:00:09. > :00:10.The ceasefire in Gaza was meant to be for three days.
:00:11. > :00:20.What chance of stopping the violence in Gaza when the two
:00:21. > :00:29.sides can't stop killing each other for longer than it takes to reload.
:00:30. > :00:36.So much depends now on the fate of an Israeli soldier who went missing
:00:37. > :00:39.this morning. If he has been captured alive, the violence could
:00:40. > :00:45.intensify. Tonight, we will hear from an
:00:46. > :00:57.adviser, the former secretary David Miliband and the UN's adviser to the
:00:58. > :01:01.Middle East. Also: The botnet protection racket, give us your cash
:01:02. > :01:08.or your websites go down. And... Newsnight's latest Proms
:01:09. > :01:19.preview. Today was meant to be the day
:01:20. > :01:23.when the guns of Gaza fell silent and the talking around negotiating
:01:24. > :01:26.tables grew louder. This morning, at 8.00am, Gaza time,
:01:27. > :01:31.a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire A truce that took days
:01:32. > :01:36.of deliberations, involving leaders US Secretary of State, John Kerry,
:01:37. > :01:42.is said to have made 100 It was a huge achievement to reach
:01:43. > :01:49.that 8.00am moment, more than Then, it all fell apart
:01:50. > :01:54.within 90 minutes. Not only that,
:01:55. > :01:57.the crisis now appears even more serious, with Hamas's reported
:01:58. > :02:01.capture of an Israeli soldier. In a moment, we'll look ahead to
:02:02. > :02:04.where this leaves the herculean First,
:02:05. > :02:24.let's look at what happened today. As the day began, it was quiet but
:02:25. > :02:29.not calm. For Gazans, a truce is time to return to their homes or
:02:30. > :02:37.what is left of them. And to stock up on food, quickly. No one is ever
:02:38. > :02:44.sure how long any pause will hold. This one did not last much longer
:02:45. > :02:52.than one hour. Both sides blamed the other. The first major incident was
:02:53. > :02:57.in southern Gaza near the crossing with Egypt. Israeli soldiers came
:02:58. > :03:02.under attack as they searched for Hamas tunnels. This truce left
:03:03. > :03:07.Israeli ground forces in place, to continue operations to destroy the
:03:08. > :03:12.tunnels used for cross-border raids. Today, Israel said one of its
:03:13. > :03:20.soldiers was captured when her Hamas gun men emerged from a tunnel. A 20
:03:21. > :03:26.Three Rd lieutenant is said to have been taken back into Gaza in a
:03:27. > :03:33.tunnel. -- a 23-year-old lieutenant. His father has pleaded for his
:03:34. > :03:39.release. But this has already become a major setback in the difficult
:03:40. > :03:43.effort to reach a cease-fire. Hamas is being widely blamed, by both the
:03:44. > :03:53.United Nations and the United States. We have and I have
:03:54. > :03:57.unequivocally condemned Hamas and the Palestinian factions who are
:03:58. > :04:02.responsible for killing two Israeli soldiers and abducting a third,
:04:03. > :04:11.almost minutes after the cease-fire had been announced. For Israel, the
:04:12. > :04:16.soldier's capture is a game changer and its worst nightmare. Almost
:04:17. > :04:21.every Israeli family has a connection to the military. In 2006,
:04:22. > :04:26.a young conscript, Gilad Shalit, was also captured on the Gaza border.
:04:27. > :04:31.Israel blew up that tunnel shortly after. The missing soldier was a
:04:32. > :04:35.major wound for five long years, until finally Israel got him back in
:04:36. > :04:42.exchange for 1000 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas knows an Israeli
:04:43. > :04:48.soldier alive or dead, can be a strategic weapon. Corpses and body
:04:49. > :04:53.parts have also been exchanged in the past. But this time, Israel
:04:54. > :04:57.warns it only response will be crushing force.
:04:58. > :05:03.Joining me now is our diplomatic editor, Mark Urban.
