devastation in a built up refugee camp. there are desperate scenes as people search through the rubble for survivors. at the hospital where many of the victims were taken — the medical director talks about the scale of the casualties. israel says it was targetting a senior hamas commander who was killed — and it accuses hamas of intentionally using civilians as shields. israel also hit hamas�* tunnels in the area — we take a closer look at the extent of its underground network. also tonight — the covid inquiry hears of complete chaos in downing street at the start of the pandemic from some of boris johnson's closest advisors. it was the wrong crisis for this prime minister's skillset. and in kenya — king charles says there's "no excuse" for atrocities committed by the british authorities during the colonial era. and on newsnight at 10.30, we'll go

deeper behind the headlines and speak live to key players on today's big stories, plus a first look at tomorrow's front pages. good evening from jerusalem — israel's military has confirmed that it carried out an airstrike onjabalia refugee camp in northern gaza, saying its target was a senior commander with hamas — the group are designated as a terrorist organisation by the uk government. the death toll is not clear — but tonight a doctor treating the victims are in the hundreds. the attack happened in a densely built—up area

that was home to more than 100,000 people. israel has called on civilians in the north of the territory to move south — and tonight it reiterated its claim that hamas intentionally uses civilians as shields. 0ur international editor jeremy bowen has the latest. his report is distressing from the start. israel says the destruction came from airstrikes that killed a senior hamas commander and some of his men. it said hamas was using these civilians as human shields in a cruel and brutal manner and that the airstrikes caused the collapse of underground hamas bunkers. israel ordered civilians to leave this area. many did. many others did not. the un said some people even returned to their homes because conditions further south were so desperate. an unknown number of people are buried under the rubble. they were pulling out children.

he says, "oh, god, my three children are gone. "three kids. "i hope i can find one of them alive. "i didn't bid them farewell." jabalia camp coversjust over half a square mile. 116,000 refugees were registered here with the un before the war. he says, "it's a massacre. "30 to a0 homes blown to pieces, bodies everywhere. "everyone�*s looking for their beloved ones." the local hospital was overwhelmed with casualties. the surgical director sent the bbc this video. he said they'd done 15 to 20 amputations. patients, he said, arrived packed into ambulances with the wounded alongside the dead.

the doctor told me around 120 dead from this afternoon's attack are at the hospital. they ran out of space inside the building. hamas released these pictures of their men emerging from part of their extensive tunnel network. it's hard to work out with any precision what's happening in the ground war. both sides claim to have killed their enemies. hamas will try to use hit and run guerrilla tactics against a much more powerful army. israel released these pictures. it seems clear they're pressing forward. some reports say they're closer to gaza city without entering it yet. moving through relatively open villages is much less of a military challenge than advancing

into a city. on their side of the gaza border, israel has plenty of force in reserve and, it says, a long fight ahead. we don't have much detail about what the israelis are doing inside gaza. they are working very hard to control the information battlefield, which is a big part of modern war. they are releasing some video and some generalized communiques about success, but they are minimising access. jabalia will fuel the controversy about killing palestinian civilians. unintentional casualties, israel says, in a just war. america warned israel not to be blinded by rage. and palestinians believe israel is inflicting another catastrophe on them. jeremy bowen, bbc news, southern israel. let's speak to our international

editorjeremy bowen whojoins me now from southern israel. there must be big questions tonight about israel's strategy? big questions about the numbers of palestinian civilians being killed at the moment, as well, and last night mr netanyahu said the world needed to decide which side it was on, it was a moral question. he said it was about right and wrong and he said there was a big difference between hamas killing civilians and what he said were accidental deaths in a just war, referring to this kind of operation. the americans are concerned enough i think about israel's conduct to remind them on several and repeated occasions that they need, while they defend themselves, to observe the laws of war, and palestinians reject everything israel says, finally, about the way israel claims to have

tried to preserve palestinian lives. senior palestinian officials have used the word genocide to me to describe their view of what israel is doing. describe their view of what israel is doinu. , , describe their view of what israel isdoina. , ., , is doing. jeremy bowen, many thanks, as alwa s. israel says its air strikes on gaza, including the one injabalia today, are targetting hamas tunnels and bunkers. 0ur security correspondent gordon corera takes a closer look now at hamas' underground network. the aftermath of today's strike on jabalia. israel claimed that as well as killing a leader of hamas, they also destroyed underground hideouts, collapsing them beneath the wreckage. so what do we know about these tunnels? back in 2015, the bbc was shown these tunnels in the south of gaza, run by a group allied to hamas. back then, they were being used to hide mortars,

