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narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". anchor: i am in washd this is bbc world news america. israel's prime minister says a ground invasion is coming but did not say how soon. the bbc follows medics on the

ground in gaza as they treat wounded people from israeli airstrikes. the house of representatives in the u.s. finally elects a speaker. >> the honorable mike johnson is duly elected speaker of the house of representatives for the 118th congress. ♪ anchor: welcome to world news america. israel's prime minister says his country is preparing for a ground invasion of gaza to take out hamas. speaking in a televised address, he says it is only the beginning and then after the war everyone including himself would have to give answers as to why hamas was able to carry out the october 7 attacks. he spoke about his intentions during the next phase of the war. >> we are in the midst of a

campaign for our existence and have set two goals to eliminate hamas by destroying its government and military capabilities and bring a hostages home. anchor: u.s. president joe biden says israel has the right to defend itself against terrorists but must protect civilians. mr. biden said there is no going back to the status quo before the attack and the president cast doubt on some of the claims by hamas. pres. biden: they say they have no notion that palestinians are tongue the truth about how many people killed. i'm sure they have been killed and it is the price of waging a war. we should be incredibly careful, israel should be careful to be sure they are focusing on going after the folks that are the that are propagating this war

against israel, and it is against their interests went that does not happen that i have no confidence in the number that the palestinians are using. anchor: meanwhile end gaza hospitals are all but stopping emergency services as fuel runs out. israel has accused hamas of stockpiling fuel. israel's military says it launched attacks on the gaza strip destroying tunnels, shafts , military headquarters and munition warehouses. the hamas-run health ministry said thousands have been killed. aid is heading towards gaza with the u.k. plane carrying 21 tons arrived in egypt and france said it will send a navy ship to help gaza hospitals. the australian prime minister pledged an additional $15 million for civilians. the united nations warned that fuel and the gaza strip will run out tonight forcing the closure of hospitals and shelters in more than a third are already

shot that the agency says. the plight of palestinian civilians as part of a dispute at the united nations. the united nations chief says he is shocked at the reaction to a statement he made on tuesday condemning the attacks but said they did not happen in a vacuum. antonio guterres addressed the controversy saying his words had been misrepresented. >> i spoke of the grievances of the palestinian people and in doing so i also clearly stated and i "that the grievances of the palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by hamas up there to -- hamas." then i went on defending my positions on the middle east crisis. i believe it was necessary to set the record straight, especially out of respect to the victims and to their families. anchor: but israel's ambassador

to the united nations continues to call for gutierrez to resign saying it is a disgrace and he did not retract his words or apologize. let's go to our correspondent standing by at the united nations in new york with the very latest on the story. what impact is this controversy having? correspondent: the united nations right now is working in gaza, so this tension is not helping at a time when several councilmembers are saying that the united nations needs to scale up his work. we heard from the israeli delegation they will not be issuing visas to united nations officials and want to send a clear message about how they feel to the united nations but as we heard from the secretary-general he hit back at any assertion he tried to justify acts of terror and in fact met with families of the

hostages yesterday. anchor: security council members have been debating different dry through solutions -- draft resolutions on the conflict. tell us what is happening. correspondent: two votes and those resolutions have failed and the draft was vetoed by russia and china that said it did not call for a cease-fire that needed to happen immediately and they accuse the united states draft of essentially giving a green light to further escalation. the uae also voted against the u.s. draft of their position was it did not value the lives of palestinians and israelis equally. now been after that we had that vote on russia's draft resolution which did not get enough support in the council. we have seen the divides play out today with the united states accusing russia of trying to score political points, trying to divide the council, but all

this underscores quickly how far apart members remain, specifically the west, russia, china, and the arab nations on getting a product that is acceptable. anchor: is there any chance of consensus moving forward? correspondent: well, we have heard now from the 10 elected members of the council. they say they will push forward looking back to a draft proposed by brazil that was already vetoed by the united states last week but will take that as a basis to again resume negotiations because all 10 elected members of the security council supported the draft which called for humanitarian pauses, condemned the attack, and protected civilians and they say the role of the security council is to maintain peace and security and have to shoulder the responsibility because that is what the world is calling for. anchor: thank you.

now recovery efforts in gaza are ongoing despite continued airstrikes. people continue to search through the rubble as the hamas -run health ministry said more than 750 palestinians had been killed by airstrikes and 24 hours. the bbc special correspondent is in jerusalem and has been reporting on the ground in gaza and he sent us this report. correspondent: each climbing cloud a marker of destruction. relentless airstrikes. thousands of bombs dropped. hamas started this war. israel responds with devastating force. it is a story of stunned aftermath and desperate searching. the man was away from his home when the bomb fell.

