and actor lee sun—kyun — star of the oscar winning film parasite — is found dead in central seoul. hello, i'm lucy hockings. the israeli military is expanding its offensive in gaza, with troops pushing into the centre of the territory. and the palestinian health ministry says six people were killed in what it said was an israeli drone strike on a refugee camp in the occupied west bank. israel has not commented on the claim. in his first interview since the war began, the palestinian authority president, mahmoud abbas, who is based in the west bank, described the conflict as a "grave crime" against his people. graham satchell reports. night after night, for weeks now, the families of those taken hostage take to the streets of tel aviv. they're putting pressure on the israeli government to bring the hostages back

alive and stop the fighting. they need to look at other options. they're putting pressure on the israeli government the military pressure will continue. but we see they don't have any results. the head of the israeli army, herzi halevi, said the war could take many more months. "there are no magic solutions," he said. "there are no short cuts in dismantling a terrorist organisation, only determined and persistent fighting." in gaza itself, hospitals are overrun with the injured and the dead. the world health organization says almost all the hospitals in the gaza strip have now stopped functioning. there's blood everywhere in these hospitals at the moment. we're seeing almost only trauma cases come through the door and at a scale that's quite difficult to believe. it's a bloodbath, as we said before, it's carnage. in his first tv interview since the war began in october, the palestinian president, mahmoud abbas, described

the situation as a catastrophe and warned the west bank could implode at any time. translation: a huge i crime is being committed against the palestinians over the past 79 days. notjust in gaza but also in the west bank and jerusalem. gaza's hamas—run health ministry says 241 people have been killed in the last 2a hours, taking the total to more than 20,000. israel's campaign, which it says is to destroy the leadership of hamas, shows no sign of ending. graham satchell, bbc news. 0ur middle east correspondent yolande knell is injerusalem. she gave me the latest update on the fighting in the gaza strip. from the very north of the gaza strip, we've had from the israeli military reports that it's been taking action in shuja'iyya, which is to the east of gaza city. we know also that there was some heavy bombardment injabaliya. this is an area where israel has said that it has

operational control, but it says that its air strikes there targeted a hamas underground headquarters. then looking to the south of the gaza strip, to khan younis, that's where it's believed that hamas leaders could still be hiding in underground tunnels. israel's ground offensive continues there. we've also seen smoke rising up from israeli air strikes or from artillery fire this morning. and in the centre of the gaza strip, israel says it's expanding its ground offensive there in the last couple of days. it's issued evacuation orders for people to move away to the central town of deir al balah. and we've had warnings from the un and others that this is really a very worrying development, the expansion of the ground operation there, because you already have these urban refugee camps in the middle of the gaza strip, which are currently housing lots of people who have been displaced from other areas of gaza. they fled there for their own safety. yolande, we heard mahmoud abbas

saying in his first television interview that he's concerned about the west bank, saying it could implode at any time. more deaths there as well in the past 2a hours. can you explain to us the tensions that are in the west bank at the moment and what is happening there? yeah, i mean, tensions have been running extremely high in the west bank since the 7th of october. those deadly attacks by hamas on southern israel. and, in the weeks since, we've had the palestinian ministry of health saying that some 300 palestinians have been killed by israeli forces and by israeli settlers. and just overnight, we saw that there was an israeli raid on tulkarm, on the nur shams refugee camp close there, and that has killed six palestinians, according to palestinian health officials. it really shows just how there is this constant fear of an expansion beyond gaza, into the west bank as well. and we've actually had the israeli defense minister

yesterday also warning about a multi—front war, including the west bank in that, saying that there are seven theatres in which israel has to kind of look around the region at the moment. it's operating, he said, in six of those, without specifying where. also along the border with lebanon, things have been extremely tense. lots of cross—border exchanges in the past few days. we've had the houthis, backed by iran, from yemen, who've been launching attacks on ships in the red sea. the israeli military shooting down drones, it says, launched by them. really a lot going on, which gives a lot of concern to this crisis spreading beyond the boundaries here into the rest of the region. jason lee — save the children's country director for the occupied palestinian territory — told me that one in four families in gaza is at risk of famine. the situation continues to deteriorate every day for children.

