the uk and germany issue a joint call for a "sustainable ceasefire" in gaza, but prime minister netanyahu insists israel will "fight to the end" to eliminate hamas. the world health organization describes the emergency department of gaza's al shifa hospital as a "bloodbath" — after delivering crucial medical supplies. we saw children with open wounds on their faces. we saw a baby with jaundice. we saw many adults with injuries from what appeared to be blast injuries. former conservative peer baroness mone admits she stands to benefit from £60 million of profit from personal protective equipment sold to the government during the pandemic. i wasn't trying to pull the wool over anyone�*s eyes, and i regret, and i am sorry, for not saying straight out, yes i am involved.

i will be representing the uk at the eurovision song contest! pop star and actor olly alexander is announced as the united kingdom's entry for next year's eurovision song contest. hello, i'm rajini vaidyanathan. britain and germany are calling for an urgent sustainable ceasefire in gaza. last week both countries abstained on a united nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. but in a change of tone which echoes a shift in the us, the foreign ministers of both countries say too many civilians have been killed in israel's war against hamas and the sooner a truce comes, the better. france meanwhile has also called for an immediate and durable ceasefire. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu has strongly reiterated his opposition to a ceasefire. speaking before a cabinet meeting, he insisted they will fight till

the end to eliminate hamas — which many countries consider a terror group. israel stepped up its bombardment of gaza overnight and into sunday, reportedly killing at least a0 people. these pictures looking into gaza from israel, show large plumes of smoke burning, with many damaged buildings in sight. aid trucks entering gaza through the rafah crossing have been boarded and stripped of their supplies, amid growing hunger and desperation. but the kerem shalom crossing between israel and gaza has opened for aid trucks, for the first time since the war began. it's hoped 200 aid lorries a day will now be able to access the strip. and health officials in the occupied west bank say israeli forces have killed at least five palestinians during a raid on a refugee camp. israel's military says it carried out air strikes near the city of tulakrem after its soldiers came underfire. nearly 300 palestinians have been

killed in the west bank since october 7th. 0ur security correspondent frank gardner is injerusalem following developments. it is very clear that the netanyahu government is coming under pressure from two directions. over the last few days we have seen mounting pressure from the relatives of the hostages, the roughly 129 israeli hostages still held by hamas in gaza. and they want them out. they want them out through negotiations. there are things moving in that direction. it is talks about talks at the moment, rather than hard negotiations. this joint op—ed has been written about by david cameron, the foreign secretary, in the sunday times, and by his german opposite number, annalena baerbock, in welttag am sonntag, i think it is, a german newspaper, today. they've both said they want a sustainable ceasefire leading to a sustainable peace.

what does that actually mean? they want one that is only going to come into being if there is a chance of peace at the end of it. so a lot of this is about semantics. their french counterpart, who is in town today here in israel, is actually going a bit further, saying there needs to be a ceasefire now because of the incredibly high number of casualties. every day there are more tales of terrible tragedy in gaza, some of which is pointing fingers at poor discipline by the idf, the israel defence forces. the newspapers here are full of yesterday's tragedies. they call it the shooting dead, or accidental, or mistaken shooting dead of three israeli hostages who were mistaken by israeli soldiers for hamas gunmen. there's a link to the editorial in one of the newspapers saying, you can't entirely blame them because hamas are hiding amongst the people.

but nevertheless it is prompting questions, just how disciplined are some of these troops, if they are not following rules of engagement, as these three were not. israela 0ron, is a retired general who spent almost 30 years in the israel defense forces. she also served on the national security council under ehud barak and ariel sharon. she believes netanyahu's first responsibility is to tell the idf what there end game is. what the end game is. what does he want to become in gaza and the relationship between us and gaza, after the intensive phase of the war comes to an end? i i think this is something that is not clear, not to the idf, and unfortunately, not to the rest of the world. right now we know what our prime minister doesn't want to do.

