Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC 20240703 : comparemela.com

A sudden attack by hamas. Several israelis injured, at least one critically. The wounded evacuated to hospital. The Israeli Military showed this Drone Footage ten projectiles fired before the Israeli Air Force destroyed the launcher. America and britain have been urging israel to open this crossing to aid. For now, its shut again. Today, israels embattled Prime Minister reacted to hamas� s demands for a permanent ceasefire and an israeli withdrawal from gaza. The state of israel is not willing to accept this, he said, capitulating to hamas� s demands would be a terrible defeat for israel. This afternoon, Israeli Police raided the offices of the tv channel aljazeera within hours of a unanimous cabinet decision to shut down its operations in israel. If youre watching this pre recorded report, then aljazeera has been banned in the territory of israel. The government accused it of being a mouthpiece for hamas. Its Regional Bureau chief called this a dangerous decision. Israel cannot claim all the time that she is a democracy, that its democracy, and at the same time they are cutting and prevent the journalists to do theirjob. But the government here is under pressure from parts of its own population. Last night, Tens Of Thousands of israelis rallied in protest at delays in getting the hostages out of gaza. They dont believe the government is making it a priority. The Israeli Government wants its hostages out, but at the same time its vowed to destroy hamas, which is why it wont agree to a permanent ceasefire. But hamas, which holds the hostages, says it wont sign a deal unless the ceasefire is permanent, which is why the peace talks have stalled. A delegation from hamas has been in cairo talking to mediators. They are now leaving to consult with their leadership. In gaza, the war continues, with air strikes and deprivation. Gazans are desperate for this war to end. So too are many israelis, but others in israel see this as unfinished business. They want this war pursued until hamas is utterly destroyed. Frank gardner, bbc news, jerusalem. For more on this i spoke to salah negm, the director of news at aljazeera. I started by asking for his reaction to the ban imposed by israel. A few hours earlier, the Israeli Government took a decision to shut down our offices in israel and confiscate the material and stop any local broadcasting. And almost one hour after that, a police team came to our Office Injerusalem and they checked the staff, the passports and the equipment. And i believe, but im not 100 sure, whether they confiscated the equipment or it was just left in the office. Now, israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu havejustified this decision with the new powers that the government has during this war. Theyve accused al jazeera of incitement, of Anti Israel Bias and of being a mouthpiece for hamas. Whats your response to those accusations . Yeah, i think i heard these accusations from the media, but actually the israeli notice just said the broadcast is harming the National Security. But we cannot be a mouthpiece of hamas, or else well be a mouthpiece of president biden, the british Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu himself, because we transmitted broadcasted their statements, press conferences, policies. That is the work of free media, that when you convey the story, you take all points of views from every side. But apparently it seems that the Israeli Government and israeli Prime Minister want a mouthpiece for israel, not a free media operating. So, to be clear, you have not received any other word about this decision other than aljazeera is believed to be a threat to National Security in israel . Yes, thats what i understand that we received. Maybe our lawyer there received something else, but im not aware of it yet. The whole thing happened today, and we need some time to collect all the information around it. And youre in doha right now. How is this news being received in qatar . It was expected to happen, because for some time, the law concerning foreign media, or allowing the government to shut down foreign media working in israel, was in the knesset for some time. There were threats from israeli ministers that they want to shut down aljazeera. That was repeated for about two months now. So it wasnt a real surprise. Although me, myself, i didnt believe that it will happen, because we have been operating in israel since 1997 without real problem. We can work freely there. But in the past few years, that wasnt the case. It was a little bit more difficult, and it increased in the past six months. Aljazeeras coverage has Accused Israel of committing specific crimes during the war. Ive gone on your website today, and there are those terms being used. Do you believe that could be considered Anti Israel Bias, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused aljazeera of . Aljazeera, as any other media organisation, does not accuse anyone of committing a crime. When we do an investigation, we do all the due diligence, examine all the evidence from all points of views. In the process, we are very objective because we dont leave one fact unobserved, and we reach a conclusion. And when you