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narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". >> hello, i'm christian fraser. this is "the context." president biden: my national security advisor told me that we are close, not done yet. we hope that by next monday we can have a cease-fire. >> there is a feeling in washington that this is a feeling that this is doable, and it is clear that joe biden want this place before the beginning of ramadan in about 10 days time. >> working so hard on a temporary cease-fire to not only get the hostages out and the fighting paused, but to get that critical humanitarian assistance inco to increase the flow. not enough getting in right now.

christian: life in gaza shocking to see even for those who have experienced humanitarian crises. we will hear tonight from a canadian nurse who has just returned from gaza. also on the program, mps have been quizzing the current and former post office boxes about the horizon scandal and the progress or lack thereof in paying compensation. we will get reaction from the posts submaster still waiting. and nato allies reject president macron's idea of sending troops to ukraine. very good evening. in paris, negotiators spent the weekend honing a peace deal for the gaza conflict, but they are for her tonight hamas may reject the terms of the deal because it wants a clear path to a permanent cease-fire.

the proposal would guarantee a 40-day pause in the fighting during which time there would be a staged hostage swap for palestinian prisoners and access for a trucks every day. qatar's foreign ministry says it hopes to make an announcement about a truce this week before ramadan begins around march 10. u.s. president joe biden has expressed his optimism that a deal could be agreed to by next monday, but the aid organization say is really forces are making their work in gaza almost impossible. the medical charity said that israel is showing total this regard for the protection of health care facilities. u.n. agencies say their staff have been attacked while convoys have been systematically denied access. >> systematically denied access to people in need. humanitarian workers have been harassed, intimidated, or detained by israeli forces.

humanitarian infrastructure has been hit. prior to sunday's incident, two family members were killed in an unprompted attack by is really forces against a se-conflicted compound where staff and family members slept. christian: tonight, the un security council is holding a meeting in new york on the humanitarian situation in gaza. deliveries of humanitarian aid have plunged after palestinian police were counted on, stop showing up for work after fears of attacks from israel and looters. aid to entering gaza had dropped by half in february compared with the month before. that brought a sharp response from the military agency responsible for soliciting assistance to gaza. if unrha wasn't such a failure logistically, they posted, then

more aid wouldn't reach the people of gaza. let's speak to amy potter, a nurse. she has just returned recently. thank you for being on the program. what did you witness while you are there? >> one of the worst humanitarian situations you can imagine. i saw the equivalent of 1.8 million people crammed into a space that formerly held just a few hundred thousand. people desperate for anywhere to stay. every building had been converted to a shelter. i remember going to one wedding hall that held 30 plus families. outside of that, there are tens as far as you can see. when i say tents, that is charitable. generally just wooden boards nailed together, covered loose in plastic. no match for the wind and rain we are facing.

there are not enough ains, water, not enough food, not enough supplies. the roads are crowded. you would see cars go by with people sitting two or three deep holding onto the doors in an attempt just to keep them closed . all of their possessions on top. a lot of times it was just a donkey carts with the same thing. i couldn't even imagine it until i saw it firsthand. it is truly a humanitarian disaster. christian: we are looking at people trying to get food and water and what you instantly notice is how many young people there are in gaza. half the population under the age of 18. to what extent are people able to find food and water? amy: in the south and north, it is quite different. i cannot speak to the north. we were not allowed to access the north while we were there. we know the situation is far

more dire in the north. in the south, there are some aid agencies who were able to provide food. i know every day when i would drive by this one road, i would see the lineup get a little bit longer for food. because it is a desert, no natural water point in the area, so water will be trucked into distribution points. this all tends to happen in the morning, so people have to make a choice of who can get water, who can get food, in our case, who would see us at the clinic for their medicine. it is a hard choice to make every day to try and get access to food or water. there is still some food available in makeshift shops on the side of the road but inflation has made those prices not even realistic. things are 10 times in price from what they had before the conflict. remember, nobody has jobs anymore. there is no work. without the aid and distribution from different ngos, they would

be very little to no food at these people could access. christian: there is still a fear that rafa will becom -- rafah will become the next center of conflict. is there any signs that you saw of evacuations around? amy: the problem is there is no place to go. rafah was the last refuge. many people, several times, would be heading down, trying to find somewhere to flee to, to go. rafah was where they ended up. now they are just trying to find somewhere else, to find refuge. i know some have started to relocate to the middle area. i asked our staff members about the safety of relocating to the middle area. she said nowhere in gaza is save any longer, there is nowhere safe to go.

