Been accepted by hamas. From jerusalem, our middle east correspondent Yolande Knell reports you may find some of her report distressing. The panic and confusion as rescuers pull the wounded from the rubble after an overnight israeli airstrike in rafah. And today, another all too familiar scene in gaza, a mother struggling with unbearable loss. After israel seized control of the key crossing with egypt, it says its continuing a limited offensive in gazas southernmost city, battling hamas gunmen in the east of their last stronghold. But for hundreds of thousands of palestinians who fled to rafah to escape the fighting elsewhere, theres renewed fear. Translation last time i they told us to go to rafah, saying theres aid and its a safe place, and look, they came into rafah. For now, i wont go anywhere. Ill stay here. Its enough. Were tired of being displaced, and i dont know where i want to go. World powers have warned israel against a full assault here, saying it would be a humanitarian c
Ceasefire talks in cairo. The good news is that they are happening and that five nations, orfive parties, are at least all there in cairo. So thats hamas, israel, the us, qatar and egypt. The not so good news is that israel has only sent a fairly low level team theyre not there to negotiate, theyre there to study what hope there is of trying to bridge the gap between what is acceptable to israel and what is acceptable to hamas, and that gap is still pretty wide. The main Sticking Point, as my colleague yolande referred to there, is over how this ends. So the fundamentals of the deal are largely intact, theyre largely agreed. They can agree this that it will start with a 42 day period of calm, a truce essentially, during which hamas will give up 33 hostages. Theres a bit of dispute about whether they would be alive or dead, but 33 hostages. In return, a much larger number of Palestinians Prisoners would be released from israeli jails and palestinians who had been moved south into rafah
Process closed at midday. The party was like secretary then confirmed Thatjohn Swinney is the party leader. Mr swinney has also posted on social media, saying he feels deeply honoured to be elected leader of the party, adding that he will give his all to serve the party and scotland. Of course with mr swinney being unopposed in this context, it means the snp has avoided extending the uncertainty at the top of scottish politics. Had there been another contender in this contest, it would have meant a Leadership Battle going on for the next three weeks, untiljuly 27. There had been talk of a late bid over the weekend. Activist Graeme Mccormick has said that he had gathered enough support to enter the contest. But in a statement late last night, he announced he decided not to run after having a conversation with john swinney. They had agreed on a number of topics and issues, he said he was going to Supportjohn Swinney instead. It he was going to support john swinney instead. , ,. , instead