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narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. 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". ♪ >> i am sydnee washington in this is bbc world news america. israel' is imminent. the united nations warns food and supplies are running dangerously low.

the search for a government at large in the state of maine continues. the suspect is accused of killing 18 people at a restaurant in bowling alley on tuesday -- wednesday. you can turn fights for those stranded in pakistan for those who were promised u.k. visas. ♪ anchor: welcome to world news america. israel carried out it's a biggt incursion so far into gaza. they say the overnight targeted rate is preparation for the next stages of combat and are widy expected to be planning a ground offensive industry. israel's goal is to get rid of hamas, the group designated by a terrorist organization by the u.k. in u.s. hamas killed 1400 people in attacks earlier this month. thousands have been killed in gaza in retaliatory strikes. the united nations top humanitarian official says aid

is barely trickling into syria after warning fuel supplies are almost gone. they say they are aid ancies have significantly reduced their operations. european union leaders have agreed to establish humanitarian core doors and pauses for humanitarian aid to get into gaza. we will have more the situation in gaza, first our international editor filed this report from israel. >> four hours -- for hours we could hear the explosions. it was the biggest israeli raid into the gaza strip so far in this war. the army released this video and said the battlefield being prepared presumably for the invasion of gaza that the government says is coming. the soldiers pulled back into israel sometime fore dawn. in southern gaza, more raids and death in a place where israel

told palestinians to go to be safe. >> we want to live beautiful lives, not have rockets hitting our heads. at the building fell in our heads. the u.n. says nowhere is safe and gaza, and the siege violates the laws of war. israel has killed thousands of palestinian civilians. just a few miles away in israel this person lives in one of the communities hamas attacked. she has photos of some of the friends hamas killed. >> this is me, this is one of my friends, and he was murdered. i am all the time thinking what they did to them, how they suffered. correspondent: with so much loss , whole families, and she is furious israel's response is being questioned.

>> this time we realize that it is also them. correspondent: if it is us or them, is it ok to ignore international humanitarian law? >> i am tired of it, what the international law says. the international law did not prevent the murder, this brutal murder. where was the world? people were happy about it. correspondent: along the gaza border civilian volunteers are bringing home comforts to the trps. the soldiers' commanders say they are ready and it is a waiting game until the war cabinet orders them into gaza. the men i spoke to a certain israel's actions since hamas attacked were legal, morally justified and vital for the security of their families. most of the soldiers here were

reservists call that of civilian life. you say you are a social worker. you deal with people with trauma. how long will that take israelis to process this international trauma? >> i think something broken here. we went to protect. we do not want to fight or kill, but if we need to do it, here we are. if you are truly a western person, if you believe in human rights and freedom, then it is very obvious you should side with israel. who do you want to side with? people who are like you? we have the same values of free speech, women's rights, lgbtq rights. >> ahead is complex warfare that might depend on the success or failure to free the hostages. israelis get binder soldiers, especially at times like this. almost everybody has been in the military or has a son or

daughter in uniform. it is a different thing when it comes to politicians. taking israel to war is a new experience for the prime minister. benjamin netanyahu's tough talk will not impresses many political enemies. israelis are united in their fight against hamas, but their country faces the big challenges, and their leader is under crushing pressure. anchor: in gaza, the hamas run health ministry says 7000 people have been killed since israeli airstrikes on gaza began, an increase of 500 in the past 24 hours. supplies are runni low and ordinary people are having to cope with the devastation caused by the bombardment. it is a time of huge tension and anxiety for those living in

other palestinian run territory the west bank. we spoke to one family there who has relatives in gaza. correspondent: a loss beyond consolation, mohammed mourns his wife and daughter. to survive is still to carry the trauma of all that cannot be unremembered. under the relentless airstrikes civilians endure a claustrophobic nightmare. these scenes were recorded in the south of the gaza strip. people were ordered to evacuate south by israeli forces but found they were still unprotected. there are massacres day and night. children, young people, babies, everyone is being killed.

israel says hamas bears responsibility for hiding and launching attacks from civilian areas and has vowed to destroy the group. but in the process, many innocent civilians are suffering, and their loved ones outside await anxiously for news. this person and her son live 80 miles from gaza in the west bank, but it is as if her 93-year-old grandmother was a world away in gaza. tell me about your grandmother? >> [speaking another language] >> she is very sick. she has severe depression. how will they get her out of the house when it is being bombed? correspondent: you obviously love her very much. >> yes, i do. [screaming] correspondent: with the

endlessly grim images coming from gaza that is hunger for contact for those inside. >> [speaking another language] correspondent: that moment in everyday when a phone call is the family's slender link. is everyone good? is everything ok, she asks? the cousin at the other end says we are safe, but the night was terrifying. the u.n. said today there was no were safe and gaza, not for the young, not for the old. anchor: the u.s., the u.n., and eu leaders are calling for humanitarian pauses to get urgently needed supplies to civilians. i spoke to state department spokesperson matt miller and the latest about the war. a spokesman for hamas's military wing says approximately 50 hostages have been killed as a result of israeli airstrikes following hamas' attack.

