we start in the middle east, where gaza's hamas—run health ministry says 165 palestinians have been killed and 250 injured in the past 2a hours, as the israeli army strikes targets across the territory. israeli tank fire and air strikes are continuing in khan younis in southern gaza, which israel sees as a stronghold of hamas. hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by many western governments. residents report intense gun battles between israeli troops and hamas fighters there. we can show you some live pictures of gaza, this is looking from gaza to israel, you can see the large below plume of smoke across the skyline there. the israeli army says its troops have killed "dozens of terrorists" in gaza city. while the ground operations are driving tens of thousands of people to flee, there are also reports of an increased spread of diseases. and the un warns that the volume of aid reaching the territory remains "woefully inadequate". our middle east correspondent, yolande knell, is injerusalem.

there have been street battles, once again, very intense between israeli soldiers and hamas fighters in khan younis in the south of the gaza strip, seen as a stronghold of hamas. israeli warplanes have also been pounding the three urban refugee camps in the centre of the territory. this is an area from which tens of thousands of people have fled in recent days. and one local health official there said that 100 people had been killed by israeli bombings injust the last 2a hours. and he said that the local hospitals really overwhelmed by the numbers of casualties that were coming in. now, israel says it's not limiting the amount of aid that is getting into gaza. and it says that earlier in the day it allowed a four—hour humanitarian pause in the fighting. but at the same time, there is this complaint from the un that it's really "woefully inadequate", the amount of aid that is getting into gaza right now. and it has said that mass delivery of aid remains impossible because of the ongoing fighting.

we've also had fresh warnings from un health officials about a rise in outbreaks of diseases among newly displaced people. yolande knell there for us in jerusalem. meanwhile, south africa has filed a case at the international court ofjustice, alleging that israel is engaging in "genocidal acts" in gaza. the un court has confirmed the proceedings concerning alleged violations of israel's obligations under the genocide convention. the move has been welcomed by the leader of palestinian national initiative party, mustafa barghouti. we appreciate and we support the decision of the south african government to take the case of genocide against palestinian people in gaza to the international court ofjustice. israel is committing three terrible war crimes against the people in gaza — the war crime of genocide, the war crime of collective punishment, and the war crime of ethnic cleansing. and it is high time to hold israel responsible and accountable in front

of the international community. israel has responded with fury. israeli foreign ministry spokesperson says... he goes on to say... 0ur correspondent, daniel de simone, is injohannesburg. can you explain the south african support for the palestinian cause, first? ~ , ., ., first? well, there is a long context to this. first? well, there is a long context to this- the _ first? well, there is a long context to this. the governing _ first? well, there is a long context to this. the governing party - first? well, there is a long context to this. the governing party of- to this. the governing party of south africa, the african national congress, was once an opposition party, it was in opposition to the apartheid regime in south africa and it was a revelatory move with the military wing. in those years it did have links to some palestinian groups and since taking power almost 30 years ago in south africa it has

retained links with palestinian organisations and it has spoken about that it views what is happening to the palestinian people as a form of apartheid. so, the case that was filed by them yesterday at the international court ofjustice really is not that much of a surprise. the south african government has been speaking in the last few weeks, saying they regard what is happening is a genocide, they talk about war crimes and so, when the filing came yesterday, it wasn't that much of a shock. it is sort of consistent with the previous evidence and the relations between the two countries are at an incredibly bad point. in south africa withdrew all its diplomats from israel last month, it hasn't had an ambassador there for years and israel then withdrew its ambassador from south africa last month, the national assembly of south africa actually voted to suspend all diplomatic relations with israel, but the south african government is yet that vote. suppose