:05:04. > :05:09.Why is there so much confusion about whether or not an Israeli soldier
:05:10. > :05:16.has been captured? It is interesting and gruesome. 1600 people killed in
:05:17. > :05:22.Gaza but so much depends on this young lieutenant. Hamas waltzes
:05:23. > :05:27.briefly told journalists they had him and then that was taken back. --
:05:28. > :05:33.Hamas sources briefly told journalists that they had him. There
:05:34. > :05:38.are possibilities that he is dead. But Israelis plastered the area with
:05:39. > :05:41.fire. But President Obama's statement clearly contains the
:05:42. > :05:46.assumption that Hamas do have him, perhaps on the basis of
:05:47. > :05:50.intelligence, and that is the assumption people are working to and
:05:51. > :05:54.that is why they are worried. It puts the Israeli government on the
:05:55. > :05:59.high road to military escalation rather than getting back to the
:06:00. > :06:03.cease-fire business. So this means the cease-fire talks are trapped? At
:06:04. > :06:09.one stage the Egyptian government said talks would go ahead.
:06:10. > :06:14.Palestinians have talked about going there tomorrow. But nothing will
:06:15. > :06:19.happen until it is much clearer what has happened to this man.
:06:20. > :06:22.happen until it is much clearer what acknowledge that they have him,
:06:23. > :06:27.maybe an understanding, they have created a situation that is too hot
:06:28. > :06:34.to handle. They do, it seems, wants this cease-fire now, but if they
:06:35. > :06:36.acknowledge they have him, that may frustrate it.
:06:37. > :06:40.Thank you. Let's get a Palestinian perspective now.
:06:41. > :06:42.Joining me from Ramallah, in the West Bank,
:06:43. > :06:45.is Mohammad Shtayyeh, a Minister in the Palestinian Authority who has
:06:46. > :07:01.Is it a good idea to be capturing Israeli soldiers at this delicate
:07:02. > :07:06.point in the crisis? We were all hoping that this aggression should
:07:07. > :07:11.stop by 8am in the morning. A Palestinian delegation were on their
:07:12. > :07:18.way to Cairo. Unfortunately, violence has escalated. The people
:07:19. > :07:24.in Rafa are telling us that this was taken at 6:30am, the Israeli sources
:07:25. > :07:29.are saying this happened at 9am or 10am. We have two stories.
:07:30. > :07:35.Regardless, the cease-fire should continue, as it has been said
:07:36. > :07:39.earlier by the earlier speaker. I think the focus should not be on a
:07:40. > :07:47.soldier who has been taken captive. I think we should continue with the
:07:48. > :07:53.cease-fire in order for us to really stop this aggression and put an end
:07:54. > :07:58.to it. But 6:30am or 9:30am, whenever he was captured, do you
:07:59. > :08:06.condemn it, because it is derailing the objective which is to end the
:08:07. > :08:09.suffering of the Palestinians? Thousands of Palestinians have been
:08:10. > :08:15.killed. This morning, in order for the Israeli army to try and block
:08:16. > :08:22.the roads leading out of rougher, more than 80 Palestinians have been
:08:23. > :08:30.killed, in order for the Army to. This is an operation. The Israeli
:08:31. > :08:39.army are taking aggression measures. Let's just be clear if we could deal
:08:40. > :08:47.with this central issue. How is the capture of an Israeli soldier got in
:08:48. > :08:52.the way? Do you condemn it? As I told you, the Israeli army is
:08:53. > :08:59.occupying... So you do not condemn it? No, excuse me, if the story that
:09:00. > :09:04.we have been told that the soldier has been taken captive at 630 in the
:09:05. > :09:10.morning, it was in the middle of an escalation in the Israeli side. The
:09:11. > :09:18.problem that occurred today is that the agreement itself has seeds of
:09:19. > :09:24.conflict. When you allow Israel to continue destroying tunnels and they
:09:25. > :09:29.claim the tunnels are under houses, that left seeds of conflict. On the
:09:30. > :09:34.other hand in the agreement, it did allow Hamas to retaliate in self
:09:35. > :09:40.defence. The two sides in the agreement, they did leave the seeds
:09:41. > :09:47.of conflict which have left a catastrophic situation which we left
:09:48. > :09:53.today. What happens now? Are the delegation is going to be heading to
:09:54. > :09:57.Cairo in the morning for talks? Yes, yes, the Palestinian delegation
:09:58. > :10:03.is going to Cairo because we are sending a very clear message. We are
:10:04. > :10:07.keen on a cease-fire. We want to stop the aggression, we want to stop
:10:08. > :10:11.the killing of innocent people. 80% of those who were killed in the Gaza
:10:12. > :10:17.Strip are innocent Palestinian children, old men and women and so
:10:18. > :10:22.on and so forth. We are keen for a cease-fire. We want all parties to
:10:23. > :10:28.commit to it and nobody should be allowed to sabotage it. Is their
:10:29. > :10:31.concern in Ramallah where you are, the seat of the Palestinian
:10:32. > :10:40.authority, of fatter, fatter and Hamas our long-standing political
:10:41. > :10:51.rivals -- Fatah. Do you believe they have been strengthened in this war?