which could be fired into israel. in the years since, the tunnel network has grown enormously, as we can see from this footage released by hamas. you can see here the size of the tunnels with reinforced concrete to protect them. they have lighting and electricity and even what appears to be communication systems. images like this, issued by israeli forces, but said to be from hamas footage give a sense of the scale. for years, hamas used the tunnels to emerge out of gaza and carry out attacks in israel. when israel built a fence around gaza, this even extended underground with concrete barriers to block tunnels. but on october 7th, hamas did notjust tunnel out, it also blew holes in the fences. and now israel faces a major challenge, because the tunnels are notjust a way to get out, but also a hiding place. so how big is this network? no one knows for sure. this map from israeli forces show

why they call it the gaza metro. the best guess is there may be 300 miles of tunnels. jabalia hit today is in the north. the tunnels are right under the civilian population. destroying them almost certainly means civilian casualties. so what does this mean for any invasion? tunnels pose a real challenge for israeli forces. hamas can use them to retreat, hide weapons and stockpile supplies, plan operations and emerge behind, attacking soldiers. those who fought in tunnels say it's incredibly challenging. normal night vision goggles don't work. communication is almost impossible. you lose sense of direction. israeli forces have been training to fight underground, specialist robots and ground penetrating sensors may help. sponge bombs can expand to close up tunnels. but fighting hamas on its home terrain, where it's been preparing for years and laying traps, would be deeply challenging and israel may try to avoid it. another issue is the more than 200 hostages who may be held underground.

one who was released described walking for miles in what she called a damp, humid spider's web of tunnels. the presence of hostages makes some tactics, like blowing up orflooding tunnels more problematic. israeli bombs, seen here targeting the tunnels in recent days. if israel is to dismantle hamas, it will have to destroy its hiding place. but that may be costly for israeli forces and the people of gaza. gordon corera, bbc news. this conflict has caused countless tragedies on both sides, with hundreds of civilians targeted by hamas in israel, and thousands caught in the bombardment by israel in gaza.

in a moment, lucy williamson has the story of an israeli man — seven members of his family were taken hostage by hamas on october seven. but first, fergal keane tells the story of a palestinian father who lost his four children in a strike in rafah in gaza. his report was filmed by mahmoud bassam, a journalist in gaza filming for the bbc. and many will find this upsetting. once he had a home. once he had a family. now he picks through the rubble for fragments of the past. khalil khader lost his four children and seven other members of his family. here, he shows a bbc journalist pyjamas worn by his 18—month—old daughter, rosa.

the same blue pyjamas, but in a world that has gone forever. the family was trapped under this rubble in the al—janina neighbourhood in rafah. it's next to el—najar hospital, where every day of this war, the staff receive the wounded and the dead. and where khalil khader works and was on duty on the night his family became casualties. translation: a massive bomb exploded that night and my neighbours _ started showing up at the hospital, so i asked, where was the bombing? they told me it was around my house. i had to run to the house to check on the family. i tried calling, but no—one was answering. and, as you can see,

the whole house was bombed. the remnants of childhood. when khalil khader was the father of living children. translation: my oldest child, ebrahim. _ this is my dad, may his soul rest in peace. this is amal, and this is kinan. this is masa, a cousin. this is lina, a cousin. they loved each other so much. khalil�*s sister is still buried under the rubble. his wife is in hospital, badly wounded, and his days are filled with longing. translation: i had a dream for each of my kids. - ebrahim was first in his school and i dreamt of seeing him

as a doctor one day. and now they are all gone. khalil khader, a father, always. fergal keane, bbc news, jerusalem. as public pressure grows on israel's prime minister to secure the release of hostages held in gaza, hamas said tonight it would release some of the foreign hostages it is holding in the coming days. lucy williamson spoke to one man whose family has been taken captive — and who says israel should do whatever it takes to free them. kibbutz be'eri, three miles from gaza, neverfelt like the front line of a conflict. wow. look at this. it looks like one now. my god. no way.

seven members of gilad's family were taken from this house. let's see the shelter. look at this. no way. it's the first time he's seen it since the attack. the front door, riddled with bullet holes. look at this. how they hate us. how. in the charred remains of the house, no sign of bodies. the door to the safe room held fast, but the steel shutters outside were blown open. the family gone. horror movies from the hamas attack here on the 7th of october were filmed in the street outside. gilad has watched them again and again for signs of his son, daughter in law or grandchildren. explosions. now the sounds of israel's bombardment of gaza land in the empty street. what's really difficult is just the scale of this destruction.

taking it all in. walking around this house, looking for any scrap of normal life. it's really difficult to find. there's a few burnt out kitchen appliances here, but really, that's about it. and not only have the walls been shattered and knocked through, but there seems to be wanton violence peppered over this house, bullet holes on this wall, seemingly with no purpose. looking at this, what's striking is that people felt safe living here, so close to gaza. and what's been broken is not just the veneer of peace and their own family home, but also the promise that was made to them by the israeli government to keep them safe. i think a lot of people will not return, even because the memories. do you think it was a fantasy, the feeling of safety here, an illusion? for 25 years, yes, it was illusion.

