yolande knell, in jerusalem. — to more violence.olence. yolande knell, in jerusalem, thank you. _ hugging is likely to be officially allowed in england again when the government makes an announcement tomorrow on the next lockdown easing from may the 17th. the changes on household mixing will be the most significant since the rules were introduced last year. but we're being urged to use "common sense" and limit close contact. here's our science editor, david shukman. remember this, the comfort of a hug? well, for more than a year, we've been warned against it because of the risk of transmitting the virus. but now, with fewer infections and many more people vaccinated, it seems to be the moment for a cautious return. we've seen an absolutely extraordinary success of both the vaccine programme and also the suppression of cases as a result of this very prolonged lockdown which we've had, and so i think it is time — based on the very careful modeling that's been done — to start relaxing some of those restrictions. so will people rush to

yolande knell, jerusalem. — others as well. yolande knell, jerusalem, thank _ others as well.keir starmer has told his new shadow cabinet that he takes responsibility for labour's poor performance in last week's elections. the labour leader is under pressure over the way he handled his cabinet reshuffle, with many questioning his decision to sack his campaign co—ordinator, angela rayner. here's our political correspondent iain watson. tensions at the top of the labour party have often been a feature of its history, and now the current leader and his deputy have had a serious stand—off. when keir starmer stripped angela rayner of her responsibility for campaigning, she and her supporters put up a fight. the mayor of greater manchester had criticised keir starmer but is now calling for the infighting to stop. labour's got to stop this sort of internal focus, the civil war between those on the left and right of the party. from my point of view, that's absolutely pointless and destructive. those close to the top of the party can't agree on what happened here during tense negotiati

yolande knell.ng place in the afghan capital, kabul, after a series of bomb attacks on a school yesterday. more than 60 people died — most were young girls. many of them were from afghanistan's hazara community. it's a shia muslim ethnic minority, often targeted by sunni islamist militants. secunder kermani reports from islamabad. the coffins kept coming throughout the day. most of the dead, teenage girls. their hopes and dreams buried with them. "she was very intelligent, never missed a day of school," says the uncle of one 15—year—old. "we buried her here today." the attack took place as pupils were making their way home. it began with a car bomb outside the school gate. two more explosions followed. there's still been no claim of responsibility, but many suspect the islamic state group is behind the bloodshed. they have repeatedly targeted this minority community of shia hazaras in the past, too. in hospital corridors, anxious families wait. many of the victims remain in a critical condition. tah

yolande knell, bbc news.ay they will allow children as young as 12 to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. children aged between 12 and 15 will be offered the pfizer—biontech jab. it had previously been limited to those aged 16 and over, under emergency use rules. the us food and drug administration said it had carried out a thorough review of all available data before reaching the decision. no population brings us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic. now, parents and guardians can rest assured that in making our decision the agency undertook a rigorous and thorough review of all available scientific data. as we have with all the covid—i9 authorisations. a bit more on our process for reviewing the vaccine. i would like to stress that teens, parents and communities can have full confidence in our processes for reviewing this vaccine. the fda has done everything we can to ensure that the covid—i9 vaccines we have authorised have met the agency's high standards for quality, sa

well, since sending that report yolande knell was able to give us this update from behtlehem in the westestinian territory, so here in betheleham in the west bank, young palestinians just in the last hour have been responding to calls for protests after dark, coming out on the streets close to an israeli military tower which is just out of sight here. they are burning, at the moment, rubbish and tires, things like that. there have been repeated clashes overnights, 11 palestinians were actually killed in cities across the west bank in these violent confrontations with israeli security forces. this is happening in response, partly, to all that's going on, the unrest that there has been elsewhere has really fuelled this, adding to people's anger, but it is also a day which is always a day of protest, what palestinians call nakba day, when they commemorate the events of 19118. that's when hundreds of thousands of palestinians lost their homes and property in the 19118 arab—israeli war that followed the creation of the state of israel. well that was yolande now, a couple of hours ago — and th

