after israel says three hostages were accidentally killed by its forces in gaza, families of those held captive urge prime minister netanyahu to resume negotiations. russian attack drones strike a key ukrainian city as president volodymyr zelensky calls for more western support. and dozens of migrants drown in a shipwreck off the coast of libya. hello, i'm helena humphrey. israel is grappling with the fallout from the killing of three hostages. the israel defence forces has admitted the men were mistakenly killed in gaza while holding a white cloth on a stick, indicating surrender. an idf official says a soldier felt threatened and opened fire after mis—identifying

them as terrorists. prime minister benjamin netanyahu said the hostage deaths �*broke his heart,�* but added that military pressure is still necessary. our correspondent hugo bachega reports on the fallout in israel to the hostage deaths, and growing pressure to rescue the others still held in gaza. for the families of the hostages who remain in gaza, it's an agonising wait made worse by a tragic mistake. the israeli military has given new details of how three israeli captives were shot dead by its own soldiers. yotam haim, alon shamriz and samer talalka emerged shirtless from a building, carrying a makeshift white flag. one of the soldiers misidentified them as a threat and opened fire. two were killed instantly.

a third, injured, returned to the building and was later killed. translation: we will draw the lessons, implement - the lessons and remain relentless in our military and diplomatic efforts to bring back all the hostages home safely. with all the terrible sadness, let me clarify — the military pressure is necessary both for bringing back the hostages and to achieve victory. the instruction i'm giving the negotiating team is predicated on pressure. without this pressure, we have nothing. here in tel aviv, thousands have gathered in what is known as hostage square. their message — bring the captives home, now. there's shock and anger across the country after the killing of the hostages and fear that without a deal, many other hostages may not return alive. the families say time is running out. everyone that was taken out of gaza was a body.

and we don't want them as bodies. and what is your message for the government? make a ceasefire until all the hostages are back, alive cos every day that passes by, we are just discovering more and more names of hostages that were taken alive and now they are coming back dead. gaza, too, is mourning its dead. this was the funeral for samer abudaqa — a well—known palestinian cameraman who worked for the aljazeera network and was killed in an israeli drone strike. israel says military force will help bring back the hostages, but many here disagree. hugo bachega, bbc news, tel aviv. the world health organization says it has delivered health supplies to al—shifa hospital in gaza city, as part of a joint un mission. us national security advisor jake sullivan has been in the middle east this week, and met with israeli prime

minister netanyahu. mr sullivan said he had conveyed the position of the biden administration, that israel must be more precise in its war against hamas. responding to recent reports that much of israel's bombing of gaza has been "indiscriminate", an idf spokesperson said: gaza's health ministry, which is run by hamas, says more than 18,000 palestinians have been killed in the war since october 7. earlier, i spoke with marc garlasco, former military analyst and war crimes investigator for the united nations. he also served as chief of high—value targeting at the pentagon. i want to start with jake sullivan's comments this week in israel, saying that israel must be more precise in its targeting of hamas. up until now, how would you assess the tactics

which have been used in israel's military campaign in gaza? well, the idf has been anything but precise, and the revelation this week that nearly half of all bombs dropped by israel on gaza are imprecise, unguided munitions, is really quite shocking. up until now, we have seen approximately almost 30,000 bombs dropped on gaza by israel. you're talking anywhere from 10—15,000 have been unguided. that's really quite shocking to me when you consider that a precision—guided munition, which is what most western militaries rely on, has an error of three metres, so can miss by a short distance. an unguided munition has up to a 30 metre miss. so, you're talking about a distance of potentially hitting a hamas checkpoint to hitting instead an apartment building filled with civilians. so, i think that the 18,000 dead palestinians is the direct example and result of israel's bombing campaign that has been anything but precise. marc, we should say that

