rage in the heart of islamabad as tens of thousands of opposition protesters call for the resignation of the prime minister. islamic state militants posted a graphic video online showing the beheading of american journalist james foley. he's been missing since he was seized in syria back in november 2012. the militants say it is retribution for the recent u.s. air strikes in iraq. u.s. officials say they're trying to establish the authenticity of the video. andy more head has this report. >> reporter: he was a journalist drawn to war reporting. previously in libya, he was captured and held by militants for 14 days. >> i was hit several times with an ak-47, punched and dragged into a vehicle with my hands tied behind my back. >> reporter: on a facebook site campaigning for his freedom, james foley's mother seemed to accept her son was dead. she urged his kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. the militants say they're taking revenge for recent american air strikes on islamic fighters in iraq. it is one of the few ways they can hit back. in a video too graphic to be shown, a man with a british accent is seen executing foley who went missing in syria two years ago. the executioner goes on to threaten that unless president obama stops attacking the islamic state, the life of another american hostage is at risk. the u.s. first authorized air strikes against the jihadi fighters earlier this month to protect refugees and stop the advance on kurdish areas. since then, they have been instrumental in pushing back the frontiers of the islamic state, allowing peshmerga fighters to recapture the vitally important mosul dam. it has been known for some time that up to 500 british men are fighting for the islamic militants. they appeared on propaganda videos, urging fellow muslims to join them. the identity of james foley's executioner is unknown. but he appears to kill without a conscience and he says he's more than ready to do it again. andy moore, bbc news. >> matthew van dyke is a film maker and journalist from philadelphia who knew james foley. he paid tribute to his friend. >> james was a true professional, you know. he's really dedicated to journalism. he believed in what he was doing. he wasn't going to let anything stop him. he was captured by the gadhafi regime and after released he went right back to libya to continue reporting on that conflict and went on to syria. he knew the risks. he knew the dangers. but he believes strongly in what he was doing and he was good at it. and he did it in the right way and he did it as a true professional. i saw him a couple of weeks before he went missing. we were in aleppo. i was work on a film. he was working as a journalist and i shot some photos and video of him actually and a couple of weeks later he just vanished. hasn't been much information about what happened. my syrian sources were telling me that -- had kidnapped him and now that isis has him, it appears that information may have been correct, because when isis was formed, he split and some people went to isis and probably took him with them when that happened. >> we'll have more coverage just after the break on that story. now, fighting between israel and palestinian militants is continuing for a second day after the collapse of peace talks between the with sides. hamas says israeli air strikes on gaza city killed the wife and daughter of the commander of its military wing, mohammed deif. it isn't known if he survived the attack. a short time ago, i spoke to the neftalli bennett and asked why the cease-fire ended. >> hamas ended the cease-fire yesterday afternoon, after several days of cease-fire, they began shooting at bar sheva and we retaliated and will continue doing that. the cease-fires are pretty peculiar. we cease and they fire at us again and again and again. if they want this whole thing to go away, they need to stop shooting at us and disarm gaza. and then we can continue living side by side. >> some question the timing, of course, when you ended the cease-fire, or as you say hamas ended the cease-fire, because, of course, it does coincide with your strike, the israeli air strike on a top hamas commander. >> yeah, you know. in any case we're always looking to get the commanders of the terror groups. you and i are in the same boat here, if i may say, fighting radical islam. we're talking about the islamic state. we're talking about hamas. we're talking about radical islamic states that want to create a big caliphate from baghdad through tel aviv and to london. whenever you identify a megaterrorist, you have to take him out like bin laden, like al baghdadi, if possible. >> so about the people there, they are being killed because whatever way you look at this there are an equal number of casualties. more than 2,000 palestinians killed. mostly civilians. that's against 66 israelis, mostly military. why are you killing innocent people? >> we're retaliating to over 3,000 rockets shot at us. let's make no mistake. hamas decided to shoot rockets and missiles on israel from within civilian concentrations. this is a very cynical and cowardly approach. but can i ask you, how many israelis need to die for us to gain your sympathy? >> hamas wants you to lift the siege. why is it so difficult for israel to do that if it will bring about peace? >> no, we have no siege. there is no siege going on in gaza. every day there is dozens and dozens of ship loads or trucks of food and medicine and humanitarian needs flowing into gaza. that's not a problem. the problem is that what they try and bring into gaza is also weapons and more concrete to build more tunnels in order to kill more israelis. that's