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the u.n. expresses concern. the opioid crisis comes to the supreme court. justices hear a challenge to the settlement. two hundred 50 day that is how long american journalist evan gershkovich has been held in russia. we will speak to his sister. welcome to world news america. we begin with the latest on the israel-gaza war. the u.s. state department says it is too early to say whether israel is doing enough to protect civilians. it comes as the israeli defense forces published a map telling people to leave southern gaza. witnesses say is really tanks have reached the edge of the city. israel resumed its strikes on gaza on friday after a weeklong truce, saying it is hitting

hamas targets. the idf is expanding ground operations into all areas of gaza. unga says he is extremely alarmed by fighting resuming in gaza, saying there is nowhere safe to go. the world health organization says they have been told to remove their supplies from two medical centers in southern gaza. joining us with the very latest is our correspondent, paul adams, who is standing by for us tonight in israel. what can you tell us about israeli operations in southern gaza? paul: well, we are seeing signs that the israeli army is moving with tanks, other armored vehicles, and bulldozers close to the city -- the largest city in the southern gaza strip. it doesn't suggest they are beginning to set the scene for what is likely to be an invasion of that city. it is a place the israelis regard as full of hamas targets and we are likely to see after

that also an assault on rafa further south. they have cut the road which suggests they will try and cut off the southern part of the gaza strip as they very much start to focus all of their efforts on conquering the south. >> it is worth noting that khan yunis and the south is where the israelis told the palestinians to flee to as they were striking northern gaza. what can you tell us about palestinians now clean this area -- now fleeing this area? paul: you are right. southern gaza is full of people who fled the north, probably about a million or so and some people have been -- have had to move multiple times. you know, 3, 4, 5, 6 times. the area of khan yunis that the

israelis have warned people to get out of using this new map system with specific areas of numbered grid squares, that new area, the u.n. says, had a prewar population of 350,000. we could see very large numbers of people on the move once more and that is something that the u.s. secretary of state, antony blinken, when he was here last weekexpressly urged the israelis to try to avoid. they did not want to see huge numbers of people on the move once more. as you just said, the u.n. says there's very little space for people to run to. often when they move, they don't know exactly where is safe. they are being told where it is not safe but they are not qte sure where his genuinely safe and gradually, you got this population hemmed into a smaller and smaller area. obviously, that has enormous implications for those agencies

who are trying to address the mounting humanitarian needs. >> paul adams, thank you so much for that update from the ground. the u.s., britain, and other allies of israel have condemned a sharp rise in attacks by armed jewish settls on palestinians. the settlers claim they are protecting themselves in land that religious jews believe was given to them by god. jeremy bowen traveled south to hadron where an entire palestinian village has been destroyed. jeremy: palestinian farmers are using the donkey because of their neighbors, aggressive jewish settlers who they say will steal or break their tractor if they use it. arabs and jews started fighting over every grain of soil in the land both sides believe should be theirs more than a century ago. in the west bank, it still comes down to that in every rocky field. in the south hembree on hills,

palestinians live under constant pressure from jewish settlers but it has been much worse since the hamas attacks on october 7. the settlers were watching. one of their leaders canceled an interview with us at short notice. palestinians fear another 1948, when their society was destroyed by israel's independence, which arabs call the catastrophe. >> we have been passing from one nakba to another. we don't have any other place to go. this is our land, our property. we need to stand here in this land. jeremy: soldiers came to check what we were doing. one told an israeli colleague that he was a traitor for visiting palestinians. they filmed us but took much less interested in what had happened miles down the road. the village had been bulldozed,

activists said last night. 200 palestinians left four weeks ago after a barrage of threats from jewish settlers. the school was destroyed. britain helped fund it. the project was called supporting palestinians at risk of forcible transfer. activists said settlers did it to make sure the palestinians would ver come back. someone drew jewish stars of david. we went there with a former israeli special forces soldier who now campaigns against the occupation. >> they are beating up palestinian farmers, stealing their lives. they are trying to open an east front against the palestinians. why? because they want the land without palestinians. jeremy: palestinians see all this and the rest of the subtler violence on the west bank as