:10:52. > :10:57.We think the aggression on Gaza is an aggression on all of us. Of
:10:58. > :11:03.course, we will remember one important thing, this whole war on
:11:04. > :11:10.Gaza has come a month after the Palestinian reconciliation. We were
:11:11. > :11:14.in the middle of bringing the whole issue to a different scenario. The
:11:15. > :11:20.Palestinian Authority was going to Gaza. Hamas was not coming to the
:11:21. > :11:23.West Bank. Unfortunately, the whole international community, or
:11:24. > :11:28.fortunately, the international community has fully is a ported the
:11:29. > :11:34.agreement on the Palestinian government. It was Israel who wanted
:11:35. > :11:39.to sabotage this. Israel wants to keep Gaza totally isolated from the
:11:40. > :11:45.rest of the Palestinian territory, in order for it not ever to have a
:11:46. > :11:51.Palestinian state or Palestinian territory. This is what Israel
:11:52. > :11:56.wants. Mohammad Shtayyeh, thank you for joining us from Ramallah.
:11:57. > :12:01.So, with a 72-hour truce in tatters, and a lasting ceasefire even harder
:12:02. > :12:04.to reach, what more can the United Nations do - aside from saying,
:12:05. > :12:07."there must be a ceasefire!" We're joined from UN Headquarters
:12:08. > :12:10.in New York by Jeffrey Feltman, the UN's Under-Secretary-General
:12:11. > :12:12.for Political Affairs. He's the main man advising
:12:13. > :12:21.the Secretary-General on the Middle East.
:12:22. > :12:30.Can there be a continuation of cease-fire talks now? We have no
:12:31. > :12:34.choice but to continue pushing for a cease-fire. If we look at the
:12:35. > :12:39.casualty rate just from today, it is appalling. We link the escalation
:12:40. > :12:45.directly back to the capture of the Israeli soldier this morning. Israel
:12:46. > :12:50.says it can't continue, even though Ban Ki-Moon has said the 72 hour
:12:51. > :12:57.humanitarian cease-fire must resume. The language Israel is using
:12:58. > :13:00.tonight is crushing force. We are very aware of the language the
:13:01. > :13:05.Israelis are using and others are using, but I can assure you that our
:13:06. > :13:08.goal is to figure out a way to protect the civilians who are the
:13:09. > :13:13.ones who are caught up in this conflict. To find a way first of all
:13:14. > :13:17.to make sure the humanitarian relief to those sheltering in their
:13:18. > :13:23.schools, continues to flow, that we find ways to bring in food, water
:13:24. > :13:27.and sanitation etc. But we also have to get back to where we were
:13:28. > :13:31.yesterday, which is bringing the parties around the idea that this
:13:32. > :13:35.cannot continue. That unique to have enough of a pause for the
:13:36. > :13:41.humanitarian side and enough of a pause to create the political space
:13:42. > :13:44.that you start to deal with some of the issues that are handed back row
:13:45. > :13:54.raised, that you need to address to make this durable. -- that Mohammad
:13:55. > :13:57.Shtayyeh raised. We have seen Gaza erupt into this fighting
:13:58. > :14:05.periodically. We cannot have this every couple of years. But can you
:14:06. > :14:07.actually pick up where you left off, because the UN
:14:08. > :14:12.Secretary-General said what has happened today, the breaking of the
:14:13. > :14:17.cease-fire, the kidnapping of the soldier, calls into question the
:14:18. > :14:20.assurances given by Hamas. Do you actually have a movement to
:14:21. > :14:28.negotiate with still? Can you trust them? I do not think this is an
:14:29. > :14:32.issue of trust. That is what the Secretary-General said. He said
:14:33. > :14:39.called into question means you do not trust any more what Hamas said,
:14:40. > :14:43.they do not keep their promise. We certainly did work on the assurances
:14:44. > :14:46.that we got yesterday, that we received yesterday, to try and put
:14:47. > :14:51.in place the cease-fire. It did not work. But that does not mean we
