hello. at least 70 people have been killed by an air strike in the al—maghazi refugee camp in gaza, according to the hamas—run health ministry. body bags have been piled outside the al—aqsa hospital, where many of the victims were taken. israel says it is investigating the incident. it comes amid scaled back christmas celebrations in bethlehem and across the occupied west bank. let's take a look at some live pictures this morning. this is the scene in israel border with lebanon. our correspondentjoe inwood has been monitoring the latest developments. for the people of gaza, there is no respite.

this was once a residential block — reduced to rubble. multiple generations of families are said to have been killed, seemingly caught unawares. translation: we were having dinner, when suddenly the bombing started - without any warning. in an instant, our house collapsed. the victims were taken to the nearby al aqsa hospital. in a population as young as this, children are so often the victims. this incident already has one of the highest single death tolls since this war began — and it is expected to rise. israel maintains it tries to avoid civilian casualties, but the people of gaza are paying a huge price for this war. the idf released new footage showing what it says are tunnels under the strip — used for military purposes.

translation: hamas operates from civilian areas. _ it uses them to cover its terrorist activity. it is a very complex challenge that we face, and we do it well so our forces in the field achieve good results — like the brigade that found the tunnel network. while the vast majority of destruction has been in gaza, the west bank has not been spared. in the place where christianity was born, they marked the birth of christ by remembering the deaths this conflict has brought. we used here to have the lighting of the tree — christmas tree in the middle here. and we used to have a big christmas market in the playground down in the school. and we used to celebrate every night, at least for a week before. but this year we are just praying by night the holy mass, and we will pray for peace.

but those prayers are yet to be answered. this has been the most devastating conflict between israelis and palestinians in modern times — and it shows no signs of ending. joe inwood, bbc news. israeli and arab media are reporting that egypt has put forward a new proposal for a ceasefire in gaza in three phases, which would lead to the release of all israeli hostages in exchange for palestinian prisoners held in israeli jails. earlier, i spoke to abdelbassir hassan from bbc arabic who's in cairo. although there are no official comments or remarks from the egyptian side, which is said to be behind this initiative so far, we have learned that it has three stages. the first is to an exchange of hostages and prisoners from both sides. it is said of the deal would

include a truce for three or four weeks, more or less. the two sides would exchange a0 hostages in return for 120 prisoners. it would be forming a technocrat cabinet from the palestinian side, followed by holding a national dialogue between the palestinian factions here in cairo in order to see what would be the future of gaza after the war. the third would be like a comprehensive deal for an exchange of prisoners from both sides, like 7800 inside israeli jails in return for the more than 100 prisoners who would be in hamas and jihad hands in gaza. so what are the chances of this plan coming to fruition?

first of all, we have to do tell that in egypt there are no official statements from any side. i have contacted an expert who is close to this several minutes ago and he said that at this moment it isjust an idea, which is not completely right at this moment. egypt is having conversations with parts including israel and the united states and seemingly it had a green light from the united states to go that way and it had hosted hamas a few days ago. and today is hosting islamist jihad to talk on this. and he confirmed that egypt has opened an open line with the palestinian national authority. i have spoken to the permanent representative of the palestinian national authority in the arab league yesterday. he said he himself didn't know anything about these ideas except from the media but he said there could be a mechanism between the two sides. the egyptians and of course

palestinians but we have learnt from israeli media that israel had already received these ideas and is considering at the moment without any final decisions because it is still completely, not completely right at this moment. therefore, i think we have to wait to see what it says and of course we have to listen to hamas, which is the basic party in this deal if it is really true. thank you very much for bringing us up to date. earlier i spoke to saddam sayyaleh from anera, an organization that provides humanitarian and development aid to gaza. he gave me an update on their aid efforts. i have been deployed. i am based injordan and have been deployed to egypt since the beginning of the war, trying to coordinate the entry of aid through egypt to gaza. so far, we have been a little bit successful in allowing some

of the aid to get into gaza that we are focusing on food. so far it has been able to distribute 8 million food parcels, vegetables, baskets, shelter cleaning. we were able to do over1 million medical treatments for the health facilities inside gaza with five pop—up health clinics inside gaza. as you know, we are looking inside gaza at the situation which is very dire. we are looking at nine out of ten people who are eating less than one meal a day. and this is a testament by the world food programme and integrated food security classification that was activated just recently, that is ringing the alarm that we are looking

