without more us funding as congress prepares to vote on an aid package. hello, i'm sumi somaskanda. the israeli military says it's been engaged in the heaviest day of fighting since the start of its offensive in gaza. in the south, israeli forces have entered the city of khan younis. meanwhile in the north — israeli forces are surrounding the jabalia refugee camp, which israel says is being used as a base by hamas. in the past couple of hours, the israel defence force posted on x, formerly known as twitter, that their troops have quote, "eliminated several hamas commanders and operatives of hamas�*s northern gaza strip brigade" that the idf claims were hiding in a tunnel located near the indonesian hospital. that's one of the largest healthcare facilities in northern gaza — that was hit by air strikes in october.

the bbc has not independently verified the latest claims by the idf. israel is now warning people living in northern gaza to move further south — as it steps up what it says is the third phase of its ground operations against hamas. the un says nearly i.9m people have been forced from their homes since israel's retaliatory strikes began, after hamas�* attacks on october the seventh. this as testimony is coming to light about the horrors of the october 7th attacks nearly two months later. the bbc has been hearing evidence that women were sexually assaulted, raped and mutilated during hamas�*s attacks on southern israel. israeli investigators say they are trawling through 60,000 hours of footage, and have compiled more than a thousand testimonies from witnesses and those who handled the bodies of victims after the attack. this report from our middle east correspondent, lucy williamson, contains graphic details and testimony you may find very disturbing. out of the chaos and mass

trauma of the hamas attacks, new stories are starting to emerge — of rape and sexual assault, including graphic testimony from an eye witness interviewed by police. i realised they were raping her one by one. then she was passed to another man in uniform. she was still alive when she was being raped. the scale of sexual violence here is not clear — bodies were mutilated and survivors few. police admit they are facing a lack of forensic evidence from the site. you can still hear the israeli bombardment of gaza and see vast clouds of black smoke hanging over the gaza strip. but in the days following the attacks, this site was an active combat zone. it was a big enough challenge to collect the bodies, let alone early forensic evidence of sexual crimes.

videos shot by hamas during the attacks, an early warning — a large bloodstain on the trousers of one woman captive, female bodies piled on trucks, naked or semi—clothed. body collectors describe piles of women's bodies, naked from the waist—down, some photographed with their legs splayed. those who witnessed sexual attacks have struggled with what they saw. i spoke with girls that are now, at least three girls, that are now hospitalised for very hard psychiatric situation because of the rapes they watched. they pretended to be dead and they watched it and they heard everything from the side. some of them want to kill themselves. some can't deal with it. crucial evidence has come from the makeshift identification unit at shura army base. teams here describe assault, including pelvises broken from sustained rape. but the scale of sexual abuse

during these attacks may never be fully known. it's definitely multiple. it's hard to tell. i have also dealt with more than a few burnt bodies, and those, i have no idea what they went through beforehand. bodies that are missing the bottom half, i also don't know if they were raped. staff here told me there were patterns in the violence visited on women's bodies, according to location. investigators say these attacks were systematic and premeditated, but piecing together even one single story is slow and difficult work. the wider story of sexual violence in these attacks is onlyjust beginning. lucy williamson, bbc news, jerusalem. earlier, i spoke to naftali bennett, former israeli prime minister about the reports of sexual violence and the ongoing conflict. i want to start with that report, the bbc seeing and hearing evidence of rape, sexual violence during the attacks by hamas.

what have israeli investigators been finding when speaking with survivors? this is a very difficult undertaking for obvious reasons and mainly because many, many of the victims of rape were then murdered. but we know that there has been widespread, on october seven, widespread use of rape, of gang rape, ultimately in most cases, killing the victim at the end of the act. in some cases, cutting her breasts off and playing around with. and we know many women were under very aggressive sexual violence. it is certainly something as we heard there in the report that will continue be investigated. something that the us administration, president biden has said should be

condemned internationally. i want to come to the fighting we are have moved into khan younis, down to rafah, but civilians have already moved from the north to khan younis in that area so you have many civilians in such a small area. where should they then go? first of all, you are right. it is a very difficult situation, i won't pretend otherwise, because hamas is deliberately placing itself in locations where civilians are there, especially hospitals etc. the idf has created areas of safe zones within the southern part of gaza and they were very explicit about telling people where to go, went to go, so they can be out of harm's way. this by the way is very uncommon in warfare

but we are doing it diligently... but you say you are creating safe zones but we saw a report on tuesday from the world health organization sank on tuesday from the world health organization saying the situation in gaza in the south around khan younis is getting worse by the hours. there is a way to stop it. if hamas will lay down its arms and stop using its own citizens as human shields, this will all stop. there is one entity responsible for all of this and it is hamas. we do not how any magical solution how to operate... what about a strategy, a strategy itself because a strategy to defeat hamas which is the aim here, you have said. you told the new york times in october that what is important is not to play along the lines that hamas wrote for us and there is a much less costly

