the united nations secretary general has — in the last hour — made two direct humanitarian appeals to both hamas and israel. antonio guterres issued a statement saying it was his duty as we are "on the verge of the abyss in the middle east". he called on hamas to immediately release the hostages it was holding without conditions. and urged israel to allow rapid and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid into gaza — including supplies and workers for the sake of civilians there. mr guterres said "each one of these two objectives are valid in themselves. they should not become bargaining chips and must be implemented because it's the right thing to do". the statement comes as the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, said his military is ready to begin — at any moment — a ground offensive aimed at crushing hamas. thousands of people in the gaza strip are continuing to flee south — after an order by israel for more than a million people to evacuate. these are the latest developments. israeli troops continue to mass near gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive — but it has given no indication of when it might mount an attack. these pictures show tanks arriving today. the israeli air strikes on gaza continue — it says it is targeting hamas positions. hamas is designated as a terror organisation by many western governments including the uk. gazan health officials say the number of palestinians killed has risen to 2,670 with 9,600 others wounded. the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu has held the first meeting of his emergency cabinet. he described those who killed more than moo israelis as "monsters." mr netanyahu said that his country's forces were ready at any moment to demolish hamas. in gaza a hospital serving thousands of patients in khan younis has warned that it will run out of power completely on monday due to israel's blockade of the territory. israel has said it has turned water pipes into southern gaza back on. the un aid agency told the bbc gaza is "being pushed into an abyss". egypt's president, abdel fattah al—sisi, says israel's reaction to the attacks by hamas has gone beyond self—defence and amounts to collective punishment. he was speaking to america's top diplomat, antony blinken, in cairo. after the talks mr blinken urged israel to do everything possible to avoid harming civilians. we'll report from inside gaza, and take a look at how any israeli military operation might pan out. and, what of the ongoing diplomatic efforts, in the crisis. but first, here's jeremy bowen. israel declared its war aims even before the tanks arrived. first, demolishing hamas so it can never be a threat again and arranging more than 1300 people, mostly its own civilians massacred by hamas. in the last few days, the border has become an armed camp. israel says its offensive is anchored injustice, security and morality. it has mobilised 360,000 reservists. border communities like a kibbutz that were barely defended when hamas stormed him are no mac staging areas for the offensive. 0ne certainty is that when israeli soldiers before worth many more palestinian civilians will die. gaza was printed again, the eighth day in a row. —— pounded again. mohammed's sons, daughters and cousins have been killed, eight of them with three bodies still trapped in the rubble. they did not carry guns, he said. many palestinians see the body bags and believe israel's campaign against hamas is also aimed at forcing them out of gaza for good. translation: the price of losing said a hardline israeli politician is for gaza to get smaller. that is the language palestinians understand. the hamas magic —— massacres and the response from israel they have unleashed destroyed which seem to be the status quo. fear is already a winner. the soldiers looked like they are ready for whatever comes next. in tel aviv the war cabinet has been meeting at the ministry of defence, finalising details and making decisions. the big question though is how long the operation will take and what happens afterwards? this afternoon israeli troops patrolled the gaza boundary, very soon they will cross it is this long conflict hurtles into its next destructive chapter. jeremy bowen, bbc news. southern israel. ever since last weekend's unprecedented attack by hamas, israel and egypt have not allowed journalists to enter gaza. but palestinians trapped inside have been trying to get their stories out. our former gaza correspondent, jon donnison, has been speaking to one young woman who over the past week has been documenting her daily life there. we are evacuating, we are leaving our houses... bisan owda is a 25—year—old film—maker in gaza. she's been posting a video diary about life under fire. and other safe places, but there's no safe places in gaza. last monday, israel warned people in her neighbourhood to flee their homes. bisan decided to head for shelter at a nearby hospital. pray for us. and later that night, israel did bomb the ramal district of gaza city, reducing much of it to rubble. this is the first bottle of water that i'm going to drink from it. with a complete blockade of gaza in place, bisan, like millions of others, has been running out of basic necessities. there is no food, there is nothing. then on friday, another warning from the skies — israel dropping leaflets telling more than a million people in the north of gaza to flee to the south. and so they went, in their hundreds of thousands. but not bisan — she and herfamily decided to stay put in the north, and later that day, another update from the hospital. do you remember when i said that they did push people to evacuate from the northern to the southern areas via a safe route, as they said? ok, that was a trick, that was a trick. they targeted ambulances, cars and buses. israel says it's investigating what happened in an apparent air strike on the main road heading south. outside, look, there's no electricity at all. as bisan waits to see what the night will bring, she gives her own sign—off. it's now 10pm. i collect my stuff to my bag in case we need to evacuate as fast as we can, if there was bombing around us or on us during the night hours. this is my daily routine. what about yours? tell me. jon donnison, bbc news. pray for us. there's once again limited phone and internet connection in parts of gaza. our correspondent