large explosions there, lighting up than night sky and the hair must run —— hamas run health ministry that says more than 4000 people are being killed in the territory. i is classed as a terrorist organisation by several western governments. . .. organisation by several western governments.... continues and in a meeting in thejordanian capital a man on saturday arab foreign leaders sold antony blinken that there must be an immediate ceasefire in gaza. mr blink in 1's humanitarian pauses. israel insists there will be no temporary truce until all hostages are really. we will have more on the diplomacy shortly but we start our coverage with a report from jon donnison injerusalem and a warning there are distressing images from the start of this report. four weeks into this war, the suffering is endless. and in gaza, no place is safe. the un says this school in jabalia in the north was hit this morning, killing at least 15 people. thousands had been seeking shelter there. "god will take my vengeance," this young boy says. "i was standing here when the three bombings happened." "i carried a body and another decapitated body with my own where should i go?" he says. "they have hit the shelters. "since when has it become normal to strike "shelters?" israel says it's looking into what happened. and in the north of gaza, its ground offensive is pushing forward, tightening its grip on hamas, who israel says is using civilians as human shields. hamas is outgunned, but these pictures from its military wing claim to show it fighting back. more than 20 israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive began as the number of palestinian casualties continues to rise. the us secretary of state met with arab leaders in jordan this afternoon. antony blinken again asserted israel's right to defend itself. but... protecting civilians will help prevent hamas from further exploiting the situation. but most important, it is simply the right and moral thing to do. when i see... ..a palestinian boy or girl pulled from the wreckage of a building, it hits me in the gut just as it hits everyone in the gut. and i see my own children in theirfaces. and america is also worried about this conflict spreading. israel's military has said it targeted a terrorist trying to cross over from lebanon on its northern border last night. less than a mile away in the town of shlomi, volunteers have been preparing food for israeli soldiers amid fears the powerful lebanese militia group hezbollah could escalate this crisis. very serious, very sad. we cry... ..at night. i don't sleep at night. i watch tv at night. we watched all the terrible cases, everything that's happened. we run. when there's a siren, we run. and when we can, we work. and yes, we are under danger. we're risking our lives. there has been so much fear and grief over the last four weeks. and it's farfrom over. jon donnison, bbc news, jerusalem. a short while ago i spoke about secretary blinken's visit with john altmann... now serving as director of the middle east programme at the centre for strategic and international studies. welcome to you, jon. thanks so much for being with us. i want to begin with what we have seen from president biden. he was asked about a humanitarian pause. he gave a thumbs up. do you think that we could potentially see humanitarian pauses for civilians in gaza anytime soon? i think we'll see some sort of a pause. with all these israeli hostilities with hamas, there is often something short of a ceasefire but with some sort of delimiting of free passage for people, of an ability to get relief then, i think we will see something but it is much less than the arab governments were asking for today. i think it is likely to be much less than the us government was asking the israelis for. that's interesting. much less than you think the administration was asking the israelis for. is there any gap there between the two? do you think their positions are widening? what sort of conversations do you think are happening behind closed doors right now? there has been a widening gap in the last several weeks. the us really seized the last two decades as a time where it has gained a lot of experience fighting insurgencies. ——sees we fight insurgencies in afghanistan and iraq and against isis in western iraq and syria, and there is really a set of principles about how you do that, how you split the population away from the combatants. how you think about — how you fight shapes what you are trying — what you're trying to do at the end shapes the way fight. i think the israelis don't think that counterinsurgency is applicable in this situation. they have been dealing with hostility from palestinians for more than a century and i think they don't need lessons from anybody. ——they think it seems to me there are a lot of signs that the americans think actually we do have something to say that will be helpful, that will get you out of this endless loop. and the israelis say, let us handle this. so far, it is being inaudible but i think those differences are growing. the argument from the israeli government is that a full ceasefire, which is of course a greater undertaking than a humanitarian pause, would essentially allow for hamas to regroup and that is something the us secretary of state anthony blinken repeated on his trip as well to the region. what you make that? there is also the issue of where does the freeing of more than 200 hostages fit into this. i think there is a reasonable case to be made that hamas asking for a ceasefire now rather than making concessions and releasing hostages, i think you can make an argument that this is something that we should negotiate and hamas does not want to negotiate it. but what we're seeing is, i think we're going to see an increasing number of palestinian casualties, we're going to see an increasing number of images of palestinian casualties and there is increasing pressure on israel for the government to release all these — work to release all these hostages at whatever cost. how that plays out in palestinian politics and israeli politics, we will have to see. another development we have seen today, turkey recalling its israel ambassador, cutting talks with prime minister netanyahu who