unacceptable. so the general rule is anything that is humanitarian will go in. anything that can create weapons in order to kill israelis we won't allow in. >> very quickly, yes or no, are you going back to peace talks in cairo? >> i think that those talks are over. once hamas started shooting at us missiles again and again, we're not going to conduct talks under threat of shooting. we're facing a very determined radical islam group and we have to beat it and we will. >> senior israeli naftali bennett. dozens of houses were buried when a hillside collapsed after torrential rain. a short time ago, i spoke to a reporter from tokyo and he said we don't yet know the full extent of the devastation. >> i think we're still expecting the death toll to rise a bit further. the rescue services and soldiers are on the scene going through the smashed houses one by one. but obviously there is also a lot of mud, a lot of rock. there are at least ten of these mudslides that came down out of the mountains on the northern edge of hiroshima earlier this morning because of this absolutely enormous rainfall that they got overnight. and some of the houses, some of the roads, cars and so on are buried under very thick mud. so it will take a wile for them to go through all deviate bring and recover the bodies and perhaps still discover people trapped inside of houses. >> freak weather. why did it come as a surprise to most residents? >> well, in large part because the local government did not expect it. they didn't issue any warning. so, you know, japan is a country that is well prepared for disaster. there is a good disaster warning system in place. but the local government in hiroshima said it was not expecting this. and actually looking at the radar pictures of the rainfall, it was relatively reasonable light rainfall elsewhere in western japan and then suddenly, very suddenly you see this very, very intense red where the rain right over hiroshima fell during the night. and it is really just this big blot right over the top of hiroshima and elsewhere around it very little rain at all. so it is a very unusual weather pattern, though i have to say it is something we're starting to see in the last few years happen more and more in japan, something very similar happened last year in which 32 people were killed much closer to tokyo. heavy fighting continues to be reported in rebel held areas of eastern ukraine with street clashes in luhansk and donetsk. more than 2,000 civilians and combatants have been killed since mid-april when ukraine's government sent troops to put down the rebel uprising. but as jonathan marcus reports, ukraine says significant numbers inside russia have joined the battle for luhansk. >> reporter: troops supported by volunteer battalions of fighters are reported to be in the outskirts of both the capitals of the regions of donetsk and luhansk. the separatists have lost control as several small towns close to these cities in recent days. the area controlled bit russian separatists changes by the day as the front line shifts. latest reports say the fierce exchanges are going on. one report says that ukrainian soldiers have taken much of the town and according to a ukrainian government spokesman, the focus of the army is now to secure and control its entry points. these are pictures from social media said to have been filmed yesterday in ilovaysk. reports say much of the damage is being done by rocket launchers which are as devastating as they are inaccurate. the goal of the ukrainian army is to take donetsk back from rebel control. a reuters correspondent inside the city is reporting gun battles in the center. but it is not possible to determine who was firing at whom. residents have been forced to take cover from artillery fire directed at rebel held positions. with civilian casualties rising significantly in recent weeks, the region has over a quarter of a million displaced people. many have fled the cities while those behind take shelter where they can. but it is luhansk where the attention has now turned. the ukrainian army say they have taken one district. but kiev is now claiming the separatist city has been significantly reinforced. these pictures on social media were filmed in the past 48 hours inside russia. and show russian armored vehicles. i counted least 24 tanks and other combat vehicles, you see them on railway flat cars heading in the direction of ukraine. you may notice the smoke plumes in the distance. however, we can't say what their final destination was. neither can we link these pictures with the reinforcement of a separatist inside luhansk. but they do indicate significant russian troop movements close to the border. >> jonathan marcus there. stay with us on "bbc world news." still to come, we'll have the latest on the anti-government protests in pakistan. 3rd and 3. 