we begin in the middle east, where the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has vowed to go ahead with an offensive in gaza s southernmost most city rafah whatever happens in hostage negotiations. nearly 1.5 million palestinians are sheltering there. mr netanyahu s comments follow widespread reports that a framework for a pause in the fighting along with the release of hostages has been formulated by international mediators in paris. well, victory is within reach and you can t have victory until you eliminate hamas. how close is in reach? hamas is a terrorist organisation that once we begin the rafah operation, the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion, not months, weeks away from completion. and that is.we ve already destroyed 18 out of the 2a hamas terrorist battalions. so we have..and four of them are concentrated in rafah. we can t leave the last hamas stronghold without taking care of it. obviously, we have to do it. but understand too th
while handling conflicts abroad? the prime minister s right hand man oliver dowden is here to answer that question. from salford, labour s lisa nandyjoins us too. he s been caught in the headlines for the wrong reasons of late in charge during the post office scandal. but how does ed davey, the lib dem leader, want to change the script in this year of a general election? and, a week on from the death of alexei navalvny we ask the estonian prime minister what s it like to be one of putin s most wanted. good morning. with you and me for the next 60 minutes halima begum, the boss of the charity action aid, andy burnham, the labour mayor of greater manchester, now author, and therese coffey, who was deputy prime minister herself in liz truss cabinet. she is now a conservative backbench mp. a warm welcome to all three. and welcome to you, too. so let s first of all catch up with what s making the news. keir starmer accuses rishi sunak of harbouring extremists in his party
by international mediators in paris. well, victory is within reach and you can t have victory until you eliminate hamas. how close is in reach? hamas is a terrorist organisation that once we begin the rafah operation, the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion, not months, weeks away from completion. and that is.we ve already destroyed 18 out of the 2a hamas terrorist battalions. so we have. and four of them are concentrated in rafah. we can t leave the last hamas stronghold without taking care of it. obviously, we have to do it. but understand too that i ve asked the army to submit to me a double plan, first to evacuate, to enable the evacuation of the palestinian civilians in gaza and obviously, second, to destroy the remaining hamas battalions. that gets us a real, real distance towards the completion of our victory, and that, we re not going to give it up. if we have a deal, it ll be delayed somewhat, but it ll happen. if we don t have a deal, we ll d
whatever happens in hostage negotiations. nearly 1.5 million palestinians are sheltering there. mr netanyahu s comments follow widespread reports that a framework for a pause in the fighting along with the release of hostages has been formulated by international mediators in paris. our special correspondent, fergal keane, has been finding out what any ceasfire could mean for the palestinians sheltering in rafah. you may find some of his report distressing. well, victory is within reach and you can t have victory until you eliminate hamas. how close is in reach? hamas is a terrorist organisation that once we begin the rafah operation, the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion, not months, weeks away from completion. and that is.we ve already destroyed 18 out of the 2a hamas terrorist battalions. so we have..and four of them are concentrated in rafah. we can t leave the last hamas stronghold without taking care of it. obviously, we have to do it. but u
benjamin netanyahu vowed to go ahead with an offensive. his comments also follow widespread reports that a framework for a pause in the fighting 7 along with the release of hostages has been formulated by international mediators in paris. our diplomatic correspondent paul adams is injerusalem he sent this update on those negotiations. the press is certainly full of talk of optimism. and the americans who really want to get this in place before the start of ramamdan in two weeks time seem to think it is doable. but there is a host of issues to resolve. how long will the ceasefire last? how many israeli hostages will be released in the first phase? how many palestinian prisoners be released in return, and will the people of gaza be able to go back to their homes and what will be done to address the dreadful humanitarian situation throughout the gaza strip? any one of those issues could wreck the whole process and hamas is saying all of this talk of optimism is rubbish. the