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narrator: pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. brook: these are people who are trying to change the world. startups have this energy that energizes me. i'm thriving by helping others everyday. people who know, know bdo. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". >> i'm caitriona perry in washington and this is "bbc world news america."

u.s. national security advisor heads to israel and the defense minister warns that it could last several more months. opening membership talks with the ukraine as president putin gives his first press conference as the war started. hello and welcome to "bbc world news america." i'm caitriona perry. jake sullivan told the israeli prime minister israel must lower the scale of its operation in the gaza strip as the war continues. he had a productive conversation during his visit to israel with israeli about transitioning from a high intensity to a low intensity military operation in gaza. israel's defense minister and ports you told mr. sullivan the war would last more than several months. israeli prime minister bennett you not ya oh is -- benjamin

netanyahu is vowing absolute victory against hamas, designated a terrorist organization by several governments including the u.k. and u.s. arrest of hamas members in northern gaza. they are accusing israeli forces of preventing medical staff of providing care at the same hospital, causing two patients to die. in gaza the phone and internet networks are down again as the committed carried situation continues to deteriorate. the head of the u.n. agency for palestinian refugees says they do not have the ever structured to host the growing numbers of refugees heading to it. joining us now is our middle east correspondent who was in jerusalem. hugo, this message from the u.s. that it has told israel to move to a lower intensity military operation, has the message been received?

hugo: we had two messages from the israeli authorities, one from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu who again said the war is going to continue until w described as absolute victory. he said the goal here was to destroy hamas and the release of the hostages who remain in captivity. the second message came from the israeli defense minister who said the goal was to destroy hamas, but that was difficult and the israeli military needed more time. jake sullivan talked about a new phase in this war with more precise and targeted attacks. there was no mention of a timeline, but the israelis are under pressure because of the mounting civilian casualties and also because of the humanitarian situation in gaza.

crucially they have not yet been able to capture or kill members of the hamas leadership. they say that a pause in hostilities would only give time and benefit hamas, a position shared and supported by the united states are far. caitriona: they were planning to push for some relief on humanitarian grounds. is there any indication of progress there? it is interesting, there was a brief mention of the committed train situation in the statement by the prime minister. the situation remains desperate. again today the u.n. is warning of a widespread hunger across gaza. the head of the yuan agency for palestinian refugees said people were so desperate they were stopping lorries carrying

humanitarian aid and eating food aid immediately. that tells you how difficult the situation is. aid organization say that people who have not been killed by bombs may not survive hunger and diseases in gaza. caitríona: hugo, thank you for that. the hamas-run health ministry says more than 18,000 people have been killed in gaza. the head of the yuan agency for palestinian refugees returned from a fact-finding mission on thursday. at a press conference the u.n. said they are desperate, hungry, and terrified. for more on the committed hearing situation in gaza i talked with the director for the norwegian people's aid. she spoke to me from a mom, jordan -- oman, jordan. what does the operation look like? >> will be very open, our

operation in gaza right now in terms of the team and our partners, are more or less, they are incapacitated to a certain degree given that they have all been displaced multiple times since october 7. caitríona: what impact is the bad weather the past few days having on the situation? >> i would say the change of the seasons, the coming winter in this part of the region and the heavy rains that have been experienced as of late have made the situation that has been very difficult to a point of sheer misery. at this stage, in terms of shelter, privacy, and water, sanitation, facilities, etc. caitríona: if your team is basically incapacitated, the impact in recent d the push by israel of civilians down into the south of the country,

what impact has that had? >> oh, i would say this has made a grave situation even more intolerable. population dennis the -- the population density in terms of displaced locations, highly crowded. assistance locally are not providing basic needs in terms of commodities to the general population whatsoever. there has been a pure breakdown of social order, social construct across the different communities. this is a very, very challenging time. caitríona: why is it the international community appears to be failing in its efforts to help the civilians? >> i think the gaza strip provides such a unique situation in terms of its historical seeds

to and controlled borders. it is a very small piece of territory with a very high population density, mostly in the dense urban centers across the gaza strip. so it has an historical challenge that comes with it. what we are looking at, 10 weeks of onslaught, bombardments and incursions from the ground, air and from the water, from the sea, this has created an unprecedented situation that is testing all levels and all needs and coordination for humanitarian organizations. caitríona: what is your organization able to do at the moment? >> right now we are working with a number of key partners that are in the gaza strip who have been up until the failure of the last humanitarian pause were in

very localized terms delivering humanitarian assistance by way of water, food, nonfood items to communities they could reach safely. so we are working with and continuing to recalibrate and coordinate and adapt to whether those partners can continue to give assistance. right now the primary focus is on duty of care with partners and my team in gaza to the best of our abilities. that is their primary focus at this moment given the overall security context. caitríona: kelly, can i ask, the white house is saying the u.s. national security adviser jake sullivan is in israel at the moment, has said to israeli officials the u.s. would like israel to move from a high intensity military operation to a low intensity military operation. from your understanding, what difference would that make? >> you know, i have to say that

