more than 25,000 people killed since israel began its offensive against hamas — that's according to the health ministry in gaza. the us blames iranian—backed militants in iraq for a ballistic missile strike on an airbase used by american troops. a new storm is forecast to hit the uk, with gusts of wind of up to 80mph and a risk to life. republican hopeful nikki haley questions donald trump's mental fitness after he confuses her with the democratic politician nancy pelosi. we have a country in disarray and a world on fire, and we need to know that we are not giving our kids options of two 80—year—olds going into a presidency. hello. i'm lewis vaughan jones.

welcome to the programme. we are going to start in the middle east. this is the view from southern israel across to gaza, and in the last few hours we have updated statistics from hamas in gaza. they say more than 25,000 palestinians have now been killed there. the exact number, 25,105 killed since october the 7th in gaza. that number is from the hamas run health ministry. hamas is designated a terrorist organisation by countries like the uk and the us. israel does dispute the figures released by hamas, but does not provide its own. so the latest figures are 25,105 palestinians killed and 62,681

injured. now let's head to iraq and an attack on the al assad base that left at least one service member wounded and others being assessed for head injuries. the attacks, linked by malicious in iran, is the latest just hours after an air strike in syria, on the capital damascus. iranians were killed here, and iran said this wouldn't go unanswered. the president blamed israel for this. israel hasn't commented. let's go to israel now, and more comments from the prime minister, benjamin netanyahu.

he said again israel should retain security control over all the palestinian territories — gaza and the west bank. he said this condition was "contrary" to a future palestinian state being established. his comments on saturday defied pressure on his government from the us and others to commit to a two—state solution. 0ur correspondent mark lowen injerusalem gave us his analysis of benjamin netanyahu's recent comments. well, once again, it puts him at odds with the us and many of israel's western allies, lewis, who have been increasingly exasperated by his repeated public rejections and rebuttals of attempts by israel's western allies to restart diplomatic talks on a long—term sustainable solution that can end these constant, endless cycles of violence between the israelis and palestinians. the hope was that the current gaza conflict could sort of shake both sides into talks on a meaningful two—state solution. benjamin netanyahu has repeated

throughout his political career that he's opposed to that and he's now saying that very publicly, as he's under pressure from israel's western allies that are trying to get it to rein in its offensive in gaza. he's under pressure from here in israel, from families of the hostages, for example, who are saying that he needs to do more to try to bring the remaining 130 or so hostages back home. and so he has in a sense sort of staked his political survival on his hardline anti—palestinian statehood position, which he believes chimes with the majority of israelis at the moment, and israeli public opinion, which is still too traumatised by the attacks in october to countenance the idea of a future palestinian state next door. and mark, bring us up to date with the latest on the ground there in gaza. well, the focus of the fighting is still in the south of gaza, around khan yunis, where israeli defence forces believe that some of the top hamas leaders are holed up in or probably beneath that city.

but actually, there has been renewed fighting in the north as well around jabalia, where it is believed that as israel was trying to move its tanks and troops further south, palestinian fighters tried to seize an opening there to launch renewed attacks. now, we're almost three months into the ground invasion of gaza. and yet israel, whose army is vastly superior, of course, in equipment and numbers to hamas, is still facing significant challenges and significant resistance across gaza. and that, coupled with the fact that israel has yet to capture or kill any senior hamas leader in the north of gaza, is kind of fuelling frustration here that israel has not yet achieved its war aims. israel is also saying that it has discovered another tunnel in southern gaza in khan younis that is 830 metres long, was booby trapped, has blast doors and also, crucially, they say, contained cells. and they believe, the israelis believe that that tunnel

was being used to hold around 20 israeli hostages. they've released photos of the tunnel with mattresses and children's drawings as well. but they say that when they discovered the tunnel, no israeli hostages were there. 0ur our thanks to mark for that. the uk defence secretary, grant shapps, has been asked about those comments from benjamin netanyahu rejecting the idea of a palestinian state. he's been speaking to my colleague laura kuennsberg. i think it's very disappointing that benjamin netanyahu has said that. it's not in some senses a surprise, he's spent his entire political career against a two state solution. but the point is, which other route is there to seriously resolve this? palestinians deserve a sovereign state. israel deserves to have the ability to defend itself, its own security, in other words. and unless you pursue a two—state solution, i really don't see that there