can the u.s. confirm this, and do you know anything about whether u.s. hostages are among those victims? >> we cannot confirm that, we do not have independent confirmationf the hostages. hamas took we believe over 200 hostages on october 7. that includes not just men but women and children and elderly people and today released only four. we continue to work to secure the release of all of the hostages. the government of qatar has done a lot of remarble work. we do not know the status of any of the hostages on the ground, but we continue to urge hamas to release all of them immediately. anchor: does this make it more important from the u.s. perspective for israel to delay a ground invasion so hostages can be safely freed? >> we continue to talk with the government of israel about how they will conduct any military campaign. we have had talks or them to

make sure the goals that they have a realistic and achievable and they have a plan to do that in the most effective way possible and minimize civilian casualties to the greatest extent possible. at the same time, we are trying to do everything that we can to get all of the hostages out. make clear all of the hostages who come out today if hamas would release them, so we will continue to send that message loud and clearly, not just publicly, but delivering messages to our partners in the region that haveelationships with hamas. anchor: the biden administration , european leaders have been calling for a positive fighting to get military aid to civilians in gaza and get some civilians out as well. israel's ambassador to the united nations said at the when assembly that a cease-fire would tie israel's hands. >> we do not support a cease-fire that would allow hamas to rest and refit.

in addition to the october 7 attacks hamas has launched rockets every day. targeting innocent civilians in israel, so we would be opposed to any kind of cease-fire that would allow them to continue those operations. i would say we do support and do think that the parties ought to consider humanitarian pauses that would allow the delivery of aid. we worked very hard to open rafa gate. secretary blinken help to broker an agreement when we were in israel last week. the president cemented that agreement and further conversations with benjamin netanyahu and president lcc in egypt -- al sisi in egypt. it is important that aid to get safely in a not be attacked by any of the parties to this conflict. anchor: we talk about the situation in gaza, a lot of people asking questions about resident biden not having any confidence in the number of

people who have died in gaza. we have witnessed mass loss of life there, so what is the was saying about the number of people who have died in gaza? >> it is very clear a significant number of civilians have died, and as the president clear publicly and secretary blinken make clear publicly we mourn the loss of every civilian life. we do not differentiate between palestinian civilians or israeli civilians. we went to see all civilians protected, but there is no independent body on the ground that can verify the number of deaths. all of the numbers come from hamas. we see hamas has set things publicly that turn out not to be true. they said the hospital was a result of an israeli airstrike, and the assessment of the u.s. government and with information that we have released publicly, that is not true, so we do not trust hamas to tell the truth about anything, that in no way minimizes the fact that there have been a significant number of civilians that have lost

their lives, and that is why we are working so hard to protect civilians and make sure they get to humanitarian assistance that they need. anchor: the pentagon is sending 900 additional u.s. troops that are being deployed or have been deployed to the region. what is the prospect that the u.s. could get drawn into a wider regional war here? >> one of our top strategic goals for the beginning -- it is why secretary blinken in the immediate aftermath travel to th region and went to seven countries, some of them in repeated visits to make clear one of our top strategic goals is to ensure this conflict is not widen. we have urged every country in the region to do anything that they can to calm tensions, but we also made clear any party hostile to israel thinking about entering this conflict to think again. we think it is important we sent a deterrent message to hezbollah and other groups. they should not take steps to widen it.

we expect israel is going to continue to try to take out the terrorist organization that wants to get tax on it, but we do not want to see this conflict widen. anchor: china's foreign minister is going to meet with the secretary of state antony blinken this week, and we know the uss tried to get china to actively condemn russia's war in ukraine. what is the u.s. looking for from china? is it for iran to not get involved? >> we have a number of things that will be on the agenda when secretary blinken meets with them in washington tomorrow, but one of the things we will do is continue the conversation that the secretary started when he was in the region. he called him to make clear to him, we know china has lines of communication with a number of countries in this region, including countries that we are concerned about, and try not should uses lines of communication to encourage

everyone to keep the conflict from widening. we do not think it is in our interest or in china's interest and it is not in the interest of e broader region. one of the things that i expect will come up his efforts to contain this conflict to make sure that it does not spread and add fuher instability to the middle east. anchor: good to have you on bbc news tonight. thank you. a manhunt is underway for the suspect in two shootings that killed 18 people in maine on wednesday. police say robert card is a person of interest and warranty is armed and dangerous. the 40-year-old had to mental health issues and recently said he was hearing voices. he is a legend to shoot up a base. the shootings occurred at a bar in the bowling alley of lewiston. a shelter-in-place order remains active. the border agency --