rushdi abalouf has sent us this update, a bit earler, from a hospital in khan younis in the south of gaza. the humanitarian situation is deteriorating, reaching the level of catastrophic as the director of this hospital in khan younis told me. he said we have as little as 200 litres of fuel to run all the essential operation for the hospital and they expecting tomorrow midnight should all the generators in the hospital here will stop. the hospital is providing services for not only 4000 people who originally lived in khan younis but for another half million palestinians who are displaced from their homes in gaza city and the north. what happens next? let's get more now from our middle east correspondent, tom bateman, who's injerusalem. well, the israeli military said this morning that it would be a political decision about when a ground invasion starts. so we know that they are effectively ready, or ready enough, to start a form of ground offensive. they said that will be extremely large, by land, sea and air. that was in the updates that it was giving yesterday. but they have effectively said it is now down to the israeli government over the timing. we have had antony blinken, the us secretary of state, as you were mentioning, in the region, this shuttle diplomacy that has gone on for two to three days now. he has now said he will return to israel tomorrow. i think we have to bear that in mind when talking about a ground offensive. clearly, with the us secretary of state in town, it may have a bearing on the military decisions, but we don't know. i think what mr blinken was saying was also important. so a couple of points to make. first of all, he gave some quite positive signals about the rafah crossing, saying it will reopen. that is the crossing on the border between egypt and gaza. the significance of that is it would mean some palestinians could get out of gaza, those who hold dual nationality, they hold a foreign passport. they have been told, many of them, to go close to rafah in anticipation of the opening of the border. the egyptians have been trying to get aid convoys in through that crossing, but the israelis bombed it during the week and were preventing that from happening. so some positive signals about that. that would bring some much—needed relief to that catastrophic humanitarian situation that we have just been hearing about in the gaza strip. and the other point about antony blinken was that in all of these meetings, he has been talking about the need to prevent a regional conflagration, a regional explosion from all of this. now after his meeting in particular with mohammed bin salman, the saudi crown prince, he said it had been very productive. that is probably quite a positive sign at this stage, given there is a line of communication between the saudis and their arch—rivals the iranians. iran has the power to sort of direct hezbollah in lebanon to dial up or dial down its activities. but this remains an extremely dangerous situation. i think the return of mr blinken to israel suggests that some talking is still happening. let us talk more about the diplomacy which is ongoing. let's bring in gerald firestein — a former us ambassador to yemen and served as deputy consul general injerusalem. he's now a distinguished senior fellow on us diplomacy at the middle east institute. thank you for being with us. i want to start with a thought on diplomacy, we know antony blinken has completed that tour of arab nations to try and de—escalate this crisis but as we appear to be on the eve of this ground offensive —— offensive do you think this changes anything? it is offensive do you think this changes an hinu ? , ., offensive do you think this changes an him? ,., , offensive do you think this changes an hin? n, , ., offensive do you think this changes an hin? , anything? it is a pleasure to be with ou anything? it is a pleasure to be with you today. _ anything? it is a pleasure to be with you today. i _ anything? it is a pleasure to be with you today. i think- anything? it is a pleasure to be with you today. i think it - anything? it is a pleasure to be with you today. i think it is - with you today. i think it is extremely important that not only secretary blinking go to these capital and talk about our us perspective and try to enlist their support in limiting any expansion of the conflict but i also think it is important for antony blinken to hear what is on the minds of our interlocutors in the region. if you look at the nuances that are beginning to appear in your statements, antony blinken's statements, antony blinken's statements, you see a focus on the humanitarian situation, in gaza, concern about the palestinians. i think that is a reflection of the concern and worry he is hearing from his counterparts in the region. maw; his counterparts in the region. many --eole will his counterparts in the region. many peeple will look _ his counterparts in the region. many people will look at _ his counterparts in the region. many people will look at what _ his counterparts in the region. many people will look at what is _ people will look at what is happening right now, we hear calls for de—escalation and diplomacy from many world leaders, in the last hour the un secretary—general to direct humanitarian appeals to hamas and israel but at the same time it appears little will change as far as the ground offensive is concerned and attention will turn to the fate of civilians still in gaza.