is another solution. now, you will get a lot of different views within the israeli government, of course. it is a rainbow coalition. so we very much distinguish between the views of individuals and our overall support for israel as a country. here's fawaz gerges, professor of international relations at the london school of economics who explained the significance of the airbase attacks in iraq. this is part of the reverberations of the gaza war. you have attacks in iraq. attacks on the red sea. attack on the northern front between hezbollah and israel. you have israel basically killing top iranian leaders and hezbollah military commanders. you have the houthis in yemen, a pro—iranian basically government in sanaa, attacking shipping in the red sea.

the big point here is that the middle east is extremely volatile, more volatile and more unstable than any moment in its modern history. and the longer the conflict in gaza continues, ifear that the region is heading towards a wider conflict between israel and its allies and iran and its partners. and is that a very real worry of yours now that we're having these proxy battles, but a direct conflict between israel and iran? if you ask me, it's really 50% plus. what's happening now, we're seeing really more escalation by the hour. i think israeli prime minister is besieged at home. he has failed to achieve his military objectives in gaza. he's pushing hezbollah and iran to the limits.

frequently, israel is killing top iranian and hezbollah military commanders and generals in syria and lebanon. so far, neither hezbollah nor iran want all out war. but the question is, can iran afford to bleed so much without responding? it would really take a major miscalculation to basically ignite a wider fire. i mean, the question, lewis, here, the war has expanded. the war is escalating. the question is, will the low—intensity conflict that we are witnessing in lebanon, in the red sea, in iraq, in syria, basically remain a low—intensity conflict or escalate into a wider regional conflict? this is the challenge, and ifear unless the conflict in gaza ends, that the chances of a wider conflict really increase by the day. the scottish first minister and snp

leader, humza yousaf, has said some people place a different value on palestinian and muslim lives. he was asked by the bbc�*s laura kuennsberg why he's one of the few uk politicians to call for a ceasefire in gaza. i think there is just a lack of leadership and moral courage, if i'm being frank, and this is a classic example of where i think nobody understands what keir starmer stands for. why has he not shown the appropriate leadership on the issue of gaza? and i don't know the answer to that. but i don't know how anybody can see that level of death and destruction and not call for an immediate halt and an immediate ceasefire. d0 immediate halt and an immediate ceasefire. , ., ~ immediate halt and an immediate ceasefire. ~ , ceasefire. do you think sometimes eo - le ceasefire. do you think sometimes peeple place _ ceasefire. do you think sometimes peeple place a _ ceasefire. do you think sometimes people place a different _ ceasefire. do you think sometimes people place a different value - ceasefire. do you think sometimes people place a different value on l people place a different value on palestinian lives? 0n muslim lives? without a shadow of doubt. if you talk to anybody who is palestinian, you speak to many people in the muslim community, they feel that palestinian blood is very cheap.

next, a new storm, storm isha, is forecast hit the uk. two amber wind warnings will be in place until monday morning covering most of the uk. winds of up to 80 mph are expected, with eight flood warnings already in place across england. 0ur weather presenter matt taylor joined me with an update on how storm isha is progressing. at the moment it is out in the atlantic. i will show you the satellite imagery. you will see a clump of cloud which started in the us, it brought a lot of heavy snowfall to the north—east united states, but it is now approaching us in the uk and ireland, which will be hit by strong rain and winds rather than snow, it will approach today. so that is when it will hit and where it is. what is the likely timeframe as it comes across the uk? most of the uk is going to see rain developed during the rest of today, coupled with snowmelt, we have had a lot of snow recently, there could be flooding around. you can see the area of low pressure, it is deepening past the north of scotland. the peak winds in the uk will be through tonight and into the early

hours of monday morning, so it will be a night feature which is good news in some respects, they will not be as many people on the roads. unlike the storms we saw over christmas, this one, the strong winds will be felt quite widely. 50 or 60 miles an hour across the whole uk. but for some, particularly across parts of the north and west, where the met office have and the weather warnings in place, these are the areas that are most likely to feel the impact where we could see winds up to 80 miles an hour. in western scotland beyond midnight, we could see wind above 90 miles an hour which could have a big impact on what we will see through tomorrow. in terms of the impact, when you get wind speeds up to that speed, what are we looking at in terms of potential damage or travel disruption? in the areas marked with the amber warnings are the ones at greatest risk of storm damage. some structural damage. we have the potential for power cuts, they could be problems with mobile phone signals if masts come down.