i mean, this is what everybody thought about safety. and we are strong. there are those in israel who say getting the hostages out of gaza is worth paying any price, including releasing palestinian prisoners from israeli jails. 0thers point out that the man israel says planned this attack was himself released in a previous prisoner exchange. the question facing prime minister benjamin netanyahu is whether to gamble with israel's future security to get gilad's family home. lucy williamson, bbc news, be'eri. the terrible suffering of families on both sides. that's it from me and the team for another night here injerusalem, now it's back to you sophie in the studio.

thank you. the covid inquiry has heard that during the pandemic the former prime minister, borisjohnson, was obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life. that's what the then chief scientific adviser sir patrick vallance wrote in his diary. two of borisjohnson�*s closest advisors also gave evidence today as our political editor chris mason reports. casually dressed, controversial and not exactly shy when it comes to slagging off other people and institutions. how is your eyesight, mr cummings? oh, and you probably remember dominic cummings for driving 260 miles during lockdown and visiting barnard castle in county durham to test his eyesight. i swear by almighty god that the evidence i shall give shall be the truth... mr cummings comes across in public as mild—mannered. he was rather less than that in his private written observations

about people he worked alongside. you called ministers useless bleep. morons. bleep. in e—mails and whatsapps to your professional colleagues. my appalling languages is obviously my own. but myjudgement of a lot of senior people was widespread. the questioning lawyer then read out one of mr cummins' whatsapp messages about a very senior female colleague. we cannot keep dealing with this horrific meltdown of the british state while dodging stilettos from than �* was that aggressive and foul—mouthed and misogynistic approach the correct way to manage fellow professionals? a thousand times worse than my bad language is the underlying issue at stake, that we had a cabinet office system that had completely melted. boris johnson's judgment caused anger today. he was obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and the economy going, wrote patrick vallance, the government's then scientific advisor. it showed mrjohnson was sociopathic, some of those

representing the bereaved said. also taking questions today, lee cain, borisjohnson�*s man in charge of communications. he reckons his former boss dithered and wasn't suited to leadership in a pandemic. what will probably be clear in covid, it was the wrong crisis for this prime minister's skill set. which is different, i think, from not potentially being up to the job of being prime minister. and what about why it took ten days from agreeing to a first lockdown to actually announcing it? i think it is longer than you would like but it's importantjust to emphasise the amount of things that had to be done and the amount of people we had to take with us to deliver a nationwide lockdown. the overriding impression of what we are seeing here is one of dysfunction, claims of a shambles at the heart

of government atjust the moment government was more important to more people than it had been for decades and decades. borisjohnson has offered no comment on what's been said today. he and rishi sunak are expected to give evidence here before christmas. chris mason, bbc news, at the covid inquiry. saudi arabia is set to host the men's 2034 football world cup after australia decided not to bid for the event. no other country has shown interest in hosting tournament and the deadline was today. 0ur sports editor dan roan reports. if you thought a winter world cup was a one off, then think again. less than a year since qatar staged football's showpiece event, it's emerged neighbouring saudi arabia is set to play host in 2034 — the sole bidder after australia chose not to try ahead of today's deadline. once again, extreme heat is likely to mean the disruption of moving its traditional summer slot.

but the manager of saudi—owned newcastle united has backed the prospect. 0ur trips out there have been two different places. wherever we went was really well organised and we were well looked after. so i think if that's a sign of what a world cup might look like, then i think you can be rest assured that everything will be structurally really good. but with fifa president gianni infantino known to be close to the saudi crown prince, the governing body appeared to pave the way for the gulf kingdom by limiting possible bidders and fast tracking the process. and the country, like qatar, faces intense scrutiny over its human rights record. migrant workers are regularly exploited. those are the migrant workers that would end up building the stadiums and the other infrastructure. we know that anyone who criticises the regime is imprisoned, and we know that communities are discriminated against, so there are huge, huge risks in doing this tournament.

in recent years, saudi arabia has invested billions of pounds across a range of sports, amid accusations that it's done so to improve the country's reputation. but the authorities there insist this is about growing sport, modernising the kingdom, and diversifying its economy. last year, the saudi sports minister told me the critics were wrong. the accusation is that this is just sportswashing. we will always be criticised but we have to look at what is the best for our country and our people and what is actually developing our youth towards the future. at last year's world cup, saudi arabia managed to beat the eventual champions argentina. now, an even greater challenge — trying to convince the critics they'd be suitable hosts. dan roan, bbc news. the labour leader sir keir starmer has been defending his decision not to demand an immediate ceasefire in gaza — despite calls from 1a of his shadow ministers and hundreds of labour councillors to do so.

