it's three pm in moscow this is r t coming to you live on nice and now with our top story this hour fresh israeli air strikes on gaza have reportedly left one palestinian dead and several others injured earlier the israeli military confirmed it's preparing for a possible large scale attack it's three years since around four thousand five hundred palestinians were killed during the three week long offensive argues paul the slayer has more from jerusalem. for several days now the israeli gaza border has been tense four palestinians were killed and several others were injured in a series of targeted strikes carried out by the israeli air force at the same time and number of rockets were fired by palestinian militants into southern israel now last night when state evening the israeli defense force did confirm that it is

preparing a large scale military operation in gaza it says that operation will be varied and different to the last operation that was carried out there three years ago what we're hearing is that the purpose of this operation will be to in hans is ready to terence now we are receiving reports that khaled mashal who is a massive political bureau chief has called for all attacks on israeli civilians to be halted this comes in light of the recently conciliation deal that was signed between rival palestinian faction groups amass and fattah in cairo and this would be because of fear of a massive israeli retaliation this tuesday marks three years since the last israeli operation in gaza that israelis referred to as operation cast lead that operation lasted about three weeks nearly one and a half thousand palestinians were killed four out of five of them were civilians what we're hearing from the israeli army this time around is that this operation will be much shorter and that the israelis will employ much greater use of fire

power but certainly it is still too soon to say what will happen over more on this story now do i live by gideon levy who's a columnist with the newspaper thanks for being with us mr levy how do you see the situation developing how determined is israel to launch a new offensive on gaza. hopefully you know there is no real reason for him launching another. but the rhetorical sin is in the last days he's becoming more and more harsh and you know rhetorically can lead to change you really to your to take for his word there's no reason whatsoever to launch another tick and there are always so new political conditions now there is a new egypt or old and i'm not sure that egypt will remain indifferent to visa v. another brutal attack of israel and gaza so are you that israel might

be fraid of any kind of repercussions because three years ago we saw an offensive that killed some fifteen hundred palestinians thirteen israelis yet no one was held responsible has that given israel a carte blanche to do what it wants without fear of repercussion or are you saying that the situation has now changed them to actually think about what could happen if they do launch a full scale attack. three years ago israel had the carte blanche and not only the west to plow do this and didn't say it would be against the sitting but these time we are facing a new egypt and gaza ease in the backyard of egypt and i'm not sure that egypt will remain indifferent reserve you another thing but having said this i'm not sure that this is enough to prevent an attack because unfortunately israeli politicians in

general not always react in the most racial and logical way it seems like you're saying that it could go either way that you do think an attack is possible but it won't necessarily happen there are reports that the head of hamas has ordered an end to attacks on israeli targets but we keep seeing rockets being fired from gaza so why is the masses leadership in gaza undermining attempts to prevent any kind of escalation in violence. first a full note everyone in israel listens carefully to the new voices in the hamas and the new voices it's very clearly so. in the recent days speaking in a new language it's not only about snooks launching any terek sions but it's also about recognizing is very the sixty seven borders one way or the other but israel unfortunately is not listening to these those voices and these as usual may be

missing and the other will put unity by ignoring those voices who come from hamas and this is very great of. we're also hearing very offensive rhetoric coming from israel do you think israel has its own plan which doesn't exactly include any kind of dialogue with the palestinians. this is not my view it's crystal clear the current government of israel has no serious intention about serious dialogue with the palestinians maybe some photo opportunities but nothing more than the send the p.a. the palestinian authority had just launched another proposal for israel to get back to the negotiation table they even gave up the precondition of freezing the settlements which is a minimum. condition and they had suggested just a symbolic release of one hundred palestinian prisoners to get back to the go

chaison table it would these were to say no. if we were to see and i know this is of course is all still very much speculation some kind of full scale attack do you think it would be possible that we would see reaction from the international community in terms of a possible u.n. impose a no fly zone what and how will the world react to an attack. you must differentiate here between the public opinions in the world who are already in . one may be able to say it was quiet discussed and quite critical about the israeli. positions of the governments in europe and elsewhere i think the world still has this card blanche especially in an election year in the united states no. we raise his voice