way to go about things, and you said this in the article, including humanitarian corridors and small targeted rates ——raids and not going into the heart of gaza city. that is what the idf is doing. do you disagree with a strategy? i think the strategy is a fair strategy and it is working because we are killing many, many commanders of hamas... and civilians, mr bennett. no, hamas is making civilians die by placing them in harm's way and i have to say many civilians are deciding deliberately that they want to take that risk, and even... mr bennett, this is also their home, if i may say, this is also their home out of the fear they may not be able to go back. or they should have thought before they went and raped and killed... i'm talking about palestinian civilians, not hamas. but i'm also talking about civilians. unfortunately, as you may know or may not know, many civilians that participated in the act

of terror on october seven and unfortunately hamas enjoys widespread support by civilians. this is not to say we will target civilians deliberately. we do not do that. but if civilians decide they want to place themselves in harm's way. mr bennett, you and i know there has not been an election in gaza since 2006 so it is unfair to say how many civilians support hamas and there are many children as you know in gaza but i want to ask you about one more thing, from the us secretary of defence over the weekend, talking about his experience fighting isis in iraq and you have compared yourself hamas to isis any talks about the need to protect act civilians and said that "in this kind of fight the centre of gravity is a civilian population and if you drive them into the arms of the enemy you place a tactical victory

with a strategic defeat". your thoughts on those words? i will say this. if we wanted to harm civilians, we could have won the whole war in one day and we could have indiscriminately bombed gaza, for victory but many, many civilians would have died, many more. we're not doing that. they could have been the easiest thing in the world in other countries done that in history against terrible enemies. we are not doing that. yeah, it is taking time and if anyone has a better plan, bring it on. barring that, we have to eliminate hamas. we just don't have another choice. mr bennett, thank you for joining us on bbc news and we do hope to continue the conversation. in gaza, the united nations is warning of an "even more hellish scenario" with no safe places for people to go.

the resumption of fighting has intensified the hunger crisis in gaza, the un food programme says. our colleagues at bbc radio 4 spoke to ghada al kurd. she's a mother of two and living in a tent in khan younis having been displaced several times in the last seven weeks. now she might have to move again. i was discussing this in the morning, me and my sister, i said to her where to go? this is the fifth place we are evacuating to. we were in gaza city, then we moved to al—shifa hospital, then we moved to al—nasser in gaza city, and then we moved to the middle area, and they said carry all of your stuff! this is our winter season. for more on the humanitarian situation in gaza, we spoke to hani almadhoun, director of philosophy at unrwa usa. our condolences, your brother, his wife and their children

were killed in gaza the week before last before we ask anything, how are you doing? thank you for having me again, we are dealing with a big loss in ourfamily. last time we spoke, i had three siblings, three brothers and now i have two and i have lost four of my nephews and nieces. some of them as young as seven. my sister—in—law is gone. when i came here a month ago on the show we had three houses in gaza and now we have zero houses and ijust heard the israeli former prime minister talking about us being hamas and being embedded with hamas and all of that. there is no glory in what they have done to my family and they have killed him 1.5 hours before the truce as they were sleeping, not only did they kill six people, they destroyed my home and our cat as well. they say cats have nine lives in gaza, this is not true because the bombs kill

everybody unfortunately it took us seven days to dig bodies out, one at a time, because there are no machines allowed to go in and we don't know, we're trying to adapt to this and know, i know now that grief can be a sneaky thing and this is a real family, people i know and love and they are being killed by israeli military and if i may, airstrikes, no doubt he killed them. i will ask about the israeli position in a moment. you said earlier that you are having a crisis of faith, what did you mean by that? absolutely. you see the horrors of gaza and how could you not question everything around you and everyone has failed us as palestinians in the us and on the home front and everywhere. we cannot find anybody who can come through for us and rescue us. i work for the largest, i work to support the largest humanitarian organisation inside gaza and i could not get my mother a sip of water

and i cannot get my brother flour despite the good work they were doing and i am questioning a lot of relatives around me including people around me, from politicians to people of faith. a sense of frustration i am hearing from you. i want to ask about what we have heard from israeli including the former prime minister naftali bennett, who say israel have a right to defend themselves, especially amidst these reports of sexual violence committed against israeli women. what is your response to the? speaking as a palestinian american with family in gaza, my family has nothing to do with what they are talking about. i don't know what the facts. the facts are what the israeli say they are, they remain unchallenged and i hope it will continue to press them and i offer condolences to anyone... are you saying you doubt this testimony? we have also been hearing this

