees with showers. that's it. goodbye.

this is bbc news. the headlines... the united nations says the targeting of thousands of people in lebanon with exploding pagers and walkie—talkies could amount to a war crime — and warns the middle east is at risk of a conflict that could "dwarf" the devastation witnessed in the region so far. people in sri lanka are voting in the first election since the country's economic meltdown two years ago. fresh claims about former harrods owner mohamed al fayed — a former fulham football manager tells the bbc extra precautions were put in place to protect female players from the club's late owner. its first conference in government for 15 years. here in the uk — the labour party is opening its first conference in government for 15 years. members can expect celebrations — and sobering messages. hundreds of paratroopers are re—enacting one of the second world war�*s major us and british operations.