science. hello and welcome to the programme where we will bring you the top stories from right around the world. we are starting with developments in gaza. khan younis specifically. israel saying it is taking aggressive action there. also saying it is making maximum effort to protect civilians. we are getting pictures from inside the hospitals. take a look at these. there have been patients being brought in this is after air strikes overnight. reports of tanks being used seen on the outskirts of khan younis. we also have had requests and messages from the idea. israel defense forces releasing images such as this one asking people to stay away from certain areas and evacuate from others. our correspondent paul adams will be giving his analysis of that in just will be giving his analysis of that injust a moment. among those injured in the bombardment of khan younis is this two—month—old. pictures here coming in from reuters news agency this afternoon. his father since his son was born just two days after the start of the war. they escaped from the north of gaza and have not been able to register their birth. translation: they told us to leave the north of gaza to the south, - and i did exactly what israel has told us. but this is what happened. this is my son. he was born on the second day of the war and we haven't been able to register his birth yet. and what i have wished — he will see a life other than this daily torment. each passing day feels like a million deaths to us. live now to our diplomatic correspondent, paul adams. live injerusalem. live in jerusalem. talk live injerusalem. talk us in the military developments today. the? military developments today. they are seeinu military developments today. they are seeing the _ military developments today. tie: are seeing the israelis pushing their forces further into the southern gaza strip. we know that they have been operating there for a couple of days now. it is not entirely clear what the strategy is, but i would imagine that they are going to try and cut the southern gaza strip into. which would leave the gaza strip in three separate sections while they focus their efforts on the two major cities in the southern gaza strip, khan younis and rafah. we have seen israelis attempting to persuade people to leave the areas where they are focusing their activities using their new system of maps with a rather detailed breakdowns of specific numbered areas. it is not clear at the moment whether that is making life easier or merely sowing confusion, but it is certainly something that the people of the gaza strip, some of whom have already moved several times from the north to the south, they are pretty exhausted by this whole process. and then receiving instructions that have changed day by day and for many, it keeps them on the move. in the last couple of minutes, we have some lines in from the un secretary—general antonio gutierrez asking and appealing to israel to avoid further action that would exacerbate the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in gaza. what would be the response in israel to comments such as that? would be the response in israelto comments such as that?— would be the response in israelto comments such as that? well, when it comes to the — comments such as that? well, when it comes to the un _ comments such as that? well, when it comes to the un secretary-general, l comes to the un secretary—general, israel is disinclined to listen to him much at the moment. they are still furious with him for some remarks he made a few weeks ago in which they felt that he did not give adequate weight to the gravity of the events that took place on october the 7th. they will start to pay attention, if they hear that kind of language from the people that really matter here. that is the united states, primarily. we have heard in the last couple of days increasing voices of disquiet from people like the us defence secretary, lloyd austin, saying, essentially, the more the civilian population is made to suffer as a result of israel's military action, the more they will simply be driven into the arms of the very people that hamas or try to defeat. something that mr austin said would result in a strategic failure. so the americans are clearly apprehensive about the israel will go about its operation in the south. it does not want to see a repeat of the wholesale destruction we have seenin the wholesale destruction we have seen in the north. the israelis know that the americans are watching closely. it may well be that we will see them adjusting their tactics accordingly. see them ad'usting their tactics accordingly.— see them ad'usting their tactics accordingly. see them ad'usting their tactics accordinul . . ~' . ., accordingly. thank you so much for that, paul. — accordingly. thank you so much for that, paul. one _ accordingly. thank you so much for that, paul. one quick— accordingly. thank you so much for that, paul. one quick line - accordingly. thank you so much for that, paul. one quick line to - that, paul. one quick line to bring you. there are reports that the internet is down in gaza. certainly in gaza city, and the north of the terry. potentially, working to establish what situation there is. jerusalem's deputy mayor is fleur hassan nahoum. i spoke to her a short time ago and asked how confident she was that civilians in gaza could be protected. but war is ugly. it's a war we didn't start. it's a war we didn't want. quite the contrary. in the last few months before this horrible massacre that happened on october the seventh, we'd been giving more work permits than ever to gazans in order to give them an opportunity to develop economically something their own government didn't manage to do for them. and so and so it's a very difficult thing that we're going through in israel. and there will always be casualties in a war. but we're doing everything any army could possibly do down to warning people per neighborhood of where we're going to attack. i don't know of any army around the world that would warn its enemy, essentially, of where they're going to attack before attacking. the palestinian people aren't your enemy. absolutely not. but the minute we warn them, their enemy, the combatants, the terrorists who are on the ground, know exactly where we're attacking and how many armies can really say that they're doing that for the protection of the innocent people that the enemy put in harm's way, not us. well, let's take a look at those efforts that those maps that you were referencing and the warnings given to move from one area to the other. human