Across the city as the government debates a new policing bill. And in sport there are big changes from golf cap in caps are just over a week to go with the blockading countries saudi arabia bahrain and the u. A. E. And now that were now competing. Top story a new wave of israeli air strikes in gaza has killed 13 people air raid sirens of also sounded in southern israel 23 palestinians have died since tuesday when israel killed a Senior Commander of the armed Group Islamic jihad fighters in gaza have responded by firing at least 220 rockets towards israel egypt and other International Officials are working to mediate a ceasefire if they can between israel hamas and Islamic Jihad al jazeera is harry force it is on the israel gaza border so harry just take us through whats been going on at that frontier today. Well the last couple of hours of scene the pace pick up again to a degree in terms of both the rockets coming out of gaza and just in the last couple of minutes we heard some more heavy explosions coming from gaza behind us which sounded like further israeli attacks there have been 13 People Killed inside gaza during the course of wednesday as well as the 10 people who were killed during the course of choose days so a death toll of 23. Israel is continuing to say that it is targeting very much Islamic Jihad fighters and sites that they hold Islamic Jihad responsible for the. Vast majority of the rockets have been coming out of gaza during the last period and that is why they say they took the action they did on Tuesday Morning to assassinate this Senior Commander who may blame for a spate of rocket attacks over recent months every couple of minutes we see indications of new sirens going off in the area around gaza the Islamic Jihad is also promising to expand its circle of retaliation and earlier on wednesday we saw even communities quite close to jerusalem having interceptions above them from israels iron dome and warning. Sirens sounding in warning as well so it does seem still that this is a continuing situation there are no signs yet of any success in the mediation is being talked about in terms of the United Nations and egyptian influence Islamic Jihad is continuing to fire rockets israel is continuing to mount strikes inside gaza territory. This comes at a sensitive political time in israel should we be folding that into how we gauge whats going on here on both sides. Yeah i think on the politics front from israel there are 2 quite interesting things happening one is very much related to the to the mechanics of what theyre doing inside Gaza Benjamin netanyahu the beginning of a special Cabinet Meeting said that they were targeting Islamic Jihad they were punishing Islamic Jihad they were sending a message to Islamic Jihad he didnt mention hamas at all and early one of his ministers said that they had changed their policy from Holding Hamas responsible for everything that emanates from gaza to specifically going after Islamic Jihad in this operation the hope obviously from israel is that hamas holds its own fighters in his own rockets back and that prevents this escalating into a much broader conflict for now hamas seems to be doing that but at the same time saying its very much acting in accordance with and side by side with Islamic Jihad indeed one of its. Main spokespeople main spokesman was quoted as saying just a short time ago that there is no success that israel can have from trying to separate hamas from Islamic Jihad that they are standing in the fight together however also suggest that so far they havent actually fired any rockets also theres the domestic political situation netanyahu is under huge amount of pressure politically legally hes trying to maintain his position this makes it more difficult for benny gantz to work certainly with the palestinian israeli joint list trying to get support from those members of the parliament from outside as to form a Minority Coalition so far the indications are that this isnt or at least the the the message coming from the israeli political establishment is this is not a politically motivated attack however there is no question that Benjamin Netanyahu will do what he can to make the most of it domestically as well terry thank you. Now in just under 2 hours time from the witnesses in the u. S. President donald trump impeachment inquiry are expected to testify publicly for the 1st time it could lead to an Impeachment Vote in the house of representatives for only the time in the countrys history and then in syria trial in the u. S. Senate particle hain has more from washington. For a moment the 1st day of his presidency there have been calls for Donald Trumps impeachment. But for the 1st 2 years with his party in control of congress it was more along in from the left than an actual possibility until. The democrats won back control of the house of representatives in the 28000 election and some of the most left leaning members made clear their intention because were going to go in there with. That was not a sentiment shared by the speaker of the house nancy pelosi who resisted all calls to start an impeachment proceeding mr miller were looking forward to. Or after the conclusion of special counsel Robert Muller is investigation which left it up to congress to decide if the president acted appropriately in regards to russian interference in the 2016 election but that changed in Early September of this year when a whistleblower complaint came to light in it the still Anonymous National security official wrote of more than a half dozen officials who knew about a phone