t.v. don't come. straight to our breaking news this hour here on r.t. for an immediate offices in gaza coming under attack from israel which maintains its only targeting terrorists. among the targets also refugee camps as the civilian death toll mounts with more children among those killed. in other stories from this week israel's troops exchanged fire with syria where the rebels are getting more support from the west to get rid of the assad regime. the eurozone sings back into recession as millions take to the streets in the first quarter native pan-european strike to demand an end to austerity. and as china finishes its once in a decade power transfer with new leaders taking over the country's top post we find

out what challenges lie ahead for beijing. with the top stories of the week and all of today this is the weekly here on r t with me will research show straight to our breaking news for you this hour foreign reporters in gaza being forced to scramble as their offices are targeted by israeli bombs already several journalists have been wounded tel aviv says it wants to send gaza quote back to the middle ages and is preparing a ground invasion while militants retaliate with unguided rockets. as the latest. what we're witnessing is a significant climb in the casualty count and increasingly more and more of these casualties are in fact civilians now they were there earlier to. call to holdings but also hit by israeli missiles at least six people have been injured one of them

is a come a man who later had to have his leg amputated the i.d.f. the israeli defense forces has said that the journalists were not simply a target but that they were aware that they were journalists in these buildings and a statement released by the i.d.f. it said that a communications antenna used by hamas to target israelis was in fact their target but the thing is that you have in these media houses international journalists and the israeli army is fully aware of that fact we also are aware that in one of the buildings all sister organization. offices were completely destroyed in the strike unfortunately just an hour before the staff members had gone home we are now however receiving reports that the journalists and people inside these two buildings have been ordered again to evacuate we always see reports that the israeli air force plans to strike these buildings again it's not something that the israeli air force is denying in fact and have stated that being on the eighth floor of one of these buildings is the office of have nots and that this is ultimately

a target now the leaders of hamas have gone into hiding they are fearing for their lives this comes as a statement from israel's interior ministry that the goal is to stand and i'm quoting here was a back to the middle ages these signs so if you do dictate that a full scale ground invasion could be imminent we heard earlier from the israeli defense force chief has ordered to increase the number of sorties being fired against militants inside gaza some sixteen thousand israeli reservists have been called out they are all in the south of the country ready to enter gaza if indeed they given the order to do so now london has warned israel not to launch a ground offensive saying that the country will lose a lot of international support we can do to go. ahead and does this but what we have witnessed in the past is that israel by and large often does what it wishes to knowing full well that the united states is there to support it and so many people here don't believe that the united states would withdraw its support for israel at

this stage at his weekly cabinet meeting in jerusalem the israeli prime minister on sunday morning also said and i'm quoting here that he is ready to significantly expand the israeli operation into gaza so this so he doesn't doubt alarm bells and raise questions as to whether or not this ground offensive is imminent there has been a lot of movement of tanks as well as on the personnel vehicles along the israeli gaza border we've witnessed artillery shelling from these tanks also all the roads around gaza have been closed off by the israeli army now the arab league hold an emergency session on saturday in cairo where the arab league secretary general accused israel of war crimes he also called on arab states that had any kind of peace treaties in place with israel to revisit this we all witnessing a flurry of international activity trying to mediate between the two sides to egypt is playing a role we've also heard from turkey who has put forward some kind of peace proposal but certainly this stage it doesn't seem as it's as if either side is ready for peace what we're hearing from both the israelis and hamas is that the only prepared

to lay down arms if the other side does so first. of course want to pull some reporting right there she is keeping all of us up to date on air and online as well you can just follow her twitter stream for the latest. now or to our big correspondent site as to what he had been working in the media center in gaza just before the israeli rockets slammed into it this is what he told us a bit earlier. now have. no one expected this during the strikes power supplies often get cut off and then it becomes really difficult for us to find fuel for the generator at that we decided to take a break you know working full look for gas so that we can continue working early in the morning we left at around one am and i did too we don't have some of our friends are now in hospital just a little while ago there was a press conference where it was said that such an attack must be completely ruled out as journalists can become targets for strikes the correspondent should share

what he or she sees with the world even israeli journalists report from gaza it's unacceptable that media workers get attacked in such a way that in situations like this we usually don't go to our homes just like we did maturing that has deliveries of two thousand and eight in two thousand and nine even though we know this is really dangerous up to the point of a ground operation however we prefer to stay at the office using any chance to do our job whenever the electricity comes on when the electricity was off we decided to go look for generator fuel and that's what saved us we're talking about four tower blocks in gaza that have been used by media outlets since two thousand during the war in two thousand and eight two thousand and nine israel struck these buildings too that some of our colleagues were injured and we know that we do a dangerous job. just a bit out here on the program i spoke to talk a mentor a filmmaker and activist harry faith he says if you are a reporter covering the events in gaza it's best to avoid all media centers.

