tv BBC News The Context PBS November 29, 2023 5:00pm-5:31pm PST
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a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. george: actually, you don't need visioto do most things in life. it's exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc ns". >> hello. you're watching "the context" on bbc news. >> in the last few days, i hear a question, will israel
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return to fighting? my answer is an unequivocal yes. >>e have agreed to the extension of the humanitarian pause and 10 hostages are going to be released every day for the extension and what is being understood as this will happen for the next two days. >> i don't have enough money to buy children medicine. my son was in the hospital yesterday on my baby daughter needed help to breathe. ♪ >> good evening. tonight, as more israeli hostages are released, hamas says the young is captive, a 10 month old, was killed in an israeli airstrike along with his mother and brother. israel says it is looking into
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the claim. with hopes of another extension to the temporary truce, we are live in qatar to talk about the latest negotiations between israel and hamas. as we were saying, more hostages are being freed today. israel says if that continues, so can the truce. we will be hearing from an emergency worker at an aid agency on getting much needed food and fuel, which is now reaching the gaza strip. as the who says, more people could die from disease and from airstrikes. later in the program, we have a special interview with cynthia nixon, the "sex and the city" star that is currently on hunger strike demanding that president biden call for a cease-fire. of the more than 240 hostages taken by hamas on the seventh of october, a 10-month-old was the youngest of them. he was captured alongside
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his four-year-old brother and his mother and father. today as more families welcome home loved ones, that family's relatives received the worst possible news, hamas have claimed that they were killed in an israeli airstrike. it is unclear if the father of the boys is still alive. israel is in vista getting the claim from hamas and have been in touch with the family. more hostages are currently in the process of being released this evening. the idea has confirmed that two russian women are safely back in israel and also in the process of being transferred. the six day temporary truce is due to end in just a few hours. the senior israeli government advisor told the bbc the past hour that israel would agree to an extension, as long as hamas continues releasing hostages. meanwhile, israel says it's
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carried out a raid on a refugee camp in the occupied west bank and killed what it described as two senior terrorists. the palestinian authority says two children were also killed by gunfire. we will have more on that and the ongoing negotiations shortly, but first, we begin with this report from our senior international correspondent, reporting from tel aviv. reporter: fear. a nation has been waiting for him to come home. but tonight, a claim from hamas that the 10-month-old was killed by israel's bombardment of gaza. hamas says his four-year-old brother, ariel, was also killed, along with their mother, who tried so hard to protect them as they were taken hostage. the israeli army says it is
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assessing the accuracy of the information. if true, it is devastating news for israel and for relatives. >> just yesterday -- reporter: just yesterday, a cousin was pleading for the children's release. >> love them so much. the tiny baby, we passed between each other, we love him. a child who loved to play and dress up as batman. are they a threat to hamas? they are young children. reporter: the father was also taken captive. he may now be the only oneleft from his family . among those still being held i gaza, this 21-year-old who had to run for her life from this music festival. then, last month, images from
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hamas, showing her with injuries. >> it is terrible. terrible situation. reporter: now her mother, karen, can only wait in torment day after day. >> she is a warrior. she is very strong and mature -- a very strong and mature girl. i do keep faith. but to wait every day for the call to tell me if she is on the list or not, it is terrible. and she won't be released today, too. it is like a russian bullet, you don't know who will get out from there. >> so far, almost 100 israeli women and children have gotten out and have been reunited with their families. tonight, there are indications that the truce and the release of hostages could continue at
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least for the next few days. bbc news, tel aviv. >> for more on that, i am joined by dr. sultan barakat. thank you very much for joining us live from doha. i'd like to begin by asking you what you think the chances are of that extension being confirmed. >> those we hear from that were involved in the mediation seemed very optimistic that it will be extended. because until now, hamas has honored all its previous commitments. it is still committed to releasing the civilians. particularly women and children. and they seem to be holding yet more women and children. not directly by hamas, but over
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the last four days because of the cease-fire, they have been able to establish exactly who was being taken into gaza. there is hope at least for two more days if not four more days. there are much more concrete diplomatic efforts to try to reach a more permanent or extended cease-fire. as we speak now, the united nations security council is meeting. ben: so far -- >> so far, the hostages that have been released have been women and children. of course there are a number of male hostages and it is thought that some our from the israeli military as well. where the chances of the hostages being released -- are the chances of the hostages being released from that group as well? >> i doubt it. not immediately.
