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life well planned. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". ♪ >> i'm caitriona perry in washington and this is "bbc world news america." dozens a reported killed in gaza after an airstrike hits a refugee camp in the north of the territory. israel's military has confirmed its jets carried out the attack and the strike killed a senior hamas commander. two u.s. cabinet secretaries make the case for more funding for ukraine, israel, and the southern border.

hello and welcome to "bbc world news america." i'm caitriona perry. at least 50 people are reported to have been killed and many more injured in a blast at a refugee camp in northern gaza. those are figures from the hamas run gaza health ministry. a french news agency says it's reporter was at the scene and their footage shows at least 47 bodies recovered from the rubble people digging in with their hands and a crater searching for survivors and pulling bodies from the rubble. the camp was home to more than 100,000 people. it was in an area that civilians had been told to leave. bbc has located the exact position of the blast. israel has claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was meant to kill a hamas senior commander and collapse underground infrastructure. our international editor jerry b bone has the latest.

a warning come of this report has images you may find distressing. reporter: the attack on jabalia camp looks to be one of the biggest single palestinian losses of life so far in this war. jabalia is in the far north of gaza where israel has been pushing forward. israel ordered civilians to leave this area. many did. many others did not. the u.n. said some people even returned to their homes because conditions further south were so desperate. an unknown number of people are buried under the rubble. they were pulling out children. he says, oh god, my three

children are gone, three kids. i hope i can find one of them alive. i did not bid them farewell. jabalia covers just over half a square mile. 116 thousand refugees were registered here with the u.n. before the war. he says, it's a massacre. . 30 to 40 homes blown to pieces, bodies everywhere. everyone is looking for belov ones. dozens of bodies were taken to the nearest hospital. israel says it targets hamas, and if civilians are killed, it's because they are being used as human shields. hamas released these photos of their men emerging from paths of extensivtunnel networks. it's hard to work out with any precision what's happening in a ground war. both sides claim to have killed their enemies.

hamas will try to use hit and run guerrilla test tactics against a much more powerful army. israel released these photos. it seems clear they are pressing forward. some reports s they are closer to gaza city without entering yet. moving through relatively open villages is much less of a military challenge than advancing into a city. on their side of the gaza border, israel has plenty of reserve and it says a long fight ahead. we don't have much detail about what the israelis are doing inside gaza. they are working very hard to control the information battlefield which is a big part of modern war. they are releasing some video and some generalized communiques about success, but they are minimizing access. jabalia will fuel the

controversy about killing palestinian civilians. unintentional casualties, israel says, in a just war. america warned israel not to be blinded by rage. and palestinians believe israel is inflicting another catastrophe on them. jeremy bowen, bbc news, southern israel. >> we are joined by the bbc's diplomatic correspondent. you are very familiar wi this refugee camp. how devastating with this blast have been? reporter: it's a very confined area as jeremy's report suggested. normally very tightly packed streets. we don't know how many people are left in jabalia. some people have certainly listened to instructions from the israelis and moved south but many many remain in the camp you're judging by the pictures we saw

today, hundreds of people converging on the crater to rescue people, it is clear there are still a lot of people in jabalia. that will be a problem. the israelis are gradually moving in on the more densely populated urban areas of the gaza strip. jabalia, the neighboring gaza city. as they do that, they are going to encounter more and more civilians. that will be very difficult to deal with without killing a great many of them. caitríona: we heard and unapologetic explanation from the idf about the strike and their justification from -- for it. are we likely to see more strikes like this? reporter: i think we almost certainly will. the israelis said this was a place where local hamas commander had his base where he trained his men, where they were firing positions in underground bunkers.

that is the justification. the israeli government is absolutely determined to eradicate hamas. the military infrastructure, political leadership, and it's going to do it, not regardless of civilian casualties, but it will do it anyway even if it knows in certain situations that civilians are still there and in harm's way. it is absolutely dead set on pursuing these objectives. caitríona: is there a further indication from the is really leadership about where the campaign will go to next? reporter: no, because as jeremy said, they are deliberately not telling us a great deal about their intentions. all we can do is look at the movements of troops on the ground and draw general conclusions. the one i would draw is that the movement in towards the north, towards jabalia and other areas

in the north, plus some movement we have seen south of gaza city involving tanks cutting off roads and leading further south, suggest to me that the plan is to isolate gaza city and surrounding area and concentre on that area before the israeli military decides to do anything further south the south is where the israelis are told palestinians to go where they can enjoy relative safety. that's why in the last week or so we heard reports of people heading back to the north, nowhere in gaza is really truly safe. caitríona: we have had a statement from hamas as well that it's about to release foreign hostages. what is expected? reporter: it is an interesting statement and not one the israelis are yet very convinced by.