into a famine in gaza. we are looking at 85% of gaza that has been displaced. we are looking at 1.9 million people out of their homes. and how much relief has this un resolution, the security council's vote last week, made if anything in terms of a difference to the aid that is getting through? unfortunately, since the very beginning of the war, and this is a reality, humanitarian aid is not enough. the amount of trucks that are going inside gaza are not enough. on a normal day before the war we were looking at a minimum of 500 trucks going inside gaza. today, we are looking at less than 100 trucks going inside gaza and we are looking into a catastrophe because the displacement,

the need is massive. children have dehydration, they're not eating. the world food programme are saying nine out of ten people are eating less than one meal a day. so that is a testament that the aid that is going in is not enough and we need more of that. and we need more humanitarian aid to be allowed in. there are organisations that have a great response since the beginning of the war because of the humanitarian situation inside gaza that we need to support and push for more humanitarian aid to get inside gaza. and is there anything more your contacts on the ground can tell us about this air strike today at the refugee camp? we are hearing that at least 70 people have been killed there? absolutely. we have a team, we have been operating in gaza for over a5 years. our team are from gaza.

the humanitarian workers are at the critical position because of the communication blackout. the bombardment that is happening in a very chaotic way. we are hearing every day from our team about the risk of distributing aid but as well about the bombardment that is happening all over gaza that is challenging the humanitarian distribution inside gaza. that is creating barriers, even if you have aid it is still very difficult to get that aid to where it is needed. so we need a ceasefire, we need more humanitarian aid getting into gaza to support children, women, 85% of people who are displaced inside gaza. 0k, thank you very much for bringing is up—to—date on the work that your organisation does and on the situation in gaza. earlier i spoke to our correspondent in bethlehem shaimaa khalil. celebrations there have been cancelled because of the war in gaza.

bethlehem feels and looks very different. christmas is supposed to be the height of the season of celebrations here in bethlehem. the eyes of the world would have been on this place. the birthplace ofjesus. for celebrations leading the world into the marking of christmas. and yet it looks nothing like it's festive itself. i have been here for days. i have been in manger square, where the huge christmas tree is supposed to be. it would be heaving with activities, pilgrims and tourists celebrating christmas. none of that is happening. instead, yesterday, in the place where the tree was supposed to be, many dozens of palestinian children held a flag, a palestinian flag, and waved it with a message of solidarity for a gaza's children. the scouts were holding banners saying, we pray for gaza. you do feel that these images that come out of gaza, including

from al—maghazi, with what you saw in the report earlier, they hit very close to home here because many here also have family and friends trapped inside gaza. i spoke to one young man who was on the phone to his father and his father is trapped in a church in the east of gaza city. his dad was telling me there is just destruction all around us. they are very reluctant to move because he says that the roads leading to areas in the south are extremely dangerous, but also he said that many people who had moved to supposedly safer areas have been killed. that is the complaint you hear, even from people who made it out of the rubble in al—maghazi. they have been evacuated from gaza city to come to central gaza only to be hit like they did last night. the danish shipping giant, maersk, says it's preparing to resume shipping operations through the red sea and gulf of aden. the announcement came after an international

military operation, led by the united states, was deployed to prevent the targeting of commercial ships by drones from areas of yemen controlled by houthi rebels. maersk and other shipping companies stopped sending ships through the red sea and the suez canal earlier this month, as a result of drone attacks. us central command said two days ago that a us navy destroyer had shot down four drones in the red sea launched from yemeni territory. king charles is spending his second christmas as monarch with other members of the royal family at sandringham. they're attending morning service at the church on the estate — before his christmas message is broadcast this afternoon. let's take a look at the pictures of the royal family arriving at church a few minutes ago. we have heard that the king and queen led to the family to the church. you can see them all there. also in attendance was, i think you

can see there perhaps in the pictures, for the first time in many years, sarah duchess of york, who walked alongside her former husband, prince andrew. just there you can see them if you look to the right of the frame at the back. sarah ferguson and prince andrew walking into the church in sunderland for the annual christmas day service. and of course, later today we will be hearing from king charles in his christmas day message. i spoke to our royal correspondent daniela relph, who was waiting for the royal family's arrival in sandringham. some people have been waiting since the early hours of the morning here — so a long wait — hoping to get front and centre position to see the royal family. and if you are a bit of a royal watcher, then sandringham is a good one to come to because normally the big royal events — thejubilees, the weddings — it's quite hard to get up close