against no official will raise his voice against israel in election year and europe unfortunately also supports one way or the other. is really a take so i guess that even if the tone will be more critical of this state i don't think that it will get to any kind of actions against israel all right speaking to us live from tel aviv gideon levy a columnist with her at this paper thank you for your time. well the arab league monitoring mission in syria is now heading to the city of hamas' focal point of the sound off between protesters and the army reports of a murder said on wednesday six people were killed there in a fresh outbreak of violence and this comes after observers said they found the situation in the flashpoint city of holmes reassuring author and middle east expert to reka lee who's in london doubts if the observer mission will bring any possible

results. obviously the syrians left in them all neuters to show that they're not going to hide it thinking they'd find nothing but believe has been one of the most fair to call them a station is in the arab world for a long long time doing nothing on palestine doing nothing to prevent the war in iraq and now it's being used as a named geo by the west so i don't take the arab leaders such too seriously so we shall see what happens if it. marty spoke exclusively to russia's u.n. ambassador who said carrying out promised reforms may be cured difficult for the regime and is essentially involved in a civil war with extremists a full version is coming up for you next hour but here's a preview. we believe that there has been there are been some extremely troubling

reports coming out of syria about excessive use of force by those who are it is but also telling that the everybody must put pressure on. the destructive elements. of the opposition or various destructive elements which may have found their way into syria that they are violent acts are not going to be condoned by the international community and this is this is a key to finding a peaceful way out of the situation some of the forms were announced. some of them pretty far reaching like changing the constitution and getting rid of the political monopoly of one party even though under normal circumstances in any country forms of such magnitude are not easy to implement all that in a situation when there is an armed conflict being encouraged from various quarters one would see weapons being moved. illegally into syria all that of course becomes a saturday conversation.

but libya is heading into a new year as a completely new country with new leaders and new hopes but as the immediate post-revolutionary excitement fades the different factions of the former rebels are turning on each other and what may become a stark competition for power on a boycott reports. flying high but still running low almost two months after the lifting of a no fly zone over tripoli the city's airport operates far below its capacity to the passenger traffic keeps increasing every month as more and more airlines of putting tripoli back on their flight schedules the tripoli airport is once again buzzing with space the chairs a feller's have already within service and more expected to follow in the coming months but while the flight controllers and customs officials are back of their desks it's still the militia who call the shots here and the rebels themselves

admit that the situation is still way too turbulent to cede control to civilian authorities they're no longer flashing their guns to get make it very clear who is in control here the rebel brigades from the western cd of the captured the airport in late august as the rebels over on the capital the control of this key facility how the town with the population of some thirty thousand rise to national prominence since then does in time militia have successfully styled itself as the save guards of libya's future. for forty two years our country had nothing no state institutions just one insane person. now we have a historic mission to overcome the difficulties of the transitional period and build a new country and that animals will be upon us. is one of the top guns in tripoli these days permanently

a colonel in the good after his army he still keeps the good offices army cap in his office his subordinates are now holding the deposed libyan leader's son safe will islam. we are against any dictator but if history repeats itself we will wage a war but we will let the rule of law decide his fate. didn't ghazi zintan misrata these libyan c.d.'s one after another rose against gadhafi is regime . then militias now represent the real axis of power in the country as their various and their legacy and agendas as this tribes on the only base new tricolor the prospect of civil war in libya is always there and it always has been there but it has been effectively mastered by the very strong centralized rule of the gadhafi regime but of course now that that has been the stabilized we see this all of the tensions there in the fabric of libyan society coming to the fore another militia

commander in charge of tripoli rebels is preparing for an interview it's been a month since he changed his military fatigues for a business suit bob dylan maker is now trying to transform rebels under his command into a political force a laptop has replaced their rifle as his main tool internet is his new front line of the armed assistant at his door is a sign that political process is still in its very early stages but. we've seen many examples in the past when people's revolutions were stolen and we are very clear that our struggle is far from over gadhafi may still come back in some other shape or form and in that case who have to take up our weapons and defend our revolution. guns are still a common side on the streets of tripoli and their province has visibly decreased the city's covered with posters calling on the rebels to turn them in the design and of militia has so far failed to translate into national reconciliation the