a statement from a spokesman for hamas in the gaza strip, he says they are prepared to release a number, an unspecified number, of foreign nationals. many of the 240 hostages still being held, that number went up again today as the israelis have figured out who is missing, who is dead and still being held. a significant number of those people are indeed foreign passport holders. what hamas is offering is to release some of them. when, how and in exchange for what, we just don't know. caitríona: paul adams in jerusalem, thank you for that. as the situation in gaza worsens, the united nations children's organization unicef says it feels children are experiencing generational trauma from the barred barn -- boardment and siege. they are calling for an

immediate cease-fire. according to the hamas run palestinian health board, more than 8000 palestinians have been killed in the last three weeks including more than 3000 children. the un's high commissioner for refugees also brought up how children are victims in his call for help to the security council. >> over 2 million gazans, half of them children, are going through what my colleague has called hell on earth. the humanitarian cease-fire, coupled of course with substantive delivery of humanitarian aid inside gaza can at least stop this spiral of death, and i hope you will overcome your divisions and exercise your authority and demanding one. the world is waiting for you to do so. caitríona: on the southern tip of gaza, a border is set to open

on wednesday. it said 81 gazans who were severely wounded would be allowed to enter egypt to complete treatment. this remains the only open crossing point into gaza after the other two were shut following the hamas attack. the israeli presence has strongly defended military operations for gaza insisting israel was doing its best to limit civilian casualties, but that it had to target hamas infrastructure including homes because hamas was using them. israel is coming under international criticism for the sing civilian death toll in gaza and a growing humanitarian crisis. >> is messed civilian casualties in gaza and acceptable price to pay to defend israel? >> i'm not measuring, god forbid, blood for blood. it is a wrong assumption.

the family of nations -- >> it's an accident? >> if a family of nations wants to operate, it has to fight this bitter enemy. >> let's look at the numbers. more than 8000 dead. and last night, we heard nearly 70% are women and children. why have they had to pay the price? >> nobody wants them to pay the price, godfrey bit. my heart goes out, truly. truly my heart goes out. but when you deal with the right of self-defense, what kind of self-defense do i have one people went into our territory? the rule that was set by our founding father, first and foremost, protect the nation. make sure that we are not threatened again. caitríona: let's bring in aviv as her, acting general counsel of israel in new york. we heard israel will let 81

gazans out to seek urgent medical attention. can you confirm that? >> i can't confirm specific numbers, but i can tell you israel is doing everything it can to make sure we work in terms of the international law and supply whatever is needed at any given time. caitríona: you say israel is doing everything it can to spare civilians but how is striking a refugee camp spearing civilians? >> we need to remember where we started. october 6, none of the israeli military troops were around gaza. we were actually thinking progress would be something that would lead to communication with hamas and now we know they were planning something totally different. the nature of their atrocities, the magnitude of them brought us to a situation where we need to

defend ourselves. but what caitríona: is the price of that self-defense? we are told more than 8000 gazans lost their lives and 3400 of them children. >> is a great question and -- we from the beginning from day one, we asked civilians to evacuate down south. we have created shelters to make it happen. hamas on the other hand has pushed them back into this fighting zone. they are embedding in civilians and committing triple war crimes. they are shooting from civilians, at civilians, and -- caitríona: sorry for interrupting you, to clarify one thing, when you say you ask people to evacuate to the south, the conditions in the south are described by many humanitarian agencies and the secretary-general of the u.n. as unimaginably desperate.

the people have no food, no water and no shelter. how are the people of gaza pushing into those conditions? >> with our good friends the americans, we made sure we have hundreds of trucks that will come to the border to bring medicine, food and water, but they will not bring things that will be used by hamas and later be stolen by hamas to create an ongoing -- caitríona: and when will those trucks be arriving? you said hundreds of trucks will arrive. we have not yet seen hundreds of trucks arrive on any given day. >> more than 100 trucks have already arrived and 70 are on the way. we will do whatever it takes to make sure civilians will get food, water, and continued support. but it will not be supporting the hamas military machine to create an ongoing attack on

israel. it does not make sense we would support hamas when we know hamas has everything to continue shooting at israel. 7000 rockets. this is unbelievable. caitríona: but the death toll continues to rise in gaza, and as you said food and water will be allowed in, but without fuel, they cannot deliver those or operate hospitals, they can't have clean water to water certain. sanitation does not work there they are asking for a humanitarian cause. is that something that might be considered? >> 100%. i can tell you the water israel supplied before the events was up to 70%. hamas is using those human shields and schools and mosques. caitríona: but israel didomb a refugee camp yesterday. it is pushing people into an area where there are no humanitarian supplies. >> but this is exactly the

point, we are not pushing them to locations -- on the contrary. we are going after hamas militants that have butchered our families, murdered our women, that have decapitated children. we need to make sure israel will have the safety to protect its citizens. the only way to do this is to go after these hamas operatives. who is terrorizing the hamas officer -- territory the past two decades? it is hamas doing it and who is to blame for everything happening now. caitríona: one more quick question. what about the hostages? do you know where they are being held? are you closer to discovering their location? >> we know hamas is holding them beneath the grounds in the tunnel systems and it will be very very complicated for us, but we have two goals in the military campaign. one is to

