�* thousands �*thousands of news. tens of thousands of displaced palestinians have begun returning to their homes in northern gaza as part of a ceasefire deal involving the return of israeli hostages. these are the live pictures from the gaza strip. sir keir starmer and donald trump have agreed to meet soon after the uk prime minister praised the us president for his role in securing the gaza ceasefire deal. i'm lucy hawkins live at auschwitz one is the world marks world holocaust memorial day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz—birkenau. survivors in their 80s and 90s have gathered with the polish president already today at the death hole here at auschwitz one to pay tribute and remember the 1.1 million people who were murdered here.

hello, i'm nicky schiller, welcome to the programme. we begin in the middle east — where thousands of displaced palestinians are returning to northern gaza. here are the live pictures from gaza. and you can see there are long lines of people streaming along that coast road, many carrying their possessions on their backs. residents were allowed to start returning on foot four hours ago. many are using this sea road. then two hours later vehicles were allowed to start moving into the north but they will all have to be inspected at checkpoints. over the weekend, thousands of palestinians who had hoped to be allowed back home had gathered at the military barrier which had been blocking the route. the israeli authorities had made the return of the tens of thousands of palestinians to the north conditional on the release of an israeli civilian hostage.

abel yehoud. she wasn't freed on saturday when four women soldiers were. hamas says it will now release her and two other hostages on thursday followed by three more on saturday. in other developments, egypt has rejected any attempt to relocate palestinians from gaza, after us president donald trump said he'd like to see more than a million of gaza's residents taken in by other arab nations. he told reporters that the strip was "literally a demolition site" and suggested it be "cleaned out". let's go live to our correspondentjon donnison, who joins me from jerusalem. we are seeing extraordinary live pictures of these thousands of people heading back to the north. i suppose, to see what is left of their homes. we're not talking about thousands of people, we are talking about tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people on the move. i5 thousands of people on the move. , , . .,

move. is estimated there are more than — move. is estimated there are more than half _ move. is estimated there are more than half a _ move. is estimated there are more than half a million - more than half a million palestinians in the southern gaza who have been displaced from the north and are going to try and go home. but you are right to suggest that many of them won't have a home to go to. the united nations says some 60% of all buildings in the gaza strip have been destroyed or damaged. nevertheless, people want to get back to the rubble of their homes and make some attempt to rebuild. i homes and make some attempt to rebuild. . ., , ., rebuild. i am also seeing on one of the _ rebuild. i am also seeing on one of the feeds _ rebuild. i am also seeing on one of the feeds pictures i rebuild. i am also seeing on one of the feeds pictures of| one of the feeds pictures of queues of cars waiting. explain that the difference between those who are allowed on foot and if they have a vehicle. yes, sir, from seven o'clock local time this morning, palestinians were allowed to start moving on foot. they all started going up the coastal road which runs all the way along the coast through gaza. it is quite a long walk, actually. certainly going to the very north of gaza, you're talking more than ten

kilometres. they were going on foot carrying whatever they could. the sick, the young. two hours later they opened the main salah al—din road which goes up the middle of the gaza strip. that was open to cars, trucks, any sort of vehicle. but all those vehicles have to be inspected by the israeli military, and my experience of israeli checkpoints, that could be a very, very long wait for people. be a very, very long wait for --eole. �* , , ., , people. and “ust explain why there was — people. and just explain why there was the _ people. and just explain why there was the hold-up. - people. and just explain why there was the hold-up. we l people. and just explain why i there was the hold-up. we had there was the hold—up. we had expected this to happen at the weekend. , weekend. yes, under the original— weekend. yes, under the original ceasefire - weekend. yes, under the original ceasefire plan . weekend. yes, under the original ceasefire plan it | weekend. yes, under the i original ceasefire plan it was meant to happen at the weekend, but then we had some wrangling over which hostages should have been released on saturday. so the israelis had said that they wanted a civilian hostage, a woman who is now 29, she was 28 when she was captured. abel yehoud. she has now been put on the list of those who are going