:14:52. > :14:55.should not be trying again and learning from what happened this
:14:56. > :15:05.time. What did you learn from what happened this time? I hope that
:15:06. > :15:10.others have learned and thought hard about the fact that whether they
:15:11. > :15:15.like it or not, when there is an Israeli soldier that has been taken
:15:16. > :15:21.captive, the Israelis are going to take very tough measures. We saw
:15:22. > :15:25.this in 2006 with Lebanon as well. You mentioned the Gilad Shalit
:15:26. > :15:28.capture in 2006 and you may remember how hard the Israelis then hit the
:15:29. > :15:33.Gaza Strip and the same thing happened a month or so later with
:15:34. > :15:40.Lebanon. The war between Israel and Lebanon. Those who took the soldier
:15:41. > :15:45.today need to think about what is in the best interests of the
:15:46. > :15:49.Palestinians. Right now I would say the best thing is to try and work
:15:50. > :15:54.with all parties to get back to where a cease-fire can create enough
:15:55. > :15:59.of a pause that you start to get political momentum to a more durable
:16:00. > :16:02.solution. I do not let how we get back to where we were yesterday that
:16:03. > :16:09.we have to explore our options to do so. How are you talking to Hamas, a
:16:10. > :16:13.terrorist organisation, in the mind of the United States and the
:16:14. > :16:17.European Union. Are you and officials sitting down face-to-face
:16:18. > :16:21.talking to Hamas? I'm not going to get into the tactics - Are you
:16:22. > :16:26.talking directly, so you can give them the messages you are giving us
:16:27. > :16:29.tonight on Newsnight. Can you give those directly to Hamas,
:16:30. > :16:35.face-to-face? Yes. Yes, face-to-face? We have many ways to
:16:36. > :16:38.make sure that Hamas understands our message and Hamas has ways of
:16:39. > :16:42.communicating with us through a variety of channels and through a
:16:43. > :16:49.variety of means. Including face-to-face? I'm not going to go
:16:50. > :16:54.into how we do this. I'm sorry. I just... There are ways we
:16:55. > :16:59.communicate. There are ways that we can try to verify that messages get
:17:00. > :17:06.through when they aren't direct. There are other ways of talking as
:17:07. > :17:13.well. 24-hours ago the focus was on the high civilian casualty toll in
:17:14. > :17:18.Gaza. Atrocious action, to use again the Secretary General's words. What
:17:19. > :17:25.is the message to Israel? There has to be some way of providing greater
:17:26. > :17:29.civilian protection. There has to be some way that these casualty rates
:17:30. > :17:36.do not continue to escalate in the way that they're going now. It's
:17:37. > :17:40.heartbreaking to see the imagery that your news broadcasters and
:17:41. > :17:43.others are sending out from Gaza. The Secretary General has made it
:17:44. > :17:48.very, very clear that, even in times of war, there are rules. There are
:17:49. > :17:55.international standards that have to be applied. So we, despite the
:17:56. > :18:05.heightened emotions that the Israelis today have, we still have
:18:06. > :18:09.to counsel that restraint, that taking extraordinary measures to
:18:10. > :18:13.protect civilians is a requirement under international law. These
:18:14. > :18:18.messages are the same today as they were yesterday. Very good luck with
:18:19. > :18:26.the negotiations. Thank you for joining us.
:18:27. > :18:30.It may seem like a long time ago, but the spark for this conflict
:18:31. > :18:32.wasn't lit in Gaza, it was the killing of three Israeli teenagers
:18:33. > :18:36.in the West Bank which precipitated the events that led to the pounding
:18:37. > :18:39.Today, Hamas called on Palestinians from all factions to participate
:18:40. > :18:42.in a Day of Rage against the Israeli Defence Force
:18:43. > :18:49.There have been eruptions of violence in the West Bank
:18:50. > :18:57.since the conflict started, Tim Whewell spent the day there.
