which he will deliver at lunchtime. the artificial intelligence firm openai says its co—founder sam altman will return as ceo, days after his sacking triggered a revolt by staff. north korea launches a spy satellite into space, prompting south korea to partially suspend a military agreement between the two. polls are open in the netherlands, in a snap general election, following the collapse of the centre—right government. hello and welcome. you're watching bbc news from tel aviv. i'm anna foster. israel and hamas have agreed to a deal for a temporary ceasefire, during which dozens of israeli

hostages — all of them women and children — will be released. if successful, it will be the first break since the beginning of the war. in a statement, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said: "at least 50 hostages — women and children — will be released over four days, during which, a pause in the fighting will be held. the release of every additional ten hostages will result in one additional day in the pause." earlier, israel published a list of 300 palestinian prisoners that could be released under the deal. that is crucial because it gives scope for an instant —— for an extension, and it includes the names, ages and defences of those eligible. but only7150 detainees?are expected to be released at first. in its own statement, hamas — which is considered a terrorist group by many western governments —

says the 50 hostages will be released in exchange for 150 palestinian women and children being held in israeli jails. we are in hostages plaza in tel aviv. this has really been a focus. you can see behind me there is a performance going on, a ballet performance going on, a ballet performance in this square, there are artworks. this is really where many of the families of the hostages and many ordinary israelis have come to consider the people being held. this is a deal that includes not just the release of hostages, but also much—needed humanitarian aid to pass through into gaza. that is part of the terms of this deal which has taken many weeks to negotiate. let's begin with this report from our middle east correspondent yolande knell. here are some of the israeli children who could soon be returning home. oria is four years old and loves football. kafir is the youngest of all those held. he's nowjust ten months old.

israel's prime minister got a warm reception from these troops yesterday. speaking ahead of the deal, benjamin netanyahu said that releasing hostages was a sacred duty, but the war wouldn't stop after they were freed. israel's government met late into the night to discuss the agreement, only signing it off in the early hours. they announced that at least 50 hostages will be released — all women and children. that will be over four days, while fighting in gaza will be paused. the release of every additional ten hostages will result in one additional day's pause. in tel aviv last night, campaigners stood together as ministers debated the terms. many here would pay any price to have their loved ones back. they fear that some hostages are already dead. i want everybody back. but i think... and it's a very tough decision, but i think the children and women must be... they're most fragile.

you know, they need to get out. for palestinians in war—torn gaza, the pause in fighting is the chance of a brief respite from israel's assault. more fuel should now be allowed in and hundreds more lorry—loads of food, water and medical supplies. for doctors still holding out at al—shifa hospital with some 250 patients, that aid can't come soon enough. again, the hospital has no oxygen. we have no access to the main pharmacy, so we've run out of all the medication. we can't provide anything to the patients. we hardly do anything for the deep wounds we have. again, just reminding you, we are not more than 15 of medical staff. palestinian families are also waiting for more news on women and child prisoners from israeli jails, who are set to be released under the deal. on all sides, there's cautious optimism, with an announcement on the pause in fighting and the first hostage releases

expected within the next day. yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem. that is the latest on the deal, which of course has been waited for for many weeks. we have been told more than once this deal is coming close and finally in the last few hours, we saw it get over the line after many weeks of intense negotiation brokered by qatar. i just want to show you as well a little more of this place where i am now. hostages plaza, it is known as in tel aviv. and it has become this morning as a result of that deal once again a real focal point for people, ordinary israelis, men of the families of hostages gather here as well. and you can see a longer table, which is significant, it is a shabbat table and every one of those chairs you can see is left empty, representing those more than 240

hostages who are still being held in gaza. this first hostage release we're told to expect over the course of four days, may be 50 or so of those hostages, only around a quarter of them, the women or some of the women certainly and the children being held, and that's why people are coming here to the centre of tel aviv again and i think we will see some of the families of the hostages coming back to this area as well. and you can see many of the pictures, many of the people who come here, this really is a place where everywhere you look, you see the names on the faces of those who have been held in gaza for nearly six weeks now. that's why this deal has been so important for the israeli government and also for hamas because of the release of the palestinian prisoners and the humanitarian aid which is due to be increased as well. let's hear from yolande knell. i spoke to her earlier injuries then and she explains some of the finer details of this deal that has been agreed.