he speaks to his lost loved ones. i wish we had stayed with you. and then, a child who survived. they are all gone, he tells her. bbc cameras in gaza captured medics collecting the wounded. the man shouts, "his head is open," speaking of the child in his arms. he day that faces the killing inflicted from the skies, but there is not time to stop, much less show his feelings. from one scene of carnage to another, there are the survivors to care for. >> there are many hard

situations. as and ended in stryver, you get accustomed to what is happening in the weather hands, heads, or bodies that are cut. correspondent: in many families there is the need to familiarize children with the morbid practicalities of life in a war zone. >> i have seen bodies blown apart. you can't identify anything, so in case anything happens and they were blown up, i would know them from this priceless and i can collect their bodies. correspondent: it is not knowledge any parent wants to impart. sometimes in the heart of it all , there is good news. >> she is ok but she is scared, they call out. her father is being freed from the rubble. correspondent: first the names then the medics reassurance. >> they are all out, i swear.

correspondent: the emergency workers like him are overstretched, exhausted, knowing that however much they do in gaza now that it cannot be enough. anchor: an airstrike hit a three-story building near a gaza hospital earlier. it resulted in these 50 casualties with more than half the people killed in what is called a safe area. our correspondent has remained one of the few journalists to working from gaza where he has been reporting. correspondent: there was an airstrike half an hour ago that struck at three-story building about 200 meters away from this spittle, and the building is -- hospital, and the building is in this direction. we have been watching the black smoke coming out of this building, and suddenly they rushed to the scene and back

with 50 casualties from that building, some killed, some injured. i have been like watching it all day and night as we stayed here in this hospital, like the number of casualties arriving to this about 110 people in this city. this is the place that the israeli army asked the people in gaza in the north to flee, but to date the local authorities said there are airstrikes every night targeting this area and more than half the people killed were killed in so-called safe area. the hospital here is struggling to cope with the number of casualties, people are treated in the corridor. operations are being conducted outside the operation room, and also the hospital has set shut it.

they say our mission is to save people's life. anchor: the funerals of two british israeli teenagers took place earlier in jerusalem. they were killed in the hamas attacks that left more than 1400 dead. our correspondent was at the funeral. correspondent: opposite the trees. three fresh grapes have been dug. for her mother and her daughters. the contrast between this time of celebration and this day of mourning could not be starker. the sound of teenagers sobbing

filled it and they came to work on it and built her life and her family here until hamas decided to take it away. the land of israel envelops you. it is the heart of it. rest in peace. her family sent tributes they had recorded. >> we will miss her and keep her in our hearts forever. she worked hard at school and always got good grades, a beacon of light extinguished too soon. all we know is that there is a hole in our lives that can never be filled.

correspondent: the family gave us permission to show that other people killed in israel one was each of them, a nation's grief. ♪ hundreds came to this triple funeral including other british israelis who did not know him but wanted to pay their respects. too many are dead. children cannot mourn parents and parents cannot grieve their children. hamas tried to obliterate this family, and they can't even rest in peace. the girl dad is still missing, and the uncle is kidnapped. dead, missing, kidnapped, the horror of that day for this country in one family. british roots now covered in israeli soil.

anchor: the bbc's international editor jeremy bowen is in israel tonight. very good to see you. thank you for joining us. we saw benjamin netanyahu deliver an address speaking to the families of those who have been killed in the attack. how was his address received? correspondent: well, yes, he said he opened his heart to the victims and all those who have gone through terrible suffering. israel is going through a terrible trauma, no doubt about that. at the moment which you are seeing is that mr. netanyahu is talking very much to end israeli audience, speaking in hebrew and the one death in the new thing

he said because we were not totally sure is that he said that there will be a ground invasion of gaza at a time of his choosing and the choosing of the war cabinet. he used very strong language and said they had already killed thousands of hamas people and all the rest are dead men walking. so, very very strong stuff certainly. he is a man who is controversial in israel and has devoted followers but also a large part of the electric that hate and despise him and they will also say that he is responsible for a lot of what is going on, so it is defensive as well. you know that war is also about politics. anchor: how much support is therefore a ground invasion considering there are more than 200 hostages being held inside gaza? correspondent: i think it is