he doesn't want the palestinian authority to take part in liberating gaza. he doesn't want... this is implied, he doesn't want a palestinian state because he is saying that, if his opponent runs for office and is elected, he will agree to a palestinian state which is, in the eyes of our prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, a disaster. we know what he doesn't want. unfortunately we don't know what he does want, as a result of the fighting in gaza. what he might say is that he has been quite clear. his aim is to eliminate hamas. i must say that i don't disagree with him on this point, because after october the 7th, we realised that the threat of hamas to destroy the state of israel,

it is a very serious threat, not to mention the fact that the only targets of hamas, and the goal, is to kill as many jews as they can. the idea of living side by side with hamas, right now, for the citizens of israel, including myself, is not a very cheerful idea. hamas has to go. i mean the leaders of hamas, the military leaders and the political leaders of hamas, cannot stay there. the world health organisation says it has been able to deliver crucial medical supplies to gaza's al shifa hospital which has been working under much reduced capacity following israel's military offensive. the organisation said the team supplied medicines, surgical and other medical equipment to the hospital which it said was "currently minimally functional". one member of who staff posted this update from the hospital. it's completely overwhelmed with patients. very few staff remaining. as we've been here for the last 30

minutes, there's been a nonstop stream of injured people coming in on trolleys, on donkey carts, on stretchers being pushed down the road. there are almost no medical staff here. this largest referral hospital here in gaza has become a trauma stabilisation point. they can only provide the most basic care for people with very serious injuries and very serious illnesses. and sean casey, who you saw there, spoke to me earlier. he's the emergency medical teams coordinator at the world health organization, and has just returned from the al—shifa hospital in gaza. this was our first mission to al—shifa hospital in the last three weeks and we didn't know what we would find. we arrived and found a hospital that we weren't sure was functioning, that was completely overwhelmed with hundreds of patients, caregivers, thousands of people in the emergency area.

very few hospital staff, and we met with the hospital leadership and found that the staff had mostly left. many of them have been displaced, so a previously 750—bed hospital is operating with about ten or ii of its normal staff. ten or 11 doctors and nurses and about 70 volunteers. patients were streaming in every 30 to 60 seconds, with fresh injuries, and there were patients everywhere, all over the floors, on stretchers, on gurneys. it was almost difficult to walk around without stepping on somebody because there were people covering the floor. it is a hospital that is reallyjust getting restarted after a period of closure and it has become a shelter. there are thousands of people sheltering on site, and it is trying desperately to resume services. but it has challenges with power, staffing and with supplies. it is providing only the most minimal services at this point. what sort of injuries and medical issues did most of the people that you saw have?

we saw children with open wounds on theirfaces. we saw a baby with jaundice. we saw many adults with injuries, from what appeared to be blast injuries, open wounds, fractures. unfortunately the hospital has such limited staffing it is unable to provide care to a lot of those people, so even basic pain management is difficult, or impossible in many circumstances. we saw children holding iv fluid bags for their brothers and sisters and for their parents. we saw blood all over the floors. it looked almost like a battlefield hospital. it is just completely overwhelmed with a constant inflow of new patients, ambulances arriving constantly, people being brought in on donkey carts, on trolleys. we even had people walking alongside our vehicles, pushing patients on stretchers. it was hard to imagine.

what sort of conversations were the doctors and those nurses, who are treating the many, many injured at the hospital, having with you? they said they are overwhelmed. they said they need everything. we are constantly asked what the priorities are and it is a very challenging question, for a place like shifa, because they don't have fuel to run their generators, they don't have oxygen. they don't have medicines to care for the patients. they don't have staff to even clean wounds and provide basic pain management. they said that they need everything, and also, almost every single person who approached us asked us for food and water. there is a desperate need of everything. people are really hungry and thirsty. what the staff also said to us, which was really moving, is that they are committed to helping their people. they are going to stay, they want to reopen the hospital, they want help to do it and that is why we went yesterday, to provide surgical supplies, some basic medicines,

some external fixators for traumatic injuries, and we are going back in the coming days with fuel, with additional medical supplies, and hopefully with staff to help support them. there is plenty more coverage on developments from the middle east on the bbc news website. there is more on the website. here in the uk, after years of denials, the former conservative peer, baroness mone has admitted that she stands to benefit from tens of millions of pounds of profit made from personal protective equipment, that was sold to the government during the coronavirus pandemic. the company was led by her husband, doug barrowman. she says she did help broker the deal, but claims she was made a scapegoat for the government s failings. 0ur political correspondent laura kuenssberg has more. questions about the pandemic, profit and politics have followed

baroness mone and her husband to southern europe. for years, they denied links to a firm that received £200 million in taxpayers�* money for desperately needed masks and gowns. only now the truth — that she does stand to gain. if one day, if, god forbid, my husband passes away before me, then i am a beneficiary as well as his children and my children. so, yes, of course. my family will benefit in due course. our family will benefit. that's what you do when you're in the privileged position of making money. a successful businesswoman and member of the lords, she didn't tell parliament she was helping broker a ppe contract.

