Government. And the World Health Organization declares west africas ebola out break an International Health emergency. But we open this news hour in iraq which is facing the biggest threat to its security since the events which follow the u. S. Led invasion in 2003. We are hearing reports that air strikes have started, now in the north of the country after president obamas announcement on thursday that america would carry out limited action to prevent what the president described as genicide. That is because the Islamic State group has more gains in iraq and syria in resent days and threatening people to convert to its version of islam, pay a tax or leave. And its made worse by the continuing political crisis in baghdad where the deadline for the selection of the new Prime Minister is approaching and deadlock for months as maliki is accused of causing it by excluding minority groups. Lets go straight to jane on the line from northern iraq. Jane, bring us up to date and hearing about possible air strikes at the moment they are only reports. Can you confirm what is happening . Reporter well, there are air strikes just not entirely clear now from Kurdish Security sources where they would have hit. We understand that it was directed against an artillery battery used by the Islamic State against Kurdish Forces. This is one of the reasons of course the Islamic State has been able to push through so many kurdish defenses. It has artillery and mortars and equipment and weapons seized from iraqi forces that belonged to the United States. That is one of the things that the u. S. Is trying to address, one of the things in the bill where there is a rising sense of panic in terms of the United States and they need more weapons. The u. S. Is not giving weapons because they are part of iraq and not an independent country and now all bets are off with the onslaught of the Islamic State and continued gains by fighters in parts of iraq. Is it confirmed jane that the fighters and strikes are carried out by the United States . Reporter that does appear to be the case according to sources and would have to of course be announcement from the United States which normally is quite clear when it has targeted, targets like that given that president obama has declared publically that that is going to happen. However, kurdish sources here have been giving a variety of different reports, some saying that there have also been strikes based in turkey. The turkish government denied that. The only thing that is there is there have indeed been strikes there likely to have been american strikes but that actually does require american confirmation. Jane reporting, thanks jane very much. U. S. Secretary of state john kerry says the isis campaign shows all warning signs of a genicide. Now it was a gut wrenching humanitarian crisis unfolding before our eyes and the rolls of the starving and sick growing daily and the potential of further executions cold blooded executions taking place because people are a minority huddled for safety on a mountain top, because of that the United States with president obamas decision has made its decision that it must save these lives and the world needs to join us in a condemnation of isis actions. Reporter iraqs most senior person told leaders to unite to confront the threat of the Islamic State group. And he made a plea as tens of thousands of christians and minority groups flee from the isis advance and what will be interpreted as a criticism of the Prime Minister maliki and says those clinging to positions are making a grave mistake. Lets move to gaza now and the conflict there. We are getting reports from cairo that talks have started and agreement has been reached over most major issues. Earlier israel renewed its assault on gaza falling the end of a 72hour cease fire. There have been air strikes in the north and east of the strip and severed explosions in gaza city. Palestinian child killed and 8 injured since the israeli strikes resumed and three refugee camps hit as well. Israeli army says at least 33 rockets have been fired from gaza, one soldier and civilian were injured. As for talks in egypt israeli delegation left cairo before the end of that cease fire. And gone back to jerusalem. Ntf is live in georgia virginia for us, clear up for us these stories coming out of cairo because earlier we were saying the israeli delegation left cairo even before the cease fire was broken. So what is happening . Are the israelis back in cairo now and what has been reached . What deal has been done . Reporter well, we have not heard whether or not the israeli delegation has returned back from jerusalem to cairo. Very short flight so its not difficult for them to get there. However, what we can say is although we have seen more air strikes, although we have seen more artill very shelling and more deaths and injuries the situation here in the gaza strip is relatively calm and speaking with analysts and discussing what is going on here. Of course the israeli said that they will meet calm with calm and has not been the case with lots of rockets being fired towards israel by the faction fighting here. Again what is going on behind the scenes. One person i was speaking to said the fact that the israelis have not said categorically these talks were over, that they failed, was a good sign, was a sign there is a reasonable chance that discussions will resume once again. Now of course we are only hearing preliminary reports out of cairo that some sort of agreement may have been reached at least between the egyptians and the palestinian delegation that is there, it