hello, i'm carl nasman. prime minister benjamin netanyahu says israel will intensify its fight against hamas in the coming days, adding that the war is "not close to being over". he made the comments to members of his party, after a rare visit to israeli troops in gaza, where he urged soldiers to keep fighting. later on monday, he addressed parliament, and was heckled by relatives of hostages demanding the immediate release of their loved ones. israel says that 132 people are still held captive in gaza. meanwhile, aid agencies continue to warn of the desperate conditions in gaza, with the un again warning that civilians there have nowhere safe left go. on sunday, 70 people were killed in an israeli strike in the densely populated al maghazi refugee camp. the gaza health ministry says at least 250 people have been killed in the last 2a hours. shaimaa khalil sends this

report from bethlehem. a warning, some of the images in her report are distressing. crowd chants: achshav! achshav! heckled by the families of the hostages. "achshav" — "now" — they chant, a demand for the immediate release of their loved ones. benjamin netanyahu reiterates the only way to get them back was to keep fighting and that this military campaign won't wind down any time soon. translation: we won't succeed at releasing all the hostages - without military pressure, operational pressure, political pressure, and that is why there is one thing that we will not do — we will not stop fighting. mr netanyahu was in gaza speaking to the troops on the ground, some of whom he said wanted to keep fighting until the end. the war in gaza is not close to being over, said the prime minister, as the agony of gazans continues. bearing the brunt, and overcome with distress.

pointing to her pain. "it hurts here, mama," she says. her mother is trying to console her. late at night, their homes were bombed. the wounded kept coming to the nearby al—aqsa hospital, already overwhelmed, with no fuel or water and minimal supplies. in gaza, there is no respite for the people, or those trying to save them. for many, it was too late. the writing on these body bags says "remains of al—maghazi." abdul rahim survived the air strike. his wife didn't. he says that in his building, several children and displaced people were killed. translation: our block was meant to be safe, i according to the israeli military maps. but there are no safe areas in the gaza strip. in a statement to the bbc, the israeli military said it was looking into the incident, adding

that it was committed to taking feasible steps to minimise harm to civilians. as the scale of the devastation becomes clear, so too does the challenge facing rescue teams who've been struggling to get in, with roads blocked after the strike. in bethlehem, christmas looks and feels very different. no tourists, no festivities, lots of prayers. this time of year, the eyes of the world would be on the birthplace ofjesus. but it's been stripped of any signs of celebration. instead, there are messages of solidarity and calls to end the suffering. for the people here, those images of destruction and death coming from gaza hit very close to home. the pain in gaza is felt very deeply here. this year, it's replaced what is normally a time ofjoy. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, bethlehem. earlier, the bbc spoke with gemma connell. a representative of the un humanitarian affairs agency, ocha.

she recently visited the al—aqsa hospital where many of the injured from the meghazi refugee camp were taken. what i saw again today, which i see every day that i'm here in gaza, is the absolute carnage and unprecedented suffering that's been caused by this war. i met a young 9—year—old boy, ahmed. ahmed came in with a traumatic injury to his head. he had been walking just outside the school that his family was sheltering in, and he passed away while i was in the hospital with him and his family. and it's stories like ahmed's that i hope make it to the world, because this 9—year—old child's doing what any nine—year—old child would be doing, except that that school was not a school, it was a shelter, and except that he died walking outside that school. that's the type of thing that we see here every day in gaza. the hospitals are overcrowded, they are overburdened, they are working day and night. these health workers are absolute heroes, and i have no words to describe the phenomenal work that they are doing every day. but i had two doctors —

two grown men, incredible professionals, heads of their professions — in tears with me today, because one of their colleagues, a nurse at the hospital, had stood there last night as the casualties entered, and one after the other, his family members were brought through the door — first his father, then his mother, his sister, his children and his grandparents, all brought through the door, one by one. and so these health workers are not only working every single day to save lives with patients piled up on each other, with patients who can't get surgery that would save their lives, but they're also dealing with the reality of the war themselves. they're not sleeping. they're working 2a hours a day to try and save as many lives as possible. and yet one of them said to me as i sat there, "we're all waiting for the minute "when it's our families who come dead through this door." now — to some developing news. the pentagon says it has

