♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect.

bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. george: actually, you don't need vision to 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 news". caitríona: i'm caitíy in washington and this is "bbc world news america."

a mass shooting in prague. >> and another one, and then it became clear we need to get out of here. caitríona: still no vote on gaza at the un security council. the u.s. says serious concerns remain over the current draft. the latest from new york. more than seven mio people have been displaced by the conflict in sudan according to the united nations. hello and welcome to "world news america." i'm caitríona perry. the czech government has declared a national day of mourning after a mass shooting that killed at least 14 people and injured dozens more. it happened in the heart of prague and is the deadliest attack in modern check history. thursday afternoon the gunman opened fire at charles university faculty of arts near the center of the capital, an

area that is a major tourist attraction. authorities evacuated faculty and students who were told to stay put inside of classrooms. some climbed onto rooftops and window ledges to escape the gunfire. the police killed the gunman at the scene and said he was a student there himself. gunman's father was found dead at their home earlier the day. done crime is relatively rare in the czech republic. the country's president says he is shocked by the mass shooting and has declared a day of mourning december 23. here is the latest. reporter: panic and confusion of the streets of central prague this afternoon, dozens fling after a gunman opened fire just days before christmas in one of the most popular cities in europe. eyewitnesses films this dramatic video showing people jumping out of the university window to safety.

four british tourists described the moment they first heard the gunshots. >> the first one, i looked at joan and i said, is that, almost questioning myself? then i heard screams and thought, it can't be. you tell yourself, you see it on the news and you always think, i don't believe it, you always think you will be in it, that situation. then you hear another one and another one. then we heard the police sirens and then it became clear, we need to get out of here. reporter: emergency services rushed to the charles university where it happened. reports of the mass shooting began to emerge at around 3:30 local time. this person's wife was close by and pulled me how she felt. >> she was very shaken. she had been walking very close to where it was happening. she heard gunshots and moved away quickly. reporter: the shooting happened

at the university's faculty of arts in prague's old town, close to the historic charles bridge. >> students had to lock themselves in their rooms. they put furniture in front of the doors. they were ready to fight with the suspect if the suspect came inside their room where they had been locked. reporter: details have since emerged about the 24-year-old gunman who was a student at the university. the police say it is thought he was inspired by similar massacres abroad. his father was also found dead earlier today. tonight prague is a city in shock, with many dead and injured, a place of learning winding down for christmas shattered by deadly violence. caitríona: let's speak to our correspondent in prague, a

little later in the program. now to the middle east and israel says it has destroyed a significant tunnel network as it continues its offensive in gaza. the israel defense forces claim the tunnels connected hamas offices to the homes of senior leaders. the idf says it has killed more than 2000 palestinian fighters in gaza since fighting resumed after the one week truce. officials from the gaza health ministry say more than 20,000 people have been killed since the israeli offensive began, including thousands of children. our correspondent reports now from jerusalem. reporter: drones and shelling are the soundtrack of this war. a new day in gaza brings no escape from the real in this bombardment. -- the relentless bombardment. her uncle now cares for her in a local hospital. their family was -- their family

home was hit by an israeli strike last month. she lost her parents and brother and sister. she was crushed and has had a brain hemorrhage. her situation is very difficult, he says. she really needs to be taken abroad for treatment, but so far we have not managed to send her out. deep in gaza, israeli troops take on hamas fighters in fierce urban battles. israel says the war will not end until hamas is toppled from power and eliminated. it believes hamas leaders are now probably hiding in tunnels like these. this footage shows an underground network connecting places where they used to live in gaza city. we cannot independently verify these images, but they appear to show passages with glass doors and electricity. this israeli officer said new extensions were being built. >> get down.

tunnel that was built the last few months. on the left, heavy duty lift. reporter: with such immense suffering in gaza there are new international calls for at least a humanitarian pause that could see more aid going in and the release of more israeli hostages. hamas is insisting on a full cease fire. britain is poland -- pushing for a new eu resolution. >> we need to get aid to gaza to help people in the desperate situation they are in. we have been talking about the united nations security council resolution, where we are very keen to see consensus arrived at. reporter: more than 20,000 people have been killed in gaza in the past two and a half months, local health officials say. as diplomatic efforts wind on, that number is continuing to grow. caitríona: as you have been

hearing the united nations occurred a council is trying to reach a deal to get more aid into gaza amid warnings the population is at risk of famine. the u.n. says that all of gaza's 2.2 million people are suffering acute shortages and over 6000 people are starving as israel continues its almost complete blockade. the security council resolution to let more aid and has been delayed four days as they are try to work out a draft the united states will not veto. the u.s. wants to make sure that israel still has control over its goals moving into gaza to ensure they don't fall into the wrong hands. let's go to the united nations and speak to our correspondent. nada tawfik. where are negotiations currently? nada: one diplomat told me they are making more progress now than they have all week. when we saw the uae ambassador who authored this draft walking