and the added flooding, the rain with the snowmelt on top of it, and into the morning with all of that around, a busy monday morning rush hour, we could see some travel problems just about anywhere across the uk. probably worse felt across parts of scotland, which could experience the strongest of the winds through the night. we have had it for a while, but the naming of storms, this is storm isha, how does that come about, how does that name come about? three meteorological agencies, irish, dutch and uk come together, they set out an a to z of names, male and female. and it's up to each office, they think there will be a storm which will impact their neck of the woods, they give it a name. thank you. as it hits, if you want to keep up with the very latest hit in the uk, do keep across the life page which will have all the updates as it happens in the hours ahead.

now to the us republican party race to choose its presidential candidate. donald trump and his closest rival, nikki haley, are criticising each other. campaigning ahead of the new hampshire primary on tuesday. ms haley questioned the former president's mental fitness after he confused her with the democrat nancy pelosi during a campaign speech. here's mr trump, followed by ms haley's response. nikki haley is in charge of security. we offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, national guard, whatever they want, they turned it down. they don't want to talk about that. these are very dishonest people. these things happen because guess what? when you're 80, that's what happens. you're just not as sharp as you used to be. this is not personal. you all know i voted for him twice. i was proud to serve in his administration. this is the fact that we have a country in disarray and a world on fire and we need to know that we are not giving our kids

options of two 80—year—olds going into a presidency. let's ta ke let's take a look at the republican party polling ahead of new hampshire. trump holds a significant edge over ms haley in the state — 53 to 36%. ron desantis is polling atjust 7%. i've been speaking to andrew rooda—levich, a professor of government at bowdoin college in maine and an honorary professor affiliated with university college london's center on us politics. he explained the state of play. at this point nikki haley is the last woman standing, ron desantis is making his last stand in south carolina which is the next big stop on the electoral calendar. at this point you see the themes that are beginning to play out as trump tries to assert his dominance and wipe the slate clean before super tuesday

in march and haley try to establish herself as the non—trump candidate and took advantage of her 52nd birthday yesterday, noting the contrast in her age between herself and trump and president biden. remind us of the whole process here for selection, and why these specific mini campaigns within the campaign matter so much. right, well, we started in iowa last week, that is a caucus, which means that people go out to a sort of central meeting place at night and supposedly talk about their choices and come to some conclusion. new hampshire is a primary where normal election, the polls are open all day and people go and vote so the turnout will be a lot higher in new hampshire and then it was in iowa. they are very different states. the primary process has developed over the last 100 years but became really important after the 1960s with a press towards giving ordinary people a bigger choice

in the selection process. it's not very well organised, states decide when they want to hold their primary, new hampshire has traditionally been first, in fact they have a state law which says they have to be the first primary so that tradition continues on the republican side, though the democrats have been trying to under my bed recently, they argue that new hampshire is not very diverse, it is small, very very white, very rural and they think there should be a different way of doing things but that has not caught on. so we are where we are in terms of the actual process. is there anyone predicting anything other than a trump victory when all is said and done? i think there are a lot of people in the so—called "never trump" camp which will hope for a haley victory which will show she is a clear alternative. the polling has been pretty good so far in this campaign, it's likely trump will win.