the question — government is yet that vote. suppose the question is _ government is yet that vote. suppose the question is whether _ government is yet that vote. suppose the question is whether this _ the question is whether this actually will make any impact at all on israel's actions?— actually will make any impact at all on israel's actions? well, you know, a case like — on israel's actions? well, you know, a case like this, _ on israel's actions? well, you know, a case like this, it _ on israel's actions? well, you know, a case like this, it hasn't _ on israel's actions? well, you know, a case like this, it hasn't actually - a case like this, it hasn't actually been taken on by the court. at the moment, this isjust an been taken on by the court. at the moment, this is just an application. the court has confirmed it has received the application, it published the application, which runs to 84 pages. south africa has asked for a series of provisional measures which it wants to be ordered, asked for by the court, that would sort of pre—empt any actual case and those provisional measures have been requested by south africa and they include the suspension of military operations in gaza. and it has asked for a hearing next week to deal with that, but a case like this, even if it was taken on by the court, and that has not been decided yet, israel will no doubt oppose it being taken on and has said in a statement that it asked the court to reject this. it

would take years, a case like this, it would not be something that took place in months, it would be measured in years.— place in months, it would be measured in years. ok, thanks very much, measured in years. ok, thanks very much. daniel— measured in years. ok, thanks very much, daniel de _ measured in years. ok, thanks very much, daniel de simone _ measured in years. ok, thanks very much, daniel de simone there - measured in years. ok, thanks very much, daniel de simone there for l measured in years. ok, thanks very l much, daniel de simone there for us, thank you. breaking news for you now, eurostar has now confirmed that all of its services travelling to and from london today have been cancelled. it is due to flooding in a tunnel, which is causing massive disruption. early eurostar said it was working hard to get services running, but it has now cancelled all 42 trains. let's go to our correspondent aruna iyengar now who joins us live from st pancras station. they had said they were hoping to get trains running from 4am, but that is not happening now? it’s running from 4am, but that is not happening now?— happening now? it's not, you are riaht, we happening now? it's not, you are right. we have — happening now? it's not, you are right, we have heard _ happening now? it's not, you are right, we have heard in _ happening now? it's not, you are right, we have heard in the - happening now? it's not, you are right, we have heard in the last l happening now? it's not, you are| right, we have heard in the last 15 minutes that eurostar has cancelled all its train services from london st pancras international to paris, brussels and amsterdam, so they are going to be a a lot of people here are very disappointed. i have been here all morning and people were

arriving, hoping to get away at around 4am, which is what eurostar early as it would be the time when services might be resumed. as you know, this was due to flooding in the river thames tunnel, there are two tunnels just outside airbus fleet in kent, which have flooded due to the severe weather conditions we are experiencing here, and that has caused a huge knock—on effect and means that south—eastern services, which run from london into the south—east and towards kent have been cancelled for the whole day and eurostar services over to the continent, over to europe have also been severely impacted, so that latest news now is there are no eurostar services running today. eurostar services running today. eurostar has also been affected in the last few days, last week. it had to suspend some services due to strikes from french workers, so coming on top of that, it has not been a particularly successful week for eurostar. they have been trying to direct people to their website for updates. also hs one, which

operates the line, has been putting out information on its website and south—eastern also has information, but generally the information to all travellers is, check the website first before you come to the station. . but from this morning and even now, i've been seeing passengers turning up at st pancras, people sitting down in the coffee shops, people sitting down on the platform isjust shops, people sitting down on the platform is just waiting to see what will happen and they are very disgruntled because they feel as though they have really not have the information they require. the -roblem information they require. the problem is — information they require. the problem is even _ information they require. the problem is even if _ information they require. the problem is even if they do manage to get things up and running by tomorrow morning, there will be such a delay, went there, such a backlog for all of the cases, all the people who have missed their trains today. that's right, and it comes at obviously a huge crunch weekend. this is new year's eve weekend, people are desperate to get to their loved ones, is to see their friends all over europe and people i spoke to an earlier were really quite crushed that they are missing out on their parties, missing out on the celebrations getting together with people that they want to be with. so

