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thousands of palestinians further south as the humanitarian crisis in gaza deepens. >> there is no safe space in the entire gaza strip. >> the push continues in washington for aid to ukraine after the senate blocked an emergency package and the u.s. reiterates its support for guiana's sovereignty. ♪ welcome to world news america, we begin in southern gaza where fighting is raging, forcing displaced palestinians even further south. tens of thousands of palestinians are streaming into rafa city near israel's border with egypt, trying to escape the intense fighting. keita agencies estimate nearly 2 million people have already been displaced. that is almost 80% of gaza's

population and most are struggling to find safe water, food, and shelter, deepening the humanitarian crisis as israel's military mission against hamas grinds on. videos circulating on social media show dozens of palestinian men kneeling on the ground guarded by israeli soldiers. the bbc has not independently verified this video. the israeli army has not commented on the images, but does say they have arrested a large number of people they regard as "terrorists." i spoke with our diplomatic correspondent. there has been more intense fighting in southern gaza. what more can you tell us about how fighting is looking at this point? >> the israelis are very much focusing on this largest city in southern gaza strip, an area where they believe hamas has one of its strongholds. they are conducting major

military operations in the north in the refugee camp and the area of gaza city, also areas the israelis regard as hamas strongholds. we are seeing a return to full-scale warfare a week or so after that truce collapsed and every sign that the israelis are making quite rapid progress. >> you have also been following the story of an online video circulating appearing to show a palestinian man detained in gaza. what can you tell us about that? >> these are pictures that were filmed in the northern gaza strip in the area right in the far north. we don't know exactly when they were filmed, but they were released today and we are not quite sure by who. they show dozens of palestinian men stripped to their underwear, bound, kneeling on the ground, then taken away in trucks and in

the last image you see of them, they are paraded in a sandy area, kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs and blindfolded. the israelis have not directly addressed the images, but they have said that they have arrested a large number of people they regard as terrorist suspects that they are interrogating. and they are saying that hamas fighters are starting to give themselves up. the fact that these images have appeared on line suggests that maybe this is part of an effort by the israelis to show to the palestinians as much as anyone that they are winning the fight and that hamas is giving up. hamas have said nothing about it and i should point out that one of the individuals spotted in the video kneeling on the ground is a well-known palestinian journalist. it is not quite clear who all these people are. >> we will have to see if that

is verified. thank you so much for joining us from jerusalem tonight. president joe biden held a call with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu telling him more assistance is needed for civilians in gaza, as the united nations issued a stark warning about the danger to civilians. u.n. emergency relief coordinator says there is no longer an humanitarian operation worthy of that name in southern gaza. >> we are still negotiating and with some promising signs at the moment access, that other crossing to the west of rafa from israel into gaza, which has been such a feature of discussion these many weeks. there are promising signs that may be able to open soon. we are still at it.

we are still in gaza. >> on wednesday, israel said it would allow more fuel to come into the palestinian territory along with humanitarian item and they say they will open a second aid inspection site. that crossing has been closed since the october 7 attack and they say it will be open to expect a trucks, not as an entry point to gaza. they say there are enormous logistical efforts to get aid into gaza. i spoke with the ifr see assessing the humanitarian efforts from cairo. the head of the u.n. eight operation martin griffith says there is no longer a humanitarian operation in gaza that can be called by that name. do you agree with that assessment? >> i can just echo his words. we have been saying this in the last weeks. colleagues are doing their

utmost to support people in the whole gaza strip, but the more the conflict goes on, the more needs are growing and the less we are able to deliver because the capacity is very limited, access is a big issue. it is very complicated and a great challenge at the moment. >> we know tens of thousands of palestinians are streaming into rafa to escape the fighting. can you give us an idea of what the situation is like? >> the reality is that the people in gaza live in a desperate situation, the worst nightmare, were mainly there is no safe space in the entire gaza strip and even if people want to go out from the border to use

the first occasion possible to go out, it is mainly impossible to go out. it is sealed inside the gaza strip. even worse, there is no shelter, food, lack of water, lack of access. it is a desperate situation. continuous flow of humanitarian aid and respective civilians and workers. >> your organization has been coordinating aid from cairo. can you give us an idea of how difficult it has been to deliver that aid? >> it is an enormous logistical challenge. i'm just back from egypt and i was inspired by the efforts there. at the moment, the big challenge