the increased military kinetic activity means that a lot more children have been killed and injured, and these are lifelong injuries that children will bear. aside from the physical injuries, we are now in a situation where 1.9 million people, 85% of the population are displaced, which means they don't have access to food, to water, to the sanitation facilities, and are being crammed into areas that cannot accommodate them or have the infrastructure for them to survive. this means children are also subject to risk of starvation. one out of four households are at a risk of famine. and also, a public health emergency with diseases continuing to spread in overcrowded shelters, but also the overcrowded camps that are being set up all throughout the south of gaza right now. i asked israeli government spokesperson, mark regev, whether the declaration by the army that the war would last for many

more months was a sign that israel was not achieving its aims. no, but it means the campaign against hamas does need to finish thejob. we have to see hamas�*s military machine destroyed. we have to see the end of hamas rule in gaza. without that, we're just back to square one, with hamas in power in gaza and another 0ctober seventh massacre and the continued of hamas�*s autocratic extremist rule over the gaza strip. that's not good for israelis, that's not good for palestinians. mr regev, what do you say to people, many people who say it's not possible to entirely dismantle hamas, in fact, israel's actions are only increasing support for hamas in gaza and also in the west bank. you can't kill an ideology. you can't kill an ideology, but you can remove them from power. i mean, isis is still an ideology, a very, very dangerous ideology, but they no longer control territory in syria and iraq because there was a military coalition that

destroyed their military base. and we're going to do the same in gaza. we can't destroy hamas�*s ideology. unfortunately, that's not realistic. but we can remove them from power. we can prevent them from having control over this territorial enclave. and that will do a lot to save lives and prevent future conflict in the region. what do you say to jason lee, who i was just talking to — i hope you heard the interview — where he said some moral leadership is needed, now, it is time for a ceasefire, but more particularly that israel needs to adhere to international humanitarian law. what israel is doing in terms of preventing aid, preventing food and fuel getting into gaza, is not doing that, and therefore increasing the suffering of people there. it's simply not true. on day one of this war, the israeli security cabinet passed a decision that said we place no limitations whatsoever on food, water, medicine entering the gaza strip. at the same time, we've opened up a crossing in southern israel, the kerem shalom crossing,

for aid into gaza. so that's augmenting the aid coming in through rafah. and i can tell you that trucks that we've already inspected and authorized that have entered the southern part of the gaza strip are somehow being held up. and our concern is that hamas is deliberately augmenting, deliberately creating a problem with the distribution of the aid so as to put pressure on the international community to put pressure on for a ceasefire, because that's their only lifeline, because we are in the process of destroying hamas and they know the only way to save themselves and their regime of terror is to have pressure for a ceasefire. but everyone, if one talks about moral leadership, we can't accept hamas�*s terms. we can't accept their rules of the game. letting hamas survive is just a recipe for more violence down the road. ukraine says one person died and four were injured in a russian attack on a train station filled with civilians in the southern city of kherson. ukraine's interior minister said

about 140 people were waiting for a train to take them to safety when the shelling started. also russia has confirmed one of its warships was damaged on tuesday when ukraine attacked a black sea port in russian—occupied crimea. i spoke to our ukraine correspondent james waterhouse about what he's been hearing from kherson. daily shelling is part of life for the people that live in this city that was liberated last autumn. when the russian forces retreated across the dnipro river, which now forms the front line, they re—established their positions and they launch artillery strikes across the city frequently. and when you're there, the level of risk is always shocking, really, but forthose that remain, for them, they choose to stay in their homes. in their words, what you often hear is, "it is better now "than what it was like under russian occupation." but what we're hearing is that the number of casualties is relatively low compared to the numbers of people gathered at

this railway station. the authorities say around 140 people were there, but police have been credited in getting the majority of people out. a police officer, we gather, has lost their life in this attack, and four other people are being treated for shrapnel wounds. and we are told that it was an evacuation train they were hoping to take north. i think this is a train line that was established very quickly after kherson�*s liberation last year. the authorities very keen to restore this service, so we don't know for sure whether everyone was looking to escape the fighting, but it is a city that endures a very real danger on a daily basis. here in the uk, the conservative party is set to make pledges on housing and inheritance tax in the coming months as rishi sunak aims to boost his party's chances at the polls. meanwhile, labour has announced that its looking into new plans for their asylum policy. 0ur chief political correspondent henry zeffman gave me his assessment of the latest uk polls.