yes, it is a huge blow for people. southeastern say they are putting on some shuttle services between ramsgate and ashford, to try and get people down to the coast, so they can find alternative ways to get across the channel, but it is really not very clear how people will get between here, paris, brussels and amsterdam, not clear at all. people on social media, i have been reading, are saying, they are crying out for information, what can we do if he eurostar is cancelled? fik. if he eurostar is cancelled? 0k. thank you _ if he eurostar is cancelled? 0k. thank you very _ if he eurostar is cancelled? 0k. thank you very much, - if he eurostar is cancelled? 0k. thank you very much, aruna iyengar therefore us at london st pancras on that news that eurostar has cancelled all of saturday's services to and from london st pancras. the governor of the russian city of belgorod says two children were killed and several people injured as a result of a ukrainian strike on the city centre. a residential area is said to have been hit in the city which is about 80 kilometres, or 50 miles north of

the ukrainian city of kharkiv. it comes a day after friday's massive bombardment of ukraine, the biggest of the war so far. ukraine's president zelensky says at least 39 people were killed in that attack, when 150 russian missiles and drones were launched at cities across ukraine. the bombardment has been overwhelmingly condemned at an emergency meeting of the un security council. many countries said hitting civilian infrastructure had violated the international rules of war. live now to our reporter, zhanna bezpiatchuk, in kyiv. can you talk us through those attacks on friday, on such a huge scale, weren't they?— attacks on friday, on such a huge scale, weren't they? yes. so far, we can say that — scale, weren't they? yes. so far, we can say that the... _ scale, weren't they? yes. so far, we can say that the... number- scale, weren't they? yes. so far, we can say that the... number cells - scale, weren't they? yes. so far, we can say that the... number cells and drones that attacked ukraine, altogether 158 drones and missiles, almost... so it is definitely the biggest number since the beginning of the russian invasion in february

2022. all ukrainian cities all across the country were damaged, targeted by russian missiles and drones. and ukrainian president has said that altogether, 120 ukrainian cities, towns, villages were affected by this particular attack. it came in a few waves and for example in kyiv it is confirmed for now that all were killed and some people, even now, when we are talking, stay under the debris. the districts of the ukrainian capital and rescue works, they continue, there is hope that these people can be saved. 60 people altogether across the country were injured —— like almost 160 people. also 30 people were killed.— like almost 160 people. also 30 people were killed. then came, of

course, ukraine's _ people were killed. then came, of course, ukraine's retaliatory - course, ukraine's retaliatory attacks? , . , attacks? yes, and saw this large-scale _ attacks? yes, and saw this large-scale attack - attacks? yes, and saw this large-scale attack on - attacks? yes, and saw this - large-scale attack on ukraine, the large—scale attack on ukraine, the ukrainian military intelligence said it very clearly that if russia attacks ukraine on a large scale during the winter, the goal to disrupt infrastructure, first of all, powerstations disrupt infrastructure, first of all, power stations and tax also civilian population in the ukrainian cities, which haven't actually, so then there will be the real retaliation, the response. for now ukraine relies mainly on combat drones. we got reports from russia that also the missiles were launched against russian territories overnight, on the 30th of december. but this is an open question, this information obviously has to be verified because part of the

agreement that ukraine has with the western countries is that it cannot use large—scale missiles supplied by the western partners to target anything russian territories stop it can use them only to liberate their own territories, including crimea. yes, and zhanna bezpiatchuk, there have been reports of more russian troops moving towards the border. have you heard anything more about that and if so, what can you tell us what you know, i tried to verify this information from ukrainian sources. this information from ukrainian sources- so _ this information from ukrainian sources. so far, _ this information from ukrainian sources. so far, it _ this information from ukrainian sources. so far, it is _ this information from ukrainian sources. so far, it is not - sources. so far, it is not confirmed. some reports of russian built up on the borders. they come from time to time over the war and especially during the winter season, as we saw at the beginning of this year, 2023, injanuary and february. so i think wejust year, 2023, injanuary and february. so i think we just have to observe

