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production. >> civilian people whose injuries mean their only chances of survival is being on life support such as mechanical ventilators. moving those people a death sentence. >> i: everybody to evacuate because that is the right thing to do. we are going to commence significant military activity. it is going to be an active combat zone. we are going to strike hamas targets, and we don't want civilian casualties. >> we urge the israelis to use every possible precaution to avoid harm to civilians. christian: the israeli army has mounted the first raids into northern gaza to dismantle and disrupt hamas's ability to fire rockets, but the bigger incursion is pending.

israel has given the palestinians 24 hours to evacuate one million people from northern gaza before the extended operation begins. one hospital to the south of gaza city has been told tonight it has two hours left to evacuate. the doctors are still treating the wounded. we will be live with international editor jeremy bowen and had the latest from our correspondent anna foster, who is on the northern border with lebanon, or concerns are growing that hezbollah might enter the war. both sides exchanged fire, with a reuters cameraman killed in the confusion. good evening. what would you take with you if you were told to evacuate your home in 24 hours, knowing that soon after it may well be polished? --demolished? 1.1 million palestinians woke up to that reality today. a leaflet dropped from the skies warned them they should immediately move south of the gaza river.

there was a steady stream of traffic in defiance of a hamas order to stay and ignore the directive. the gaza strip is 25 miles long and six miles across. there are two governorates that have been told to evacuate, north gaza, where you find the largest refugee camp in the strip, 115,000 people squeezed into half a square mile, one of the most densely populated places on earth. and then there is gaza city, home to 700,000 people. the u.n. warned that the forced relocation of so many people would have devastating consequences. >> this order is affecting more than a million palestinians, including children, older and sick people, forcing them to relocate with little or no transport and with scant guarante for their safety. amid continuing hostilities. we echo the secretary-general

spokespersons call for this to be rescinded, avoiding a calamitous situation. christian: there are many people in gaza, residents who fear this could be the start of another permanent mass displacement like the one they suffered an 1948. that theory presupposes that these lifelong refugees will be allowed into egypt, and so far the rafa closing to the sinai remains closed, as the egyptians resist international pressure. one of those trapped in the south is the mother-in-law of the scottish first minister. a retired nurse from dundee visiting her husband's family from 10 miles south of gaza city. >> this will be my last video. everybody from gaza is moving towards where we are. one million people, no food, no water. and still the bombing.

all these people in the hospital cannot be evacuated. where's humanity? where's people's hearts in the world to let this happen in this day and age? god help us. goodbye. christian: well, in the last hour we have heard from israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu, who is reassuring his population. he says his country's week-old retaliation on hamas in gaza is only the beginning. prime min. netanyahu: we have only just started. our enemies have only started paying the price. and i will not go into further detail about what still lies ahead. we've only just started. in my talks with president biden and other leaders around the world, and resulting from any

others, we are mobilizing for israel with great international support. i met with the u.s. secretary of state. we guarantee the continuation of this war with more ammunition that arrives in israel and more means of warfare. we're going to eliminate hamas and we are going to bring about victory. it will take time. however, we will end this war much stronger than ever before. christian: in spite of the order to evacuate the northern part of gaza, there has been no let up in the israeli bombardment. 6000 bombs have been dropped in just six days with entire neighborhoods abolished. those living in israel also on edge. in tel aviv, air raid sirens were fired as more rockets were fired towards israel. in the west bank, lebanon, and east jerusalem, protests

of hamas's dave rachel zoe jeremy: israel will have to send troops into the rebels, if, as i t says, it wants to destroy hamas. telling civilians to get out is part of preparing the battlefield. leaflets, a nonlethal airdrop but full of menac told people to move south. "it happened to our grandfather. now it is happening to us. it raises the ghosts of the past." many gazans trying to escape israel's anger are descendants of almost one million palestinians who fled or were forced out of their homes at gunpoint in israel's independence war in 1948.

palestinians call it the catastrophe. hamas sent their answer, more rockets, and told people to stay put. in israel, lloyd austin, the u.s. defense secretary, brought his israeli counterpart support and weapons, and another reminder not to break the laws of work. sec. austin: terrorists like hamas deliberately target civilians. but democracies don't. this is a time for resolve and not revenge. jeremy: refrigerated contairs hold bodies awaiting identification, israelis and foreigners killed by hamas. israel says hamas will feel it's revenge, not civilians. palestinians protested in the west bank. 11 had been shot dead by the israeli army by late afternoon.

almost all the violence between israelis and palestinians before last week's hamas assault was in the west bank. it is very tense and could get much worse. jerusalem was quiet but not calm. only older palestinians were allowed to pray at the al-aqsa mosque bite israeli security forces. the mood in jerusalem was grim, full of foreboding. the holy cities at the epicenter of the conflict. palestinians said they fear that israel's anchor at the hamas attack could be directed at them. it feels as if this crisis is going up a gear. extreme pressure on civilians and gaza-- in gaza. tension in jerusalem. no one knows where this is going, but it is certain this is a dangerous moment, the worst middle east crisis in a generation.