here at the bbc we do not have all the specifics with regards to the munitions that have been supplied and used but israel, for its part, says that it has done a lot to prevent where possible or minimise the killing or wounding of civilians. how do you think it could be more surgical and precise in its targeting, the way that the biden administration is now calling for? well, first of all, they have not been employing precision—guided munitions across the board. if we look at the way western militaries operate, in the 1991 gulf war, the us and uk dropped 8% guided munitions. but by the war in libya, it was 100%. we have seen in gaza the israelis using the m1—17, which is a vietnam—era unguided bomb. so, first of all, by using the most precise weapons. the us, in the last years, has provided over 35,000 precision—guided munitions to the israelis. but secondly, it's also in the targeting decisions. israel is making decisions to attack mid—level hamas leaders with high explosive

bombs, such as the 2000 pound weapon, which have massive wide—area affects, and we have seen the results — taking out a mid—level hamas leader, they have taken out that jabalia refugee camp and killed over 120 civilians. so, it is decisions like these that the israelis are making to give up palestinian lives to get mid—level leaders that really needs to stop. so, at the same time, we have also seen more rocket fire from hamas this week, including going into airspace near the ben gurion airport, the iron dome fending off that attack. how do you think israel should respond to that when, of course, israel makes the argument that this is about self—defence. clearly, and all of hamas's attacks into israel are war crimes. these are indiscriminate weapons that are incapable of differentiating between a military object civilian object. butjust because hamas is committing war crimes, it doesn't give israel carte blanche to do whatever it wants. it needs to implement civilian

harm mitigation procedures in its targeting, improve the tactic techniques and procedures that they are using but, most importantly, move to a ceasefire as quickly as possible and stop the killing. if we don't see a scaling back in terms of the number of civilians who are killed here, do you think that the us could put conditions on its supplying of military aid? i mean, we saw earlier this week president biden talk about, quote, "indiscriminate bombing". we then saw the administration try to walk back those comments. but what do you think that happened here? the impenetrable wall of us support has started to slowly erode as the number of civilians have increased. yet, it's difficult to see how this is going to end. when we look at the us�*s weapon — the way we provide weapons to ukraine, we put restrictions on the ukrainians. they have to record the number of weapons they use, where they use them,

how they use them, the us monitors that. there is no monitoring of the weapon used by israel and the weapons that the us, uk and others are giving them. perhaps it's time for the us to use its various laws and powers to actually either limit or put controls on what israel is doing. otherwise, as israel perhaps looks to move to expand this conflict into lebanon and other areas, it maybe time to pull back some of that unlimited support. marc galasco, a united nations military analyst and war crimes investigator who served as a chief of high—value targeting on the pentagon's joint staff in 2003, thank you for being with us. thank you for having me. i also spoke about the war with elise labott, a journalist covering global affairs, and host of cosmo—politics on substack. elise, always great to see you. so, the israeli military now saying that the hostages mistakenly killed were holding a makeshift white flag when they appeared to emerge. what more do we know

about the circumstances here? well, i mean, the chief of the military, of the idf, even said this was against military procedure. they were shirtless, they were wearing a white flag and according to the rules of war when someone is surrendering, they shouldn't be shot. two of them apparently — one of the soldiers recognised them. not them particularly, the hostages, but recognised that they could be hostages. the other one got a little nervous, thought that they seemed threatened and opened fire. two of them died instantly. one of them apparently ran into a building and was screaming in hebrew, "help me, help me!" while the other one went into the building and apparently opened fire again and killed the third one, even though the commander had said to stop shooting. so, it's obviously a horrible mistake, a horrible tragedy,

but the military is saying this was against the rules of engagement and, as we know now, there is an investigation under way but it's certainly not a lot of comfort for the families. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has called it "heartbreaking". i just wonder do you think this will put more pressure on mr netanyahu to try and reach a deal with hamas for the release of the rest of the hostages? i think it's going to put a lot more pressure on him, helena. i think that there's already been a lot of pressure. the families are saying, "listen, we want our "family members home. "the israeli military was negligent in defending us "and now, we want them home" and now that three of these hostages were killed in the line of fire, and you see the protests on the street, there will be even more pressure for the prime minister and the government to get them home, and you even see some of the comments coming out of israel.