conducted retaliatory strikes on three facilities in iraq used by iran—sponsored kataib hezbollah and affliated militia groups. it comes after attacks on the erbil air base earlier on monday by the groups, which left three us personnel injured, including one in critical condition. president biden ordered the strikes after he was briefed on the attacks. us central command said it destroyed the targeted facilities, and likely killing militants. no civilians were affected. defense secretary lloyd austin said in a statement, "the president "and i will not hesitate to take necessary action "to defend "the united states, our troops, and our interests. "while we do not seek to escalate conflict "and fully "prepared to take further necessary measures to protect "our people and our facilities. there has been a spike in activities by hezbollah

and other militias in the region following israel's military operation in the gaza strip. iranian state media say a senior member of the revolutionary guards has been killed by an israeli air strike. sayyed razi mousavi reportedly died from the attack near the syrian capital, damascus. mousavi was one of the oldest advisers of irgc in syria and was responsible for co—ordinating the military alliance between damascus and tehran. parham ghobadi from bbc persian talked to the bbc�*s lewis vaughanjones about the significance of mousavi. sayyed razi mousavi was such an important commander, a senior revolutionary guard commander in syria, that iranian state tv interrupted this programme to announce his death. and...the iranian revolutionary guard also issued a statement saying that he was in charge of the logistics in syria and in lebanon. and he was a very close aide to slain iranian general qasem soleimani, who was killed in a us drone strike in iraq back in 2020. so he was an extremely important figure. they also mentioned that he was killed by three missiles that hit the building where he was staying in zeinabia, which is a town on the outskirts of damascus, capital of syria.

and what's israel been saying about it? israel usually has a no comment policy so they neither reject or accept responsibility in such strikes, usually we get to hear through it through israeli media. this time like the previous attacks, they have not commented on this special strike. given everything that has happened through the region, talk us through the significance of this. we had to see this in light of the recent flare—up, between israel and iran, it has been two days since us officials say iran launched a drone and hit an oil tanker near indian coast which is 1000 kilometres away from iranian territory. so iran today said they were not involved in this attack, but us officials say the drone, the kamikaze drone was launched from the iranian territory

and we know houthis in yemen were backed by iran, they have been targeting oil tankers in the red sea, those were involved with the israelis in this oil tanker targeted by the iranians was also related to israelis. russian dissident, alexei navalny, has been found in a remote prison colony in northern siberia. he had been missing for almost three weeks. the us state department welcomed the news but says it remains deeply concerned about his well—being. mr navalny�*s spokesperson says he was moved from his previous prison outside of moscow. mr navalny is one of president putin's leading opponents. in 2020 he was poisoned. he and his supporters believe it was due to his criticism of the russian president. he's been in prison since 2021 and is serving a 19—year sentence on charges of extremism — which the us state department has called �*unjust.’ the new prison he's

being held is in a semi—autonomous region in the arctic ik3, is nicknamed the polar wolf colony. you can see it marked on the map there — it's considered one of the toughest prisons in russia, and was founded on the site of a former soviet gulag camp. here's what alexei navalany's spokesperson has said. there is no law in russia that is applied to alexei. they always create for him special conditions, and they don't have anything to do with the law. so we don't have any legal routes. we know that for sure in this new colony that his conditions would be even worse than they were before. but the thing is that this colony is very distant. it is very difficult to access. for lawyers, it will be very difficult to go there and to see alexei. it comes almost three months before a presidential vote in russia, which is expected to hand president putin a fifth term. our europe regional editor, paul moss, has this analysis. it is good news and terrible news at the same time. good news because there were fears for his life,