reach that conclusion, maybe the party dislikes it. But it came after a very thorough, objective process. If it ends byjust saying, 0k, we think that this party has killed civilians deliberately, because of the result of the investigation, we say it, we dont hesitate. But that is not bias. It is the result of a very objective, thorough process. On your website, it says the network in terms of the accusations condemns the accusations against its journalists this was from february and it says it recalls israels long record of lies and fabrication of evidence through which it seeks to hide its heinous crimes. This sort of wording, this sort of statement, would you understand why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet would take issue with it . Im not sure that statement was issued in what occasion. But i will cite the killing of shireen abu akleh, which was denied several times by israel that it was committed by israel. They actually accused palestinians of killing her. They denied all the evidence that we provided from our investigation, until they admitted it lately. So, the statement you are talking about, i dont know what occasion it was issued, but we have to put things in context. And israel has to put things in context if it wants an accusation of a specific nature. In context of that, you are correct, there were several by the Israeli Government until senior idf officials said they believe a soldier killed her by mistake, and of course he didnt identify her as a journalist. Those were their words when that happened. Before i let you go, i do want to ask you about what this means for the freedom of journalists to cover this war that has been going on for months now. We are afraid thats not going to be the only organisation. We are still working in the west bank in gaza, but we are banned from israel. That is a disadvantage to israel, so i do not think the Israeli Government is doing themselves a fairness, because they deprive themselves of a Point Of View to an israeli and international audience. The Foreign Press association and the Un Human Rights Office have called on israel to reverse the decision. And just to say bbc news has contacted both the israeli Prime Ministers office and the Israeli Government press office to speak to us about the shut down of aljazeera. We have not yet receieved a response. Lets turn now the fallout from the local elections in england. The former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman says the conservatives could be wiped out at the General Election, and has urged the Prime Minister to change course and swing to the right after its poor showing in this weeks votes for local councils and mayors. The tories lost over a70 Council Seats and all but one Mayoral Election in england. But defending the government, mark harper, the transport secretary, said its still all to play for. Heres our deputy political editor, vicki young. Across england and wales, labour won in style. Mayors. Councils. And police and crime commissioners. It was a terrible set of results for the conservatives, one of the few bright spots a victory for their mayor in the tees valley. The former Home Secretary, no fan of the Prime Ministers, warned today that the party faced a wipe out at the General Election but that there was no Point Ousting him now. Rishi sunak has been leading us for about 18 months. Hes been making these decisions. These are the consequences of those decisions. He needs to own this, and therefore, he needs to fix it. And these are her suggestions. He needs to actually lower taxes in a way that people will feel, not tweaking around the edges. If hes serious about migration, he needs to put a cap on legal migration. He needs to take us out of the European Convention on human rights. Thats how you actually send a message that hes serious about stopping the boats. Not all tories agree. After his defeat, the now former mayor of the west midlands, andy street, urged the party to stick to the centre ground. Ministers insist they are already acting decisively. We have a plan, and the plan is working. But voters are telling you they dont like it. But were not all the way through yet. I think people want to see delivery, right, so they want to see inflation continue to come down. They want to see the boats stopped. They want to see, for example, nhs Waiting Lists continue to fall. Weve made a lot of progress on that, but were not all of the way there yet. Labour did see a drop in support in some areas where theres anger about its stance on the war in gaza. I do acknowledge that in some parts of the country, that was the case, and there will be some people who maybe voted labour in the past who havent in the local elections because of this issue, and where thats the case, well work to get peoples support back. But overall, i do have to stress, these were tremendous local Election Results. Rishi sunak� s fiercest critics seem to have decided against an attempt to drive him out of here, but that doesnt mean the criticism will stop. For more analysis on yesterdays results and what it could mean for the General Election, i spoke to former conservative special adviser chris white. I started by asking him about Suella Braverman� s comments urging the tory party to swing further