:18:58. > :19:05.They say they'll sacrifice themselves for Gaza. But here in
:19:06. > :19:10.Hebron today, there was much that Arabs could do but shout their
:19:11. > :19:18.hopeless rage over the deaths of so many Palestinians. They flew the
:19:19. > :19:22.green flag of Hamas along the side of the Fatah party that has been
:19:23. > :19:26.ruling the West Bank because, two months ago, the once warring
:19:27. > :19:29.Palestinian factions finally formed a joint government. Then, many
:19:30. > :19:36.hoped, that was a step towards peace. No-one here is thinking of
:19:37. > :19:40.that today. This demonstration is emphasising Palestinian unity, but
:19:41. > :19:47.now it's not about unity in favour of a settlement, it's simply about
:19:48. > :19:51.resistance to Israel. This youth worker wasn't a Hamas supporter. But
:19:52. > :19:57.what is happening in Gaza makes him and everyone here back Hamas now.
:19:58. > :20:02.People are very angry. They see children killed in Gaza. They see
:20:03. > :20:08.women, mosques demolished. We see a lot of homes completely destroyed.
:20:09. > :20:11.Neighbourhoods completely smashed, dismanteled completely. People are
:20:12. > :20:22.angry. Violence in them started growing. Two months ago, he says,
:20:23. > :20:28.everything looked very different. They announced they were ready to
:20:29. > :20:32.negotiate with Israel and ready to follow the international conditions
:20:33. > :20:36.and rule. They recognised Israel. Israel was deeply suspicious of the
:20:37. > :20:40.unity government. If you walk through the rocky countryside
:20:41. > :20:45.outside Hebron, you see why. The it's near here, soon afterwards,
:20:46. > :20:50.that three young Israeli hitchhikers were kidnapped. Near here that a
:20:51. > :20:55.huge search operation began. TRANSLATION: It was 5.00pm we were
:20:56. > :21:02.sitting outside a restaurant and soldiers arrived. There must have
:21:03. > :21:08.been 1,000 of them. Eventually, on this pass, the young men's dead
:21:09. > :21:20.bodies were found. Israel, which blamed Hamas, it was proof that the
:21:21. > :21:25.unity government backed terrorists. What happened here is the deep
:21:26. > :21:31.mystery at the heart of the current crisis. The deaths of those three
:21:32. > :21:35.hitchhikers led indirectly to the deaths already of 1,500 people in
:21:36. > :21:40.the warring Gaza, which, on a clear day, you would be able to see in the
:21:41. > :21:43.distance over there. Yet, it's still not clear whether Hamas, as an
:21:44. > :21:49.organisation, was responsible for the murders. This is what happened,
:21:50. > :21:50.the same day the bodies were found, when Israeli forces came to the
:21:51. > :22:01.house of one of the murder suspects. TRANSLATION: They made me and my
:22:02. > :22:10.children leave the house. Then they came in and destroyed. It they broke
:22:11. > :22:14.all the windows. At 2.00am in the morning they strapped dynomite
:22:15. > :22:19.sticks to the walls and blew this part of the house She denies up. Her
:22:20. > :22:23.son, who has now disappeared, could possibly have been involved in the
:22:24. > :22:28.murders. The Israeli government says that he and another suspect were
:22:29. > :22:32.following Hamas orders. Hamas has carried out many kidnappings, it
:22:33. > :22:38.denies this one. Others think the murders were the work of a lone cell
:22:39. > :22:41.affiliated to Hamas. Whatever the truth, there is no doubt of this
:22:42. > :22:48.mother's support of the militants. TRANSLATION: I want freedom fighters
:22:49. > :22:51.to bring us victory and Gaza to be victorious. Israel hit us so
:22:52. > :22:57.brutally. Taught us to hate them. They don't want peace. Today, in
:22:58. > :23:02.Hebron, some of the protesters certainly didn't want peace. In a
:23:03. > :23:08.ritual that has been repeated again and again, they began throwing rocks
:23:09. > :23:13.at Israeli soldiers. The troops replied with rubber bullets. Laters,
:23:14. > :23:18.protesters claimed, with some live rounds. About 80 people, according
:23:19. > :23:22.to the demonstrators, were wounded. This man believes the rage will burn
:23:23. > :23:27.for a long time and he thinks the war on Hamas is counter productive.