she now admits she didn't tell the truth when her links to the deal first emerged. you both denied it — why? we were simply listening to our advisers. hindsight�*s a wonderful thing. i wasn't trying to pull the wool over anyone�*s eyes. and i regret and i'm sorry for not saying straight out, "yes, i am involved". my family have gone through hell with the media over my career and i didn't want another big hoo—ha in the press and my family to be involved in it. i don't honestly see there's a case to answer. i can't see what we've done wrong. doug and the consortium have simply delivered a contract — a delivery contract of goods. but after everything, you can't see what you've done wrong when you've admitted today that you lied to the press? that's not a crime. essentially, you lied to the public. laura, saying to the press that i'm not involved to protect my family, can ijust make this clear? it's not a crime. the company's being taken to court by the department of health. the pairare under criminal investigation. but the government wouldn't comment on the couple who only now want to have their say. laura kuenssberg, bbc news.

here in the uk we've been getting some political reaction to that interview. 0ur political correspondent tony bonsignore has more. we have had comments from the deputy prime minister, 0liver dowden. he appeared on the programme with laura kuenssberg. he wouldn't comment on that specific case. as laura said, there is a criminal investigation under way with the national crime agency, but also a civil claim from the department of health. he made some broader points. they included, he said, that he completely, and the government completely rejected any accusations of cronyism, said they had done their best in what was a very difficult and unique situation. he said that the government had been working very, very hard to try to claw back some of that money lost. the government's intention in respect of that, was to make sure that, if legitimate claims came forward, we would process them quickly.

there were no favours or special treatment. everyone had ultimately the same tests applied to them, and indeed, if it is the case where allegations of fraud and misconduct have occurred, there is either the civil or criminal, which you can see going on in respect of the interview you have just broadcast. in addition to that we set up the public sector fraud authority, already in its first year, has recovered double its initial target. labour have a very different take on this. they accuse the government of wasting billions of pounds of taxpayers�* money. first, they say, through awarding these contracts in the first place, to companies who they say were only interested in making a quick profit. also, they say, through what they call a very casual approach to getting that money back. here is the shadow secretary, wes streeting. i think the government's response has been appalling. and the extent to which they've been able to claw money

back has been pathetic. and i think rishi sunak should take this personally and grip it. after all, it's his name on all of those cheques. he was the chancellor who was splashing the cash. labour say that if they do win the next general election next year, they will appoint a covid corruption commissioner to try to claw back as much money as possible, as quickly as possible. british teenager alex batty, who was found in france after being missing for six years, has returned to the uk. alex vanished with his mother and grandfather in 2017 while they were on holiday in spain. his mother was not his legal guardian and police are yet to decide whether there will be a criminal investigation. alex was found on wednesday by a motorist, who spotted him on a road in the foothills of the french pyrenees. now it's time for a look

at today's sport. hello from the bbc sport centre. arsenal have moved back to the top of the premier league — for the time being, at least — after a comfortable 2—0 win against brighton at the emirates. the gunners were in control, but took until the second half to break the deadlock. gabrieljesus and kai havertz with the goals. they're a point ahead of aston villa, who came back to beat brentford 2—1 in a fiery encounter, which saw each side reduced to ten men. west ham bounced back to win convincingly at home to wolves. and we're not long from kick—off between liverpool and manchester united. so, the players have arrived at anfield as attention switches to rivals liverpool against manchester united. scott mctominay captains the visitors, while liverpool make nine changes to the side that lost in the europa league midweek to union saint—gilloise. two teams in totally different places — liverpool top of the table coming into the day. the manager wants to play down the occasion. if you take it all out of consideration and we just play a football game against the rival, the historical rival of liverpool fc at home at anfield, that in itself must make it a special game. that is what i want to see from us, a special game. really understand the situation and