you're right to mention the polls, because the really important context for all of this is that just as they were at the start of 2023, at the end of 2023, the conservatives are a long way behind in the opinion polls, and there's going to be an election almost certainly next year and they need to find a game changer. and you have this morning in the newspapers, speculation about different ways in which they might try to carve a clear dividing line with the labour party. one of those is on inheritance tax. we've heard reports like this before, but claims that the government might abolish inheritance tax altogether in the budget, which will take place in march. now, they looked at that before the autumn statementjust a few weeks ago and ultimately concluded that it wasn't worth the amount of money that they would have to raise elsewhere. but perhaps the fiscal picture will have changed by next year. certainly the political imperative will be even nearer. the election will be even closer. at the other end of the age spectrum, if you will, there's also chatter about first—time buyers, people who want to get on the housing ladder

but currently can't. michael gove, who's the housing secretary, has been talking about ways in which he wants to make it easier for people to get onto the housing ladder. so it's the conservatives trying to appeal to different parts of the public in advance of what we all know is coming, that general election. and what's labour saying about their asylum policy? talk about election battlegrounds, perhaps there's none more important, certainly in the conservatives�* eyes, than immigration. legal but also illegal immigration and asylum. we hear we hear a lot about their rwanda policy designed to curb the flow of small boats coming across the channel. and when the labour party criticised the rwanda policy which they vigorously oppose, you get conservatives saying, "well, what would you do?" and what we've got today from the labour party is a little more detail on what they're considering, which is their own offshore processing. now, that doesn't mean, as the conservatives would like, sending people who've made it to the uk elsewhere to have their claims processed. but it might mean that people who've never come to the uk but want to make an application to claim asylum here can have their claims processed in a british embassy or some

other british centre in some key countries, which they hope would mean those people don't attempt that perilous crossing in the first place. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. travellers have been warned of delays and potentially hazardous conditions as the uk braces for storm gerrit. forcasters expect the storm to bring strong winds and heavy rain to many parts of the uk, with wintry hazards likely to follow. the met office named the storm as a warning to people heading home from christmas celebrations. the transport secretary has told the bbc that by 2026 there could be driverless cars on both the uk motorways and other roads. mark harper also said he expected to see the owners of those vehicles being able to travel without having to watch where they're going by the end of that year. renowned australian chef bill granger, known as the godfather of avocado toast, has died at the age of 5a.

a self—taught cook from melbourne, granger became a celebrated global restaurateur and food writer. he passed away in a london hospital on christmas day with his wife and three daughters by his side. you're live with bbc news. sport and for a full round—up, from the bbc sport centre, here's gavin. let's start with the premier league. another busy day ahead. manchester united forward rasmus hojlund said he was the happiest man alive after scoring his first league goal to complete a dramatic turnaround for his side on tuesday. united were 2—0 down to aston villa at old trafford but hojlund added to two alejandro garnacho goals in the second half to win the game 3—2. manager erik ten hag hopes they'll start seeing more goals from the danish striker, whojoined in summerfor more than £60 million. he knows he can do it. 0n the highest level — the champions league —

he's scored five so that is demonstrated ability. so then you know you can also do it at any level. premier league is close to champions league so it will come, but it will give him confidence. and when strikers have confidence, they will score more. three more games to come today in the premier league including manchester city's return to league action. city won the club world club before christmas, and later play everton as they look to close the gap on leaders liverpool. they're currently eight points behind them, with two games in hand. pep guardiola's side became the first english club to win five trophies in a calendar year, but the manager is keen for them to try to emulate last season's success. the most difficult time is to win and once we are here, we have to perform well. yes, really pleased. i had the feeling we would close the chapter. we won already other titles, some of them in a row. so, there's nothing else to win. i have

a feeling that the job is done, it is over and try to buy another book and i start to write it again because the book of the last eight years, it is over. city v everton is one of three games to come on wednesday. chelsea look to bounce back from defeat at wolves on christmas eve, when they host struggling crystal palace, and wolves are away at brentford. follow those scores on the bbc sport website later on. to cricket now, and australia captain pat cummins took three wickets to shift momentum away from pakistan on day two of the second test in melbourne. pakistan were 124 for1 before cummins took his first wicket, abdullah shafique caught and bowled by the aussie skipper. a couple of overs later, he dismissed babar azam. pakistan ended day two of their second test with australia on a disappointing 194 for 6, given how they started the day. they trail by 124 runs.

