the really special things that work in progress here is that even as a camera woman i get to have so much employed in contribution to a story i feel we cover this region better than anyone else would be very challenging liberally particularly because you have a lot of people that are divided on political issues we are we the people we live to tell the real stories are just mended is to deliver in-depth journalism we don't feel inferior to the audience across the globe. and israeli warplane crashes while targeting a rainy and brown launch sites in syria. jordan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up come to north korea sister leader kim jong un invites the south korean president. donald trump blocks the

release of a democratic party memo on the russia probe citing security concerns plus breaking barriers on election day in sri lanka a record number of women campaign from local governments. and israeli fighter jet has crashed after an iranian drone was shot down near the border with syria syria says it was responding to an israeli act of aggression state television is reporting explosions from what it says israeli attacks in the damascus well two f. sixteen pilots ejected from the plane and parachute safely into northern israel israeli army says they were shot at by massive anti-aircraft fire they were targeting a military base inside syria suspected of launching an iranian drone which flew towards the golan heights let's get more now from joins me from western so what's been the reaction so far inside israel to reports of this f.

sixteen coming down. well the israelis are squarely blaming the iranians for this they have gone off to what they say are iranian targets inside of syria they say they've destroyed a command and control center for the unmanned aerial vehicle the drones flew over. really taking a look at what they should do next now we are hearing that a cabinet meeting the government is going to formulate a cabinet meeting to discuss what to do next also the minister of defense is meeting right now to see what kind of response of the formulates been a couple of emergency measures take place within israel itself in gori an airport the main airport in tel aviv was shut for about fifteen minutes all flights was suspended there and we're also hearing of air raid sirens going off in israeli towns and villages in the north so a lot going on right now but really what the response has been is all about iran

it's not so much about syria the israelis squarely blaming iran for all of this and they using this as an excuse to really ratchet up the language against iran though there have been about one hundred s. strikes by israel inside syrian territory in the last seven years we've never seen anything like this an f. sixteen being shot down suggested that the israelis have a chink in the aroma which is what the syrians will be describing else in the syrian state t.v. is using language like that so what happens next is absolutely crucial and do expect things to escalate given the role as you say of iran syria israel. well this is all about iran syria israel like i said the row is this cabinet meeting that is being formulated there is a number of defense ministry a story one defense ministry meeting happening as well so the israelis of

formulating their response they've already responded immediately like i say with this command and control center but they've long said that they need to take out hezbollah who are fighting inside syria on behalf of assad will they use this excuse to read go off to hezbollah targets on the outskirts of damascus and in the syrian countryside it really depends on you know what the israelis decide to do next it's is iran that's in that's how it's iranians haven't responded yet they need to also decide what they want to do so this is and now i three way battle it's a three way political optical battle between the israelis the syrians and the iranians thank you let's cross over now to beirut and talk to saying a honda say no we're talking to you earlier you were telling us that israeli air strikes inside syria are not on usual could this latest incident them escalate tensions do you think. well definitely this is the most serious incident like iran was mentioning between syria israel and iran over the past few years there have

been dozens of air strikes carried out by israeli warplanes at the beginning they were targeting what they said were convoys of weapons destined for hezbollah the lebanese armed group which is allied to iran and as of late earlier this year they have been targeting what is believed to be iranian bases close to damascus one in one strike they hit a base which was still not operational so it was seen as a message to iran because israel has said time and time again we have red lines we will not allow iran to entrench itself militarily in syria we won't we want to allow iran to be along our borders and to strengthen its presence in syria in fact if we remember last year in the summer when russia and. united states announced the ceasefire agreement in the south of syria this was to appease israel because part of that deal was to keep iranian forces and their allies away from the border and at the time not on yahoo this radio prime minister was not happy and he said this

is not enough so clearly it's a very serious incident it is still not clear whether it's going to escalate any further but after that plane was shot down israel did carry out another strike in the countryside of damascus we're getting reports that they targeted the syrian republican guards is still not confirmed and syrian state television saying that its air defenses are trying to hit you know are heading back and saying as you were saying that israel has said it has red lines it won't allow iran to cross how do you think then all of this is likely to play out in the midst couple of weeks or so . well we haven't heard from russia a main player really and syria it controls the airspace at the end of the day russia gave its approval to israel to carry out these strikes there is close coordination between moscow and tel aviv and over the past year or so we've seen the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu visit moscow a number of times he's been holding talks with just two weeks ago i believe the last time he was in moscow and before leaving he said this is what we are going to