from witnesses and those who collected bodies after the attack? i'm talking about the stories we have heard from al—shifa hospital and not from the sexual violence but no human being should support that. the reality is i cannot deal with this when we're looking at 1700 people dead, including 7000 children, and it is unfortunate that this is going to justify the murder of people like my family. i don't want anyone to be harmed, any israeli is harmed, we learned that from our parents, the good values is to support fellow humans but the reality is these things are shared only to justify more violence of my family. does hamas bear responsibility for what you are describing? i have no idea about hamas and their agenda and all that. my focus is on my family

and support human aid. obviously israel has a war with hamas and whatever. i just want my family to be safe, want my friends to be safe, and sadly that does not continue to be the case. i worry that this is not the last tragedy we will see in ourfamily in this war and, as i've said, my family is sheltering, which, as we speak, is being bombed around the clock by israeli forces, it is another hospital that's a target and, unfortunately, nothing makes sense again. and i don't know, my brother has nothing to do with hamas. his kids, for crying out loud, a seven—year—old boy, omar wanted to play soccer, and one day he is gone. this is the sad reality, the hostages in israel may come back and see another day, my family won't. and 17,000 more of them will not be seeing the light of day again. can i ask you before we go, quickly, you are here

in the us, you said you are disappointed in the biden administration, there have been more calls officials to look out for civilians in gaza. you're still disappointed disappointed, is that right? i want to recognise that this administration has been a very positive administration in terms of the support, it is a big improvement from the previous administration, but speaking as an american voter, yes, am frustrated. thank you so much for sharing story with us once again, our condolences for your loss you and your family. thank you for having me. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. britain and rwanda have signed a new deal to revive the uk government's deportation plan. it would see some migrants who arrive on small boats deported to rwanda to seek asylum there. the new deal includes provisions to ensure rwanda does not expel people sent there from britain — one of the concerns raised by the uk's supreme court, which struck down the previous plan. a us senator who had been blocking hundreds of military promotions says he will now allow most of them to go through.

alabama republican tommy tuberville has been blocking nominations for months, in protest at the military�*s policy of reimbursing personnel who travel to have an abortion in a state where it the procedure is legal. he says he will still block around 11 of the highest—ranking appointments. 11 hikers have been found dead near the crater of indonesia's mount marapi volcano after it erupted over the weekend. 12 others are missing and the search was suspended on monday after another, smaller eruption. there were 75 hikers in the area during the main eruption on sunday but most were safely evacuated. you're live with bbc news. us treasury secretary janet yellen has warned that the us would be "responsible for ukraine's defeat" if congress fails to approve more funding. her comments echo ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky�*s chief of staff who earlier said ukraine is in danger of losing its war against russia without more us aid. but approval for that aid has stalled.

since the war began, congress has approved more than $110 billion in military and economic aid to ukraine. the biden administration says that money is running out. us senators are now negotiating a spending package that would total $106 billion, including funding to ukraine, israel, taiwan, and us—mexico border security. it's the border funds that have caused the dispute. a classified senate briefing on ukraine tuesday broke down into a shouting match over border security. republican senators want stricter policies to tackle the migrant crisis. but democrats say aid to ukraine cannot wait. speaking to reporters after touching down from boston, president biden called for the aid to pass. the failure to do this is absolutely crazy. it is against us interests and the interests of the world, it is just wrong and we're going to get that

aid, we going to get it. the senate is set to vote on the aid package, wednesday. but it's unclear if it will get enough republican support to pass. over in the house, speaker mikejohnson reiterated republican calls for border security before ukraine funding. how can we be engaged in securing the board of foreign countries if we cannot secure our own and that is a question the white house is to help us answer. i have told this to the leaders in the senate the white house and i will say it till i am blue in the face, we are committed to that, the battle is for the border we do this first as a top priority and we will take care of these other obligations. staying with us politics — because president biden said tuesday, he's not sure he'd run for president if donald trump wasn't running too. he made the comments at a campaign funding event outside of boston, saying that his predecessor posed a threat to democracy. mr biden added, "we cannot let him win." his remarks come as some opinion polls suggest he's trailing behind mr trump in the 2024 presidential race. and in los angeles, the sag aftra actors

union says its ratified a new three—year contract with hollywood studio. it means the actor strike is officially over. members ratified the new multi—year contracts by a vote ofjust over 78 percent to about 22 percent. sag aftra president fran drescher said she's proud of the members for striking for 118 days and securing the new contract. in peru, a constitutional court ordered the release of former president alberto fujimori. the 85—year—old is currently serving a 25—year sentence for human right abuses and corruption. the ruling defies a different order by an international court that he should continue to serve his sentence. fujimori became president of peru in1990. he dissolved congress in 1992 and stayed in power until 2000. he was impeached in 2000 on the grounds of "moral incapacity" and accused of corruption. he fled to japan and resigned. he was jailed in 2009 after being convicted for ordering the massacre of 25 people by army death squads in 1991 and 1992. he received a presidential pardon in 2017, but outside pressure has repeatedly slowed his attempts

to regain freedom. mr fujimori's lawyers say he will most likely be released from prison wednesday. now — have you heard of forest city? this hundred billion—dollar project in southern malaysia was unveiled in 2016 by the developer country garden. it was part of china's belt and road initiative, with aims to house almost a million people. but eight years on, country garden faces colossal debts, and forest city is virtually empty. our asia business correspondent nick marsh spent a night in the city that many now describe as a ghost town. music: ghost town by the specials. we're injohor, right on the tip of southern malaysia, and there's something strange on the horizon. locals call it ghost city. and on first impressions, you can see why. ok, this is forest city.