staying with test cricket, south africa are currently 49 for 1 in response to india's first innings total of 245 in their first test in centurion. mohammed siraj taking the only wicket so far as aiden markram was caught behind for 5. you can stay up to date with that one on the bbc sport website. bangladesh have beaten new zealand by five wickets in their first t20 in napier. litton das' unbeaten 42 giving the visitors a 1—0 series lead with eight balls remaining. the second game takes place on friday. and finally, the detroit pistons broke an nba record, but not one they'll be proud of. that's because they've now lost a record 27 games in a row after being beaten by the brooklyn nets. that's the most consecutive defeats in a season, in league history and they haven't won since their first home game against chicago bulls on 28 october.

and that's all the sport for now. nepal says it has received complaints that about 100 of its citizens fighting as mercenaries for the russian army are missing or injured in ukraine. the foreign minister said the government had raised with moscow concerns about nepali nationals fighting with russian forces. russia is believed to have attracted many fighters from asia, africa and latin america with promises of good pay and the possibility of russian citizenship. for more on this, i'm joined now by our south asia editor anbarrassan ethirajan. why are these young people in russia in the first case? you why are these young people in russia in the first case?— in the first case? you might wonder what is the — in the first case? you might wonder what is the connection _ in the first case? you might wonder what is the connection between - what is the connection between ukraine and nepal and now you see that how dozens of young men who go to russia, either to study, or on a

visit or a tourism purpose, and they join some of these mercenary groups or armed group join some of these mercenary groups orarmed group and join some of these mercenary groups or armed group and alongside the armed forces in the russian war and sometimes human traffickers or make and use of the opportunity and we understand that they charge up to $9,000 per person to take nepalese men via india to russia tojoin $9,000 per person to take nepalese men via india to russia to join the war as a mercenary. they are being lured into this with military purposes as well as also residency in russia. as you know, nipple is still an independent country and people are looking for opportunities to go abroad and work and it is being exploited by many given traffickers. we being exploited by many given traffickers-_ being exploited by many given traffickers. ~ ~ ., ., traffickers. we know that moscow itself is directly _ traffickers. we know that moscow itself is directly involved - traffickers. we know that moscow itself is directly involved in - itself is directly involved in anyway in recruiting? nepali police carried out a _ anyway in recruiting? nepali police carried out a big _ anyway in recruiting? nepali police carried out a big raid _ anyway in recruiting? nepali police carried out a big raid couple - anyway in recruiting? nepali police carried out a big raid couple of - carried out a big raid couple of weeks ago and they arrested about 12

suspected traffickers but they insisted that so far, they did not find any direct link about these kind of recruitment as mercenaries about russia. they have no direct proof to show that russia was involved but what the nepalese foreign minister was saying was that they had raised this issue with russia by calling the ambassador and expressing the concerns about how these nepali men are being recruited because of nepal does not allow its citizens to join foreign militaries except for india and britain due to this world agreement. at the same time, they are worried about the safety of their own nationals because the families here in nepal, they are worried about the safety of their loved ones fighting in ukraine and they are not even getting information because people want money and that is why they are taking this kind of risk. south korean police have confirmed that the actor lee sun—kyun has been found dead in a car near a park in the capital seoul. they are trying to establish whether the star of the oscar winning film parasite had taken his own life.

