are met. with more, here s our middle east correspondent, lucy williamson. explosions. in gaza, this is the new normal. drone strikes in the border town of rafah, emptying the local market. 17 year old joe, filming on his phone, still clutching his bag of shopping and calling on god for protection. america has blocked un calls for a ceasefire. israel says it needs to keep fighting to keep up the pressure on hamas. if you want a ceasefire, that, from israel s perspective, can only happen with the release of hostages. as you know, hamas continues to hold over 100 hostages. there s a chance, because they want that ceasefire, they need that ceasefire, they will agree to the hostages but to be frank, had we agreed to the un secretary general s proposal over a month ago for this unilateral ceasefire, we would never have got the 110 hostages out that we did in november. israel s army said this week it had killed tens of hamas fighters in an ambush near gaza city. and that it s prepa
killed are women and children, and it says there have been over 52,000 people injured in the conflict so far. our special correspondent fergal keane reports on the toll that the conflict is taking on families. a warning you may find this report distressing. the world is debating calls for a ceasefire and a bleak new reckoning of the dead is declared. but for the people of gaza, the suffering is felt. not counted. dead children being touched a final time by their wounded father. a mother comes to mourn a lost daughter. translation: imagine that esterda i was brushing her hair, making her a sandwich for dinner and putting her to sleep. then you wake up in the morning and there is no fatima anymore. from the beginning, they have known there is no escape. not from gaza orfrom grief. ..or trauma. the wounded now number in their tens of thousands. in al aqsa hospital, the child holds to symbols of a vanished normality. nearby, this child, aged 13, who lost ten members of herfamil
the release includes infamous former defence contractor leonard glenn francis known as fat leonard. he s at the center of one of the us navy s largest corruption cases. in exchange the us has freed alex saab, an aide and top ally to venezuela s president nicolas maduro, accused of laundering money on behalf of the maduro government, which he denies. mr maduro is also releasing 20 venezuelan political prisoners. it s all part of the biden administration s efforts to improve relations with venezuela, and push mr maduro to hold fair elections next year. earlier, i spoke with our reporter mimi swaby about the deal. president byers was emphasising that this was all about encouraging venezuela to hold free and fair elections. how much leveraged you think the biden administration has in that regard? this is yet another sign of significant flowing between relations between the us and venezuela after months of really high level negotiations. this comes as biden is grappling with a
has been criticised for not going far enough. israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has thanked the us for abstaining at the un security council and reiterated tojoe biden that the war will continue until all the objectives are met. lucy williamson reports. in gaza, this is the new normal. drone strikes in the border town of rafah, emptying the local market. 17 year old joe, filming on his phone, still clutching his bag of shopping and calling on god for protection. america has blocked un calls for a ceasefire. israel says it needs to keep fighting to keep up the pressure on hamas. if you want a ceasefire, that, from israel s perspective, can only happen with the release of hostages. as you know, hamas continues to hold over 100 hostages. there s a chance, because they want that ceasefire, they need that ceasefire, they will agree to the hostages but to be frank, had we agreed to the un secretary general s proposal over a month ago for this unilateral ceasefire, we wo
we begin in the us where in colorado, the supreme court has ruled that donald trump cannot run for president next year in the state. the ruling is based on a rarely used provision of the u.s. constitution that bars officials who have engaged in insurrection or rebellion from holding office. it says he s in eligible to appear on next year s ballot because of his role in instigating violence onjanuary 6 of 2021 the day of the attack on the us capitol building. the ruling does not stop mr trump running in the other states. in a statement, the trump campaign said the court had issued a completely flawed decision, adding they will swiftly file an appeal to the united states supreme court. in a campaign speech, the former president said no one will silence him. every time the radical left democrats, marxists, communists and fascists indict me, i consider it actually a great badge of honour. thank you very much. i appreciate it. thank you very much. because i m being indict