"a demolition site" where "something needs to happen". i would like egypt and jordan to take people, you are talking about probably 1.5 million people and we just clean up that whole thing. this is the scene in gaza — where israel continues to stop tens of thousands of palestinians returning to the north, after accusing hamas of a ceasefire violation. chancellor rachel reeves hints a third runway at london's heathrow airport could get government support, as part of plans to grow the economy. a senior world health organization official tells the bbc it needs to be more nimble and reinvent itself — after trump orders the us to pull out of the agency. an election slammed as a "sham" and a farce —

alexandar lukashenko prepares to return to power as belarusian president, with all real challengers either in prison or enforced exile. hello, i'm rajini vaidyanthan. president trump says he'd like to see a—million—and—a—half of gaza's residents taken in by other arab nations — including jordan and egypt. he's told journalists the strip was "literally a demolition site" and suggested it be "cleaned out". israeli bombardments have reduced much of gaza to rubble. hamas says it would oppose any plan to relocate palestinians, while another militant group, islamichhad, described the plans as "deplorable". but the us president's comments are already being welcomed by far—right israeli politicians, some of whom want to restore jewish settlements there. let's take a listen to what president trump told reporters on air force one.

i'm looking at the whole gaza strip right now- and it's a mess. it's a real mess. you would like jordan to house people from gaza? yes, and i'd like - egypt to take people. i'm talking to general el—sisi . tomorrow sometime, i believe. and i'd like egypt to take people i and i'd like jordan to take| people, because, i mean, you're talking about probably a million and a half people, i and we just clean - out that whole thing. over the centuries, - it's many, many conflicts on that site. and i don't know, - something has to happen, but it's literally a demolition site right now, almost- everything is demolished . and people are dying there. so i'd rather get involved - with some of the arab nations and build housing - at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change. -

it could be temporarily. it could be long term. i the president's comments come as thousands of displaced palestinians are gathering in central gaza — waiting for the israeli military to allow them to return to their homes in the north of the strip. these are live pictures from wadi in gaza, where displaced people have been waiting to cross into the north. on saturday, israel said it wouldn't allow palestinians to return to their north as expected — accusing hamas of breaching the terms of the ceasefire deal. here's nick beake. this is central gaza today. thousands of palestinians who'd been told they'd be able to head north to what remains of their homes. but israel is blocking their way, accusing hamas of breaking the terms of this fragile ceasefire deal. so they wait with all they still possess. another moment of uncertainty

in 15 months of war. among them, umm wael abu jarad, desperate to find her husband's body still buried in the rubble. translation: the checkpoint is still closed. _ only god knows how much time it will take for the checkpoint to open. when we cross, we will still see the destruction that took place. and we will retrieve those who are buried under the rubble. this is israeli civilian hostage arbel yehud, who's being held in gaza. israel says it won't open the checkpoint until her release is arranged. hamas says she will be freed next weekend. president trump has now described gaza as a "demolition site" and talked about "cleaning out" the territory. it's brought accusations he was suggesting ethnic cleansing. the president said he'd like to see neighbouring egypt and jordan taking in more palestinians. here in israel, prominent far—right politicians have been delighted by president trump's comments. they want to see jewish settlers move

into gaza eventually. hamas say they will continue to block any plan to force gazans from their homeland, and that palestinians must be the ones rebuilding the strip. this weekend has seen four more israeli hostages released by hamas and then reunited with their families. 200 palestinian prisoners, many serving life sentences, have been freed from jail as part of this deal. a week in and this precarious truce is holding. but it's under increasing strain, and the next stages look even more fraught. nick beake, bbc news, jerusalem. i spoke to nick a little earlier — he told me more about concerns of those palestinians waiting in wadi gaza to return to their homes in the north. people just don't know. they were told that this weekend they'd be able to make that trip back towards their communities, which they know are destroyed