to be freed later in the week because at the weekend we only have those four israeli soldiers coming out. so she is going to come out on thursday now with two other israeli hostages and then on saturday three further hostages will be released in exchange for scores of palestinian prisoners. fin of palestinian prisoners. on the ceasefire _ of palestinian prisoners. on the ceasefire deal, we are on phase one. how many people in this first phase are we expecting to be released? and indeed, how many of those palestinians do not palestinian prisoners held in israeli jails will be released in return? welcome on the israeli side it is 33 israeli hostages in total in the first six week phase, seven have already come out so far, so that's 26 more over the next five weeks. on the palestinian side we have had about 300 prisoners released from israeli jails, so far, there is a further 1600

there is a further i600 palestinian prisoners to come in the next five weeks. i expect every weekend there is going to be wrangling over the names on the list, who should come out, whether it is hostages who are alive or dead, the seniority, the seriousness of some of the offences those palestinian prisoners have been convicted for. so it will be a complex process, the negotiations will go on, and we still have to start the negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire arrangement and that is the moment when, if things go to plan, we should get an end to the war. it is not over yet, we have a pause. the second phase of the negotiations could be much more complex. i’m much more complex. i'm interested. _ much more complex. i'm interested, i— much more complex. i'm interested, i mentioned president trump's comments over the weekend, how have those gone down both in israel and with the palestinians and arab nations that he mentioned? amongst palestinians they have gone down like a lead balloon. that is a complete nonstarter

for them. the words he used that gaza should be cleaned out, for many palestinians, that would just sound like ethnic cleansing. mr trump suggested that palestinians should emigrate on a temporary or long—term basis to egypt and jordan. egypt have said no, we are not having that. jordan has said the same. so, for the arab world that is a nonstarter. gaza for them is these people's homes. so they are not going to leave. on the other side, it has been welcomed by some of the far right israeli ministers and settlers who have been saying for months now that they should encourage immigration from gaza in order thatjewish settlers could move back into gaza and set up settlements there. donald trump has a long

history of speaking off—the—cuff, floating ideas that may be don't come to fruition. but certainly a lot of anxiety, a lot of anger really from palestinians here in the holy land. jun really from palestinians here in the holy land. jon donnison in the holy land. jon donnison in jerusalem, _ in the holy land. jon donnison in jerusalem, thank _ in the holy land. jon donnison in jerusalem, thank you. - let's speak to our gaza correspondent rushdi abualouf. he was reporting live from gaza where he lived and he is currently in cairo. i wanted to start on a personal note from you as to how you feel seeing these pictures that we have been showing live of those hundreds of thousands of palestinians making their way back into the north.— back into the north. well, mixed feelings. _ back into the north. well, mixed feelings. a - back into the north. well, mixed feelings. a very - mixed feelings. a very emotional day for me and my family, very relieved that my father and the rest of the family will be starting their journey back to gaza city. where most of their homes were

destroyed. but it is a big day for all palestinians. we are talking about more than i million people on the move. i'm not sure if all of them will manage to cross today because it is a long walk and it is going to take a very long time to walk this road. it is a dusty road, partly destroyed road. they made some progress in taking out some of the rubble yesterday, the qataris and the egyptians, and the americans who are on the ground facilitating the return back for the people. they started working on the coastal road early in the morning but in the last hour they started to allow cars to cross into northern gaza. the process is that they allow 20 cars each time to a certain area and they are checked by a scanner first and by hand. so there is a team inspecting the cars and checking to make sure that no

military equipment is inside the car. so every a0 minutes they process a0 cars and they believe they could process as much as a000 cars every day back into gaza. but people are walking freely without any obstacles, without any israeli troops in the place because they have withdrawn their forces from the coastal road early in the morning to allow people to return back. we are in cairo with about 100,000 people who were forced to be displaced from their homes and then left cairo to other countries for their safety. all of them are waiting for any time egypt will open the rafah crossing and allow people back into gaza. ., �*, ., into gaza. you said it's an emotional— into gaza. you said it's an emotional moment - into gaza. you said it's an emotional moment for . into gaza. you said it's an i emotional moment for you. into gaza. you said it's an - emotional moment for you. and of course it will be for the palestinians who are moving today because of course we have

today because of course we have to remember that they would have been moved a number of times since the conflict began. yes. and they are facing the reality now. the joy in the early morning is mixed with the reality that they now need 150,000 tents as an urgent matter. the hamas run local authorityjust issued a authority just issued a statement authorityjust issued a statement saying that they need 150,000 tents. this reflects how much destruction there is in gaza city. the images and videos we are getting from there is unfortunate for the people moving back. i have spoken to two families waiting for days at the checkpoint. one of them made it to gaza city and he sent me a text message saying that the shop, his salon was looted first and then bond.