and personal to the royalfamily. it's very different here. you do probably... you will probably get to see them quite close up when they leave church here. traditionally, they take a slow walk back to the main house, chatting to people, taking flowers. so there is a very good chance that some of these people on the move now here will get a chance to talk to senior members of the royal family. and leading the royal pack today will be the king and the queen, and with them will be other senior members of the family, including the prince and princess of wales and their three children, george, charlotte and louis. and there has actually, this morning, been the release of a new photograph of charlotte, george and louis. released this morning by the photographerjosh shinner. it's a black and white informal image of the three royal children sitting on a bench together with their arms around each other, laughing and smiling and looking at each other, at each other. it's a really charming new photo for christmas day, it was taken as part of the collection that they had for the family christmas card this year. that's been released this morning.

and there are lots of people in the crowd here today who are really hoping they might get to chat to the royal children this morning. daniela relph at sandringham. let's look at some live pictures of the pope giving his urbi et 0rbi speech — this literally means "to the city of rome and to the world" — and refers to the papal blessing that is extended to the whole world on christmas day. the pontiff gives this special blessing from the balcony of the central facade of st peter's basilica. we have heard that in that address so far he has deplored what he described as the desperate humanitarian situation in gaza. it comes after his christmas eve mass, where he also appealed for peace in the middle east, saying that the message ofjesus christ has been drowned out by what he described as

the futile logic of war. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. here in the uk, an appealfor peace in the middle east has been echoed by the head of the catholic church in england and wales. cardinal vincent nichols says he is extremely worried after two women seeking shelter in a church, in gaza, were reportedly killed by israeli snipers. a claim denied by the israel defense forces. the cardinal says catholic parishioners may be forced to leave. i think my biggest fear is that somehow they will be given orders to vacate and just move, just go. there is no say. they want to stay. they have always stayed there. they have always looked after the needy, the 5a seriously handicapped children who are there. sometimes, times of darkness help us to focus on what is

really of lasting importance. and there is no doubt in my mind that there is no doubt in my mind that the person of christ, and of the birth we celebrate, is an indomitable light that shines into the human heart. you are live with bbc news. for the first time in more than a hundred years, ukraine will mark christmas today instead of injanuary. these are pictures from st michael's cathedral in kyiv a little earlier, where for the first time in ukraine, believers of different religious denominations are celebrating christmas on the same day. the change is thought to be a way of cutting ties with russia, which celebrates christmas in accordance to the orthodox calendar. as ukrainians mark a second christmas at war, president zelensky said he was praying for victory, and for evil to be defeated. his holiday address came after us politicians were unable to agree on military aid worth almost

£50 billion for kyiv. 0ur ukraine correspondentjames waterhouse reports from the city of kupyansk near the eastern border, which was occupied for six months after russia s full—scale invasion and comes under almost daily attack. christmas in kupyansk is a celebration in name only. children were evacuated from this front line city, and only 5000 people remain. it used to be five times that. siren sounds days are punctuated with artillery shells and sirens. life continues for those who've stayed. but it's a tense existence. translation: we all live in fear of death when we go to work. - we don't know what can happen, whether russia will strike with rockets. we all live on the edge.

we don't know whether we'll come back home alive. 17—year—old sophia has lived through both occupation and liberation. her dad is fighting, and she's not impressed with her country's fate being determined by skeptical western politicians. translation: perhaps they should | come here and see for themselves| what the situation is like, and how much the aid is needed. if there's no help for ukraine now, russia will take its aggression further. the russians are eight kilometers to the east of the city. but what ukraine's military is worried about is them pushing once more up to the 0skil river, before making another push. and that is the point kyiv is trying to make. if western support was to further slow down, then russia won't stop there. it still wants the whole of ukraine.

the briefest of pauses for a christmas prayer. large gatherings are dangerous here when russian drones loiter above. instead of these troops forcing out their invaders, it is them repelling constant attacks. translation: it's day and night. there are no breaks. it's 2a/7. we have more targets, so we need more shells. they throw lots of men and machinery into battle. they don't pity anything. it's hard to sell a victory, which seems distant. ukraine struggle to contain western doubt has left it with a new year looking far from certain. james waterhouse, bbc news. james waterhouse is in kharkiv and gave us his thoughts on what a second christmas under the shadow of war might feel like for ukrainians it is the first time in more than a

