prime minister benjamin netanyahu says israel will intensify its fight against hamas in the coming days, adding that the war is "not close to being over". he made the comments to members of his party, after a rare visit to israeli troops in gaza, where he urged soldiers to keep fighting. later on monday, he addressed parliament, and was heckled by relatives of hostages demanding the immediate release of their loved ones. israel says that 132 people are still held captive in gaza. meanwhile, aid agencies continue to warn of the desperate conditions in gaza. on sunday, 70 people were killed in an israeli strike in the densely populated al maghazi refugee camp. the gaza health ministry says at least 250 people have been killed in the last 2a hours. shaimaa khalil sends this

report from bethlehem. a warning, some of the images in her report are distressing. crowd chants: achshav! achshav! heckled by the families of the hostages. "achshav" — "now" — they chant, a demand for the immediate release of their loved ones. benjamin netanyahu reiterates the only way to get them back was to keep fighting and that this military campaign won't wind down any time soon. translation: we won't succeed at releasing all the hostages - without military pressure, operational pressure, political pressure, and that is why there is one thing that we will not do — we will not stop fighting. mr netanyahu was in gaza speaking to the troops on the ground, some of whom he said wanted to keep fighting until the end. the war in gaza is not close to being over, said the prime minister, as the agony of gazans continues. bearing the brunt, and overcome with distress. pointing to her pain.

"it hurts here, mama," she says. her mother is trying to console her. late at night, their homes were bombed. the wounded kept coming to the nearby al—aqsa hospital, already overwhelmed, with no fuel or water and minimal supplies. in gaza, there is no respite for the people, or those trying to save them. for many, it was too late. the writing on these body bags says "remains of al—maghazi." abdul rahim survived the air strike. his wife didn't. he says that in his building, several children and displaced people were killed. translation: our block was meant to be safe, i according to the israeli military maps. but there are no safe areas in the gaza strip. in a statement to the bbc, the israeli military said it was looking into the incident, adding that it was committed to taking feasible steps to minimise

harm to civilians. as the scale of the devastation becomes clear, so too does the challenge facing rescue teams who've been struggling to get in, with roads blocked after the strike. in bethlehem, christmas looks and feels very different. no tourists, no festivities, lots of prayers. this time of year, the eyes of the world would be on the birthplace ofjesus. but it's been stripped of any signs of celebration. instead, there are messages of solidarity and calls to end the suffering. for the people here, those images of destruction and death coming from gaza hit very close to home. the pain in gaza is felt very deeply here. this year, it's replaced what is normally a time ofjoy. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, bethlehem. earlier, the bbc spoke with gemma connell, a representative of the un humanitarian affairs agency, ocha. she recently visited

the al—aqsa hospital where many of the injured from the meghazi refugee camp were taken. what i saw again today, which i see every day that i'm here in gaza, is the absolute carnage and unprecedented suffering that's been caused by this war. i met a young 9—year—old boy, ahmed. ahmed came in with a traumatic injury to his head. he had been walking just outside the school that his family was sheltering in, and he passed away while i was in the hospital with him and his family. and it's stories like ahmed's that i hope make it to the world, because this 9—year—old child's doing what any nine—year—old child would be doing, except that that school was not a school, it was a shelter, and except that he died walking outside that school. that's the type of thing that we see here every day in gaza. the hospitals are overcrowded, they are overburdened, they are working day and night. these health workers are absolute heroes, and i have no words to describe the phenomenal work that they are doing every day. but i had two doctors —

two grown men, incredible professionals, heads of their professions — in tears with me today, because one of their colleagues, a nurse at the hospital, had stood there last night as the casualties entered, and one after the other, his family members were brought through the door — first his father, then his mother, his sister, his children and his grandparents, all brought through the door, one by one. and so these health workers are not only working every single day to save lives with patients piled up on each other, with patients who can't get surgery that would save their lives, but they're also dealing with the reality of the war themselves. they're not sleeping. they're working 2a hours a day to try and save as many lives as possible. and yet one of them said to me as i sat there, "we're all waiting for the minute "when it's our families who come dead through this door."