discuss we do not want iran at our borders so this is quite serious at the end of the day we have to remember that if israel continues carrying out these strikes targeting a basic weapons depots the units of the syrian army and their allies this will weaken the syrian government so what will the russian position be we still haven't heard from the russians as of yet so you know thank you. not a leader of north korea kim jong un has extended a rare invitation to the south korean president to visit pyongyang it happened to be a historic high level meeting between the two sides of the presidential palace in seoul the north korean delegation which includes kim sr is in south korea for the winter olympics invitation marks a cooling in tensions on the korean peninsula. chairman kim jong un's on voip kim jong delivered a letter expressing a willingness to improve relations she also delivered

a message from kim jong un that he is willing to meet president moon james in the near future and that he hopes president moon visits the north at a convenient time al-jazeera has more now from congo. if this meeting transpires it would be historic this would be the first time that north korean leader kim jong un met with a south korean president since taking office in twenty eleven there's been a lot of speculation in the south korean media in the last several days that kim jong un sister kim jong a trusted advisor and high ranking party leader was coming with an invite in hand she delivered a letter and virtually asked that president moon come to the north soon at a convenient time president moon says let's arrange that and let's create favorable conditions to make that happen but moon is also saying that although he's keen to reboot into a korean relations that dialogue between the united states and the north is

essential and he's encouraging both sides to come together. narendra modi's making the first visit by an indian prime minister to the occupied palestinian territories the one day trip to the west bank as part of a three nation tour to strengthen ties with the middle east these are live pictures coming to us here at al-jazeera of the indian prime minister there in ramallah let's get more now from bernard smith who joins us from ramallah bernard let's talk first about the palestinians one of the having to get out of this visit do you think. well first of all happy that this is the first time an indian prime minister has come to the occupied territories and he's not doing it on the back of a visit to israel nobody was in israel last year instead he's doing modi's doing it as part of the middle east and gulf states he's just flown in from jordan flown over into the occupied west bank from jordanian the jordanian side it's a very very short visit just three hours modi is going to be in town but as i say

sigman symbolically significant for the palestinians that he's coming as part of this middle east trip the palestinians are also hoping somehow that the indian prime minister will support them as becoming part of the sort of multilateral forum that the palestinians are trying to create to advance any talks that might be in the future with the israelis this is because the palestinians no longer trust the u.s. government to sort of independent arbiter in discussions with israel since donald trump's recognition of jerusalem as the capital of the state of israel since then the palestinians have been looking for other ways in which to advance their cause they've been looking to the e.u. to russia to china and now they're looking to their old friend india which is also now increasingly close with the israeli government and modi and netanyahu are very good personal warm times down i'm not sure broader assessment burnet about india's

priorities here i mean they are vocal supporters of the palestinians but it also seems that israel has become important to. well as india is modernized india's priorities have changed yes decades ago india and palestine were very very close india was one of the first non arab countries to recognize the state of palestine back in nineteen eighty eight and in those days india viewed its relationship with palestine through this colonial prism india had been colonized by the british and it saw the palestinians being colonized their land being colonized by zionists but times have changed israel is now one of the biggest arms exporters to. it taking forty one percent of israel's arms exports india one of the biggest arms exporters in the world importers in the world so the relationship between those two countries is extremely important creasing lee important to the indians and the palestinians reckon the palestinians at least hope to maintain those warm

ties and as i say perhaps persuade the indians to be involved in some sort of more multilateral forum to advance their cause with the israelis down thank you. donald trump block the release of a democratic party rebuttal to a republican memo on russian meddling in the election the black memo challenges the republican that released last week which accuse the f.b.i. and justice department of bias against trunk the president says the democrat memo shouldn't be made public because of national security concerns me as the latest from washington d.c. . the letter from the white house citing significant law enforcement and national security concerns was supported by another document another letter from the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and the head of the f.b.i. christopher ray which goes on to explain that they're worried about revealing sources and ongoing investigations but it should be noted that the f.b.i. had the same objections to releasing the republican memo and president trump went

