Foreign News
Israeli forces pushing into south Gaza
Israeli ground forces are pushing into southern Gaza, after three days of heavy bombardment.
Initial reports from Israeli army radio effectively confirmed Israel has launched a ground operation to the north of Khan Younis. The BBC has also verified images of an Israeli tank operating near the city.
The head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later told troops the IDF was also fighting “strongly and thoroughly” in south Gaza. Lt General Herzi Halevi was speaking to reservists from the Gaza division about military objectives and the IDF’s killing of Hamas commanders. He told the soldiers: “We fought strongly and thoroughly in the northern Gaza Strip, and we are also doing it now in the southern Gaza Strip”.
An IDF spokesman later confirmed Israel “continues to expand the ground incursion” across all of Gaza, including troops “conducting face to face battles with terrorists”.
Since a week-long ceasefire ended on Friday, Israel has resumed a large-scale bombing campaign on Gaza, which residents of Khan Younis have described as the heaviest wave of attacks so far.
The seven-day truce saw Hamas release 110 hostages being held in Gaza in return for 240 Palestinians being released from Israeli prisons.
On Sunday morning, the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for several districts of Khan Younis, urging people to leave immediately.
Israeli authorities believe members of the Hamas leadership are hiding in the city, where hundreds of thousands of people have been sheltering after fleeing fighting in the north in the early stages of the war.
A UN official has described a “degree of panic” he has not seen before in a Gaza hospital, after the Israeli military shifted the focus of its offensive to the south.
James Elder, from the children’s agency Unicef, described Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Younis as a “warzone”.
An adviser to Israel’s prime minister said Israel is making “maximum effort” to avoid killing civilians.
Mr Elder told the BBC he could hear constant large explosions close to the Nasser hospital and children were arriving with head injuries, terrible burns, and shrapnel from recent blasts. “It’s a hospital I’ve gone to regularly and the children know me now, the families know me now. Those same people are grabbing my hand, or grabbing my shirt saying ‘please take us somewhere safe. Where is safe?’.They are unfortunately asking a question to which the only answer is there is nowhere safe. And that includes for them, as they know, that hospital,” he said.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 500 people have been killed since the bombing resumed. More than 15,500 people have been killed in the strip since the war began, the ministry also said.

Mohammed Ghalayini, a British-Palestinian who has stayed in Gaza, said the situation in the city was “beyond catastrophic”. “People have been, for 50 days or more, withstanding brutal Israeli onslaught and are very low on all resources – food, water, power and the sanitation and the waste services,” he told the BBC by phone, before the connection cut off.
The air pollution expert, who normally lives in Manchester, arrived in Gaza for a three-month visit to see his mother shortly before the 7 October attacks.
Israel began its retaliatory bombing of Gaza following Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel on 7 October, which saw around 1,200 people killed and 240 taken hostage.

Rockets have also been regularly fired at Israel from Gaza since fighting resumed on Friday. A 22-year-old man in the city of Holon, near Tel Aviv, was treated for minor shrapnel injuries on Saturday.
Hundreds of thousands of people have already fled the fighting to take shelter in Khan Younis, after Israel told them to leave the north of the strip.
The latest UN update says around 1.8 million people are internally displaced in Gaza.
Speaking to the BBC, the UN’s human rights chief, Filippo Grandi, said Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are being “pushed more and more towards a narrow corner of what is already a very narrow territory”.
The IDF has begun posting maps of areas set to be attacked online. It says these maps, along with other measures like phone calls and leaflets being dropped on Gaza by plane, will warn people to evacuate.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior adviser Mark Regev said civilians are not targets and protecting them is made more difficult by Hamas “embedding its military terror machine” in civilian neighbourhoods. He says the IDF are trying to be “as surgical as we can in a very difficult combat situation”, and has given advance warning of attacks.
Separately, the IDF say they have destroyed 500 “terror tunnel” shafts used by Hamas in Gaza, out of the 800 they say have been found so far.
It also said around 10,000 air strikes on “terror targets” have been carried out by the air force “under the guidance of IDF soldiers on the ground” since the war began.
(BBC)
Foreign News
USA midfielder sues doctors after on-pitch cardiac arrest
United States women’s national team player Savannah DeMelo is suing a hospital and two doctors after she suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch last year.
Midfielder DeMelo, who has seven senior caps for the USA, has filed a lawsuit against University of Louisville Health (UofL Health) for negligence.
