the committee to protect journalists says one year on from october 7, at least 128 journalists have been killed in the conflict. 123 were palestinian, all killed by israeli forces, according to the cf]. the idf says it doesn't have a policy of targeting media personnel. we will now hear from the bbc�*s gaza correspondent. rushdi abualouf has been covering the war, first from inside gaza and since november when he left with his family from the wider region. rushdi came into the studio earlier this week while on a short visit to london. if i take you back to a year ago orjust over a year ago, you were a journalist working in gaza, been there for a long

time, lived there forever. take us backjust to that first couple of weeks after october 7, about your daily routine. what was it like reporting from there? it wasn't the first war, but it was a different one. this time it was really different and we noticed it's different from day one. because the hamas attack was something that we have never seen on this scale. and we were expecting a big israeli retaliation. it's not a secret, we are all the time in the office, in the gaza office, we have a plan, an emergency plan. we don't, like, leave the generator in the office without the tanks full of fuel. we always have our cars, armoured cars are ready, always have our protective gear close to us because we live in a hostile environment.

when the war started i still had access to the office, the first one or two days. but then very quickly the israeli air strikes massively were targeting the neighbourhood where our office is. this gentleman just told us we have to leave the area because it seems that israelis are warning the residents of that area that they should leave, they are going to target another building in the area. so we couldn't access the office in the evening. so i used to do my broadcasts from my house. and as a journalist i was always trying to keep my family away from my job, for privacy reasons. but i realised very quickly that there is no way this time to do yourjob from your office. your family has to be part of this process, because simply you need to protect them.

and when you say your family needs to be part of this process, what do you mean? it means when you have an evacuation order in the middle of the night, you start to help the family evacuating the apartment but filming them at the same time. because they live the story. for the first time, your family is living the story with you. so i remember that night when we got a warning from our neighbours that they want to bomb a place near our house. straight away i just took the phone and started to film my wife and my kids while they were packing up their stuff and leaving into gaza. it was very annoying for them, i had to explain to them that in order to take care of you and continue doing myjob, i have to do both at the same time. this is something really very difficult, but then it became more dangerous because i was in the hospital, we set up our operation in the second—biggest hospital

in khan younis where we believed that it is a safe place. and i put my family, they shared a room in a house just opposite to the hospital. and they were coming to see me because i wasn't home for about two days, so the kids were saying, we want to see their dad, so they came. and they hit the roof of the building, they were underneath it. my wife was injured, has a little cut in her head, but they survived. and it was literally two minutes before going on air. and i know that in this building is my family, and it's in the front of me, about 100 metres, and it has been targeted. how quickly did you find out they were 0k? when i saw them. because when they had the bomb, they were quickly running towards the hospital. and i saw them. and i said, look, you are not

going back to that house, you have to stay with me here in the hospital. so i built a tent for them, and i said, just stay here, we either survive together or we are killed together. and that day i couldn't do myjob. i told my boss, look, i just can't do anything today. and we saw you do thatjob, certainly, until you left in november, we saw you very regularly on the bbc at that time, in really difficult circumstances. what was that experience like to be reporting there? leaving gaza was the most difficult decision in my life. i was almost about to say to my wife, please just go, i can't leave, i can't leave this. because i know that it's a big story and israel is not allowing foreign journalists in. people feel you are their eyes, you are telling their story, you are telling their daily suffering. and in the same time,

i left my father in gaza. i decided not to see him that night. i said, i don't want to say goodbye. ijust text him, and i said sorry, dad, if we see each other again, then we will see each other. if not, that's it. goodbye, i have to leave. what was it, when you realised you had to leave, what was the moment when you thought, whatever, however much it's important for me to continue reporting this story, i need to get myself and my family out. within a few days, when my wife was injured, i decided to go to a nearby village to buy something for them, because it was less crowded, more dangerous area. and as soon as i arrived to this place, at that moment i wrote that this is, i was very close to death. this is the first time i feel i am close to death at that village, because five air strikes were within less than 100 metres, the debris

and the glass flying over us. in the second air strike, the third air strike, i was saying, that's it, it's over. i was with my friend, it's over, the fourth one will be here. you thought you were going to die. it's like day—to—day, trying to survive day—to—day. you sleep, you are not sure you will wake up. and when you wake up, you are not sure you're going to sleep again. this level of danger was there for all the journalists in that place. journalism is all about being able to talk to people, contact people, feel the story, and talk to people. and in order to talk to the people, you have to travel. and that is a risk, because you don't know, the car near you has a hamas wanted person. or the building you are going to do the interview is the next israeli target. so it's all risk.