our middle east correspondent yolande knell reports from the west bank.seconds, another tower block erased from gaza's skyline. journalists for international networks who worked inside rushed out after a warning from israel that it was about to strike. it says hamas intelligence used the building. earlier, a barrage of rockets hit tel aviv for the first time in two days, with deadly results. emergency services unable to save a man here. in gaza, there has been almost no time to mourn as the numbers killed mount up. mohammed lost almost everyone in his family. his wife and their children were staying with her brother when the missiles struck their home in an overcrowded refugee camp. little omar is all he has left, found in the rubble next to his mother. with militants continuing to be targeted, images released by israel's military show an operation that is not letting up. officials say dealing a strong blow to deter hamas will take more time. and hamas is not stopping its fire either. its rockets, as always, are indiscriminate, continuing to pour down on

yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem.son for the israeli embassy in london. i asked him about the action his government is taking to deescalate violence. jerusalem is a sacred place for everyone in israel, all through the years, maintaining freedom of worship, freedom of religion. and the government — and the police, of course — everyone wants to de—escalate the situation, to keep calm and allow, like every year, allow worship to continue. unfortunately, we see some people — we see hamas, a terrorist organisation incite violence, we see people using this holy type of violence, and we hope that the police will maintain law and order. everyone should respect the law and, if marches or any other protests are being done in an orderly and quiet fashion, they could, of course, go ahead. nour odeh is a political analyst and a former spokesperson for the palestinian government. she gave us her reaction to the situation injerusalem. the situation in jerusalem is explosive. and it is explosive because it has been allowed to fester

our middle east correspondent, yolande knell explains.nell explains. after dark, after the ramadan well, after dark, after the ramadan evening prayers, several of these hotspots around eastjerusalem became around east jerusalem became inflamed around eastjerusalem became inflamed once again so we saw that close to the al—aqsa mosque and also near to the damascus gate, one of the entrances to the old city and also importantly in the neighbourhood where palestinian families have been fighting their eviction to make way for jewish settlers and there have been clashes there, quite heavy clashes involving local people and israeli police and jewish settlers and that is despite the fact that a key court ruling in the case was delayed. in an effort to try to lower the temperature and as well, we've had at least three rockets fired from gaza into southern israel through the course of the evening and it is nowjerusalem day, the time when israelis celebrate the capture of eastjerusalem in the i967 capture of eastjerusalem in the 1967 middle east war

yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem.ave been held. more than 60 people — mainly young girls — died in the explosions that went off as they were walking out of the school gates. the victims are mainly from the shia hazara community who have been targeted by miliant groups in recent years. earlier, i spoke to our south asia correspondent secunder kermani, who described how badly affected the region has been over recent times. so many places in afghanistan have endured so much pain, but this particular neighbourhood in the west of kabul has suffered repeated attacks by the islamic state group because it is from members of a shia minority. is have attacked mosques, cultural centres, sports hall, tuition centres in the past. as you say, funerals have been held today so far at a hilltop cemetery overlooking kabul, and the majority of the victims were teenage girls, students at the school, from poorer backgrounds who whose families would have worked hard to give their daughters a better chance at life, and instead they were kil

yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem.w. these are life pictures as you can see, police are there, lots of members of the press gathering, tensions have been extremely high, two nights of clashes taking place around the mosque complex in jerusalem which is been a frequent flashpoint for violence in jerusalem. as you can imagine, the police presence there is extremely high. we will bring you more on that as and when we get it here on bbc news, and there's more on that on our website. the first funerals for the victims of a bomb attack at a school in the afghan capital kabul have been held. more than 60 people — mainly young girls — died in the explosions that went off as they were walking out of the school gates. the victims are mainly from the shia hazara community who have been targeted by miliant groups in recent years. one man, ghulam hussain, spoke about his niece who was killed in the blast. translation: she was 15 years old and studying - class eight at school. she was very intelligent and didn't miss a single day of

yolande knell, bbc news. a series of articles online about the former first minister's high court trial in 2020. thejudge, lady dorrian, said his reporting risked identifying the complainers and could put women off coming forward in future cases. mr salmond was acquitted of 13 sexual assault charges involving nine women. it's the brit awards tonight — taking place in front of a 4,000—strong live audience without social distancing or facemasks at london's o2 arena. the show is part of a pilot scheme for reopening live events. more than half of the ticket—holders will be key workers from greater london and their guests. colin paterson reports. the winner of new artist... it is the brit awards! lewis capaldi. brit winner, how does that sound? the brit awards are back. tonight's ceremony means the return of live music to london's o2 arena after 1a months of empty seats and silence. hip—hop duo young t & bugsey have the equal most nominations. oh, man. it's crazy, man. it's crazy, it's crazy. we've got the most no