rights watch spokesperson saying a qr code that you might need being given to people who don't have power is not the solution that potentially people think it might be. perhaps not, but they seem to have enough power to charge their phones and do videos of the hostages leaving and jeering them and put up social media posts continuously. so somebody is getting power. we don't know who they are. we also have been sending smss. we also have been always dropping leaflets. we've done it in many, many ways. we have a whole department in the israeli armyjust in charge of warning and letting people know where the next attack is going to be so that they can get out of harm's way. and do you have any sympathy for people who have moved, for example, from the north, then to the south, and then bombs dropping around them in somewhere where they were told to go to by israel and now being told to move again to potentially to areas that just don't have the infrastructure ready. i have a lot of sympathy for the palestinian people, mainly because since 2006 they've been living under a repressive terrorist regime that instead of taking all of the aid that they've been given from all the countries around the world that have been building tunnels, they've been buying themselves private jets, they've been living the high life in qatar instead of developing their people, giving them opportunity, developing an economy. when israel left gaza in 2005, we left an entire agricultural economy there. and instead of handing it out to people to have a good living, they destroyed it. i feel very sorry for the people of gaza because they don't have the leadership they deserve to. do i feel sorry that they've been caught up in a war, yes, but who started this war? we didn't start this war. we didn't want this war. we didn't want 1200 of our people brutally murdered, 240 hostages taken. we didn't want 80 soldiers killed. we didn't ask for this war. you mentioned the hostages there. we've heard again from families wanting the israeli government to sit down and negotiate, to talk, however unpleasant and difficult that is. can you understand those families wanting to do that? and do you think the government should? absolutely. my friend's son is a hostage. i'm devastated. we're aching for the hostages. i can't even begin to think what the women are going through. the reports from the women that came out that were serially raped. absolutely. but what happened was the reason why the ceasefire broke down was because hamas wasn't making good on their word on what they had agreed to in the cease fire. so what is israel supposed to do? take whatever crumbs they want to give us? tell us one moment that they're going to release four, the next moment, eight, the next moment, ten, the next moment, two. how are we supposed to take them for their word when they were playing these games with us from the minute the cease fire started? some of the families of the victims are saying you've got to do whatever it takes. i'm with them. so whatever is happening, whatever in your which games are being played, you've got to sit down. you've got to talk. i'm with those families. i really am with those families. and what the families have managed to do, which i'm in awe of and i help wherever i can, is keep the hostages as the top priority in this war. and they've done a fantasticjob, and i think we should sit down. but sometimes in order for hamas to actually do what they say they're going to do, they need to be pushed. and this is what this next offensive is doing, is pushing them to the point that they will release more hostages. mustafa barghouti is the palestinian national initiative general secretary. i asked him whether he would like to see all hostages released immediately. on all sides, yes. because there are 8000 palestinian hostages in israel and the whole population of gaza. today, 2.3 million people are taken hostages by israeli bombardment, where people are left to choose between complete genocide or total ethnic cleansing. that's what's happening. what's happening in gaza today is nothing but a huge war crime. and let's look at the facts. the previous the person you interviewed before just told you lies. but let's look at the facts. the facts are 64,000 palestinians have been killed or injured by israeli airstrikes. 10,000 air strikes, 16,000 tonnes of explosives thrown on the people of gaza. that is about 17 kilograms of explosives for every man, woman or child. 64,000 people killed or injured is 3% of the population of gaza. had this happened in the united states of america, you would be talking about 10 million people killed or injured. this is crazy. and the israeli army told people to move from the north to the south and then they bombard the south and they tell people, go to rafah and rafah they bombard as well. it's a huge, huge, huge genocide. as you know, there will be many who disagree with your use of that word. and on october the seventh, hamas in israel's eyes launched that terrorist attack. and therefore, israel is now defending itself by vowing to wipe out hamas, which is a proscribed organization, terrorist organization in the eyes of many western governments, the us and the uk included. and they are taking military action to destroy hamas, which is what they're entitled to do, isn't it? no, it is not. because actually what's happening is that the history in this place did not start on the 7th of october. who has been occupying us for 56 years? israel. who established the system of apartheid against palestinians? israel. who has ethnically cleansed 70% of the palestinian population in 1948? and by the way, 70% of the population of gaza are people who were ethnically cleansed by israel in 1948. it's israel. you can't smash all that history and think that history started only on the 7th of october. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. the prime minister says the bbc should be "realistic" about the price of the tv licence during high inflation. the fee, which is the main source of funding for the bbc, has been frozen for the past two years at £159 but is due to rise in april in line with inflation. hopes that the 2026 commonwealth games could be held in australia have been set back, with the gold coast withdrawing its bid to host the event. organisers have said they may have to postpone or even cancel the games because federal and state governments have repeatedly ruled out supporting them. a bbc panorama investigation has found that water companies can make sewage pollution disappear from the official figures. leaked documents suggest one firm, united utilities, wrongly downgraded dozens of pollution incidents in north—west england last year. the company denies misreporting pollution. the environment agency signed off all the downgrades without attending any of the incidents. you're live with bbc news. we will come back to the uk. the uk will almost certainly hold a general election next year and one of the big political battlegrounds is expected to be immigration. the governing conservatives have promised to bring the figures down their opponents say the numbers are still very high and today, the newly appointed home secretary james cleverly outlined his plans to reduce net migration. here are the headlines. the minimum salary needed to get a skilled worker visa to come to the uk is going up by about 47% and will stand at £38,700 pounds — that's just under $49,000. that's about £5,000 higher than the average uk salary. but visas for health and social care will be exempt — that's to help the nhs meet its staffing needs. however, those care workers will no longer be allowed to bring their dependents. and the shortage occupation list, where the uk struggles to filljobs with suitably qualified workers, is being reformed, with a reduced number of occupation. of course, all of that only covers legal migration and it doesn't take into account the issue of people arriving on small boats across the english channel. we'll look at that in a moment but first, here's mr cleverly outlining his reforms. around 153,000 visas were granted to dependants of sponsored students in the year ending september 2023. today i can announce that we will go even further than those provisions already in place with a five—point plan to further curb immigration abuses, and that will deliver the biggest ever reduction in net migration. in total, this package, plus our reduction in student dependent dependents, will mean around 300,000. fewer people will come in future years than have come to the uk last year. live now to westminster and our political correspondent peter saull. hi peter. what is the reaction to these plans?— these plans? largely welcomed certainly on _ these plans? largely welcomed certainly on the _ these plans? largely welcomed certainly on the conservative i certainly on the conservative pensions a lot of tory mps have been calling for this for some time. some of them saying there could have been a cap on some of the numbers coming in in certain professions. a large league, they have welcomed some action here. something a lot of them had been calling for for some time. the former home secretary suella braverman who is sacked a few weeks ago, hence whyjames braverman who is sacked a few weeks ago, hence why james cleverly is still in thatjob, she is saying that had the payments are acted sooner, then the changes would have had an impact much more sooner as well on the figures. because we are not entirely clear on the timescales of all of of the things they have already announced in terms of students bring over dependence will come injanuary. they're same for the other things it will be around the other things it will be around the spring. we do not have an exact date. that probably means that they are not going to be reflected in the next set of figures that we get on net migration which is what all of this is all about. record high numbers of people coming into the uk. the last of the figures from last year said the uk population rose somewhere in the region of three quarters of a million which is clearly unsustainable as far as ministers are concerned, a lot of voters would like to see action on it. they may not see that action actually being born on the next set of figures in time for the next general election which is the key political consideration for the government but they of course will want to be seen to be doing something with all of these measures that they have announced today. the balance here is the impact that it potentially has on the sectors. yes, health and social care workers are exempted from this new minimum salary as our teachers as well. all of the other jobs salary as our teachers as well. all of the otherjobs that rely heavily on foreign labour are not. so you look at the hospitality sector, retail, they will be adversely impacted. this could have an effect on the government's other stated aim which is to try to get the uk economy growing at a much higher rate than it is at the moment. because you have got that social care workers no longer able to bring family members over if and when that eventually comes in, that, too could have an impact on the social care sector which also struggles to fill vacancies so we will see how the various industries respond to this in the coming days. 5h? various industries respond to this in the coming days.— in the coming days. stay right there. that _ in the coming days. stay right there. that is _ in the coming days. stay right there. that is the _ in the coming days. stay right there. that is the issue - in the coming days. stay right there. that is the issue of - in the coming days. stay right i there. that is the issue of legal migration. not to the other issue i mentioned. also today it emerged that the latest step in the government's plan to send some asylum—seekers to rwanda for processing could involve stationing british lawyers in rwanda. the uk supreme court has ruled the plans unlawful, lawyers in rwanda. the uk supreme court has ruled the plans unlawful, but the government is expected to announce a new treaty with rwanda to revive the policy and overcome those legal objections. baroness chakrabarti is a labour peer, barrister and human rights activist. it seems to me that if the cure that mr sunak�*s government prescribes is to send british lawyers to help the rwandans improve their systems, their systems for existing asylum seekers in rwanda — it would take, as martin howe suggests, a considerable period of time for for that formula to be tested. it could be years. now, i have an ethical problem with first world countries behaving this way in palming off their convention responsibilities on rwanda or other developing countries. but as a matter of law and evidence, this would certainly be no quick fix. peter saull is still with us. so this rwanda plan rolls on. after the suweme _ so this rwanda plan rolls on. after the supreme court _ so this rwanda plan rolls on. to the supreme court ruling which left the supreme court ruling which left the policy in disarray the government said that within days it would come up with a new treaty with rwanda to allay some concerns the