58 seconds on the clock, what am i thinking about? foreign markets. asian debt that recognizes the shift in the global economy. you know, the kind that capitalizes on diversity across the credit spectrum and gets exposure to frontier and emerging markets. if you convert 4-quarter p/e of the s&p 500, its yield is doing a lot better... if you've had to become your own investment expert, maybe 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he gave his life to expose the suffering of the syrian people. ukraine sent large numbers of armored vehicles from inside and joined fighting in rebel held areas of the country. time to check in with all the business news and aaron is standing by. >> thank you. we're going to talk about the french government because it is holding its cabinet meeting today after a very long summer holiday. and they, of course, have plenty to talk about and to deal with -- to deal with. we talked about this on friday when we saw the eurozone numbers ground to a halt in the last quarter, basically means in the first six months of this year, no growth whatsoever on the french economy. of course, president francois hollande increasingly unpopular, i believe the the most unpopular president in modern history in france. he's unpopular because in part due to the record high unemployment and a stagnant economy. the president promised today to accelerate economic reforms including tax breaks for poor families and increasing household building. we'll keep across that one. if you have kids, you know how much they love the internet. up until now, getting a gmail account has been restricted to those over the age of 13. now google is looking into tap into the huge internet traffic with youngsters with a raft of products including gmail and youtube, specifically designed for under 13s. the report which has not been confirmed, i have to say that, by google, not confirmed yet, but already caused quite a storm. we'll talk about that coming up on "gmt" in over an hour. follow me on twitter, tweet me. i'll tweet you back. @bbcaaron. back to you. >> thank you very much, aaron. let's go back then to our top story then. and the beheading, of course, of the american journalist james foley. we'll come back to that, actually. we're going to pakistan now to where the country's leaders, though, are meeting with tens of thousands of protesters gathered outside, demanding the government resign. it follows the march on the parliament building where protesters stormed past barricades. despite mounting pressure on nawaz sharif, he's refusing to stand-down. >> reporter: armed with wire cutters and backed by cranes, the protesters moved shipping containers blocking their path. riot police and soldiers simply watching on, under instructions to avoid violence against the protesters breaching the barricades to islamabad's red zone. the area houses state buildings, foreign embassies and pakistan's seat of government. leading the tens of thousands of protesters, the former opposition party leader imran khan. both called for president nawaz sharif to step down over allegations of fraud in last year's election. mr. sharif's party won by a landslide, his government has accused the protesters of attempting to derail democracy. its offers of talks have been rejected and now thousands of protesters are returning to occupy the security zone until the prime minister steps down. >> translator: we're going to sit in front of the parliament building to protest the justice. we'll be peaceful, even if we're hungry or thirsty, the protests will continue. >> reporter: he says he has a list of demands, which includes the dissolution of assemblies and the formation of a national democratic government. >> we want our system, our society becomes democratic in true sense as the democracy is visible in western democratic countries. >> reporter: pakistan has a history of military coups. and this standoff has raised fears of political instability, violence and possible army reaction. emily thomas, bbc news. now, let's go back to our top story and the beheading of the american journalist james foley in syria. speaking to the bbc, the uk's foreign secretary philip hammond says the video posted online appears to be genuine, and it is a matter of serious concern that the killer spoke with a british accent. >> we're absolutely aware that there are significant numbers of british nationals involved in terrible crimes, probably in the commission of atrocities, make g i jihad with isil and other extremist organizations. this is something we have been tracking and dealing with for many, many months. and i don't think this video changes anything. it just heightens awareness of a situation which is very grave and which we have been working on for many months. >> well, you can see joining me now is security correspondent frank goner and behind us is joining us the iman cary asim, he joins us from the studio in le leeds, north of england. he's going to cut short his holiday because of the situation, and the involvement potentially of a british person. >> you look at it in black and white, a british national has apparently murdered a u.s. captive and one of the bloodiest arenas of the world today. so this is, you know, this is a small crisis that i'm sure they will convene where they try to pull together everything that is known about it and then decide what to do. there is already an intensive effort under way, i'm told, by the police and officials to try and identify britons who have gone to syria and got involved with extremist groups. they're not fast about ones who have begun out to do aid work, they're fast about the ones getting involved in beheadings and particularly holding captive a number of people who are out there. because he isn't the only journalist being held captive in syria. there is several others. and, of course, at the end of the video there is the threat then to murder another journalist if obama continues with his air strikes. >> frank, thank you. let's just turn now to imam cary. what is going wrong here? why do we see british men going out to places such as syria, such as iraq, and becoming islamic jihadists? >> i think firstly obviously let me say that, you know, if it is a british person involved in this beheading and killing, that's against islam. islamic state is compassion, justice and also mercy. what happened here is completely against those ethos. and secondly, in terms of what has gone wrong that we find british muslims going to syria, iraq, and other