this man has been a thorn in the side of the kremlin for so long. they probably tried to kill him before some feared they'd done it again. yes, he is alive and his lawyer say he is all right, to use her words. however, this penal colony he is in is really brutal. i have not been to that region but have been in the same neighbourhood of russia. visiting a former penal colony in the far north of russia in the arctic circle. it is hard to describe just how awful it is. i remember i was wearing several layers of professional grade mountaineering gear and yet i have never been so freezing cold in my life. quite indescribably so. i talked to people who worked at the prison camps there who clearly were not having the benefit of the kind of clothing i was wearing. tough beyond all measure. i think also the timing of this is very interesting. there were presidential elections coming up in march, no—one has any doubt vladimir putin will win. it seems like the kremlin is really not taking any

chances at all. on saturday they banned an anti—war candidate from standing on some technicality. now this move to get navalny as far away as possible. his lawyer said it will be hard to visit him. they clearly do not want this man having any influence at all and in a terrible way i suppose it is a complement to the extraordinary power alexei navalny still has. certainly in the kremlin imagination. for the first time in more than a hundred years, ukraine has marked christmas day on the 25th of december — instead of january 7th. it's a way of cutting ties with russia, which celebrates christmas according to the orthodox calendar. but for many ukrainians, there's little cause for celebration, with fears western support for the war could be waning. james waterhouse reports from the front line city of kupiansk, which was occupied for six months last year, and where russian troops remain just five miles away.

christmas in kupiansk is a celebration in name only. children were evacuated from this frontline city, and only 5,000 people remain. it used to be five times that. siren wails. 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. i 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 sofia has lived through both occupation and liberation. her dad is fighting and she's not impressed with her country's fate being determined by sceptical 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 kilometres to the east of the city. hansk kupiansk but what ukraine's military is worried about, is them about, is them pushing once more up to the oskil river before making another push. and that is the point kyiv is trying to make. sings prayer 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 24/7. 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's struggle to contain western doubt has left it with a new year looking far from certain. james waterhouse, bbc news, kupiansk. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. now, in the uk, the king has delivered his christmas message, emphasising the importance of "universal" values shared between major religions against a backdrop of conflicts in israel, gaza, sudan and ukraine. ata time at a time of increasingly tragic conflict around the

world, i pray that we can also do all in our power to protect each other.— do all in our power to protect each other. the words of jesus seem more — each other. the words of jesus seem more than _ each other. the words of jesus seem more than ever - each other. the words of jesus seem more than ever relevant| each other. the words of jesus l seem more than ever relevant - seem more than ever relevant — do to others as you would have them do to you. such values are universal, drawing together our abraham egg family of religions and other belief systems across the commonwealth and wider world. they remind us to imagine ourselves in the shoes of our neighbours and to seek their good as we would our own. —— abrahamic king charles also talked of protecting the planet as being a spiritual duty, thanking those "caring for our common home" and praising people who volunteer in their communities. you're live with bbc news. in nigeria, at least 113 people have been killed in coordinated attacks by armed herders on farming communities. the attacks in plateau state began on saturday and lasted until midnight

on sunday, when many people were sleeping. local media say the group also burned down houses and stole farm produce. villagers were seen packing their belongings and fleeing the area after the attacks. back in may, fighting between farmers and herders killed more than 100 people. plateau is one of central nigeria's ethnically and religiously diverse states where clashes between muslim herders and christian farmers have killed hundreds in recent years. peter okwoche, a former bbc presenter for focus on africa, has more on the conflict's history. there are many facets to this fighting in plateau state. plateau state lies at the crossroads between northern nigeria and southern nigeria, so some people call it an ethno—religious clash, because northern nigeria is predominantly muslim while southern nigeria is predominantly christian. but if you add politics

to the mix, you add agriculture to the mix and you add climate change to the mix, then you've got this huge flashpoint in what has been going on since the year 2000 and 2001, so approximately 23 years now. now, the problem is the nonindigenous herders from northern nigeria who tried to move their cattle towards the south, so they can get grazing lands, and then the indigenous southerners in plateau state — the settlers — they accused these herders of allowing their cattle to eat up all their farmland and all theirfarmed produce, and then that causes, that's the immediate cause of this clash. now, like i said earlier on, most of the northerners are muslims and most of the southerners, the indigenous plateau citizens, are christians, so religion now comes into the mix.