eradicate the military angles of hamas and the second is to release hostages. we know there will be a price tag attached to it but we will do anything to save the hostages. caitríona:caríona: we will have to leave it there, aviv ezra, acting consul for israel in new york. thank you. top advisers have asked joe biden to provide more funding. secretary blinken and secretary lloyd austin testified and pushed for biden's request for $106 billion to fund support for ukraine, israel and the u.s. border security. stealing a lot of the attention however were antiwar protesters who interrupted secretary blinken and called for a cease-fire in gaza. standing up one by one, the protesters waited for mr. blinken to begin before shouting over him again. police said 12 people have been arrested. the antiwar group code pink acknowledged some of its members

were arrested. secretary blinken meanwhile did not respond directly to protesters, but when asked later about the possibility of cease-fire, he said that would only help hamas to regroup. the biden administration argues supporting u.s. partners is vital to national security and is asking for the $100 billion plus package to include $60 billion plus for the ukraine. for the middle east, biden asked for 14.3 billion dollars for israel's military efforts and $9 billion for humanitarian relief including for israel and. gaza blinken eventually acknowledged to protest and his plea for peace. >> i acknowledge the passions in this room and outside. all of us are committed to the protection of civilian le. all of us know the suffering taking place as we speak to read all of us are determined to see it end.

but all of us know the imperative of standing up with our allies and partners when their security and democracies are threatened that's what's happening now. we stand resolutely with them, even as we stand resolutely for the protection of innocent civilians. caitríona: with me now is our north america correspondent. what were secretaries blinken and austin hoping to achieve today? >> they were trying to persuade congress to pony up in hanover this $106 billion that the president wants for these various aspects of national security. they are trying to persuade congress that is should all be done in one block, that the issues essentially are linked in particular because, for example hamas has visited moscow and moscow has done deals with iran.

these threats in ukraine and the middle east say the administrations are linked, and therefore the funding for them should be linked. that is the problem they are facing on capitol hill at the moment. there is significant resistance to that agenda at the moment. of course time is running out because the funding for the government in general runs out on november 17. caitríona: you mentioned this will be difficult. there are many obstacles there indeed. you might talk us through some of them. >> the principal problem is that there is a split in the republican party at the moment, and in particular a difference of opinion between the new house speaker and the minority leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell. mi johnson wants ukraine to be split off from israel funding. he wants a separate israel bill to be voted on. by the house. he wants that $14 billion to be

offset by cuts elsewhere, particularly to the irs. those are two things that democrats are vehemently opposed to. of course the problem is there's a large number of republicans in the senate including mitch mcconnell that do believe in coupling ukraine aid to israel aid. there's a difference of opinion within the republican conference in the house and senate and it's difficult at this stage to see how that will be reconciled with out some significant internal party turmoil which of course they have been expensing in the last three weeks. the next few days i think will be crucial to see if there's any way forward, but at the moment it seems like an impasse. that comes on the back of warnings that aid for ukraine, the military aspect of that fight is running out and israel is demanding money sooner rather than later to protect itself. caitríona: there's only a couple

eks left for the funding package to be agreed to keep the government open. do you think funding for this package r ukraine and israel will be front and center to that debate, or might the road run out essentially? >> i think there's a real problem getting all the various spending bills suit -- through but there's a huge barrier in the way of making progress. it prevents cooperation. there's little of that on capitol hill as things stand. you have a problem in the senate where there are a large -- large number of republicans who do want ukraine funding pushed through. they disagree with a number of their colleagues in the house. they have not come to a unified position on that. at the same time of course, you have democrats who are unhappy about israel funding. . a small number but still a

significantote for a minority. you have all of these various pressures playing on the parties and white house and administration more widely to cut a deal with time actually running out. caitríona: just going back to the hearings earlier and the disruption while secretary blinken was trying to give his testimony to the committee, the u.s. firmly standing with israel, but it doesn't reflect universally the position of american citizens. . are related to see further demonstrations like this? -- are we likely to see further demonstrations like this? >> i think you are starting to see somewhat of a shift particularly on the left of american politics. younger democrats in particular are starting to have a less favorable view of the unequivocal backing for israel. we have seen that in some of the polling even before the recent crisis. that is reflected in some ways writ large by today's protests.

there is a shift in that in the dynamics of the politics. mainly republicans still remain staunchly behind israel of all generations, but the democrats to have a sort of demographic problem with this when it comes to support for israel. that is something the white house will be worried about. caitríona: gary o'donoghue, our north america correspondent. thank you for that. that's it for now. remember, you can find the latest news and headlines on our website, narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪

geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna nawaz is away. on the "newshour" tonight, israeli airstrikes leave craters where apartments once stood at a gaza refugee camp. while in washington, congress considers whether to send more aid to israel and ukraine.

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