into consultations earlier, she was alongside the u.s. ambassador to the u.n., linda thomas-greenfield. she said to reporters the gap was narrowing. there is now a bit of optimism after frantic negotiations, but i should add the diplomats will be back in consultations later this evening to try to see if they can finalize the language on the mechanism in a way that can withstand a u.s. veto. caitríona: they will have the consultations. what does that say about the likelihood of there being a vote either later or tomorrow? nada: yeah, russia in particular is really pushing for a vote tonight. we have seen frustration from other councilmembers who also want to see these delays end and for this measure to move forward because they are ready to cast

their votes on this resolution. so the goal is for the vote to take place tonight, but as i say it is very much dependent on how consultations go. but there is a lot of pressure on the security council to act here. just today we had two reports, one from the who, saying there is no hospital operating in northern gaza that patients are literally waiting there to die and that there was a threat now of famine in gaza within six months if more aid does not get in. that is the goal of this resolution, to get more aid into gaza. caitríona: thank you for bringing us up to date, nada tawfik at the united nations. almost 2 million people in gaza are reported to have fled their homes. one of them is a cameraman for bbc arabic. after weeks of israeli bombing, in mid-november he and his young family fled their home in northern gaza.

he sent this account of his perilous journey as he, his wife and children headed south. reporter: i didn't want to leave my home. we were comfortable. we had power, food, and water. all my bbc colleagues had already fled south. they told me how bad the situation was. no electricity nor water. i did not want to go. i wanted to delay the suffering my family would have to face for as long as possible. but the houses opposite our home were being bombed one after another. i knew our time would come next. there were israeli soldiers stationed in demolished buildings along the route. we did not want to use our phones to film as we were worried about being targeted. we walked for hours and knew eventually we would have to face the israeli army's checkpoint.

we came to a stop about a kilometer from the checkpoint itself, joining a long line of people that stretched across the entire width of the road. we spent more than four hours waiting. sometimes only taking one step forward in half an hour. a few meters beyond the checkpoint i saw four teenagers in their underwear being blindfolded. beside a demolished building there was a wall of sand. the blindfolded men were taken to the sandhill by soldiers and then took steps down out of my vision. then we heard gunfire. i'm not sure if they were shot or not. >> individuals suspected of terrorist association are detained. those who remained suspects are transferred for further questioning. others are released.

it is often necessary for those detained to hand over their clothing to be checked. the sound of gunfire alone is not an indication of shooting from specific place or time. reporter: further along the road i saw corpses. i screamed at the top of my lungs, telling my children to look at the sky and continue walking. the next morning we set off early. we got on a bus with a capacity for 20. it was not enough room for us, so some of us clung to the doors and windows. i knew that the ground operation would move towards there. i knew that there was nowhere safe. we were renting a small outhouse. the roof is made of tin and

plastic bags. if shrapnel falls there is nothing to protect us. we have hardly anything to eat and where to go. all i want to do now is leave gaza and be safe with my children. caitríona: let's go back down to our top story, the mass shooting in prague where 14 people were killed at charles university. our eastern european course but it joins us from the scene. sarah, the gunman was also killed. what is the latest on the investigation? reporter: the mass shooting, the worst in czeh history, took place at the building behind me. that was the scene in which this gunman, a 24-year-old student at that university basically went on a rampage, causing terror and killing fellow students in the building. we know that people were barricading themselves in the

classrooms, waiting to be evacuated, told to turn the lights off and stay low. lecturers heard shots being fired appeared to our emergency meeting is taking place at the cabinet, the president is also attending, discussing this unprecedented mass shooting. the police have been giving some details about the man responsible, this 24-year-old student, who has died. it is not entirely clear if he took his own life and committed suicide or if he was killed. we do know this was a premeditated attack and the police are saying he killed his own father first for heading here into prague and then killed 14 of his fellow students. an enormous event for prague, people clearly reeling at the events that have taken place. caitríona: what if anything to we know about the 14 people who were killed? reporter: we know some of them were students with him, we know

other students have said they recognized this 24-year-old as he entered the building with his weapon and the gun shooting. i have been videos from the scene showing him shooting from the top of the building. there was a dramatic picture of students clinging to the outside of the building, perched on a ledge very high up because they were trying to hide from the gunman who was on the roof of the building. terrifying for everybody who was caught up in it, of course. in terms of the motive for the attack, we know very little. we are told by the police he was a high-performing student. other students have suggested he was quiet, a withdrawn character. we know he had a license for the gun, the weapon, passed all the tests required to get a firearm here in the czech republic. the police are sing he also had a very large arsenal of ammunition and other weapons. they are stressing this could have been what was already a

terrible deadly attack could have been potentially even worse. caitríona: sarah, events like this are incredibly rare in the czech republic, prague itself very busy this time of year, christmas tourists and so on. what is the mood and atmosphere like around the city? reporter: this bridge leads to the university, on the other side. basically that area has been cordoned off by the police, very few getting through. essentially the blue police lights in the background show the area very heavily controlled at the moment. the lights are still on and the university. obviously the investigation is underway as well as big questions about the police operation to apprehend the person responsible because they say they knew there was an armed man heading for prague, intending they say to kill himself. they then went to a different university where the 24-year-old had a lecture. he was supposed to be there at 2:00. he was not there.