— of civilians still in gaza. yes. i think that _ of civilians still in gaza. yes. i think that is — of civilians still in gaza. yes. i think that is correct. - of civilians still in gaza. yes. i think that is correct. but - of civilians still in gaza. yes. i think that is correct. but in i of civilians still in gaza. yes. i. think that is correct. but in terms of the offensive which inevitably i think will go forward, there is also an issue of the scope and extent of the offensive. i think what we are probably going to see is while the israelis were initially talking about something which would last for weeks, perhaps even months, it is becoming clear they might not have that kind of time. the international community will become increasingly focused on the need to end this conflict, that the objective they had laid out of the destruction of hamas is perhaps an unachievable one and they need to find some solution that comes in less. then the big question is, at the end of this round of fighting, we need to find a way of moving forward to try to begin the political process again. a scorched earth policy on the part of the israelis will not permit diplomacy to succeed in the future. yes, and that is the focus of a lot of the discussions right now. you will have seen is we have many comments from around the world but one is quite striking coming from china's foreign minister saying israel response had gone beyond the scope of self defence. that is the challenge, we spoke to the idf earlier and they said they're focuses to incapacitate the ability of hamas to cause disruption in israel but where is their balance between destroying hamas and killing civilians? and the civilian problem and crisis getting worse by the hour. . , , t, , ., hour. precisely. that is in the long term what — hour. precisely. that is in the long term what is _ hour. precisely. that is in the long term what is going _ hour. precisely. that is in the long term what is going to _ hour. precisely. that is in the long term what is going to be _ term what is going to be determinative in all of this, while there is a huge level of sympathy and empathy for what is a huge level of sympathy and empathy for what israelis have gone through, what they have confronted over these last daysis they have confronted over these last days is horrific but at the same time, there is a requirement that the response be proportionate and that's to simply say we're going destroy this population, this movement, is not an achievable objective and can only lead to mass killing and destruction and that is not going to be acceptable to the international community. the other thin on international community. the other thing on the — international community. the other thing on the minds _ international community. the other thing on the minds of _ international community. the other thing on the minds of people - international community. the other thing on the minds of people is - international community. the other| thing on the minds of people is that iran is warning of far—reaching consequences if israel continues attacking. this is the concern that it becomes much more than a conflict between israel and gaza? yes it becomes much more than a conflict between israel and gaza?— between israel and gaza? yes and of course the us _ between israel and gaza? yes and of course the us has _ between israel and gaza? yes and of course the us has moved _ between israel and gaza? yes and of course the us has moved one - between israel and gaza? yes and of course the us has moved one carrierj course the us has moved one carrier battle group and is sending a second one to the eastern mediterranean precisely because of concern that hezbollah might become engaged, the iranians as you said are reportedly threatening to become involved if israel goes into gaza. my guess is that antony blinken's conversation with his chinese counterparts today focused a lot on trying to get the chinese to intercede with iran to make sure they do not do anything which will further inflate the situation. , ., ., which will further inflate the situation. ., t, which will further inflate the situation-— which will further inflate the situation. ., t, , situation. good to have you with us, thank ou situation. good to have you with us, thank you for— situation. good to have you with us, thank you forjoining _ situation. good to have you with us, thank you forjoining us _ situation. good to have you with us, thank you forjoining us on - situation. good to have you with us, thank you forjoining us on the - thank you forjoining us on the programme tonight. the former ambassador to yemen and a diplomat injerusalem. ambassador to yemen and a diplomat in jerusalem-— the israeli prime minister, binjamin netanyahu, has promised to destroy hamas, and his defence forces seem set for a major offensive into gaza. but what are the challenges israel's forces will face? our defence correspondent, jonathan beale has this assessment. this is who israel's now at war with. hamas, who last week crossed the border, solely focused on taking life, murdering women and children. for most, it was, in effect, a suicide mission. the left side of my head was hit with shrapnel from an rpg or a grenade, hard to say exactly what. got shot in my finger on my left hand, and a bullet got wedged in the left side of my neck. yoav, who grew up in london, was among the first israeli military casualties of this war. he won't be the last. we've been asked to hide his identity. he says israel's fighting an enemy unlike any conventional army. they have only one interest, which is to to killjews. there was no preservation of their ability to go home afterwards. they were going to die doing whatever they wanted to do, and that meant killing as many people along the way, they'd die doing it. this is just some of their arsenal. israel today displaying to journalists weapons they've seized. they say this is just 20% of the weapons hamas brought into israel, and it is just a fraction of what israeli forces will face when they go into gaza. israel says many of these are built in factories inside gaza itself. are you worried about israeli forces going in if they've got factories producing this? i'm not worried. the idf can deal with everything that stays in that room and more. but this is only a fraction of what they have. yeah. the tightly packed streets of gaza is where israel could soon be fighting, which hamas knows best. it could be littered with booby traps and roadside bombs and their network of hidden underground tunnels. brutal urban warfare can favour the defender. hamas still has one bargaining chip — more than a hundred israeli hostages. one israeli who's helped negotiate prisoner exchanges in the past is once again working his hamas contacts. they're still talking, but he's noted a dramatic change of mood. in the first days, they were boasting their bravery and their heroism and how they surprised israel. and in the last few days, the tone is very different. their tone is, "we're going to fight to the death, we're not afraid of dying." israel is preparing for a major offensive. but invasions are often easier to plan than to execute — and getting out harder than going in. jonathan beale, bbc news, southern israel. now, away from events in the midde