—— to her earlier and she explained. read across the different statements that have come out from the different parties to get a more full picture of what is being proposed here. this is going to really, after 46 days of fighting, be the most meaningful break in the hostilities that we've had, if things go to plan. now, according to the israeli media, they're putting out some more details of who these 50 hostages released by hamas and other factions in gaza will be. they're expected to include 30 children, we're told, as well as eight mothers and, also, 12 older women. all of them, israeli nationals or israeli dual nationals. none of the other people with just single nationality included in this deal at this point. now, that does mean, of course, that some families face this awful prospect of perhaps being able to greet some of their relatives coming back, but having loved ones that are left behind in the gaza strip. i know of one father who is held

there with his two children, for example, and there's no talk of men coming out at this stage. another important development that there's been in the past few hours is this list that has been published of 300 palestinian prisoners being held in israeli jails. that's just a small number of the more than 7,000 that we know are held. but on this list, you have a lot of palestinian teenagers, boys, also a number of women. now, a lot of the palestinian teenagers are accused of really relatively minor offences, looking through the list. it's things like throwing stones, belonging to an illegal organisation. some of the women have faced more serious charges. a couple of them, attempted murder. but the reason this list had to be published is because under israeli law, israeli citizens have the right to go to the supreme court and appeal against the release of any prisoners. and they have 24 hours in which to do that.

so that list had to be published in order for that to happen. we're only expecting 150, according to the hamas statement, or 140, according to some of the israeli media reports, of those prisoners to be released as part of this initial deal. that is our correspondent in jerusalem yolande knell. i spoke to gershon baskin. he has an interesting perspective on this. he negotiated the release of the israeli soldier, gilad shalit, who was held by hamas for five years. we talked about how difficult and delicate this negotiation process is likely to have been. it's very similar to the gilad shalit case, in that a proposal was put on the table for gilad shalit six months after he was abducted, but it took another five years

before the parties were ripe enough to make the decision. the deal we have seen unfolding today was put on the table day three or four of the war by my contacts and people in the israeli government, and hamas and qatar and egypt. and it was the logical deal that everyone should have thought about, and probably did, of women and children and elderly and sick and wounded, in exchange for women and children prisoners in israel. i collected all the data — how many prisoners there were, what kind of offences they'd committed. none of them had murdered israelis and they were all from the west bank and not important hamas people. so this was an easy deal to do, but it took, we are in the sixth week of the war before it was ready to be done. there was the belief in israel that the military pressure was necessary to make hamas be willing to make the deal. american pressure on the qataris, coordination between qatar and egypt, with the intelligence forces of egypt on the ground being able to communicate directly with the hamas underground.

communications here has been very, very much of an issue. how do you communicate with the people who are holding the hostages in gaza in tunnels underneath the gaza strip? and of course, the readiness within the israeli government to make a deal which they see as a big compromise in postponing the war effort, which has been a primary directive. so all these things just took time to come together. i think it's striking as well, and you published some of the conversations that you'd had with ghazi hamad, from hamas, who you had a long—running working relationship with, in terms of negotiations, and his position was a lot more hardline than a lot of discussions in the past. what do you think changed there? it's very difficult to know. i've negotiated nonstop with ghazi hamad over 17 years and, during those 17 years,

on all kinds of different issues. i think one thing is the fact that he was not in hamas, he was sent to lebanon to be a spokesperson for the war. he has definitely become more hardlined over time. he had resisted attempts i'd been making since the summer of 2021 for us to meet and spend several days together brainstorming. there was a point when he was ready to do it, but the technicalities got in the way and scared him off. even the month prior to the war, i was trying to convince him for us to meet in cairo and he had come to a point where, for the first time in 17 years, he said, "i can't, i have instructions, i'm not allowed to." that should have been a signal for me that something had really changed within gaza. but i didn't catch it, as no—one did. i think that they were in a deep plan of deception to israel to make us believe that they were trying to become more pragmatic when, in fact, they were planning this war.

initially, ghazi hamad denied the atrocities hamas had committed in israel on october 7th, killing babies, women, burning families alive and the massacre they did at the re�*im festival. afterwards, he stopped denying it and legitimised it and said they would do it over and over again, and israel had to be annihilated. ijust met with a norwegian journalist who met ghazi hamad last week in beirut, and he was stilljustifying everything that was done and said israel needed to be annihilated. so, things have changed. gershon baskin. director of middle east operations for the international communities organisations. talking about the difficult and delicate process over a number of weeks to secure the release of some of those hostages. and here in tel aviv, you can really see how much of a part of the israeli consciousness this has been. you can see behind me