mixed. one of the leading newspapers here, in their lead editorial said that while those hostages are in gaza, there should not be a ground invasion and the fact he did not give a date means that in practice there will be more time for negotiations. qatar is very involved as an intermediary between middlemen, between the hamas people in the israelis. egyptians are a bit involved as well, but yes, i have been talking to some of the families who say, well, maybe my people will be out next? i think sending in thousands of troops while those people are still hostages will be something they are not happy about many people. anchor: we were talking earlier about the united nations dispute

with the secretary-general's comments. can you tell us how prime minister netanyahu and his government have been reacting to the controversy? correspondent: netanyahu did not address it in his speech, but his ambassador at the united nations has been very strong about it and accuse the secretary-general of committing a blood libel. that is a very serious accusation that refers back to an anti-semitic trope, so effectively he was saying those comments meant the secretary-general of the united stations is an anti-semite. having looked at the statement of the secretary-general, he was selectively quoted by the israelis but the israelis right now are under pressure and go through this national trauma, and also they are getting a lot of criticism particularly from united nations agencies who are

saying that breaking international humanitarian law by putting a whole population under siege, turning off the water and food supplies, as well as the impact of the bombing, so that does not make friends of israel as far as the israelis are concerned and you can expect them to continue pushing back very hard. anchor: thank you. republican lawmakers have chosen mike johnson as the new speaker of the house from the liaison, winning with 220 votes and he will fill the chair that has been vacant since october 3. he is a close ally of former president donald trump and led an unsuccessful attempt by 126 house republicans to overturn the 2020 presidential election in favor of trump and this is what he said earlier. >> we will defense with the ceremonies and celebrations the tradition follow because we have no time for either one. the american people's business is too urgent at this moment.

the hour is late in the crisis is great, and america, we hear you. anchor: congressman bacon spoke with us after the vote. great to have you back on bbc news. you voted for mike johnson today. why? >> he has a great vision for our country and the congress. you will see this message today. it was not partisan. it was about america's greatest days are ahead, freedom, free markets, peace through strength, protecting the family. it was not partisan unlike hakim jeffrey speech. i thought he looked small the way he was hammering the republicans but i thought he stood tall with his message so that was number one, a great vision. two, i know him for seven years, a decent kind man who is humble and self-effacing. he believes in serving. he has a good character.

i think that is what endeared him to the rest of the conferences last week. people saw a character they liked. anchor: he is considered one of the architects of the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. does that concern you? >> i disagree. december 31, somebody leaked to the new york times my criticisms of what was going on between him and others who wanted to oppose the electoral college count. i also criticized again on july 5, january 6, january not july, but my point is i do not agree with him. hopefully he will learn what happened. i had to vote my conscience and we will not get that on these processes. if i wanted a perfect person's speaker, we would never get one. anchor: that may be the case,

but there is an election coming up and with mike johnson as speaker of the house, are you concerned about the prospect of another effort to overturn election results, possibly? >> i disagreed with the decision in january 2020. i think he learned from it. i know he does love our constitution. so in the end, we can get him to the right spot if we have another situation, but i still have my own vote, voice, and i will always try to do the right thing. we have a good guy, a good man, not perfect -- i am not perfect, but we have the house open and he will try to serve our country well. we anchor: know the white house once more than $100 billion for ukraine, israel, taiwan, the u.s.-mexico border. would you support that funding and will mike johnson as well? i support to aid to israel in ukraine and money for taiwan.

>> i don't think it makes sense to put them together because they should stand on their own merits but i support aid to all three and when it comes to ukraine, we should examine exactly what the president is asking for. i don't think he is always right with his request. for two years he did not want aid for ukraine. i thought it was imperative that we sent this precise long-range missile to ukraine. finally this past month the president did so. anchor: right. >> we had the opportunity not just take with the president gives us but check and make sure we agree with it, but in the end i was support ukraine, as a national security interest, and we will push mike johnson to do the same. anchor: to reinforce that point we know there are members of the republican conference that did not want to see a go to ukraine, so can speaker johnson's bring republicans together to get more aid for ukraine? >> he will want to get an

agreement with the white house and the senate on some border security policy changes, and i think if you can get that, it opens the door for ukrainian aid. i would tell you i believe we have to do both. we have to do better on her border and help ukraine. i think politically minute -- for many that they want to see that in the president and that will enable more republicans to get on board with ukraine. anchor: always great to talk with you. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. i appreciate yeah. anchor: world news 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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