but i was not worried about myself, because i decided to work as a journalist in this warzone, i had many chances to leave gaza and i decided to work, because i am from that place, i belong to it. journalism is in my dna and i want to continue to do it. but not my family. i mean, what was like, really heavy over my shoulder is my family. can you reflect on the experience of seeing people you know, people you've worked alongside, dying? it's very hard. the first shock for me was the killing of roshdi sarraj, third or fourth day of the war. he is a cameraman, a freelancer. i saw him in khan younis, we were evacuating together, i saw him in khan younis and i told him, we are

the only two rushdis. we are the two carrying this name, among all thejournalists, so be careful about yourself. that was the last time i saw him. the next day he went back to gaza city to collect something from his house, a lens or something, and then the house was destroyed, he was killed. it was the first shock for me. very quickly, wael al—dahdouh, the aljazeera bureau chief, is my close friend. we grew up together, we learn in the same university, we lived in the same building for a long time. suddenly, he lost his wife and kid. that day i told the bbc, i can't do anything about him. i have to drive now to see him, and to be with him. the last one i saw when i left gaza that morning, six o'clock in the morning, was leaving my tent in nasser hospital, i saw samer abu daqqa, aljazeera cameraman.

he said, "oh, you are going!" i said, "yes, i wish you will go soon, keep in touch". samer, we were in the same building for 12 years. i used to see him every day, we used to have breakfast together almost twice a week. and he was the last one i saw in gaza, the last face. then i took the bus and i left. and suddenly, i was driving in the highway in turkey, and i got a message that he was injured, not died. i couldn't continue. i'm so sorry, i'm so sorry, rushdi. i'm sorry. i had to stop by the road in a petrol station just to follow the news. talk to people there. and you know how difficult is the communication. i couldn't continue my way and i couldn't come back.

i was stuck in this petrol station for two, three hours. and talking about numbers, within this year, more than 100. the committee for the protection ofjournalists has said at least 128 journalists, all but five are palestinian. and please, if anyone can remind me of any conflict or war that experienced or witnessed this number of journalists killed. many injured. when israel released some of the videos saying they are not only doing journalism, but they are doing another job. all this needs be investigated, we need to know exactly why they killed this number ofjournalists in gaza. most of the offices for journalists were destroyed. local production companies were destroyed. and journalists work from hospitals because it is the only place where they have

electricity and internet. so in order to do theirjob, they have to be operating from the hospital. we have journalists killed in the hospital. so no place is safe. i think it's the most dangerousjob that any journalist in the world do now, is gaza. and when you left last november, how did you get out? how were you able to get out? the crossing was closed, and then they open it to allow the people who were injured and the people who have dual nationals. since my wife is turkish, we have a turkish passport. so i was... part of the evacuation process is they evacuate the whole family. so i was evacuated by the turkish authorities. and since then, you have been based in istanbul, you have obviously been working for the bbc and working on the coverage, getting

information out of gaza. and elsewhere. jeremy bowen, who you work with a lot, he published an interview with a senior member of hamas last week, he told me you were very involved in that. can you explain how that kind of interview comes about? it used to be easy when we were in gaza and less risky. but in order to get this interview, it took me two or three months of organising it. initially it was supposed to be done with haniyeh, and when they killed haniyeh, i went to his funeral to do the piece i did about how hamas is choosing his successor. i meet all of them, including khalil al—hayya, and i told him, we need an interview with him. and he, well, he doesn't agree in the beginning, because he was not happy with the bbc coverage, and he said bbc is not covering the news the way that should be. and i said... "but we are giving you

the chance to speak." i mean, that's the way. and it has been delayed a couple of times for security reasons. and until the last minute, we were not 100% sure about it. so we had done the interview for example, today, i get the confirmation about 18 hours before, and i drove straight away to the airport, i took the next flight to doha, because they insisted, you have to be there. and i went withjeremy and i just left the airport straight away to the interview. and we did itjust minutes before the iran started to hit, fire rockets at israel. we were almost at the gate, leaving the interview. before october 7 and before this war, how easy was it to operate inside gaza?