confirmation of their worst fears, that there are powerful elements inside israel in the government as well as the settler movement who want them out and who are using the enormous crisis surrounding the gaza war as an opportunity to further their agenda. palestinians have petitioned israel's supreme court and hope to return. it is going to be much harder now. bbc news the west bank. >> that violence comes as the conflict continues and we can talk about it with mark schwartz , former coordinator and senior fellow with the rand corporation. good to have you back on world news america. i want to start with what the state department said about the conflict. it says it has seen an improvement by israel in narrowing targets in gaza. do you agree? mark: well, from what i have seen reported, certainly the

release of the evacuation zone grid that was discussed earlier and that the idf have said they are implementing, that is one step in the right direction to provide safe areas for the palestinians to move but as you stated earlier, very difficult to do when you've got in excess of 350 to 400,000 palestinian civilians around khan yunis where the next major offensive is going to take place in that government. so i believe that there are -- the idf are taking steps. it's very challenging just given the population density. the other notes i think is e fact that there's still humanitarian assistance coming in. not to the degree there was in the pause but also within the work council today in israel with the israeli government, they were talking about increasing the amount of humanitarian aid coming into gaza as the offensive continues. >> as you just said, the south,

as we have been mentioning, is a part of gaza where civilians have been fleeing too. the idf says all of gaza is now part of the operation. what should the u.s. be doing to speak to israel about the concerns about these civilians? mark: i believe they have been very strongly -- certainly the secretary of defense, austin, was very strong in his remarks over the weekend about the importance of not sacrificing strategic, you know, success through the targeting, like they did durin the first phase of the ground offensive. so i believe that the continued pressure by the united states and the international community is going to continue. i have noticed the idf are publishing a lot more precision strikes that they have conducted

since the re-initiation of offensive operations to demonstrate that they are going after hamas terrorist fighters and weapons and equipment, etc. >> we have heard from the hamas n health ministry that more than 15,000 palestinians have been killed in the fighting so far. israeli officials have said there's no time limit, no end yet to this conflict. we heard the white house say they have talked with israel about the length of the operation in gaza. should the u.s. be pushing israelis on a plan for when this operation ends and what that would look like? >> i think putting a time limit on it -- i would not advise to do that. the event is the elimination, either killing or capturing, hamas's capability and terrorist -- hamas military capability. that will take months to

accomplish. even when the majority of the fighting is complete, there's still going to be hamas terrorists that are moving arnd gaza because they are so ingrained in the population. >> if there are going to be hamas terrorists moving around gaza, what would a victory look like for israel? mark: from a tactical and operational sense, to where they have reported, the idf, that they have killed or captured the majority if not all of the hamas leadership. those are the battalion commanders that you have been hearing about in the news lately all the way up to the leader, the military leader inside of the gaza strip. and then again, providing security so that ideally, the palestinians that have been forced out of the north to this conflict can move back north. obviously, with the amount of infrastructure that has been destroyed, it's going to be extremely challenging, but what

is still going to have to take place is identifying, training a viable security force that can replace hamas and that is going to take years, not weeks or months. >> thank you so much for joining us on world news america tonight. mark: thank you. >> more aspects of the attack by hamas on october 7 are still emerging including allegations of sexual violence by members of hamas. the united nations held an event discussing those accusations on monday and our correspondent is in new york following that story for us. very good to see you. can you tell us what the evidence was that was presented about these allegations of sexual violence? >> i think it is important to remember that is really police say they have gathered more than 1500 testimonies from witnesses and medics and we heard a few of those at the u.n. today. the police representative, she superintendent richard, she spoke about women being found