understanding that the media centers in gaza which is about five to seven predominant ones usually in apartment buildings totally taken out on different floors by various media organizations including the sister organization of russia today and has been they have been targeted by israeli airstrikes and they have then been told to evacuate evacuate totally and some of these senses are actually basically been razed to the ground so i'm getting very panicked calls from friends of mine palestinians here in gaza saying do not try and go anywhere near any of the live studios here in gaza it is too dangerous your international but you may well be targeted yourself so i heard from one source of within the i.d.f. say these are perception strikes for example one building of journalists when he says a precision strike he targeted one floor however the building then collapsed. is relying on the world not to doing anything while it uses disproportionate force the

trying to assassinate its targets i don't doubt that it is targeting people accurately but it's using such level of force when it does that collateral damage is occurring every hour in gaza so israel has its objectives but it's the force and whether and really that it's using which is an international bridge that under the law. of the u.n. spokesman chris gunness says that god was headed for a humanitarian disaster due to political failure israeli bombing runs and the notorious blockade. we were hearing as others that the situation in shifa hospital is deteriorating very rapidly and let's not forget that even before this latest flare up in violence shifa hospital had been hit by the blockade there was a lack of medicines there was a lack of training a lack of equipment so an already bad situation in that hospital one of the largest in the occupied palestinian territory has been made worse there are shortages

according to the world health organization of essential and lifesaving drugs what we're seeing in gaza is the result of political failure we call on the politicians and the people who are able to make peace to redouble their efforts to do so because for every hour that goes past another child another woman another civilian the elderly the sick the dying they are in harm's way it's a situation which we in the united nations and in under find unacceptable in must and it must end forthwith. and my colleague bill dodd interview to the israeli defense ministry spokesman josh handelman who gave no clear explanations as to why civilians are being killed in what he calls highly precise bombings but when hamas are hiding rockets beneath mosques and hiding rockets and missiles within schoolyards and firing rockets actually next to the very hotel where most of the foreign correspondents are staying we just have to look at all the reports coming

out across the world today and pushing it's a very very difficult predicament and that's why the israeli government uses the most precise munitions is why the israeli army since flies out to the population even before we conduct these precision strikes you want to minimize civilian am i not what those precise munitions are doing to the people of gaza we managed to speak to several girls civilians who are suffering in this bombing campaign of the moment and here's what they had to say let's have a listen. but then the civilian population here is then sleep in every house there are about twenty people until quarter to six everyone was asleep after daniel asked to begin shaking this entire area about sixteen killings were bombing innocent harmless people many were injured my family had four injured we were listening to the news to find out what's going on in gaza. yesterday we slept for about an hour because we wanted to risk what we walk up and rubbed in their brothers you wouldn't think god all the life but what should we do now the roof collapsed walls are just

roared the children of you under the rubble as they were doing and. we were all sleeping parents and me with my sisters in a sixteen missile hits our house we were taken to hospital thank god you're alive but that's how it was going on so what do you say to these people in gaza. well first of all i'd like to point out that actually last night and every night but in particular last night even in the middle of the mission we had air force jets that were flying over and they had a precise target ready to be hit and the hamas organization or other organizations in the region board civilians to the location and we diverted the attack we are doing our utmost to protect civilians on both sides while hamas is going out of its way to not only put their own civilians in harm but attack our civilians on a day to day basis. on air and on line we are bringing you the latest from the middle east live updates on our twitter stream and of course our web site our team

dot com. you're watching on t.v. and another tough week for the eurozone as we report just a little bit later on here in the program the single currency blowfish really back in a recession after a twenty four hour european make a strike grow some twenty countries to a standstill plus. china gets its next chairman xi jinping leading a new group of officials to herald the country's growth even further just a few minutes a week to the problems beijing's blistering economy may have to face up to.