:23:28. > :23:32.Israel is giving the opportunity for Hamas to be stronger. They are not
:23:33. > :23:36.destroying Hamas. They are strengthening Hamas by targeting the
:23:37. > :23:44.civilians and targeting them in Gaza. On the other hand, they are
:23:45. > :23:47.weakening their partner. Israel thinks the opposite. That
:23:48. > :23:57.Palestinians will tire of war and turn against Hamas. But that isn't
:23:58. > :24:10.happening here yet. For a broader reflection on this Gazan war
:24:11. > :24:12.David Miliband, the President and CEO of the International Rescue
:24:13. > :24:16.Of course, he was Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010 and
:24:17. > :24:19.on his watch the world grappled with a previous war in Gaza.
:24:20. > :24:21.I started by asking him who he blamed.
:24:22. > :24:25.It's important the focus remains on the civilian casualties. It seems
:24:26. > :24:29.evident from the news today that Hamas did break the ceasefire. The
:24:30. > :24:33.hard won ceasefire, the hard-fought ceasefire that was established this
:24:34. > :24:37.morning. The terrible tragedy is, Hamas cannot rocket their way to
:24:38. > :24:42.victory and Israel cannot bomb its way to security. And, at the centre
:24:43. > :24:45.of this conflict, are 1.8 million civilians who are at the absolute
:24:46. > :24:51.epicentre of a terrible military storm. I think their needs need to
:24:52. > :24:54.come centre stage, if any sanity is to be restored. Negotiations should
:24:55. > :25:01.still continue, even though there is now an Israeli soldier, it seems, in
:25:02. > :25:07.captivity? I think it's very important that all sides recognise
:25:08. > :25:08.that the rights of civilians in war are absolute, over hundreds of
:25:09. > :25:11.years, through to are absolute, over hundreds of
:25:12. > :25:17.years, through the Geneva Conventions, especially in 1949 that
:25:18. > :25:21.established the rights of civilians in warfare, there is a drive to
:25:22. > :25:26.ensure new laws were established. The trend we have seen, not just in
:25:27. > :25:31.Gaza, Syria, in Sri Lanka too, is that civilians aren't just pawns in
:25:32. > :25:37.a conflict, they end up becoming the victims without any proper status at
:25:38. > :25:40.all. The whole notion of a non-combattant inner conflict is now
:25:41. > :25:43.under threat. I think that's a very serious issue for democratic
:25:44. > :25:48.societies around the world and for those who would seek to undermine
:25:49. > :25:49.them. Has Israel used disproportionate force in this
:25:50. > :25:52.crisis, in this war? disproportionate force in this
:25:53. > :25:57.crisis, in this Well, look, for me as a leader of a humanitarian
:25:58. > :26:05.charity, it's important to assert that a single civilian, who loses
:26:06. > :26:08.their life innocently in a war, that is to breach the most fundamental
:26:09. > :26:12.basics of international humanitarian laws. If you are a lawyer you have
:26:13. > :26:16.to look at questions of intent and have to look at wider questions of
:26:17. > :26:21.porportionality. What I'm saying to you is, for me, as someone leading a
:26:22. > :26:25.humanitarian organisation, I want to assert the principle that every
:26:26. > :26:29.single civilian life is worth defending. When a single civilian
:26:30. > :26:32.life is lost, that is disproportionate to the norm that is
:26:33. > :26:37.have been established. The norms are about absolute rights, not about the
:26:38. > :26:42.tradeoff of rights of civilians. The now you are wearing a humanitarian
:26:43. > :26:45.hat rather than the Foreign Secretary hat, you would say it has
:26:46. > :26:51.been a disproportionate use of force by Israel? Of course. Of course. Of
:26:52. > :26:54.course. 80% of the civilians that have been lost, 80% of the
:26:55. > :26:58.casualties in this war have been civilians. As the leader of a
:26:59. > :27:01.humanitarian movement I have to defend the principle, after
:27:02. > :27:08.centurieses in which civilians were, to use your phrase "caught in the
:27:09. > :27:10.cross fire of war" in 1949, the Geneva Convention, established
:27:11. > :27:17.absolute rights for civilians in defence of times of war. That is
:27:18. > :27:20.being brooched. The the the situation that faces the people of
:27:21. > :27:25.Gaza tonight is that 1.8 million of them are trapped in an area where
