Global News Podcast: Israel to cut essential supplies to Gaza

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You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 13 hours GMT on Monday the 9th of October.

The Israeli military says it's regained full control of towns and villages overrun by Palestinian

militants from Gaza. Israel's Defense Minister has ordered a complete siege of the Palestinian

territory after carrying out hundreds of airstrikes. The latest reports say 700 Israelis and 560

Palestinians have been killed. We'll bring you up to date. Also in the podcast, food, tents and

blankets have started arriving in villages hit by a strong earthquake in Afghanistan. How climate

change is affecting tourism in popular destinations like Spain. The temperature used to go down a

little bit and we have a little rest at night. But this summer for 20-25 days, that didn't happen.

So maybe in the future, we will have way more people coming to our destination in winter and

And the old coins found in Scotland, which may have belonged to a clan chief who was murdered

more than 300 years ago. More than two days after the murderous assault by Palestinian militants,

the Israeli Defense Forces say they've regained control of the towns and villages that were

overrun. However, some Hamas gunmen are reported to have entered southern Israel overnight through

tunnels from Gaza and may still be at large. At least 700 people in Israel died in the attacks,

including at least nine Americans. 100 people were taken as hostages across the separation

barrier. The health ministry in Gaza says 560 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.

Israel has called up 300,000 reservists as it gears up for a possible major military operation.

Israeli Defense Forces spokeswoman Masha Mickelson says their immediate focus

is on rescuing the captives, whatever the cost. Israel is a state that holds human life sacred

and we will do everything in our power to ensure that they're coming back home safe. But we're at

war. What military target was Hamas going for when they murdered over 700 people in the last 48

hours? This is the deadliest attack on the state of Israel since its formation.

74-year-old Ada Sagi is among those believed to have been kidnapped by Hamas near the Gaza

border. Her son, Noam, lives in the UK. It feels unreal on so many levels. It feels

inhumane on another level. It is very upsetting to think that this is even possible, that even

in war there are rules and we're talking about men in the 20s and the 30s that come into an

old woman house and snatch her and her neighbors. So I am seeing life a little bit through the

keyhole right now and I want to see Ma'am coming back home alive and well.

Well for the latest on the Israeli military's efforts to restore security in southern Israel,

I spoke to our correspondent John Donison. It's a somewhat confused picture in that area around

Gaza. We've just had a statement from the Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Higari

and he has said that Israeli forces are now in full control of the communities that were

attacked by Hamas. But there might still be Palestinian militants at large in the area.

Now earlier the army had said that they remained fighting in seven or eight separate locations.

The military has also said it believes that Palestinian militants were able to breach the

fence and pass into Israel overnight with some reports of a tunnel being dug. So it does seem

that the southern border is not yet completely secure although the military saying that those

communities are now under its full control. Meanwhile the Defence Minister has been making

some strong comments about Israel's response to this attack. Yes, Israel's Defence Minister

Joav Galan has said he has ordered a total blockade on the Gaza Strip with no electricity,

no food and no fuel. Of course Israel has had a blockade on Gaza along with Egypt since Hamas

took control back in 2007. But it does seem that that is going to be tightened and it's already

an incredibly difficult situation in Gaza. We've had Israel targeting 500 Hamas targets overnight.

It says and the UN saying more than 120,000 Palestinians in Gaza have left their homes and

have been displaced and many of those are sheltering in UN schools. And two days on from the start of

this assault how do people in Israel feel? We've heard that sirens have been going off in Tel Aviv

and in Jerusalem where you are. Yeah we just had a siren go off here in Jerusalem a short while ago

apparently because some more rockets had been fired out of Gaza. I think look Israel is in a

state of collective trauma. I mean just to put this into some sort of perspective in previous

conflicts. Back in 2009 he had 13 Israelis being killed. In 2012 it was six Israelis being killed.

Now we're talking about more than 700. This is completely unprecedented. It came as a surprise

and many Israelis are angry at what's happened but they're also pretty united I think in that it

needs a strong response from the Israeli military and the Israeli government. John Donison in

Jerusalem and as John was saying the Israeli defense minister Joav Galant ordered that the

long-term blockade of Gaza be tightened into a total siege with even water supplies cut off.