east, it is a big day in poland. parliamentary elections have just concluded. poles have finished casting their votes in what some have described as a bitterly fought and highly divisive contest. the polish electoral commission is reporting that turnout was likely the highest since the fall of communism. the right—wing law and justice party is seeking to secure a third term in office, locked in a fierce battle with the liberal opposition led by former european council president donald tusk. according to the the first exit poll released in the last hour — the governing law &justice party are in the lead but are likely to fall short of a majority, opening the the possibility that opposition parties could take power in a coalition. let's go live now to warsaw, where is our eastern europe correspondent — sarah rainsford. just explain a bit of the background to this, it has been a fiercely fought campaign, what have been the major issues in this election? yes. major issues in this election? yes, extremely fiercely _ major issues in this election? yes, extremely fiercely fought, - major issues in this election? yes, extremely fiercely fought, a - major issues in this election? 1a: extremely fiercely fought, a very divisive election, a very polarised country going into the vote. the main issues have been about the kind of polled people want the future. here people really felt this was historic and they were deciding something because the opposition and supporters were casting this is a vote about democracy itself. they pointed to eu concerns about the rule of law in the country and the freedom of the press for example whereas the government itself are talking about security, illegal migration and social spending, a lot more money forfamilies migration and social spending, a lot more money for families so very different camps and a very polarised country. now we have one exit poll which suggests things could change dramatically in this country if the vote goes the way the exit poll went. which means opposition parties could form a coalition and leave the country. the opposition leader donald tusk was at the election event an hour ago, a huge crowd of people cheering his name. he was greeted like a rock star. he said, we have won our beloved poland, this is the end of the bad times and the end of the ruling party. the ruling party were more subdued in their election event and sent a long road ahead and we are waiting for further development and there could be days of struggle and tension ahead of us. i think that is guaranteed. account still has to happen and some people are still voting because the turnout has been extraordinarily high, at least 73%, a record for the whole of polish democracy.— polish democracy. thank you very much. of course _ polish democracy. thank you very much. of course big _ polish democracy. thank you very much. of course big questions . polish democracy. thank you very i much. of course big questions about forming a coalition given how divisive the election campaign has been. stay with us here on the bbc. hello there. for most of you, today's been dry, plenty of sunshine, glorious skies and underneath the sunny skies you could make out some snow here on the tops of the scottish mountains in glencoe. meanwhile, in cumbria, what a beautiful weather watcher picture we have here from the keswick area. it was in cumbria that we had a particularly cold start to the day, minus four in shap recorded earlier. you can see the extent of the sunshine, then, from the satellite picture earlier on. but across northern scotland we did have this week weather fronts that brought some persistent rain into parts of north highland, northern parts of aberdeenshire with some showers around as well for western scotland. and overnight that zone of rain is going to push its way northwards crossing orkney and shetland. so, there'll be some rain here for a time, otherwise it's a dry night with clear skies and it will turn cold again. temperatures in towns and cities getting down into low single figures, but in the countryside, cold enough once again for a nip of frost tomorrow. high pressure dominates, so for most, it's another dry day across western areas of the country. there'll be more in the way of high cloud around the sky, quite thick cloud as well. so, bright or hazy, sunny spells likely to come through that at times, central and eastern parts of both scotland and england having the best of the day sunshine. but there are likely to be some showers working into the thames estuary and a few showers at times for orkney and shetland. now, for tuesday i think there's a greater risk of seeing some mist and fog patches to start the day. these could be quite slow to clear another fine, unsettled sunny day for most on tuesday. but there will be some rain moving into parts of south west england and southern wales. towards the end of the day, temperatures starting to come up a little bit and then for the middle part of the week, it's all change. this area of low pressure moves across the uk, bringing its own of heavy rain and some strong winds on wednesday. the heaviest rain is going to be falling across england and wales, where i think we could see around 20—1t0 millimetres of rain building in here — that could cause one or two issues. but as well as the rain, we're also going to have some quite strong winds developing, particularly for scotland, around eastern coastal scotland, probably have some patches of light rain developing here with the best of any limited sunshine likely across the north west of scotland, temperatures about average 13—16 degrees. beyond that, we get the heavy rain then moving across northern england, northern ireland and in scotland for thursday, that lot eases away. but then we've got another low pressure coming in for friday with more heavy rain to end the week. this is bbc news. the headlines: israel continues its bombardment of the gaza strip, with fighter planes and drones striking targets across the territory. the white house says israel has turned on the water supply in southern gaza following a conversation between president biden and the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu. release the hostages and let aid in — the double appeal to hamas and israel from the un secretary—general as he warns the middle east is on the verge of an