:27:26. > :27:30.frankly there is no safe zone. That is completely contrary to every
:27:31. > :27:34.basic fibre of being that anyone can really understand or uphold. Has the
:27:35. > :27:40.British Government been strong enough in its condemnation of
:27:41. > :27:45.civilian casualties? Look, I'm not spending my time following the ins
:27:46. > :27:52.and outs of British politics. I will not get into a partisan political
:27:53. > :27:55.attack one way or another or defence of the British Government. What I
:27:56. > :27:59.think is important is that democratic societies around the
:28:00. > :28:03.world uphold the principle that democratic governments are held to
:28:04. > :28:06.higher standards than terrorist organisations and that is the
:28:07. > :28:11.defence of civilians in times of war. I think that the stakes now are
:28:12. > :28:16.very high indeed. Not just in Gaza, but more wide spread because the
:28:17. > :28:22.idea that civilian rights and the interests of civilians, never mind
:28:23. > :28:28.the thousands, tens of thousands of children at stake, the most t
:28:29. > :28:33.innocent of all, the fact it could be traded away is very difficult
:28:34. > :28:38.indeed. Diplomacy is needed more than ever. I remember 2009 when I
:28:39. > :28:44.was at the centre of negotiating the ceasefire for the 2008-0 # Gaza
:28:45. > :28:47.conflict, at the heart is reestablishing political stability
:28:48. > :28:50.in the Gaza Strip. That means the re-entry of the Palestinian
:28:51. > :28:54.Authority as the governing authority there. And reassertion of basic
:28:55. > :28:55.humanitarian at the heart of the Middle East. David Miliband, thank
:28:56. > :29:07.you. Now, to shift gear. If you live on the internet,
:29:08. > :29:09.getting knocked offline could ruin your whole day -
:29:10. > :29:12.such is the world we live in. If you make your living
:29:13. > :29:14.on the internet, then it's a lot more serious
:29:15. > :29:16.when someone kills your connection. Your entire business could be
:29:17. > :29:18.at stake. Pay up, they're telling tech
:29:19. > :29:22.companies, or we'll take you down. They're using what's known as
:29:23. > :29:24.a Distributed Denial of Service, or Malicious attacks
:29:25. > :29:29.on websites have grown in frequency Our technology editor,
:29:30. > :29:38.David Grossman, reports. If you want
:29:39. > :29:40.your business competitors to go If you want your rivals to
:29:41. > :29:44.go offline, well they will. You have to admit,
:29:45. > :29:47.it's pretty brazen, offering to take The weapon, a distributed denial
:29:48. > :29:56.of service attack, or DDoS. A denial of service attack is all
:29:57. > :30:02.about filling up the resources of a website, so that legitimate
:30:03. > :30:07.requests can't get through. In the physical world,
:30:08. > :30:10.you could think of it as something like a sit-in or
:30:11. > :30:13.if you had all of your friends go to a store, fill the entire space,
:30:14. > :30:16.but not actually buy anything. The result is,
:30:17. > :30:19.a whole load of clients or potential customers who can't access your
:30:20. > :30:23.website for hours or even days. The worrying development though is
:30:24. > :30:27.an increasing number of these attacks are now being launched,
:30:28. > :30:31.not personal revenge or business A hacker writes
:30:32. > :30:42.a virus that then infects a whole load of computers, sometimes running
:30:43. > :30:46.into the hundreds of thousands. Then, unknown to the owners of those
:30:47. > :30:51.computers, the hacker instructs this network, known as a botnet,
:30:52. > :30:56.to attack the target website. Previously, the people who made
:30:57. > :31:00.these botnets would hire them out to email spammers who would try
:31:01. > :31:04.to sell you Viagra or convince you they were the Nigerian
:31:05. > :31:07.Finance Minister or something. But the email providers have got
:31:08. > :31:10.much, much better The answer they've come up with,
:31:11. > :31:19.is to turn them into a weapon The sums demanded to stop attacks
:31:20. > :31:24.are comparatively trivial. The targets are often small to
:31:25. > :31:32.medium-sized tech companies who cannot afford to be offline
:31:33. > :31:35.for a minute, let alone a day. Companies like meetup, a social
:31:36. > :31:40.network for community groups. The attack started on a Thursday
:31:41. > :31:44.morning, early. We received an email asking