ahead and released it anyway and then after it was released said that the report had quote totally vindicated him of course real democrats saw things much differently they wanted to have a chance to respond they said the republican version of events left out significant facts and they wanted a chance to put that forward even trey gowdy republican on the house intelligence committee said that the memo had not in any way discredited the mueller investigation so democrats now are crying foul they say this is a double standard and for a president who was talking about transparency when he released the original memo this just didn't make sense the question asked by both the democratic leader of the house and the senate is what is the president hiding of course the white house says that the justice department would be happy to work with democrats to revise their memo so that it is able to be released without compromising security and democrats

say they will take them up on that offer. for a short break here al-jazeera when we come back. he managing it is our president who does not have the consciousness to fight for our old land pressure on the philippines president to stop china's military expansion on disputed islands plus. and does she in fame gets ready to elect a new leader here in dublin i'll be looking at the political journey of gerry adams who's headed the party for decades. by the sky knowing the range and harbor or off the coast of the italian riviera. hello there we've seen yet more wintery weather over parts of europe this time it's france again where we've seen a lot of snow including forests in the capital here we've had around five

centimeters of course great if you're active out in it not so great if you're stuck in traffic that area of snow has moved away towards the east now then for many of us in the western parts of europe it is going to turn a lot milder as we head through the next few days so no snow for the coming few days enough thanks to this system here as it works its way eastwards the winds are feeding in behind it dragging up those temperatures so by the time we get to sunday then we're looking at a maximum of around eleven in london and around six in paris there's that leading edge of the milder air as it hits the colder air though it is still giving a few outbreaks of snow so we could see some of that in germany for eventually things to malda and the snow begins to turn to rain another area of wet weather to watch over parts of europe is this system down in the southeast is working its way steadily eastwards this giving snow and it's more than edges it hits that cold air again further south we're seeing a lot of heavy rain and that's pushing its way into turkey as we head through into

sunday across the other side of the mediterranean plenty of cloud showing up on our shelves here but in the northwest that's where we've been seeing lots of unsettled weather and that's all clearing. the way the sponsored by qatar. news has never been more available it's a constant barrage of it with every day but the message is simplistic you have the brains good logical rational person crazy monsters and misinformation is right dismissal and does not go over well documented accusations and evidence is part of genocide the listening post provides a critical counterpoint trying to bring mainstream media narratives at this time on al-jazeera.

welcome back a quick reminder the top stories here now to syria an israeli fighter jet has crashed after an iranian drone was shot down near the border with syria syria says it was responding to an israeli act of aggression state television is reporting explosions on what it says are new israeli attacks near damascus. modi's making the first visit by indian prime minister to the palestinian territories the trip to the west bank as part of a three nation tour to strengthen ties with the middle east modi is expected to meet palestinian president mahmoud abbas later today. north korea's leader kim jong un has extended a rare invitation to the south korean president. to visit. the two countries have been holding talks on the sidelines of the winter olympics in china. let's get more now on our top story in the downing of that israeli f. sixteen warplane i'm joined in the studio now by modern he's director of policy analysis of the institute for graduate studies marwan good to have you with us

again and i think this is the first time that syrian air defenses of brought down an israeli warplane how significant is this i think it is significant although the escalation was widely expected because they. have been actually attacking iranian and his well law. targets inside syria almost on a daily basis in recent weeks so we had been expecting this escalation but that. i think this is important because this shows that there is a change and that was often gauge went over syria because we know that there has been an agreement between the russians you know what i think the russians are controlling c.d.'s since two thousand and fifteen since two thousand and fifteen and when you see the downing of. the syrians and its allies syria and its allies may have actually. been given. and new systems defense systems

. to defend syrian air space i mean that is important in my opinion. we know that netanyahu was in one score last week and he met with president putin we don't more of that meeting actually on that meeting was ended by warning against taking any action is so syria the russians they believe now that the americans. are coordinating their office in order to counter iran in syria last december there was an agreement between the israelis and americans on a joint walk plan in order to counter iranian presence military presence in syria so we are seeing this today as the outcome maybe of these all sort of political and diplomatic maneuvers between these parties on the syrian on the syrian territories let's just talk about the iranian playbook here maybe move the syrians on the iranians as you say they use drones in the area but how