they're saying we feel as if the government has already given up on the hostages. now, of course, the government is not saying that. they say, "oh, it is the pressure that will get "these hostages home". what is going to get them out is negotiations and apparently, the chief of the mossad, the intelligence agency, is going back to qatar to reopen negotiations — that was scheduled before these hostages were killed — but, helena, ithink the question is will israel be able to deliver on its twin goals, which are kind of antithetical in a way. one of them is destroying hamas and the other is getting the hostages out. if they get the hostages out, hamas doesn't really have any more leverage, so this is the leverage that hamas has. hamas also wants their hostages out, so i don't know if it's necessarily pressure that will get the hostages out but it will probably be on the negotiating table. and in regards to what we could see at the negotiating table if it does happen, from hamas's side, likely a call for,

as you say, the release of many more palestinian prisoners, more aid and likely a cessation of fighting as well. do you see israel ever agreeing to that? i do see more aid coming in, and you've already seen — i mean, you know, there's as a kind of formula that — between the us, israel kind of figures out that before the war, i think there were about 500 aid trucks a day that went in. 200 of those were of a humanitarian nature as opposed to a commercial nature. so, if you're getting 200 trucks in, you kind of think in this situation, it is a good day. so, that's been going on right now but it's certainly not enough compared to the need, but i think that's going to be a steady flow of aid. i think you will see more fuel get in, more aid get in. i don't know that you'll necessarily get a pause infighting. when you see the hostage negotiation, it's usually israeli hostages are much

more valuable to israel than the palestinians consider, so you've kind of seen this 3:1 and a lot of those hostages are real high—value targets that it's a real hard choice for israel to let go. a lot of them, though, were in what we called administrative detention, where they were not really charged, they were held without charges, so you could see thousands, potentially, of palestinians let go. i don't know if you're going to really get hamas, you know, leaders out. but in terms of the cessation of fire, the prime minister is saying that israel is going to head, he does not adhere to this pressure that's being felt by the international community, particularly by the united states. i think that might be a little bit of kind of for public consumption. there does seem to be an agreement between the us and israel, as jake sullivan said, this new phase seems like it be a lot less bombardment, a lot more surgical.

elise, we only have about a0 seconds left. i just wanted to ask you, what do you think, looking into the crystal ball, all of this means for the political future of prime minister benjamin netanyahu in the long run? i think he's out. i mean, i think the day that 7 october happened, there was already so much discontentment with him over the whole thing with the supreme court. he was already kind of hanging on by a thread. and i think there's pretty much consensus in israel that once the war is over, there will be a new election and netanyahu will be out. elise labott is a journalist covering global affairs, and host of cosmopolitics on substack. elise, great to talk to you, as ever. thank you. great to be with you. to ukraine now, where russian drones have struck a hospital in the city of kherson, damaging one of the units and injuring a doctor. ukraine says its air defences shot down 30 out of 31 russian drones over 11 regions across the country early on saturday. moscow has denied targeting ukraine's civilian infrastructure.

shelling also struck an oil depot in russian—controlled donetsk, setting a fuel reservoir aflame. there was no immediate response from ukraine, and no comment from russian—backed city authorities. ukraine is critically dependent on eu and us funding as it continues to fight occupying russian forces. mr zelensky visited washington at the start of the week to call for more money from congress, without success. members of the house of representatives have already left washington for the holidays, but senators will be back next week to try to hammer out an agreement that includes ukraine aid and immigration reform. our news partner, cbs, reports senate negotiators hope to have the framework of a deal ready as early as sunday. meanwhile, support from the eu hit a stumbling block too when hungarian prime minister viktor orban blocked 50 billion euros in eu aid for ukraine, just hours after an agreement was reached on starting

