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i have been told slaying dragons will g you burned. but in today's victory and the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press, it is a worthwhile price to pay. >> i want to reiterate as i have consistently said for many years i have never hacked a phone or told anyone else to no one has produced evidence i did. >> where are they getting it from? what am i doing wrong? i am feeling slightly better about myself now. i was not employing means like that. now i know how those stories came out. >> ♪ >> prince harry wins his phone hacking case against the mirror group and is awarded 140,000 pounds in damages.

he describes it as a great day for truth. piers morgan denies he knew anything about it. we will get reaction from a man whose phone was hacked thousands of times while he was working in senior roles at the bbc. more news from gaza. three israeli hostages mistaken for hamas fighters were shot dead by israeli troops. we will get a response from the idf spokesman who will join us live. later, an exclusive interview with poland's new foreign minister. what does he make of hungary's decision to veto you funding for ukraine -- e.u. funding for ukraine? good evening. i have been told slaying dragons will get you burned, the words prince harry read in a statement by his lawyer after the high court ruled he was a victim of hacking by the mirror group. the judge said the phone hacking

was widespread and habitual and the former editor of the mirror, piers morgan, new about the practice. today, mr. morgan came out fighting saying he never hacked a phone or asked anyone to do so. the company which now owns the papers has apologized unreservedly. prince harry's legal victory and damages could late it open to further legal action. today's case is one of three he is taking againsnewspaper groups for unlawful information gathering. >> a significant victory. in 15 articles about prince harry in all three mirror titles, the newspaper group has been found to have intercepted private voicemails and gathered un other information unlawfully. prince harry's lawyer read out his client's words after the judgment was delivered. >> this case is not just about

hacking. it is about a systemic practice of unlawful and appalling behavior followed by coverups and destruction of evidence, the shocking scale of which can only be revealed through these procedures. >> the articles include this in 2003 about a row between hry and william about whether to meet their mother's former butler. the judge said both probably had their phones hacked, a serious security concern. most relate to his time with chelsy davey including this from 2005 about her plans to dump him and this in 2007, phone hacking involved in both instances. prince harry has said the relentless intrusion killed their relationship. he is awarded the largest damages for this article about his date with the tv presenter.

in all, he takes away just over 140,000 pounds. two senior executives, former ceo's, and former legal director knew that journalists and private detectives were breaking the law, said the judge. another name that often came up in court was piers morgan who edited the daily mirror. omid scobie gave evidence he knew a 2002 story about kylie minogue came from voicemail interception. this afternoon, piers morgan fought back. >> as i have consistently said for years, i never hacked a phone or told anyone else to and no one has produced actual evidence to prove i did. >> his former employers had earlier welcome to the judgment is giving them clarity. where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologize unreservedly, and have taken full responsibility, and paid appropriate compensation.

this is a significant story. the tabloids were read by millions and all too often broke the lock to get exclusives. the judge ruled the hacking the prince harry's phone was modest but did go on. a senior royal hacked by journalists whose bosses knew. through his baer hunter, prince harry explain how much the ruling means to him. >> today's ruling is vindicating and affirming. i have been told slaying dragons will get you burned. but today's victory in the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press is a worthwhile has to pay -- price to pay. the mission continues. >> the dude has been repeatedly exposed in recent yearss someone who would not know the truth if it slapped him around his california can face. he demands aountability for

the press but refuses to accept any for himself smearing the royal family, his own family, as callous racists without producing a shred of proof to support those disgraceful claims. >> prince harry has had his judgment. around 80 other people, many high, have similar claims against the mirror group and will be examining the judge's decision closely. >> he has held senior roles at the bbc and was formerly controller of bbc 1 and bbc 2. he sued the mirror group after his phone was hacked. you have some experience with this. what happened to you? >> what happened to me was very unusual. there were not many stories about me in the mirror but my address book in my firm was

called an aladdin's cane. it was the metropolitan police who came to me because people who had been found responsible for hacking felt guilty and owned up to the fact they had been hacking my phone. what is particularly interesting about my case is there was a complete denial by the mirror they had been hacking it. eventually, they offered me 100,000 pounds which in 2015 was a significant sum, particularly significant because the stories, the hacking had led to them getting to other people's phones through my address book. because i was director of television, they were doing stories about "east enders" and possibly celebrities and people like that. it was an invasion.