places, the message is very clear from imams and the mosque that whatever is happening in those conflict areas is not jihad. it is a misunderstanding if someone is going from british to take part in iraq and syria and other places and where there is conflict thinking actually they are contributing to the jihad ethos and that's not the case. we all need to work together with intelligence services, police and everyone else to try and work out why is it that young people who are perhaps manipulated by those who are against the government or against other ethos to organize such activities, taking part in conflict areas. >> in that sense, do you feel let down? you have worked tirelessly, haven't you, with your own community. you've pleaded for people not to go to syria, not to go to iraq. but it is still happening. >> it is. and it is extremely disappointing. but we're not complacent. i think we're using social media on the internet because we find most radicalization takes place on the internet. so we are using these portals, media outlets to try to reach out to those young people who may go and take part in these conflict areas, thinking that they're contributing to the islamic cause. >> back to you, frank. as you mentioned, this isn't the first time that british men have been involved in these types of situations. what you to think david cameron will be doing next? >> he'll want to have all the information. he'll want to know as far as they can the identity of this person. is he british? where is he from? he will, i think, come out with some kind of a statement having broken off his holiday. we will probably come out with some very strong condemnation of it, sympathy for the parents, back in the states. there is a pattern here. this is not unprecedented. this is very similar to what another group did in iraq in the mid-2000s. they caught nicholas berg in iraq and beheaded him on camera. he was the first. and another british engineer. and they used these videos very effectively for several -- to terrify their enemies, to embarrass western governments and to recruit people to their cause. >> very briefly, we're running out of time, we heard david cameron speak on numerous occasions about a threat to the uk. if these men come back. >> half of them have come back. at least half. and they're being monitored. how efficiently, i don't know. but, yes, they are very worried about it they're going to import this kind of ideology of extreme violence back into the uk. it is something which actually doesn't just affect britain, but helped in france and belgium that the attack in brussels was a part of this and neighboring countries like saudi arabia are deeply worried about it. >> frank, thank you very much. thank you very much, imam cary, joining us from the set in the north of england studio. stay with us here on "bbc world news." i'll be back 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effects may include upper respiratory tract infection, stuffy or runny nose and sore throat, and headache. for help lowering your blood sugar talk to your doctor about januvia today. warm welcome. here are the top stories on "bbc world news." u.s. official tries to verify the video posted by islamic state militants showing the beheading of american journalist james foley. in gaza, the wife and child of hamas militant leader are reportedly killed by israeli air strikes launched in response to rocket fire. police say they have arrested 47 people during a night of protests in ferguson in a town rocked by violence over the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager. in japan, at least 27 people are killed after the equivalent of one month's rainfall in 24 hours, triggering landslides in a residential area. islamic state militants posted a graphic video online showing the beheading of american journalist james foley, who has been missing since he was seized in syria back in november 2012. militants say it is retribution for recent american air strikes in iraq. meanwhile, u.s. officials say they're trying to establish the authenticity of the video. andy moore has this report. >> reporter: he was a journalist drawn to war reporting. previously in libya, he was captured and held by militants for more than 40 days. >> then i was hit several times with an ak-47, punched and dragged into a vehicle with my hands tied behind my back. >> reporter: on a facebook site campaigning for his freedom, james foley's mother seemed to accept that her son was dead. she urged her kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. the militants say they're taking revenge for recent american air strikes on islamic fighters in iraq. it is one of the few ways they can hit back. in a video too graphic to be shown, a man with a british accent is seen executing foley who went missing in syria two years ago. the executioner goes on to threaten that unless president obama stops attacking the islamic state, the life of another american hostage is at risk. the u.s. first authorized air strikes against the jihadi fighters earlier this month to protect refugees and stop the advance on kurdish areas. since then, they have been instrumental in pushing back the frontiers of the islamic state, allowing peshmerga fighters to recapture the vitally important mosul dam. it has been known for some time that up to 500 british men are fighting for the islamic militants. they appeared on propaganda videos, urging fellow muslims to join them. the identity of james foley's executioner is unknown, but he appears to kill without a conscience, and he says he's more than ready to do it again. andy moore, bbc news. well, matthew van dyke is a filmmaker and