membership talks. i spoke earlier with sergey radchenko, a professor at thejohns hopkins school of advanced international studies on ukraine's challenges as russia's vladimir putin pledges to dig in. sergey, thank you for being with us. i'd like to begin by touching on president putin's press conference earlier this week. he appeared confident when it came to speaking about the war in ukraine. he said there would be no peace until russia's goals are met. what do you make of what he had to say? i think exactly that's what he said. he said that russian aims have not changed. he did not really elaborate, although he did talk about so—called de—nazification and de—militarisation. those are things that he has talked about repeatedly throughout this conflict. but he claimed great successes by the russian military. now, of course, this press

conference of his comes in the wake of, i would say, failure of the ukrainian counteroffensive and a sense that there is kind of a fatigue, growing fatigue in the west and i think almost trying to build on that, to project confidence and project his certainty in this war on his terms, that's how he tried to come across. do you think there is any sense of growing fatigue with the war or special operation, as it is known in russia, though? he did say in the press conference that there will be no further mobilisation. do you think he will stick to that? he did, you have to remember that he is looking at an election a few months from now and you can almost sense of some of the questions that were being posed to him that there is great concern among the people, both

about the war itself, where it is going, but also about the economic situation in the country. inflation was brought up, for example. putin is access to project a confidence and calm down the people before the election, suggesting that he is on the right track and the country is on the right track. do you think they can trust his word when it comes to mobilisation? i don't think those words can be trusted. putin said there would be no mobilisation but he said these things before and reneged on his promises. he added, when he talked about there not being mobilisation, except for now, there was no need for it for now, but, of course, this for now can change at any moment. if russia contemplates serious military operations in ukraine in the spring, it seems clear that they will require more people for that. it is likely to continue and they will have to draw on more mobilised servicemen. i want to touch on the domestic economic situation in russia as well.

you mentioned the high inflation, we also know that there are workforce shortages due to the ongoing war right now. i wonder whether you think they could pose any potential problems for president putin as he seeks to take his fifth term in power? i think he will try to maintain public discussion within certain bounds. the purpose of the press conference suggested a great pluralism almost, the idea os the tsar coming down to the people, and even facing criticism. the reality in russia is that the propaganda machine is still very much in control and putin is unlikely to face any real opposition. he will not face any opposition, let's be straight. it will be a fake election. he is somewhat worry, i am sure, because he is approaching

an election and that is why he is putting on the show but he can be reasonably confident, i think, in winning since he will not face any opposition. talking about the opposition, we know that at least three figures are behind bars right now, including a russian dissident and the us state department says they are very concerned they have not heard any news about him for at least a week with regards to his whereabouts. what do you think could be happening there? it is, of course, very worrying. navalny�*s lawyers have not been able to get in touch with him. there is some indication that he may be in the process of being moved somewhere else. it is a possibility. we can also be concerned about his health because we know that he was put into strict isolation for prolonged periods of time, conditions in russian prisons are horrible and more horrible for political activists and opposition leaders.

putin seems to derive almost sadistic pleasure from this situation, so putin is in communicado with the rest of the world, disappearing him, and that is not seeing anything about him in the press conference. very much on—style for putin. we did hear him talk about press conferences about evan gershkovich for the first time, the imprisoned wall street journal correspondence, saying he will be open to a deal that is mutually acceptable to the united states. what do you think he means by that? is he serious about that? what could you look like? i thought this was an interesting moments of the press conference.

valerie hopkins from the new york times raised a question about evan. he has been held in russia on completely ridiculous charges and there has been some discussion of his possible exchange for maybe a russian spy or somebody like that in the west. we know that negotiations have been taking place behind the scenes but obviously evan gershkovich is still behind bars in russia, so an agreement has not been reached. putin publicly spoke about it and that suggests that negotiations continue but he is obviously angling for some major concession, some part of western countries to get evan gershkovich back. this is hostage taking, that is what it is. he has taken a hostage and demanding, he is blackmailing the west to pay him to get him back. sergey radchenko, thank you for being with us here in bbc news. thank you for having me. the international organization for migration says 61 migrants, including women and children, have drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of libya.

