being held by hamas, a group deemed a terrorist group or organisation by many western governments. lucy manning reports. iris haim held out hope her son yotam would return, that he would be a hostage who came home. last month, yotam, a heavy metal drummer, was metres from safety. he d escaped his hamas captors with two other hostages. they d left signs saying sos and help, three hostages and waved a white flag. but israeli troops mistakenly thought it was a hamas trap and killed them. iris is clear who she blames. hamas is in charge of all of this terrible day, 7th of october, and all the murdered people and all the soldiers that are killed now, it s just the hamas fault. and in an act of forgiveness, days after yotam s death, iris released a message telling the israeli soldiers involved she didn t blame them. why was that important for you? what did you want to say to them? these soldiers, they also have families and mothers. and i was worried for them also. she sobs. this
hasn t given any details about reported air strikes. but the idf says operations injabalia, like this one on friday, have destroyed hamas tunnels, explosives and military equipment, and soldiers found more than £1 million claimed to be designated for terrorist activity . our gaza correspondent, rushdi abu alouf, who is now based in turkey, says the area has been a focus for israeli forces recently. the camp is in the north, and the air strikes were intensified in the location overnight. as international pressure mounts on israel to reduce civilian casualties, and with growing calls for a ceasefire, the us secretary of defence has returned to israel. lloyd austin has met his israeli counterpart and is also due to talk to prime minister benjamin netanyahu with a focus on how israel plans to move to the next phase of the war. the un security council is expected to vote on monday on a resolution calling for an urgent and sustainable cessastion of hostilities . the us blocked a
Our international editor, jeremy bowen has the latest. A few minutes after the attack, the building in irans diplomatic compound in a well off central area of damascus seems to be on fire. The israeli strike destroyed the iranian consulate. It was a Precision Attack against a Senior Commander who will have worked hard to keep his movements secret. Despite that, Israeli Intelligence must have tracked general Mohamed Reza Zahedi to the meeting he was having in damascus. He was the Senior Iranian general in syria and lebanon two countries iran regards as critical parts in what it says is its system of forward defence, the so called axis of resistance. In damascus the syrian Foreign Minister said the general and others who died were killed by israel. Translation we strongly condemn this Criminal Act L carried out by the zionist enemy. These attacks can only be met by further steadfastness, further support for the Palestinian People and further resistance whether in iraq or in southern leba
Targets. The countrys defence minister, yoav gallant, has warned the Military Campaign against hamas, which is designated a Terrorist Organisation by the uk and other western governments, could take up to three months. Saying the focus now is on limited airstrikes. Officials in gaza say more than 5,000 people have been killed by air strikes in the just over two weeks since hamas massacred 1,400 civilians in southern israel. Hamas massacred civilians here in southern israel. While the war continues, israel has said it will continue to allow aid into gaza but not fuel. With electricity already cut many hospitals say they have only a few days of fuel left to power generators. With more, heres our correspondent wyre davies. You may find some of his report distressing. Its a part of gaza where people should have felt relatively safe, the southern part of the strip is for israel and ordered more than a million palestinians to play away from their targets in the north but last night was the w
20 vehicles carrying medicine and food passed through on saturday the first since israel tightened its blockade of the territory. The Rafah Crossing is on the egyptian border and is the only route not bordering israel, which means its currently the only potential way to deliver humanitarian aid into gaza. Well have the latest on the aid trying to get into gaza in the next hour. In other developments in the conflict today, irans Foreign Minister has accused israel of committing genocide in gaza, and has warned the situation in the middle east risks spiralling out of control. Israel has been continuing to carry out aerial bombing of gaza. These pictures are from the past hour. Its nowjust over two weeks since the hamas attacks inside israel, in which 1,400 people were killed. The Palestinian Health Ministry Says about 4,700 gazans, mainly civilians, have been killed in the israeli air strikes. Israels military has warned civilians in gaza to keep moving south for their own safety, as it