and we ve had the comments by yair lapid, the israeli caretaker prime minister, in his tv address, but he also said that he was not allowing militant organisations in gaza, in his words, to set the agenda, because all of this goes back several days to when israel arrested a senior islamichhad leader in the west bank. there was a deadly exchange of fire during his arrest. one palestinian was killed. and afterwards, islamichhad did threaten to retaliate. that led, then, to a lockdown, a partial lockdown, in the south of israel, close to gaza, where there are several israeli towns and villages that were very badly affected by road closures, that kind of thing. and then israel now saying it had been prompted to launch this new military operation. yolande knell. to the uk now.
this is bbc news. i m james reynolds with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. israel launches multiple air strikes on the gaza strip, killing a senior commander of the palestinian group islamichhad. at least ten people have died, including a child. the conspiracy theorist alexjones is ordered to pay m5 million in punitive damages after falsely labelling the sandy hook school shooting a hoax. chinese fighter jets fly close to the coast of taiwan, as beijing halts cooperation with the us on climate change and other key issues. and a year since thousands of afghans came to the uk fleeing the taliban, what have they made of their new lives?
israeli media reporting that injust half an hour, there were some 70 rockets that were fired. we ve seen quite a lot of interceptions, i have to say, by israel s iron dome defence system. now, all of this followed israeli air strikes and also artillery strikes on gaza. they were in the south of the gaza strip. also that high rise tower building was hit in the centre of gaza city. and we ve had the comments by yair lapid, the israeli caretaker prime minister, in his tv address, but he also said that he was not allowing militant organisations in gaza, in his words, to set the agenda, because all of this goes back several days to when israel arrested a senior islamichhad leader in the west bank. there was a deadly exchange of fire during his arrest. one palestinian was killed. and afterwards, islamichhad did threaten to retaliate. that led, then, to a lockdown, a partial lockdown, in the south of israel, close to gaza, where there are several israeli towns
this is bbc news. the latest headlines: israel launches multiple air strikes on the gaza strip, killing a senior commander of the palestinian group islamichhad. at least ten people have died, including a child. the conspiracy theorist alexjones is ordered to pay $45 million in punitive damages after falsely labelling the sandy hook school shooting a hoax. let s stay in america. when the supreme court of the united states ruled to remove a women s constitutional right to an abortion, several states immediately certified laws banning or restricting access to the procedure. 0thers made moves to ensure the right will be preserved and abortion providers in these so called haven states say they re being overwhelmed by the increased demand. 0ur west coast correspondent sophie long has this report.
in washington shortly. the palestinian group islamichhad says it s fired over a hundred rockets at israel. these images show the rockets being intercepted by israel s iron dome air defence system. it comes only hours after an israeli air strike in the gaza strip, which killed a commander of the islamichhad group. the palestinian health ministry says at least ten people were killed, including a five year old child. this footage was released by the israeli army, which they say shows the moment the strike hit gaza. israel s prime minister yair lapid spoke about the air strike in a television address earlier where he promised to do whatever it takes to defend the israeli people. let s take a listen. israel carried out a precise counterterror operation against an immediate threat. our fight is not with the people of gaza. islamichhad is an iranian proxy that wants to destroy the state of israel and kill innocent israelis. the head of islamichhad is in tehran as we speak.