call between President Trump and the president of ukraine and they found it deeply disturbing the allegation was that trump was Holding Hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid meant for ukraine which is fighting off russian aggression intil the ukrainian president promised to investigate trumps potential political rival Vice President joe biden and his son hunter who had worked in ukraine in damage control mode the white house released notes from the call. All it did more damage because as the notes point out as the ukrainian president is promising to buy more u. S. Missiles trump responds quote i would like you to do us a favor though he goes on to ask for investigations into a debunked Conspiracy Theory about the election and later brings up the bidens the president must be held accountable no one is above the law thats when democrats announced an impeachment inquiry would begin along with the president s almost daily defense of the call i made a call the call was perfect there was no way broke their way out so were trying to leading in the polls they have no idea how they stuck me it didnt help in the president s own acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney went on camera and seem to admit it happened and i have news for everybody get over it theres going to be political influence in Foreign Policy he later tried to take it back well the white house made clear they would not cooperate to find subpoenas for testimony and documents attorney bruce fein says that could backfire i was there at nixon what we did is ok that itself the defiance itself is an Impeachable Offense i try yourself because the impeachment process becomes farcical. If the president can simply withhold and block access to the relevant evidence some members of the trying to administration have gone to court to ask a federal judge who they should listen to the president who says dont go or the congress that subpoenaed them to show up but while that will take months to work its way through the courts democrats are pushing ahead the 1st 3 to testify in public 3 long Time State Department employees they testified behind closed doors that the president did withhold hundreds of millions in military aid to ukraine because he wanted to debunk Conspiracy Theory and his political opponent investigated republicans have been struggling to defend the president but many seem to be settling on one strategy and i would make the argument that every politician in washington other than me virtually is trying to manipulate ukraine to their purposes menendez tried it murphy tried it biden tried it trumps tried it theyre all doing it they are all trying to manipulate ukraine to get some kind of investigation either and investigation or started investigation the everyone does it defense except no other president in the history of the country has been proven to do what trump allegedly did a slim majority of americans now support impeaching the president and removing him from office both sides we watching to see if that changes with public hearings the results could determine the president s fate in office and in the history books. Aljazeera washington. Live to the White House Correspondent kimberly hell kid can be whats the 1st thing we should be expecting or looking for today. Well this is a pretty busy news day in washington because well all eyes initially will be focused on those public impeachment hearings there is a lot of other things that are on the president s schedule as well but if you look through the lens of all of this what were going to be examining today is really the president s relationship with foreign leaders so as political he reported there initially its these public hearings where under the spotlight is going to be this very dramatic almost unfolding for a very fitting for a reality t. V. Show president drama where under the spotlight will be his relationship for that telephone call with the ukrainian president who pretty were pretty sure how that drama is going to end we know that it likely is going to be voted along party lines with democrats voting to eventually pitch the president republicans pushing back calling this a partisan scam something the president has actually tweeted about early this morning but then were going to shift focus a little bit later where theres going to be some more questioning about the president s relationship with another foreign leader and thats the turkish president. And this could ignite some sort of bipartisan push back against the president as almost simultaneously as these hearings are going on where theres going to be some serious questioning about his decision many people say to greenlight the Turkish Forces going into syria and attacking Kurdish Forces as they have been longtime allies of the United States so theres going to be a joint press conference peter where we no doubt will be getting a lot of questions about not only syria policy under the trumpet ministration also the relationship with the turkish president but of course also were going to be hearing a lot potentially too about the impeachment hearings and the president s decision and why he did what he did with regard to the telephone call between himself and the ukrainian leader back in july. Youll keep us posted im sure as you watch that unfold there in washington many thanks for the meantime lets talk now to Michael Isikoff hes a chief investigative correspondent at yahoo news he joins us as well from washington michael good to have you here on the news how might this change the prism through which the world views