for now and obviously ukraine relies overwhelmingly on the sources in the british and us intelligence organisations, just to get the accurate assessment of what is actually happening on the borders. 0k. thanks very much for now, that is zhanna bezpiatchuk for us in kyiv, thank you. now it's time for a look at today's sport with sarah mulkerrins. good afternoon. plenty of football under way. luton town against chelsea is the first of 6 english premier league games this saturday... it's late into the second half and they are leading 2—0. also in the last few minutes or so, rangers have had a player sent off, that player exiting player. rangers started the day five points behind celtic, who lead the scottish premiership, however rangers do have two games in

hand, so about seven minutes of normal time remaining there. luton town also in action against chelsea, the first of the premier league matches this saturday. it's also approaching half—time there, about seven minutes of normal time remaining at kenilworth road and the visitors are dominating. two goals from cole palmer and another one as well. i canjust tell you from cole palmer and another one as well. i can just tell you that luton town have pulled one back, ross barkley with that goal elsewhere. manchester united travel to nottingham forest in the late game and there's four matches at 3pm, including second placed aston villa hosting burnley and fourth placed manchester city hosting bottom side sheffield united. it's competitive at the top of the table, with just six points separating the top 5 teams. maybe the last previous seasons, it didn't happen much, but this season, it's common for all the teams. all of us are struggling to get the results in a comfortable way. so that means being patient,

so let's not give up, never, ever. so keep going game by game. in italy ademola lookman got the only goal as atalanta beat lecce 1—0. the win takes them into the top six for now. roma can go back above them if they can get something at juventus later. second placed juve can go within two points of leaders inter with a win. two tennis now. world number one iga swiatek had a winning start to her 2024 season as she set poland on the way to victory over brazil in the united cup. swiatek beat beatriz haddad maia 6—2, 6—2 in the opening tie in group a. and the polish team sealed the win when hubert hurkacz won the men's tie against thiago seyboth wild. he and swiatek will hope for a clean sweep in the doubles this afternoon. zheng qinwen beat wimbledon champion marketa vondrousova over three sets to seal victory for china over the czech republic in group e. that followed zhang zhizhen's

win overjiri lehecka. and along with zheng they went on to win the double as well. the group d match between germany and italy has gone to a decider in the doubles. alexander zverev levelled their tie with a win over lorenzo sonego. and he, along with angelique kerber, havejust won the and he, along with angelique kerber, have just won the doubles to give germany victory. cricket now. the second one day international of australia's women's tour of india is under way in wankhede. batting first, the tourists got to 258—8 off their 50 overs — with opener phoebe litchfield top scoring with 63. elyse perry with a half century. in reply, india are 151—2 in the 33rd over. india look to level the 0di series at 1—1. the famous rio dejaneiro statue has

been given a makeover,, this was added to mark the first anniversary of the legendary death of footballer pele. it is not actually a shirt, of course, as you can see, it is just coloured lights project very well onto the statue. just before i go back, there was a bit of commotion because we have just seen luton town have pulled another goal back late on against chelsea, two minutes of normal time remaining there, and it is now chelsea leading 3—2. you can follow all the latest on the football on the bbc sport website and that is all from me for the moment. 0k, and that is all from me for the moment. ok, thanks very much, sarah. just getting a statement from eurostar on that news that broke in the last few minutes that it is cancelled all of saturday's services to and from london st pancras. this is due to flooding. this is the statement from eurostar, saying they have been made aware by network rail

that flooding in the tunnels between st pancras international and airbus fleet has not improved and train services are unable to operate and eurostar has therefore had to take the unfortunate decision to cancel all services for the rest of the day. this is a total of 41 trains and eurostar says it is, extremely sorry for the unforeseen issues affecting customers today, but it says, safety remains our number—one priority and we understand this is a vital time to get home accurate is the festive season and the new year and we are supporting customers in stations, customers are encouraged to visit the website to find out what compensation they can receive and network rail is continuing to update eurostar regarding the situation and how it continues to evolve ahead of tomorrow, and they said they are going to be in direct contact with customers due to travel to keep them updated. right, to australia now. police in australia are warning people not to go looking for packages of cocaine that have been washing up on beaches in