would lend to this belief that these talks although the cease fire ended and violence started again that talks were still on going and some sort of agreement may ultimately be reached. Thanks for that report from gaza. Since israels military assault on the strip began about a month ago, 64 Israeli Soldiers and 3 civilians including a ty national have been killed. Gazas Health Ministry says 1893 palestinians have been killed. Three quarters are civilians akd according to u. N. And more than 8900 palestinians wanded and more are hiding in u. N. Shelters. Danielle is the president of the group, an israelbased risk consultant and former member of israeli army and joins me from tel aviv and the talks we thought had broken up in cairo. Do you know or do you think its likely that israel are still talking to hamas . First of all thanks for having me. The talks are a little bit more complicated. First of all israel is not talking to hamas, they are talking to egypt and egypt talks to hamas. And, in fact, i would also say the talks i think even hamas also said that the talks never actually broke down, that they would continue talking for a truce even though the 72hour cease fire had broken down which ended at 8 00. So it looks like the rocket fire that we saw this morning promptly after the cease fire ended was a part of hamas negotiating tactics. It does because hamas said. Sort of leverage their position. This is exactly what hamas is saying, they want israel to negotia negotiate. Right. And that is something that israel and the egyptians have both said they would not do. The egyptian framework for a truce was that fighting first stops and both sides come together and then they Start Talking. So that has been an agreement, that has been a demand by israel and you can see that is how they got to cairo over the past few days because hamas agreed to stop firing i believe i was on tuesday and then we had talks start again. The problem is that hamas clearly didnt get what it wanted from egyptians and israel from those talks which is why we saw the threats of violence come back, because they are trying to use the rockets to leverage their position when the they otherwise would not have gotten what they wanted. Danielle, at one time egypt posed as friendly face towards hamas. Does it now want to attack or cripple or damage hamas and put gaza under the control of what it would like to see as a unified Palestinian Government . First of all, think about egypt has been in an open conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood movement, the regional Muslim Brotherhood movement and extends to turkey and katar and if you look at hamas, he is the Muslim Brotherhood branch with its own military and you can see how egypt would relate to that. There is no question in my mind and i dont think anybody else in israel thatn as the current government came to power they sought to weaken hamas using any means necessary and if that means having israel do the dirty work and with International Criticism i would say it was really egypt that pushed hamas in a corner shutting off the crossing and destroying the tunnels and it put hamas in a corner with no way to fight out and that is what its doing in the conflict. This conflict is as much of a fight between hamas and egypt as it is a fight between hamas and israel which is why you can see that some of these negotiations happening in cairo broke down even before israel could step in the picture, there is a lot of bad blood between the egyptian and hamas side and a lot of insulting going on and its clear to many, will not let it finish, he wants to finish with the Palestinian Authority sitting across from the rafa border. They have a very big suez canal extension project and dont want hamas to have any demands like expanding a sea port, building a sea port which can allow weapons to flow from gaza to the peninsula. So this policy towards weakening hamas i think has been a big reason why the conflict has persisted as long as it has because egypt and israel and egypt perhaps more than israel has an interest in weakening hamas, seeing it as an extension of its own Muslim Brotherhood adversary. Daniel many thanks for joining us from tel aviv. Lets go back to our top story, breaking news indeed about air strikes, possibly carried out by the u. S. Airforce. Lets go to washington. Roslyn jordan is there, roslyn president obama authorized air strikes in iraq in order what he said to prevent genicide and protect american lives. It was a dramatic statement from the state dining room at the white house, wasnt it . Have strikes started, do you know . Yes. Air strikes did start at 10 45 gmt, 6 45 a. M. Here in the United States east coast. The pentagon says that two fa18 fighter jets dropped 500 pound laser guided bombs on an isil mobile artillery unit attacking Kurdish Forces and they are on the perimeter where the u. S. Has a consulate as well as a joint Operation Center which is helping the Iraqi Military and the kurdish deal with the threat from isil. As we heard late on thursday night here in the United States, u. S. President barack obama said that if there were any threat of isil trying to attack the u. S. Consulate or u. S. Persons inside there he had given the pentagon the authority to launch these air strikes and the commander of sencom general lloyd austin gave the order on the east coast and the air strikes have taken place. We dont know how many people might have been injured or killed in the air strike. But the pentagon does confirm that these air strikes did happen. Again, at 10 45 Eastern Daylight Time, excuse me 