the trump presidency. Well look this is the key moment because this is the moment that the impeachment hearings are going public this is the chance for the democrats who are pressing this to make their case to the American Public and its also a chance for the republicans who are playing defense lawyers for the president to poke its holes and its going to be really interesting to see how the 2 sides fare in till now both sides have been playing to their base democrats. In the prosecutorial mode playing to its progressive base that almost unanimously wants to see the president impeached and removed from office the republicans playing to their base the trump base and to the fox news crowd that has been attacking the president s critics consistently the question now is these public hearings are for that small segment of the American Public that has not made up its mind about donald trump right now it may not be a large part of the American Public but its the crucial part and the question were all going to be looking to see the answer to is can both sides you know module a its its rhetoric and try to persuade that small segment of the American Public that will be watching the hearings and hasnt yet made up its mind will the genuinely however michael want to quote you. Rhetoric given that this in scenery if when it gets to the vote the republicans wont vote to go to impeachment i. E. They wont vote against the guy in the white house so therefore the standards of impeachment or the high watermark of yes we should go to full full impeachment wont be reached. Well look you know the question of what is an implantable offense is is is an open one the constitution talks about treason bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors and you can interpret those words any way you want whats really interesting is in the over the last week youve seen the democrats shift their their wording in how theyre describing this for since september youve been hearing a quid pro quo quid pro quo theyve dropped that phrase now and talking about bribery and extortion using the language of criminality that more matches the words in the constitution and you know the question is can they convince the American Public that thats what were talking about here that this is a case of bribery and extortion criminality by the president which sort of would associate more with the words in the constitution and you know well see we know pretty much what the evidence is i dont think were expecting any bombshell new revelations the question is how does it come across to the American Public how do the witnesses hold up and how does the questioning go briefly michael because were running out of satellite time in who was it in the white house in your mind said the president yes you have a phone call you pitch what you want in that particular way who sits him thats a good idea you go for it. But its not clear that anybody did in fact the weight of the evidence suggests that this was being driven by the president himself after consultation numerous consultations with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani who was feeding him the idea that. There was improper ukrainian interference in the 2016 election there really isnt very little evidence of that and that there was evidence of corruption by the bride by the bidens i think the weight of the evidence suggests this is coming from this has been coming from donald trump himself ok well leave it there Michael Isikoff in washington thank you very much good to talk shes lost most its come for you here on the news hour including a new interim president takes control of bolivia but theres a strong show of support for the exiled leader will not unless. People are told to leave big parts of australia as the bush fires rage out of control. And in sports he hasnt played in the n. F. L. For 3 years but could call him captain next because seeing a real shot will be here with us story coming up. Of course in hong kong is deciding whether university can stop police from entering its campus after clashes with student protesters overnight demonstrators have been blocking streets in the city center for a 3rd day the government says schools will close on thursday because of safety concerns lets go live now to hong kong and our correspondent difficult balance to get when will we know the outcome of this decision on the part of this university. Well peter literally in the last 3 minutes a decision came through the courts have said no to the injunction applied for by the Student Council here Chinese University they say their argument that there was no criminal activity in the university had no grounds the opposition said that because students had to face proper property and the violence that we saw on tuesday night meant that police should still have permission to come on the University Campus and on the University Grounds and this is sure to anger many of the students here who have been standing by and waiting for that Court Decision although many of them many of the protesters here im at the Chinese University have decided to take matters on their own in their own hands as they awaited that decision that in setting up barricades as blocking entrances to the university theyve been setting up all kinds of little booby traps just in case police do try to enter they theres dug their heels in for the night there they say theyre here for the long haul to make sure that they want to safeguard their campus they have collected supplies from not just other students but alumni and other people who support them across hong kong