without close, raped, mutilated bodies, and she played previously released recorded testimonies that were given to police investigators. one person who was described as a rescuer at the rave who helped evacuate bodies from their said they found bodies with their hands cuffed behind their backs, a woman's corpse bleeding from the genital area, a paramedic who gave first aid say they saw a lot of gun wounds, shootings, targeted at sexual organs of both men and women and amputations and a survivor of rape said she saw a woman getting raped so some testimonies there from investigators. it is important to note that hamas has rejected those accusations today as well, saying that they were unfounded lies. they were allegations to demonize the palestinian resistance, and a u.n. commission of inquiry says they will investigate war crimes on

both sides, specifically focused on sexual violence. >> horrific testimony. what is the u.s. saying about this? >> the u.s. says they have been briefed extensively on a number of their findings but they don't have their own independent assessments to make right now because they don't have people on the ground, obviously, conducting those assessments. so they have not used the word rape or sexual violence when talking about the atrocities of hamas but united states says they have no reason to doubt those reports of sexual violence and there's very little they would put you on hamas when it comes to the mistreatment of civilians. >> thank you so much. the white house's warning that u.s. aid for ukraine will run out by the end of the year if congress fails to compromise. in october, the biden administration asked congress to approve $106 billion national security package which includes military assistance for ukraine and israel, causing a

congressional deadlock. ukraine is pushing for more western aid as russia has continued its bombardment of southern ukraine with the regions hit overnight. james waterhouse spoke to a soldier who served on the frontlines and gave a sobering account of ukraine's struggles, saying he feels like he escaped from hell. you can get the latest coverage on the war in ukraine on our website, bbcnews.com. a landmark case involving the makers of oxycontin made its way to the u.s. supreme court today. purdue pharma reached a bankruptcy deal with individual victims and tribal, state, and local governments. that deal would see its owners pay $6 billion in compensation. that means the company would go bankrupt but the family would not and they could not be sued by any other victims. 60,000 parties agreed to that deal but the federal government wants the court to quash it, as do some family members, saying it gives them all the benefits

of bankruptcy with none of the downsides. >> shame on sackler! >> in the last two decades, half a million americans have died from opioids. these are prescription painkillers which are highly addictive. at the heart of this case is a drug called oxycontin, produced by a company owned by the sackler's, one of america's richest families. people here protesting alleged the sacklers played down the effects of the drug in pursuit of profit. a bankruptcy court ordered the family to pay billions of dolls in compensation to victims and families. the supreme court is looking at that deal. people here want it struck down. >> i gave up my career as an engineer after i lost my son to try to help prevent families from going through the same thing that i went through. justice to me is prevention, making sure that this does not happen again.

we have a responsibility here to make sure that no other billionaires can do this to america in the future. the only way that we can do that is to make sure that the sacklers don't walk away scott free with immunity. >> i feel we are easily disposable and thetigma is so easy to look over. you know, we are drug addicts. to everyone as a whole, and you know, we did this to ourselves. and the fact is, a lot of these people are very sick and they need real help. >> the supreme court is expecting to make its decision at some point next year. technically, this is a bankruptcy case buffer people here, it is more than that. this is, they say, about accountability for one of america's worst public health crises. today marks 250 days since american journalist evan gershkovich was arrested in russia on charges of espionage. he is a moscow correspondent for the wall street journal.

both the general and u.s. government denied he has ever been a spy and the u.s. has declared him wrongfully detained. he is being held while he awaits trial in russia recently extended his detention until at least january 30. earlier, i spoke to his sister and paul beckett, the wall street journal's assistant editor. danielle, you have received letters from evan. tell us how he is doing. daniel: i am an -- danielle: i am amazed by evan. i'm sure you can imagine over eight months in persian in russia would be the -- prison in russia would be difficult for everyone. he works hard to keep his spirits up and he still make me laugh in his letters. we do a lot of teasing and sibling humor. i tell him about my day and try to keep him updated on family news. through that, we tend to speak on lighter topics but i feel that evan is still there.

