a hamas leader linked to the october 7th massacre. all of this escalating as the conflict could become a regional war. also, with less than two weeks before the iowa caucuses, the race for the white house kicks into gear with top trump challengers. and president biden returning from vacation to face new challenges, as he plans to hit the road with a retooled re-election message. and i ll be joined by the premium ambassador to the united states, after a new year began there with a barrage of deadly strikes against kyiv and kharkiv, and no agreement with continued u.s. military aid. good day, everyone. i m andrea mitchell in washington. tensions are growing throughout the wider middle east today, stoking international fears that the israel hamas war is now spilling far beyond gaza s borders. more than 100 people, including children, are dead after two explosions in iran ripped through crowds commemorating general souleymane. he was the prominent ahead of the revolutionary
on the israel gaza war. international pressure mounts on israel to reduce civilian casualties. the us secretary of defense, lloyd austin, is in israel, where he s expected to meet officials later. we ve been seeing smoke on the gaza skyline again this morning. it comes as the uk, france, and germany step up global calls for a ceasefire. britain s former defence secretary, ben wallace, has warned that israel risks losing its legal and moral authority for its war in gaza. in a newspaper article, he described israel s tactics as crude and indiscriminate . the hamas run health authority in gaza says israeli air strikes have killed at least 110 people in a single day in the jabalia refugee camp. we re also following the latest from the un security council it s due to convene later today, to disucss the humanitarian situation in gaza. to disucss the humanitarian it s expected to look at a new draft resolution calling on israel and hamas to allow greater humanitarian access to th
Government has given an update on the situation in gaza, saying that enough food aid is being delivered each day to feed all civilians there. Spokesperson david mencer also had this to say about the warnings given to people in rafah. We have made gazans aware through flyers dropped, sms messages, phone calls and Media Broadcasts in arabic. The text of the flyers is available from the idf website. They call on residents of certain specified neighbourhoods to relocate to specified humanitarian safe zones, because the idf will be operating against the terrorist organisations in these areas. For their safety, the idf urges them to evacuate immediately to the expanded humanitarian area in the al mawasi area. Warnings have also been issued that gaza city is still a dangerous active combat zone, and to avoid returning north of wadi gaza. Warnings have also been made to stay away from the eastern and southern security fences. 0ur middle east correspondent, Yolande Knell Reports from jerusalem.
Noon, and a few minutes after that, the Party National secretary confirmed that there was only one nominee who had reached the threshold of 100 backers across 20 local branches of the party, and that was john swinney. 0f local branches of the party, and that wasjohn swinney. Of course, that wasjohn swinney. Of course, that followed the decision last week of our potential rival, kate forbes, to declare that she was not going to contest this Leadership Challenge with mr swinney. Now it Isjohn Swinney who will be taking over. He has led the party before, from 20002004. He has led the party before, from 2000 2004. He resigned after poor Election Results, but since then, he is a different man, a lot more experienced, 16 years in the cabinet. He says he will govern from the moderate centre left. We expect him to set out more details here at Glasgow University in a speech this afternoon of how he might do that. Of course, he does need to be elected as first minister. He is not automatically b