| | | | | | | Hello. Troops keep on amassing near the border between Israel and Gaza, which is still under air strikes. I have two reports from my colleagues today, from Gaza City and Kibbutz Kfar Aza, which are only a few kilometers apart. In Kfar Aza, bodies were still being removed yesterday as the full scale of the horror caused by Hamas killings emerges. In Gaza, where resources are fast depleting, civilians under bombardment say they have nowhere safe to go. Today, again, details in our reports can be distressing to some readers. |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | Israeli troops 'ready to execute the mission' | | | | Palestinians gather around rubble in the aftermath of Israeli strikes. Credit: Reuters |
| | The Israeli military says hundreds of thousands of troops are near the Gaza border, "ready to execute the mission we have been given", hinting at a ground offensive on the Gaza Strip soon. Israeli defence spokesman Jonathan Conricus said the "fighting will intensify". The death toll from the incursion into Israel by Hamas militants has reached 1,200. US President Joe Biden has said Israel has a right and duty to respond to Hamas' "act of sheer evil". Meanwhile, in Gaza, more than 1,000 people have been killed by retaliatory strikes. Josep Borrell, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, has suggested Israel's response may have breached international law. The territory has been under "siege" over recent days, and Palestinian officials say it is about to run out of its energy and medicine supplies. | | • | Behind the numbers: 300,000 reservists of the Israeli army are near the border. Our reporter Joel Gunter met a few of them. "This is the defining moment of my life," one said. | | • | Blinded and choked by dust: A journalist from Gaza has been video blogging her experience of living through Israeli airstrikes. | | • | The latest: Sirens are sounding in northern Israel, a day after deadly confrontations between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah militants at the border with Lebanon. Follow our live coverage. |
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| | AT THE SCENE | Kfar Aza, Israel | | Finding families killed in their homes | | With fighting going on as recently as Tuesday morning in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, 2km (1.3 miles) east of the Gaza Strip, it was only afterwards that the scale of atrocity wrought by Hamas militants began to emerge. | | | | Jeremy Bowen, BBC international editor |
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| | Soldiers who spent much of the day in the ruins of Kfar Aza recovering bodies of civilians said that there had been a massacre. It seems likely that much of the killing happened in the first hours of the assault on Saturday. Davidi Ben Zion, the deputy commander of the Israeli army's Unit 71, said Hamas gunmen who killed families, including babies, were "just a jihad machine to kill everybody, [people] without weapons, without nothing, just normal citizens that want to take their breakfast and that's all." Some of the victims, he said, were decapitated. No-one - here in Kfar Aza or elsewhere in Israel - imagined Hamas would be able to breach Israel's defences and kill so many people. |
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| AT THE SCENE | Gaza City | | A neighbourhood destroyed | | Supplies are depleting quickly in the Gaza Strip - its only power plant is expected to shut down shortly. The UN is trying to accommodate 260,000 displaced people - about 11% of the population in Gaza. | | | | Rushdi Abu Alouf, BBC News |
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| | There was a very dangerous escalation last night in the northern part of Gaza City. Hundreds of air strikes destroyed a neighbourhood, according to a local authority here. More than 50 people were killed overnight, most of them civilians. We saw hundreds of people walking to the south of city, which they believe is much safer, going to hospitals and schools. People are without electricity, water supplies and food. They are queuing at bakeries where they get small amounts of food. Banks are giving small amounts of money, and petrol stations small amounts of fuel. The minister of health said all of the medical centres and hospitals will be run out of medicine in 24 hours. |
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| | | | World headlines | | • | US congressman prosecuted: Republican George Santos has been charged with defrauding campaign donors by running up multiple charges on their credit cards. It's not the first time he's hit trouble hit since taking office, as Bernd Debusmann Jr explains. | | • | Airport blaze: All flights have been suspended after a huge fire tore through a terminal car park, housing up to 1,200 vehicles, at Luton Airport, outside London. Get the latest. | | • | Crypto trial: The ex-girlfriend and deputy of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has told a court he "directed" her to take customers' money to repay risky loans he had obtained. Mr Bankman-Fried denies fraud and money laundering. | | • | Titan submersible: Engineers have recovered the remaining debris from the submersible that imploded during an ill-fated trip to the Titanic shipwreck, in June, the US Coast Guard says. | | • | Fame and sandal: Shares in German sandal maker Birkenstock will start trading on Wall Street later, with the company valued at about $8.6bn (£7.08bn). Business reporter Natalie Sherman examines how the brand transformed from "dorky" hippie favourite to celebrity must-have. |
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| | | | Beyond the headlines | | The instant loan app scam that blackmails with nudes | | | | Unaware he was being filmed, Vishal Chaurasia described how he would "torture" clients to repay. Credit: BBC |
| | There are many apps that promise hassle-free loans in minutes. Not all of them are predatory. But many - once downloaded - harvest contacts, photos and ID cards from users, and use that information later to extort them. A BBC undercover investigation is exposing those profiting from this deadly scam in India and China. | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | Nothing to see here | | The arctic safari without any wildlife. | | |
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| | | | And finally... | | The spectacular picture of a horseshoe crab has earned Laurent Ballesta the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year. If you ask me, it looks neither like horseshoe, nor like a crab. See for yourself. |
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| | | | | | Future Planet | | Explore the wonders of our amazing planet. | | |
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– Jules |
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