Start of the gaza war and we will bring you more information on both stories as that comes into us but turning back to lebanon because early in the day israel carried out air raids against what it called hezbollah*s intelligence headquarters in southern beirut. Our middle east correspondence sent us this report. Another night in beirut and more israeli air strikes. War returns to this city. And this attack came with no warning. We went to inspect the damage. A residential building near the lebanese parliament. Beirut appears increasingly under threat. This is where an emergency response group linked to hezbollah operated, now gone. There were just emergency service workers. This is the truth. We only saw them helping people out, says mustafa, who lives on the tenth floor of the building hit. The damage in this building gives you a sense of the power of this attack, and they've been cleaning up the rubble here, but we can still see some surgical masks and gloves and bandages as well. And you can probably hear the sound of drones flying overhead. This is a densely populated district here in central beirut. Hasan, who's a teacher, has lived in this neighbourhood for 2h years. There was no hezbollah presence here, military or civilian, he tells me. Hezbollah wasn't present here. These are some of the victims of the attack. They include one rescue officer and two paramedics. The recent israeli air strikes have killed 97 medical workers across lebanon, according to the health minister. The israeli military hasn't commented about this attack. But this hezbollah mp remains defiant. Translation: things are clear and our position has remained unchanged. We've not deviated an inch from it and we should continue down this path. The cemetery across the street wasn't spared the damage. These days in beirut, there's no peace for the living, or the dead. Hugo bachega, bbc news, beirut. That was the view from beirut. Our correspondent lucy williamson sent this report from the border. The communities along israel's northern border are now a closed military zone. The road in takes you through line of sight from hezbollah positions. Israeli forces outnumber residents along this border many times over, fresh out of lebanon, or waiting to go in. We walked the last few metres to a vantage point in a near empty kibbutz. You can start to see the buildings we've taken out. Buildings used by hezbollah lie broken. Nearby, the town of bintjbeil, where israel's army said today it had killed hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah has said it targeted soldiers just over that hill. We're now very close to the lebanese border. Locals here tell us the first hezbollah village is about a mile or so away from here. For the past year, people here have looked across this border and watched hezbollah fire rockets towards them. Now, for the first time in almost two decades, they're looking across that border and watching israeli forces battle hezbollah fighters on lebanese soil. You can see into lebanon from the terrace of dean sweetland's house. When residents evacuated this area a year ago, this former british soldier stayed. Eight years after moving here from london, his son is serving in the israeli army and this is home now. It's been very noisy. The house is shaking three, four times a day. Running into the shelter, taking the dogs, the dogs are going crazy. You never know if it's antitank. You only hear the whooshing noise. We can't continue. We can't continue this for another year, another two years of having hezbollah sitting on our border, just waiting to do an october the 7th on us, but, you know, my son is in the army, and do we want our kids being in there slaughtered where hezbollah have been waiting for this for nearly 20 years? they've been waiting for us to go in. Both israel's previous ground wars here began as limited incursions. The risks of getting mired in lebanon, familiar terrain for those who trod this path before. Lucy williamson, bbc news, the israellebanon border. Monday marks one year since hamas and other armed groups attacked israel killing about 1200 people and taking about 200 people hostage. The attack sparked israel's ongoing military campaign in gaza which has killed more than 115,000 palestinians. One of the senior leaders of hamas, classified a terrorist organisation by the uk, us and other governments, sat down with the bbc in a rare interview. He said the october seven attack was justified on the grounds of the palestinian struggle back onto the international agenda. The deputy chairman of the hamas political bureau also blamed israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu for the failure to reach a peace deal. He spoke with the bbc*s international editorjeremy bowen. Let us go back to the 7th of october last year. Why did hamas attack israel? translation: we had to sound the alarm to the world to tell them that we are a people with a cause and demands. It was a blow to israel, the zionist enemy, and a wakeup call to the international community. We had to do something that would tell the world that there is a people who have been under occupation for decades. Why did your men kill so many civilians, children as well? translation: we ordered our resistance fighters on the 7th of october not to target civilians, women and children. The objective was the occupation soldiers who were always killing, bombing and destroying in gaza. We don't endorse harming civilians. On the ground, there were certainly personal mistakes and actions. The fighters may have felt that their lives were in danger. Your men, who weren't in danger, they were standing with terrified civilians who were sitting on the ground, and they were standing over them with weapons. That is not a battle. Translation: we've all seen how the fighters went into the houses. They spoke to the families. They ate and drank. Sorry, they were shooting them. There are videos. Translation: when they went into some of the houses, none of the women and children they dealt with were terrified. Those videos were published by the israeli occupation. They weren't published by us. Almost a year later, gaza is in ruins. There are more than 40,000 dead, many, many of them are civilians. Your capacity to fight israel has been massively diminished. Was it worth all of that? translation: who's responsible for this? it was the occupation and its army. Who destroyed gaza, who killed its people? who is now killing civilians in shelters, schools and hospitals? ask the world and those who created international law. We are defending ourselves. If 1,200 people from the occupation are killed, how does thatjustify israel killing 50,000 people and destroying all of gaza? isn't that enough for them? but they are motivated by the lust to kill, to occupy, and the lust to destroy. The israelis say very clearly that they respect the laws of war, and they also say that the reason why so many civilians have died is because you and hamas fight from within the civilian population and you use them as human shields. Translation: that is not true. They destroyed mosques on top of the heads of their owners when there were no fighters. They destroyed houses and highrise buildings when noone was in them. They bombed houses when there was not a single fighter in them. It is all israeli propaganda. Why was it necessary to take more than 250 