new south wales over the past week. officers have been searching a huge stretch of coastline after plastic—wrapped parcels containing the drug began to appear shortly before christmas. many of the packages were covered in barnacles, 0ur reporter in sydney phil mercer has been following the story. before christmas the first of these packages was discovered in the central coast region of new south wales, an hour or so to the north of sydney, and since then many beaches between here and the port city of newcastle — that's about two hours' drive to the north — have been washed up, this cocaine washing up on those beaches in between the two cities. now, the police estimate that 124kg of cocaine has been found by members of the public. and there is an overriding theory that this illicit haul was almost certainly strapped to a cargo vessel and was dislodged during wild seas, the aftermath of a tropical cyclone in queensland. so, certainly not the flotsam

and jetsam that people on holiday or walking their dogs along the beach would expect to find here in sydney and further to the north. but a considerable amount of this class a drug has been discovered. this is not a time to be a freelance bounty hunter, according to australian authorities. they do believe that all of the drugs have now been recovered, but they do caution that a single block of this illicit substance, weighing a kilogram, if anyone is caught with that, potentially there is a prison term of between 25 years and life. so certainly some harsh penalties for anyone involved in this particular trade. but the authorities believe that all of the drugs have now been washed up and recovered. phil mercer reporting. the finishing touches are being put to preparations for new year's eve

celebrations around the world. in london a large fireworks display will light up the thames and our reporter meghan 0wen is in east london, where the preparations are under way. london, where the preparations are underway. it london, where the preparations are under wa . , . , under way. it is quite incredible, naturally. _ under way. it is quite incredible, naturally. to _ under way. it is quite incredible, naturally, to think— under way. it is quite incredible, naturally, to think that - under way. it is quite incredible, naturally, to think that what - under way. it is quite incredible, naturally, to think that what we | will see tomorrow evening when london's skyline idlib in colour with the fireworks... when london's skyline is lit up in colour with the fireworks all starts here on these barges in the east of london in the docklands. you can see behind me all the preparations arejust you can see behind me all the preparations are just being put in place. there are thousands of shells, there are controlled firing panels, there are wires, so it's really interesting to see it all happening behind the scenes. it's a very meticulous operation and i am joined by the event director. just talk me through the numbers. how many fireworks and how long has it all taken? we have about 12,000 individual fireworks on these three barges and the london eye. we don't get the chance to rig that until tomorrow at six o'clock, so the most iconic part doesn't get rigged until then. we have a crew of 30 people working over the two locations

since the 27th of december. we have got over 30 tonnes of equipment to load onto these barges. nearly 50 kilometres of cable and wire that need to be connected and 4,500 individual firing cues that need to be wired in and tested. we are in a fairly good place at the moment, despite the weather. no pressure, then! how stressful does it get in the lead—up? it does get pretty stressful. this is my 14th year doing london new year's eve and no matter how many times you get the chance to deliver this show, there is always something new, something different that comes to surprise you. so we try and plan for everything. and fingers crossed, we will have a great show tomorrow night. but certainly, the last ten or 15 minutes before the midnight moment tomorrow, i am going to be quite nervous. you can't afford to have a bad day at the office, can you? no, a blank sky at midnight is definitely not an option. so we will make sure that we deliver. i've got good faith.