he said such a move would embolden hamas, and insisted a humanitarian pause was the only credible approach to the conflict. 0ur deputy political editor vicki young reports. chanting. plenty disagree with the labour leader's response to what's happening in the middle east. he wants a pause in fighting to allow more aid into gaza. but a growing number in his own party are calling for a ceasefire. today keir starmer came out to explain why he's still against that idea. as we speak, that would leave hamas with the infrastructure and the capability to carry out the sort of attack we saw on october the 7th. sir keir has so far tolerated the dissent in his ranks rather than sacking more than a dozen shadow ministers. in about a year's time you are hoping to be prime minister. if that happens, will you allow your own ministers to undermine your authority and publicly disagree with you on the most important issues of the day? it is for me to address

collective responsibility. i recognise that, that is my duty. it matters and i take that duty extremely seriously. but i do it in the context of understanding what is driving people in the call for a ceasefire. many labour camps represent areas with large muslim communities. privately, some are furious at his approach. other senior labour figures have gone public. he's calling for a humanitarian pause. is that not? look, i want us to go further. i want us to talk about an end to the rocket fire in and out of gaza, meaning a cease fire. i want us to have the immediate release of hostages. i want immediate access to humanitarian assistance. some labour mps were reassured by today's speech, feeling sir keir was more critical of israel's actions than he has been before. but the worse the situation gets in gaza, the harder it will be for him to keep his party united around his policy. vicky young, bbc news, westminster.

king charles and queen camilla have attended a state banquet in nairobi during their visit to kenya. the king spoke of this "great sorrow and regret" over what he described as the "wrongdoings" of the british empire during the kenyan struggle for independence. but the king did not formally apologise for past abuses — a gesture many activists had wanted. 0ur royal correspondent nicholas witchell reports from kenya. the welcome on an african night was a warm one. but king charles knows he faces a sensitive challenge. it has fallen to him to deal with the legacy issues. there is the matter of slavery and on this visit, britain's conduct on its colonial past. no, there was no pity in my heart... 70 years ago in kenya, there was an uprising against the then british colonial rulers. the mau mau rebellion was crushed with great brutality. many were tortured, thousands died.

at a state banquet in nairobi, the king spoke about painful times. the wrongdoings of the past are a cause of the greatest sorrow and the deepest regret. there were abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against kenyans, and for that there can be no excuse. there was no apology, as such. both buckingham palace and the british government believe there cannot be an apology for events for which this generation bears no responsibility. kenya wants reparations. britain wants to draw a line and move on. nicholas witchell, bbc news, nairobi. tomorrow, the world's first summit on the safety of artificial intelligence in the uk gets under way at bletchley park. it will look at the risks of the fast growing technology and will also consider how to regulate it. but as our economics editor faisal islam reports —

as well as risks — ai brings huge benefits which are set to transform the economy and could unlock greater productivity and growth in the uk. although this week's ai safety summit is about catastrophic risks to lives, even, the uk's economic strategy here is a more open attitude with less regulation of more immediate risks around bias, discrimination and to jobs. welcome to a place where unicorns thrive. that's because rishi sunak wants those cutting edge ai innovations to happen here in the uk, with the creation of billion dollar tech businesses that are referred to as unicorns. this is quantexa, one of those british unicorns, an ai company which scans billions of bank transactions to find strange patterns typical of fraud. what the algorithm, the ai here is determining, its spotting those suspicious patterns. forfounder, vishal, it's a record year — the only unicorn born in britain in 2023. what we've seen in the last 12,18 months, faisal,

is a huge increase in scale, being able to interpret data at a volume that's been unprecedented. so there's huge opportunity here for the united kingdom to be the frontier when it comes down to embracing ai and machine learning. the uk has a long history of innovation, famously so here at bletchley park, but has not always been the best at forging business success and growth out of it. it was the code breaking mathematical geniuses on this site, who, 80 years ago, cracked the enigma code and then formed the foundation of modern computing and artificial intelligence. and could it be that those same technologies are the key to unlocking britain's long standing productivity puzzle? ai is the biggest transformation of the economy since the internet. this government adviser says british strategy is to offer freedoms for al companies to experiment. what the uk government has

decided to do is take what they call this light touch approach, right? they're saying that we are really obviously very keen to look at how we ought to make ai safe across the board for consumers, right, for the british public. but what we have to do is do that on a case—by—case basis. europe and the us could put in more controls over actual new ai technologies. and so here at bletchley, the americans want to talk about that, notjust what rishi sunak referred to as a nuclear war style human extinction risk. everyone, notjust britain, wants to win the economic battle over ai. faisal islam, bbc news. now have a look at these trees — they are called wollemi pine trees and they were here when dinosaurs roamed the earth around