Have a look at this new video coming in to the bbc. Explosions boom. Israel was clearly caught off guard by the attacks from hamas, and there will be much analysis in the weeks and months ahead about why no one saw it coming. Michael singh is former senior directorfor Middle East Affairs at the National Security council, and he joined me earlier. To what extent do you think the us might be concerned tonight that it likely had not heard word of the attacks that we had seen from its israeli partners, that there appeared to be a failure of intelligence . There will be tremendous concern, tremendous concern within israel first and foremost because this was a real failure of anticipation, a failure to detect what was the most significant attack on israel for decades, there will be concern within the United States as well not just at the apparent Israeli Intelligence failure but perhaps the United States intelligence agencys own failure to detect this was happening because you have a very close intelligence sharing relationship between the us and israel. The bulk of the concern will be on what happens now. In terms of what happens now, what kinds of questions do you think Us Intelligence services, the Biden Administration will now have for israeli authorities, Israeli Defence forces in terms of what they plan to do next and how far the plan to go . There still is frankly an intelligence question as will this violence spread anywhere else, for example are there attacks been planned by hamas elsewhere for example in the west bank which is i think an arena hamas would like to see involved with this fighting, hezbollah and is rainy and proxy and living on have any plans to attack from lebanon on or syria, keeping this conflict confined to gaza will be one goal, another goal for the us will be to work very closely with israel to ensure on the one hand israel has both the diplomatic room as well as the Military Equipment that it requires to conduct its response then also to work closely with israel on the strategy to understands its aims, what is the end state israel inventions and what is going to be a very significant response and that will be quite important also to have the us and israel on the same page. As they go about those discussions then, tell us more about how you think the Biden Administration, the relationship and the Netanyahu Relationship Stands at this stage, we know in recent years it has been a strained one, in light of these unprecedented attacks, does that change . I think it does change to an extent because you are correct it has been personally strained, ideollogically the two men come from very different places, on the other hand, this issue of terrorism the need to respond to terrorism, security, these are issues the us and israel have very much in common, both President Biden and Prime Minister netanyahu are leaders who have been on the world stage for a long time so they know each other well no matter the differences, they have dealt with situations that have been very difficult in the cases of both men and so i think they will be able to co operate well with one another and put aside their differences in this situation. I think thats true more broadly, for example Congress Even though it has experienced significant dysfunction in recent weeks will be able to come together and you may even see a coming together in the israeli political system so i think it will be a moment of political unity amid extremely difficult circumstances. Undoubtedly the Biden Administration will have been calling World Leaders around the world today, what do you think they have been asking for, from the rest of the world . At this stage probably what they want is number one, condemnations of the attack of hamas, i think they want to see countries especially in the region show some solidarity with israel, for facing a threat which frankly they all face, which is the threat of terrorism, and frankly in this case and many other cases around the region iranians backed terrorism. So keeping those partners on side, especially when their initial statements were not quite supportive of israel, not quite condemning hamas, i think will be very important. Then as in every such situation, United States wants to ensure israel has the diplomatic room to conduct the response and appeals needs to conduct. You were part of the us National Security councils middle east staff during the 2006 lebanon war, are there are any parallels between that conflict and what we are seeing today . There are parallels, for sure, in 2006 it began and you had three Israeli Soldiers who were killed or taken captive at the very outset of that conflict and that helped drive the rest of the conflict, the desire to retaliate by israel, the desire to get those soldiers back, get their remains back of other soldiers. I think what is so different is the scale of this attack today. The depravity of the attack, targeting civilians in the way that it did, babies, elderly people, is just of a much more significant scale. And so i think there is tremendous worry that we just at the beginning of that will prove to be very big, even historic in this part of the world. And potentially broader, do think, regionally if you look at the comments which have come today from a hamas spokesperson telling the