people hostage in gaza, very many of them civilians, including women and children? translation: one of the goals of the october 7 was to kidnap a small group of israeli soldiers to exchange them for palestinian prisoners. But when the gaza division completely collapsed in the face of the resistance fighters, we took a lot of prisoners. It was not our plan to capture civilians, including women and children. Some of those women who came out said that they were safely assaulted. Translation: the orders and ethics of all palestinians and resistance fighters were humanitarian. We are put up according to the islamic religion, culture and national civilisation. We protect them as we protect ourselves. Sexual or nonsexual assault has never been proved. There are numbers of testimonies from women who say they were sexually assaulted, some of the young woman who were taken out of the nova music festival, women saying they were sexually assaulted on the 7th and later on. The evidence is piling up. Translation: i told you, the instructions were clear. There may have been abnormal acts by irresponsible people, but these were just allegations. Israel says that under the right circumstances, they would have a ceasefire. What about a ceasefire, for example, where you simply give back the hostages and the war ends? would you accept something like that? that's been talked about, i know. Translation: the question is, when will netanyahu decide to stop the war? when will the world compel him to stop the war? it is the decision of netanyahu and the israeli occupation to continue the war. You could do it. You could surrender. Translation: how can we surrender? people who resist the occupation do not give up. If we surrender, which is impossible, our children, our people won't give up. Why should we surrender? the occupation should stop killing. Reaching a ceasefire deal was within reach on the 2nd ofjuly. Who came up with new conditions? netanyahu. That's why there was no agreement. Gaza is in ruins, tens of thousands of people are dead, israel is now hitting into lebanon and they're feeling strong. You're not winning this, are you? translation: my family, my children, my family, my relatives and my neighbours are in gaza. We see with their eyes. We feel their pain. We cry for their wounds. What hurts them hurts us. If the world gave us our legitimate rights, this cycle of violence would stop, but israel does not want that, the return of refugees and selfdetermination. The region would not calm down, no matter how much death and killing take place. For you, is the israeli state part of the future? the hamas charter said that the zionist state had to be destroyed. Translation: we say that israel wants to eliminate hamas and the palestinian people. Israel is crying and claiming that hamas and the palestinian people want to destroy it. Let's ask what israel thinks of the palestinian people. Give us our rights. Give us a fully sovereign palestinian state. The israelis say that the reason why they don't accept a twostate solution is because they fear that people like you want to destroy their state and kill their people. Translation: so far, israel does not recognise a onestate solution or a twostate solution. Israel rejects it all, international resolutions, international law and our rights. Do you think of yourself as a terrorist? that's what israel calls you. Translation: i'm seeking freedom and defending my people. To the occupation, we are all terrorists, the leaders, the women and the children. You heard what israeli leaders called us. They said we were animals. The ongoing crisis is threatening to have an economic impact especially with oil. The price of crude oil shot up 5% after us presidentjoe biden told reporters the us was discussing the possibility of israel striking iran's oil industry in response to iran filing missiles on tuesday. Do you support israel striking iran's oilfacilities, sir? we're discussing that. I think that would be a little. . . Anyway. Around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. Now to other headlines. A woman has been found guilty of manslaughter of herfour been found guilty of manslaughter of her four sons who died in a house fire while she was shopping. Difficult rows had left her twins alone when a fire ripped through her home in southwest london in 2021. The boys, all underfive, were unable to escape the locked house and died under a bed. A35yearold man has been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm in connection with a suspected acid attack outside a school in west london. Police say tikhon macfarlane, 1a, has potentially lifesaving lifethreatening injuries. Two other people are also heard, a 16yearold boy and a staff member trying to help. A proposal to change the law to allow some terminally ill people in england and wales to end their own lives will be introduced to parliament later this month. Mps last voted on assisted dying ten years ago and rejected calls to legalise it. The prime minister has previously promised to give his own mps a free vote on the subject meaning they will not have to stick to party lines. You are watching bbc news. We have breaking news on a story we have been following on the us port strike. The union says they are heading back to work for now. The international longshoreman association posted a statement saying they have reached a tentative agreement on wages and have agreed to extend the master contract untiljanuary1520 25 to until january 1520 25 to return untiljanuary1520 25 to return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues. Effective immediately, all currentjob actions will cease and all work covered by the master contract will resume. 115,000 port workers walked off the job on tuesday, the first major work stoppage of its kind since 1977. The action threatened to recave in this chaos on the busy shopping season and election. President biden released a statement a short time ago: the us says it welcomes an agreement for the uk to hand over sovereignty of the chagos islands to mauritius. It marks the end of more than 200 years of british control over the islands and follows years of negotiations. Mauritius has claimed sovereignty over the island since its independence in 1968. The chagos archipelago is located in the indian ocean about 1000 miles south of the indian subcontinent. It is made up indian subcontinent. It is made up of more than 60 mostly uninhabited islands. It was the uk's uninhabited islands. It was the uk's last african colony. Under the agreement the key island of diego garcia will remain home to a joint diego garcia will remain home to ajoint ukus diego garcia will remain home to a joint ukus military base. In the 1960s the uk that did about 1500 local residents to make way for the airbase. They will now be allowed to return. Our correspondent andrew harding has more. A scattering of tiny islands deep in the indian ocean. British for now but, after today's agreement, not for much longer. The chagos islands are all uninhabited save for one, an important one, diego garcia. It is home to a big and secretive american military base. Today, britain agreed to hand the whole archipelago over to mauritius but, crucially, the americans will remain in place. This is a very, very important agreement between our countries. It crucially protects the national security interests of t