in hostages plaza, the square outside the tel aviv museum of art, you can see this long a shabbat table being laid with an empty space for every hostage. you can see some of those places for children. and it is women and children that we expect to see released under this deal, around 50 of them, we're told, over four days. perhaps beginning as early as tomorrow morning. but this is something that has been discussed at such great length and detail for several weeks and i think there is still that nervousness that until those hostages are actually released and until we see the beginning of the humanitarian pause and the beginning of that ceasefire in gaza and until we start to see hostages released, it has been such a fragile and delicate process that people will wait really i think for it to become reality. let's talk more about the humanitarian implications of that as well. let's speak with mike noyes,

head of humanitarian at actionaid uk. he's in london. thank you forjoining us. we have been talking about what will change in gaza as a result of this, there will be periods of ceasefire where there will be no firing by the idf, and also, we're told more humanitarian aid going into gaza. but will that be enough to meet the huge need there right now? thank ou, huge need there right now? thank you. anna- — huge need there right now? thank you. am i _ huge need there right now? thank you, anna. ithink— huge need there right now? thank you, anna. i think there _ huge need there right now? thank you, anna. i think there is - huge need there right now? thank you, anna. i think there is to - huge need there right now? thank you, anna. i think there is to say i you, anna. i think there is to say that we welcome the news of the plans for the release of hostages and for this pause. i suppose in many respects, it is the best news we have had for the past 45 days in that finally, parties to this conflict are recognising that things have to stop, but that a change is needed. unfortunately for us, it comes too late for three doctors working in the al—awda hospital we support in northern gaza, killed yesterday by bombing. but overall, it is progress. that said, of course, a four day pause is not an

end to the fighting, it is a break. generally, the humanitarian community believe we need a proper and lasting ceasefire to make this work. but four days will allow some improvement in the situation. it will take a breath for those many, many palestinians that are displaced and living in very uncertain circumstances, living in fear, living in hunger. we hope with the news of this evolving we have been looking at how we can prepare for this to see what aid ourselves and others can bring in or scale up, or just simply be able to deliver safely in a way we've not been able to do over the past month and a half. �* , . ~' . to do over the past month and a half. �* , ., ~ ., ., to do over the past month and a half. 2 ., ~ ., ., ., half. let's talk a little more about the colleagues _ half. let's talk a little more about the colleagues that _ half. let's talk a little more about the colleagues that you're - half. let's talk a little more about the colleagues that you're talking | the colleagues that you're talking about, the doctors, nurses, the many people who are still doing their jobs in enormously difficult circumstances at the moment, aren't they? circumstances at the moment, aren't the ? , . they? they are, indeed. the hospitals — they? they are, indeed. the hospitals we _ they? they are, indeed. the hospitals we have _ they? they are, indeed. the hospitals we have been - they? they are, indeed. the i hospitals we have been working they? they are, indeed. the - hospitals we have been working with have been continuing to do their

best without power, without water, without supplies. and obviously come up without supplies. and obviously come up with an overwhelming number of patients. 0ver up with an overwhelming number of patients. over the weekend, we were able to do a little bit with some of the displaced communities in the southin the displaced communities in the south in terms of getting some hot food supplied in one shelter. and in terms of helping people prepare for winter. because the season is turning in gaza now. things are starting to get cold. people who were displaced early were not displaced with their warm clothes and blankets and such, so those are the priorities at the moment. but again of course, the big thing is how fast and how much can come across the very limited capacity at rafah crossing at the moment. admittedly crucially, as always, whether there is enough fuel for aides to be distributed and fuel crucially to allow the electricity to be kept on and for the water pumps to be kept working —— whether there is enough fuel or aid. let's

hope these four days at the start of something and we can build on it. yes, you touched on that a little earlier. the israeli government, benjamin netanyahu last night and his statement before this deal was approved made it very clear that as far as israel are concerned, this is not an end to the war and this is not an end to the war and this is not an end to the fighting. it is a pause. it sounds like you are hoping that can in some way be continued. 0ne that can in some way be continued. one of my colleagues write in the depths of this said it to me. who lets people breathe for a few days and then starts again? who lets people go out and buy bread and stop spamming them again afterwards? we really hope that this pause is a chance for people to see that is a better way out —— and starts bombing them again. there are more complex political things to do. a long—term solution is needed as well as the short—term end to this. but right now, let's hope we can build on this

pause both to get aid and also to end what is the situation where people need aid. people need aid purely and simply because we have had 45 days of quite horrific fighting, quite horrific bombardment. what we need now is both sides to respect the conditions of this truce and hopefully use it as a way forward to something more lasting. because what we really need is a ceasefire or a pause.— is a ceasefire or a pause. thank you for “oininu is a ceasefire or a pause. thank you forjoining us- _ mike noyes. head of humanitarian at actionaid uk, talking about one of the pillars of this deal which includes the release of some 50 or so women we're told women and children being held hostage by hamas in gaza. in return for that, we expect to see the release of palestinian women and children from israeli jails and also as mike was talking about, humanitarian changes. more aid allowed into gaza and these pauses