give your all, that is all i need. when i go to any game i have a strong belief that i am going to win. i will prepare the team in that way. that we are going to win. why? because it is based on our rules and principles in the game, and it is based on our game plan. and a strong belief in the quality of my players. an update to bring you on the luton town captain tom lockyer now. the defender collapsed in their game at bournemouth on saturday, suffering a cardiac arrest. the club confirmed he was responsive when taken off the field and put this out on social media, saying he "remains in hospital" and that they "understand that supporters are concerned for him "and that there is widespread media interest in his condition." tom is still undergoing tests and scans, and is awaiting the results before the next steps

for his recovery are determined. in italy third—placed ac milan beat monza 3—0 in the early game in serie a. fiorentina beat verona i—0 and it finished 2—2 between udinese and sassuolo. fifth—placed roma and bologna in sixth go head—to—head in the next hour. nathan lyon has become just the 8th bowler to take 500 test wickets, with the spinner helping australia to a huge win over pakistan in the opening test in perth. lyon took two on the final day as pakistan were bowled out forjust 89, giving australia a 360—run victory. the tourists are still waiting since 1995 to win a test in the country. next up is the boxing day test in melbourne. and that's all the sport for now. we will be back with more later on. we will be back with more later on. we will be back with more later on. we will see you then. serbs are voting in snap parliamentary elections seen as a test of president aleksandar vucic and his progressive party. they have been in power since 2012,

but this time, they are facing a largely—united opposition of fifteen parties, which formed a coalition after protests over two mass shootings earlier this year. live now to our balkans correspondent guy de launey, who's in belgrade. first of all, this is a surprise selection. when is it going to happen and what are the main issues? beget elections a lot in serbia. we had won just last year, in april, and we had one in 2020. that is three election since 2020. this one was demanded by the opposition after these horrendous shootings that we had here in belgrade in may, to one consecutive days, mass shootings, one of them in a school, in which nine schoolchildren and a member of staff were killed. that initially caused a huge outpouring of anguish,

which then coalesced into a political movement. a lot of opposition parties gathered under this umbrella, serbia against violence. polls open at 7am here. we have a fairly coherent opposition movement and they are taken on the governing progressive party, as you mentioned, who have been a very slick electoral machine over the past 11 years, since they took power. i past 11 years, since they took ower. , ., ., , ., power. i should have said, when you aet power. i should have said, when you net the power. i should have said, when you get the results. _ power. i should have said, when you get the results, not _ power. i should have said, when you get the results, not one _ power. i should have said, when you get the results, not one of— power. i should have said, when you get the results, not one of a - get the results, not one of a voting? they have been voting all day. one of the important things to mention is of course, that this comes after these two shootings in the country. comes after these two shootings in the country-— comes after these two shootings in the count . . �*, , . the country. that's right. very much a reaction to — the country. that's right. very much a reaction to it. _ the country. that's right. very much a reaction to it. the _ the country. that's right. very much a reaction to it. the opposition - a reaction to it. the opposition parties, who got together under the serbia against violence umbrella, they say that the progressive party, alexander vu chips, and their allies in the media, are responsible for creating a culture of violence in serbia, both rhetorical and physical. they initially demanded

that certain tv stations lost their licence to uncertain ministers would resign. when that didn't happen they demanded elections and the progressive party agreed to this, they have every reason to be confident and they proved a very slick electoral outfit. it will be interesting to see whether having the opposition coalesce under this big umbrella is going to present a coherent alternative for voters, how attractive that is going to be, and we're already seeing here in belgrade, the turnout is higher than it was in april last year, despite the fact that it is a cold winterday.— the fact that it is a cold winterday. the fact that it is a cold winterda . ~ , winterday. will stay with you throughout _ winterday. will stay with you throughout the _ winterday. will stay with you throughout the day - winterday. will stay with you throughout the day as - winterday. will stay with you throughout the day as the i winterday. will stay with you - throughout the day as the voting continues and hopefully, we will come to you when there is a result. chileans are voting — for the second time injust over a year — on whether to adopt a new constitution. efforts to reform the current document — which dates back to the pinochet dictatorship — began four years ago after large, sometimes violent protests against social inequality.