significant is the timing of this one why now. i don't think this is a specific meaning for the timing now except for there is that they have been actually a skating over the past few weeks in fact by targeting more and more iranian far gets inside syria so i think by downing the days early warplane today i think that is a warning for there is a lot to take into account from now on that there is in syria these defense systems new defense system that might actually respect the movement of their warplanes mamma just a final point from you what about the syrian air defense retaliation would that have been the iranians pulling the strings or would it have been a syrian government as i think this is in my opinion pulling the strings in a more or less because such a decision as i said before the russians are controlling syria's in a space right now and i think it must have come in fact from from russia not from iran not from syria in order to the although it seems very much that this is

a war between iran and these are even over syria what i think their actions they are having the final shot on all of these confrontation thank you. turkey's military is establishing a new position in syria's italy province as part of efforts to expand the so-called deescalation zone the state news agency says troops have been deployed to tell two can russian forces are expected to position themselves six kilometers outside the town they want to create a line dividing syrian government forces and opposition fighters to prevent contact rebel held it libya's been the site of intense bombardment and ground fighting in recent weeks. egyptian state media says the country's security readiness has been raised to its highest level after the military launched an operation against armed groups in the sinai peninsula president abdel fattah el-sisi told the army to use brute force to restore security after an attack on a mosque in november that killed more than three hundred people shops and schools in north sinai a closed until further notice. protesters in the philippines are urging president

rodrigo deter to stop china's military expansion in the south china sea in march the chinese consulate in manila philippines media published photos last week showing that china has continued to build installations on the disputed spratly islands duggan has more in the capital manila. protesters say there is just the start of a long series of campaign to put pressure on president to agree good charges government to put out a man. to stop it there is a strike and have noted areas in there are trying to fill their ranks after a little post report shows that china is almost already finished with its military's ation of disputed areas in the spratleys group of islands. in the long run very damaging impact has to be started to be reversed otherwise we may be losing the he was. already controlling my huge part of the disputed

area. it is our president who does not have the consciousness to fight for our old man but it is easier for him to give our really old philippine rice to the chinese . the spokesperson of president that artist says the blame should be put on the previous government that even president benigno aquino was not able to do anything when it comes to china's reclamation and military station activities in the south china sea and says that the philippine government should eventually think china for the military garrison said installation it's built there in the event that it finally leaves philippine waters but critics say the government's approach when it comes to the south china sea is dangerous not only because it threatens the country's sovereignty it also threatens the sovereignty of its allies in the asia pacific. more women than ever are hoping

to get elected into government in sri lanka voters are choosing representatives in more than three hundred local elections. reports. the latest political race with a bang rosie sennight form of this is world diplomat and parliamentarian is aiming to become to be out of colombo she's the first woman to even try i strongly believe that you cannot have democracy if you do not interest the needs of the major. population. she's one of more than seventy thousand women. and elections a record number of women. positions in three hundred forty institutions a recent change has made it mandatory to have twenty five percent of women in local government more than twelve times the number. of the marxist people's liberation front says the changes will give more deserving women

a chance in our country. or siblings or those from. but we think honest. should come into politics or laws are made this election can do that. it's a view that this colombo endorsed you just hype time that. the politicians at least . they should give a list of the. it's the first time in decades that elections to all local bodies around the country are being held on a single day the stakes are high for all political parties going into this local government election with the president by palestinian land prime minister become a singer whose parties are contesting separately it's a battle to be the land they defeated three years ago which is the reason why local issues such as roads street lights and garbage disposal are taking on the intensity

of a national fight the coalition government of the president and prime minister is struggling to maintain its popularity following a series of scandals and failure to deliver on its campaign promise to root out corruption both leaders have travelled around the country to support their candidates their main threat is former president rajapaksa despite being voted out of his bid for a third presidential term rajapaksa still commands the loyalty of a large voter base a base he's trying to mobilize for a new political front despite the fact that he's not a member of it and remains a member of his successors party the province or the way forward for the upcoming national elections will be starting from this particular point it is for the president for the prime minister was coming from that would be put on political parties and in the other hand the former president's campaign will have

a place and they are powered whatever the larger political stakes local election voters will be hoping for competent candidates both male and female to ensure the smooth running of to do sions fernandez al-jazeera colombo. one of us famous faces knowledge is retiring gerry adams was considered the spokesman for the irish republican army and its thirty year war to end british rule of northern ireland but since then he's played a pivotal part in the peace process the shin fein leader for thirty four years is being replaced by america the donald who has no links to the conflict from dublin being bothered reports. over the years gerry adams has been praised as a brave political leader and condemned as a secret terrorist commander the boy from belfast became active in northern ireland civil rights movement in the one nine hundred sixty s. . following the arrival of british troops the province descended into decades of sectarian conflict the troubles. in the one nine hundred seventy s.