and his house was completely burnt. and so he was waiting for long hours in the queue, and then when he gets to his place he couldn't find his house and his source of income, hisjob. so very house and his source of income, his job. so very sad for him. he was very happy when i was talking to him in the last couple of days that finally he would be back to his neighbourhood. but very quickly realised that the facts on the ground is completely different. rushdi abualouf, thank you. rushdi abualouf, thank you. rushdi abualouf, thank you. rushdi abualouf currently in cairo. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

ceremonies have begun in poland

to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the nazi death camp auschwitz—birkenau. holocaust survivors accompanied by the polish president have laid flowers at the camp's death wall where ss men executed thousands of prisoners. more than1 million people, mainlyjews, were people, mainly jews, were killed people, mainlyjews, were killed in auschwitz before the soviet army seized the camp. the date has since been designated holocaust memorial day to mark the more than 6 millionjews killed by the nazis, as well as victims of more recent genocides. here is a brief history of what happened at auschwitz. auschwitz, also known as auschwitz—birkenau, opened in 19a0. it started as a concentration and labour camp and was transformed into the nazis' most notorious extermination camp and it was built on the site of a german army barracks in occupied poland. auschwitz was the largest of approximately aa,000 concentration camps and ghettos

created across nazi occupied europe and north africa during world war ii. the nazis, under the orders of adolf hitler, deported jews from all over europe to auschwitz, they were rounded up and spent days travelling in cattle carts. roma, comenius, homosexuals and soviet prisoners of war, too, many died on the way. when they arrived at the camp, families were split up, men, women, mothers and fathers separated from their children —— communists. the elderly and the youngest work my dead on arrival. those deemed fit enough were put to work, stripped of everything, their own clothes, glasses, shoes, jewellery, their heads were shaved, the guards removed any kind of personal identity and human dignity. approximately 1.1 million people were murdered at auschwitz. they would die from disease, starvation, executions, beatings, or being sent to the gas chambers. nearly a million werejews.

why? this was part of the nazi holocaust and final solution. the plan to eliminate alljews city because of who they were. on the 27th of january 19a5, the soviet army began entering auschwitz and liberated some 7000 prisoners, most of whom were ill or dying. it was then that the true horror was unveiled. it is commemorated as international holocaust remembrance day worldwide. i just want to show you some of the pictures from earlier this morning of the first of the ceremonies that are going to take place today. survivors took turns laying candles and reefs at the base of what is known as the death wall in auschwitz. as you can imagine, it was a very solemn affair, at one of those moments the camera clicks with the only noise that could be heard. —— wreaths. the

polish president took his turn to light a candle as well as putting a wreath and he bowed his head and spoke about how poland feels that it is their mission to be the guardians of the memory. he said this is also a day which 20 years ago was declared by the united nations as the international holocaust remembrance day because, as we know very well, concentration camps were built in order to implement the extermination of the jewish nation and said we polls are the guardians of memory today and we have a mission to preserve the testimony. —— poles. there you can see some of the people, some of whom will be survivors of auschwitz, going up to that wall that is there, the wall of death at auschwitz i where hundreds were executed by firing squad, and they laid candles and wreaths