until last weekend, israel believed the long conflict with the palestinians could be contained. that illusion has gone. jeremy bowen, bbc news, jerusalem. christian: let's talko jeremy. he is with us in jerusalem tonight. good to see you. the deadline is under two hours away. one of the hospitals have been told evacuate immediately. the army on the border in the crotch position ready to go. when do you think the order will come? jeremy: i do think it is going to come two hours from now. there was a briefing given this morning by the israeli army, and in that they said yes, we accept it might take longerhan 24 hours. they didn't say how much extra time they might be building in. i'm not sure the israelis

themselves are entirely ready in terms of the buildup they want. armies have a lot to do to get their forces in a row for putting on what is a very complex operation. i think there is intelligence stuff they need to sort out as well. they want to go after the leaders who are in gaza of hamas . i think they would very much like perhaps to start their operation with some kind of enormous strike that kills, i don't know, some secret command bunker or something like that. i have no idea if they have managed to obtain that kind of information. if you look at everything that is happening, christian, these instructions -- it is called advice, it is an instruction, moved south or else, to civilians. the state of siege that has been put in -- they cut off the

water. there preparing the battlefield, they are going to do an offensive, no doubt about it. christian: is the intention to make this as miserable and punishing for the palestinian people that they somehow separate them from hamas? do you think that is the strategy of the israeli government? jeremy: i think putting pressure on palestinians, yes, is definitely one way to try and put pressure on hamas. but the thing is, an awful lot of palestinians aren't behind hamas anyway. all the palestinn leaders from fatah, hamas, the two main factions, fatah control the west bank, the area from jerusalem to parts of the west bank, i should say. they govern, but not in a very effective weight, parts of the west bank, part of the occupied territories. and hamas are in gaza.

to be honest, neither his beloved. both have a followers, some very faithful followers. but most palestinians have become deeply cynical and depressed about their political prospects, their prospects for independence, which is what a lot of them dreamt about -- prospects, in other words, for freedom. there is a sense in which extremists have been able to thrive in that kind of desperate atmosphere. there s been no peace process for an awfully long time. i mean none whatever. there was an effort 10 years with the americans, under the obama administration, couple of presidents ago, to get the whole thing going again, but it failed. christian: the question that everyone will ask tomorrow is how many of the million people are gone. i was asked that underworld seice program today and i was recounting a story from back in 2008. i was interviewing a woman in

gaza city who was sitting on a suitcase, and during the interview she pulled out a key, and this key was to the front door of the house that they lost in 1948 when they were expelled from their ancestral land, and she said to me, "this is the second time i've lost my home to the israelis." i think that will be in the minds of some of these people, won't it, in northern gaza. they are part of the resistance and they will see the echoes in history. jeremy: the catastrophe, the great trauma in palestinian history, was when the palestinian society that existed in this land was splintered and dispersed. the area -- for example, that area around gaza with the israeli farms, kibbutzes towns, big fields, rather fertile,

there were palestinian villages there, there were palestinian farms. the town of ashkelon, very much an israeli town, had a different name. that sort of stuff. yes, when palestinians hear israelis saying "you've got to get out," all those ghosts come up again. they start to rise up out of history. frankly, history is never very far away here. people are very conscious about have not just in the immediate past, but in their grand parents' time. add to that because of the extreme nature of the people who until he formed his war cabinet were sustaining the government and taking part in very prominent positions in the government of prime minister benjamin netanyahu, there were people talking about a second, and the concept of transfer has been discussed -- i.e. expelling

palestinians -- has been widely discussed in zionist thought almost from the outset. when just one small thing, bingo, all of this history going back a century and more in some cases comes pouring out. that is why in the piece you just played that i did there was that man in gaza saying "it happened to my grandfather and it is happening to us." christian: one other thing happened which made me think of you. you heard the very sad story that a reuters cameraman has been killed in the northern border. we're seeing him here in the picture. our civic these to the reuters team -- our sympathies to the reuters team who suffered that. it brought back memories, of course, of 20 years ago in a similar position, and it must've come back to you as well. jeremy: yes, 20 years ago, more

than that, is when the israelis were pulling out of south lebanon. i was working with a lebanese cameraman, and a lebanese driver , and you know, the israelis open fire from across the border and killed him. and then they had a go at killing the cameraman and myself and didn't succeed. yes, journalism, especially in war zones, can be a very dangerous job. sometimes journalists are targeted and sometimes they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. yeah, it's -- what can i say? i'm full of sympathy for that family because i will never forget the funeral, going back to beirut the day after he was