the people going to the middle area are from that it'll area. if you are going to die, you want to die at home. we don't have anywhere to put anybody anymore. there is nowhere safe, nowhere to evacuate to. christian: what is your impression of what the death toll is? amy: i believe the last figure i saw was 29,500, and that could have changed, probably sometime last week. that is believable. i think we will see it go up, not just from conflict. that will certainly be a part of it. but we will also see it rise due to malnutrition. we will see it rise to communicable diseases, people unable to access health care. we are seeing a lot of people who cannot get their motor -- normal medications, blood pressure medications, diabetes dications, things that we take for granted in the western world. christian: are you seeing any

examples of epidemics in terms of disease? amy: there is a known epidemic of hepatitis a going around. we saw several people coming in jaundiced, ill from that. the one advantage that we saw was that a lot of people are vaccinated, so very heavily vaccinated population. that is what stabbed up a lot of the vaccine preventable illnesses that we would normally see in crowded conditions like this. but it is only matter of time before we start to see things get worse and worse. i know that is increasing every day. christian: one of the reports from medecins sans frontieres, patients who were going to be evacuated were strip-searched, staff exploding them at were strip-searched as well. were you subject t any of that intimidation while working there as an international aid worker? amy: no. one of the unfortunate advantages we have as international aid workers, we

are not subject to the same thing that the national workers have to go through every day, which is sad and unfortunate. we don't experience the same torment they do. it is heartbreaking to hear that that had to happen. christian: we are going to focus through the program tonight on events in new york, the debate within the security council. now that you are out, a long way from gaza, how do you reflect on the way that the security council in the united nations has been able to deal with this? amy: it is hard to see. when you are there, and this has been covered, you don't have access to the outside world, so you don't know why things are happening. telecommunications are poor, the internet is almost nonexistent. coming out to see what is happening is heartbreaking. sometimes you hope because maybe it wasn't the right information, maybe they didn't know how truly

bad it was, and that is why we didn't see resolutions for cease fire unanimously passed. but i know last week, the secretary-general of msfpoke about the attacks on health care facilities, the attack on the house where my staff lived. i know that they are getting the information. i just cannot understand how we can stand by and watch this happen. the people who are impacted, they are the very definition of innocent. they are referred to often, sadly, as lateral damage. they deserve better to be fair to as collateral damage. they deserve better. they deserve to have the world support them in this cease fire. christian: amy, thank you for the work that you do. think you coming on the program. amy: thank you so much for your time. christian: let's listen to what joe biden had to say yesterday while filming in new york with set meyers at an ice cream shop.

how he announced work being done on the human interior and pause. president biden: my national security advisor tells me that we are close, nodone yet. my hope is that by next monday we will have a cease fire. christian: with me in the studio is lyse doucet. i don't know how i feel about the american president eating ice cream in mind of what we just heard from amy. we can gloss over that. tell me about the cease fire that is being negotiated, the obstacles still there in its path. lyse: when we heard from amy potter who just returned, you understand why there are so many voices, most of all the voices of gazans, who are saying please end the war as soon as possible. the families of hostages are desperate for their loved ones to come home.