there might be people watching this who think environmentally, is this the best idea? what are you doing to mitigate that? public perception is that people believe that fireworks are very environmentally unfriendly, but that is not quite the case. relatively speaking, even a show of this size, the biggest show in the country, the output is probably not dissimilar to a 500 mile journey. everything we do in life has a carbon footprint and as a socially responsible company, we do our best to minimise and mitigate against that. we calculate the c02 output, including the miles that we drive from the factory to the site, and then we offset that on a uk tree—planting scheme. meghan 0wen reporting there. just a reminder, that news that has broken in the last half—hour that eurostar has now cancelled all of its services to and from london st pancras for saturday. that is due to flooding in the tunnel. there is a lot more information on the bbc website if you want to take a look there, it is our top story in the uk

at the moment. eurostar has issued a statement saying it is extremely sorry for the unforeseen issues affecting the customers today, but safety remains its number—one priority and they say they will be in direct contact with customers. you're watching bbc news, stay with us. hello there. good afternoon. still some more unsettled weather as we head through the rest of this weekend. feeling rather stormy at times. we've seen some snow across the central belt of scotland, such as here in glasgow, but the snow levels here will gradually lift through the afternoon. it will become more confined to the hills of scotland, but possibly some more travel disruption, heavy downpours of rain, particularly towards the west, with the risk of some coastal gales too and here is that deep area of low pressure just captured nicely on the satellite picture here, this large swirl of cloud, it's all moving further eastwards, but an improving picture across northern ireland for the rest of the day with some brightness around, but heavy rain across the south—west of england and wales.

coastal gales here, that rain stretching up into northern england and some more snow for the hills of central and northern scotland, perhaps another 5—10 centimetres accumulating. and of course, this could cause some more disruption to some of those major routes. now, as we head through this evening and overnight, then, our cold front will gradually be pushing further eastwards across into east anglia, central southern england, squally gusts of wind, particularly towards the south coast, gusts of wind here of up to 60—65 mph, potentially, along with some heavy downpours of rain, blustery showers digging in behind. not quite as chilly tonight across much of scotland and it's still mild towards the south. and this, of course, is new year's eve. during the day, we're likely to see some more blustery showers, some hail, some thunder, possible lighter winds across scotland and it should be largely dry, particularly towards the east. but again, it's quite gusty towards the south coast. it remains mild in the south, colder across much of scotland. but let's take a look at the big night itself. we're likely to see again, more blustery showers blow through. again, very windy with strong gusts

of wind towards the south coast. could cause some disruption here. and while we're showing lots of showers on the charts here, there will be a lot of dry weather around as well, perhaps a patchy frost across scotland where it will be feeling colder. the winds will be lighter here into new year's day the winds will be lighter here. into new year's day and it's a much quieter looking picture. we'll eventually start to see the winds pick up towards the south—west and some outbreaks of rain by the time we get to the end of the day. but as you can see, there's lots of dry weather. there will be some sunshine around. expect to see some more showers towards northwest england, perhaps the south—west of scotland, too. it stays largely mild as we head through the start of 2024. it's colder in scotland, of course, and it will be rather unsettled at times.

this is bbc news, the headlines: in southern gaza, fierce tank fire and air strikes have been reported in khan younis. the un says around 150,000 palestinians are being forced to flee parts of central gaza, as israel's ground offensive advances. ukraine carries out a series of air strikes on targets in southwestern russia. officials in belgorod say two children have been killed. ten people were killed and 45 injured. it comes a day after russia launched more than 100 missiles against ukrainian targets overnight. new year's eve travellers face major disruption as tunnel flooding under

london's river thames brings eurostar cross—channel services to a halt. eurostar cross—channel in eurostar cross—channel a statement it said the affe customers in a statement it said the affected customers should visit their website to find out what compensation they could receive. britain's shortest—serving prime minister liz truss has unveiled her resignation honours list — which largely consist of political supporters and former aides — sparking an angry backlash from some critics. let's get more on that now. britain's shortest—serving prime minister liz truss has unveiled her resignation honours list, sparking an angry backlash from some critics. her 11 nominations largely consist of political supporters and former aides. labour says the list is a slap in the face to working people who are paying the price of the tories crashing the economy. but conservatives say she had a right to put people forward. 0ur political correspondent, shelley phelps, reports. i am resigning as leader of the conservative party. more than a year after her resignation, liz truss's honours list has finally been revealed. the 11 awards largely given to political supporters and former