is to be able to bring all the aid entering in different parts of egypt to the border. the second challenge is also how to prepare this kind of operation. we never know if one day we will be able to enter with other trucks, the other day with 200 trucks, and the third day with probably 20 trucks. on the gaza side and others. it is really an incredible effort. the main problem is that we cannot plan. in this kind of situation, it is impossible planning. it is impossible planning when we will be able to reach gaza. >> israel is saying they will open a crossing to gaza to inspect aid trucks. do you think that will help

provide relief? >> it will be a very important step. the problem here is to make sure there will be a continuous entrance. and then the moment we can get humanitarian aid inside gaza, the better it is. then we need to create a safe humanitarian space where we can operate, but also civilians feel safe to get what they need. >> thank you so much for sharing your perspective with us today. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thursday evening marks the start of hanukkah, also known as the festa color lights. but not all those who celebrate feel safe doing so. anti-semitic incidents have been on the rise.

here in washington you see doug emhoff to like the national menorah. doug emhoff is the first jewish spouse of a president or vice president. in a show of support, chancellor olaf scholz lit a candle at brandenburg gate. our correspondent sent us this report from berlin. >> german chancellor olaf scholz spent a good couple of minutes talking about hamas's attacks and together with relatives of hamas hostages on the stage here, he started the process of lighting a candle. he talked about how important it was for germany to protect jewish communities here because

a lot of jews are feeling very nervous. there is a big rise in anti-semitic attacks and incident upon -- incidents. germany has come down hard on this, saying this is not the land. there are many people who say germany is not expressing enough solidarity for palestinians in gaza. this is a difficult debate for the german government. one of the reasons for germany's support of israel is historical guilt for the holocaust. today was more about looking forward. chancellor olaf scholz said this was about an expression of hope for peace in the future and an expression of light in these dark times. >> turning from the war in the middle east to the war in europe, ukraine has warned it faces the risk of losing the counteroffensive against russia

without further u.s. aid on the battlefield. ukraine is facing some of its most difficult days since the start of russia's full-scale invasion. the much-anticipated counter offensive appears to have stalled. the u.s. is struggling to agree on aid. senate republicans blocked an emergency aid package to ukraine after failing to secure border compromises. ukraine's president has ordered the rest -- urged the west to stick together and keep the aid coming. he warned that moscow was waiting for the u.s. and europe to show weakness. >> russia believes that america and europe will show weakness and not maintain support for ukraine at a proper level. the free world needs to maintain its consolidation. needs to maintain support and i believe we can make the next

year productive for us, for free nations, not for putin. >> diplomatic efforts continue to convince president biden to approve the aid package. the british foreign secretary met with the u.s. health secretary in an attempt to get funding moving. this is the u.k. former prime minister's time in the u.s. since he was brought back into government. he spoke alongside antony blinken. >> the reason i wanted to be in washington, d.c. this week was to make the point about how important it is we go on funding ukraine and helping ukraine in every way we can to resist putin's illegal invasion. i see it as the challenge of our generation, just as my grandfather's generation had to fight off nazi aggression in europe, we are fighting against russian aggression in europe. the challenge in a way as a simple one. if you add up the economies of the allies of ukraine, the

united states, the united kingdom, the countries of the european union, we outmatched russia 30-1. what we have to do is make that economic strength count. >> for more on the conflicts in gaza and ukraine and america's role, i spoke to general james jones who served as the national security advisor to barack obama. some lawmakers are warning it looks like there will not be any ukraine aid past before the end of the year. what will that mean? >> what will be interesting to see is the security conference. this will probably be the main topic. it's clear the administration wants to continue to help ukraine. there will have to be internal discussions with the congressional leadership. i can't imagine that at the end of the day the u.s. would do

anything but try to continue to help ukraine to the best possible manner in terms of what they need to be successful. >> so if you look at congress at the moment, there is a growing group of republicans that is skeptical toward sending aid to ukraine. there has been more than 110 billion dollars allotted to ukraine since the war started. there is a stalemate on the battlefield. can you say that more u.s. aid will help ukraine win? >> i think that more u.s. and more international aid will help ukraine win. i think that it's absolutely critical that ukraine at the end of the day be seen as the winner here. i think it would be a disaster if vladimir putin were seem to be the winner. >> what does it look like for ukraine to be seen as the winner? >> i think that is the issue, isn't it? it has to be an end that ukraine

sovereignty without question and russian presence be as little as possible. but we are not there yet. neither side seems to be willing to negotiate, but at some point unless there is a military rate through -- breakthrough, there will have to be some sort of negotiated settlement at least in my view. >> do you think they are at the point where you could bring both sides to the negotiating table? >> it doesn't seem like it, does it? at least not at present. as this goes into 2024 and as the munich security conference i think will be an important event for the allies to get together and decide what the way ahead is going to be in terms of resource allocation for what ukraine needs, i think we will know more in a few months.