they are like any arab regime, they want restriction on the coverage, there are restrictions on places where we can go and where we can't go, under the context that this is a security issue for us. as a seniorjournalist for the bbc, i was the office manager as well, so myjob was to... i spend half of my life applying for permissions. so you have to apply for permission to film in the beach. you have to apply for permission to film in the harbour. i have been questioned many times by hamas, especially when you go out and in of gaza. part of myjob is going tojerusalem to do meetings injerusalem, and sometimes to cover from the west bank. so every time i go out or in to gaza, ifound someone asked me, or question me by hamas. and how curtailed were you in

terms of who you could talk to? could you, in your reports, feature people who criticised hamas, for example? 0fficially, yes. but there was a lot of restriction, and a lot of pressure. i think two years ago, i had done a story about a young man who was leading protests against hamas, and then he committed suicide. and i think they went mad about it. they took two or three months to just release all of these restrictions they put around me. one time, they sent a message to my wife. what kind of message? he claimed to work for hamas and said "tell your husband to say silent". and then they said no, it is a joke, we don't have anyone under this name. did you feel frightened by that message, did you feel under pressure? why not?

i don't, because every time i remember, somebody called me and they said, "look, we are from the intelligence." and i said, "yes, my home is in this building, i'm on the seventh floor, and my flat number is there and i'm waiting for you. if you want to arrest me, just come, i'm waiting for you." i haven't done anything wrong, i'm doing myjob. and you have to choose whether to close this office or let us do ourjob. we are not under your shoes and we are not under anybody�*s shoes. we arejournalists doing ourjob. if you give me the permission to work i have to do myjob properly. if we talk now about the last year, since you left, i know you have obviously kept in contact with journalist on the ground in gaza, trying to get the stories out. as everybody listening to the media show will know, nobody can get in to gaza, no western journalists can report from gaza. so you are constantly, i am assuming, trying to get information out.

how difficult is that? extremely difficult. more than 70% of the internet lines are down in gaza. all of the infrastructure for the communication is almost not there. so sometimes it takes you two or three hours just to get information. i remember when they hit the mosque in the morning, maybe a month ago or something. there was a lot of conflicting numbers about, hamas say something, the health ministry say something, and i knew the director of the hospital where most bodies were taken. it took me two hours trying his phone, and then i had to call somebody and say, stay on the line, keep the line open, drive your car, go there, go to him and tell him, rushdi is on the phone, just answer him. and i said, how many people killed? he said 70 or 60 or whatever.

this is how difficult for me to get one small information. sometimes i send, like, 100 sms message to all of the phones that i know in this area. waiting forjust one to receive that message and reply back by saying, yes, this place, or not that place. so the bbc now, they don't have officially any independent journalist work for the bbc in gaza. we use freelancers, we have two or three freelancers, we use them inside gaza. and part of myjob is to make sure that they are safe. as much as we can. advise them, give them instruction. how to do the story, where to do it, try to give them sometimes some hope. but in a situation like gaza, what advice can you give them to stay safe?

because i've been there, i can give a few tricks for them. like... just make too many calculation before you move. 0r stop a couple of times. watch the road. collect more information about the place you are going to do the story from. don't go alone, go with otherjournalists. don't be the first, let somebody before you. when you know there is unbalanced through there, try to collect more information. is the air strike still going on in the area or if it's stopped. so i'm trying. but sometimes nothing works. if israel wants to destroy this building or target, they won't care about journalists. that's the feeling among palestinian journalists, that this time is different.

this time, they don't feel secure at all. and there is risk even doing live broadcast in the hospital, it is high risk for them. and what has it been like for you, as someone from gaza, who loves gaza, not being there? it's hard. i always say, we are physically outside, but our minds, our heart, our soul are there. i can't sleep without the phone under my pillow, i can't. itried, i have tried everything. i tried to take the family for a vacation. i am not there. they said, why you are bringing us here? you are not there. you are physically here, but you are not there. you're not with us. simply because i can'tjust... imagine that my father is 75, and he lives in a tent. he lives in a tent.

and sometimes you hear that there is air strike in the area where he lives. and you can't do anything for the next two or three hours, until you hear back from him, or you get somebody, and sometimes i call someone and i say, can you just walk to the other side of the road and see if the air strike is next to my father or not. not only my father, my sisters, my brother, my cousins, my friends. every corner in gaza, i have somebody i know. i lost many people. quite recently, my wife lost her aunt. and you feel... ..that you can't do anything for them. you try. you try to talk to people, you try to, like, give them some hope. but it's really hard. can i ask you, how do you assess the international coverage of the conflict? how the western media