as events like the bloody sunday shooting of catholic protesters by the british army hit the headlines adams was very sickly and turned and arrested he always denied being a member of the provisional ira the irish republican army but many people on both sides of the border believe that's a nonsense in one thousand nine hundred three out of his became president of the ira's political wing shin fein that same year osting stack's father a chief prison officer was shot dead by the ira he later met adams trying to find out who ordered the killing all the evidence points to the fact that he had a leadership role i mean there's a new autobiography out on him and it's quite obvious from that even that the way when he was in terror that the other prisoners there had a parade past him every day and saluted them and you don't do that to someone that's just in the political arm of the organizations of this week soon though gerry adams was arguing that shin fein had more to gain by contesting elections he want to seat in the u.k.

parliament in westminster but never took it up all the while the ira's bombing campaign continued to kill people not just in northern ireland but on the mainland to those whose tools are bombs and bullets. your way is not the right way in one thousand nine hundred eight protracted talks led to what's known as the good friday agreement setting up a power sharing executive at stormont as well as the decommissioning of weapons and the early release of paramilitary prisoners while shin fein's martin mcguinness went on to become deputy first minister of northern ireland adams took a back seat briefly in twenty eleven he contested and won a seat in the republic of ireland part of a deliberate shift in the focus for shin fein the strategy as then she became becoming involved in decision making on both sides of the border in the north they quickly establish themselves as the dominant political party and have been the dominant nationalist party effort generation now but in the south they needed to

build up from a very low base under gerry adams his leadership should faine has become not only the largest nationalist party in northern ireland but the third largest group here in the irish doyle parliament and they're hoping to be in government here in the not so distant future when martin mcguinness was buried gerry adams carried his coffin so too did mary lou mcdonald who officially becomes shin feigns new leader on saturday her challenge now is to broaden the party's appeal to a younger generation that never knew the troubles the al-jazeera doubling. the amount of the top stories are not just here an israeli war planes crashed after an iranian drone was shot down near the border with syria both f. sixteen pilots ejected and parachuted safely into northern israel syria says it was responding to what it called an israeli act of aggression the israeli military says it's now struck twelve iranian targets including and defense system imran khan has

more than western lucilla. the israelis are squarely blaming the iranians for this they have gone off what they say are iranian targets inside of syria they say they destroyed a command and control center for the unmanned aerial vehicle the drawings that flew over. really taking a look at where what they should do next now we are hearing that a cabinet meeting the government is going to formulate a cabinet meeting to discuss what to do next narendra modi's making the first visit by an indian prime minister to the palestinian territories the trip to the occupied west bank is part of a three nation tour to strengthen ties with the middle east you get a wreath on the tomb of yasser arafat the former palestinian leader modi is expected to meet palestinian president mahmoud abbas later on saturday north korea's leader kim jong il has extended a rare invitation to the south korean president moon jay and to visit pyongyang the

two countries have been holding talks on the sidelines of the winter olympics in china. donald trump has blocked the release of a democratic party rebuttal to a republican memo on russian meddling in the election the bloc memo challenges last week's republican member which accused the f.b.i. and the justice department of bias against the president says the democrat memo shouldn't be made public because of national security concerns protesters in the philippines are urging president rodriguez to tete a to stop china's military expansion in the south china sea in march the chinese consulate in the capital manila philippines media published photos last week showing that china has continued to build installations on the disputed sparkly on . egyptian state media says the country's security readiness has been raised to its highest level after the military launched an operation against groups in the sinai peninsula shops and schools in north sana a closed until further notice. well those are the headlines the news

continues here on al-jazeera all the listening post such of them so much and often an. al-jazeera. with and for us. i think and i hope i hope to be that. really not just steve can have no option but to stare at our receipt off to the freedom of the media i did a quick political situation. hello richard gere's we're here at the listening post here are some of the developments we're tracking this week kenya the election story from last year that runs and runs.