things are just getting too expensive in london many families just can't afford to live in the city anymore so because of upcoming welfare cuts the government is buying or rented property to relocate people outside of the city the maximum housing allowance for welfare will go down to four hundred pounds a month which is peanuts compared to the one thousand two hundred fifty pounds need to pay for the average three room apartment expelling the poor from london seems a bit fishy to me so instead of say regulating prices are cut for big using the money from the welfare cuts to create jobs so people can earn a living for themselves rather than rely on handouts london has decided to make itself some official get to see what else to call a place where everyone from a certain economic classes forcibly shove to although this may sound like some sort of help from the government it seems to me like a means to get rid of the poor rather than trying to make the poor less poor but

that's just my opinion. good. thanks. resistance is not of politics but a culture. is could. on its own.

cultures of resistance on our team. it is a quarter past the hour moscow time this is arts he now aside from the conflict with hamas in gaza israel has also been fighting on its northern front it's one of the defense force confirm they fired artillery into neighboring syria in response to gunfire ended its troops in the disputed golan heights is the first time in four decades that israel has fired into syria it came amid reports that rebels captured the airport in the east of syria strengthening their hold of iraqi border just this week western attempts to oust president assad gained momentum with france and turkey recognizing the new opposition group the national coalition e.u. ministers are expected to discuss a listening in arms embargo on monday paving the way for direct weapons deliveries

to rebels iran has already responded saying that would amount to quote organized terrorism journalist neil clark says the west is using the libya blueprint on syria . what we do is we get together some opposition up if you like not their heads together call them the government of libya and now syria i mean we were too angry at arms embargoes. and very soon we'll be hearing talk i expect no fly zones this is all part of the plan to present a set of proxy for the western powers actually glaring it's ok for us to arm the rebels in syria but for anybody else to arm the syrians it's not allowed so it's absolutely appalling their policy we have the constitutional boat back in eighty some percent of syrians voted for it we had elections in may you know there is a every possibility of a change in syria through the ballot box but the west don't want that because they know the president said he's too popular the baath party has probably majority support in syria the last two they want is the people's will in syria to prevail

they want to impose by force a puppet government. and you know what would happen at libya is that if assad is toppled we have lost in syria more chaos you have more deaths and destruction but the west doesn't really care about that he doesn't care what's happening in libya at the moment all he cares about is a new government in damascus which with many ties the entire economy cut the links with iran and hezbollah and all that you know that the move against iraq to take place because this is all about paving the way toward gets there are. you're watching art's he the eurozone has been hit by a second door session this according to figures published on thursday just came hours after a twenty four hour strike some more than twenty european countries virtually paralyzed as people once again vented their frustration over disintegrating economies. the story. saying i agree. is silly. and portugal.

here it's nice debt rating countries doing together with many others for the consonance first cross border mega strike from the beginning it was clear that emotions were running high in many places the dreadful violence early on and asked a priest come to break. testing every day for various things between the protesters and the riot police is packing right on this thing limited it's not going to get more symbolic candy for the he stood by the people say there are right now all across there are three in the government and the two hundred people then so this is why the austerity but those looking for the bullets and violent confrontations with the authorities are becoming you know t. familiar sights the constant leaders stand for the disparity is a necessary evil cut the sky high deficit only then to the fourteenth the people of europe seem to have formed a county union to fight back against the prevailing tide of the stereotypic ahead

of next week's budget meeting brussels will have been watching closely as the scenes of police and protesters battling one another played out so close the only peace prize winning. under protests over cuts turned violent in the most debt burdens european states like italy portugal and spain where unemployment is at unprecedented levels sociologist carlos lawsuit took part in wednesday's strike believe start with around a half of young spaniards are already out of work and more cuts won't say but nothing. a protest isn't about a solution a protest is normally about something you don't want so in this case what they're protesting is eve austerity is cuts in social spending and cuts in social rights and the expansion of social misery people can make the argument that austerity is the solution to the current problems being faced by your citizenry and in

particular by the southern european citizenry the problem is what is that austerity mean is it neoliberal you austerity where you cut basically all of those all of the social protection that keeps people from descending down to a sort of downward spiral of social misery and with all of that escalating conflict or do you leave social protection in place and cut in places where there really is overspending such as bank bailouts in and and areas like these. meanwhile on its way out of economic trouble the u.k. faces some rather disturbing problems of its own the morale of the police in wales as a rock bottom with almost every single officer feeling abandoned by the government those details are just ahead for. new leaders have been appointed this week in china with becoming the communist party's new secretary general he took over from hu jintao who saw through a decade long transformation which led to it overtaking japan as the world's second