killed and going up and explaining to his wife exactly how he died. there was a pretty bad day. christian: it is a reminder how much we depend on these first eyewitness accounts from reporters in times like this. but it is a very dangerous job, and we are grateful to all of you. thank you for coming on the program. let's speak to the director of the middle east and north africa program at chatham house, a think tank in the u.k. thank you for being with us and thank you for your patience. i know you have been standing by. this is story in the middle east wasn't really in the headlines just a week ago. the national security advisor at the white house was telling us that the middle east was taking less aes week on, we are on thek of what? >> we are on the brink of disaster, that is where we are. this speaks of the hubris of western governments, the

inattentiveness to a crisis that those of us that work on the middle east and had been watching the middle east new has been simmering for so long, and it has been left unattended and this is where we are, on the brink of a catastrophe that is going to be passed down to further generations. christian: the israelis have the right and have made the point that they need to respond to hamas and to decapitate the leadership of hamas, and they will do that. but it is an extraordinary order to evacuate a million people, to put hos -- to put hospitals under such pressure to evacuate the seriously wounded in just under two hours. it is an impossible request for the people of gaza to meet. >> it is a catastrophe, and impossible to imagine, as you have rightly described. this is putting immense pressure

on ordinary individuals who don't deserve this, who will bear the price for this. it is a true injustice that could have and should have been thought through and handled differently. you cannot mobilize over a million people in 24 hours and transfer them. this is creating another crisis, a displacement of epic proportions, and it won't be forgotten. ordinary people, people who don't support hamas, are paying the price, and ts is collective punishment. christian: obviously we are looking at the wider region and particularly focusing on lebanon at this time. the americans -- the challenge for the americans to support the israeli operation and their objectives without this escalating to the wider region, and that is a delicate balance to walk. >> it certainly is, and that is

why the americans have sent carrier into the east met and doing so into the persian gulf. they need to support israel, a long-standing american ally, and they want to be there as a deterrent. they don't want this to open up into a multi-front war. nobody wants this to escalate. at the same time, the u.s. is risking their reputation. they are supporting a human catastrophe, and this will have blowback. sincerely, hamas is a terrorist group, and there is a clear need to ph back and be deliberate, but at the same time passing the baton onto individuals and pursuing this conflict, engaging in such a violent way on the population, is going to perpetuate the conflict, and that in itself is dangerous.

christian: will maybe talk about the objectives and where this goes towards the end of the program. thank you very much indeed for that. around the world and here in the u.k., you are watching bbc news. we're going to take a quick look at some of the other stories making news today. let's talk about the u.k. chips that have been sent to the region. two world navy ships to the eastern med to bolster security. they will track that's to regional stability such as the transfer of weaps to terrorist groups. 3 million helicopters and royal marines are being dispatched. in brighton, a 22-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of supporting hamas at a deposition. the group has been declared a terrorist organization in the u.k. hamas members and those found guilty of supporting group can be jailed for up to 14 years. the metropolitan police have

seen a massive increase in reported incidents of antisemitism since the conflict erupted. rishi sunak caed the rise disgusting, adding extra funding has been given to protected jewish institutions. you are live with bbc news. the tensions are high not just in gaza, but in the occupied west bank, where hamas has called for a day of rage on friday in support of the people in gaza. and there have been demonstrations across the territory. at least 11 palestinians were killed by israeli security forces after friday noon prayers. that is according to the palestinian authority. joining me from ramallah is the first ever female spokesperson for the palestinian government. thank you for being with us this evening. must be a very difficult night for you and for everybody connected with the palestinian community. what do you think this order

portends for the palestinian people? >> thank you for having me, and i will pick up on the conversation you had with your reporter, who is very well-informed about the story. palestinians at the moment, no matter where they are, feel they are relieving the neck bu. the scenes of carnage, dispossession, feeling of being under assault, not just in gaza, but in the west bank, are pushing everybody to a breaking point -- emotionally, psychologically, and on the street the anger is palpable the fact that there is no end in sight to all of this, no way, no path that palestinians feel they can pursue toward their end goal of freedom without being punished and crushed i think

only adds to this cocktail of tension and violence. christian: is it -- the situation we are in, is this all israel's fault? there are 1500 people who lost their lives in gaza, another 11 palestinians killed in the west bank. but what about the leadership within the palestinian communities? it's lacking, and the rhetoric has always been that there isn't a partner for peace. how do you respond to that? >> well, look, if we are going to be honest and assess where we are now, we have to look at t s sponsors of the so-called peace process, who have utterly failed to deliver, who havutterly failed to have leadership role, who've made the palestinian peace camp look like fools for many, many years, eroding their

legitimacy, eroding their standing, and who pushed the current leadership to believing that in order to engage with the world, they must maintain the division within palestinian society, they must refrain from holding elections, they must refrain from religion might -- relegitimizing houston institutions. we can't -- palestinian institutions. we can't start assessing what is happening now and looking at the seventh of o narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪

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