gazansesperately want an end to the war, not just a pause. i was at the munich security conference 10 days ago where a lot of the main players were there, including those sitting at the talks in paris. the prognosis there was quite grim. they said the two sides are very wide apart, buthere was also resolved to try and close the gaps. there was some strategic thinking about how to bring the two sides closer together. now we have heard from president biden. i think some of the issues, for example, trying to bring down the ratio of how many prisoners hamas was demanding to be released from israeli jails in exchange for hostages, i heard from someone close to the negotiation say that hamas was asking for 1500 prisoners in exchange for five female israeli soldiers. tonight, israeli media is telling us that number have been

brought back from five for 90 prisoners. one of the people briefed in the negotiations said they were trying to urge hamas to bring down the numbers in terms of the ratio, but humanitarian aid would be added as an incentive. this is where the gaps are being closed. but the fundamental difference has not be closed. we heard from hamas officials saying we want an end to the war, not just a pause. prime minister netanyahu is saying we are still going to fight until, to use their words, complete victory. but the negotiators, the qatari's, egyptians, the americans, they say a humanitarian pause, even short, is the best way to end the war. once you get a sustained truce, it would be hard for the sides to go back to fighting. that is what they are pushing.

the clock is ticking. ramadan begins on march 10. one of the biggest concerns i heard from arab ministers, prime mister's, palestinian prime minister in munich, was that ramadan could see an explosion of anger if there was not a positive fighting. particularly in the occupied west bank. christian: joe biden says he has assurances from prime minister netanyahu they will not be fighting during ramadan. but the prime minister has said i have consistently resisted pressure to end the war prematurely, and this has popular u.s. support that will help us continue the campaign until total victory. he is saying 82% of americans support israel over hamas. we can discuss that in the program. but he still seems intent on taking out the infrastructure he believes is there under rafah,

on the egyptian side. lyse: we were discussing who was the audience when prime minister netanyahu spoke, saying that we have this american support. him emphasizing, from the beginning, he has led the campaign to push back against american and other efforts to end the war and also to get support for the war, and i will not forget in those early days, we were there from october 8, after the october 7 hamas atrocities in southern israel. everyone that we met, israelis we met on the streets, all of them to a person said, this time, when weaunch a military option, we are not going to listen when the leaders of britain and the u.s. tell us that i enough, too many people have died. they have been consistent in that.

that is what prime minister netanyahu is still saying. yes, we are grateful for the support of our allies, but we are going to end this war on our own terms. christian: looking at the list that hamas has put out tonight that ty are still demanding, you have touched on them, but the two that stand out to me are the total withdraw of the israeli military from gaza territory is still on the list, and also a guaranteed cease fire. that seems to be the biggest sticking point from hamas's perspective, if the war is going to resume past 40 days, they have handed over all of their hostages, there are no guarantees. is that the difficulty? lyse: yes. they want the package to be a final package. whereas israel seems to be heading toward perhaps a pause. we have heard for some is really military officials -- israeli

military officials, they wouldn't mind a pause during ramadan. they could consolidate their forces, difficult to operate in, and they can still come up with that evacuation plan. we were told prime minisr netanyahu has received two plans. one is for a place to evacuate nearly half of the population of gaza. we have heard that there is really no place to go but he says he has a plan. secondly, the plan by israeli defense forces to continue the total victory. prime minister netanyahu keeps saying there are four remaining brigades of hamas that are in rafah. they believe hostages are there. they believe the mastermind of this campaign is there still in gaza, has not gone to egypt. they say we cannot achieve our goal of total victory without going into rafah. others are saying you are not going to defeat hamas

militarily. stop now. let's move to the day after. christian: we will talk plenty more. we have to go to a short break. paul adams is standing by. plenty of reaction from their. around the world and across the k., you are watching bbc news. let's take a quick look at headlines. the u.k. covid inquiry has resumed. over the next three weeks, we'll focus on response from the welsh government to the pandemic. the inquiry covers decision-making during the pandemic by the u.k. government and also the devolved governments in wales, scotland, northern ireland. the government is considering a new tax on vaping in the next treasury budget. currently, vaping products are subject to vat, but unlike tobacco, not subject to a separate levy. the onus of a pub known as the