in fighting that we are expecting to see, and we expect if all goes according to plan, to come into force tomorrow morning. you're watching bbc news. thanks very much, we will be back with an eye throughout the programme today. it is a busy day and we are keeping an eye on the covid inquiry going on not farfrom here, chris whitty giving evidence. later, we will hear from professorjonathan will hear from professor jonathan van—tam. will hear from professorjonathan van—tam. we are hearing from the chancellor in westminster about the tax and spending plans for the year ahead in the autumn statement. so we starting get a sense of what could be in store. what we know is there could be pre—election sweeteners designed to win over voters ahead of a general election next year. perhaps a cut in income tax. but that would be pretty expensive and it could push up inflation. maybe a cut in inheritance tax, that was touted, but already condemned as pretty tone deaf amid a cost—of—living crisis. there could

be changes to pension rules, more support forfirst—time be changes to pension rules, more support for first—time buyers and also speculation about changes to benefit rules. but remember, it was only in september that the chancellor said it was virtually impossible to deliver tax cuts until the economy improves. so what exactly has changed? well, there might be a little more financial headroom because tax receipts have been a little higher than forecast. we will examine what that means in just a moment. but remember, inflation is still well above the bank of england's target, fuelling that cost—of—living crisis. this is the scene in downing street. number 11 is the official residence of the ii is the official residence of the chancellor, next door to the prime minister at number 10. jeremy hunt is due to make his way from there to the commons very shortly and we will keep an eye on that door and what will be in his red box a little later. but one of the things he could be talking about is making tax

cuts, but he will be very wary of not making too big a cut that then would fuel inflation. he has quite a balancing act to perform. we will talk about what he may deliver in just a moment. first, this report from our economics correspondent andy verity. on a cold, damp day at this south london market, ask what they want the government to do something about and you'll hear two big concerns that haven't gone away — energy and food. we used to get six oranges for £1, seven for £1, now it's five for £1. lemons, ten for £1, now it's seven for £1. it's hard for the customer. it's hard for us as well. food may not now be going up as fast as the i9% rise earlier this year, but neither are prices, on average, getting cheaper. and the benefit of cheaper energy hasn't yet flowed through. electricity bills — before, we were paying, like, 1,200, 1,300, now is coming more than £2,000. with the economy stuck in a slowdown — caused partly by soaring prices and partly higher interest rates —

the chancellor is expected to cut national insurance in today's autumn statement. jeremy hunt's treasury is now in a position to give some money away in the form of tax cuts without breaking his own self—imposed fiscal rules. but there's one big reason that the treasury can do that. that's because of how much money we have been sending the treasury in the form of higher income tax and national insurance since rishi sunak took the decision to freeze the thresholds above which we start paying tax. in march last year, the average earner on just over £29,000 a year would pay tax on their earnings above the frozen personal tax allowance of 12,570. so the difference, their taxable pay would be over £16,500. but by september this year, the average pay packet had grown to more than 32,000, dragging more of it above the frozen tax threshold. that means the average earner�*s taxable pay is up by over £3,000 — a much bigger slice for the chancellor to take a bite from. that's hit low and middle earners hardest. if the chancellor goes ahead and gives some of that back by cutting national insurance rates,

it's likely to be higher earners who benefit most. so ultimately, what we're expecting to see is a tax reshuffle, rather than a tax cut per se. most households will be worse off as a result of the frozen tax threshold. only those earning between £40,000 and £50,000 will expect to see their tax burden fall. and so, really, this is a shift of the tax burden from high—income britain to middle—income britain. the government's also announced it's raising the minimum wage to £11.44 an hour, up nearly 10% for many of the lowest paid, but also a higher cost for employers, which may force many of them to push up prices yet again. andy verity, bbc news, elephant and castle. so what will the chancellor deliver? we don't have to wait too long, we expect to hear his autumn statement at 12.30 in the commons. we will keep that shot of number 11 while i