6 45 Eastern Daylight Time in the United States. The president also said in that statement that he would not allow the u. S. To be dragged deeper into iraqs civil war. Of course, people will now Start Talking that the u. S. Is becoming much more involved in iraqs civil war. There will be concerns on the hill about that, wont there . There will be concerns and one thing which Administration Officials took pains to stress late on thursday night was they had been consulting very closely with congressional leaders particularly those involved in the supervision of military affairs here in the United States and so far the reaction first to the overnight air drop of humanitarian supplies to the community who is on mount sinjar was a positive one but no Immediate Reaction to these air strikes because we are just getting this confirmation. That said, the earlier reaction coming from congressional leaders was that this might have come later than they had preferred but in general they understood the president s rationale for giving this authorization and generally approved it. Members of congress are away from washington for the month of august, but certainly they will be weighing in especially if the u. S. Were to judge that any more of a military involvement would be required. Officials say that their understanding is that they would need to give notification under the war powers act, that could be very complicated politically. So already those questions are going to be looked at. Reporting live from washington d. C. And thanks very much. Lots more to come on the news hour from doha including Malaysia Airlines in state ownership after losing two passenger jets in five months. In sport the football are hoping to take a chunk out of the ban for biting an opponent. Afghanistans rival president ial candidates signed a deal to cooperate on the formation of a National Unity government. That comes after the u. S. Secretary of state john kerry held a second day of talks and the two candidates have been in dispute over how the june election was handled and results are currently being audited. And Jennifer Glasse is in kabul for us. So, jennifer, do we know who is going to be president . Reporter not yet, steven and that is what the Afghan People are waiting to see and a lot of what this meeting was about, trying to move forward on that process, that election counts and audit process, the biggest the u. N. Has ever under taken, 8 million votes to be looked at again. They are already behind the pace they had hoped to set and until all votes are looked at steven we dont know who the next president is going to be but they will Work Together and work with the audit and it has been contentious and i was speaking to an international obevener who has been there a few days and seen three fistfights there, the idea is the two candidates trying to, who together hammering out the differences in the specifics about that audit as well as the specifics about a political deal they say they will move forward and form a unity government. So while one of them will not be president , certainly he will have a voice in whatever the new government will be. Call me a cynic but some people will be taking bets on how long the unity government so called lasts. Is all this a bit premature, jennifer, surely they should await for the votes are audited, shouldnt they . Well, they couldnt wait for the results of the vote being audited because steven the audit process has been so contentious and it has been bogged down in these conflicts this these differences and the need for clarification. And it looked as though both candidates were waiting to see who was going to be ahead before they went ahead on a political deal. As he said one of the candidates said today uncertainty is a real threat, uncertainty is a real problem and what they need here is a sense of certainty. That is what the agreement, this communicated the two candidates signed today is trying to bring to afghanistan and the county is paralyzed and people in the streets and sell things in the streets say nobody is buying anything and watching and concerned how it will move forward and the idea today is to unlock the stalemate and move the process forward and try to get a president in place by the end of august, they would like to see a new president be able to go to the nato summit at beginning of september. Nato leaving afghanistan by the end of the year, Jennifer Glasse in kabul and thanks for the update, jennifer. The World Health Organization declared the west african ebola out break an international emergency, a twoday meeting with response to the disease has concluded. The Committee Decision was unanimous. Acknowledges the serious and unusual nature of the out break and the potential for further international spread. But also the need for Strong International coordination of the response. In addition, the Emergency Committee agree on a number of temporary recommendations. I have accepted these recommendations. The World Health Organization also issued guidelines to deal with this outbreak and is asking countries bordering those with ebola patients to have Rapid Response teams to investigate and manage cases. The organization is asking countries to be ready to repatriat nationals effected abroad and no ban on International Travel or trade, so far ebola has killed 961 people in guinea, sierra leone, liberia and nigeria, and we have a retired professor of bacteria from a university of aberdeen in scott land, one of the most frightening diseases i would suggest anywhere in the world. Can a disease such as ebola with such amount