abyss. meanwhile, the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, holds a first cabinet meeting for his new national emergency government. and the us secretary of state, antony blinken, is to return to israel following talks in the region — he says that israel should take every precaution to avoid harming civilians. the last seven days have shaken this land, but the israeli/palestinian conflict is a seven—decade tragedy. many here are desperate for long—term change, after years of ongoing conflict. that is according to our correspondences on the ground. they have been speaking to one family living in the shadow of the past. a father and a son joined by blood — and now war. i do remember dad always doing something important, always being away and always doing something important. avihai is a 28—year—old engineer who could soon be deployed to gaza with the israeli army. he loves to climb. this is the roof of our house, and there are oranges on the tree that have to be picked. his father, ido, served in gaza with the defence forces back in 2005. he believed it was right for israel to pull out of the occupied territory that year, allowing the palestinians to govern themselves. he deeply believed in this move, and he also passed this feeling onto me. apparently, we were wrong — all of us. and now he's going to war. we wish to ourselves that he will come back home safe. thejewish people were supposed to be safe in israel. they believed there'd be no more mass murder living in their own land. but last week's attack resurrected painful ghosts. i have a letter here from churchill. at ido's home, he showed me anotherfamily album. my grand grandfather, my grand grandmother and their little child, they were murdered. that's his son and his wife, he was murdered. my grandmother's brother murdered. all of my grandmother's sisters and brothers were all murdered in the holocaust. jewish leaders said "never again", lobbying and battling for their own homeland. in191t7, after the united nations recommended the partition of the land known as palestine into two states — one for arabs, one forjews. israel declared independence the following year. but the arab world never accepted the new state, with at least 750,000 palestinians forced from their homes, many ending up as refugees in gaza. archive: palestinians call this the nakba, the catastrophe. . multiple conflicts came and went. battles for the return of their rightful lands, say the arabs. struggles for survival, say the israelis. war broke out again between neighbouring arab states and israel in 1967. israel won the six day war, with a million palestinians now under israeli control, including those in the seized territory of gaza. the following years saw the palestinians refuse to accept the occupation. there were uprisings and suicide—bombing attacks as israel held onto occupied land, building newjewish settlements. but eventually, israel withdrew, dismantling the settlements and pulling out troops in 2005. from this moment on, - the responsibility for all that takes place in gaza strip lays on the palestinians. - it was a mistake, what we did. but what can i say to those 1,500 people that was murdered now, that i supported this? this wouldn't have happened if we wouldn't withdraw. do you feel guilty? no. guilt — you are saying a very hard word, a very tough word for me to think, like in this way. but maybe it is the right word, i don't know. he'd prayed things would have been different in gaza. but in 2006, the islamists of hamas won elections in the territory, sparking a brief civil war with their secular palestinian rivals, fatah. archive: onto the streets| in an outpouring of anger... hamas eventually took control, and having never accepted israel's right to exist, the islamists continued to attack thejews, firing rockets and kidnapping soldiers and civilians — while israel continued to build on occupied land in the west bank. attempts to make peace in the �*90s failed, and israel put gaza under blockade and launched a number of ground offensives into the territory. after last week's atrocity, troops are poised to enter once again. we know innocent palestinians are already dying and more are going to lose their lives because of this whole thing. what are your thoughts for them? when you wage just wars, when you fight... ..not an army but you fight an ideology that is illiberal, that is extremist, there is a price for that. this is not my responsibility. this is hamas's responsibility for its own civilians. a hug between father and son, and a smile between two soldiers. the palestinians are also war weary, but as determined as ido and avihai to battle on — in a conflict where it seems no—one wins. an explanation there of some of the events that have led us to where we are today. as we heard earlier, the us secretary of state said israel must defend itself but in a way that protects human life. our international editor said the choice of words is deliberate for a number of words is deliberate for a number of reasons. of words is deliberate for a number of reasons-— of reasons. first, it is very clear hamas has _ of reasons. first, it is very clear hamas has committed - of reasons. first, it is very clear hamas has committed the - of reasons. first, it is very clear hamas has committed the most appalling war crimes. so he is saying to israel do not try and do anything that will allow people to say you are going down that route too. and of course israel's critics are already saying in terms of the pressure on the civilian population in gaza, they are breaking international humanitarian law. but it is more than that. he is also worried about escalation, about the war spreading, worried about escalation, about the warspreading, perhaps worried about escalation, about the war spreading, perhaps tojerusalem, war spreading, perhaps to jerusalem, perhaps war spreading, perhaps tojerusalem, perhaps the west bank, perhaps further afield, and a loss of palestinian civilian casualties might cause that process to speed up. that is why the americans are sending not one but two battle groups into the area and that is nothing to do with hamas, it is because they are worried about what iran might do, what hezbollah, iran's ally in lebanon, might do. as well as that, i think the americans are trying to calm things down. this is not something... they do not want the region to be heated up again. one more