kind of terminology, i'm not a military expert or politician, so these words to me compared to what i'm hearing from directly out of the gaza strip, there is no such thing as a different -- difference between high and low intensity at this point in time. the suffering and the misery and the undignified environment in which gazans and palestinians are living right now is completely high-intensity in terms of the humanitarian crisis that is underway. caitríona: ok, kelly flynn, country director at norwegian aid, think you for joining us on bbc news. my colleague put that question about the u.s. request for israel to move from high to low intensity operations to the former idf intelligence officer, now director of the international institute of cutter terrorism in tel aviv,

retired colonel mary eisen. >> it is the capabilities of what the military wants to achieve. in that sense we are trump to work systematically and slowly. working that way for the military is mainly to try to save civilian lives. if we wanted to do it quickly and harshly, there would be much bigger loss of life. as we both know there has been an enormous loss of life inside the gaza strip right now. when we talk about the united states looking at understanding that we are trying to do the best we can to save civilian lives inside the gaza strip, that will be the gap, between the military need, the need to work slowly, and the fact that until now it is taking a long time, but we need to continue. reporter: colonel, on civilian lives, according to the hamas-run taza health ministry, more than 18,000 civilians have been killed. according to that ministry, many of them women and children.

we saw the u.s. defense secretary that israel risks a strategic defeat if it does not do more than it is doing now to protect civilians. what do you think of that? >> we are doing what we can, as much as we can to protect civilians. from the beginning of this campaign we have been telling civilians to go to the safe areas. the safe areas are not lovely and nice, this is war, but they are safe areas that save lives. when they look at the hamas numbers, first of all any person, any human being, any child killed in war is a tragedy. if it is in the gaza strip, israel, anywhere, right now we are inside this war. i don't believe hamas numbers, but i absolutely think we have to do the best we can. to me what hurts is that through these questions, it is as if we don't care and we are not trying. we care, we are trying, we are targeting. i don't like the way that we talk about it in big numbers, how many civilians to how many

noncombatants, but thousands of hamas terrorists have been killed over the last two months. none of those names have ever been put out. in the end come as a human being, any child who dies is a tragedy and we need to do our best. i completely agree in that sense. reporter: prime minister benjamin netanyahu has says the fight will continue until hamas is defeated, that hamas cannot be allowed to exist next to israel. what does it look like practically to defeat hamas? >> military capabilities, it is much more clear, you go into the gaza strip as we have done with ground operations, and the word dismantling sounds like something you're doing to a causeway. no, you're finding the enormous amount of weapons that hamas have amassed over the last 15 years, that they have ruled over the gaza strip, hamas has planted booby-traps, put into apartment buildings. that is one aspect. into the refugee camps, everybody knows that.

now we understand these weapons and the different capabilities are in mosques, kindergartens, hospitals, schools. you have to find those all, to go after the terrorists themselves. we are talking about tens of thousands of terrorists. we have arrested, they are all prisoners, and there is also the arena. we are doing it slow and systematic. if you do it fast you are killing were civilians because hamas built their defenses to be protected both by the civilians and forced by the hostages. i'm being cynical, they are for them the get out of jail free card. i'm sorry about being cynical, but that is the way that hamas sees them, as a bargaining chip to be used for their own safety and not for anybody else's benefit. reporter: colonel, you have talked about the need to think about the day after this war ends. what is the security and political strategy for gaza that day after?

>> it is very clear what it is not. i'm not front to say what it is. it is not ruled by hamas. the hamas as we know it now does not have the massive terror military capabilities. it will be something that is both local palestinian. israel will need for our own sense of security, we cannot live here otherwise. we will need for our own sense of security certainly in the initial portion to be the ones responsible for the d militarizing, the continuing of the disarming of the must capabilities. what it looks like further along the way, i in that sense look for hope for the gazans, for the 2 million people that in the future they have a different education system that does not educate to hate, that we can build a different kind of future. but that is still far away. reporter: really interesting to get your perspective today. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you so much.

caitríona: european union to open talks with ukraine in moldova at the ew summit -- the eu summit. k comes at a crucial time for ukraine as winter weather picks up and heavy fighting continues. the president of the eu said the union also granted candidate status to georgia. hi on the agenda of the summit is a huge package of financial and military support and also the opening of formal entry talks with kyiv. hungary threatened to veto both. this follows a series of diplomatic attempt in the u.s. to give more aid to the ukraine, including a visit by president zelenskyy this week. domestic politics in washington are holding things up, with republicans pushing for more border security. a deal before the end of the year is not looking promising. house of representatives concluded their sessions for the rest of the year thursday. our reporter is in brussels with more details on today's eu summit.