from jerusalem, our middle east correspondent, yolande knell, has the latest. quickly turned to violence. stun grenades and stones in this site, sacred to muslims and jews. at this gait, more angen muslims and jews. at this gait, more anger, after israeli was stopped. a car was driven into passers—by. the police rushed in. all this on jerusalem day, a holiday when israelis mark the capture of the city 50 years ago. there is a party atmosphere here as israelis gather from all over the country to head down towards the old city and the western wall. for them, this is a big day of celebration. for palestinians, this march as a provocation. palestinians, this march as a provocation-— palestinians, this march as a provocation. palestinians, this march as a rovocation. �* , provocation. why am i here? because we are not going _ provocation. why am i here? because we are not going to _ provocation. why am i here? because we are not going to let _ provocation. why am i here? because we are not going to let anyone - provocation. why am i here? because we are not going to

yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem.. katy. there are still some cancellations on l and e afternoon and disruption is likely to spill over into tomorrow, but great western railway is the network worst affected, it's got more than 90 of these trains and it was only able to run a tenth of its long distance services today. it is asking passengers not to travel tomorrow and we don't know how many days it will take before disruption comes to an end. we still don't know how many of these trains are going to need repairs. but the government has said this afternoon it has asked hitachi to set out a longer term strategy for repairs.— hitachi to set out a longer term strategy for repairs. katie, thank ou ve strategy for repairs. katie, thank you very much- _ with all the sport now, here's olly foster at the bbc sport centre. thank you, michelle. the premier league title race is still alive. defeat for manchester united at aston villa would have seen manchester city crowned champions, but united came from behind to win 3—1. here's

our middle east correspondent, yolande knell, is injerusalem and has been following the latest developmentsng of high political drama, israel is closer to ousting its long—time leader. but we shouldn't write off benjamin netanyahu just yet. very soon after bennett, his former ally, came out announcing that he's joining the unity government to a decision that could see him become the prime minister for the next two years, mr netanyahu followed up with his own televised statement. and he made a direct appeal to right—wing politicians asking them who will look after settlements, who will take the difficult security decisions on iran, on the gaza strip? if he can win overjust a couple of the members of parliament — well, that could cause this coalition government to fail. if it is sworn in, mr netanyahu also knows that it will remain incredibly fragile. because it brings together politicians from across the political spectrum they can be looking to pick some sensitive issues into the long grass. if he finds himself in opposition this that mr netanyu can exploit. khaled elgindy is the programme

our middle east correspondent, yolande knell, is injerusalem and has been following the latest developmentshigh political drama, israel is closer to ousting its long—time leader. but we shouldn't write off benjamin netanyahu just yet. very soon after bennett, his former ally, came out announcing that he's joining the unity government — a decision that could see him become the prime minister for the next two years — mr netanyahu followed up with his own televised statement. and he made a direct appeal to right—wing politicians asking them who will look after settlements, who will take the difficult security decisions on iran, on the gaza strip? if he can win overjust a couple of the members of parliament — well, that could cause this coalition government to fail. if it is sworn in, mr netanyahu also knows that it will remain incredibly fragile. because it brings together politicians from across the political spectrum — they will be looking to pick they will be looking to kick some sensitive issues into the long grass. if he finds himself in opposition this is something that mr netanyu can ex

he'd be willing to join a coalition with the main centrist party. 0ur middle east correspondent, yolande knellanyahu survived this? well, after an evening of high political drama, much closer to ousting its long—time leader but we shouldn't write off benjamin netanyahu just yet. after his former ally naftali bennett announced that he was going to join this unity government, a decision which could see him become the prime minister for the next two years, mr netanyahu quickly followed up with his own tv statement, in which he made a direct appeal to right—wing politicians asking them with this new government be able to make the difficult decisions that need to be made in security terms, on gaza, on iran? if he can win overjust a couple of members of parliament, that could bring about the fall of this new coalition government. if it does get sworn in, he knows that it will be very fragile because it brings together politicians from across the political spectrum. they will be looking to kick sensitive issues into the long grass. if mr netanyahu finds himself as opposition leader, that would be som