and of course when i say climate change, it's because the sahara desert is encroaching so far south into nigeria that these herders have no choice but to move their cattle towards southern nigeria, where there is more grazing, and then that is when you add climate change to the mix. so it's a conflict that has been going on between 20 and 23 years, and it seems the nigerian governmentjust doesn't have — or subsequent nigerian governments just haven't found — a solution to it. in the us, economic growth is expected to slow next year. the congressional budget office has predicted gdp will grow 1.5% next year — that's down from this year. but a slight rebound is predicted for 2025, with gdp expected to increase by 2.2%. before that though, the cbo expects unemployment to rise to 4.4% by the end of 202a. my colleague caitriona perry spoke to tomas philipson, who served on the council

of economic advisers in the donald trump administration. it has been another year where the cost—of—living crisis and affordability crisis has been troubling many americans, as it has around the world, but if we focus here on the situation in the us, is next year likely to be any better? people realise that inflation is coming down in 2023, and people are expecting that to continue into 202a. what has been the troublesome issue in the us is incomes have not kept up with inflation so that purchasing power of your earnings, or your wages, have gone down. the paychecks do not reach as far and that has been the real cost—of—living crisis we have had over the last couple of years in the us. at the same time, unemployment has been at a record low as well. do you think broadly speaking — and i know you were working under president trump — broadly speaking,

do you think bidenomics has been working? no, i do not think so because if you look at the labour market, yes, there is low unemployment by the number of people who enter the labour market every month or so is about 100,000 - 200,000. that is nothing compared to the 160 million or so people in the labour market and they are basically experiencing lower standards of living. so it is great we have more people in the labour market. but the vast majority of them were there before and their standard of living has decreased and the way economists think of this is the quantity of labour has gone up but the price of labour, wages, have gone down and if that is the troublesome aspect, which was very different during the pre—pandemic trump years, when we had large growth, particularly of the lower income distribution in the us. let's get some of the

day's other news now. police in sri lanka say they have arrested almost 15,000 suspects during a week—long drive against drug traffickers across the country. authorities say the operation led to the seizure of almost 440 kilograms of various narcotics, including heroin. more than a thousand addicts have been sent to a military—run rehabilitation centre. there's been widespread anger and protests after three civilians were found dead in indian—administered kashmir, a day after they were reportedly taken into questioning by security forces. police in the region have launched an investigation into the incident. five other civilians with injuries are being treated in hospital. the chinese capital, beijing, has experienced its coldest december since records began in 1951. the city endured nine consecutive days with temperatures lower than minus ten degrees celsius. six months ago, beijing recorded its hottest—ever june day when the temperature crossed 40 degrees celsius. a christmas carol written

almost a century ago has found a new audience after it was discovered by accident. cathy killick has the story. # glad tidings of the saviour bring # peace reigneth as we gaily sing # ring on, ring on # ring on while the merry breezes sing of christmas bells composed 90 years ago, this is, as far as we know, the first public performance of this beautiful carol. it was published in the barnsley chronicle in 1933, but was recently rediscovered by michael hardy, when he was researching the history of barnsley town hall. the carol was published the same month the town hall opened and survives on crumbly pages in the newspaper archive. it was almost a full page of the newspaper and i weren't expecting to see that. i've seen articles about the town hall and adverts

for christmas — this kind of stood out because i've not seen anything like this before in the paper. michael showed it to his colleague, tegwen roberts, who is also a musician. a day later she sang it on the town hall staircase. # the chime of bells inspires the midnight breeze... she then put a video on youtube with scenes of barnsley christmases past. it went down a storm and prompted more research into the writer, one arthur godfrey. he was born in barnsley in the 18705. we thought he would be quite well known, so we had a look through the paper to see whether he published any other stuff and actually did not find much. what we did find was that he was a glass bottle maker in barnsley. he started age 12 and he worked sort of throughout his life in that industry but obviously was a really talented musician alongside that. # glad tidings of the saviour bring...