reporter: after hours of negotiations, european leaders in brussels had an unexpected breakthrough. they decided to open e.u. membership talks with ukraine and moldova. essentially what that means is formal talks with ukraine can now officially begin so the country can one day join the european union. this decision comes as a huge surprise. that is because the hungarian prime minister had been very outspoken about not wanting ukraine to join the eu. he said if ukraine were to join, that would have devastating consequences for the bloc. he said kyiv had not implemented enough reforms to get a green light. despite this, we understand victor alban did not veto this decision. in terms of what this means for

ukraine, this is a hugely significant and positive development. president zelenskyy said he was delighted and that this positive decision by brussels will give a lot of hope to the people of ukraine and to his troops that are fighting against russia. he said this is a victory for europe at a victory for ukraine. caitríona: in his first major press conference since he launched the full-scale invasion of ukraine, russian president vladimir putin said the countries objectives have not changed. he said there are i total of 617,000 russian troops fighting in ukraine. our reporter was at the speech. reporter: there have not been many, actually any opportunities for western media to get anywhere near vladimir putin since his full-scale invasion of ukraine. but today the kremlin invited us and other foreign media to the president's end-of-the-year tvs

extravaganza. half press conference, on the wharton ukraine he is sounding confident. >> there will be peace and we achieve our goals. they haven't changed. reporter: practically along the entire line of contact, our armed forces are to put it modestly improving their position. they are in an active stage of operation. reporter: there was a definite military theme to the show, which was broadcast by every main tv channel in russia and went over hours. the public had plenty of questions about with the kremlin is still calling it special military operation. like with there be a new wave of mobilization in russia? mr. pruden said no -- mr. putin said no. this didn't happen last year. the kremlin had canceled the end of year press conference

following the full-scale invasion of ukraine. the fact the four hour tv marathon is back reflects his growing confidence nearly two years into the war. he was asked about two americans being held in russian jails, wall street journal reporter and a former marine. is a prisoner swap possible? >> we want to do a deal, but these agreements should be mutually beneficial. we are in contact with our american partners on this matter. a dialogue is underway. it's not easy. i won't go into detail, but in general i think we understand each other and i hope that we will find a solution. reporter: a question about egg prices. you are my favorite president, she says. but all i got after four hours was a sore arm.

pity that, i have so many questions for vladimir putin. another day perhaps. caitríona: the presidents of guiana and venezuela met for talks on a border support -- border dispute. oil makes up two thirds of guiana's territory, but venezuela has long disputed the sovereignty. the venezuelan president won a ballot to make it the 24th state. that move alarmed neighboring countries fearful of an armed invasion. today he met his counterpart on the caribbean island nation in the grenadine. now joining us as our south america correspondent. remind us of the background to this dispute. how did we get to where we are? reporter: this is a dispute that

goes back to the 19th century and effectively under british rule. the arbitration court ruled that this part of guyana, it was something that never was accepted by venezuela. it went unresolved, but then speed forward to 2015 when some oil was discovered offshore close to the region owned by exxon mobil, there has been more interest by venezuela to be able to claim this territory. as you mentioned there was a referendum, unsurprisingly backed by venezuelans is them wanting it back, or want to get even to take claim of the territory. what you've got to look at this as mr. madura, why is he doing this? a lot of people have criticized his moves as wanting to stoke popularity ahead of the 2024

presidential elections. it has caused a lot of upset and concern in the region as to where mr. madura wants to go. caitríona: what came out of today's meeting then? reporter: the two sides said they were willing to continue dialogue. i think that is a brief statement, a broad statement. clearly guyana is not wanting to cede its territory to venezuela. esther madura will continue i'm sure along the lines to say this belongs to venezuela, so the two sides are willing to continue the dialogue. what that actually means, it is interesting because for the region it matters so much. this region, the president here in brazil, said south america does not want war. it is a region particularly worried about what the escalation of tensions could mean. brazil has been one of the

countries that has helped broker this dialogue as well as the caribbean community. there is a realt this stays dipc and that is what they are wanting to move forward on. certainly i don't think it resolves the situation, just pushes the situation on, and the commitment from both sides they want to do this diplomatically. caitríona: thank you my very much very much for joining us with that update. before we go we have a big score for our football fans. rebecca welch will become the first female referee for the premier league on the 23rd of december. with 13 years under her belt as a referee, she has been a leader in both men's and women's football. she takes charge of the women's super league and women's champions league matches and she also refereed at the women's world cup in australia and new

zealand in the summer. this is not her first time being the first. rebecca also became the first woman to referee a men's championship game earlier this year, in january. now remember that you can find out all about today's news, everything going on around the world from all of our bureaus and correspondents at bbc.com/news. check out any time on your favorite social media platforms. that is it for the moment/ i'm caitríona perry, thank you for watching "bbc world news america." do take care. bye-bye now. 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. william: good evening. i'm william brangham. amna nawaz and geoff bennett are away. on the “newshour” tonight, intense fighting continues in gaza and civilians caught in the crossfire struggle to find care in overcrowded hospitals. then, in a year-end news conference, russian presiden