and the ukrainecast presenter vitaliy shevchenko has been following developments. he gave me some background on the general who s been dimissed. valerii zaluzhnyi, to put simply, he was in charge of the ukrainian army. and as such, he was the architect of ukraine s initial counteroffensive backin ukraine s initial counteroffensive back in 2022. he is the face of ukraine s relative military success. he is credited well with the fact that ukraine s still there, still fighting, and yet he has been sacked. it s a move that will not go down particularly well with some parts of the military and the public in ukraine. general valerii zaluzhnyi has been very well thought of, respected and revered by many, so questions have been asked and are being asked about why this has happened. there s a lot of talk about a personality clash between the two leaders, between volodymyr zelensky and valerii zaluzhnyi. i keep presidential adviser in ukraine said that one important reason why a reshuf
for such an operation. and to conduct such an operation right now with no planning and little thought in an area where there is a million people sheltering would be a disaster. israeli forces have continued their offensive against hamas in the southern gaza area and there s been reports of large explosions in rafah. people there said israeli missiles hit two houses, causing multiple casualties. aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe if israel forces enter rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced palestinians have taken refuge. the us secretary of state antony blinken is returning to washington, 2a hours after the israeli prime minister said the war would continue until israel is completely victorious. benjamin netanyahu appeared to reject outright a response from hamas to a proposed cease fire plan, but secretary blinken believes there s still room for negotiation. let s hearfrom our middle east correspondent, nick beake. a senior palestinian official