here's our middle east correspondent yolande knell. edan and nadine. in gaza, nadine saw her neighbours' homes reduced to rubble. with school cancelled, she has been making videos for social media, documenting the destruction by israeli air strikes. one clip of her, distraught, went viral. i don't know what to do, i'm just ten. i'm just ten. it captured the mental trauma of children, who make up half of gaza's two million people. instead of playing games, nadine's been worrying about life and death. me and my brothers are scared for each other, so we always try to be together, because if we die together, that would be the best thing, because we can still see each other when we go to heaven. just a few miles away, edan, who is 11, lives here in southern israel, with his parents and three dogs. they relax me when there's bombs. he rarely leaves the house, so that he stays near the family's bomb shelter inside. at least twice a day, warning sirens have been going off because of rockets and mortars fired by militants in gaza. we have to run to the bomb she

our correspondent in jerusalem yolande knell has the latest. the different political parties here and then he announced his decision in a live broadcast a short time ago saying he had asked yair lapid, a centrist politician, former finance minister before its time in politics he was a television anchor. he said he had the backing of 56 of the 120 members of the israeli parliament so, obviously, still short of a majority but he thought that he had the best chance of being able to form a government that had support of parliament despite their still being difficulties, the president said. so now yair lapid will enter into political wrangling with many of the other parties that had lined up to oppose benjamin netanyahu returning to another term in office. but what will be a real challenge for him is that those parties are from across the political spectrum in israel from left to right so they have dig ideological differences between them that he will have to bridge. britain is sending two royal navy patrol vessels to the island ofjersey, in the eng

our middle east correspondent, yolande knell reports.d is a cheap price forjerusalem," shouts this bereaved gaza grandmother. while this woman, who lost four children, can only weep. the casualties, mounting, after israeli air strikes. translation: this evening, jerusalem day, gaza's terror| organisations crossed a red line and attacked us with rockets on the outskirts ofjerusalem. israel will react very forcefully. his response to a barrage of rockets fired by palestinian militants. israelis ran for cover when one reached jerusalem for the first time in years. while angry palestinians cheered. tensions were simmering on this holiday, when israelis mark the capture of eastjerusalem over 50 years ago. there is a party atmosphere, as israelis gather from across the country to head down towards the western wall. for them, this is a big day of celebration. for the palestinians, this march is a provocation. why am i here? because we are not going to let anyone win of when they are going to threaten us and try to stop us from being here and ce

our middle east correspondent, yolande knell, is injerusalem and has been following the latest developmentsght of high political drama. bennett saying he will now back with his friend, yair lapid, a former tv news anchor, a unity government. he said there was no option for a right—wing government which would have been his preference. he said there was only the choice of a unity government or a fifth election. this of course referring to the fact that israel has already had four elections in under two years. it has been an unprecedented period of political stalemate with the country really divided into a pro— and anti— netanyahu camp. mr bennett said this had been the most difficult decision of his life, to go into this new government, but he said that it was open for all parties tojoin he said that it was open for all parties to join and that all parties to join and that all parties to join and that all parties who did join would have a veto power stop we understand that the arrangement would mean that actually, the tarlee bennett would style —— happy prime minister first if this new govern

on the evictions was expected on monday, but has been postponed. 0ur middle east correspondent yolande knellxplains. well, after dark, after the ramadan evening prayers, several of these hotspots around eastjerusalem became inflamed once again, so we saw that close to the al—aqsa mosque, also near to the damascus gate, one of the entrances to the old city, and also importantly in the sheikh jarrah — this is the neighbourhood where palestinian families have been fighting against their eviction to make way forjewish settlers. and there have been clashes there — quite heavy clashes — involving local people and also israeli police and jewish settlers — and that despite the fact that a key court ruling in the case was delayed earlier in the day in an effort to try to lower the temperature. as well as all of that, we have had at least three rockets fired from gaza into southern israel through the course of the evening and it is now jerusalem day — that is the time when israelis celebrate the capture of eastjerusalem in the 1967 middle east war. what we are going to have on monday is a flag march a