We are battling beastly people he said. Nachlah Shawa is from the charity Oxfam in Gaza City

with airstrikes continuing. She told us that even before the attacks life for Palestinians

in Gaza was harsh. Since yesterday morning we had no electricity whatsoever at our house.

Now because it's good to remind people who are listening that before the date of October 7th

Gaza was suffering. Palestinians have been suffering so electricity for 15 years has not

been proper. I mean it's six eight hours a day and this affects also the entire water system

and access of water to to houses. That was an airstrike probably in in the area.

Yeah. Well the situation in Gaza is currently too dangerous to broadcast from but a few hours

before we recorded this podcast I spoke to our correspondent in the Palestinian territory

Rushdie Abu Aluf. I can see huge black smoke and dust on the sky covering the entire area

the sound was really very loud and very shocking in the in the area. That was the situation since

last night when Israel started the second day of revenge into Gaza about 500 airstrikes targeted

many places many locations across the Gaza Strip. One of them was a deadly attack in

southern Gaza as the health ministry said 19 member of one family they all killed under the

rubble of one house targeted in Rafa and southern Gaza where now the funeral for those people are

about to take place. Hamas official here in in in Gaza issue a warning that keep the border

shut will mean that all of the essential services cannot be provided for the people within 48 hours

they they held like a press conference this morning they said we are running out of fuel hospitals

are running out of the essential needs they said we need the the border to be open immediately so we

can send those who are in critical situation to be treated in better hospital maybe in Egypt

so the situation is really escalating mounting the escalation in a very serious way very dramatic

way since last night with the sound of explosions could be heard everywhere. Yeah the UN saying

more than a hundred thousand people have been displaced Benjamin Netanyahu the Israeli Prime

Minister telling people in Gaza to leave is there anywhere they can go? No way I mean the Gaza is

2.3 million people they live in one of the highest densely populated places maybe in the entire

planet and people have no shelters they have no even like you know a syringe system that one of them

when there is airstrikes some of the people fled to a UN school but the UN schools it can't take all

of the people and also some of the Israeli IDF spokesman was advising people to go into the

city center instead of staying next to the border but even in the city center we have seen many

buildings collapsed and from our bureau in the middle of a Gaza city I'm overlooking the Gaza

downtown and there is three or four buildings were taken down and they're blocking the main road so

many people have been like appealing on local radio station saying where can we go how can we hide

when there is 500 airstrikes around around Gaza the presenter was like talking to locals who were

appealing on the local radio station. BBC's Rushdie Abu Aluf in Gaza a Hamas spokesman has

claimed that Israeli airstrikes overnight and today on Gaza had killed four Israeli hostages as

well as their Hamas captors there's been no confirmation of that but the BBC has seen video

footage that appears to show the dead bodies of at least three hostages on an Israeli road near

Gaza who were filmed being taken away on Saturday. There are also reports that Qatar is trying to

broker a deal under which Hamas would free Israeli women and children in exchange for Palestinian

women and children held in Israeli jails. Our correspondent Anna Foster is in the southern

Israeli city of Ashkel on just north of Gaza I asked her about the Israeli military buildup there.

What I can see is a large number of Israeli military vehicles their guns are trained towards

Gaza in some cases they they appear to be in a sort of ready to move formation now there are a lot

of things that Israel has to consider right now in terms of a ground offensive and whether it's

something they want to do they know that there are hostages Israeli hostages that are being held

inside Gaza and that is a consideration because it is so densely packed densely populated as

Rushdie was telling you there to actually go in and carry out a ground operation with minimal

civilian casualties both on the Palestinian side and to Israeli civilians who are being held hostage

would be extremely difficult but they do need to try and rescue those hostages and Benjamin Netanyahu

the Israeli prime minister has promised a substantial response to those attacks in the early hours of

