Lets show you live pictures from gaza now. This comes as israeli troops are still going house to house to clear communities after the saturday assault thats according to an Israel Defense forces spokesman. The latest developments come as Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu says his Security Cabinet has approved plans to destroy the military and governmental capabilities of hamas and islamichhad. Netanyahu has said israel is at war after a surprise and unprecedented raid by Palestinian Militants on israel territory early saturday morning. On israel territory early saturday morning. Israels government says hamas launched more than 2000 rockets into the country, killing more than 250 people and wounding over 1100 others. Officials in the gaza strip say over 230 people have been killed and over 1700 were injured in retaliatory strikes. The Un Security Council plans to meet about the violence in the region tomorrow. The Early Morning assault began with a barrage of rocket fire from gaza just after dawn with explosions heard on the streets of ashkelon. Sderot, which is near gaza, is thought to have been infiltrated by militants. Israel forces have struck several targets in gaza in retaliation for the attacks by hamas. We want to show you the moment, Caught On Camera by our bbc team, when a nearby building was hit by air strikes. Take a look. 0ur Bbc ArabicTeam Capturing that footage of several air strikes on a building near the bbc Arabic Office in gaza. It was filmed by our team as it was preparing for a live two way. You can see the large plumes of smoke rising in the aftermath. Those strikes taking place earlier on saturday. Theres been plenty of reactions of what weve been seeing taking place in israel. Earlier, we also heard from us president joe biden, who gave this statement, expressing solidarity with israel. The United States stands with israel. We will not ever fail to have their back. Well make sure that they have the help their citizens need and they can continue to defend themselves. You know, the worlds seen appalling images. Thousands of rockets in the space of hours raining down on israeli cities. I got up this morning and started this is 7 30, eight oclock, my calls. Hamas terrorists crossing into israel, killing not only Israeli Soldiers but israeli civilians. In the street, in their homes, innocent people murdered, wounded. Entire families taken hostage by hamas just days after israel marked the holiest of days in thejewish calendar. Its unconscionable. You know, when i spoke to Prime Minister netanyahu this morning, i told him the United States stands with the people of israel in the face of these terrorist assaults. Israel has the right to defend itself and its people, full stop theres neverjustification for Terrorist Attacks and my administrations support for israels security is rock solid and unwavering. Let me say this as clearly as i can this is not a moment for any party hostile to israel to exploit these attacks to seek advantage. The world is watching. That address from President Biden coming earlier today. Lets bring in michael birnbaum, National Security reporter at the washington post. Thank you for being back on bbc news. We have been hearing there from President Biden and we saw Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken standing by his side during the address. Secretary of state really has been reaching out to several leaders about the situation, speaking with egypt, leaders from turkey, qatar among others. What are we hearing about the efforts to reach out to regional partners there . They are trying to round up support for israel at least try to understand whats going on inside israels neighbours and in the neighbourhood. The Biden Administration had been involved in trying to forge a major Landmark Deal between saudi arabia and israel in which the saudis would recognise israel and they had hoped to achieve essentially major piece deal. Clearly, what has happened here is its going on the opposite direction, so they are trying to kind of gauge the temperature, round up support and also prevent a bigger regional flare up. Support and also prevent a bigger regionalflare up. There bigger regional flare up. There are bigger regionalflare up. There are a lot of worries that has full from lebanon to israels north could launch a second front in this attack right now that hezbollah. Front in this attack right now that hezbollah. That hezbollah. You mentioned that hezbollah. You mentioned what that hezbollah. You i mentioned what president that hezbollah. You mentioned what President Biden has been hoping to be, a Signature Deal between israel and saudi arabia. Where do you think the deal stands and what role may be, at least in the background, to those kind of talks play in what we saw playing out with hamas . There is a lot of playing out with hamas . There is a lot of speculation, playing out with hamas . There is a lot of speculation, its playing out with hamas . There is a lot of speculation, its a. Is a lot of speculation, its a little hard to know exactly what role the potential deal might have had in the attack, you know, versus long standing rivalries and israel palestinian relations. But the white house is saying today they are not really sure, they are not ready to write off the deal quite yet. They are not sure whether this necessarily kills it. They were saying it had a long way to go in the first place. But there are also concentrating on helping israel dealing with the media conflict. I think they have set aside all hopes in the short run, at least, of achieving any