let's speak to our middle east correspondent yolande knell who's injerusalem for us. ked this? first of all, i am at the mass escape right now, the scene of last night's trouble. you can see it is much quieter right now, but it remains to be seen what happens after dark. it has been very tense throughout the islamic holy month of ramadan and that culminated on friday and some of the worst violence we have seen inside the mosque compound inside the old city in several years, with israeli police using stun grenades, using them close to the mosque. there were palestinian worshippers there who were throwing stones. in addition to that, there have been nightly clashes in another neighbourhood not far from clashes in another neighbourhood not farfrom here, shaikhjarrah, where palestinian families have been facing eviction from their homes, with jewish settlers are facing eviction from their homes, withjewish settlers are laying claim to the land, and an important development dislodged, it had been that the key hearing in this case was due to take place tomorrow and thatis wa

our middle east correspondent, yolande knell, is injerusalem and has been following the latest developments been a night of high political drama in israel. two important statements that wand that you mentioned from the former defence minister saying that from now he was now back with his friend, he called him the centrist politician a parma tv news anchor eight unity government. he said that there was no option for a right—wing government which would have been his preference. he said there was only a choice of a unity government or a fifth election. this of course not referring to the fact that israel has already had four collections in under two years. it's been an unprecedented period of political stalemate with the country really divided into a pro—and anti—net yahoo. mr bennett said this had been the most difficult decision of his life to go into this new government but he said that it was open for all parties tojoin in but he said that it was open for all parties to join in that all parties who did joint would have a veto power. we understand that the arrangement would mean that actual

unable to form a coalition of his own after the elections in march. 0ur correspondent injerusalem, yolande knelld his decision in a live broadcast a short time ago saying that he had asked yair lapid, who he is a centrist politician — he's a former finance minister but before his time in politics he was a tv anchor. he said that he had the backing of 56 of the 120 members of the israeli parliament. so, obviously, still short of a majority, but he thought that he had the best chance of being able to form a government that had parliament's support despite their still been difficulties, the president said, so now mr lapid will enter into political wrangling with many of the other parties that had lined up to oppose benjamin netanyahu returning to another term in office. but what's going to be a real challenge for him is that those are parties who are from the whole way across israel's political spectrum, from the left to the right, so they have got really big ideological differences between them that he's going to have to bridge. (pres) stay with us on bbc news, still to come:(00v + stay with us on

yolande knell reports.blood is a cheap price forjerusalem," shouts this bereaved gaza grandmother. while this woman, who lost four children, can only weep. the casualties, mounting, after israeli air strikes. translation: this evening, jerusalem day, gaza's terror| organisations crossed a red line and attacked us with rockets on the outskirts ofjerusalem. israel will react very forcefully. his response to a barrage of rockets fired by palestinian militants. israelis ran for cover when one reached jerusalem for the first time in years. while angry palestinians cheered. tensions were simmering on this holiday, when israelis mark the capture of eastjerusalem over 50 years ago. there is a party atmosphere, as israelis gather from across the country to head down towards the western wall. for them, this is a big day of celebration. for the palestinians, this march is a provocation. why am i here? because we are not going to let anyone win of when they are going to threaten us and try to stop us from being here an

let's speak to our middle east correspondent yolande knell.at anyway, as if it will happen?— if it will happen? that's right, “ust if it will happen? that's right, just now. _ if it will happen? that's right, just now, we're _ if it will happen? that's right, just now, we're getting - if it will happen? that's right, - just now, we're getting comments in to us from one of the key players in all of this, the leader of the right—wing yamina party, naftali bennett, a former defence minister, and after israel's fourth election in just two years, he emerged as the kind of kingmaker and first mooted going into a coalition government with benjamin netanyahu. when he couldn't get the seats together, he went to yair lapid, a centrist, who now has to the end of wednesday to form a new coalition government, he became the person for yair lapid to get on board and we understand yair lapid has offered naftali bennett a rotating premiership, the commits naftali bennett has been making, he has been accusing benjamin netanyahu of sowing division to cover for f