it's a bit dark. i think someone has forgotten to turn the lights on. it's hard to believe that anyone actually lives here. oh, here they are. even in mid—afternoon, forest city feels more like a haunted house than a happy home. do you feel like it's a ghost town? from what i've seen so far, yes, i would have to agree. maybe you should try after 12. we may be 3,000 miles from beijing, but residents likejoanne are trying to weather a storm in china's property sector. she wants to get out of forest city. and as night started to fall, i met someone who already had. ifeel freedom, to be honest. i feel free. i finally escaped this multi—billion project. it's supposed to be good. it's supposed to meet expectations, but it's frustrating.

the property developer country garden sold this place as a thriving eco—friendly community, with beaches, bars, restaurants. it was a chance for chinese investors to own a second home abroad and then rent it out to locals. but as we've already seen all over china, ambition didn't match reality. chinese government controls on how much companies could borrow and how much chinese citizens could spend on foreign property have left forest city in disarray. this place was supposed to be a restaurant. i think behind me, judging by the looks of things, it was supposed to be the kitchen. country garden's slogan for this place was "a prime vision for future cities". but if you just take a look around, it doesn't seem that way. country garden insists that the project will be finished.

but with the company facing debts of nearly $200 billion, it's hard to see how. forest city was supposed to house one million people. right now, it's1% occupied. like so many chinese property developments, this place seems to be going nowhere. nick marsh, bbc news, johor. bbc news contacted country garden group in china and received no response. its malaysian operation did respond and said that despite what they called "the noise and current situation", they were running the business as usual and the overall operation in the region is "safe and stable". thank you for watching bbc news. hello again. temperatures have dropped away quite sharply through the night.

and as we start on wednesday morning, there will be a hard and a widespread frost, particularly across northern areas of scotland. on top of that, some fog patches around as well. but there will be some sunny spells, certainly a quieter spell of weather for many of us throughout wednesday compared to the last few days. that area of low pressure bringing the rain, clearing away to the east. we've got further weather systems waiting out in the atlantic that will become more of a feature of the weather over the next few days. but a cold start to the day for many of us. temperatures potentially down to —10 degrees in northern areas of scotland, and some freezing fog in the east of wales through parts of the midlands and southern areas of england. that could be quite stubborn to clear away, but elsewhere the fog should tend to lift and there'll be some sunshine across many areas before the cloud increases from the west, and with that some outbreaks of rain. but if you're stuck beneath the area of fog, temperatures may only be around about one degree celsius. so feeling particularly cold, but elsewhere we'll see temperatures 4—6 celsius. but in the west, you notice nine, 11 degrees there in plymouth, signs of the less cold air moving in. and as we go through wednesday night, that rain will continue to spread north and eastward. as it bumps into colder air, temporarily, there could be

some snow over the higher ground of northern england and across scotland, but that will become increasingly confined to higher ground as we go through thursday because that less cold air, the milder conditions, will spread in from the southwest, moving to pretty much most areas throughout thursday. a strengthening wind to come with that as well. but it means actually where we'll have a bit of snow for the time of a higher ground of scotland, heavy rain is going to spread through and that's going to bring the risk of some localised flooding, especially in areas where we've seen a bit of flooding over the last couple of days or so, eventually clearing from southern and western areas. temperatures here 10—11 degrees celsius, still perhaps just a little bit chilly beneath the cloud and the rain across eastern areas, 6—7 degrees. now, while that heavy rain does clear away to the northeast, we've got low pressure moving in from the atlantic, strengthening winds around the irish sea coasts and further outbreaks of rain. so certainly rain is going to become more of a feature of the weather over the coming days. there'll be some strong winds at times as well. but we will lose the frosty the icy conditions with temperatures in double figures. bye— bye.

voiceover: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme.

the framers of the american constitution harboured few illusions about human nature, and that's why they invested so much significance in this place — the us supreme court, the ultimate check on executive and legislative power. my guest today was the first woman to be appointed as a justice in this court. for 25 years, she was one of its most influential voices. but is the independence of the judiciary now under threat? sandra day o'connor, welcome to hardtalk. thank you.

you were raised on a ranch in remote arizona.