Saturday morning that would look on paper like a ground offensive so I think at this stage everybody

is watching and waiting to see what will happen here next. There are reports of rocket fire coming

out of Gaza as well as Israeli airstrikes going in how does it feel there? Well it's been happening

all morning and in fact we were in the center of Ashkelon interviewing somebody just earlier

and often on your mobile phone people have apps that will actually sort of let you know when there

are incoming missiles but in this case the public sirens went off and people who live there they

know what that means so we along with them we went and took cover and literally looked looked up above

and you can hear the loud banging of those missiles from Gaza that are being intercepted

by the Israeli iron dome missile defense system it does manage to catch most of them they say

more than 90% but then we saw smoke rising on the horizon so we went to an apartment building

where a missile had fallen it was right outside actually it was between two buildings and you

could see the crater in the ground we went to one apartment where the shrapnel had sort of blown up

and pierced what looked like bullet holes in their windows the family were obviously extremely

frightened I talked to parents who were were cradling their children next to broken windows to

reiterate they are used to this kind of thing happening they are used to a certain number

of missiles being fired from Gaza but what they are seeing at the moment they say feels relentless.

Anna Foster in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon in a separate development the Israeli

army said it had killed a number of armed suspects who had infiltrated into northern

Israel from Lebanon a Hezbollah official there said the group hadn't mounted any operation

into Israel well as we've heard Israel is massing its forces around Gaza and many Palestinians

are bracing themselves for further retaliation our analysis editor Rosatkins has this assessment

of the fast moving events of the past few days. Let's start with the Islamist militant group that

carried out this attack who are Hamas well its name is an Arabic acronym for Islamic resistance

movement it's sworn to Israel's destruction and its base is Gaza it's been in control there since

2007 though as it's not held an election since it's hard to gauge what support it has this weekend

President Biden called Hamas a terrorist organization and the EU the UK and the US all

categorize it this way in the region Iran is Hamas's primary backer Hamas also has close

relations with the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon which shares a border with Israel.

Our next question is whether this weekend is different to previous escalations serious violent

escalations between Israel and the Palestinians are not uncommon but the scale of this Hamas attack

makes it different Israeli territory was infiltrated over 700 Israelis have died as many as 100

hostages were taken and the UN's Middle East peace envoy says this is a dangerous precipice

and I appeal to all to pull back from the brink this is different and the scale of the attack

leads us to how is Israel responding well already Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks of a

long and difficult war there are Israeli airstrikes in Gaza at least 400 people have been killed

military vehicles are heading to the Gaza border and tens of thousands of Israeli reservists

are being called up as well as that the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has announced that

additional equipment and resources including munitions will be sent. Israel's allies offering

solidarity and help and while right now the focus is on the immediate threat from Hamas

Israel and its allies will also know that in the long term this attack will reshape how they seek

to maintain Israel's security. Rozakins and still to come on the global news podcast

our 12 year old sister was hoping to become a doctor but is hopeless about her future

I was delighted when I saw the DARS advert and decided to make sure my sisters watched the program

the multi-media educational series aimed at girls in Afghanistan

unlock multi-dimensional protection with uv security's dual camera devices

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eufy.com

hey bbc listeners you come to the global news podcast because you want to stay up to date on

the best of international coverage i'm erica cruz gavara from kqed's the bay podcast where

we bring you the best of local news around the bay area every monday wednesday and friday we bring

you conversations with local journalists to give you the context and analysis that you need

to make sense of what's going on in our region you can find the bay wherever you get your podcasts

in afghanistan rescue teams have begun to deliver essential aid like food and blankets to villages

destroyed by a powerful earthquake on saturday the 6.3 magnitude tremor flattened areas in the

western province of harat and the death toll continues to rise i got an update from darwood

azami head of the bbc afghan service it's a remote area far from the capital Kabul so there's one

reason that it's taking a lot of time for aid agencies and the central government to carry

out rescue operations or deliver aid but we are getting reports that entire villages have been raised

because they are mostly made of mud bricks not very strong buildings and most of the people

are who died in the earthquake or women and children because they were at home men are usually

our size in the farms or for work so they were at home so that's why they are buried under the

rubble and many people are still buried under the rubble and the reports we are getting about the

death toll is that it is reaching 2500 and it will go up i think because they are finding