to varying degrees. so that wait continues. i think it all goes to what the israelis are saying now, i think it all boils down to this — so they've said that they won't let all those palestinian families move until the arrangements have been made for the release of the civilian hostage, who hamas say will be released next saturday. so it seems that the ball is in the court of the israelis in what exactly will happen next. but it does feel that this is at a pretty precarious moment, this ceasefire. it's been in operation a week now, but it is very fragile by its nature. indeed, nick, and what reaction has there been where you are and in the wider region to what we've heard from president trump? yes, far—right politicians here in israel are absolutely delighted by what he's had to say. you've got the finance minister, smotrich, saying that this is a really good thing, and you've got other prominent politicians saying that it's excellent news

that president trump is effectively speaking their language, because a lot of the far right here have this dream, as they put it, to see jewish settlers move into gaza and set up homes there. now, for the palestinian families, hundreds of thousands of families, they, i guess, like all of us, will be interpreting president trump's comments, because just a few days ago, he was talking about gaza in terms of being prime real estate. he said it had fantastic weather, it was a superb location by the sea. but now his latest comments have had him describe it as a wasteland, saying it's over, that it needs to be cleaned out. and as we've been hearing, that's prompted accusations from some that this suggestion he's come up with, without saying whether it's a temporary or a permanent solution, is tantamount to giving a green light to ethnic cleansing. the president says that he wants peace in the middle east, he wants to do deals. so it may well be that people who are concerned about this sort of language

president trump is using would look to others who say that actually, mr trump may want to do a deal that involves a bettering of relationships and normalisation of relationships between israel and saudi arabia, because it's worth stressing that the saudis surely wouldn't stand for any sort of deal which would involve, in some way, millions of palestinians being forced out of gaza. we are hearing reports in the israeli media that president trump's middle east envoy will be heading to israel in the middle of next week. staying in the middle east, the lebanese health ministry has accused the israeli army of firing at residents trying to return to their homes in southern lebanon, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. israel's military missed today's deadline to leave the area, as a 60—day ceasefire deal expired. it has not said how long its forces will stay in lebanon. both israeli troops and hezbollah fighters were supposed to have completed their respective withdrawals.

our correspondent hugo bachega is in beirut and gave us this update. this morning right after this deadline expired, we saw some dramatic images of thousands of residents trying to go back to those towns and villages along the lebanese—israeli border. and in recent days, hezbollah�*s television station, al—manar, actually encouraged residents to go back home — this is an area where hezbollah has a very strong presence, it still enjoys significant support — despite warnings from the lebanese military and the israeli military that it wasn't safe to do so. so in some places, you know, in the south, the israeli military still has a presence. and we've seen those shootings happening. the israeli military confirming that it had opened fire. it didn't confirm that it had hit people. it also said that some people had been detained for interrogation. so it shows a very tense situation there, as the israelis say

that this withdrawal is going to continue gradually. it hasn't said how long these troops will remain in the country. but obviously this is a country that has memories of israeli occupations in the past. so the idea that israeli soldiers are going to continue here in lebanon, inside the country, beyond this deadline, is seen as unacceptable and a reason for concern. hugo, just bring us up to date on the humanitarian situation there as well. yes, so 1.2 million residents were displaced because of the conflict, the conflict between israel and hezbollah that intensified in september with a huge air campaign by the israeli military targeting hezbollah positions across the country. many residents returned to their homes at the beginning of the ceasefire. of the ceasefire. so today, the end of this 60 so today, the end of this 60 troops from the south day timeline that would see day timeline that would see the withdrawal of israeli the withdrawal of israeli

troops from the south of the country and also the removal of hezbollah fighters and weapons from the south, was seen as an opportunity for many of those residents in towns and villages really near the border, which is an area that has been completely, you know, heavily destroyed, heavily damaged because of the conflict, so many saw this day as an opportunity to return to their homes. but we're talking about billions of dollars in economic damage, in destruction, especially in the south, but also in the bekaa valley, which is another part of the country that has a very strong hezbollah presence, and here in the city's southern suburbs. now, i don't think this will be the resumption of the conflict between israel and hezbollah, because this is a country that has been under a lot of pressure, has been exhausted, really, after years of economic crisis. also the suffering, the destruction caused by the war here. so any kind of violent response from hezbollah