thing, i think that because the secretary of state, mr blinken, is due back here tomorrow, that may well delay the start of the israeli offensive. ., , ., ., ., ., offensive. that is our international editor there- _ as the fallout from the war continues, a civilian has been killed in israel by a missile fired from lebanon, the first to die the group hezbollah, which has links to iran, says that it carried out the attack. israel says it's retaliating by striking targets in southern lebanon. our middle east correspondent anna foster is on israel's border with lebanon and sent us this report. israel says it's responded to multiple attacks from lebanon through the day. in a week that's seen daily exchanges, this is the largest. it's been nearly an hour now that we've heard continuing fire going overhead, from both directions. most of it seems to be going from the israeli side to the lebanese. we are hearing some return fire as well. we've taken cover in a forested area. it's a bit more solid, offers a bit more protection. and we're continuing to hear these things going overhead all the time. earlier, the first civilian was killed on the northern border during this conflict. a builder who was working on a home in the village of shtula when an anti—tank missile from lebanon exploded nearby. we are now hearing our houses, there is no alert when they anti—tank missile is coming out. there is no alert. it's very fast. we hear the whistle and then it is one minute, less. hezbollah and its allies have claimed today's attacks. israel says the blame goes to the highest levels. translation: the state of lebanon bears responsibility for the firing - conducted from its territory. both sides have reiterated that they don't want an escalation here. but after a day of constant exchanges, it's a dangerous moment. actions may speak more loudly than words. anna foster, bbc news, on the israel—lebanon border. diplomatic responses to the crisis are continuing, but to what end? our diplomatic correspondent caroline hawley has more. bound for the middle east, a second american aircraft carrier. you can see the fighter planes on board. they're meant as a warning to deter anyone minded to open up another front in the war, to try to prevent this conflict spilling over. the american secretary of state, antony blinken, has been on a frantic tour of the region all week. behind every handshake, the horror of the hamas attack and now its deadly repercussions. in every arab capital, there is alarm at what israel is doing in response. so leaving cairo, he had this message. the way that israel does this matters. it needs to do it in a way that affirms the shared values that we have for human life and human dignity, taking every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians. there's growing international concern at the ever mounting casualties in gaza, the human cost of israel's retaliation. at a hospital in the town of khan younis, a desperate race to save lives after overnight israeli strikes. children among the injured. and this is the south of the gaza strip, where palestinians in the north have been told to go to keep safe. israel works within the framework of international law, the rules of armed conflict and by asking civilians to leave the territory we are making our effort to avoid civilian casualties. these lies right live on camera that israel sticks to the rules of international law. seriously? cutting food, electricity, targeting schools, churches, mosques? cutting people off from any sort of humanitarian assistance is the contours of international law? anger in arab and muslim countries at the suffering of gaza's civilians is growing. this was a protest in support of the palestinians in pakistan. there have also been anti—israel demonstrations in tunisia as well as turkey, yemen, iraq and jordan. this afternoon, king abdullah ofjordan came to downing street to meet rishi sunak. it's the first stop on a tour of europe to rally support to stop what the kingdom has called the war on gaza. last wednesday, the foreign secretary, james cleverly, visiting southern israel, had to take shelter as sirens warned of incoming rocket fire from hamas. today he urged restraint on israel, but declined to say it was committing war crimes. have they broken international law? there will be other very well informed and thoughtful voices that will disagree with that interpretation. what is the uk government interpretation? _ the point that i'm saying is the uk government is absolutely committed to the adherence of international human law and when we see breaches of that, we raise that, including with israel. tonight, israeli bombs are continuing to rain down on gaza where somewhere, there are british hostages held by hamas as well as a terrified population. caroline hawley, bbc news. it is now more than a week since more than 260 people were killed at the supernova music festival the supernova music festival in southern israel, after hamas fighters stormed the festival and opened fire. earlier we spoke to natalie, who had attended the music festival and was forced to run for her life. i'm doing ok considering the circumstances. i was at the festival, along with thousands of other innocent kids who just came to enjoy themselves. kids that had nothing to protect themselves. the rocket started at about 6:30am. i was there with three other people that i knew. and when the rockets started coming, i looked to other people. i looked to all these kids who are israeli citizens to see their reaction, to see how i should react. one of the girls came over to inform me some rockets have been intercepted over our heads, but that everything should be ok. something i would like to point out is if this festival took place anywhere else in the world and suddenly rockets were being intercepted over our heads, nobody would have a reaction like that. these kids have gone through this before. they have lived in war their entire lives. this isn't their first time experiencing something to that extent of rockets being intercepted over their heads. but nobody could have imagined how bad it was going to get. the security of the festival had shut off the music and asked us to evacuate to our cars, which i think for a lot of these kids was the first time where they realised the severity of the situation. at first they thought that maybe it would just be a few