journalist from philadelphia who knew james foley. he paid tribute to his friend. >> james was a true professional. you know, he was really dedicated to journalism. he believed in what he was doing. he wasn't going to let anything stop him. he was captured by the gadhafi regime. and after released, he went right back to libya to continue reporting on that conflict and then went on to syria. he knew the risks. he knew the dangers. but he believed strongly in what he was doing and he was good at it and he did it in the right way and did it as a true professional. i saw him a couple of weeks before he went missing. we are were both in aleppo. i was working on a film. he was working as a journalist. and i shot some photos and video of him actually and a couple of weeks later he just vanished. hasn't been much information about what happened. my syrian sources were telling me that they had kidnapped him, and now that isis has him, it appears that that information may have been correct because when isis was formed, they split and some people went to isis and they probably took him with them. and that happened. >> matthew van dyke. earlier the bbc gave me this update on the killing of james foley from the iraq city of erbil. >> this video shows, this is the first westerner being beheaded by this group. it shows why many people in this region are afraid of them. in the past few months, many people, many, many yazidis, many shia, many tribesmen who oppose them have been beheaded and k l killed in a very brutal fashion. that's why many people are actually afraid of them. obviously this is the first time they are killing a westerner and reaction to american air strikes, american help for the kurdish security forces, peshmerga and yesterday the -- one of the most important, in the control of isis militants fall to the hand of the kurdish security forces and, of course, it would be impossible without the american air strikes. and obviously the video clearly warning american if they continue help and they might execute more people and they will -- they piraaraded another american journalist in front of camera and said his destiny and life would be dependent on mr. obama's next move. >> the militants and the so-called i.s. group who reportedly beheaded mr. foley is seeking to build what they call a caliphate state. what exactly does that mean? the bbc's michael -- ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> well, also speaking to bbc, the uk's foreign secretary phillip hammond says the footage posted online appears to be genuine and it is a massive serious concern that the killer spoke with a british accent. >> we're absolutely aware that there are significant numbers of british nationals involved in terrible crimes, probably in the commission of the atrocities, making jihad with isil and other extremist organizations. this is something we have been tracking and dealing with for many, many months. and i dent think this video changes anything. it just heightens awareness of a situation which is very grave and which we have been working on for many months. >> well, just want to bring to your attention that the british prime minister david cameron has indeed cut short his holiday to chair a cobra meeting, emergency meeting to discuss the latest situation of course in iraq and following that killing. well, i should say earlier i spoke to iman cary from leeds, he spoke from our studio in leeds in the north of england. i asked him why we keep on seeing british men going out to countries such as iraq and syria and becoming islamic jihadists. >> if a person is involved in this behead and killing, that's against islam. islamic state is quiet, compassion, justice and also mercy. what happened here is completely against these ethos. and secondly, in terms of what has gone wrong there, we find british muslims going in syria, iraq and other places, you know, the message is very clear from imams and from the mosque that whatever is happening in those conflict areas is not jihad. it is a misunderstanding if someone is going from british to take part in iraq and syria and other places and where there is conflict thinking they are actually contributing to the jihad ethos. and that's not the case. we all need to work together with intelligence services, police and everyone else to try and work out, you know, why is that young people who are perhaps manipulated by those who are against the government or against other ethos, to organize such activities where they're taking on impressionable muslims to take part in these conflict areas. >> imam cary from leeds. now, later on today, we'll have a special program on iraq and the caliphate. we'll look at what the caliphate is and indeed who supports it. and what the consequences of the fight for the countries in the region, that all starts from 1500 gmt here on "bbc world news." in japan, at least 27 people have been killed after a series of landslides struck the city of hiroshima. dozens of houses were buried when a hillside collapsed after torrential rain. a short time ago, i spoke to the bbc's rupert winfield hayes from tokyo. he told me we don't yet know the full extent of the devastation. >> i think we're still expecting the death toll to rise a bit further. the rescue services and soldiers are on the scene going through the smashed houses one by one. but obviously there is also a lot of mud, a lot of rock. there were at least ten of these mudslides that came down out of the mountains on the northern edge of hiroshima earlier this morning because of this absolutely enorm ous rainfall that they got overnight. and some of the houses, some of the roads, cars and so on are buried under