would face opposition not only from hezbollah�*s critics, but also from some of its own supporters, given the very bad situation in many parts of this country. staying with developments in middle east, some breaking news that we're from our correspondent injerusalem, thatis correspondent injerusalem, that is that a senior official of islamichhad has said an agreement has been reached with mediators for the release of an israeli civilian hostage. you can see her there on the screen. a source said she would be freed on friday in exchange for the release of 30 halston in prisoners who had been serving long—term and life sentences. at the moment we do not have any confirmation from the israeli side on that. the islamichhad official said the agreement, which had been

reached after talks in qatar, will pave the way for hundreds of thousands of displaced palestinians to begin returning to their homes in the north of gaza either tonight or tomorrow morning. there is a live shot there that you can see of that area in central gaza, but there area in central gaza, but there are hundreds of thousands of palestinians who are desperate to get back to their homes in the north, as was part of the terms of that ceasefire agreement. so for the israeli government have been blocking their return after accusing hamas of taking the terms of the ceasefire deal are not yet releasing arbel yehud. so a major breakthrough there, that arbel yehud, an israeli civilian hostage, will be

back on the be able to get back on the move, eithertonight be able to get back on the move, either tonight or tomorrow morning, hopefully will not have more through the course of the day here on bbc news. here in the uk — a third runway at london's heathrow could be given government support this week after the chancellor hinted she was in favour of expansion, as part of plans to grow the economy. rachel reeves said a third runway at heathrow — which is already the world's busiest two—runway airport — would mean that instead of circling london, flights could land more quickly. simon browning reports. after a week of speculation, the chancellor inched closer this morning to backing a third runway at heathrow. rachel reeves told the bbc that sustainable aviation and growth can go together, and that she will reveal more in her speech on wednesday. a third runway will mean that instead of circling london, flights can land at heathrow. a lot has changed in aviation, and sustainable aviation and economic growth go hand in hand.

we're an open trading economy, we need to bring investment in. demand to travel is growing and heathrow is almost at capacity. but opposition to heathrow�*s expansion is well established, with recent objections reaching the courts. it's a long time since we last had a proper economic analysis of what heathrow expansion would deliver, and even when that was last done, it was marginal at best. and i don't think that picture is going to have improved. so there is no economic case for expanding heathrow, and we know how damaging it will be to the environment and to the noise impact on people living all across west and south west london. in the last fortnight, rachel reeves has promoted the uk's aims for growth in china and davos to politicians and business leaders. on wednesday, we'll hear more about those plans, including reforms to the planning and infrastructure bill to axe red tape that slows down approvals for major building projects. building homes near transport hubs to enable better connections for workers to towns and cities. and a regeneration

project in old trafford, greater manchester, to develop housing, commercial and public spaces. but a decision on heathrow is expected on wednesday. there are no live and current planning processes for it, unlike other airport expansion schemes, and they will take a long time to achieve — that alongside conflicts with environmental and climate targets. simon browning, bbc news. authorities in the democratic republic of congo have blocked access to the airport in the eastern city of goma and cancelled flights as rwandan—backed rebels advance on the city. the m23 rebels have issued a statement saying they had closed the airspace over the city. civilians have been fleeing their homes in goma, some towards the rwandan border. the un security council has been holding an meeting to discuss the escalating conflict, which has so far displaced 400,000 people and killed hundreds, including 13 un peacekeepers.

now it's time for a look at today's sport with gavin. we'll take a look back at the tennis, and the culmination of the australian open in a moment. first to the premier league, and the problems continue to pile on tottenham and manager ange postocoglou. they were beaten at home by strugglers leicester — themselves desperate for a win. spurs are without a win in seven league games, a run stretching back to last year. they opened the scoring with richarlison, but goals from jamie vardy and then bilal el—khannous saw leicester come back and hold on for theirfirst win in the premier league for nearly two months. the victory moves them out of the relegation zone. tottenham stay 15th. in the other early kick off, brentford ended crystal palace's unbeaten run thanks to a 2—1 win at selhurst park. two games still to come in the premier league. aston villa host west ham in a repeat of graham potter's first game in charge injust a few minutes, while in the later kick off, ruben amorim takes his manchester united side to face fulham.

