Humanitarian reasons. Around 200 hostages are still being held in gaza, and israels airstrikes and total siege of the territory, cutting off food, water and medicines, will not end until all of them are freed. Desperately needed humanitarian aid has still not reached the besieged people of gaza. Emergency aid trucks stocked with supplies sit on the border with Egypt Waiting to be let across the Rafah Crossing as part of a deal to allow in limited aid. Lets bring you more now on the fate of those two american hostages freed by hamas. Us President Joe Biden spoke with the two women, telling them that their government will fully support them as they recover and heal. Our correspondent Barbara Plett usher brings us more from inside the halls of the State Department. The release of the hostages disrupted the day here at the State Department. We were sitting down for the Daily Briefing and then we were told that it would be delayed for two hours because of Breaking News. Now, they didnt say
Israel has sealed its borders with gaza imposing a total siege on the strip 12 days ago. The Rafah Crossing between egypt and gaza is the only way right now to allow vital supplies in. One big question is whether foreign Passport Holders and dual nationals at least 600 of whom are american according to the Us State Department will be allowed out. For more on this, i spoke to our reporter at the Rafah Crossing, rushdi abualouf. The palestinian employees who are supposed to coordinate, they were informed, to move to Rafah Crossing as quickly as possible to start, facilitate and run the process of taking the goods from the egyptian trucks into the palestinian trucks, and then they will start transferring them. I saw cars around, red cross cars around. Also some truck was carrying quite heavy machine to fix the road. We understand from the local source inside the crossing that the system, the computers and the systems are not working. And they need to be able to put a generator first and t
To what extent is iran pulling the strings in gaza and lebanon . Hezbollah is a militant group. They have their own weapon, they have their own armies, and they have the sole decision that is basically coming from iran. And theyre acting upon that. And china, ten years after the belt and road initiative, is the worlds most impressive economy in danger of hitting the buffers . I think chinas got a big struggle to come, and the big struggle is going to come with its shrinking population. The appalling destruction at the Al Ahli Al Arabi Baptist Hospital in gaza, whoever may have been responsible for it, has overshadowed the hastily arranged visit to israel by president biden. Yes, he was there to offer americas total, wholehearted sympathy and support to israel in the wake of the 7th Of October raids. But he was also there to urge israel in the strongest way to use discretion and moderation if and when it invades gaza, and very likely also to attempt to persuade israel of the need for a
I think chinas got a big struggle to come, and the big struggle is going to come with its shrinking population. The appalling destruction at the Al Ahli Al Arabi Baptist Hospital in gaza, whoever may have been responsible for it, has overshadowed the hastily arranged visit to israel by president biden. Yes, he was there to offer americas total, wholehearted sympathy and support to israel in the wake of the 7th Of October raids. But he was also there to urge israel in the strongest way to use discretion and moderation if and when it invades gaza, and very likely also to attempt to persuade israel of the need for a humanitarian corridor to allow water, food and medicines into a waterless, poor and hugely overcrowded enclave. But what about the wider picture . Lyse doucet, the bbc s chief international correspondent, is in Southern Israel and we caught up with her in between showers of rain. In previous military operations, and i was there in gaza for the one in 2014, the Israeli Military
As the israeli war on gaza enters its 13th day, its not a war just about a military. Uh offensive, its a war on many fronts, the war of words and the media depiction of the war, when the attack on the hospital took place, that took the lives of hundreds, israel accused Islamic Jihad after falsifying information twice before that accusation. The us president meanwile has said that it was highly likely that it was the Islamic Jihad that had done it. In this edition of the spotlight we will look at not only double standards and disinformation on the part of the western media and also their officials, but what has emerged as the us taking a leading role in the. War, even though the us president joeden expressed grief for the hundreds of palestinians thought to have died in the explosion at the alahli Arab Hospital in gaza city. First let me introduce our guests for this edition of the spotlight. Sami is academic and writer who joins us from london. Batul sabeiti is an activist and politica