competition among various brigades may have become less visible but not less and tyrants and the nato alliance would like to build upon any division within the groups or the parties that they have revolutionized against because of it is email and according to my own understanding they would like to see certain provinces being divided inside the state of libya back in the arrival hall isn't turned rebels are screening passengers bags on to the posters left from the old regime to get out his golden framed portrait that maddest at the airport a year ago is gone hatred of him a have glued the libyan society for several months but if he's killing the former unity appears to have died as well the work of art the tripoli. it's quarter past the hour coming up later in the program. people became very draconian during those times very sober oppressive and they would have supported

the government to bring in the army to sort the proper amount in artie's special series of reports on twenty eleventh's main events we bring you our correspondents inside the five days of summer riots in la. and in the business bulletin russia's top banks managed to boost their profits by more than fifty percent this year details that about ten minutes. hostility between washington and tehran is increasing with the u.s. saying it won't tolerate any potential closer the strait of hormuz by iran earlier the islamic republic threatened to block oil shipments through the vital waterway if the west adopts sanctions as against i should say its petroleum exports a senior iranian commander said the move will be easy to implement remark made while to conduct unprecedented wargame waters near the strait the us also maintains a naval presence in the persian gulf and says its warships will stop the uranium

from blocking the passage and tehran has reported it's already to tack to an american aircraft carrier in the vicinity political analyst chris bambery believes the west is putting world peace on the line with its stubbornness over sanctions. that americans could probably force using the military in the gulf could probably force open the straits of hormuz but that would mean war with iran and that would be a huge huge escalation and would threaten world peace and therefore i think the iranians are really challenging the americans sensing the american weakness we know that from british sources that there are plans to attack iran and israel is egging on america to attack iran over the question of its nuclear program but i think again in a comparison with iraq in two thousand and three iran is in a much stronger position iranian nationalism should not be should not be

underestimated even opponents of the rally to support iran's given britain and america's history in iran there's a long history of unfortunate british and american intervention in iraq so i think we're witnessing quite a dangerous escalation and it's the sanctions which the west still talk or importance around which is responsible for that situation developing and i think we should be clear about that is the west who've racked up this situation every step. r.t. continues to bring you the main stories of twenty eleven through the eyes of our international correspondents there's been a tough year for the u.k. which sides worst under arrest in decades and several cities descended into riots looting and are sent laura smith witnessed the five summer days of chaos. we first realized what

a big story this was going to be on the night of the seventh of august that had been localized just says on saturday the six but we were tracking the news and we literally couldn't believe what we were hearing we decided that this was a story that we had to go and. we went initially to the retail park in a field where we couldn't see anything it was already dark it was quite late. and then all of a sudden out of the darkness came a group of around two hundred youths running across the retail park dressed mainly in black colors with tops on so you couldn't see their faces and gradually we realised they were smashing everything they could find. for me as a journalist it was an incredible story we were out on the streets every night

wearing what i've come to call my riot gear so black jackets with everything i need in the pocket so that i can get away quickly if necessary it's an uneasy relationship. these parts of north between the people who was the police i mean it's people say they might have been state should know. we really felt on two of the nights the whole of london was on fire. you would. arrive versus us an area and you'd be able to see the flames on the smoke rising from two streets away and know that the rioters had set fire to a car or broken into a shop and set fire to it or even on one occasion they set fire to an enormous coffin. house. arrest grabs two different parts of love and. around london following it as it

happens. almost anywhere that you went in the more areas of london that was some form of new saying we went round and also those areas to have a look at what was going on there was streets that were just completely no go areas you know certainly for ordinary people but it seemed for the police as well we were talking to the police and it was clear from what they were saying that they had no idea what to do about the situation they just didn't know what to do they were look . they eventually settled on certainly for those of us tonight's was charging into areas. just to show that presence and then running away again really purely running away and it wasn't until the third or fourth night that they really got into game and elements of control. on the second off to new we went to hackney west some of the worst unrest was taking place and it was literally