0ur asia correspondent, nick marsh, told me more about what the police are saying concerning the death. well, it was confirmed this morning that the body of this man in that car in the park here in seoul was indeed that of lee sun—kyun, the actor. they had received a report before that that he'd left his house and he'd written some kind of memo, this apparent suicide note. and i say apparent because the police, as of now, still haven't confirmed the cause of death. but that is certainly how it's been reported here in south korea, in local media, that it's an apparent suicide. tell us more about lee sun—kyun, because i think many in the world will know him from the film parasite, which was an oscar winning film, but he had many other big roles in south korea, too. yeah, he did. i mean, even before parasite, he was a household name here in south korea. he was a leading man in rom coms, in dramas. he had this kind of squeaky clean, family man image.

he was the face of many brands as well here in south korea. but the last three months have really turned his life upside down. they turned his life upside down because of these reports, like you pointed out earlier, of drug use. and drug use is a pretty big deal in south korea. it can carry pretty substantial penalties. you can serve jail time even for using a small amount. and the allegations were, starting in october, that he'd gone to a hostess bar, which in and of itself is quite salacious. but then on top of that, even worse was the drug use. so the police said they were investigating him for using marijuana, for ketamine. lee, it should be pointed out, always denied this. he said the substances he took, he did not know were drugs. but basically it ended up with a marathon questioning session over the weekend, 19 hours between saturday and sunday, lee was questioned by police. and that is the last we know of the case until this sad news

that we found out today. ten people have died and at least one person is missing after severe thunderstorms battered australia's east coast over the past two days. in victoria, a woman was killed when a campsite was inundated. tens of thousands of households in queensland are still without power, after winds of 100 kilometres an hour brought down trees and power lines. the national trust has warned that the unpalatable weather patterns here are causing chaos for nature. they say climate change is upsetting the rhythm of the seasons and the effects can be seen across its estates in england, wales and northern ireland. we have a live page on the website and we can show you this live shot where we are hearing from gaza's hamas run ministry where 140

where we are hearing from gaza's hamas run ministry where140 people have been killed. israel's military operation continues in the gaza strip and we also heard from the army chief in israel but this conflict will continue for many more months. palestinian president also culling the war a grave crime. all those details for you on the website. i will see in a few minutes. hello. storm gerrit will continue to bring some travel disruption across the uk during the rest of today and into tonight. rain and gales quite widely, but across parts of central and northern scotland during daytime, there could be some fairly disruptive snowfall too. the winds themselves come in two features. one is this one here, which we'll come into tonight, especially across parts of england and wales. but the strong winds quite extensively on those weather fronts which, as they hit the cold air, could bring over 20 centimetres of snow on the hills, being blown around by strong winds, so blizzard conditions,

but could even see a covering to some lower levels at times in the north of scotland. that'll have an impact to the roads. more especially, the likes of the a9. rain quite extensively at the moment. it will turn a little bit drier in the west, before dropping. up to around 90 millimetres of rain in some western hills. a wetter afternoon compared with the morning in east anglia and the south—east, and widely windy. widespread gales, 60—70 miles an hour gusts in the south—west. even wilder, touching 80 miles an hour, in the far north of scotland. that will temper the way things feel. so even those temperatures, 7 to 13 degrees, well above where we should be for this stage in december. tonight, it remains pretty wild in the far north of scotland, particularly shetland, with blizzards here. winds pick up around irish sea coasts, with winds touching 60, 70 miles an hour again. and we'll see batches of showers work their way across the country, but with some clearer skies, too. and with some more clear skies around tonight compared with last night, it will be a bit colder, especially across england and wales. a touch of frost in scotland. lighter winds here, though, for tomorrow morning. there'll still be some showers around. outbreaks of rain, though, will become more extensive in western scotland,

with longer spells of hill snow too later in the day. most of us, though, a day of sunshine and showers. some longer drier spells for one or two of you. a bit more brightness around, but the showers could be heavy and thundery. temperatures still above where we should be. things turn cooler, though, into friday. northerly winds bring wintry showers more extensively to northern scotland once again. could turn wintry. this band of rain across northern england, northern ireland, as the cold air digs in. to the south of it, staying slightly milder, but it will be a bright and breezy day, with sunshine and showers. chilly night friday night, but into saturday, the next band of wet, windy weather pushes its way in. more snow across hills in the north. sunday, though, that should clear its way southwards and eastwards, so we finish 2023 a little bit clearer, before more rain arrives on new year's day. take care.

now on bbc news. 0n the road with mexico's traileras.