has reported it? i have a lot of friends, they send me messages saying that you should resign, you shouldn't work for international media any more, because they are biased, they are pro—israel. and people always... ..compare russia—ukraine war. they say, what about if this girl was killed in ukraine? bbc would do more about it. so there is... rather than a girl killed in gaza? there is always a feeling among palestinians that the bbc is doing more about the ukrainian—russian war, because it's in europe. it's different from the middle east. if the western media could get into gaza, what have we missed? it sounds from what you were saying before,

that actually we've missed being able to check the facts more swiftly. it takes such a long time for you to check what's happening. they trust the foreigners more than the palestinians. who? everybody. look at my twitter account, orx. every time i write anything, they blame me because you are palestinians. you mean people outside gaza? people outside gaza, pro—israeli campaigners always criticise me, "you are not a trusted source, you are biased." but when you have somebody who is not part of the story, didn't live the story, you see in a different way. i tried my best, i tried my best throughout my coverage from day one, to go in line with bbc editorial policy in covering this story. and i receive tremendous amount of criticism from people in gaza.

when i used to do my two—ways in the hospital, some of them used to listen and shout at me by the end of it. because? "why you say israeli army, not israeli occupation? you are palestinian, you have to say they are the occupier. you say killed, not martyred." we are the bbc, we tell exactly the story. we don't use any language that can be seen as biased to this side or the other side. that's it for this week. thank you so much for watching. ros and i will be back next week. until then, goodbye. and if you'd like to hear a longer version of today's show, search bbc the media show wherever you get your bbc podcasts. hello there.

tuesday was a cloudy day, but it was also mild. temperatures reached 19 degrees in cornwall before the rain arrived, and all this mild weather is pushing up from france towards the uk and it'll stay mild through the rest of the week and into the weekend as well. we've got southerly winds, though, at the moment. that's bringing in the mild air, of course, but it's also bringing in some rain, and again, it's all moving up from the south across western parts of europe. heavy rain, too, but at least it's keeping it mild overnight. no frost this time in scotland. a really mild start to wednesday, but a wet one in many places, too. and that rain will continue across scotland, heavy at times. northern ireland may become a bit drierfor a while, but across western parts of england and wales, this is where we'll see further rain. to the east, it may well become dry. bit of sunshine for east anglia, the south—east and lincolnshire, and temperatures could be 21, even 22 degrees. through the midlands, around 18 or 19. and where we've got that wet weather further north and west, still 16 or 17 celsius. there is more rain, though, to come on wednesday

evening and overnight, and this rain marches its way eastwards across all areas before pulling away out into the north sea. and again it could be quite heavy rain, possibly even thundery. but wednesday night into thursday morning will again be very mild. cloudy start, though, for scotland. still some rain to clear away from the north. then the cloud breaks up. most places will have a dry day with sunny spells, but a few showers will come into some of these western areas. they may prove to be rather hit—and—miss, mind you. we've got a south—westerly breeze. it's still mild — 16, 17 degrees typically — but where it's dry with the sunshine in the east, temperatures of 18 or 19 celsius. heading towards the end of the week and the winds are strengthening again, and we're piling in more rain and some stronger winds from off the atlantic, around that low pressure area. in western areas, this is where we'll see the worst of the weather — strong to gale force winds picking up, and with some spring tides, there could be some coastal flooding. and then we see the rain developing more widely here. 0ut towards the east,

it should be dry. there'll be some sunshine, not quite as mild, but still mild for the time of year. and it's going to stay that way into the weekend as well, but still very unsettled. yes, there'll be some sunshine at times, but we will see some spells of rain and it could be particularly wet and windy on sunday.

live from singapore, this is bbc news. the white house tells israel it has 30 days to boost humanitarian access to gaza, or risk cuts in military aid. there are changes that they need to make again to see that the level of assistance making it into gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that is out today. pakistan hosts a major security meeting with china, russia, india and iran against a backdrop of rising

insurgent violence. and in football, thomas tuchel is to become the new england boss. he's the third foreign manager to take charge of the men's team. welcome to newsday, i'm steve lai. we start with the latest on the conflict in the middle east. the biden administration has given its most stark warning yet to israel over its conduct in gaza — threatening to withdraw some military assistance — unless israel allows more humanitarian aid into the enclave. us defense secretary lloyd austin and secretary of state antony blinken sent a letter to israel's military, which was then leaked to the media. it says israel must, within 30 days, act on a series of �*concrete measures�* to boost aid. israel says it's reviewing the letter, and will address the concerns raised.

it comes amid further israeli strikes on gaza on tuesday.