bbc the militant group had backing from its ally, iran for the attacks on israel, if those reports do hold true, how can the us hold iran accountable . I think hamas will hope others willjoin its fight against israel, whether in the west bank or lebanon or syria or iran itself, but my guess is that iran is very happy to fight to the last hamas fighter but i am less sure they will want to be directly engaged in an attack against israel, the same may go for hezbollah although coming days will tell, so this may end up being, hopefully at least confined to the gaza theatre. And i think the us will want to ensure that iran for backing hamas pays a price but i think that right now will be a secondary consideration, the first focus will be on gaza itself, on backing israel in terms of its response there. Michael singh former senior director for Middle East Affairs, the National Security council. Great to have your thoughts tonight. Thank you for being with us on the bbc. To flesh all this out i spoke earlier with laurin whitney gottbrath, world editor at axios, and our state Department CorrespondentBarbara Plett usher. Talk to us about this attack which appears unprecedented in recent decades. Recent decades. Israels allies and much recent decades. Israels allies and much of recent decades. Israels allies and much of the recent decades. Israels allies and much of the west recent decades. Israels allies and much of the west are recent decades. Israels allies | and much of the west are very on the same page in terms of condemning hamass attack and also saying israel itself has a right to defend itself. In terms of the reaction in the arab world, it is level mixed, obviously there are some countries with relations with israel there, reactions more muted than other countries like qatar put the blame on israel for this. The reaction itself i think is very much to be expected, coming from all different sides but yes, certainly israels allies are very much behind the country and also very much saying israel should defend itself the way it sees fit. Way it sees fit. Barbara as lauren was way it sees fit. Barbara as lauren was alluding way it sees fit. Barbara as lauren was alluding to, i way it sees fit. Barbara asl lauren was alluding to, the reaction from the abidin Administration Today was one of pledging unqualified support, where does the relationship stand between the us right now because of course these are longtime allies, but this year, at least there has been some tension between President Biden and Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu . And Prime Minister benamin netanyahuvfi netanyahu . There has been tension because netanyahu . There has been tension because prime netanyahu . There has been tension because prime and l tension because prime and austins covenant has been doing things that are against us policy especially its aggressive secular policies in the west bank and that has created strain, there was also concern about mr and netanyahus overhaul of the neta nyahus overhaul of the judiciary netanyahus overhaul of the judiciary that was the administration saw as a threat to israels democracy, so in fact it was an unusually cool. I would say in the past couple of months with the us president not having invited mr netanyahu to the white house even. But thatis to the white house even. But that is going to change now in terms of the focus because whenever israel is under attack and it has been under attack from gaza several times in the past decade, the Administration Response always with a stand behind israel saying it has the right to defend itself, and so on so in this case in particular because of the audacious niss of the hamas attack on the number of casualties, the fact it carried out a Ground Offensive Outside Gaza and it was unprovoked, at least by any particular incident, because of all of that, that standard is Even Stronger than it has ever been and we have been told by the Administration Officials that there has been connection at every level of the agencies, state department, State Defence department, intelligence and so on, there is Co Ordination and there is an offer have help that they should need it, especially military to military. Whatever the case was earlier, those tensions had begun to ease somewhat already, now i think the focus is entirely standing in israels corner and supporting its response to the hamas attack and i expect the americans will give the israelis a fair bit of space to do so before they might start to make comments about a ceasefire or even privately telling them to rein it in. A,. , privately telling them to rein it in. , it in. Lauren, barbara pointing out the audacious it in. Lauren, barbara pointing out the audacious niss it in. Lauren, barbara pointing out the audacious niss of it in. Lauren, barbara pointing out the audacious niss of this | out the audacious niss of this attack and certainly it had a great element of surprise and that attack staged by hamas militant. Our questions now being asked about what could apparently be a failure of intelligence . Apparently be a failure of intelliuence . ~ ,. , , intelligence . Absolutely, it is hard not to intelligence . Absolutely, it is hard not to call intelligence . Absolutely, it is hard not to call this intelligence . Absolutely, it is