i want him to know me in a different way, not always preparing the matches with stress, we don't have the time to do that. so, i think he's really important, i think he is the secret of teams. even when you have the best players, if you don't have that feeling, it's really hard to win, so i want to build something like that here, but we need time for that. plenty of interesting games happening across europe on sunday too. earlier in scotland, rangers beat dundee united. they trail celtic by 10 points. in serie a, ac milan's hopes of a top four finish were boosted thanks to a dramatic home win against parma. while city rivals inter can close the gap on napoli at the top to three points with a win at lecce. in spain's la liga, barcelona are looking for a first league win in five matches when they host relegation threatened valencia, while marseille will hope to cut psg's lead to seven points when they face nice. chelsea unveiled world record signing naomi girma before

kick—off in their women's super league clash against arsenal. the usa international witnessed her new side strengthen their grip on the title with a 1—0 win against their london rivals. the only goal of the game came from subsitute guro reiten from the penalty spot. chelsea are now nine points clear of manchester city in second. arsenal, who finished the game with ten players after katie mccabe was sent off, lost for the first time under coach renee slegers. top seed jannik sinner has retained his australian open title, beating alexander zverev in straight sets. it was a battle between the world number one and two. and sinner came out on top comfortably in the end. the german didn't get a single break point in the match. sinner becomes the first italian to win three grand slam singles titles. it was a very high quality match from my side. second set, got a bit lucky in the tie—break, as we saw, but all things considered, amazing run again here in australia, externally happy, share this

with the team and the family and people i love, it's amazing. the nfl season has reached its penultimate stage with four teams just one win away from a place at super bowl 59 in new orleans. the kansas city chiefs have their eyes set on winning a third straight title, but they will first have to see offjosh allen and the buffalo bills in the afc championship game. in the nfc championship, the philadelphia eagles take on a washington commanders side who have surprised many this season. commanders defensive end efe obada explains how they went from a losing season in 2023 to being one win from the super bowl. i think it'sjust i think it's just the brotherhood, the chemistry, the commitment that everyone has made to getting better, the commitment we've made to each other and starting to support each other and just standard, the standard of play, the standard required of us. we knew we had something special, we didn't know if it was going

to be this special immediately but we definitely knew we had something special. and that's all the sport for now. some breaking news that has come from greater manchester police, they say that an arrest has been made after a police officer has been seriously injured while responding to an incident in cheadle. a man has been arrested, they say, on attempted, suspicion of attempted, suspicion of attempted murder after the officer reported a vehicle driving at her and hitting surface of the officer is said to be recovering well, but did receive serious injuries. greater manchester police have said, we condemn all assaults in our officers, who are working to protect communities from harm. a 19—year—old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. they say the incident happened at a retail park on wilmslow road in cheadle, that was on saturday

night. they say they received a report of people acting suspiciously inside a car in the car park, and as the responding police officer walked towards the car she reported that the vehicle was driven at speed towards her, hitting her. as we were saying there, she did receive serious injuries and she was taken immediately to hospital. the chief inspector said the incident is truly shocking and shows how quickly situations our frontmen offices attend an excellent. there is no extra —— can escalate. there was no explanation for why this situation ended as it did. our offices go out of their way to provide outstanding service —— to communities they serve and achieve faster results in situations which are often challenging. they said the investigation continues and that the officer is being supported at the stockport district, and crucially the end the statement by saying that

she is recovering well. but of course, big developing story here in the uk that an arrest has been made after an officer was seriously injured, police saying a group of people acting suspiciously and then drove the car towards her. we will have more on that as we get it. now to an election which the eu has described as "a total sham . voting is underway in belarus in the presidential election. alexander lukashenko is all but certain to be re—elected for a seventh term. a close ally of russia's president putin, and a supporter of his war on ukraine, most of his fiercest critics — and serious rivals — are either in prison or in exile. speaking at a press conference earlier, our russia editor steve rosenberg sent this update from minsk.