right now, it doesn't seem to be a near-term possibility. >> on resource allocation, do you think the israel-gaza war has shifted u.s. priorities with the focus on preventing the conflict from spreading in the region and some attacks on u.s. and coalition forces in the region? >> i thing we have to be very careful. there are obviously two major things going on at once, both of which are extremely important. the israel-hamas battle is far from over unfortunately. i think we will have to wait and see what happens over the next few months. the hostages play a big role in this. they are being used for leverage. it kind of hampers the israeli goal of wiping out. we are not there yet.

i don't think we can see the end. i think we need to avoid a wider conflict in the region. i think the iranians are culpable in all of this. i'm one who also believes that the penalty for what they are doing not to be more severe than what they have experienced. we will see what happens over the next few weeks. >> we will leave it there, general. thank you for your time. >> my pleasure, thank you. >> let's get back to the british foreign secretary's visit. good to see you at the state department today. tell us about what you heard. what david cameron has been

looking to achieve here. >> yes, so this was david cameron, the uk foreign secretary's first visit to d.c. since becoming the foreign secretary. he was here to meet with his counterparts, the secretary of state, to talk about all kinds of issues. as well as what is happening in ukraine and gaza. i asked him a couple of questions. i talked to him about ukraine. ukraine's spring offensive has failed to gain significant ground. the u.s. senate is blocking funding. i asked mr. cameron and the secretary of state, is the war slipping away from ukraine? i also specifically asked mr. cameron about interference and how there are polls that suggest nearly half of americans want the war to end quickly because this is not just a foreign

policy issue, but a domestic one and was he trying to influence domestic policy? i asked him about ukraine. >> i've now forgotten the question you asked me and i can't read my writing. what was it? yes, and i interfering with america. i hope i been careful to say i'm not telling you how to do this vote and how to run your life or anything else. i believe it should come as a friend of america, as a friend of ukraine, and made some arguments that i think are very relevant about why this is absolutely the right thing to do. >> so, he is not interfering and i think i did hear the phrase special relationship used a few times. i also asked both men about the ongoing conflict in the middle east and they talked a lot about listening to local voices in

gaza and the postwar efforts and i asked them about holding elections to give an administration the same mandate that the u.k. and u.s. governments enjoy. they worried that palestinians might reject the palestinian authority, who we know they want to see revitalized, but for many locals has little credibility. i asked them what they be worried if this could be a win for hamas post-vote? the uk foreign secretary said he did not believe there was any rush for elections just yet. the secretary of state did not answer the question. >> really interesting and one more restaurant. did david cameron say anything about the situation in gaza? >> say that again. >> did david cameron say anything about the situation in gaza at the moment? >> yes, he did.

i mentioned to him there are lots of conversations being held. >> i'm a small d democrat. i believe in democracy, i believe in elections. spend some time looking at how we help the most fragile states in the most fragile situations. often a rush to elections rather than trying to build a provisional government can be a mistake. to get governments in place, make sure it is absolutely right and that is what we should be focused on. >> it is interesting because

they are having conversations about gaza postwar. i think the election question was an interesting answer. there was no rush to hold an election, that they wanted to build governance on the ground first. but it is one of those questions that they will be constantly asked, what about the local voices on the ground? it is something that antony blinken did say in the conference, that it is important to listen to local voices on the ground. that question was answered that i put by mr. cameron, but it wasn't answered by mr. blinken. >> great reporting and thank you so much for joining us. washington says it will carry out joint air force maneuvers with the south american country of guiana. they plan to take over an

oil-rich regionthe takeover guiana has area. brazil is monitoring the situation. it is a densely forested region with oil deposits offshore. nicholas maduro says the border between the nations was wrongly agreed by colonial powers more than a century ago. he claims all of the territory to the north and rest -- west of the river. that is world news america, thank you so much for joining us. don't forget to head to our website, bbc.com/news for all of the latest updates on the news today. thanks for joining us. 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; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the “newshour” tonight, israel intensifies its strikes in southern gaza, and calls to hold hamas accountable for alleged sexual violence grow louder. geoff: a top ukrainian official