more and more bodies and thousands of people are injured there are not many hospitals hospitals

are overwhelmed so there is a need for medicines for shelter for food for everything you need

to survive today the deputy prime minister of the thaliban government visited the area to assess

aid delivery but the thaliban government has made several appeals from aid agencies in

international community that we need aid we need medicine we need food we need everything

yeah because even before this the thaliban government was struggling with the economy

it's a very poor country it is one of the poorest countries in the world there are

un agencies which are mainly involved in humanitarian work but the un itself was asking

the international community even before this earthquake that we need aid desperately because

the winter is coming a lot of people need food to survive but this is an additional challenge

that they are facing so it will be a big challenge for the thaliban government especially because

they are now in charge and they are expected to deliver but also for aid agencies as well

there are some afghan businessmen inside the country and outside afghanistan who have pledged aid

but it will take many days and weeks to arrive and if you look at the comments made by afghans

speaking to the bbc or on social media they are criticizing international

response or indifference because they say that it is saddening and people or the international

community is not responding quick enough and the news of the earthquake was obviously overshadowed

by what is happening in israel and gaza doward as army of the bbc afghan service well staying in

afghanistan a bbc educational program aimed at children who are barred from school has launched

its second series das which means lesson will run on radio tv and online until the end of the afghan

school year in december helena wilkinson has been looking at its impact a lesson in mass delivered

in paşti one of the languages of afghanistan since the program launched six months ago the team

has been tracking its impact here are some of the messages from the audience read by a bbc

journalist our 12 year old sister was hoping to become a doctor but it's hopeless about her future

i was delighted when i saw the dars advert and decided to make sure my sisters watched the program

dars baman omid me the head dars gives me hope i was wondering if there are people out there

that care about me now i know the program is broadcast in both dari and paşti afghanistan's

two national languages and includes stories from around the world and lessons in science and english

school i go to school is presented by bbc journalists who work themselves evacuated from

the country hi my name is alia farzan and i'm presenting das as i was in the country a few

weeks ago and i i witnessed that people were very happy about this especially those girls and

the parents that the girls couldn't go to school and they didn't have any other help during this

period i've come to the gallery where the team is in the middle of recording the program the

presenter is shazia hire and she's in the studio next door to us salamuna it's vital for us my

cousins are in afghanistan they are not able to go to schools and they have grown up and seeing me

as a lady who had opportunity to go to school who had opportunity to go to university and now who

has the opportunity of working fiona crack is head of world service languages she says it's

particularly difficult to get any accurate measure of the program's impact what we do see is the

response from the girls from the children through our social channels telling us it's making a

difference to their lives pastana jurani campaigns to improve the lives of women and girls through

her educational charity learn afghanistan that's it's a brilliant and brief thing to do especially

when you don't have a political position to do it and you just do it not wait for somebody or your

country or the political system to change that's the biggest ally ship that anyone could do with

afghanistan right now huge numbers of children in afghanistan can't go to school the das program

may be one of their only avenues to education that report by helenot wilkinson this year many

parts of the world suffered unbearably hot temperatures with southern europe particularly

badly affected there are concerns that has the impact of climate change becomes increasingly

obvious it will affect the e use six hundred billion dollars a year tourism industry guy

hedgeko reports from benedorm in spain europe's hottest ever summer may be coming to an end

but in the beach resort of benedorm the sun is still shining it's 27 is absolutely fine

i mean i burned from head to toe but that's just by the bay isn't it too hot during the day yeah

unless you're actually in the pool you know obviously the only respite you get is in the hotel

room where you've got the urecon you just need to be able to feel a bit of the heat into your bones

other than that if it gets too hot you can't go out in mediterranean countries climate change is

starting to be felt in the tourism industry we used to have way smoother nights the temperature

used to to go down a little bit and we have a little rest at night right but this this summer

for 20 25 days that didn't happen so maybe in the future we will have way more people

coming to our destination in winter and autumn and not that much in summer

temperatures are increasing in the mediterranean region 20 faster than the global average

here in spain there were four heatwaves last summer during which temperatures exceeded 40