a close second finish by haley is what her camp are pushing is an expectation, and that would establish her as the leading non—trump candidate, both for her and ron desantis what they are both hoping for it to be able to stick around in the race long enough that trump implodes in some way. from his legal troubles, most likely, that they can be around for example if he is convicted of a felony at some point, perhaps they can be there to pick up the pieces and grab the nomination. 0therwise otherwise it seems unlikely that they can beat him head—to—head. trump's rally last night featured a lot of greatest hits as they usually do but he brought out a lot of south carolina officials, that is haley's home state, she was governor there, trump is trying to show that he is more popular than she is even in her home state. and that is his calling card, that he controls the republican base, the republican party had been remade really in his image, and everyone else can just give up. that doesn't tell us much

about the november election. we are talking about a minority of the american electorate, perhaps, but nonetheless a loud one as we saw. now it's time for a look at today's sport with gavin. hello there. let's start with the latest from the australian open, where men's top seed novak djokovic cruised into the quarter finals. djokovic dropped just three games as he thrashed frenchman adrian mannarino. the world number one is chasing an 11th title in melbourne, which would take him clear of margaret court's all—time record number of 2a grand slam wins. djokovic will face american taylor fritz in the next round, who beat last year's finalist stefanos tsitsipas to reach his first australian open quarterfinal. djokovic has won all eight of their previous matches, including a straight—sets victory at the same stage in last year's us open. 0n on to the women's side of the draw now. coco gauff says she often forgets she's still a teenager

after becoming the youngest woman to reach the australian open singles quarterfinals since 2008. the 19—year—old american booked her spot in the last eight by sweeping past poland's magdalena frech in straight sets. now in herfinal major tournament as a teenager, she is the second favourite at the australian open behind second seed aryna sa balenka. and gauff remains on course to play defending champion sabalenka in the final after she comfortably beat amanda anisimova in straight sets. sabalenka has been in devastating form, dropping just six games in her opening three matches, and produced another dominant display. up next for her is ninth seed barbora krejcikova, after she ended 16—year—old mirra andreeva's marvellous run in melbourne. fifa president gianni infantino has called for the implementation of an automatic forfeit of games for teams whose fans commit racist abuse. it follows incidents which he described as "totally abhorrent" at udinese and sheffield wednesday on saturday. ac milan's win at udinese was briefly suspended after alleged racist abuse from home fans

towards milan goalkeeper mike maignan. coventry city's kasey palmer said he received similar abuse at hillsborough, where sheffield wednesday play. on to cricket now, and harry brook is set to return home from england's upcoming tour of india due to personal reasons. brook won't return to india, and his family request privacy at this time. the first test is due to get under way in hyderabad on thursday. england will announce a replacement in due course. in the nfl, lamarjackson and the baltimore ravens are through to the afc championship game after beating the houston texans 34—10. the san francisco 49ers followed suit, reaching the nfc title match, after coming through a close game against the green bay packers. the 49ers were 21—14 down in the third quarter, but quarterback brock purdy led a game—winning drive which put san francisco within one win of the super bowl. and the 49ers will play either the detroit lions or tampa bay buccanners,

while awaiting the ravens will be facing the winners of that big match in buffalo between the bills and kansas city chiefs. you can stay across those on the bbc sport website. and that's all the sport for now. we will be back with more later on. see you then. thank you, gavin. while christmas may be a distant memory for many, the armenian community injerusalem has onlyjust held its celebration. this year, it's been overshadowed by the war in gaza and a new threat to the survival of the community because of a contested real estate deal that could see them lose 25% of their land in their ancient quarter of the old city. 0ur middle east correspondent yolande knell reports. this is a christmas like no other forjerusalem's armenians. their holiday is always at a unique time, and this year it's been marked in an unusual way, with a sit—in in a makeshift tent. for two months now, members of the 2,000—strong armenian community have been guarding this plot around the clock.