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you did not mention at all the issue of the palestinian prisoners that have been released in exchange for the hostages. the situation on the ground is that hamas is demanding the release of similar, women and children, palestinians that have been taken by israel without charge and without being taken to court. they have been there for years. and they were trying to make the point that them taking hostages is not very different from israel taking hostages for over many years, it is a long practice. so far all the ones that israel have release are not what you would deem high-value prisoners as far as hamas is concerned. none are attached to hamas. they returned to the west bank. none of them are of any
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military importance. i expect that hamas will want to use the soldiers to release some of those more senior captives in israel. until they reach -- and these are the sort of subjects being discussed at the moment, wh the participation of the director of the cia and others. >> we will of course be discussing the release of palestinians from israeli jails as well, we were showing a live shot of the occupied west bank there, where some of the families will be waiting for those people to return. this is of course a temporary truce at the moment, what do you think needs to happen or could happen for this to turn into a permanent cease-fire? >> well, i think both sides have now compromised. if you recall, at the beginning, they had declared a position that they could liberate hostages by force.
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he's determined to see a total end of hamas. and hamas position was for all hostages and prisoners in israeli jails, this could be like 7500 prisoners,. now we have reached a position where both have moved quite far from the original declared objective and they are becoming mucmore pragmatic. they both have suffered i think. israel has already lost more than 80 soldiers on the ground. which is quite a number for israel. -- a high number for israel. have only lost around -- they have only lost around 70 soldiers. we are talking about a high number for israel lost in the last couple of weeks.
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i think if they were to reengage in the war, it is going to be much more difficult to do it at the same level with the same concentrated bombing they have done so far. but also because they are under increased pressure from the united states. and from europe, europe is already split on this issue. people do not want to see a continuation to this random killing that took place over the last few weeks. the israelis are now asked to be much more precise and present a plan. they talked about going to the south of israel. south of gaza. and conditionality to the billions of dollars being offered to the israelis. the sympathy that the world has started with given the events of the seventh of october is no eroding -- now growing.
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the better option is to stick to a cease-fire and hopefully help both parties with the support of the international community moved to a more permanent solution. >> qatar has been a key country when it comes to those negotiations. thank you very much for joining us here. now let us hear from the advisor to israel's prime minister, an -- benjamin netanyahu, who spoke to the bbc. he had an interview with my colleague which began by getting his reaction to the death of 10 month old kafir, which hamas is saying has happened. >> we are investigating. obviously we are worried. hamas has also set two things --
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said two things, who had a terrorist release of this week and it was said before that she was killed and she was alive. we found the bodies of two women who were taken alive by hamas, by the terrorists. they were killed, we presume, by the terrorists while under captivity. of course we are worried. especially since this is the youngest of the hostages. he was taken when he was eight months old. you have to ask what sort of people we are dealing with. people who kidnap babies. he was taken hostage. he was abducted before he could walk or talk. i think this encapsulates what hamas is all about. we really are fighting fanatical extremists who
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have no sense at all of decency. >> what can you tell us about the hostage release and prisoner release that is ongoing at the moment? >> so, we have accepted a framework that was negotiated with the help of the americans. and we thank president biden for his assistance in this, whereby we have agreed to the extension of the humanitarian pause and 10 hostages are going to be released every day for the extension. and what is being understood is this will happen for the next two days. but israel is willing to continue with this framework. from our point of view, the humanitarian pause can continue as long as hamas continues to release hostages. pressure must be placed on hamas . if they continue to release hostages, the pause can
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continue. >> i am joined now by out diplomatic correspondent -- our diplomatic correspondent live in jerusalem. but to talk to you, paul. we were probably listening to what mark had to say. all signs seem to suggest a temporary truce could be extended further. what are you hearing where you are? >> nothing definitive yet. in fact, we are still waiting for signs that the latest group of 10 is really hostages have actually left gaza. we saw earlier on, two nationals release. we are led to believe that a group of 10 israelis including a number of teenagers and some women are due to be released as the latest group. the sixth group to be released in this series of exchanges. i'mot sure what that holdup means if anything. what we also don't know is
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whether it is going to happen. there is no indication yet of a further round of exchanges. normally we would have some indication by now that this was going to continue. it may. it does seem to be in the interest for there to be some kind of continuation. hamas it is thought would like to see a longer continuation, maybe as much as four days. israel is a lot more keen on dead by day exchanges. to give hamas four days they think is perhaps giving them too much time to real -- to regroup and reorganize. the coming hours will tell us whether this is likely to happen again. in the meantime, israeli officials from the pme minister on down are saying that they are ready to return to fighting at a moments notice. >> we are bringing you pictures