to the right. Thats one way of looking at it. I mean, i think there are two schools of thought in this in the Conservative Party. Clearly, those on the right of the party look at the projections of the reform party and the number of votes that they won and think you should tack to the right. Whereas andy street, whos more on the moderate wing of the Conservative Party, thinks that the party is best when its moderate, inclusive and tolerant. And i actually think that if you look at where the conservatives perform best in the mayoral and local elections, it was where there was a strong brand, a strong independents, a strong sense of being moderate, inclusive and tolerant. So i would tend to side with where andy street was, given that he defied a National Swing of almost 9 and was only 1500 votes off being re elected in the west midlands. Andy street did lose though, and youre talking about a strong brand. Andy street, ben houchen, there was a move to distance themselves from rishi sunak, they didnt wear their Brand Affiliation front and centre. All along we were talking about brand andy. So does that have any bearing in your mind on how mps should be approaching the General Election . Well, look, ithink the conservatives are in this position because of a long period of time where, frankly, the country is effectively switched off from listening to what the conservatives have to say. You have to go back to notjust partygate, but also some of the disastrous decisions like electing liz truss as the leader of the party, the budget and other decisions as well, to show that, frankly, the conservatives are not really in a position to be listened to any more. So, the fact that rishi sunak is in this position, and youve got Suella Braverman stating from the backbenches that the course should be changed. Well, you know, she was part of the party who trumpeted the fact that she was supporting liz truss back in 2022. So when she talks about needing to own the decisions and fixing them, she could take a little bit of a look at her own stance and decide whether she wants to do that first before having a go at rishi sunak. Shes not wrong, though, in saying that this wasnt good news. Doesnt something need to change before at the General Election . Or should just be the status quo . Leeg Conservative Party had an appalling set of results, there is no doubt about that. , ,. ,. , results, there is no doubt about that. , � that. The only positive was ben houchen winning that. The only positive was ben houchen winning in that. The only positive was ben houchen winning in tees that. The only positive was ben| houchen winning in tees valley. That. The only positive was ben houchen winning in tees valley. But when you look at the actual result on what it Means Project in a national election, it would actually mean the conservatives losing every seatin mean the conservatives losing every seat in his modality area. If these results were projected nationally at a General Election, it would mean the labour party would only be the Largest Party and a hung parliament, so it does give something for the conservatives to work towards. But they have got to focus on delivery and getting a clear message across and getting a clear message across and actually presenting a united front. Because at the moment all voters are looking at and healing from as a Conservative Party looking inwards, ratherthan from as a Conservative Party looking inwards, rather than saying to the country what it thinks it should do. To scotland now where with less than 2a hours to go until nominations close to replace humza yousaf as leader for the Scottish National party there are suggestions of a late entry to the race. At the momentjohn swinney, the former Deputy First Minister and party leader, is the only person officially in the running, but veteran Party Activist Graeme Mccormack says he believes he can garner enough nominations by mondays deadline. Our bbc scotland political reporter, jenni davidson, told us more Aboutjohn Swinney and what this challenge could mean for him. Hes a very popular figure. Hes very high profile, very experienced, and theres a lot of personal affection for him within the smp. Of personal affection for him within the snp. So its unlikely that this is actually going to be a serious issue for him. But what it does mean for the party is that it would cause the Leadership Contest to go on for another three weeks. If there was only one nomination in tomorrow, by 12 noon, the deadline, if it Wasjohn Swinney then he would simply be declared party leader tomorrow afternoon. But if theres more than one nomination, then it has to go to a vote of party members. So, more of an issue for the party in terms of the money and the time that would then go into a longer Leadership Race at a time when theres, obviously, a General Election coming up and they want to be outward looking rather than inward looking. I also want to touch upon the fact there was a march yesterday with hundreds turning out in glasgow to march for independence. What has humza yousaf� s fall taught us about where independence stands right now . Well, the reason for humza yousaf resignation really comes back to ending that Power Sharing Agreement with the scottish greens and the reasons fo