they faced bulldozers and attacks by armed thugs since they pressured their church leader to go back on a land deal. he'd secretly signed it with a jewish—israeli developer. this may look like a car park, but it's incredibly valuable real estate in a place of huge religious significance. and it's now at the heart of a closely fought battle. armenians have been in the holy city since the fourth century. activists point out that the murky lease agreement could now mean losing homes and a seminary. a quarter of armenian property here. everything was put in danger with this deal. whoever wants to take away our rights and endanger our presence and our lives here, we will stand up against them and defend our rights till the end. sacred to three religions, jerusalem's old city, with its holy sites, was captured and occupied by israel five decades ago,

and it's at the core of its conflict with the palestinians. jewish settlements are widely seen as illegal under international law. but settler groups are committed to taking over more and more of the land here. it's alleged they have links to the armenian takeover. creating a settlement in this area is part of very far reaching aims of settler organisations who basically want to jew—idise completely the old city and again with their eyes on the temple mount, al—aqsa mosque, and that's very concerning. the armenians have now begun a legal challenge in the israeli courts to try to hold onto their land. but as the community comes together, they know their struggle may go on for years. yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem. a weekend of demonstrations

against right—wing extremism in germany is scheduled to continue on sunday, with more people expected than the quarter of a million who took part on saturday. it is a grassroots response to reports of secret discussions held by the far—right in november, to deport millions of people with — quote — "non—german" backgrounds. the prime minister of slovakia says he'll veto ukraine's bid tojoin nato, claiming it could trigger a global conflict. he's due to meet his ukrainian counterpart on wednesday, he says ukraine and russia should solve the conflict through dialogue. that's it from me. i will be back with the headlines injust that's it from me. i will be back with the headlines in just a couple of minutes. i'm lewis vaughanjones. this is bbc news. goodbye. hello.

widespread disruption as possible through the country through tonight and into monday as we see storm isha across the uk. the met office has issued warnings for heavy rain and gales across much of the country. the strongest of the winds will be tonight, but even through the rest of the daylight we will see gail develop in many areas, especially in the west. extensive rain through scotland and parts of northern england, wales and towards the south west later. temporary easing of the rain in northern ireland, the driest conditions in east anglia and the channel islands. temperatures of 10-13, channel islands. temperatures of 10—13, and that will also add to the snow melt in the flood risk. going into the night, this is when the wind will ramp up. met office amber warning is in force across most parts of the uk, widespread gusts of “p parts of the uk, widespread gusts of up to 70 mph, and in parts of

scotland we could touch 90 mph, because you are closer to the centre of storm isha as it crosses to the north through tonight. 0vernight the strongest of the winds will be felt widely across the country, sweeping rain across all parts with some clear skies and a few showers into monday morning. temperatures lower as they go through into the morning, 6-11, but as they go through into the morning, 6—11, but still not too chilly. the winds will ease for monday morning, but it will still likely cause disruption across many parts of the uk. latest travel news can be found on your bbc local radio station and on your bbc local radio station and on bbc breakfast from 6am. into monday itself, a blustery day across the board but with more sunshine around, scattering of showers, scotland and northern ireland will have frequent showers, mainly rain with hill snow mixed in, fewer showers for england and wales which means some of you will stay dry during the day, temperatures don't climb much as we go through monday, 7-11 climb much as we go through monday, 7—11 through the afternoon, so a fresher field

7—11 through the afternoon, so a fresherfield by 7—11 through the afternoon, so a fresher field by and 7—11 through the afternoon, so a fresherfield by and large. that will be followed by a cooler night, frost and one or two spots especially in the east, but the next area of low pressure comes in for tuesday. the wind not as strong as storm isha, but with more heavy rain, increased risk of flooding and snow for a time on the scottish hills, winds could reach gale force with up to 70 mph possible in the west of scotland. but the end of the week looks a little quieter.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the hamas authorities in gaza say more than 25,000 people have now been killed in the israeli offensive. bombardment of the territory has continued over the past hours, with israel saying it's killed more than 15 hamas fighters in operations across gaza. prime minister benjamin netanyahu has again rejected the idea of creating a palestinian state. the united states military says iranian—backed militants in iraq used ballistic missiles to attack an airbase where american troops are stationed. some were intercepted by air defences, but others hit the al—assad base. at least one iraqi soldier and several us personnel were injured. storm isha is expected to bring heavy rain and winds of up to 80mph across the uk. met office weather warnings are in place for the whole of the country. isha is the ninth named storm to hit the uk since september.

now on bbc news, political thinking with nick robinson.