it feels really special and i think for me as a singer, songs, they come alive when you sing them, and also to have the music published alongside the words — quite often you get words published and no tune, so to be able to know what the composer intended at the time and to be able to then re—create that, it is really, really special. that sell from us by now. happy holidays and a prosperous new year. holidays and a prosperous new ear. ,, , holidays and a prosperous new ear. ,, ._ ., holidays and a prosperous new ear. ,, ., a, holidays and a prosperous new ear, ,, ., “ year. stay with a. more bbc news coming _ year. stay with a. more bbc news coming up _ year. stay with a. more bbc news coming up at - year. stay with a. more bbc news coming up at the - year. stay with a. more bbc news coming up at the top. | year. stay with a. more bbc i news coming up at the top. -- news coming up at the top. —— stay with us. hello. we had some christmas day weather contrasts, with a high of 13.6 celsius, it was the mildest christmas day since 2016, but at the same time, northern scotland had snow, and so it was a white christmas. this stripe of cloud here brought rain for some of us, but in the north of the uk, colder air was in place, and that colder air is now pushing just a little bit further southward.

so a chillier day in prospect for boxing day. cold enough for some icy stretches through the morning across northern parts of scotland. some further wintry showers here through the first part of the day. one or two showers elsewhere, but broadly speaking, it should be a much drier and brighter day with some spells of sunshine. some of the showers in northern scotland could turn thundery through the afternoon. and at the same time, cloud and rain will be gathering across the southwest of england and the channel islands, where temperatures will reach 11—12 celsius. but elsewhere, 4—9 celsius covers it in most spots. and then as we head through boxing day night, we'll see cloud and rain spreading from the southwest, things turning very wet and very windy with some snow mixing in over high ground in northern england, and more especially across parts of scotland. temperatures coming up as the night wears on. a big area of low pressure dominating the scene for wednesday. if you have travel plans on wednesday, things do not look too pretty, i have to say, with a combination of heavy rain —

could well be enough rain in places to give some issues with flooding — but also some significant snow over high ground in the northern half of scotland. some areas could see 10—15cm of snow, say, above 200m elevation. it's possible that some spots exposed to the south—easterly wind could see even more snow than that. and the wind will be a big feature, widely a very windy day. we could see gusts of 50—60mph or more, gales around some of the coasts. temperatures, well, quite mild in the south, actually, 12—13 celsius. a little bit colder across northern parts of scotland, particularly where we will have snow falling. and then later in the week, through thursday into friday, we'll see various weather systems working from west to east. outbreaks of rain, perhaps a little bit of wintriness mixing in, as colder air tries to stage a comeback as we head towards the end of the year. that's all from me. bye— bye.

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. let's be clear, the only path forward towards justice and an independent state for palestinians is not through hamas violence.

i wake up with one thought — have i done enough yesterday for ukrainian soldier taking part in the counter—offensive to be able to save his life? we have to believe i in ukraine's victory. otherwise, i mean, this- is what russia is hoping for, to see cracks in our unity. the democrats and some in the media are scared to death that donald trump is going to get a second term and he is going to clean house in america. we need to think much more cleverly about how we produce food and how we're going to sustain those systems. we've got to remember that the planet is on fire. i'm telling you, there's. going to be a revolution. we are using ai in a way to subjugate people, reduce their autonomy, reduce their agency, reduce their contribution to production. in the spirit of your title of hardtalk, you're completely wrong.

welcome to this special year—ending edition of hardtalk