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narrator: pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. brook: these are people who are trying to change the world. startups have this energy that energizes me. i'm thriving by helping others everyday. 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 news". >> hello. i'm kristin frazier. this is "the context." >> they decided to give

additional time to see if diplomacy could yield a positive resolution, in other words, if they could avoid a u.s. veto here. >> humanitarian pause is something that all the players want. certainly i think israel and the u.s. would go for it if it includes a serious hostage release. >> we continue to believe that israel does not have to choose between removing a third of hamas and minimizing the told of civilians in gaza. it has an obligation to do both. it has a strategic interest to do both. ♪ >> the security council vote on the war in gaza is scheduled for this hour and has been delayed again for a third day running. israel and its main ally, the u.s., have not refer to any language that refers to a

cease-fire. also tonight, why is a security council not as focused on the war in sudan? the death toll is now well over 12,000 with reports tonight the rebels have overrun the country's second biggest city. in colorado, the state supreme court strikes donald trump from the ballot just weeks before the first presidential primary in iowa. ♪ a very good evening. counting the dead is a challenging thing in any war. when journalists are locked out, how can we know what the true figure is, when so many remain buried under the rubble? but tonight the death toll reached a grim new marker -- according to the health ministry, 20,000 people have now been killed, and among them, and 8000 children and 6200 women. the u.s. has a raised alarm over the extent of the killing and urged restraint. at home, president biden is under increasing pressure. but tonight a vote on who ca -- a vote on a humanitarian

pause which was expected this hour with any security council has again missed postponed. the u.s. vetoed the first resolution and is still not satisfied with the language in the revised second draft, so a second veto is still a possibility. let's go live to new york, our correspondent, watching events there for us. the vote was supposed to be on monday. it was delayed again yesterday. pushed back again today. what is the complication there? reporter:hristian, the latest i'm hearing as they have now resolved the issue around the language of the form of a cessation of hostilities, the draft was watered down to call for a suspension. now, the real sticking point is over the proposal to set up u.n. monitoring mechanism to deliver aid in gaza. the u.s. has real issues with that. israel's concerned it would take away its control to do security screenings, to really have say

over that aid going into gaza. therefore diplomats have allowed for additional negotiations, so that the u.s. and egypt, which of course also shares a border with gaza, can discuss what a mechanism would look like that would make all parties happy. so, given this has been delayed numerous times, there was a real sense of frustration among councilmembers. they decided it was better to just wait a little bit longer to see if they could avoid a u.s. veto and reach agreement on that mechanism. christian: can we pick up on the eight issue? the world food program said eight out of 10 palace and have gone without food, 50% of people at risk of starvation in gaza. as the dispute over the amount of aid and how quickly goes in, and is the is really processing -- israeli processing of that aid delaying the process? reporter: the overriding issue

which we have heard now from the uae and the u.n. is the intensity of the fighting between israel and hamas is making it so that they cannot even get to those in need. those in the north of gaza, extremely difficult to get to them. that's the kd of first issue, christian. then we heard from the uae when they went to egypt and visited the rafah crossing with several ambassadors, they saw aid trucks lined up outside of rafah because it's normally a pedestrian crossing. we are happy that the camp shalom is now open with israel. but they say there is a need to get all land, air and sea crossings open, and not just that, they say that gaza needs to not just rely on a book at commercial deliveries going again. all of that is stated in this resolution, and it is something the u.n. is pushing for. you have seen those figures about half of the civilians

starving. just looking at the whole humanitarian catastrophe, there is a lot of pressure on the security council to do more about the aid situation. christian: a quick word on the way the western parties think, do you think the u.s., the europeans, france, another councilmember, emmanuel macron said fighting terror does not mean fttening gaza -- do you think they are now on different tracks, the europeans and the u.s.? reporter: we heard from the u.s. secretary of state, antony blinken, saying they do want to see more targeted strikes from israel and that would limit the civilian casualties. but he then placed the blame on hamas saying he would like to see more international pressure on those calling for hamas to surrender because he said the fighting would end. we still very much the in public

strong language from the u.s., alongside israel. i think the rest of the world is really emphasizing the point that even war has rules and trying to push israel on its international obligations in a stronger way than the u.s. has. i think there is still a little bit of a difference in positions. christian: thank you very much for that. the leader of hamas has arrived in cairo for talks of a fresh cease-fire in gaza today. israel has indicated it is willing to agree to another pause in a exchange -- in exchange for hostages. it would include any remaining women, the elderly and the sick or injured. egypt alongsideqatar helped broker the truth lt month which led to the release of some 100 hostages captured by hamas. but the terms set by hamas this

time, much higher and they refer directly to a permanent cease-fire. let's go to oliver m., the director of forward thinking, who has worked in hostage negotiation for over 20 years and played a key role in the negotiations surrounding the release of the israeli soldier held hostage by hamas for four or five years. thank you for joining us this evening. do the parameters of what i described sound similar to you? a week pause for more hostages? >> unfortunately, in this situation, it does. but it's not the normal circumstances in which you would negotiate the release of hostages. as i've said before, the extraordinary challenges to achieve the purpose of getting the hostages out safely has to be emphasized.