over that refusal to agree to a ceasefire. do think this could be symbolic or indicative of widening fissures there as well between arab states, the united states and what this could mean for further down the line? turkey of course is not an arab state and president erdogan said last week that hamas is a terrorist or freedom fighters it is mujahideen. cast its ballot a week ago not with the withdrawal of the ambassador. it does seem to be that from the american point of view, and you have seen secretary blinken advancing this, there is going to have to be an arab law in securing and legitimising a settlement after hamas's pushed from power. the secretary of state is very eager to bring arabs in. the israelis seems much less interest in it and the arabs are appreciably saying this israeli behaviour is precisely what will get us uninterested in playing any role here and the gap seems to me to be widening rather than narrowing, which is what the us is trying to do. on that point, jon, the message from president biden last week was, what is your plan for the day after, essentially, if hamas is defeated. of course now with antony blinken being there, do you think there is a clear understanding of what that plan would be for the day after, pointing to what you just said there with regards to the role of arab states? the us is trying to seed that idea with arab states with israelis and it is not getting nearly as far as we would like to as sides are getting further aside but the question is, in part, that is the united states have any special insight into this. how that plays out i do not know. as you know, there is a widening gulf both in american politics generally and in the democratic party more particularly, that president biden has to think about as he thinks about his strategy towards this conflict. jon, finally, what would you say in your assessment this means for the region? we heard from the leader of hezbollah saying all options remain on the table and the usa it has avoided an expansion of this conflict. has this threat gone away? i think the threat has not gone away. i have listened to hassan nasrallah�*s speech and it seems less angry, less vociferous because it does not want to lose everything it has one in lebanon on for the sake of hamas. they have had a chequered history in the past. but iran is interested in stirring the pot. i think we have two dangers. danger through miscalculation, which i think is lola tivoli higher. and through calculation which i think is relatively low. if somebody does something stupid, somebody missjudges how the other side will interpret it, we could get into a spiral very quickly and have a shooting war between the united states and a whole bunch of people in the middle east. now director of the middle east programme at the centre for strategic and international studies, really great to talk you, jon. thank you so much. r , getting information from gaza is difficult but our correspondence remains there and has this update. today, israel opened the salah al—din road, the axis in and out of gaza for the first time since a couple of days since they started the operation, ground operation in gaza. very few people managed to get out of gaza because the main road was damaged and access for car was almost impossible. but in gaza city, people are starting to flee the heavy fighting around the city. as the israeli ground operation expanded around gaza city from three different directions. the tanks were advancing near gaza city itself, especially the western part of gaza. tonight, again, the israeli air strikes were intensified around the al-quds hospital and also around the shifa hospital, where many solar panels on the roof of the building around the hospital were targeted from the air. we feel that israel is pushing the civilian population. they are taking the hospital as shelter to flee this place. they bombed tonight, the largest the largest bakery in the place that is feeding most of the bread to the neighbourhood also in the north of gaza strip, near the coastal road where the hamas militants group saying that they have fired anti—tank missiles and they were engaged in gun battle with the israeli soldiers who are advancing towards the gaza city. here in khan younis, where about a million people displaced from their houses in gaza city and the north, they live in a very difficult situation with the severe shortage of electricity, food and water. bbc�*s bbc�*s reporter there. journalist like him on the ground reporting in gaza are doing so at enormous personal risk. 36journalists have been killed since hamas's attack on seven october and israel's air strikes against gaza began. 31 of them were palestinian, four israeli and one was lebanese. you are seeing just a few of them on your screen now. the israel defence forces has said it cannot guarantee the safety of journalists it cannot guarantee the safety ofjournalists operating in gaza. a journalists for palestine tv, on thursday and israeli air strike killed him and his family and many palestinian journalists came out to mourn him on friday. one of them saying, "we cannot take it anymore, we are exhausted. we are all here victims and martyrs and we are leaving here one after the other. i have been speaking tojodi ginsburg the president of the committee to protectjournalists. jodie, thank you so much for being with us. just to begin with, sketch out the level of danger forjournalists operating in gaza right now. the level of danger forjournalists operating in gaza right now is absolutely unprecedented. this is the most dangerous conflict for journalists that the committee to protectjournalists has ever documented and we have been recording and documenting attacks against journalists for more than 30 years. 