we have some breaking news coming in. the us military says it conducted retaliatory strikes on three facilities in iraq used by iran—sponsored kataib hezbollah and affliated militia groups. it comes after attacks on erbil air base earlier monday by the groups, which left three us personnel injured, including one in critical condition. president biden ordered the strikes after he was briefed on the attacks. us central command said they destroyed its targeted facilities and likely killed some kataib hezbollah militants but no civilians were affected. defense secretary lloyd austin said in a statement, "the president and i will not hesitate to take necessary action to defend the united states, our troops, and our interests. while we do not seek to escalate conflict in the region, we are committed and fully prepared to take further necessary measures to protect our people and ourfacilities." iranian state media say a senior member of the revolutionary guards has been killed by an israeli air strike. sayyed razi mousavi reportedly died from the attack near the syrian capital, damascus. mousavi was one of the oldest advisers of irgc in syria and was responsible

for co—ordinating the military alliance between damascus and tehran. parham ghobadi from bbc persian talked to the bbc�*s lewis vaughanjones about the significance of mousavi. sayyed razi mousavi was such an important commander, a senior revolutionary guard commander in syria, that iranian state tv interrupted this programme to announce his death. and...the iranian revolutionary guard also issued a statement saying that he was in charge of the logistics in syria and in lebanon. and he was a very close aide to slain iranian general qasem soleimani, who was killed in a us drone strike in iraq back in 2020. so he was an extremely important figure. they also mentioned that he was killed by three missiles that hit the building where he was staying in zeinabia, which is a town on the outskirts of damascus, capital of syria.

israel usually has a no comment as they neither reject or accept responsibility for such strikes, usually we hear through it through israeli media. this time like the tax they have not commented on this special strike. given everything that has happened through the region talk us through the region talk us through the region talk us through the significance of this. ~ ., ., , , this. we had to see this in liuht of this. we had to see this in light of the _ this. we had to see this in light of the recent - this. we had to see this in light of the recent merit i light of the recent merit between israel and iran, it has been two days since us officials say iran launched a drone and hit an oil tanker near the indian coast which is 1000 kilometres away from uranian territory. so iran today said they were not involved with this attack, but us officials say the drone, the kamikaze drone was launched from uranian territory and we

know who these and your man were backed by iran, they have been targeting oil tankers in the red sea, those were involved with the israelis in this attack was also related to israelis. russian dissident alexei navalny has been found in a remote prison colony in northern siberia. he had been missing for almost three weeks. the us state department welcomed the news but says it remains deeply concerned about his well—being. mr navalny�*s spokesperson says he was moved from his previous prison outside of moscow. mr navalny is one of president putin's leading opponents. in 2020, he was poisoned. he and his supporters believe it was due to his criticism of the russian president. he's been in prison since 2021 and is serving a 19—year sentence on charges of extremism, which the us state department has called "unjust." the new prison he's being held in is in a semi—autonomous region in the arctic circle. ik3 is nicknamed the polar wolf colony.

you can see it marked on the map there. it's considered one of the toughest prisons in russia, and was founded on the site of a former soviet gulag camp. here's what alexei navalany�*s spokesperson has said. there is no law in russia that is applied to alexei. they always create for him special conditions, and they don't have anything to do with the law. so we don't have any legal routes. we know that for sure in this new colony that his conditions would be even worse than they were before. but the thing is that this colony is very distant. it is very difficult to access. for lawyers, it will be very difficult to go there and to see alexei. it comes almost three months before a presidential vote in russia, which is expected to hand president putin a fifth term. our europe regional editor, paul moss, has this analysis. it is good news and terrible news at the same time. good news because there were fears for his life, this man has been a thorn

in the side of the kremlin for so long. they probably tried to kill him before some feared they'd done it again. yes, he is alive and his lawyer say he is all right, to use her words. however, this penal colony he is in is really brutal. i have not been to that region but have been in the same neighbourhood of russia. visiting a former penal colony in the far north of russia in the arctic circle. it is hard to describe just how awful it is. i remember i was wearing several layers of professional grade mountaineering gear and yet i have never been so freezing cold in my life. quite indescribably so. i talked to people who worked at the prison camps there who clearly were not having the benefit of the kind of clothing i was wearing. tough beyond all measure. i think also the timing of this is very interesting. there were presidential elections coming up in march, no—one has any doubt vladimir putin will win. it seems like the kremlin is really not taking any chances at all.

on saturday they banned an anti—war candidate from standing on some technicality. now this move to get navalny as far away as possible. his lawyer said it will be hard to visit him. they clearly do not want this man having any influence at all and in a terrible way i suppose it is a complement to the extraordinary power alexei navalny still has. certainly in the kremlin imagination. for the first time in more than a hundred years, ukraine has marked christmas day on the 25th of december instead of january 7th. it's a way of cutting ties with russia, which celebrates christmas according to the orthodox calendar. but for many ukrainians, there's little cause for celebration, with fears western support for the war could be waning. james waterhouse reports from the front—line city of kupiansk, which was occupied for six months last year, and where russian troops remain just five miles away. christmas in kupiansk

is a celebration in name only. children were evacuated from this front—line city, and only 5,000 people remain. it used to be five times that. siren wails. days are punctuated with artillery shells and sirens. life continues for those who've stayed. but it's a tense existence. translation: we all live in fear of death. i when we go to work, we don't know what can happen, whether russia will strike with rockets. we all live on the edge. we don't know whether we'll come back home alive. 17—year—old sofia has lived through both occupation and liberation. her dad is fighting and she's not impressed with her country's fate being determined by sceptical western

