state, antony blinken, is back in tel aviv as washington increases the pressure for a humanitarian pause. antony blinken talked about israel s right to defend itself, but also the need for concrete steps to minimize harm to civilians in gaza. meanwhile, the leader of hezbollah like hamas a proscribed terrorist organisation has spoken in lebanon. hassan nasrallah praised the hamas attacks and said, the possibility of total war is realistic . one other important line to update you on more foreign nationals have been getting out of gaza at the rafah crossing point into egypt. 124 british nationals are on the list of people, who are being allowed to leave. the hamas run health ministry in gaza says, more than 9,000 people have been killed in the strip since october the 7th after hamas killed 14 hundred people, in the attacks in southern isreal. the us seretary of state antony blinken held talks with the israeli war cabinet a closed door gathering. he also met the
round of diplomacy in israel and the rest of the region. the talks come amid fears of a wider conflict. it s mr blinken s second visit since the war began. he s thought to be talking to israeli officials about how to pursue their military and security goals in gaza while limiting civilian casualties. meanwhile the israeli military says its ongoing ground offensive has now completed the encirclement of gaza city which was the most densely populated part of the palestinian territory before the war began last month. with the fighting intensifying there s been strongly worded criticism of the humanitarian situation emerging from the united nations. seven human rights experts have said that they believe that the palestinian people in gaza are at risk of genocide. israel has accused them of repeating hamas propaganda. and people across the region are waiting to hear from the leader of the lebanese islamist group, hezbollah. hassan nasrallah s speech in the coming hours will be