very thick mud. it will take a while for them to go through all of the debris and recover the bodies and perhaps still discover people trapped inside houses. >> so freak weather. but why did it come as a bit of a surprise to most residents? >> well, in large part because the local government did not expect it and didn't issue any warning. so, you know, japan is a country that is well prepared for disaster. there is a good disaster warning system in place. but the local government in hiroshima said it simply was not expecting this. looking at the radar pictures of the rainfall, it was relatively reasonable light rainfall elsewhere in western japan and suddenly, very suddenly you see this very, very intense red where the rain right over hiroshima fell during the night. and it is really just this big blot right over the top of hiroshima and elsewhere around it very little rain at all. so it is a very unusual weather pattern, though i have to say it is something we started to see in the last few years happen more and more in japan, something very similar happened last year in which 32 people were killed much closer to tokyo. >> rupert wingfield-hayes there. 47 people have been arrested during a night of protests. the town has been rocked by violence over the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager almost two week ago now. tuesday night saw largely peaceful protests after successive nights of clashes. a short time ago, i spoke to rejeanne who has been at the protests in ferguson. she told me the latest demonstrations have been more peaceful. >> the protests are now over. i was down there earlier. in the main they were very peaceful protests, lines of demonstrators walked along the streets. they were chanting hands up, don't shoot. and saying they wanted justice for michael brown. of course, the unarmed black teenager who was shot by a white police officer more than a week ago and whose death sparked huge outrage in ferguson. i should say that as even progressed and most protesters had gone home, police then sent helicopters to call on the crowds who were still there to disperse. things got rather tense then. and police basically forced all the protesters to move on or made them move on. it is unclear what exactly happened, i should say, because we weren't there to see that directly. what i can say is i was down there, and my crew and my team were told that we had to leave. the media were moved away from the scene, brought here to what is known as the media staging area. so in the main very calm protest which did end with some tension, it is worth stressing that there was no tear gas to my knowledge. no rockets thrown, none of the extreme violence we have seen in recent nights here. we're expecting a grand jury could meet later today to discuss whether or not to charge the police officer who shot michael brown. and in this particular system, it is a grand jury that will listen and decide whether charges should be pressed. >> the situation in missouri. stay with us on "bbc world news." still to come, we'll be continuing our look at fighting around the world. next up, we're heading to rio and nairobi. ♪ the last four hours have seen... one child fail to get to the air sickness bag in time. another left his shoes on the plane... his shoes! and a third simply doesn't want to be here. ♪ until now... until right booking now. ♪ planet earth's number one accomodation site booking.com booking.yeah! the latest headlines. the mother of an american journalist apparently beheaded by jihadists has said he gave his life to exposing the suffering of the syrian people. following the collapse of the peace talks, israeli air strikes are launched against targets in gaza as rockets are fired into israel. and we'll stay with that story because fighting between israel and palestinian militants is continuing for a second day after the collapse of peace talks between the two sides. hamas says israeli air strikes on gaza city killed the wife and 2-year-old daughter of the commander of its military wing, mohammed deif. it isn't known if he survived the attack. i spoke to the israeli minister for economy naftali bennett a short time ago and asked him why the cease-fire had ended. >> hamas ended the cease-fire yesterday afternoon, after several days of cease-fire. they began shooting at bear sheva and we retaliated and will continue doing that. the cease-fires are pretty peculiar. we seize and they fire at us again and again and again. if they want the whole thing to go away, they need to stop shooting at us and disarm gaza and then we can continue living side by side. >> some, though, question the timing of course when you ended the cease-fire, or you say hamas ended the cease-fire because, of course, it does coincide with your strike, the israeli air strike on the top hamas commander. >> yeah, you know, in any case we're always looking to get the commanders of these terror groups. we're -- you and i are in the same boat here, if i may say, fighting radical islam. we're talking about the islamic state. we're talking about hamas. we're talking about radical islamic states that want to create a big caliphate from baghdad through tel aviv and into london. whenever you identify megaterrorists, you have to take them out, like bin laden, like al baghdadi if possible. >> people are being killed because whatever way you look at this, there are an equal number of casualties. more than 2,000 palestinians killed, mostly civilians. that's against 66 israelis, mostly military. why are you killing innocent people? >> we're retaliating to over 3,000 rockets shot at us. let's make no mistake, hamas decided to shoot rockets and missiles