BBC News Briefing

7 October, 2024

Andrew McFarlane

Hello. As events mark a year since the Hamas attacks on Israel, we have powerful reports focusing both on people in one of the country's worst-hit communities and on those in Gaza whose lives have been upended by the subsequent war. Away from the Middle East, Rowan Bridge visits the US city of Baltimore and Liverpool, in the UK, to gauge the success of schemes that sold derelict homes for just $1 or £1. And read on for black holes and the dark arts of photo-editing.

GET UP TO SPEED

A Russian court has jailed a 72-year-old American citizen for almost seven years for allegedly fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine.

Hurricane Milton has intensified into a category five storm as it barrels towards the US Gulf Coast, authorities have said. See its projected path.

The European Space Agency's Hera craft has launched towards an asteroid that US space agency Nasa knocked off course. Science reporter Georgina Rannard explains why.

AT THE SCENE

Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel

Kibbutz struggles to heal a year on

Dafna Gerstner, in glasses and with dark curly hair, stands with her hands on her hips in a burnt out house. She is wearing black trousers and a grey T-shirt and has a whistle round her neck.

Dafna Gerstner's family home was burned in the attacks, in which her brother was killed. Credit: BBC

Of the 1,200 people killed in Israel on 7 October last year, 101 of them died in Kibbutz Be'eri, as gunmen from Hamas and other groups rampaged through its tree-lined streets. Another 30 were taken to Gaza as hostages. A year on, the community remains wracked in grief.

Alice Cuddy, BBC News

The kibbutz was a strong community, where people lived and operated together as one. Neighbours were more like extended family. It is one of a small number of kibbutzim in Israel that still operates as a collective. But now, the collective is splintered - psychologically and physically. About one in 10 were killed. Only a few of the survivors have returned to their homes. Some travel back to the kibbutz daily to work, but can't face overnight stays. Many, after months in a hotel, are now living in prefabricated buildings on another kibbutz 40km (25 miles) away.

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The community, built up over nearly 80 years, is being tested like never before, and its future is uncertain. There are reminders everywhere of those who didn't survive, says Dafna Gerstner, who grew up in Be'eri, and spent 19 terrifying hours on 7 October holed up in a safe room - designed to protect residents from rocket attacks. "You look to the left and it's like, 'Oh it's my friend who lost her parents.' You look to the right, 'It's my friend who lost her father…' It's everywhere you look."

Keep reading

Six hours at hands of Hamas: Alice Cuddy has also reported fresh accounts revealing how an Israeli border post fell on 7 October.

Daughter's plight 'forgotten': The mother of a British-Israeli hostage has asked why the UK is not "fighting every moment" to secure her release. Here are more of the hostages' stories.

Remembrance events: A moment's silence has been observed in Tel Aviv, at a memorial organised by the families of hostages held in Gaza. Here's the latest.

AT THE SCENE

Khan Younis, Gaza

'Our whole life is displacement'

Nawara, who is wearing a brown headscarf and matching tunic, holds baby Rahma in her arms in the doorway of their home. The brick looks damaged and there is graffiti. Looking out of the window, which is open and covered by a metal grille, are some of the other children.

Nawara al-Najjar's husband was killed by an Israeli hostage rescue operation, as they sheltered in a tent. Credit: BBC

The UN says 90% of Gaza's population has been displaced by Israel's retaliation for the Hamas attacks. Foreign reporters are not allowed into the territory and the BBC relies on local journalists to cover the humanitarian crisis. We briefed them with questions for some of the Palestinians we have spoken to in Gaza over the past 12 months.

Fergal Keane, special correspondent

Displacement means uncertainty. Constant fear. Will the child, sent for a bucket of water, come home? Or will they return to find their home flattened, and their family buried under the rubble? These are the questions that haunt Abed-Alrahman’s young widow, Nawara, every day. "There is always shelling and we are always afraid, terrified. I constantly hold my children close and hug them," she says. The Israel Defense Forces tell people to move to "humanitarian zones". People flee but often find no safety.

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When they move, the struggle to locate food, firewood and medicine in an unfamiliar place starts again. The al-Najjars are now back in their family home, but they know they may have to flee again. That is the inescapable reality of their lives after a year of war. In the words of Nawara, there is "no safe place in the Gaza Strip". Nawara complains of the overflowing sewage in the street. The lack of medical supplies. Like so many in Gaza, with no income, she depends on what food her in-laws or charities can supply.

Keep reading

'Rubble for miles': A retired surgeon who has returned to the UK after a month volunteering at a hospital says the territory is so badly damaged it is "as if an atomic bomb has dropped".

'Political solution': At the weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel for use in Gaza.

'A daily challenge': Our correspondent Rushdi Abualouf, who spent weeks documenting the conflict from inside Gaza before leaving for his family's safety, describes the difficulties of reporting the war.

THE BIG PICTURE

The pioneers of the $1 home scheme

Judy Aleksalza has short, curly grey hair and is smiling as she wears a blue overshirt, white, green and red floral blouse and a yellow skirt. She leans on the railing next to the steps outside her red-brick home, which has a brown front door

Once abandoned, Judy Aleksalza's home is now part of a row of impeccably kept 19th Century terrace houses. Credit: BBC

In 1976, Judy Aleksalza was among those who bought a derelict Baltimore house for $1. Doing it up proved a "horror story", she says, but was worth it in the end. And the US city's idea has been copied around the world. But do these projects really solve urban blight, or just shift marginalised people elsewhere?

Read the debate

The glowing ring of gas around a black hole.

FOR YOUR DOWNTIME

Ultramassive black hole

Astronomers keep finding bigger and bigger black holes. How large can they get?

Read the story

And finally... in Japan

How about a game of spot the difference? As Japan's new prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, takes office, keen-eyed observers on social media noticed his cabinet's official picture had been edited to make ministers appear slightly less unkempt. Responding to sartorial jeering online, a government spokesperson on Monday said "minor editing was made" to the image. See if you can spot it.

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– Andy

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