breakthroughs between the saudis and israelis. Another interesting thing about it is the deal didnt actually kind of place the palestinians in the centre. It was much more bilateral saudi israeli relations and there was hope some kind of help, you know, concessions for palestinians but clearly, whats happening today and in coming days really changes that and really scrambles all the calculations. The white house and several us lawmakers pledging their support for israel today but i know youve been reporting on this throughout the last several months. There has been tension between the two countries, tension between the two leaders, biden and netanyahu. How do you think those loggerheads in terms of what netanyahu was doing, moving potentially the country a bit more to the right, how could that affect the situation . Could that affect the situation . � ,. , situation . Thats not something thats being situation . Thats not something thats being talked situation . Thats not something thats being talked about situation . Thats not something thats being talked about right l thats being talked about right now. Today. Its absolutely the case that these are not two administrations that have been particularly friendly with each other. Theres been a lot of frustration in washington from biden, others in the white house, about the way netanyahu has pursued traditional judicial reforms which are seen as antidemocratic and all sorts of things and they havent been seen as close but at the same time, israel has a long standing Security Relationship with the us and a lot of political backing in the us for Security Help in these kinds of situations and thats really been the focus, i think, today. The white house is detailing just incredible numbers of conversations at all levels from top to bottom, the Military Establishment between the us military and Israeli Military and biden, certainly talking to netanyahu. I think in the longer run, there may be, you know, looking back at this, some recriminations and frustration about potential Intelligence Failure on the israeli side and perhaps the american side as well that allow this to happen, perhaps being destruct by other elements of their domestic politics but for now, i think they seem to be setting aside they seem to be setting aside the frustrations theyve had in the frustrations theyve had in the past and just concentrating on ensuring security and stability in the short run have been distracted by. In stability in the short run have been distracted by. In the middle of the have been distracted by. In the middle of the night have been distracted by. In the middle of the night now have been distracted by. In the middle of the night now in have been distracted by. In the middle of the night now in the| middle of the night now in the region, netanyahu earlier today has said this is not an incursion, this is not a mission, this is a war. Do you have any sense of what kind of response we could see now from israel in terms of its own security and what he may seek to do with its military . I think they still seem to be considering precisely what kind of response they will do. I think the question is whether or not they engage in a ground invasion, Ground Assault on the gaza strip in an attempt to really deal a major blow to hamas and its organisational power. Thats something that netanyahu has been resistant to in the past. Hes tried to avoid a Ground Assault which, you know, is unpredictable, could lead to a lot of Civilian Casualties and also a lot of israeli literary casualties. Its not military. Its not quite clear what is happening but its clear they view this in a different category from pretty much every other attack in recent memory and it could be that netanyahu is under a lot of political pressure to engage in the Ground Assault. Michael, we are continuing to monitor the situation live in gaza. Duck pictures obviously being the middle of the night but we will keep our eyes on it and you mentioned the political pressure on the Prime Minister and he hasnt exactly been in a very Strong Political position in terms of his government. We are now hearing that there is an added element of kind of an emergency coming together even as oppositionjoining a unity government right now. In terms of netanyahu himself, where does he go from here and what kind of political options does he have on the table . You mentioned the pressure he is facing. I mentioned the pressure he is facina. ,. , facing. I mean, in the short run, ithink facing. I mean, in the short run, i think theres facing. I mean, in the short run, i think theres the run, i think theres the question of how to prosecute what he has declared as a war. You know, trying to he said he wants to neutralise or eliminate hamas as a Political Force and as an opposition force. Its a very fluid situation. Injerusalem right now in terms of the political situation there. I think they do seem to be moving, as you said, toward a unity government, toward a sort of short term temporary coalition in which they set aside political rivalries in order to deal with the security situation. Longerterm, ithink there are real questions and they will be questions for netanyahu about why they were not able to foresee this assault and prevented. There seem to have been some really fundamental basic Security Failures that happened that allowed gratteri to make these major breakthroughs allowed hamas. This is not good for netanyahu but time will tell. Michael byrne baum, thank you, as always, for your insights. Birnbaum. Live now to barbara starr, a long Time Pentagon correspondent