hundred years that ukraine celebrates christmas on the 25th of december. but it's a very difficult time. we are not seeing much in the way of festivities. in this part of ukraine at large gatherings are a rare occurrence. this is somewhere that comes under frequent assault from the sky. it is a0 miles from the russian border. president zelensky was keen to strike an optimistic, hopeful tone in his christmas address, where he said he would pray for a ukrainian victory, and for evil to be defeated. he talked about previous struggles ukraine has gone through, whether under the soviet union or through nazi germany, and he is drawing direct parallels. but i think these are incredibly difficult times. 12 months ago, his military had liberated a swathes of territory throughout the autumn. there is a belief that ukraine wouldn't stop there and a belief that ukraine can still win this war. i think that

belief is enduring but there is a pragmatism starting to creep in. because the last 12 months has seen ukraine's counteroffensive. but it has also seen russia not only hold onto the fifth of ukraine it has taken and occupied, but it has also shown russia can defend itself too. this is a war that favours the defender in a way. when ukraine is still the smaller box in this fight, if you like, it has got fewer men, fewer resources than russia, russia is now starting to make its size count. we are in a war of attrition. we have seen dozens of drones shot down over night. that is now part of a regular routine in ukraine. we are seeing ukraine repel wave after wave of russian attacks. we are even seeing it scaled down its military operations in others. the waning western support is not only putting ukraine's future military hopes into

jeopardy, it is affecting them right now. we heard western governments saying, we are in it for as long as it takes with ukraine, we can't allow russia to win, but there is a political reality settling in, whether it is opposition mps, a new government that doesn't want to provide support for ukraine, the argument here is that that is what russia has been waiting for, any kind of peace deal or negotiation since vladimir putin, because it lessens the urgency on western support to continue and it allows russia to continue being on a war footing, so it can make a push, ukraine argues, in the coming months or even years for keir. james waterhouse. from ukraine to other parts of the world tour events have been in place celebrating christmas. around the world, services, events and santa runs have been taking place to mark one of the holiest days in the christian calendar. here are some of the best christmas images from around the world.

pope francis presided over christmas eve midnight mass in st peter's basilica at the vatican. worshippers praying at a service in st francis church in sri lanka. jesus in the manger of a nativity scene in the bangladeshi capital, dhaka. children in lviv wore traditional dress for a christmas celebration in ukraine. and surfers at bondi beach in sydney dressed festively for the occasion. hgppy happy christmas. hope you are having a lovely day. the weather for the rest of the day remains fairly cloudy. rain on and off. snow in the hills of scotland, in the north. boxing day looks sunnier, drier and cooler. what we have today are weather fronts in the south and north. this one will pep up through

the day and this one, as it engages with the cold air, especially in the hills of scotland, will produce some snow, as much as five to eight centimetres. the heavier rain across wales will push into central and southern england and also into eastern england where it is still mad. highs of up to 1a degrees, considerably colder across scotland. this evening and overnight the rain clears away from southern england. a few showers in northern ireland, southern scotland and northern england. a lot of clear skies. it is going to be cold in the north, cold enough for some frost and some ice. that is in parts of scotland. that takes us into tomorrow. tomorrow, for northern england and southern scotland, will have a legacy of cloud and a few showers. that would break up. we have a lot of dry weather. a fair bit of sunshine. cloud building in the south—west. the wind will strengthen. a cooler

day than today. that is courtesy of this clutch of weather fronts which are going to be pushing northwards and eastwards overnight tuesday into wednesday, taking some heavy rain, windy everywhere, and you can see some snow as well. the strongest winds are likely to be in the south coast of england and the english channel, 50 to 60 mph. there will be some heavy rain as well. as that pushes across the pennines, the lake district and into scotland, we will see some snow. it is in scotland where we are likely to see the most amount of snow, above 200 metres. ten to 15 centimetres. strong winds. in some of the heavier bass we could see some of that getting down at times to lower levels. still colder in the north and comparatively mild, especially for the time of the year, in the south. as we move through the latter part of the week, on thursday it remains unsettled with showers, snow on the hills, and then it turns a bit cooler.

now on bbc news, we look back at the biggest stories of the past year.

there's a huge barrage going on overhead just at the moment. yevgeny prigozhin seemed determined to march his men to the top of the hill. then, he marched them down again. political persecution like something straight out of a fascist or communist nation. this is southern israel and that is gaza, and the war here has dominated the news agenda since early october. tragic and polarising, it's one of the biggest stories of 2023 and one that i have followed here and reported on throughout,

speaking to people in israel and in gaza about how they're