:31:45. > :31:47.for money to stop the attacks. They hadn't actually started yet,
:31:48. > :31:50.but within a few minutes of receiving
:31:51. > :31:53.the email we saw large traffic that That was the start of a five-day
:31:54. > :32:01.battle to bring the site back up It was really a kind
:32:02. > :32:08.of cat-and-mouse game with Meetup is pretty rare
:32:09. > :32:15.in being a company that doesn't mind I've been in contact with many
:32:16. > :32:23.more who, although happy to talk CloudFlare is a network protection
:32:24. > :32:32.company based in San Francisco. They say they've seen a huge
:32:33. > :32:35.increase in the numbers of tech I think that there's
:32:36. > :32:39.a reluctance to talk about this happening because there's a
:32:40. > :32:42.perception that these companies have The challenge is,
:32:43. > :32:52.a lot of these companies have done Some of the companies we have
:32:53. > :32:54.seen are incredibly tech-savvy. They have contingency plans
:32:55. > :32:57.in place, redundant providers. The attackers, the criminals,
:32:58. > :32:59.can generate so much traffic that unless you have the resources
:33:00. > :33:02.of a company like CloudFlare or Google, that literally has a global
:33:03. > :33:04.network, it's very hard to defend Smashing the window,
:33:05. > :33:08.putting it out of business. It's, effectively,
:33:09. > :33:10.like an old mobster sort The police have
:33:11. > :33:18.a straight-forward view of this activity and say they will
:33:19. > :33:21.investigate if complaints are made. So far there has been one successful
:33:22. > :33:27.prosecution in the UK These programmers were filmed
:33:28. > :33:32.by Greater Manchester Police threatening a DDoS attack
:33:33. > :33:34.on an online casino. But, in this case, the extortionists
:33:35. > :33:38.were known to the victim. When there is that connection
:33:39. > :33:41.between the victim and the offender, obviously it's
:33:42. > :33:43.a lot easier to investigate. But even when there isn't that
:33:44. > :33:45.connection, there is still obviously stuff law enforcement can do
:33:46. > :33:49.because they still have to have an element of communication with
:33:50. > :33:52.the victim because they want Obviously,
:33:53. > :33:56.if they are attacking a number of different companies, then they might
:33:57. > :33:59.be using the same email address, the same language in the email that
:34:00. > :34:03.gets profiled and you can build a The random nature of most DDoS
:34:04. > :34:10.attacks means the long-term answer Attacks are magnified
:34:11. > :34:16.by exploiting a weakness in the very To find out about a website,
:34:17. > :34:27.a computer will send a very short In one type of DDoS attack,
:34:28. > :34:37.hackers use this to their advantage by telling the websites to send
:34:38. > :34:40.the response to the server they're trying to knock offline instead
:34:41. > :34:43.of back to themselves. The target network is then inundated
:34:44. > :34:47.with data that makes the attack far These kinds of attacks exploit
:34:48. > :34:54.the open, free-flowing way that internet servers around the globe
:34:55. > :34:57.communicate with each other. There are fears that introducing
:34:58. > :35:00.more checks and limits could slow But while we wait for a solution,
:35:01. > :35:04.many tech companies take the view it's better to pay up
:35:05. > :35:08.the comparatively small amounts of money being demanded
:35:09. > :35:10.and hope the extortionists move As part of our season of Proms
:35:11. > :35:25.previews, in the week we remember Here's the 100-strong Military Wives
:35:26. > :35:29.Choir performing, Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead by Gustav Holst,
:35:30. > :35:32.and conducted by Gareth Malone. # Home they brought her warrior dead
:35:33. > :35:49.# She nor swooned, nor uttered cry # All her maidens watching said,
:35:50. > :36:00.# She must weep or she will die. # Then they praised him, soft and
:36:01. > :36:05.low, # Called him worthy to be loved,
:36:06. > :36:15.# Truest friend and noblest foe, # Yet she neither spoke nor moved.
:36:16. > :36:28.# Stole a maiden from her place, # Lightly to the warrior stept,
:36:29. > :36:38.# Took the face-cloth from the face # Yet she neither moved nor wept.
:36:39. > :36:49.# Rose a nurse of 90 years, # Set his child upon her knee
:36:50. > :37:00.# Like summer tempest came her tears