talk to our political correspondent. let's start with that apparent u—turn, that idea thatjust in september, no tax cuts were on the cards, the economy wasn't performing well enough. we shouldn't get too excited. now we think tax cuts could be coming, what has changed? you're riaht, we be coming, what has changed? you're right. we seem _ be coming, what has changed? you're right, we seem to _ be coming, what has changed? you're right, we seem to be _ be coming, what has changed? you're right, we seem to be in _ be coming, what has changed? you're right, we seem to be in a _ be coming, what has changed? you're right, we seem to be in a different - right, we seem to be in a different landscape and the answer is the political landscape has changed. rishi sunak has had various attempts to reset his premiership. we had the conference speech and the northern leg scrapping of hs2, the king's speech also come about those things haven't landed on the way he hoped. so now there is an imperative to give voters something to look at. the government will argue that the other thing that has changed is inflation has fallen to this point where it has been halved in the way that rishi sunak said at the beginning of the year. but watch out

always for the terminology. he was claiming responsibility for what? the government will say it is they're doing and they have halved inflation, a lot of people say it is very much out of their hands, although they would argue they haven't done things that are inflationary. but they will say, we have been given this headroom because we have these new tax receipts, so they are claiming they have more money to play with. but it is worth remembering that is based on a set of assumptions and production —— and projections. so always on these days, you have to watch the language and who is claiming responsibility for what. but the main imperative is for rishi sunak to rally his party behind him who have been calling more and more in louder voices for tax cuts and for the party to offer something they think is a truly conservative offering to the electorate. so i think the political context has changed both in terms of internal party dynamics and externally, too. you talk about the pledges from rishi sunak. he laid out these pledges at the start of his leadership and he said one of them quite clearly was bringing down inflation. it has been achieved,

whether it is him or bigger issues is up for debate. the other one is to cut the debt. the other is to grow the economy. those two are looking very much in doubt at the moment and that is where we approach this autumn statement, with an economy struggling to really make any headway and a debt still rising. absolutely, and the debt interest payments is also holding back the government and will continue to hold back the government spending plans. remember the other thing we will get as part of this autumn statement is further growth forecasts from the independent 0ffice further growth forecasts from the independent office for budget responsibility, so it is an independent forecast separate from the government. they were quite optimistic at their last set of forecasts in march and we are likely to probably see a revising down of growth forecasts, we have had other focus from the bank of england that show pretty much no growth in the coming year, so that is again a context for this autumn statement. the main imperative is for the government to get growth going, they are going to try and put out policies today that they think will get the economy growing, cutting

taxes will be part of that and there will be measures to try and get people back to work, back into the workforce. we know there will be tougher rules around claiming benefits from encouragement for working from home on that front. also incentives for businesses to invest. so we will get some policies targeted at businesses and sweeteners on business taxes, so there is another imperative here. so remember, we will get this on the set of data when we hear the chancellor stand up a little later. and there is a tendency on days like this to talk about whether there is money, where the money comes from. we need to be really clear, there is money, this is about political decisions on how that money is spent. it is a choice of spending more on something and less on something else. and that is what the chancellor really has to do, where it gets funding and where gets cut? we talked about watching for terminology and who claims responsibility for what, we also have to watch about understanding

this is a set of political choices. there is a new political calculation in this event, which is an election coming within the next year. we might, we will have another budget ahead of an election, it is presumed, a march budget, so there will be a consideration of what should be done now, a setting of direction of travel, what could possibly be held back for the springtime. there have been discussions about whether stamp duty can be changed, inheritance tax could be cut. we think that might now be held back as being another even closer sweetener for a future election. so yes, there are all choices to be made. there are also choices to be made. there are also choices to be made. there are also choices to be made for the government to try to lay traps so —— at a future labour government come into power to say, we will set things up this way and this is a challenge for you to say will you unravel it if you come into power? lots of calculations going on, of course there will be on offer to voters to say that these are the reasons you should vote for us. but also, internal party dynamics will play a part. everything we hearfrom the chancellor is nothing to do with inevitability of what he's going to

say, it is very much picked and chosen to appeal to the various different parties. we chosen to appeal to the various different parties.— chosen to appeal to the various different parties. we will watch and wait, thank different parties. we will watch and wait. thank you _ different parties. we will watch and wait, thank you for _ different parties. we will watch and wait, thank you for now, _ different parties. we will watch and wait, thank you for now, our - wait, thank you for now, our political correspondent leila nathoo with the details of what we may expect to hear. 12.30 is when the chancellor is due to take to his feet to deliver that autumn statement. there was the room for manoeuvre mentioned there that the chancellor has two announced various changes to tax and changes. now more with andy verity. andy, give us your assessment. you have been crunching the numbers, in your report we saw how we came to those calculations. give us your sense of whether the chancellor has much room to manoeuvre and what that freedom gives him anything to deliver a bit of a gift before a general election. there is two things here, one hand, the chancellor's freedom to do