wonkiest in britain before destroyed by fire and demolition has been ordered to rebuild it in its original form. the 18th-century cricket house pub was a popular attraction with visitors who came to see the distinctive leaning building. you are live with bbc news. we are focusing on developers this evening in gaza and the sticking points that are still ere with regards to the cease fire currently being negotiated. let's go to jerusalem. paul adams has been waiting patiently for us. some reaction tonight from benjamin netanyahu. still quite a ways to go on this cease fire. i thought it was interesting that joe biden announced it last night ahead of the michigan primary which is crucially important to him in the united states. what do you make of the timing of the announcement, how far we

have still to go? paul: let's not get ahead of ourselves. it was not really an announcement, just that he was told there should be a deal by the end of the weekend. it is clear joe biden want to drive the pace of this as fast as he can. he wants this to be in place by ramadan. and he desperately wants the gaza war off of his back while he goes into the election campaign. if this goes on as the campaign gets underway, the democratic party continues to hemorrhage support particularly among younger, arab-american voters, potentially damaging, perhaps catastrophic for him. he really wants is out-of-the-way. the first step is to get an initial cease fire which could last as much as 40 days or so. if that happens and everyone

knows what they are supposed do -- and we don't know what those terms will be -- we have some general outlines, but wdon't know the specifics. we will not know until the deal is announced. then there will be diplomacy aimed at trying to extend that, starting to talk about what happens in gaza when this war is over. clearly, as far as joe biden is concerned, he would love to see the war come to an end. he shares the israeli objective of destroying hamas, hamas should not be a part of the political future for gaza, but he also just wants this appalling conflict to end, so he doesn't have to keep answering questions about it domestically. he also wants to get on with the negotiations involving the saudi's, europeans, other arab countries about what is the relationship between israel and palestine in the future. christian: i was saying to lyse,

prime minister netanhu says he has the backing of the american people, 82% of americans, he said, support our war with hamas. i am not entirely sure that support is as strong in the white house at the moment. a lot of things they are demanding from prime minister netanyahu, the plane for the day after that he set out, are very much in conflict. where would you say that relationship is right now? paul: as i say, they do share the objective of getting hamas out of the picture, but they loathe benjamin netanyahu in the white house, and they have for a long time. the relationship goes ba a long time. joe biden, one of the most pro-israel politicians of all time, has no time for prime minister netanyahu. they believe the americans had been tricked and deceived by benjamin netanyahu for a very long time. they see him as probably the

single most significant obstacle to progress, toward a peaceful settlement between israel and the palestinians. they are not trying to interfere in domestic israeli politics, not trying to engineer the collapse of the netanyahu government, although they would dearly like to see it, i suspect, but they are trying to find a way toward thibroader horizon, trying to rescue something out of the ashes of the gaza conflict. acutely conscious that benjamin netanyahu stands in their way. christian: paul adams, thank you for that. paul is right. watching the pictures tonight from the security council, and the americans have a veto, have used that veto within the council, so it will be a talking point tonight. you would expect until there is a pause, nothing much comes of it. lyse: yes.

and our viewers may have fallen what antonio guterres said at the start of this week to the human rights council in geneva where it was very much a mea cu lpa. this is amounting to a failure of the u.n. charter, the institution. he referred to all of the conflicts he sees around the world come the level of impunity, whether in sudan, ukraine, ga, but he use the word collective punishment, and he said the innocent civilians of gaza were being subjected to collective punishment. he condemned the on acceptable, -- unacceptable, atrocities committed by hamas, but he said just because one group does a bad thing doesn't mean that another group can do a bad thing. he didn't mince his words. really strong words for the u.n. secretary general. he is growing increasingly

frustrated. christian: thank you for your company. we will continue to watch events in new york. we will discuss that with our panel in the second hour of our program. we will talk about ukraine narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... 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. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: "usa today" calls it, "arguably the best bargain in streaming." that's because the free pbs app lets you watch the best of pbs anytime, anywhere.

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