but i did not know. i had not gotten rid of my voicemails. but then what happened is david wanted me to go into court because he felt there were other fragile witnesses at that time like one who was not well and unhappy about it all so i did go into court. but i made it clear at the time i was not doing it for the money. in a civil case, if you get less than you were offered going to court, you have to pay all of the costs and the costs are substantial. but when the judge gave me $90,000, he also could see in the court i had been offered more. normally, this would be an unsatisfactory settlement but dave said to the judge, your

honor, he was in court today because he did not consider this to be an unsatisfactory cattlemen and did not do it for the money. he made it clear i would give the money to charity. >> your motives were similar to prince harry's. it was not about the money, it was about the principle of what happened. how many times do you think you were hacked? >> if you look at the press reports from newspapers not hacking, the judge said my phone was hacked at least three times a day from 2007 to 2009. >> that was after piers morgan left the newspaper. i wonder if you might be kind enough to tell us what you think about his response today. i was looking back at an interview he gave to the press and he said it was an investigative practice everyone knows was going on at almost every paper in fleet street for years.

in the inquiry, he said he was merely passing on rumors. i wonder if it is possible for a national newspaper editor to publish top stories of celebrities and not beat inquisitive -- be inquisitive about where those stories come from. >> i do not want to comment on piers morgan. that is not my place. if you listen to the judgment today, the judge made it clear. remember, a lot of these newspapers could detach themselves from this because there were many investigative journalists providing them with the information who were hacking the phones. the judge today has said there were dozens of these people and made it clear there were key people at the mirror who he said were aware of this from 2003 onwards. even the lawyers in the company

also knew about it but clearly did not acknowledge it. >> the most extraordinary thing about it for me is the phone hacking continue during the love us an inquiry into it -- levinson inquiry into it. do you have a thought as to whether that should be reopened? >> it is not for me to comment about necessarily but there are people who have been campaigning for a long time to say we need to take this further. i can assure you david share born and my assistant are all working at this. this is not the end of it. whether there is another review of this is another matter. he did say to me that my case was exceptional, the fact i got less money than i had been offered but i did not pay the costs.

i am sure prince harry did not do it for the 140,000 pound settlement. but he did it obviously to get to the facts, to get to the truth. i think you will find many more people and other newspapers going forward. i'm pretty sure that wl happen. >> very good of you to join us. thank you for your time deceiving. around the world and across the u.k., you are watching the bbc. let's take a quick look at other stories making the news in the u.k. there has been an alarming rise the number of young children in scotland escaping from nursery school care. two children a week on average disappeared from nursery or on trips in the past year. the nursery trade association said members were taking the issue seriously and cited staffing pressures with the greater number of inexperienced staff. households face paying more for energy to help suppliers recover

nearly 3 billion pounds in debts from customers who cannot pay their bills. they are proposing lifting the energy price cap by 16 pounds from april. the watchdog said it wanted energy companies to use the after funding to support struggling customers. six of lionel messi's jerseys worn during last year's world cup have sold at auction. he led argentina to victory beating france on penalties in the final. the sixth jerseys were from the first half of the games. you are watching bbc news. for the families of the israeli hostages, the worst possible news today. three of their loved ones shot and killed by israeli soldiers in northern gaza, mistaken, says the idf, for hamas fighters. the bodies have been returned to israel. two of the victims were identified today as someone who

is kidnapped and another was abducted. the family of the third hostage asking the name not to be revealed. hours earlier, the bodies of three other hostages were d ron sherman, just 19, andiers also the 28-year-old who had been taken by hamas from the music festival. there is still plenty of fighting in northern gaza. this is video taken from southern israel friday morning. palestinian sources are reporting airstrikes in the south with children reported to be among the casualties. in jerusalem, the iron dome was forced into action again. the first rocket attack to target the city in weeks. some positive news on the aid front to date. israelis say they are reopening the border checkpoint for aid to go into gaza. before the conflict, 60% of

goods would transit through that check point. the decision welcomed by jake sullivan who is visiting the region. he met with the palestinian president today and called it a significant step. joining us tonight, the lt. col., spokesman for the israeli defense forces. thank you for being with us. can we start with the upsetting news in the last hour or so that three hostages shot and killed by the idf in northern gaza after mistaking them as hamas fighters, what do you know about that operation? >> yes, what i can add to your correct description of the very sad event is the third hostage that was mistakenly killed by israeli troops, his name has been approved for public

release. he was also abducted on october 7. his family has been notified and approved the release of his name. the idf has expressed our deepest regret towards the families of those fallen israeli hostages. we are investigating the matter. we have already issued lessons and directives for our troops on the ground in order to minimize the chances of this happening again. and of course, we will continue to operate relentlessly to defeat hamas despite this horrible and sad event. we will not be deterred and we will continue to fight has until it is defeated and until security is returned to southern israel. >> i am sure the details around it will be subject to an inquiry. is there any further information