rockets and that it would end and that everything would be ok and that we were safe. we went to our cars, we packed up our things. yesterday i saw a video that was released, it was my first time seeing this video, of the hamas terrorists shooting at the bathroom stalls on the festival grounds. when we first evacuated and went to our cars, i asked my friends... i knew that it would take a while for us to get off the grounds. everybody was trying to leave at the same time. ..and i asked them, "do you think i have time to go to the bathroom? "do you think i have time to go back before we head out?" and they said, "yeah, of course". and i was in those exact stalls that were being shot at. and to see that video and to realise how close i was to being killed if i was in those stalls just minutes later, was very intense for me to see. after we had gotten into our cars, the security of the festival, they asked everybody to start driving out. we started driving and eventually they tell us to turn around and start driving in another direction, which i think was the second time where i started to get nervous. i started to realise that we don't have all the information, that we don't know everything that's going on, that maybe it's not just rockets. there's a reason why they're asking us to turn around in a different direction. after driving that other direction, they started to yell at us to get out of our cars and start running. at first we couldn't comprehend why. and that's when we heard the first gunshots. and that's when we, for the first time, realised that the terrorists were much closer than we thought that they were. that they're here on foot, that they have guns and that they're shooting at us. we got out of our cars at that exact moment and just started running. imagine you're one of these kids, you're in an open field, you don't know what direction to run in. everybody was running in different directions. after running for a little bit, one of the scariest things that i saw was dozens of kids running in my direction and making me realise that we are not running to safety, that there is no safety because they were running from a terrorist that was shooting at them and we had to make a split second decision to run in another direction to try to run to safety. a lot of kids tried to hide. we ran past a ditch with a lot of kids in it and they told us to come down to get into the ditch to hide with them. and one of my friends that i was with yelled at us and said, "no, don't, don't hide in the ditch. "if we hide in this ditch and they come from above us, "we have nowhere to run." so we kept running. and i laterfound out that many of the kids that were in that ditch are no longer with us today, that they had been shot and killed. we ran for about four hours. we were told to run in the direction of a nearby town to try to run to safety. after about two hours of running, we had come across a police officer. he didn't have much information for us either. he couldn't even call for back—up. the local police station have been taken over by the terrorists and they had taken over their radio station. and on this police officer's walkie talkie, we could hear the terrorists yelling. he couldn't tell anyone where we were to come help us, because then they would hear and they would come for us. after about four hours of running, we had decided to take a break, to sit and catch our breath under a tree in the shade. we were running in the sun for hours. when we sat down, we saw a big pick—up truck driving straight towards us and our first reaction was that this was a terrorist coming for us. we tried to get up and run and then we realised we have nowhere to run to. there's nowhere to hide. after a few minutes when the driver arrived, we realised that it was someone from the town that left the safety of his town, that drove towards all this chaos to save innocent people. if it wasn't for this man, i most likely wouldn't be here today. that was natalie sharing her account of events at the music festival last weekend, now more than a week since that attack on the music festival. meanwhile the humanitarian situation inside gaza continues to deteriorate without power, medicine and limited water supplies. i've been speaking to gabriella waaijman, humanitarian director at save the children international. i asked her about the situation inside gaza right now. the situation is absolutely dramatic inside gaza. it is already having horrendous consequences for children. and we are deeply, deeply concerned that any further escalation will have further dramatic consequences for the people in gaza. as the colleague was mentioning, there is no safe place left in gaza. there are no shelters left, there is no water, there is no food. children are absolutely terrified. so this is really as dramatic as it gets. all the eyewitnesses accounts that we receive, the people that we speak to in gaza, tell us ofjust how desperate the situation is right now. and i wonder, given what you do, where are you able to help? what help can you offer? and i'm thinking perhaps at the border with egypt, where many people are now massing, they are unable to leave. and the humanitarian crisis in the south of gaza is getting worse by the hour. yeah, our staff in gaza are among the people affected. they are like everybody else, you know, running away. they have had to leave their homes. they are in the shelters or outside of the shelter since there isn't enough room for everybody to be in the shelters. so inside gaza, there is very, very little that we're able to do. our staff basically need assistance right now and is not able to give assistance. we're very worried about them. i heard one from one of our colleagues who was able to get through to us and i know him. he's an absolute stalwart normally, but he said he's losing hope. and his dream these days, he said, is to just wake up with his children still in his arms. he's incredibly worried. so what we are able to do is to prepare ourselves as best as we can to provide assistance if and when the borders open and we can get something across. so we have goods pre—positioned on the egyptian side. we are in contact with the israeli authorities as well to try and get access into gaza. yes, and that's what i wanted to ask. what do those preparations look like? some of this feels quite helpless, doesn't it, at the