the organisation quoted survivors saying the boat, carrying around 86 people, departed the libyan city of zwara. it said the victims were from nigeria, gambia, and other african countries. survivors were taken to a detention centre in libya and are receiving medical support. the incident comes as italian premier giorgia meloni and her british counterpart rishi sunak held talks in rome, to discuss illegal immigration to europe, along with the albanian premier edi rama. the leaders pledged to intensify cooperation to stop migrants from north africa reaching european shores. let's turn to some important news around the world. 17 million people across florida are under threat of severe weather. forecasters say the storm system will produce tropical storm—like conditions. residents are also being warned about tornadoes. it's already whipped up waves, shook palm trees, and flooded parking lots in hollywood, florida, saturday. florida governor ron desantis activiated the state's

national guard to respond to the low—pressure system which is expected to exit the area by sunday aftenroon. a vatican court has sentened an italian cardinal to 5.5 years in jail for embezzlement. 75—year—old angelo becciu, a former adviser to pope francis, is the most senior vatican official charged with financial crimes. he was even once considered as a papal contender. the 2.5—year trial centered on a london property deal that led to huge losses for the church. becciu's lawyer says his client is innocent and will appeal. and we leave you with video nasa has released which it says shows the strongest solar flare emitted by the sun for several years. it happened on thursday. there were reports that it caused short—term disruption to radio communications here on earth for a few hours.

you are watching bbc news. goodbye from all of us in washington. good night. hello there. part two of the weekend looks pretty similar to saturday's with a lot of cloud around for many, glimmers of brightness here, and there and it remaining pretty mild for mid—december. there will be some very wet weather, though, continuing across the north and west of scotland, thanks to almost stationary weather front here. but you can see on the air mass charts, the mild air moving up on a brisk south—westerly wind. however, this weather front will continue to bring some problems across northwest scotland, some heavy rainfall. it does start to weaken a little bit as it sinks southwards into more central parts of the country for sunday evening. but we're concerned about the northwest highlands. by the end of sunday, we could be looking at up to 200 millimetres of rain falling in places. that's likely to lead some localised flooding and even some landslips in some sensitive areas. so the amber warning the met office have enforced throughout sunday continues for the north and west highlands. the rain beginning to edge a bit further southwards into argyll,

towards the end of the day pushes into dumfries and galloway, northern ireland, into the evening, probably across cumbria and northwest wales. elsewhere it's rather cloudy, glimmers of brightness, southeast england, east of the pennines, east wales, and that'lljust make it feel even more mild, with temperatures at the low to mid—teens for many. that weather front begins to weaken as it moves southwards during sunday night. but it starts to reinvigorate across wales, south west england by the end of the night, and it turns a bit colder for the very far north of scotland. otherwise, it's a largely mild night to come for most 8—11 degrees. for monday, we have a couple of weather fronts across the country. these will reinvigorate as they move their way eastward. so it starts off again, rather cloudy for many, limited brightness. the rain peps up across northern ireland, central southern scotland, northern england, the midlands, wales for a time and then pushes out into the north sea, leaves the legacy of cloud, further spots of rain and drizzle. and once again, for the time of year it'll be fairly mild, temperatures low to mid—teens. as we move out to monday to tuesday, this more active weather front will bring some wet weather for england and wales throughout the day on tuesday.

turns briefly colder across the far north of the country, you can see there. but generally we're in the influence of low pressure. so next week will remain fairly unsettled. rain at times, generally mild for most of us, but it will start to see a little bit colder, particularly towards the end of the week across northern areas. and you can see that evidence here for the end of the week. but generally speaking, generally mild for mid to late december with outbreaks of rain, a little bit of brightness here and there.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. this week, how do you find your way through a place where the streets have no name? we work with them to map these regions, create routes, create streets, create addresses in order for them to receive not only their packages, but vital services. alasdair meets the ice cream experts racing to rework recipes so they can do their bit for the planet

by turning up the heat on the freezers.