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now live from the hospital where we are anticipating more is really hostages will be released. as paul was just saying, that has yet to happen. we are still waiting on that. paul, the other thing that's been widely talked about this evening is hamas saying that the youngest of hostages, 10 month old kafir, was killed in an israeli airstrike along with his mother and brother. what more do we know about those claims? we know that israel says they are looking into them. >> that is all we know, that it is just a claim made by hamas in the middle of the afternoon in a very short statement, which merely said that the family of three, the mother and two young sons were killed in the airstrike. other than that, we simply do not know. everything about the tone, from the israeli comments, the
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military, suggest that they are bracing themselves for bad news. there does seem to be a gloomy sense that something that the whole country frankly was hoping for, the release of these two young boys, including the youngest of all the hostages, kafir, what happened before this process was over. that looks unlikely now. interestingly on monday, the israeli military said that the three had been handed over from hamas to another palestinian militant group. earlier in this crisis. and that the three were being held in the southern city. none of that is being -- has been confirmed. there has been no sighting or word on their whereabouts. now it seems there is pessimism about the fate of the three members of the family. >> just briefly, paul, as things are quieter in gaza, we are seeing more activity in the
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west bank. >> this is something that's been going on throughout this period of the last couple of months which is a series of very aggressive israeli raids in a number of west bank cities, janine being one of them, and elsewhere, rounding out quite a variety of people who the israel i regard as wanted militants, not people necessarily attached or affiliated to hamas in any way. the operation in janine that started last night and finished this morning doesn't seem to have had anything much to do with hamas although they have put out a statement containing it. one young boy is thought to be as young as eight and another a 14-year-old. the deaths of both of those boys were captured on cctv. neitheof them looked like he
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posed any danger. neither of them seemed to be carrying any kind of weapon. there will be questions asked about exactly how this raid was carried out and whether those deaths of those two children were an accident or deliberate or precisely what the circumstances were. because they are pretty shocking to watch. >> paul adams joining us live from jerusalem. our diplomatic correspondent for the moment. thank you very much. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. let's take a look at the other stories making the news. an inquest has hurt four teenagers drowned after their car overturned in a camping trip in north wales. they were fnd in the partially submerged car on the 21st of november. a search was launched after the teenagers failed to return home. in has been announced the newsnight program will be cut
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back and have its format overhauled as part of a plan to save money. the long-running show will lose its dedicated reporters, be shortened by 10 minutes, and drop its investigative films to focus on studio based discussions. the dutch edition of the controversial royal book endgame has been removed from sale. the publishers of said an error occurred in the dutch translation and it is currently being rectified. the world health organization's warning that more people could die in gaza because of untreated diseases and due to airstrikes, if the heah system is not restored there. more than a one million people are sheltering an overcrowded united nations facilities, as
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cases of diarrhea and respiratory infections are widespread. patients with chronic illnesses like cancer are also not getting any treatment. to discuss this further, i am joined by mike n. from action 8. thank you for joining us here. you've been in touch with your teams in gaza. if we can begin by finding out more about what they are telling you about the situation on the ground? >> thank you. obviously, a few days now into the pause, theris a sense of improvement in terms of the access for our colleagues and workers who are needed crucially for supplies coming in over the crossing. still far below meeting the levels of need. that said, with the needs as high as they are and particularly with the situation, with the aid not reaching the north, we continue to hear about our colleagues' concerns about what can be achieved.
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we are continuing to hear from colleagues that they are still lacking fuel, meaning they cannot use generators which is impacting their basic ability to provide basic medical services. we are continuing to your concerns about the state of the water system and again the lack of fuel to get pumps running. many people around gaza particularly those who fled from the north to the south are exposed and living in poor conditions and lacking basic shelter. i heard from a colleague today talking about seven families sharing one blanket for the night. the levels of need -- the lack of humanitarian aid is still quite crucial no matter how much. >> one of the concerns is aid getting into the north. we've been talking to other agencies t last few days who say been one of the biggest challenges and greatest needs.
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>> indeed. the hospitals we work with in the north, we didn't hear from them today, but as of yesterday they have not received any at all. the bombardment has stopped but the pause has really not resulted in much aid getting through to them in the north. the hospitals have a large number of people living in the north. we are doing what we can in both the north and the south, with our partners on the ground. but cash can only go so far when there is not much to buy in the shops. >> very briefly, the who, talking about the danger of infectious diseases, because of sanitation conditions are obviously very poor as well now. >> indeed. this is what we are hearing in my colleagues. the number of people using one or two latrines, we had
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something like 700 people using two latrines recently at one of the shelters down in the south. there is a risk of diarrhea and diseases. it is incredibly high. sort of aggravated by the fact that people are living in very poor conditions in terms of shelter and the cold. the challenge for us at the moment is getting things through, but when the pause is extended on a day by day basis, it is very hard for us to plan properly. >> thank you very much for bringing us up-to-date to date on the situation on the ground in narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. man: bdo. accountants and advisors. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation;
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