he is still holding on. >> does he know the message you and your family and his colleagues have been spreading and speaking to the news about? >> yes, and he is so grateful for all the support he has been receiving all over the world. >> what do we know about the conditions evan is being held in? paul: decent conditions under the circumstances. the wall street journal has hired lawyers to get into see him and the u.s. ambassador to moscow has been in periodically so we do get a glimpse into it and i think as danielle said, he's working very hard to maintain his composure. >> how have you and your family been coping? danielle: it has been getting increasingly harder, especially right now. we are hitting the holiday season. so for thanksgiving, his friends from berlin came and visited us. it was really nice. we left a seat at our

thanksgiving table for evan and we will continue to do so through the holidays, just a gesture that he is still not here with us. and we have to just continue to stay strong so that we can do everything it takes to bring him home. >> it must be really difficult. if you look at what we saw just last week, a court in moscow extended his detention until january 30. what more do we know about this question my >> it's very vague and that is part of the challenge of it. we know he will be in detention until the end of january. they can hold them up to one year, the end of march, but it is flexible. if they want to hold him longer, they can. at some point, we assume he will go to trial and given the nature of the russian legal system, we expect a conviction and we will have to see where it goes from there. we are hopeful the u.s. government can figure out a way to short-circuit that and bring an innocent man home. it has been 250 days and it's time he was back home. >> has the u.s. government said anything about when to expect a possible verdict? paul: no, and we know things are

underway but i'm afraid if it's been 250 days, but he's not back, then it has not been enough. >> we know there have been u.s. citizens who have been held in russia who were then exchanged for russians who were held in prisons here and there are analysts who speculate that that precisely why evan is being held as well. what is the u.s. tellin you about the prospect of such a swap for evan? danielle: we hold on every day that president biden made a promise to our family that he was going to bring evan home so we just continue to put our faith there. but we are willing to pursue any channels, any means necessary to get evan home. >> are they talking to you as well and your colleagues about back channel negotiations on this topic? paul: we have seen very scums is over the last eight months. both sides say we are in negotiations.

they go back and forth a little bit. we are confident everyone is taking it seriously on the west side. we just need to see some results. a prisoner swap is one of the way these have been sold in the past. we are interested in a creative way that means it doesn't take a prisoner swap and it doesn't take finding someone in order to get evan back because it is so absurd that he is there in the first place. we would like to find another way to bring him home. >> why do you think evan was targeted with this arrest in russia? danielle: i'm not sure. but i know that evan is an amazing journalist and he was very interested in russian people so his stories often had a lens through the russian people. unfortunately, i cannot speak more to that. paul: you have seen a number of

these cases of the kremlin trying to gain leverage over the united states by taking americans hostage. in fact, this has had the added benefit from putin's standpoint of silencing what little is left of an independent press in moscow and that includes the foreign press. after evan was detained, understandably, a lot of american reporters left. from putin's perspective, he got what he wanted, which was a clampdown on the flow of information from a country that matters a huge amount to the world, the u.k., and the united states. >> one more question before we let you go. i know you can't speak directly with evan but what message would you have for him if you could? danielle: i will give him the same message that he gave me which was just be patient, hold on. and we are doing everything we can to get you home. president biden made that promise so we are going to hold

him to it. cannot wait until he is back home. >> thank you so muchor joining us. paul: thank you so much. >> we have one more item for you in the show. countries across europe are experiencing a record-breaking start to winter with snow, ice, and freezing temperatures causing chaos across the continent. the royal automobile club dubbed today ic rink monday after the weekend snow froze overnight. avalanche warnings have been issued in western austria. in munich, 40 centimeters of snow fell in 24 hours and a state of emergency was declared as more than 15,000 homes were left without power across the czech republic. thank you for watching world news america. st with us. narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. man: bdo. accountants and advisors.

narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on "the newshour" tonight -- evacuations become frantic in southern gaza as israel expands its ground operations into the places civilians were told were safe zones just weeks ago. amna: the supreme court hears a