36journalists have been killed in the past four weeks, and to put that into a kind of context for you — last year, we documented 68 journalists and media workers killed worldwide over the space of 12 months, and 36 have died just in four weeksjust in israel and gaza. jodie, why do you think so many of them have been killed? no international crews are able to get into gaza. the only people able to report from gaza are gazan journalists and there is literally nowhere in gaza currently that is safe. we have seen hospitals bombed, we have seen schools under attack, and journalists are civilians so they face the same risks that any civilian is currently risking, and they are also trying to document and cover what is going on so they tend to be at places like hospitals where the injured are being brought and so on, or they tend to be filming convoys, and there is no where for them to be safe, like any civilian, in gaza at the moment. we have also seen a strike on a building used by afp in gaza. with strikes on infrastructure, how difficult does it also make continuing to do journalism, to get information out? it makes it extremely difficult. we have seen buildings that house media facilities have come under attack. we have seen obviously communications blackouts as we have seen last week, where it was impossible for any communication to get out and that makes it extremely difficult. on top of that of course you have fuel shortages, food shortages, water shortages and that makes it, again, very difficult forjournalists to operate. they need to get about and it makes that extremely hard. what we have seen as well of course this also means that journalists are losing their colleagues and i just wonder what the impact of that is as well. this must be incredibly traumatic. it is devastating. we have seen a number of colleagues, a number ofjournalist reporting live on air the deaths of their own colleagues. we have seen journalists reporting on the death of their own families. having to go into the hospital as journalists and their press insignia and report on the deaths of loved ones. incredibly traumatic. with all of this in mind, with this number ofjournalists killed in this conflict, what does this mean in terms of getting information to civilians in gaza and getting information out as well? it makes it extremely challenging. it is nevertheless absolutely vital. as i said, there are no international crews currently able to operate in gaza so we are absolutely reliant on local palestinian journalists to document what is happening, to be our eyes and ears. it is extremely challenging but they continue to do so, and they continue to report because so many of them believe it is absolutely vital, their role is vital in this war to let people know what is happening outside of gaza. what needs to be done to protectjournalists? as i said, journalists are civilians so it is very important that they are treated as such, that we do not continued to see the kinds of indiscriminate bombings and attacks that have swept so many civilians up into this conflict. we know from the united nations and others that that is in breach of international humanitarian law and we need to see more vocal support for that globally. jodie ginsburg, president for the committee to protectjournalists. thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate it. in the us, a number of babies who have died before the first birthday increase for the first time in two decades, according to preliminary data from the centres for disease control and prevention. the infant mortality rate rose in the us from 3% from 21—22 with over 20,000 deaths recorded last year and researchers are worried this rise could be the beginning of a new trend. an organisation advocating for the health of mothers and babies, spoke to their president about the state of maternity and infant health. thank you for being on the bbc. the number of babies who died in the united states before their first birthday rose last year. statistics which made for sober reading. the direction that nobody wants to see. when you saw those statistics, what was your reaction?— was your reaction? firstly, thank you _ was your reaction? firstly, thank you for _ was your reaction? firstly, thank you for having - was your reaction? firstly, thank you for having me. | was your reaction? firstly, i thank you for having me. the infant mortality data that came out really was disappointing. infant mortality is really looking at the death rates up until a child's first year of life and it is a marker for the health of society and when i look at this over the last 20 years, we have not said go in the wrong direction and now we are and so i am disappointed because it is significantly changing and it is entwined with maternal health as well. do we have any indication as what could be happening here, what could be happening here, what is causing this?— what is causing this? yes, it is a great — what is causing this? yes, it is a great question. - what is causing this? yes, it is a great question. it - what is causing this? yes, it is a great question. it is - is a great question. it is provisional data and we need more and we need to dive in but when you start looking at the data and getting into some of the intricacies of it, there are couple things that are striking. the first is maternal complications. a large rise. that is not shocking. we have seen the maternal death by going into the wrong direction and the other part is that preterm birth does not improved over the last two decades and lastly i would say a bit of the data is about bacterial infection so when i start looking at that i want to know more and i should say i am an obstetrician not a paediatrician so the maternal complications we know about increasing age and increasing complications of pregnancy because of comorbidities like hypertension and diabetes but the material, protocols and things have changed again in the paediatric world that we should be diving into. in some of that i start looking at some of that i start looking at some of the states reporting some of the worst outcomes and so lots to diving that we need to look further into.