at the base of the wall. we will be back in auschwitz with lucy hockings throughout the day on bbc news as we commemorate the 80th anniversary downing street says donald trump and sir keir agreed to meet soon — after the prime minister praised the us president for his role in securing the "landmark" gaza ceasefire and hostages deal between israel and hamas. the two spoke over the phone yesterday, for the first time since mr trump's presidential inaugration last week. let's speak to our chief political correspondent, henry zeffman. of the liberation of the liberation. we will look at some other news now. warm words from both leaders. i some other news now. warm words from both leaders.— from both leaders. i think the thin to from both leaders. i think the thing to say — from both leaders. i think the thing to say is _ from both leaders. i think the thing to say is it _ from both leaders. i think the thing to say is it was - from both leaders. i think the thing to say is it was a - thing to say is it was a diplomatic victory for keir starmer that the school took place now. donald trump has been back in the white house for a week but until yesterday he hadn't spoken to a single

european leader on the phone. keir starmer was the first. that is being taken, understandably, as a diplomatic achievement by the uk government. it does sound, both from the readout, as it is termed, that we got from downing street and the white house, that it was a fairly warm conversation. we know they talked about the middle east, keir starmer praised donald trump for his role in bringing out the ceasefire and hostage release deal. we know that they talked about the economy and that keir starmer talked about his plans to deregulate the uk economy. i think that was clearly an attempt to appeal to donald trump's sensibilities. we also know courtesy of the white house that they talked about the royal family because when it comes to the uk, it is always worth remembering that donald trump, whose mother was scottish, absolutely loves, and has deep affection for, the royal family. has deep affection for, the royalfamily. what has deep affection for, the royal family. what mike has deep affection for, the royalfamily. what mike henry, in the readout of the calls, did you spot any differences in the tone between the two? not

particularly, but there were glaring omissions. when they talked about the economy, ok, keir starmer may well have talked about his desire to deregulate the uk economy but the reason they are talking about the economy is that donald trump wants to, or has talked about, potentially imposing global tariffs command that would be damaging for the uk economy, perhaps not as damaging as it would be for some other countries, but nevertheless that's something the uk government is desperate to avoid. that would have been a big chunk, i'm sure, of the a5 minute phone call. they didn't talk about the chagos islands, this deal that the uk signed with the mauritius government whilejoe biden was still president, joe biden was supportive of it, the us has a military base on diego garcia, one of these islands, but some allies of donald trump have been much more circumspect, cautious even about this deal. that could be a big moment for the relationship. we don't think they talked, we don't know that they talked, rather, that the uk government's plan to make peter mandelson, the former cabinet minister in the

uk, ambassador to the us. as far as i'm uk, ambassador to the us. as faras i'm aware uk, ambassador to the us. as far as i'm aware donald trump doesn't have any views about that but people around him certainly do, urging him to block that appointment. there are all sorts of tensions underlying what clearly was, for now, a very positive call. henry, thank you very much. i know you'll keep an eye on all of those tensions for us, henry zeffman, chief political at westminster. there are reports of fighting around the democratic republic of the congo, amid reports that neighbouring rwanda has been closed. it follows claims that the un security council meeting by the us, france and uk that forces from rwanda had been supporting the 23 rebel group as it advanced the centre of goma with the rebels claiming they are in control of the city. our africa correspondent barbara plett usher has been following the movements of the m23 rebel forces

over the past 2a hours. the m23 has been advancing on goma amid intense fighting in the past couple of days, actually, and in the past 2a hours, the rebel group says that it has taken control of the city. it says that it is currently at the city's stadium, registering weapons from surrendering congolese soldiers, who it had issued an ultimatum for them to disarm by a certain time. and it says at this point it's doing that, and has posted photographs to back up what it's saying. we also have a report or a notice separately from the uruguay contingent of the un peacekeeping force saying that, indeed, some congolese soldiers have surrendered. but at the same time, the congolese government has issued a statement denying that the m23 controls the city, saying that the congolese government is still in control of the main strategic points, including the airport, and that the m23 is on the outskirts. so we don't have full confirmation yet of who exactly is in control. but the m23 is very much in the area. and as we have been reporting,

the big concern, the most immediate concern, of course, is the fate of civilians, because there are about a million people living in the city. but then nearly that same number of people who've been displaced by the war in eastern congo, who were living in very big camps around goma and have been on the move since the m23 started to advance. and so we have, as you said, not heard any reports of major bloodshed so far, and that is something that is of great concern to all the authorities watching. barbara plett usher. paul nantulya, is a research associate at the africa center for strategic studies. he told us what he expected to see happen in the coming days. i expect more, you know, military moves by the different sides, to try and gain control because, you know, goma has always been psychologically important both to the sitting government as well as