hard not to call this an hard not to call this an Intelligence Failure on the part of the israelis, obviously but also the americans, who work very closely with the israelis, in terms of their intelligence efforts. Of course, there would definitely be a postmortem following this to see where exactly the Israeli Intelligence community went wrong, but im sure those assessments are also happening at the moment, in terms of trying to learn lessons as they consider what their next steps will be in the weeks, months ahead. ,. , ~. , ahead. Barbara, then talk to us about the ahead. Barbara, then talk to us about the timing ahead. Barbara, then talk to us about the timing and ahead. Barbara, then talk to us about the timing and the about the timing and the backdrop to all of this. You are a state Department Correspondent but have also covered the region extensively it comes at a time when saudi arabia and israel had been nearing a peace deal, comes a time also when we have seen an increase in west bank raids . Just to respond a little bit to the earlier question about the Intelligence Failure, because the americans were also taken by surprise, notjust the americans were also taken by surprise, not just the israelis and one of the analyst who follow this closely said they basically very much get their intelligence chips from their intelligence chips from the israelis on this so this was a surprise to them as well in the general view about hamas had been it was live and let live, they were negotiating to try and get more workers from gaza into israel, because they could make some money off that he was the assessment they were trying to get money from qatar, qatar had been giving the money up qatar had been giving the money up to build up gaza and some of the things the guitarist had built they were there in 2019, this was an entirely unexpected approach, they were expecting some kind of explosion or preparing for some possible explosion but yes, that had been thought to come from the west bank because theres been quite a lot of conflict there over the past year, the israelis have done a lot of raids into palestinian towns, especially nablus and jenin because there are Palestinian Militants there, have been becoming more active, around 200 people have been killed in the west bank over the last year, there is been a lot of unhappiness about that, so it was thought that might be where a spark might light a fire, it was not expected to be coming from gaza at all, so it is a question of how they manage, how hamas managed to conceal this plan, not only from Israeli Intelligence but its entire approach seems to have been different before. And that is something both the americans in the israelis are going to look into, with regards to saudi arabia and israel this has been the focus of american diplomacy, their plan was to try to get wider stability in the region and get some concessions for palestinians through that because it was something the australians really wanted to have a deal with saudi arabia, that may still happen but no winner happening at this point and it will certainly be put on hold because of this conflict and we do not know exactly how we the conflict will impact it and it will in some way, the americans had focused on the bigger pet rather than actual israel conflict trying to get an Israeli Palestinian settlement and the eruption of the conflict shows that is where you have to keep your eye. Where you have to keep your e e. , ~ where you have to keep your e e. ,. , where you have to keep your e e. ~. , eye. Talking about saudi arabia, what eye. Talking about saudi arabia, what does eye. Talking about saudi arabia, what does this i eye. Talking about saudi arabia, what does this mean for the region . Are there concerns about the potential for it to become more complex in the region . I become more complex in the reuion . , � ~ become more complex in the reuion . , � ~ region . I dont think we can dismiss any region . I dont think we can dismiss any of region . I dont think we can dismiss any of those region . I dont think we can l dismiss any of those concerns at all. We certainly saw israel today make it clear that they are on high alert in terms of, their Northern Command is on high alert and in terms of whether or not potentially hezbollah, another group, may try to open a front in the north. President biden himself in a Statement Today made it very clear that israels adversarial should not try to get into this conflict and i think that underscores potential concern of this being something that could turn into something that could turn into something much larger than what we saw today and likely will continue to see particularly in gaza in the days and weeks ahead. So i think there is concern at this point there is not any strong indications that there will be another front that opens but if history tells us any lessons, we do know in the past that that is exactly what has happened. Obviously what has happened. Obviously what happened today is incredibly unprecedented. Star; incredibly unprecedented. Stay with us. Ijust incredibly unprecedented. Stay with us. I just want incredibly unprecedented. Stay with us. Ijust want to bring in this statement from the israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, posted on x, formerly known