the governor says the shooting is a dark day. >> i when every person to know that we will heal together. we are strong. we are resilient. we are a very caring people. in the days and weeks ahead we will need to lean on those qualities more than ever before. as we move forward, struggle as we may, let us wrap our arms around one another, offer comfort and solace and love. anchor: let's bring in our correspondent standing by for us in maine tonight. at are please saying about the manhunt. ? >> it has been nearly 24 hours

since the shooting happened in lewistown. i am on the road, and just further down is the bar, one of the locations where the shooting happened. it started in a bowling alley about 4 miles from here. ever since the shooting robert card has been on the run, and the police are still searching for him. the u.s. coast guard is involved in that search. canada also because maine does border with canada, so the canadian border service agencies have also issued an alert saying the suspect is armed and dangerous. there is a lot done in place, so we have been driving around and it feels a bit like during covid times where it is quiet. businesses are closed, shops, schools are closed. essentially people have been told to stay indoors for their safety as the church continues.

anchor: what more do we know about the suspect? >> he is 40 years of age, she grew up in a town near lewiston. he went to the university of maine. he was in the army reserand had no combat deployments. there were concerns raised about his mental health. it is reported he said he has hearing voices as well and allegedly threatened to shoot up a base where he was stationed. we understand also that he was taken by police for mental health evaluation in july 2016, and that will probably lead to a lot of calls and concerns about why this had not been spotted much earlier, but for now police are still on the lookout for him. >> you mentioned the community is quiet right now. how is it coping.

correspondent: people are in shock. she has had to tell two of their two children that her father died, and people are staying indoors, but they have been told to for their safety. it is worth mentioning that maine is estate when it comes to relatively mass shootings is unscathed. there are deaths that happen in maine but they are largely related to death by suicide, so this has completely shocked people. it has gone from being one of the safer states to now having the unwanted label of being the state where the worst mass shooting in america has happened this year. anchor: thank you very much. the violence marks of the u.s.'s 565 mass shooting in 2023.

between 2020 2022 2022 there are been more than 600 mass shootings each year in the u.s., almost two mass shootings the day on average. we take a deeper look at the numbers find the use of firearms. correspondent: mass shootings are on the rise in the united states. so far this year there have been more than 500 mass shootings according to the gun violence archive, they measure mass shootings as incidents in which four or more people have been injured or killed. if you take a look at the three years prior there have been more than 600 mass shootings for each year, almost two per day on average, and the worst mass shooting in the united states was in las vegas in 2017, and it killed more than 50 people and left a hundred injured. it is important to note mass shootings leave fewer than 10 people dead on average. we often talk about mass

shootings and homicides often because they are covered more permanently in the media, but it is worth talking about suicides, but if you look at the figures in 2021 more than half of all gun related deaths were suicides according to the centers for disease control and prevention. 2021 was a record-breaking year. these gun related deaths rose by nearly 8% compared to the previous year. let's take a bigger look at the overall global picture, because as you can see here more than 80% of all homicides were gun related killings, and yet that is starkly different to what you see in england and wales, canada, australia as well as several other countries. if you look at gun ownership, the united states' figures far surpass those of other countries. according to the small arms survey, in 2018 they calculated that there were more guns than people in the united states.

and according to the data so far, gun ownership in the united states has risen since. anchor: pakistan has ordered all undocumented immigrants to leave the country by november 1 or face repatriation. many of those are african refugees. thousands of those people work r foreign governments and fled the taliban. the u.k. sent in a chartered flight today to take them out. caroline davies has more from islamabad. correspondent: there were over 3000 afghans on these programs currently awaiting in pakistan. transit is for the british army, teachers for the british council , and their families, people who worked with or for the u.k. government in afghanistan. when he came over to pakistan because they were told they were eligible for this u.k. visas and would be able to have them processed in this country. some thought this could be a matter of weeks, and instead

they ended up living there for months living in hotels paid for by the u.k. government. here they are not able to legally work or send their children to school. the backdrop is a few weeks ago at the pakistan government said they intend to deport all illegal migrants from the first of november. something came over from afghanistan to pakistan came over on short-term pakistan visas that have since expired. i spoke to the minister of the interior in pakistan about these cases, and he said even those individuals whose pieces had expired would be able to have a facilitated exit from the country, but we also know that the u.k. authorities have done a risk assessment and they consider people who have got of you said that as expired to be at risk of deportation. we know the flight that took off today was the first of 12 charter flights the u.k. government running for the

afghans on these relocation programs will run from now until that mid and end of december, at the moment there are 3000 people, any of which are waiting to find out whether they will be able to be on those flights and what will happen to the next. anchor: just to note many of those afghans in pakistan are also waiting at the u.s. visas. 80 former diplomats and a representative sent a letter asking pakistan not to deport them. that is our show, you can find more on their website bbc.com/news or check us out on your favorite social media 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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wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss ahing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "newshour" tonight, mass shootings kill at least 18 people and a massive manhunt