that is andrew nicholson there. ., , much.funerals have begun taking place for the 38 people who died in the azerbaijan airlines crash. relatives say 13—year—old muhammedali yeganov was flying to grozny to visit his mother when the plane went down on wednesday. the promising young footballer was laid to rest in his home district in baku. we have some breaking news to bring you here on bbc news. the reuters news agency are reporting that israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu will go into hospital to have his prostate removed on sunday after he was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection resulting from a benign prostate enlargement. his office have released that to the reuters news agency and we will bring you more on that when we have it. the last major functioning hospital in northern gaza has been put out of service after it was evacuated by the israeli military. the kamal adwan hospital has been under siege by the idf for weeks and is now empty. the world health organization said it was deeply concerned for the safety o

for more on this, i spoke earlier with andrew nicholson, the ceo of osprey flight solutions, a risk intelligenceement company. i asked him whether putin's statements clarify anything about the accident. it clarifies some details. it confirms that the incident happened in russian airspace but other than that it doesn't change our assessment. all of the indicators were there already that the scenario that appears to have played out was a russian aircraft activity. it misidentified the aircraft and shot it down. i don't think putin's statement changes that but the fact that it then did occur in russian airspace, and he has confirmed that, and the aircraft then diverted across the caspian sea is a good bit of information in detail but we need to understand why they diverted all the way across the caspian sea. i think it adds that colour to the scenario. can radar and anti—aircraft systems see between a passenger aircraft and a drone? it depends on the type of anti—aircraft system or air defence system. there are checks and balances. the more modern ones are more capable. but there is always the huma

. >> reporter: a spoke with andrew nicholson, who runs a company that advises carriers flying in the region. he pointed to images of the plane's wreckage that appear to show what he says is damage consistent with surface to air fire. >> there are no scuffs or bumps or dents that would indicate birds hitting the aircraft you and also the direction of the shrapnel, which looks like it's coming from below and towards the front. >> reporter: and with the plane's black boxes recovered, an investigation is now under way. israel's flag ship carrier, one of the few international airlines flying to russia, has suspended its flights. whit? >> and still so many questions. ines, thank you. >>> turning now to politics, and president-elect trump thr threatening to expand u.s. territory. suggest fwhg a series of social media posts that the u.s. could take control of canada, greenland, and the panama canal. tonight, what's behind the threat? and how some of our allies are responding. here's abc's white house correspondent mary alice parks. >> reporter: tonight, the president of panama calling presid

let's further discuss this with andrew nicholson. he's the ceo of osprey flight solutions, an aviation security firm. andrew, appreciate your time. your firm says the plane was likely shot down by a russian military air defense system. u.s. officials say early indications are the same. walk through kind of the evidence that allowed you to get to that conclusion. >> well, i think it's been mentioned already, phil. i think the the type of damage, the fragmentation pattern on the on the fuselage of the aircraft is a is a clear indicator that that that other explanations like bird strike are just not a feasible, um, possibility. but again, as was mentioned, the airspace environment at the time with the russian air defense activity going on to intercept the drone attack that was being conducted by the ukrainians in that area, you know, increases the risk of misidentification and shootdown, as we saw in mh17. and also ukraine international airlines flight ps752 coming out of tehran in early 2020. so all of those indicators will bring us to