politicians. translation: perhaps they should _ come here and see for themselves what the situation is like and how much the aid is needed. if there's no help for ukraine now, russia will take its aggression further. the russians are eight kilometres to the east of the city. but what ukraine's military is worried about, is them pushing once more up to the oskil river before making another push. and that is the point kyiv is trying to make. if western support was to further slow down, then russia won't stop there. it still wants the whole of ukraine. sings prayer the briefest of pauses for a christmas prayer. large gatherings are dangerous here when russian drones loiter above. instead of these troops forcing out their invaders,

it is them repelling constant attacks. translation: it's day and night. - there are no breaks. it's 24/7. we have more targets, so we need more shells. they throw lots of men and machinery into battle. they don't pity anything. it's hard to sell a victory which seems distant. ukraine's struggle to contain western doubt has left it with a new year looking far from certain. james waterhouse, bbc news, kupiansk. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. now, in the uk, the king has delivered his christmas message, emphasising the importance of "universal" values shared between major religions against a backdrop of conflicts in israel, gaza and ukraine.

ata time at a time of increasingly tragic... around the world, i pray we can do all in our power to protect each other. the words ofjesus seem more than ever relevant — do to others as you would have them do to you. such values are universal, drawing together our abraham 999 drawing together our abraham egg family of religions and other belief systems across the commonwealth and wider world. they remind us to imagine ourselves in the shoes of our neighbours and to seek their good as we would our own. king charles also talked of protecting the planet as being a spiritual duty, thanking those "caring for our common home" and praising people who volunteer in their communities. you're live with bbc news. in the us, economic growth is expected to slow next year. the congressional budget office has predicted gdp

the congressional budget office has predicted gdp will grow i.5% next year — that's down from this year. but a rebound is predicted for 2025, with gdp expected to go up 2.2%. before that, though, cbo expects unemployment to rise to 4.4% by the end of 202a. my colleague caitriona perry spoke to tomas philipson, who served on the council of economic advisers in the trump administration. it has been another year where the cost—of—living crisis and affordability crisis has been troubling many americans, as it has around the world, but if we focus here on the situation in the us, is next year likely to be any better? people realise that inflation is coming down in 2023 and people are expecting that to continue into 202a. what has been the troublesome

issue in the us is incomes have not kept up with inflation so that purchasing power of your earnings, so your wages, have gone down. the paychecks do not reach as far and that has been the real cost—of—living crisis we have had over the last couple of years in the us. at the same time, unemployment has been at a record low as well. do you speak, broadly speaking — and i know you were working under president trump — broadly speaking, do you think bidenomics has been working? no, i do not think so because if you look at the labour market, there is low unemployment by the number of people who enter it every month or so is about 100,000 — 200,000. that is nothing compared to the 160 million or so people in the labour market and they are basically experiencing lower standards of living. so it is great we have more people in the labour market. but the vast majority of them were there before and if their standard of living has decreased and the way economists think of this, the price of labour,

wages, have gone down and if that is the troublesome aspect, which was very different during the pre—pandemic trump years, when we had large growth, particularly of the lower income distribution in the us. that situation with the wages not keeping pace with cost of living — is that why we have seen so much activism in the labour market — in the labour movement in 2023, so much trade union activism, protests and strikes? there has been a tight labour market, meaning thatjob openings have been way above the number of people wanting to go to work. it is partly attributable that we pay people a lot even if they were not working, in terms of benefits, particularly during covid—i9 but even after. so the advantage to people's income

if they lose those benefits if they go to work has been less than in the past, so that keeps labour supply held back and when the labour supply is held back, there is a tight labour market, more demand than supply and that has given unions the room to operate, because you cannot have a union when you have a lot of unemployment in the economy because people are going to go elsewhere, but that has given them the stage to operate. another issue looking at the us economy is we have seen high mortgage rates continuing. what impact is that having in the longer term on the housing market and broader economy? you have seen enormous inflation. if you think of that in the price of credit, if you think of how much you pay to borrow money, it has reduced the demand for housing. obviously, people do not want to buy a house when it is much more expensive to borrow money but it has also reduced the supply, which is very important. people do not want to leave their houses in the us because they had

such good mortgage rates during covid—i9 and now they do not want to buy another house and have a double or triple the size mortgage. so both supply and demand has gone down, which means the volume of houses trade has been reduced dramatically. however, prices of houses have remained elevated and that is because when demand goes down, price goes down. but when supply goes down, price goes up, so it seems like the supply, the reduction in supply, has been more important because prices in this economy, prices of houses have gone up even though the purpose of the federal reserve raising interest rate is for inflation is to go down. so the most credit—sensitive market in the economy, housing, increasing interest rates have raised prices as opposed to lower them and that is a big deal in the us because housing prices