our correspondent injerusalem — yolande knell — explained more.mminent eviction, withjewish settlers laying claim to the land saying that the land was owned byjews prior to 1948 when the state of israel was created. they were forced to leave because of fighting that took place then. those palestinian families are people, in the main, who are refugees from other parts of land that became the state of israel and they were resettled there by the united nations and with the backing of thejordanians when they were in control of the land. this has been a long—running court case with palestinian families really fighting for many years to try to keep their properties. there are small properties dotted around that already in the hands ofjewish settlers and it can be very tense in that neighbourhood although it remains a majority of palestinians living there. it's going to come as a huge relief that the attorney general has got involved and has asked israel's supreme court, which is due to have a crunch hearing on monday, about this case, to postpone that.

speaking to jane a little earlier from jerusalem, our middle east correspondent yolande knell provided just now, we're getting comments in to us from one of the key players in all of this, the leader of the right—wing yamina party, naftali bennett, who's a former defence minister, and after israel's fourth election in just two years, he emerged as the kind of kingmaker and first mooted into a coalition government with benjamin netanyahu. when he couldn't get the seats together, he became the person for yair lapid, the centrist politician who is a former tv anchor who now has to the end of wednesday to form a new coalition government, he became the person for yair lapid to get on board and we understand he has offered naftali bennett a rotating premiership, so that naftali bennett would serve for two years as prime minister, followed by yair lapid. the comments naftali bennett has been making, he's been accusing benjamin netanyahu of sowing division to cover for failure, saying there will not be that kind of division on his watch. "we can stop this madness and take responsibility," he h

will also have a lasting impact on the mental health of youngsters. 0ur middle east correspondent yolande knellhave been consumed by conflict. this week in gaza, nadine saw her neighbours' homes reduced to rubble. with school cancelled, she has been making videos for social media, documenting the destruction by israeli air strikes. 0ne clip of her distraught went viral. i don't know what to do, i'mjust10. i'm just 10. it captured the mental trauma of children, who make up half of gaza's two million people. instead of playing games, nadine's been worrying about life and death. me and my brothers are scared for each other, so we always try to be together, because if we die together that will be the best thing, because we can still see each other when we go to heaven. just a few miles away, edan, who is 11, lives here in southern israel, with his parents and three dogs. they relax me when there's bombs. he rarely leaves the house, so that he stays near the family's bomb shelter inside. at least twice a day, warning sirens have been going off because of rockets and mortars fired by militants in gaz

yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem.r a meal, a meeting or other shared activity, a person we re with can just disappear, having gone home to their smartphone. when you're the person watching someone do it. it is so annoying in the fineness of doing exactly the same thing. i know better. we tell our kids not to do it in so they look at us when we do it. we do everything through it. i think will be paying to go on holiday to places where we cannot use a smartphones and we will realise that as a species, we need the detox. but everyone says the same thing, i feel this every day to my colleagues, the territory from this place, because the river. the smartphone goes in the river. the smartphone goes in the river. the smartphone goes in the river. but it won't. but it won't. it won't. it won't. because your kids will say,. your i will be off social media. but you will still be on the phone the whole time, i will tell you that. stay with us on bbc news. start to come. an injured minke whale calf which was stranded in the river

yolande knell, bbc news, lod.ring, senior teaching fellow in international political economy at soas. i'd like to start work yolande ended in terms of those mixed towns, because obviously the last 20 years or so, the major conflict has been between gaza, rockets and whatever, firing into israel. how much more concerning is it that these if the two communities that lived together are now openly battling against each other? it are now openly battling against each other? , , _, . other? it is extremely concerning, as ou other? it is extremely concerning, as you rightly _ other? it is extremely concerning, as you rightly say. _ other? it is extremely concerning, as you rightly say, this _ other? it is extremely concerning, as you rightly say, this is - other? it is extremely concerning, as you rightly say, this is very - as you rightly say, this is very different from what we have seen in previous wars between israel and hamas in 2008—2009, previous wars between israel and hamas in 2008-2009, 2012-2014, previous wars