on israel, from within civilian concentrations. this is a very cynical and cowardly approach, but can i ask you how many israelis need to die for us to gain your sympathy? >> hamas wants you to list the siege. why is it so difficult for israel to do that if it will bring about peace? >> no, we have no siege. there is no siege going on in gaza. every day there is dozens and dozens of ship loads or trucks of food and medicine and humanitarian needs flowing into gaza. that's not a problem. the problem is that what they try and bring into gaza is also weapons and more concrete to build more tunnels in order to kill more israelis. and that's unacceptable. so the general rule is, anything that is humanitarian will go in, and anything that can create weapons in order to kill israelis we won't allow in. >> very quickly, yes or no, are you going to go back to peace talks in cairo? >> i think that those talks are over. once hamas started shooting at us missiles again and again, we're not going to conduct talks under threat of shooting. we're facing a very determined radical islam group and we have to beat it and we will. >> naftali bennett speaking to me earlier. new zealand's government announced it is to ban the practice of removing fins from dead sharks and dumping the carcasses at sea. shark fins are considered a delicacy in china with around 121 tons of the meat brought in from new zealand every year. shark finning has been called inhumane and wasteful by environmentalists. and while the practices of killing sharks have been banned for some time, campaign groups welcomed the new steps. now, an influential chinese newspaper has demanded retaliation against australia after a politician there called chinese people m ongrels who shoot citizens. now the global times attacked what it calls rampant -- that suggests australia has an unfriendly attitude towards china. the australian government has rebutted mr. palmer for his comments. cycling is good for our health, but with a rapid growth of megacities across the globe, riding a bike in traffic presents indeed its own problems. this week we have been taking you around the world on two wheels. let's head to rio and nairobi to see what it is like to be a cyclist in those cities. >> my name is bernardo. i'm a cyclist. i ride my bike to come to practice and to work every day. and also to exercise myself, going up the hills here in rio. >> my name is joshua. >> i think rio is a wonderful city for you to ride. sight-seeing, all the views you have, nature is amazing. and the beaches and weather. ride in the city of rio, you always -- cars don't respect bike already. we are trying to change the culture here. three years, two accidents. small ones, but broken arm and two bones here. taxi came behind me and knocked me down. >> i've been cycling for three and a half years now. in nairobi. >> we think about olympic games, 2016, more cycling lanes, it is a great accomplishment. we have to have more. the bike has been in the last year one of my best buddies. for fun, for exercise and to work. and being here, it is really a great companion and part of my life right now. >> i bike seven hours a day. i like my bike because it is a way of movement. >> inspiring us all to get on our bikes. the next story, the liberian government imposed a curfew and placed part of the capital monrovia in quarantine as it struggles to contain an outbreak of ebola. let's get the report from dennis acary. >> reporter: kenya airways which flies seven times a week to liberia, sierra leone was forced to act after advice from the ministry. kenya is a transit point and still flies to affected countries. >> we're looking at a loss of $20 million a year. consider this, the effect of a single person being diagnosed and confirmed with ebola in kenya would have devastating effects on this economy of at lost least a billion dollars. >> reporter: beyond the loss for kenya airways, it is expected to affect the economy in the country. trade will suffer the most. west africa is an important market and airport is the only source of revenue for some local businesses. >> translator: before the ebola virus affected west africa, i used to do six trips. but with the cancellations, i'm doing only two or three trips a day. and at times, none. this is my only source of income to feed my family. we taxi drivers work at the airport have been affected. >> reporter: the world health organization has indicated that the capture of the virus through air travel was low, but a kenyan consumer federation lobby group went to court to push them to stop flying to west africa. they say the suspension should go beyond the three listed countries. so far, kenya has not recorded a single case for the virus. you pay your auto insurance premium every month on the dot. you're like the poster child for 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[ woman ] thanks. the dealership reviews on cars.com made it easy, but... [ man ] we thought it might be a little more tense. you miss the drama? yeah. [ technician ] ask him whatever you want. okay. ♪ do you think my sister's prettier than me? ♪ [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] research, price, find. only cars.com helps you get the right car without all the drama. hello. you're watching "gmt" on "bbc world news." i'm lucy hockings. our top stories, a horrifying act of revenge. islamic state militants behead american journalist james foley. his family has confirmed his death. his mother says they have never been prouder of him. after a week of calm, fear returns to gaza and southern israel. skrikz and ro air strikes and rocket attacks signal the end of a truce. the fighting in