whos now Senior Fellow at the Usc Annenberg center on communication leadership and policy. Great to see you. So many people obviously expressing shock at these attacks, questions turning, as we just heard, to whether or not this was a failure of intelligence. What do you make of the breadth of this attack and the relative success that we saw from hamas in carrying out not only Rocket Attacks but from ground, sea and air . Access you know, one of the reason so many people are saying Intelligence Failure is you have to look at what he mentioned. Is you have to look at what he mentioned mentioned. The breadth and de th of mentioned. The breadth and depth of the mentioned. The breadth and depth of the attack. Mentioned. The breadth and depth of the attack. It mentioned. The breadth and depth of the attack. It was i depth of the attack. It was organised. 5000 rockets had to be in the works for months. To move all of that into place without Israeli Intelligence seeing any sign of it, communicating amongst all of those participating, developing a plan, staying off cellphones because apparently they did not have intercepts, no radar, no electronic intelligence. Now the israelis will have to go back through all of the high tech data and see if in fact they missed something, were there signals out that they did not see, but they did not get, or was hezbollah by all accounts, not get, or was hezbollah by allaccounts, pardon not get, or was hezbollah by all accounts, pardon me, not get, or was hezbollah by allaccounts, pardon me, hamas, so sophisticated in this they were able to carry this out, plan, equip, train themselves, know where they were going once they crossed the border into israel, whether able to do all of this basically out of sight of this basically out of sight of is really intelligence . That will make Intelligence Services around the world very nabers because what the Intelligence Community does not like his surprises and if this really was surprised it certainly appears to be, they will need to know how this all happened because if hamas was able to pull this off, whats to say they could not do it again on another group wouldnt want what they do and do it again somewhere else . 0f what they do and do it again somewhere else . Of course there are thousands of us and allied troops across the middle east region, middle east allies worry all about iran Plasma Influence in the region and iran influential with hamas perhaps in of this. There is a lot to think about here had a lot to think about here had a lot to think about here had a lot to try and sort out. Israel pursuing its retaliatory attacks, but still a lot to figure out about how it all happened. I figure out about how it all happened figure out about how it all happened. I was struck by something happened. I was struck by something one happened. I was struck by something one of happened. I was struck by something one of our happened. I was struck by something one of our previous guest said that this was not just a failure of intelligence. It was also a failure of diplomacy. Looking back on several events over the past few months and the rising tensions in the country, not only in gaza but in the west bank, expand on that a bit and whether or not, sure, complete failure of intelligence potentially but also that there might have been some science just looking at the tensions between palestinians and israel, how those continue to rise . ~ ,. , israel, how those continue to rise . ,. , , rise . Well, they do, because the palestinian rise . Well, they do, because the Palestinian People rise . Well, they do, because the Palestinian People feel. The Palestinian People feel that they have no hope, that they are getting further and further away from the results that they want to see. And that they have very little hope now of a better life. I think most people will tell you that these types of conflicts are not resolved at the point and a rifle. They are resolved with diplomacy and at the negotiating table. President biden was trying to broker normalisation between israel and saudi arabia with some concessions to the palestinians included in that as the very important step forward. That now appears like it is going to be off the table for some time. There is no indication of the netanyahu government is the least bit interested. 0bviously right now of any concessions to palestinians. So there we were, a step forward on diplomacy and it is now gone. You know, there will be the israeli retaliation but in terms of a long term solution, i think thats what the us and many of the allies want to see and many of the middle east neighbours will want to see. What is the plan, what is the actual diplomatic plan after all these years and one central for moving ahead . Settling back now to the United States, it was interesting to hear President Biden mentioning in his address, essentially a warning to any other countries from getting involved in the conflict. How much concern do you think there is on the part of the us or other regional partners that we could see, you mentioned macro what you, another supporter of the group and lebanon, we otherfronts open up in this conflict . And lebanon, we other fronts open up in this conflict . Well, i think there open up in this conflict . Well, i think there is open up in this conflict . Well, i think there is going open up in this conflict . Well, i think there is going to open up in this conflict . Well, i think there is going to be i think there is going to be some considerable concern that there is no ability in Northern Israel along lebanons S