to rebel offensives. but i also expect at the same time, i expect heightened regional diplomatic initiatives. i think, the steps that have been taken by kenya are worthwhile, are very noteworthy. it's important because this problem does not lend itself to a military solution. i expect heightened activity from angola. angola has been mediating a process, the luanda process, to try and bring rwanda and the democratic republic of congo together to try and find a solution to the external dimension to the crisis. i expect south africa, which has lost peacekeepers to this conflict, to this offensive. i also expect the african union to be heavily engaged. ijust want i just want to return to our top story and take you back to the live pictures we are getting from the gaza strip. as you can see there, thousands of palestinians are walking back towards their homes in the ruins of northern gaza. this

was after a deal was reached for hamas to hand over three more israeli hostages. we had expected this to happen at the weekend but there was a hitch. but now israelis have opened up the roads, as you can see there, and tens of thousands of people are streaming along that coast road. most of them are carrying their possessions on their backs. vehicles are also being allowed in. but as we were hearing from our correspondent in the region, they have to be checked before they have to be checked before they are allowed in. so many people have made the decision to walk back and that is what we can see now live from the gaza strip. those thousands of people heading back to see what remains of their homes. we will have continuing coverage from gaza, more on the bbc news website as well. stay with us here on bbc news.

hello again. storm herminia is making its presence felt across our shores, so named by the spanish met service because of the impacts in spain, but the met office also has a couple of yellow weather warnings in force connected with the storm, so when four southern parts of england and where is, valid until six o'clock tomorrow morning and rain for wales, valid until midnight tonight. we have the rain that crossed us through the morning and overnight pushing up towards north—east scotland and rotating around the low pressure which is this storm. we have squally showers, some heavy, some merging to give longer spells of rain, some hail and thunder mixed in and gusty winds, the strongest across the west and also the south. temperature wise, round about average for the time of year, we are looking at six — nine celsius. as we head on through the rest of the afternoon and into the evening and overnight period, the rain continues to push north—eastwards across scotland. we continue with this

rash of showers moving across england, wales and northern ireland. some of those will be wintry on the highest ground, the winds will slowly start to ease but it still will be blustery tonight, looking at 2-7 c blustery tonight, looking at 2—7 c as our overnight lows. tomorrow, the low pressure which is this storm continues drifting towards the east and then we have another low pressure coming in from the atlantic. so during the course of tuesday, all of these showers continue to push eastwards. it will be brighter behind but it is still going to behind but it is still going to be blustery and we have a cold northerly wind blowing in showers across the north of scotland. temperatures, 7—10 c north to south. so, we say goodbye to the low pressure thatis goodbye to the low pressure that is this storm and then we have this next area of low pressure coming in. there is still a bit of uncertainty as to just how far north of the rate will come. this is what we think at the moment come across some southern counties of england, but it could push a little bit further north than that. some showers coming in on

the north—westerly wind but in between a quieter day, lot of dry weather around, temperatures 7—10 c. looking beyond that, as we head through thursday, it is looking like it's going to be dry for most of us, more settled and it continues to be more settled heading into the ensuing days but there will still be some rain in parts.

this is bbc news, the headlines... tens of thousands of displaced palestinians have begun returning to their homes in northern gaza as part of a ceasefire deal involving the return of israeli hostages. donald trump has reversed his plan to impose sanctions and tariffs on columbia after it agreed to accept deported migrants from the us. the belarus president alexander lukashenko is re—elected, lu kashenko is re—elected, winning lukashenko is re—elected, winning over 86% of the vote. the european union says the vote was a blatant affront to democracy. and the survivors of the holocaust, along with the heads of state and royalty, are gathered at the sight of the nazi concentration camp auschwitz to mark the 80th anniversary of its liberation. hello if you have just

anniversary of its liberation. hello if you havejustjoined us on bbc news.