largest economy the new leaders of valor to tackle the challenges of corruption the growing divide between rich and poor and environmental pollution among other issues as well still the main goal remains keeping the economy booming the i.m.f. predicts it will overtake its american rifle in just four years hong kong based a financial expert francis believes the u.s. will no longer get everything its own way if indeed china continues to strengthen. the new leadership showed china and very you believe key and continued. so. what this means is they continue to grow economically much higher no we would do is to continue to spring for the stream to reach. china can achieve parity with america and eve that is their keys i don't think america can for all its weight around the world we've out

opponent i did this now you can't you can't do any of that you want but if china becomes. our only parity with the us then things would change our let's get some other international news headlines for you in brief for the r.t. world update at least three people killed and many more injured by an explosion in central iraq the tigers said to have targeted police officers and has reportedly carried out by a suicide car bomber who run a vehicle full of explosives into a police checkpoint in iraq has been struggling to find stability after u.s. led coalition forces withdrew from the country following years of occupation of. iraq obama is in thailand on his first official trip abroad since being reelected his three country tour of southeast asia as part of a shift in american foreign policy with a deeper commitment to

a region that seeing growing chinese influence a bomber is due to travel to cambodia next and will then become the first ever u.s. president to visit me in. the historic first ever public vote in england and wales for local police commissioners took place this week hardly anyone turned up to the ballot boxes and recent polls of officers show morrall among the nation's law enforcers is at rock bottom laura smith reports. another day another demo and the police only with old hands to keep control but while the boys and girls in blue do their jobs sometimes and impossible conditions the government is reducing their budget by a massive twenty percent the net result more all in the force hits an all time low with just fifteen out of fourteen thousand officers saying they feel the government gives them a great deal of support rachel baines is surprised but not in

a good way. to say those fifteen offices are certainly in the force i work in lancashire and i don't have any offices the philippine supported by the government is at rock bottom baines has lost five hundred fifty officers from her force meaning more work for those left behind and a genuine fear that when people call nine nine nine there won't be anyone left to deal with the emergency and she's not alone so i'm in pain is chair of the warrick ship police federation and he says morale hasn't been this low in his twenty six year career with the have a plethora of issues over the last two years where the star or conditions of service with pension reforms or were thought forms in the police service person twenty percent cuts in a forgiven example here in work prior to this government coming to power we had a thousand and fifty offices we're now down into the seven hundreds we have one of

the biggest might sway networks in the country and we have no traffic department. so it's coming from all sides times are so hard in war that the force is even selling off its stations including its h.q. there's no for sale here but the iconic scotland yard headquarters of the metropolitan police is also on the markets it's a real turnaround it's just. a year ago the mets was trumpeting a three billion pound refurbish it space was revolving starting now it's downsizing to a new size of the thames nearby and replacing smaller stations with counters in supermarkets and communities that. just force feels it's being disproportionately targeted secretary to reason may is on repentant let's stop pretending the police are being picked on they do you feel picked on and critically powerless to protect themselves

as legally the police aren't allowed to strike but that could change in february we are saying everyone can follow the right chief inspector in england and wales and the very question is do they want full industry rights and and the reason that is important is because members need protecting from what they perceive is an unfair treatment by. the police force on strike it's the last thing the government needs particularly as it still has not the winter of discontent in the face no respect. for it in my colleague bill daughter but now after a short break the second part of our special report cultures of resistance things which.

i never thought i could earn a living this way. or should just small arms of the sort i was to machine building plant sourced count of all the weapons just fired over the past twelve years which i got so used to. sometimes my friends ask me to join them at the rifle range and i say no way i'm so tired of shooting. the planet's history goes from making firearms doing world war two to ballistic missiles from nuclear submarines during the cold war the bulk of the soviet industry was moved here in the 1940's to flee the advancing germans so i was here also became the heart of soviet military production closed off to foreigners for half a century it thrived on the message of the soviet military when the u.s.s.r.

collapsed but life here was shaken to the core but some adapted to better than others. this is the year old truck factory rushes to number one of truck made for girls a look at how well the workplace is organized everything's done to make sure the workers don't waste time waiting there was sold production is booming in the factory has largely managed to get on to civil rails these johnsons sold around the globe hit a base of brand new breeds not wait for him to be delivered to acquire seventy trucks like this one roll up the bronx conveyor belt every day look at about this things that absolutely huge. well i'm no formula one pilot but hopefully it if i can get up that. one can go far to drive.

oh that was fun perhaps i should get one of these to troubled whatever in the morning was with the cost of about forty thousand dollars i should start saving my . browser's. cæsar. made me sit him. healthy. my daddy. a lot of dos and. does a famous reuse dance and blame his oh my stable and does my mammy ransom business. and then and now.