Israel launches new offensive in Gaza
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The IDF (Israeli Defence Force) has announced they have mobilised troops to defeat Hamas and secure the freedom of the remaining hostages. Bombardment has intensified and troops are gathering near the borders. We get an on-the-ground update and speak to a father whose son is being held hostage in Gaza.
Also on the programme: Romanians return to the polls tomorrow for a defining Presidential election which will shape the country's future, and, we speak to the producer of a Taiwanese TV show which depicts a fictional Chinese invasion on the controversy surrounding the programme.
(Photo: Israeli tanks stand near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel May 17, 2025. REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Newsour from the BBC World Service coming live from London. This is Owen Bennett-Jones. |
| 0:10.9 | Well, Israel had said it was considering a major Gaza offensive once President Trump had left the region on his visit. |
| 0:19.9 | And that is now happening with the stated aims of dismantling Hamas |
| 0:23.9 | and freeing the remaining hostages who were seized on October 7, 2023. |
| 0:30.5 | The UN has reacted by saying that Israel's aid blockade of Gaza, |
| 0:35.2 | together with these attacks, amounts to ethnic cleansing. |
| 0:38.7 | Well, Khada Al-Qurd is a freelance journalist currently in Gaza City. |
| 0:43.1 | What's been happening? |
| 0:44.8 | Well, lots of airstrikes, shillings, drones, shooting, even explosion by robots' tank |
| 0:52.4 | in northern Gaza and eastern parts of Gaza. |
| 0:56.1 | Like we've been hearing these sounds all the time and it's very terrifying, very horrible |
| 1:02.2 | to hear it again with another military operation by the Israeli army and forcibly to evacuate |
| 1:09.5 | displaced people from North Gaza again, enforcing them |
| 1:14.3 | as they clear to south of Gaza. This is happening while the starvation has reached to the maximum |
| 1:23.2 | level here in Gaza. People, they are dying of malnutrition with even kids and children. |
| 1:30.3 | People, they are looking for food amid the exoclodian and they are not being able to move |
| 1:36.7 | or to flee with their weak bodies. Tell us about that. I mean, have you got children, I think. |
| 1:44.1 | You've got children? |
| 1:45.0 | Exactly. |
| 1:45.5 | I have two daughters. |
| 1:46.6 | Two daughters. |
| 1:47.2 | So when you're trying to get food for them, how does that work? |
... |
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