you can give us as to why they were mistaken for hamas fighters question mark where they in the vicinity of hamas fighters? were they dressed in a palestinian way? any explanations for why they were shot and killed? >> yes. o. one relates to the clothing paired they were dressed in civilian clothing and probably in a similar fashion to what we have seen from hamas combatants, fighters, or terrorists fighting on the ground against israeli troops all over the gaza strip where this happened and in other locations as well. we have seen hamas fighters with grenade launchers in their hands and i.e.d.'s dressed in civilian clothes. that adds complexity to the situational awareness of our troops. the second thing is before and after this tragic mistake occurred there were classes between israeli troops in the area and must -- clashes between

israeli troops in the area and hamas combatants. that is part of the reason for this sad mistake, this misidentification by israeli soldiers. >> in terms of the other tee bodies recovered, the way it was reported was special forces had gone in and recovered them. does that suggest hamas is keeping hold of the bodies and they have to be taken back by force question mark they were not dumped. they were being used as leverage? >> yes. all of our 132 remaining hostages are being used as hostages. we know that many are still alive. and those we presume are dead. some corpses of soldiers were taken when they were already dead on october 7. many we fear are now dead because of various things that happened. yes, we know hamas cynically

holds onto each and every israeli they have, dead or alive, civilian or military, woman or man. we have 17 women still left in hamas captivity, women and children left in hamas captivity. over the last 70 days, these 132 israelis are now in hamas captivity. >> it is more than two months. you are still not in full control of northern gaza. another rocket came across the border today. there has been more intense fighting which could suggest there is a command and control structure. are you talking weeks or months? >> yes, you are correct in what you are saying. hamas still has command and control. they still have the ability to conduct some levels of operations.

less so in the north but more so in the south. we will continue to operate and to grade their military capabilities until they are totally disintegrated. that is our focus all over the gaza strip. i would not want to put a time limit on our operations. i would say we will operate as long as it takes and we will fight as long as we need to because we understand our israeli civilians, more than 100,000 israeli civilians forced out of their homes, they have not yet come back to their homes. they will not go back to their homes until it is safe. it can only be safe after hamas is dismantled and after the command and control capabilities are totally disintegrated. that is what we will do. >> in political terms, there is a lot of talk at the moment about daylight appearing between the israeli government and the way the white house once this operation to run.

president biden wants the idf to transition to a more targeted phase. nearly half of the munitions used in gaza have been on guided missiles, otherwise known as dumb bombs. how can you assure people your taking the greatest care with civilian lives if you are dropping bombs that cannot be precise? >> that is not really accurate. part of what you are saying is accurate, part is not. that report, the cnn report referencing u.s. intelligence and anonymous sources that did not state their names for the claims, those claims are not accurate because they do not take into consideration add-on kits added to ordinary bombs to turn them into what are usually called smart bombs or accurate bombs. there are a large part of the

weapons we have been using. think we will have an official explanation hopefully shortly for the so-called report that will shed more light on it. what i can say categorically and we have been saying this from the beginning of the operation and stand by it today as well, we distinguish between combatant and noncombatant. we try to use the smallest available weapons to achieve the military objective and strikes only when there is a clear attack necessity to strike. those are the guidelines we started out with. those are the guidelines we continue with today. i would use another set is really example to shed more light on the precautions in using fires. there was a sad incident to an half days ago of 10 israeli soldiers that unfortunately were killed in a hamas ambush inside

a house from a brigade killed in an ambush. there were many claims inside israel by bereaved families and others asking the idf, why don't you just bomb everything? why do we have troops going into houses and searching? our response was we use military force where applicable and according to the mission. in this case, it was a search mission where troops went in to find and understand what happened. we could have bombed the house from the beginning was outgoing and which -- without going and which would feed into the theories you referenced. but we did not because we apply force according to the mission and what needs to be accomplished. >> always grateful for your time. thank you.

let's continue in jerusalem. let's start with healthy families have reacted to the news about the three hostages killed by the idf -- let's start with how the families have reacted to the news about the three hostages killed by the idf. >> some relatives and families are marching to the headquarters of the idf. i was in tel aviv a few days ago talking to some relatives and friends of these hostages. more than 100 who remained in captivity in gaza. obviously, there was always the risk that as the israeli military goes ahead with the military offensive that some of the captives could be killed by the israeli army. i think what makes this more tragic is this was not an airstrike that destroyed a building and the captives were killed. they were shot dead by soldiers on the ground who mistakenly identified them as hostages.

a tragic incident. we had a statement from prime minister benjamin netanyahu who described this as an unbearable tragedy. he vowed to return all hostages who remain in captivity in gaza even at the cost of more lives he described this as a sacred mission for the israeli military. >> thank you very much. one line from the white house. john kirby saying we agree with the israelis this conflict could go on for months but we are discussing more surgical operations in scope and scale. you heard the lieutenant's views on that a few minutes ago. 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. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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