i fear for the future and the safety of the hostages. christian: obviously the israeli government is under pressure from two sides, the americans who want them to move more quickly towards a lower- intensity conflict and then you have the israeli public who want the hostages out. in the middle of that of the prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, still answerable to his hard right coalition. where do you think he is on this right now? >> first of all, if we can take the american situation, if you are saying to people, lower the level of killing, and at the same time you are supplying the means by which people are killed, i don't think the recipient -- the israelis in this case -- are taking the american message seriously and that is part of the problem, i fear. benjamin netanyahu needs the war

to continue at the level it is to secure his position as prime minister because he knows the minute there is a cease-fire and the americans are serious about a cease-fire and reducing -- or stopping the killing rather than reducing the level of it -- he knows that his future is in questio so, in that context, it's very difficult to see how one empathizes entirely with them, the desire to see families reunited with their loved ones. i can't see that delivered in the present circumstances without an immediate cease-fire. a complete cease-fire. i don't think we will see the guarantee of the safe return of those hostages. christian: bernie saders on the progressive wing of the u.s. senate is saying tonight that

there should be conditions attached to the aid. do you think in your mind if israel is not listening to the white house that may be conditioning the aid is the only way to get through to prime minister netanyahu? >> i think it is not just conditioning. it's saying very clearly, we are not giving you the means to kill people. it's a disgrace, the possibility of a cease-fire has been delayed over arguing over words. how many hundreds of lives will be lost? the scars and the consequences of this delay will be felt way in t future, when president biden is out of office and netanyahu is out of office and when people creating this delay are long gone. we will have the consequences felt. that is a terrible thing at the moment. i am currently in helsinki. i spent the day with european

officials and with officials from the gulf region. the gulf between us that is growing is enormous. the americans are not listening in a proper way to what the saudis, the mr rowdies, all of these countries that want to see a stable and prosperous region, they are not being listened to. they are not understanding the consequences of what their people are witnessing day in and day out -- the killing of tens of thousands now of palestinians. christian: suppose all of the israelis would say, we can't go back to a situation where rockets are coming across the board --hamas is still in place. the terms that hamas are demanding right now, the release of people with blood on their hands, some of the highest value prisoners israel is holding, releasing those in the context of what happened on october 7 just is not acceptable to the government of jerusalem.

>> yeah, all this, we can understand. when i explained why the take -- why they are endorsing it at all. but the process is a means of, because there's no review of cases of palestinians in israeli jails, this is a system which again i endorse -- rather i stress i do not endorse. this is the system, netanyahu knows if he's going to get soldiers released, there has to be a price. what everyone has to look at are the consequences of now engaging in meaningful dialogue and creating a meaningful process. there is no way hamas are going to disappear from the scene. i was in ramallah last week. there is recognition in ramallah. and privately the americans

recognize it. there is no future without hamas being included. that's what we learned in our own as. it took the british government hundreds of years to understand, there is no military solution when you have resistance with militant groups, it has to be a political process. we would not have peace in the streets along the man in belfast and dublin had not that lesson been learned and acted upon. that's precisely what the americans now have to apply in israel and the israelis have to learn. that the security is not an arms and bombs but in actually creating a meaningful peace process and seeing the security in palestinians. and inclusive in that has to be hamas. christian: always good to get your thoughts. let's get some reaction then from the u.s.

will speak to the associate director of the american universities center for israel studies. welcome to the program. react to what you've just heard, at some point israel is going to have to accept that hamas will exist in some shape or form and that they are going to have to engage on some of hamass demands if they want soldiers back. >> certainly the devastation of the southern communities in israel has been a game changer in israeli politics. the debate over whether or not the u.s. is going to veto or adopt a u.n. security council resolution over a cease-fire seems pretty clear which is why this latest vote has been postponed time and again. the u.s. is in a precarious situation given the biden administration's outright support for israel's right to defend itself yet as we are seeing, is facing mounting pressure to back a cease-fire.

the problem with a cease-fire is that it would leave hamas and other terrorist groups in charge of the gaza strip. it would prevent israel from defending itself while 130 of its citizens are held captive in gaza. and do nothing to bring the parties closer to a peaceful resolution. on the contrary it would serve only hamas which brokered the cease-fire which had already been in place when it launched its brutal assault on israel october 7. christian: was going to say, it seems it is a delicate interplay of things that are going on in the middle east and the region in terms of the negotiation and what is going on in new york within the security council. do you believe the delay is linked to what is going on within these talks perhaps in cairo tonight and is that why the americans are playing for time? >> i don't know if the americans are playing for time. i think they are negotiating over language.