as twitter and we will read it to you a part of it it says that hamas is started a brutal and evil war. We will be victorious in the war despite an unbearable price, is what it says, and what happened today is unprecedented in israel and i will see to it that it does not happen again. The Israeli Defence forces will immediately use all of its strength to destroy hummus� s capabilities. The capabilities of hamas. The idf will be using all its strength to destroy the capabilities of hamas. Do we know what that potentially looks like . Tell us about that area. It looks like . Tell us about that area. ,. ,. ,. , area. It is going to be what we have already area. It is going to be what we have already seen, area. It is going to be what we have already seen, festival, i have already seen, festival, which is airstrikes on targets in gaza some letters started already and they will be going after hamas infrastructure, trying to hit hamas leaders and i think we can expect quite a long and punishing campaign of airstrikes to do so. As we have been discussing, gaza is a very small and densely populated area so that means many civilians will almost certainly be killed and many already have. I think the question really that we are waiting to see the answer to is whether the israelis actually organise a ground offensive. They have not down my since they left gaza in the early to,000s. So it would be a very big step and one that they would have to take carefully because hamas has already said bring it on, we are ready for you if you come. Given the amount of preparation they had made to carry out their attack, one can imagine they will have made preparations for any Israeli Force that comes in and i think before the israelis do this they would want to carry out quite as severe campaign of airstrikes first. But that would be the next step and, again, it isjust how long would be the next step and, again, it is just how long the israelis will continue with this sort of counteroffensive, if you want to put it that way stop previously they had thought they had at least not defeated hamas, brought it down to a point where it was willing to a point where it was willing to make a deal, a kind of arrangement where they would sort of put away their weapons and live with the way things were for this is quite a different sort of scenario and were not quite sure and i dont think the israelis are sure how it is going to end. Weve been reporting on the situation of israeli hostages, and the Israeli Military says a quote significant number of israeli civilians and soldiers are being held hostage by Palestinian Militant Group hamas in the gaza strip. Lets bring in our report carl nasman now to discuss this. What more are we learning about the Hostage Situation . This what more are we learning about the Hostage Situation . The Hostage Situation . This has been a violent the Hostage Situation . This has been a violent and been a violent and unprecedented day in terms of this attack from hamas originating in gaza and some of the most distressing moments are coming from what we have been tracking in terms of taking hostages. It has been confirmed from several servers that make sources that it includes women, the elderly and children. Hamas has claimed dozens of people have been taken hostage and Israeli Military sources say a significant number of people, some are still alive, some presume to be dead. Earlier i heard some actually managed to be free from the is. Israeli media has been told that hamas attacks have been on an outdoor music festival, firing on attendees there. Some reports and many videos are at unverified but they appear to show hostages being taken on motorbikes or on the back of the vehicle. We have even seen some reports in Israeli Media of relatives recognising their loved ones in these videos and being able to identify them that way. It is important to note that during past Hostage Situations it took a long time for hostages to be freed. Several years, for hostages to be freed. Severalyears, ending for hostages to be freed. Several years, ending in exchange for several hundred palestinian captives. This could also, of course, potentially complicate plans that israel has of an incursion of counteroffensive into gaza because they could be worried about the safety of those hostages, if they are still, indeed as we believe, captive inside the gaza strip. Incredibly distressing situation and potentially seeing a crisis within a crisis and in light of that we know that the Us Administration and the us Secretary Of StateAnthony Blank and has been speaking to israel but he has also been making a flurry of diplomatic calls. It also been making a flurry of diplomatic calls. Diplomatic calls. It is right and this started diplomatic calls. It is right and this started in diplomatic calls. It is right and this started in the diplomatic calls. It is right| and this started in the very early hours here in washington. We had a surround to 30 a. M. Which was when the white house teams were being briefed and in touch with officials in israel and other regional partners there. Weve seen reports from there. Weve seen reports from the white house about secretary Anthony Blank and, the Secretary Of State and his outreach to several different regional partners. Phone calls with