we were evacuating that building when the gunman was in the building behind me and that is when the shooting began. quite a few questions about the police operation, about the man who was behind it, and also questions tonight because it has emerged police now suspect him as being the gunman responsible for shooting a man and a very small baby just in the past week in a park on the outskirts of prague. caitríona: sarah, think you very much for joining us. now to sudan whether humanitarian situation is getting worse after the suspension of aid from the u.n. and red cross. for the seven lien people are displaced, making this the worst displacement crisis in the world. hundreds of thousands are scrambling to safety after the rapid support forces expanded bombardment into the country's second city. its seizure a key moment in the world. during the attack of the city, civilians were arrested based on ethnicity as well as reports of

summary executions, sexual violence, and other abuses perpetrated by the are ff which they have denied. u.s. state apartment said both the rsf and sudanese armed forces are committing international war crimes including crimes against humanity. get more from the food emergency court nadir for the area. >> most of the people trapped there now are really having their situation where now as the harvest season is in sudan, and the state is known as the breadbasket of sudan and some regional areas, so what we need is the parties to the conflict to open humanitarian access to the aid agency to provide food assistance to the people who are trapped there.

i had to, like why some other police, had to move again from zero to safer places because the security situation there is spreading. this is kind of a secondary displacement for the humanitarian aid agencies also. so the challenges are immense. accessibility is impossible so far. the fighting is ongoing. caitríona: our correspondent sent this update. reporter: hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled the city in the past few days. this is sudan's second largest city, described as a safe haven for people who flee violence since fighting broke out. many people have come from khartoum and other parts of the country seeking refuge. it was also a humanitarian hub where many aid agencies operate.

now after the forces raided the city earlier this week, things look like they are turning from bad to worse. people who have already been impacted by this conflict and who have been left without homes are now finding themselves on the move again. many are fleeing the violence on foot without much on their backs. in the past few days reports of summary executions, sexual violence, and looting of properties have been reported. hospitals have been attacked, health facilities as well, and regional agencies are suspending operations of the city because they find it difficult to operate after the city was captured. this could only mean bad news for the millions who desperately need depend on aid. rights organizations in western countries have been sounding the alarm and calling for the protection of civilians as the war drags on.

but civilians continue to pay heavy price. caitríona: let's check on other important news. a judge in oklahoma has exonerated a man who spent 48 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, the longest known wrongful sentence in the u.s. the 70-year-old glenn simmons was freed in july he was jailed in 1974 for the murder of a woman during a liquor store robbery. he walks free after a county district attorney said there was not enough evidence to warrant a new trial. rudy giuliani, donald trump's former lawyer, filed for bankruptcy days after a jury ordered him to pay more than $148 million in damages to two election workers in georgia he fraudulently accused of fraud as he worked to overturn trumps election loss. giuliani said he had liabilities and several million in assets. in the world of football,

europe's high court has ruled the sports governing bodies were wrong to ban a breakaway super lake. the president of fifa said nothing has been changed by the ruling but organizers of the super league say that football clubs are now free to pursue other options without fear of sentience. in 2021, 12 of the most prolific clubs including real madrid and manchester united agreed to join the super lake. thousands of people in iceland forced from their homes when a volcano erected have been warned they face an uncertain future. the eruption left a crack in the earth more than three kilometers long. lava and gases are still spewing from it. our european correspondent joined the icelandic coast guard to take a look. reporter: ice lands emergency services remain on high alert's 's after this week awesome display of nature. they expect the unexpected. this is what the volcano looks like today, three days after the

a rupture. the lava is still flowing. there is still smoke billowing, but the activity is considerably less compared with monday night. the thing is this was a much bigger eruption than they had experienced in recent years. was concerned about what might come next. that is why the coast guard are monitoring possible cracks that might emerge. the decision to evacuate 4000 people from the nearby town more than a month ago proved wise. the coast guard are now practicing for what they would do if there is another volcanic eruption the future and they have to wench people to safety. you can make out a solitary figure being brought up, back to the helicopter. if there is an eruption in the days, weeks, years to come, they may have to move people out extremely quickly. this week's eruption was the

first at this specific spot for 2000 years. scientists fear more now could follow. nick beake, bbc news. caitríona: we leave you with an unusual sight spotted in the skies above utah. children might have been forgiven with aching that santa's deer had come early, but these were real deer being air life -- airlifted for a health check before being re-released back into the wild. keep a check on the days news on our website, bbc.com. 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. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ >> good evening. on the newshour tonight, a gunman kills more than a dozen people at a university in prague , making it the worst mass shooting in the czech republic. a congressional impassive reporter funding highlights why the u.s. immigration system is