Plus: Manhunt in Maine continues, and Novemberâs must-watch movie releases
| | | | | | | Hello. As EU leaders meet to forge a united front on the Israel-Gaza war, security correspondent Frank Gardner dissects what the Israeli army raid into Gaza tells us ahead of an expected ground invasion. The BBC Verify team gives an update on what we know nine days after the blast at the car park of Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City. We also bring you the latest on the manhunt to find Maine’s mass shooting suspect. Finally, movie critic Nicholas Barber recommends November’s must-watch releases. |
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| | | | | | AT THE SCENE | Lewiston, USA | | An idyllic city turned into ghost town | | | | The shootings’ locations are about four miles (6.5km) apart. Credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock | | A gunman opened fire at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Maine on Wednesday, killing 18 people and injuring 13 in the deadliest mass shooting recorded in the US so far this year. Police have told residents of the small city of Lewiston, where the shootings began, as well as those living in Lisbon, Bowdoin and Auburn, to stay indoors as a manhunt for the suspect continues. | | | | Holly Honderich, BBC News |
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| As you cross the bridge over Androscoggin River into Lewiston, a large electronic sign carries a warning: SHELTER IN PLACE. And around this small city, most people seem to be heeding the government order to the remain inside with doors locked. Lewiston, an idyllic New England town in the south of the state now resembles a ghost town - the doors and windows of homes, shops and businesses are shut for miles.
With the exception of a few dog walkers, the only people outside are either media or law enforcement, mostly clustered nearby the two sites of the shooting and the Central Maine Medical Center, where some of the 13 injured are being treated. Residents are visibly shaken by the sudden flash of violence in their normally peaceful state - made worse by the knowledge the suspect is still at large. One man told me last night was the first time in Maine he had felt compelled to lock his doors. |
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| | Questions Answered | | Understanding Israel’s raid into Gaza | | | | Footage released by the IDF shows an armoured column breaking through the border wall. Credit: IDF |
| | The overnight raid into the Gaza Strip was not the first since Hamas’s 7 October attack on southern Israel, but it was the largest. It will have provided Israeli planners with some intelligence for the ground invasion of Gaza that the Israeli government has anticipated. Here’s what we know about what happened given the footage shared by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). | | | | Frank Gardner, security correspondent |
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| | What was the goal of the raid? | | According to Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari, it was "a tactical operation", meaning it was limited in scope, lasting only a few hours, with all Israeli forces returning unharmed back into Israel. It appears to have been to probe Hamas’s forward defences on the edge of Gaza in advance of a future incursion. Israel says it destroyed Hamas anti-tank positions before all Israeli forces returned across the border. | | What kind of tanks did the Israeli army deploy? | | The tanks involved are Merkava Mark IV's. Former British Army tank commander Hamish de Bretton-Gordon says these tanks have the unique feature of being able to carry four Special Forces soldiers in the back. “So this raid was to take out key locations, anti-tank positions and is what we call 'reconnaissance by fire'", he said. | | Were other vehicles involved? | | Another vehicle that features in the footage released by the IDF is the D9 armoured bulldozer. They have a specialised military purpose: to clear away obstacles, rubble and booby traps ahead of advancing troops. Operated by the IDF's Combat Engineering Corps, they have the Hebrew nickname "Doobi", meaning "teddy bear", and have been used in previous urban operations. | | | | | | |
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| | The big picture | | Latest analysis about Gaza hospital blast | | | | The hospital's car park contained more than a dozen burned-out cars. Credit: Getty Images |
| | BBC Verify focused their analysis of the blast that hit the car park of Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City on 17 October on three areas: the lack of weapon fragments, the crater and damage at the scene, and video footage of a projectile rising over Gaza which was central to Israel's description of what happened. | | | | |
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| | | For your downtime | | Movie dates | | Some of the year’s most anticipated titles hit the screens in November. | | |
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| | And finally... in Scotland | | A minke whale has set a European record for the number of years she’s been seen. Snowy, a nickname inspired by a white patch on her dorsal fin, has been gracing Scotland’s Hebrides islands with her presence for 27 years. |
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| | | | | | | | Essential List Newsletter | | The week’s best stories, handpicked by BBC editors, in your inbox every Friday. | | |
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