an initial draft, written by a left—wing dominated assembly, was rejected as too radical in a referendum last year. the new text has been overseen by chile's right—wing opposition. it's one of the world's biggest tv contests. we're talking the eurovision song contest. the united kingdom has revealed that the pop star and award—winning actor 0lly alexander will represent the country at next year's contest in sweden. the surprise announcement was made during the final of the show strictly come dancing. i can exclusively reveal i will be representing the uk for the eurovision song contest. cheering. well, our music correspondent mark savage sat down with 0lly alexander to get his reaction to the news being made public. ifeel like it is a bit like a spiritual homecoming for me, because i love eurovision so much. ifeel like i don't know.

i feel excited to be part of it now. it's such a celebration ofjoy and fun. i love how the theatrics, the drama — there is such amazing chaos of a mixture of musical styles, all these different performers. you get so much on one night, it's so fun. and camp. the whole thing — you can get on the stage in that short amount of time. that quick turnaround. how you can wow everybody. you only have a certain amount of time, a certain amount of people. what is he going to look like, what are you going to do? so, yeah, i'm thinking more about it now. you haven't announced the song yet. is there anything you can tell us? the song... i wrote the song with danny l harle and it will be coming soon, next year. and it's really good. we hope it is! we end this half hour. i will be back with you after a short break. do stay with us here on bbc news.

hello there. good afternoon. with today's weather, pretty much a repeat performance of what we saw yesterday for many. but towards the south—east of england, there's a lot more blue sky and sunshine, such as here in canterbury, in kent. for dumfries and galloway, then we're seeing that heavy rain from north—west scotland just slip a little further southward. so turning really rather wet here for the rest of the afternoon. and we've still got this very mild feed of air coming in on a brisk south—westerly wind, particularly blustery across north—east england, south—east scotland and also towards the irish sea coast. with this constant stream of rain just feeding into western areas of scotland and the rainfall totals will really start to rack up. we've already seen over 100 millimetres of rainfall in the highlands. we could see another 100 millimetres added on to that by the end of today. there's a met office amber weather warning in force too, valid until 6:00 this evening. again, we could see some landslips, possibly some transport disruption from a lot of heavy rain

and that front just tends to slide its way further southwards into northern ireland, perhaps cumbria and lancashire by the end of the afternoon. it is a lot drier further east, windy conditions of course, and to the lea of the high ground there will be some sunny spells. it's staying very mild for the time of year and as we head through the evening and overnight again, our weather front just slips a little further southwards. it's starting to ease, but there will be some rain for a time over the welsh hills and over the midlands and northern england too. elsewhere it's largely dry. of course, it's a frost—free start to the day tomorrow, but it's now feeling a little cooler across northern areas of scotland. and here we should see lots of dry weather through monday morning, but we'll start to see some more areas of rain just approach the far north and west by the time we get to the end of the day. meanwhile, weather fronts further south will bring some heavy rain across western wales and possibly into northern england as well. so the south—west of england, but some sunshine across northern ireland and eastern scotland. temperatures again still very mild, 11—13 degrees, well above the seasonal average. now, on tuesday, the focus

for the heavy rain is going to be across england and wales, particularly towards the south. this heavy rain will take much of the day to clear, notice more of a north—westerly wind and some showers just feeding into the north—west of scotland, too. some of those showers could turn out to be wintry, perhaps particularly over the hills. here's the outlook for some of our cities as we head through the rest of the week. colder in the north. still mild in the south. bye— bye!

this is bbc news, the headlines... in a change of tone, the uk and germany havejointly called for a "sustainable ceasefire" in gaza. but prime minister benjamin netanyahu has reiterated his but israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu has reiterated his opposition to a ceasefire, saying israel will "fight to the end" to eliminate hamas. the world health organisation describes the emergency department of gaza's al—shifa hospital as a "bloodbath" after delivering crucial medical supplies. former conservative peer baroness mone admits she stands to benefit from millions of pounds of profit from protective equipment sold to the government during the covid—19 pandemic. i will be representing the uk at the eurovision song contest... pop star and actor 0lly alexander is announced as the united kingdom's entry for next year's eurovision song contest.