direct account or leaders of countries, several different ones from jordan to the palestinian president , mahmoud abbas, the Prime Minister of qatar, leaders in turkiye, tokyo, the egyptian foreign media. So several different phone calls the us trying to leverage partnerships in the region. We know that one of the president s Signature Moves in the region was supposed to be a defence still broken with saudi arabia and then israel so clearly trying to work through those channels to see what kind of efforts they can make to make sure that this violence comes to an end and also does not spread into other areas or groups in the region as well. Briefly, this is coming at a difficult time for congress. The chaos we have seen on capitol hill culminating on tuesday, there is no speaker of the house right now. If the House Of Representatives were to try to pass any kind additional spending bill or defence bill in support of israel, for example, it would be incredibly difficult. This is unprecedented times and it is unprecedented times and it is unclear if a temporary speaker of the house even has the power to do that. This is kyle with us here in the studio all evening. Thank you so much. This is kyle. Carl. Lets have a look at life pictures that we will leave you with from gaza city on a tense Sunday Morning. Remember we have more on our live pages well and you can go to our website. Ourteam in well and you can go to our website. Our team in london will take over now and Helena Humphrey in washington, dc. Thank you for your company and thank you for being with us. Hello. Rarely do we see a day of weather contrasts quite as stark as those we experienced during saturday. Across many parts of scotland we had huge amounts of rain, flooding and disruption. We had this met Office Amber Warning in force. This expiring through the first part of Sunday Morning but this new warning stretching from aberdeenshire up towards inverness, this warning is in force until 2pm on sunday with further flooding and disruption likely. This is the rain we had on saturday. It was relentless. Well over 100 millimetres of rain in places and some spots in the north of scotland only got to 7 8 degrees. Compare that with 25 in southeast england, those huge contrasts. That was the warmest october day weve seen in five years. Into sunday, this frontal system still plaguing parts of scotland with some outbreaks of rain. The focus for the heaviest rain does shift a little further northwards and eastwards. Still though some rain through the central belt, could cause further problems, southern scotland looking drier with a little bit of sunshine. Patchy cloud and sunny spells for northern ireland. Quite murky for some western coasts of england and wales and a bit more cloud for eastern coasts too, but we should, broadly speaking, see some spells of sunshine on what will be another very warm day for the time of year 25, 26 degrees, not as cold across the north of scotland. Heading through sunday night, we will still see some bits and pieces of rain across scotland, Maybe Fringing Into northern ireland, but generally it will turn a bit drier, quite windy in the far north, very mild as we start monday morning with some areas of low cloud, mist and fog, particularly for western coasts and some of that could linger as we go through the day. Scotland certainly drier than it has been, although this little line of rain could just plague the southwest of scotland from time to time. Temperatures north to south 13 in stornoway, still 2a in london. Moving deeper into the week, we will see something of a change, that warmth is set to be swept away. A frontal system pushing its way south and east through the middle of the week, heavy rain with that, and behind it something cooler, something a bit more like we would expect at this time of year. So a mainly dry, warm start to the week but things will change from midweek onwards. Live from london, this is bbc news. Gaza is hit by air strikes overnight. Israel warns theres more still to come following saturdays attack by hamas. This is the scene in gaza city right now where people have been told to seek safety. Reports that some of the israeli hostages taken in saturdays attack by Palestinian Militants have been released. As many in the International Community call for calm the Un Security Council will discuss the crisis at an emergency meeting. Hello, im celia hatton. Residents across gaza are bracing themselves after the israeli army warned of more air strikes to destroy hamas targets, in retaliation for saturdays major attack by the militant organisation. Sirens have again sounded in parts of southern israel, as more rockets were fired from gaza overnight. The Israeli Army Says fighting is still ongoing in several places inside israeli territory. Here are the latest developments. Israel will cut off the supply of electricity, fuel and goods to gaza. It had already been thrown into darkness on saturday as israeli authorities cut power to its territories. The israeli army has told residents in seven different areas across the gaza strip to take refuge in shelters as it prepares to launch new attacks on hamas targets. Meanwhile, some israeli hostages who were held in a southern town have reportedly been rescued. Thats according to israels public broadcaster