celsius in many areas of the country as the authorities recommended that people remained

indoors during the hottest time of day italy saw record temperatures over the summer and wildfires

caused thousands of people to be evacuated from islands in greece the science suggests these are

not freak weather events the tendency over the coming years will be longer summers starting

earlier and finishing later and we will have longer more intense heatwaves

the possibility of extreme heat seems to be influencing where many holiday makers go

since the pandemic cooler destinations like denmark and iceland have been particularly popular

we are seeing a gradual but sustained trend that people are traveling more to the north of spain

and to northern europe and this will continue

it's still too soon to know the full impact of climate change on tourism

but it could be that southern european resorts like benedorm will soon face stiff competition

from places where the sun doesn't always shine

a horde of coins hidden under a stone fireplace in scotland has been found

after 330 years they believed to have belonged to a highland clan chief murdered in the massacre

of glenco in 1692 the coins were discovered by an archaeology student on her first ever dig

our scotland correspondent alexandra mckenzie reports the archaeology team from glasgow

university said this was the first major excavation in glenco the dig focused on scattered rocks

believed to have been the mcdonald clan chief summer house more than 300 years after he died

in the glenco massacre an archaeology student taking part in her first ever dig found the horde

the university of glasgow said the discovery contained 36 silver and bronze coins dating from

the late 1500s to the 1680s including pieces from the time of queen elizabeth the first

and king charles the first it's thought the horde was hidden just before or during the

glenco massacre for safekeeping a number of other artifacts were also discovered at the site

including a musket and fouling shot pottery from across europe and a powder major alexandra mckenzie

returning now to our top story the escalating conflict in the middle east the attack by

hamas militants is a huge challenge for the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu

his right-wing government has deeply divided the nation over its sweeping legal reforms

and his political opponents are blaming him for failing to keep israeli safe our international

editor jeremy bowen spoke to martha carney the recriminations have already started in the

anti-government newspaper haritz there's a corresponding editorial of course condemning

what's happened the the attacks but also saying that the person who's faulted it is netanyahu

the prime minister because he's been so concerned with his own legal problems he's on trial for

corruption he's been concerned as well with the very ideological nature of his current government

in trying to take over areas of the west bank so on that side there are already arguments about

who is responsible now i don't think there are any arguments among israelis about what they should

do next in terms of taking military action and the military action could include a ground operation

which would be very significant given the ground forces were withdrawn weren't they in 2005

yeah israel occupied gaza fully the whole of it until the early 90s when the peace process started

but they still retained a large area of Jewish settlements where there were soldiers they were

pulled out in a unilateral action in 2005 not part of a a peace agreement and what are the

reasons why up to now the israelis have tried to contain hamas in gaza rather than go in as many

people have called for on the israeli side to settle the matter as they put it once and for all

one of the reasons is that they don't want to get into an occupation again the occupation was very

difficult for them gaza is a strip of land along the mediterranean coast but it has a population

of around 2.4 million people so fighting in that area will guarantee large numbers of civilian

casualties and if they try to put troops on the ground in a long long operation they're putting

a lot of Israeli casualties too international editor Jeremy Bowen and that is all from us for

now but the global news podcast will be back very soon if you'd like to submit a question for an

upcoming special edition all about the escalating middle east conflict send us an email or a voice

note the address is global podcast at bbc.co.uk or you can find us on x or twitter at global news

pod this edition was produced by Alice Adderley and mixed by Craig Kingham our editors Karen Martin

I'm Oliver Conway until next time goodbye

you

unlock multi-dimensional protection with uv securities dual camera devices see wider closer

clearer even recognize faces and read license plates from 50 feet away it's best to protect

your family children and pets ensure their safety with your security cameras all this with no monthly

fee get your dual camera security devices now at uv.com eufy.com

hey bbc listeners you come to the global news podcast because you want to stay up to date on the

best of international coverage i'm erica cruz gavara from kqed's the bay podcast where we bring you

the best of local news around the bay area every monday wednesday and friday we bring you conversations

with local journalists to give you the context and analysis that you need to make sense of what's

going on in our region you can find the bay wherever you get your podcasts

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.