well, i've never experienced anything quite like this before on an election day. so alexandar lukashenko came to the polling station behind me, he cast his ballot, and then he proceeded to give a four hour long press conference from the polling station live on state television, while people were voting. that's the kind of airtime that the other four candidates who've been allowed to run against him simply don't enjoy. about the other candidates, by the way, i met two of them earlier this week. one of them said he actually supports alexandar lukashenko. the other one was full of praise for the current leader of belarus. and when i put this to mr lukashenko at the press conference, he told me, "well, this is a new experience for you, steve." the leader of belarus faces no serious challenge in this election. all his most vocal critics, his staunchest opponents, are either injail or they're in exile. which is why the european union's foreign policy chief described this as a sham election. steve rosenberg there. just a

reminder of another big breaking story this half—hour, it is that senior palestinian islamichhad official has told the bbc that an agreement has been reached with mediators for the release of an israeli civilian hostage, arbel yehud. she will be freed on friday in exchange for the release of 13 palestinian prisoners who have been serving long—term or life sentences. the other significant development in this is it now means that hundreds of thousands of displaced palestinians can begin returning to their homes in the north of gaza either tonight or tomorrow morning. so for the israeli government had been blocking their return, accusing hamas of making the terms of the ceasefire deal but not yet releasing arbel yehud. as of now we have no confirmation from the israeli side on this. more on that through the course of the day here on bbc news. do please stay with us. hello. this turbulent spell

of weather continues. we have another deep area of low pressure in charge of the scene today. this is another named storm, but this one named by the spanish weather service, for impact it is going to have in spain — storm herminia. but here in the uk, the met office has issued a range of yellow warnings for wind and rain. the satellite picture very clearly shows the centre of our storm, the centre of our area of low pressure. but i also want to draw your attention to what is happening down here along the line of this weather front. we can see this hook of cloud developing, and it may be that we see another very small scale area of low pressure forming, and that could bring a swathe of very strong winds for some of us overnight tonight. but it is windy out there through the afternoon, a band of rain pushing its way northwards, some very heavy thundery showers following on behind, this as we get into the evening, but there is still, even at this short range, some uncertainty in our forecast. the centre of the area of low pressure will

be out to the west of us, but some computer weather models allow this separate very small scale area of low pressure to develop, bringing a big lump of heavy rain and maybe some flooding. butjust on the southern flank of that, there is the chance that we could see a swathe of very, very strong winds. short lived gusts of 60, 70, 80mph. but there's uncertainty about exactly where that feature may track its way northwards across england and wales. in fact, it may even be that we see some wet and blustery weather into eastern scotland tomorrow morning. and if that feature comes a little bit further west, that could give some significant snow over high ground. tomorrow, we will see this band of heavy rain driving northwards that could have some snow mixed in over higher ground. turning a little bit calmer for the end the week. lots of showers further south and another very windy day. those strong winds continue. gusts of 50, 60, 70mph for exposed coasts in the south and the west of the uk. temperatures probably the least of our worries at 6 to 9 degrees. now, that area of low pressure will track its way eastwards as we move on into tuesday.

that low weakening and filling somewhat, so tuesday won't be as windy, but there will still be some showers or some longer spells of rain. could see some very wet weather for a time in the south on wednesday. it does turn a little bit calmer for the end of the week.

this is bbc news, the headlines: the militant group palistinian islamichhad has told the bbc they've agreed to free the israeli civilian hostage arbel yehud on friday in exchange for 30 palestinian prisoners. president trump says he'd like to see 1.5 million of gaza's residents taken in by other arab nations — including jordan and egypt. he is calling the strip "a demolition site" where "something needs to happen". lebanon accuses the israeli army of firing at residents trying to return to their homes in the country's south. officials say at least 22 people have been killed. israel's forces have missed a deadline to leave the area. belarus is voting in a presidential election — which the eu has described as "a total sham . alexander lukashenko is all but certain to secure a seventh term. lukashenko has dismissed speculation that he might hand over to one of his three sons.