the americans have made it very clear that they are not looking for a cease-fire which would only enable hamas to reorganize and rebuild the terror infrastructure and plan the next assault on israel. which it openly says it has every intention of doing. just a few hours ago, the idf uncovered hamass elite corridor under palestine's square where the senior officials hid from the israeli army. this is just the latest miles on. christian: yeah. -- milestone. christian: i suppose what i'm saying is when we talk about humanitarian pods in new york -- pause in new york, if that resolution was adopted and america did not veto the resolution, i can't see how that would be humanitarian pause without some of the hostages coming out first, that's why i'm saying the two processes must be linked in some way. >> yeah, when it comes to the hostage situation, absolutely,

there is a linkage. israel has two goals -- the u.s. supports israel's two goals, to free the hostages and the other is to cripple hamas, even if it doesn't succeed in destying hamas altogether, but prevent them from ever being able to execute the kind of massacre and continued to issue rockets into israeli cities. demands that more be done to protect civilians in gaza, increasing humanitarian aid, those are the things that the s. supports and i think israel could certainly support as well. but as we have seen, even as israel has taken additiol steps to ease the humanitarian concerns including opening the shalom border crossing to allow you on drugs deliver humanitarian aid -- u.n. trucks

delivering humanitarian aid, we have seen stealing of fuel intended for the civilian population. this is one of the major challenges of providing a. christian: really grateful for your contacts this evening. thank you very much indeed. at the moment, the negotiations on the debate are still ongoing in new york. everything, still very much in the balance. around the world and across the u.k., you are watching bbc news. let's take a look at other stories making headlinesn the u.k. today -- the government has welcomed official figures showing the rate of inflation has fallen by more than what was expected. the rate was at 3.9% last month. the lowest level for more than two years. analysts report more pressure on the bank of england to begin cutting interest rates next year. the ex-wife of a french serial killer has been given a second life sentence for her part in

the murders of two young women, one of whom was a british student. monique will leave your lord the 20-year-old -- lured the 20-year-old to her death in 1990. they said the sentence was a moment they been waiting a lifetime for. residents and scotland were amazed by a rare site in the sky on tuesday, the colors of the cloud --- are referred to as a mother of pearl. they occur over cold conditions over polar regions. you are live with bbc news. the u.s. secretary of state, antony blinken, said he wants to see a shift towards more targeted operations by israel and a lower intensity in the bombing but said that needs to go hand-in-hand in hand with a stronger international call for hamas to surrender. >> continued to believe israel israel does not have to

choose between removing a third of hamas and minimizing the total civilians in gaza. and has an obligation to do both and a strategic interest to do both. christian: on the latest estimates, hamas are still holding 129 hostages, 108 of them are thought to bstill alive including an 11-month-old child. 21 are thought to be dead. but as we have been hearing from all over the last few minutes, there are still big gaps between the two sides on how the humanitarian pause might be a gre. while the negotiations are intense both in qatar, egypt and new york, the suffering continues for families on all sides. our correspondent has this report. reporter: the boy lies on e body of his father. [boy crying]

his father is among the 20,000 reported dead. but the survivors do not think of the dead and figures of thousands. -- in figures of thousands. theirs is an intimate reckoning. counted in the vanished faces of those they love. from the beginning, they have known there is no escape. from gaza, or from grief. in the hospital in central gaza, the one the child holds oo symbols of a vanished normality. on a bed nearby, the 13-year-old lost 10 members of her family and fears she might lose her arm and leg. >> i appealed to the arab countries to help get urgent

treatment abroad before i lose my limbs. i dream of a life like other children around the world, where i can once again run and draw. reporter: fear of death is ever present. we interviewed her over a month ago as she tried to escape gaza with her disabled brother. today, our colleagues in gaza caught up with them. without vital medicine, he is suffering from seizures and is terrified by the israeli drones in the skies above. >> every time, i hear a rocket or a bomb that is going to drop -- it is horrible to say this but it gives me this sort of relief that it is not us, but that does not mean we are feeling safe. it is like we are next.

reporter: these are the latest funerals in gaza. the dead, part of a casualty announcement that is with no cease-fire insight, almost certainly already past. christian: we will speak to hugo, live for us this evening. part of the difficulty is over aid going in and who processes the aid and checks on the aid. i just want to show you a tweet posted today by the israeli foreign minister, eli cohen. opposing the advancement of the annual budget of the u.n. agency r palestinian refugees. in response, they condemned his comments and spoke of the direct hits on 55 u.n. installations in

gaza. the death of 136 of their staff. it speaks of the bad blood between the two sides at the moment, which complicates was being done in new york. reporter: exactly. this is a long running dispute between the israeli authorities and the u.n. agency for palestinian refugees. the israelis have long accused anra of not knowing that some of its installations or buildings in gaza are being used by hamas to launch attacks against israel . last week the israeli military released a video showing positions near those facilities in gaza being used by hamas to launch those attacks. this accusations have been rejected and calls for donations

to be stopped on funding to be halted have been rejected by the agency, but again it shows this tweet and these messages by the israeli authorities, the latest chapter in this long-running dispute between israel and the u.n. agency. christian: thank you very much for that. we are going to go to a quick break. on the other side of the break, we will talk about so don. why is the security counsel not focusing on sudan? the second city today has fallen to the rebels. so many millions of people displaced, now dependent on humanitarian aid. where is the resolution for sudan? we will discuss that after the break. 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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