moment? but if you are able to make a difference for the people that need your help, what does that help look like? so we have bought medical supplies, we have bought food packages, we have bought what we call non—food items. so this is soap, buckets, things that you need basically other than food. and we have rented trucks. we are collaborating with the egyptian red crescent because all assistance on the egyptian side is coordinated through the egyptian red crescent. they have an agreement with the palestinian red crescent for a handover at the border at the moment that this is facilitated by the authorities. the road on the egyptian side is also affected because it has been bombed, the area, so the road is very difficult to pass. but save the children and other aid agencies as well, collectively, we're putting as many goods on the border as possible, water and other goods. and gabriella, given what you do, quite clearly your focus is on protecting children who are victims of this war. quite clearly, too. what specific help are you able to provide for children who are caught up in this crisis? yeah, this is not the first time, of course, that children in both israel and in palestine have been affected by an escalation in the conflict. and let me be very clear, this is notjust another escalation. this is of a magnitude that we have not seen before. but we do have experience with very, very traumatised children, so we provide what we call child protection services. so we do games with children, we organise them in what we call child—friendly spaces. we have psychosocial support services there that monitor these children and have really good ways to make them speak, to let them open up. and for the very severe cases, we then have referral pathways to more professional help where needed. we also provide educational support and of course any of the basic life—saving support. that was it gabriella there from save the children talking to me about some of the help they are trying to provide to those in gaza right now. ijust wanted to show you the scene in gaza tonight as more troops amass on the border. we are expecting a ground offensive that would target hamas militants. israelis telling 1.1 million gazans to move south. we have noted a number of flashes, large explosions occurring. it is dark right now, no electricity, and even though the authorities say they have turned on the water pipes back to garzo, local residents there telling us they need power to operate pumps have running water. we know conditions in gaza are worsening by the hour, water, food, medicine all in scarce supply. the un warning the middle east is on the verge of an abyss. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. for most of you, today's been dry, plenty of sunshine, glorious skies and underneath the sunny skies you could make out some snow here on the tops of the scottish mountains in glencoe. meanwhile, in cumbria, what a beautiful weather watcher picture we have here from the keswick area. it was in cumbria that we had a particularly cold start to the day, minus four in shap recorded earlier. you can see the extent of the sunshine, then, from the satellite picture earlier on. but across northern scotland we did have this week weather fronts that brought some persistent rain into parts of north highland, northern parts of aberdeenshire with some showers around as well for western scotland. and overnight that zone of rain is going to push its way northwards crossing orkney and shetland. so, there'll be some rain here for a time, otherwise it's a dry night with clear skies and it will turn cold again. temperatures in towns and cities getting down into low single figures, but in the countryside, cold enough once again for a nip of frost tomorrow. high pressure dominates, so for most, it's another dry day and across western areas of the country there'll be more in the way of high cloud around the sky, quite thick cloud as well. so, bright or hazy, sunny spells likely to come through that at times, central and eastern parts of both scotland and england having the best of the day's sunshine. but there are likely to be some showers working into the thames estuary and a few showers at times for orkney and shetland. now, for tuesday i think there's a greater risk of seeing some mist and fog patches to start the day. these could be quite slow to clear. another fine, settled and sunny day for most on tuesday. but there will be some rain moving into parts of south west england and southern wales. towards the end of the day, temperatures starting to come up a little bit and then for the middle part of the week, it's all change. this area of low pressure moves across the uk, bringing a zone of heavy rain and some strong winds on wednesday. the heaviest rain is going to be falling across england and wales, where i think we could see around 20—1t0 millimetres of rain building in here — that could cause one or two issues. but as well as the rain, we're also going to have some quite strong winds developing, particularly for scotland, around eastern coastal scotland, probably have some patches of light rain developing here with the best of any limited sunshine likely across the north west of scotland, temperatures about average, 13—16 degrees. beyond that, we get the heavy rain then moving across northern england, northern ireland and into scotland for thursday, that lot eases away. but then we've got another low pressure coming in for friday with more heavy rain to end the week. welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm arunoday mukharji. let's get you the headlines. release the hostages and let aid in — the double appeal to hamas and israel from the un secretary general as he warns the middle east is on the verge of an abyss. israel continues its bombardment of the gaza strip, with fighter planes and drones striking targets across the territory. the white house says israel has turned on the water supply in southern gaza, following a conversation between us presidentjoe biden and the israeli prime minister. and the us secretary of state anthony blinken is to return to israel following talks in the region — he says that israel should take every precaution to avoid harming civilians. welcome to the programme. starting with the developments in israel, where the military says

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