shut down like. the police were not really less than anyone through they had surrounded the town center and when you got into the towns and we still people and just smashing into shops and grabbing whatever they could. but not just young people adults as well. as. just just. the other frightening thing was the effects that it had on society if you had talked to people two weeks before the riots about whether bringing in the mill millet treat to take control of the streets was a good idea everybody would have said no it's quite a liberal society when you get down to it but the people i spoke to during the riots. and immediately offered genuinely felt that bringing in the army would have been a good idea using water cannon on the streets of london and other cities which would have sorted the proper about immediately so people became very draconian during

those times very sort of repressive and they would have supported a government to bring in the army to sort the problem out. the studies are being done now into why the riots happened and a variety of reasons have been put forward maybe it's to bad relationship with the police in these impoverished areas particularly amongst the black youth who say that they are stopped and searched by the police sometimes multiple times a day for having done nothing some people say that's because the young people in england particularly feel that they have no prospects there's no jobs for them unemployment amongst young people is running at twenty five percent now they've got no hope for the future. those two things remain true and so i see no reason why this kind of thing wouldn't happen again. well a new report in our testimony series is coming up for you tomorrow it but if you've

missed any of them they're all available to watch right now at our dot com. let's take a look at the latest business news with. almost twenty four minutes here past the hour here in moscow you are with business on our team as twenty eleven comes to an end the business start to you looks back at the highs and the lows of the year today we're focusing on the russian stock market and in the course of a look at how bears place the bolz. i. it's been a roller coaster ride for investors to syria with markets being bashed by micro and political events like the unrest in the middle east and the earthquake in japan this over a debt crisis in europe the u.s. rates in downgrades quantitative easing and bank recapitalization uncertainty

regarding u.s. and china growth high volatility and low confidence leading to a flight safety then we had investors trading in the seas rather than individual stocks and finally trading volumes by historical comparison now let's take a closer look and see how the r.t.s. was affected we can already see some major drops throughout the year and this is the investor reaction to standard and poor's downgrade of the u.s. credit rating both the my six and the r.t. has beat the two thousand a record for the biggest one day fall prices for oil russia's key export also science to a five month low and we can see that figure a year in august the low point came on october fourth as a russian stocks closed more than five percent in the red and there's been little in the way of recovery since trade has been highly volatile domestic issues have

also played a part following allegations of fraud in the parliamentary election in the same breath thousands gathered on the streets to protest the bullets concerts and see call some investors to head for the exit as we can see by the numbers for that period right here now in the end the r.t.s. has lost around twenty percent since the beginning of the year we can see where it started and all the way where it went down and analysts forecast an even deeper fall in two thousand and twelve but after such a turbulent year any predictions about the next twelve months must be taken with a law. large pinch of salt though international issues are likely to continue to dominate son simmons on the home front the russian economy is expected to continue to grow and flotation will moderate further and the governments will press ahead with its massive privatization program though this may seem like the recipe for success the truth of the matter is we've already seen how easily russia is dragged down by negative external factors so that's what investors will be locked into.

and look at the markets first to europe they are quite upbeat the sour banks and telecoms are the main gainers in london and in frankfurt all eyes are on the long term italian bond auction deals fell from recent record highs but they remain just under seven sound which experts say is unsustainably high. here in moscow the losses a widening the r.t.s. is now losing just under two and a half percent the my six is down more than one in the morning. despite the crisis russia's top banks managed to boost their profits the central bank says the country's thirty largest lenders posted a fifty two percent increase in profits for the first eleven months of the year that's compared to single digit growth for large banks in developed countries the

regulator says aggressive lending brought in most of the growth. that's all from the business team the sour would be back in about fifteen minutes. if.

the limits. to please. be. safe. mine. too much brighter than a few new movements from phones to parachutes. these friends don't see on t.v.

don't come. here with art's new wife or mosque our top stories tensions heat up on the israeli palestinian border espresso airstrikes on gaza leaving one person dead and several injured in what television says as a prelude to a possible full scale attack on. new readers of the new libya the militia is now calling the sops in the post revolutionary country are crossing to disarm a trend some fear might result in another fight for power.