— further into. these numbers were coming _ further into. these numbers were coming at _ further into. these numbers were coming at the - further into. these numbers were coming at the end - further into. these numbers were coming at the end of l were coming at the end of covid—19. were coming at the end of covid-19-_ covid-19. could that have -la ed covid-19. could that have played a _ covid-19. could that have played a role? _ covid-19. could that have played a role? yes, - covid-19. could that have played a role? yes, it- covid-19. could that have - played a role? yes, it changed everything. from good things like tele— medicine to really bad outcomes for mums and babies and also really about vaccinations and uptakes and looking at that in a different way and realising vaccination uptake has actually gotten worse so when i start thinking about what is rsp, the flu, covid all of those things i wonder about when you step back and you think about as an industrialised nation, we do have things like sanitation and other things that other countries do not have so the fact that our mortality rate is in the wrong direction is really disappointing. you mention _ really disappointing. you mention maternal- really disappointing. you mention maternal mortality as wealth, both maternal and infant mortality in america are higher than in other industrialised nations. d0 higher than in other industrialised nations. do we know why? _ industrialised nations. do we know why? well, _ industrialised nations. do we know why? well, we - industrialised nations. do we know why? well, we don't i industrialised nations. do we . know why? well, we don't make when you start looking at this and start looking at race, there is clearly a problem but it is notjust that. the bottom line answer is we do not know. it is a complex problem with multiple solutions. some of it is access to care, a lot of it is access to care, a lot of it is absolutely, when you look at inaudible they have the worse outcome and when you look at infant mortality, black babies are two times more likely to die before theirfirst are two times more likely to die before their first birthday compared to white babies. there is a problem. when we start looking at prenatal care and we know that women who get no prenatal care after 3— four times are likely to die. when you start looking at this through race, worst outcomes. same for native americans. and we're seeing the same statistics with infant mortality. matthew per was with infant mortality. matthew perry was laid _ with infant mortality. matthew perry was laid to _ with infant mortality. matthew perry was laid to rest - with infant mortality. matthew perry was laid to rest on - perry was laid to rest on friday in a small private funeral. all five of his former co—stars from friends attended along with his family. he rose to fame as chandler in the show. he was found dead at the age of 54 and his cause of death has not been confirmed. you're watching bbc news you can get more on our website. from washington, dc, thank you for your company and stay with us here on bbc news. bye for now. hello there. the impacts from storm ciaran continue to be felt. on saturday across the uk, it was a day of sunshine and showers or some longer spells of rain for some of us, all driven in by an area of low pressure. but the low pressure has been named as a new storm that's going to be, again, bringing severe weather to europe. western france gusts hitting 85mph, strong enough to blow over trees. so, again, there's going to be some transport disruption and also power cuts very likely here. all the while, 15—metre—high waves, that's as big as the waves could get, battering the coastline of portugal and north—west spain. and in italy, in tuscany, where we've seen severe flooding over recent days, this extra rain certainly isn't going to help things. the flooding could get worse before it gets better. now, over the next few hours for the uk, it's still quite unsettled. we've got rain tending to ease to more showery conditions across parts of northern england, something a bit drier for a time across the west and temperatures around 3—7 celsius as we head into the first part of sunday morning. so it will be a chilly start to the day. i think through sunday morning, there will be further showers coming and going across eastern scotland, eastern england. otherwise, it's a fine and sunny and dry start to the day. however, into the afternoon we'll see showers build particularly across western areas. but with the winds flowing in more from a west—north—westerly direction, that's crucial for those in southern england that have been affected by those really heavy showers and flooding. well, those winds should push the showers offshore at last. so it should be a dry day in the far south. for those celebrating great great uncle guy's night, well, a few more showers coming and going, particularly across western areas, some clear spells and you'll need to wrap it warmly. it will be quite a chilly one. into monday's forecast then, and things looking unsettled this time across the north and west of the uk, with some showers or longer spells of rain here. a few showers elsewhere across england and wales, but moving through fairly promptly, given the brisk westerly winds and temperatures continue to run a little bit below average. now, deeper into the new week, we'll replace the mixture of sunshine and showers with more general outbreaks of rain as we head in towards the middle part of the week. and of course, with the grounds completely saturated following our prolonged spell of wet weather, we'll have to watch carefully to see if we see more flooding issues as this band of rain works through. it does clear through and it will be followed again by a mixture of sunny spells and showery conditions towards the end of the week. bye for now. this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. no matter where you live, you probably noticed that 2023 was hot. in fact, the summer was the hottest on record. and as we continue to burn fossil fuels, the science says our planet will continue to get hotter. so how do we keep the cities we live in cool? well, there are some real life solutions here and now. i'm carl nasman and this is future earth. welcome to the new series, shining a light on the simple, real—world solutions we already have to help us solve the biggest challenge of our lifetimes. each week, we'll be taking you on a journey from our forests to the oceans, examining where we live, how we travel and what we eat. we'll show you some paths for tackling the climate crisis, meeting the innovators, action takers and climate heroes who are truly making a difference. coming up this week, we meet the volunteers working to keep the city of atlanta cool