is about 40% of our inflation measure. we talk about the economy of a country, all those indicators we have been discussing, but also things like health standards and longevity. what is your overall assessment of the us economy now? it is looking better than when we started 2023 but it is a lot worse than pre—pandemic, put it that way. i think the reason the biden administration is getting low rankings on how they have favoured or steered the economy is people still have in mind the 2018—19 economy, the enormous gains in real wages and purchasing power of wages for workers, low interest rates and other aspects of policy. not necessarilyjust economic — our border was more secure, no wars and now we have two wars.

a lot of people are frustrated with what has happened when they compared to 2018-19 and �*17-�*19 essentially. a christmas carol written almost a century ago has found a new audience after it was discovered by accident. cathy killick has the story. # glad tidings of the saviour bring # peace reign on us, she gaily ring # ring on, ring on # ring on while the merry breezes sing of christmas bells composed 90 years ago, this is, as far as we know, the first public performance of this beautiful carol. it was published in the barnsley chronicle in 1933, but was recently rediscovered by michael hardy, when he was researching the history of barnsley town hall. the carol was published the same month the town hall opened and survives on crumbly pages in the newspaper archive. it was almost a full page

of the newspapers and i weren't expecting to see that. i've seen articles about the town hall and adverts for christmas — this kind of stood out because i've not seen anything like this before in the paper. michael showed it to his colleague, tegwen roberts, who is also a musician. a day later she sang it on the town hall staircase. # the chime of bells inspires the midnight breeze... she then put a video on youtube with scenes of barnsley christmases past. it went down a storm and prompted more research into the writer, one arthur godfrey. he was born in barnsley in the 18705. we thought he would be quite well know, so we had a look through the paper to see whether he published any other stuff and actually did not find much. what we did find was that he was a glass bottle maker in barnsley. he started age 12 and he worked sort of throughout his life in that industry but obviously was a really talented musician alongside that. # glad tidings of the saviour bring...

asa as a carrot becomes more widely heard, enjoyed the dozens of christmas songs sung in south yorkshire. a contribution from the past brought to life in the present. cathy killick, bbc news. a merry christmas and happy holidays from all of us from bbc news here in washington. stay with us on bbc news. hello. we had some christmas day weather contrasts, with a high of 13.6 celsius, it was the mildest christmas day since 2016, but at the same time, northern scotland had snow, and so it was a white christmas. this stripe of cloud here brought rain for some of us, but in the north of the uk, colder air was in place, and that colder air is now pushing just a little bit

further southward. so a chillier day in prospect for boxing day. cold enough for some icy stretches through the morning across northern parts of scotland. some further wintry showers here through the first part of the day. one or two showers elsewhere, but broadly speaking, it should be a much drier and brighter day with some spells of sunshine. some of the showers in northern scotland could turn thundery through the afternoon. and at the same time, cloud and rain will be gathering across the southwest of england and the channel islands, where temperatures will reach 11—12 celsius. but elsewhere, 4—9 celsius covers it in most spots. and then as we head through boxing day night, we'll see cloud and rain spreading from the southwest, things turning very wet and very windy with some snow mixing in over high ground in northern england, and more especially across parts of scotland. temperatures coming up as the night wears on. a big area of low pressure dominating the scene for wednesday. if you have travel plans on wednesday, things do not look too pretty, i have to say, with a combination of heavy rain — could well be enough

rain in places to give some issues with flooding — but also some significant snow over high ground in the northern half of scotland. some areas could see 10—15cm of snow, say, above 200m elevation. it's possible that some spots exposed to the south—easterly wind could see even more snow than that. and the wind will be a big feature, widely a very windy day. we could see gusts of 50—60mph or more, gales around some of the coasts. temperatures, well, quite mild in the south, actually, 12—13 celsius. a little bit colder across northern parts of scotland, particularly where we will have snow falling. and then later in the week, through thursday into friday, we'll see various weather systems working from west to east. outbreaks of rain, perhaps a little bit of wintriness mixing in, as colder air tries to stage a comeback as we head towards the end of the year. that's all from me. bye— bye.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. as the summer draws to a close has ukraine made the progress that people had hoped for? our world has secured unique access to one ukrainian unit to find out. loud bang.

as the country beds in for the long war while also trying to come to terms with profound trauma and loss, what impact is it having on ukrainian attitudes towards their enemy? we hear how the experience of the long war is dividing families... ..and howa hardening of attitudes make some think that the only possible victory will be one secured on the battlefield. i just want it to stop and for our... ..neighbours to go away.

this is the face of battle, modern war in ukraine.