The 28-year-old, who plays for Racing Louisville, collapsed in the first half of a National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) match on 14 September 2025.
According to documents seen by BBC Sport, the case was filed on Tuesday morning with Jefferson Circuit Court in Kentucky, where her club is based – a year and a day after her on-field collapse.
DeMelo’s filing claims UofL Health and two doctors, Dr Sarabjeet Suri and Dr Jennifer Daily, “failed to act as a reasonably prudent and competent medical practice, and such negligence was a substantial factor in causing DeMelo to suffer severe physical injuries, including, but not limited to, her cardiac arrest”.
Dr Daily, according to her online UofL biography, is Racing Louisville’s chief medical officer. The lawsuit states DeMelo was under the care of Dr Daily from January 2024 to July 2026.
It states that in March 2025, Dr Daily referred DeMelo to Dr Suri for “evaluation and treatment” after she had been complaining of chest pain, dizziness and shortness of air; Dr Suri obtained a history, performed a physical examination and ordered diagnostic tests.
Nearly six months later, DeMelo suffered the cardiac arrest.
“She was subsequently diagnosed and treated for ventricular tachycardia [an abnormal heart rhythm],” the suit states.
DeMelo, who has spent her entire professional career with Racing Louisville, has not played since her collapse.
In a post to her instagram page on Tuesday, De Melo – who was picked in the USA squad for the 2023 Women’s World Cup and started their first two games – marked the anniversary of the incident.
“A year ago today, while playing soccer, I collapsed due to an undiagnosed cardiac arrhythmia, that caused me to go into cardiac arrest,” she wrote.
“I respect and appreciate the privacy everyone has met me with while going through everything I have this year. I’ll never be able to fully put into words how emotionally hard this year has been. There has been a lot of uncertainty and emotions intertwined with it all.”
[BBC]
Foreign News
Death toll from Philippines ferry fire rises to 76, with more still missing
The Philippine Coast Guard says it has recovered 41 bodies from the wreckage of a ferry that caught fire this week, bringing the total death toll to 76.
More than 130 people were on board the MV June Aster when the blaze erupted on Wednesday as it neared its destination at the tourist hotspot of Coron, after departing from Manila.
The coast guard said on Saturday the number of survivors remained 43, with many receiving treatment in hospital, but 13 people remain unaccounted for.
Recovery of bodies had been hampered due to toxic fumes and lingering heat, which meant authorities were unable to board until Friday.
Geronimo Tuvilla, an official for the Philippine Coast Guard, said the priority was identifying victims and determining the cause of the blaze.
Kristine Ablana, a tourism official in Coron, said relatives were being asked to help identify family members through personal items and DNA testing.
“Once someone is able to verify that this photo or these belongings are indeed those of their relative, they will be asked to provide a DNA sample,” she said.
Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Noemie Cayabyab said the fire began in a cargo hold before spreading.
She said survivors had described hearing a loud explosion, “the appearance of smoke and then fire. It spread very quickly”. She added that those who had made it off the ship did not have time to put on lifejackets.
A survivor who was hauled to safety on a rescue boat told the BBC he had heard frantic cries onboard when the fire erupted, and was trampled by panicked people as he tried to escape.
The ferry, built in 2002, held valid safety certificates and passed an enforcement inspection in March, but investigators are looking into potential manifest discrepancies, cargo loading integrity, and crew emergency response protocols, the Palawan Daily reported.
The vessel was carrying 117 passengers and 17 crew members.
Atienza Interisland Ferries, the vessel’s operator, has pledged full co-operation with the inquiry.
[BBC]
Foreign News
Princess Diana’s ‘revenge dress’ goes up for auction on 9th December
A dress worn by Princess Diana to a party in London hours after a documentary was televised in which the then-Prince Charles admitted to committing adultery during their marriage is going up for auction.
Her dramatic arrival at the Serpentine Gallery in 1994 in a custom-made black silk evening dress by designer Christina Stambolian became an iconic pop-culture moment.
The media dubbed her outfit the “revenge dress”.
Auction house Sotheby’s expects the dress to sell for up to £220,000 ($300,000) when it goes under the hammer on 9 December.
A press release from Sotheby’s said it is the first time the dress has been offered at auction since 1997, when the late princess sold 79 of her dresses to raise money for charities.
Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s Global Head of Handbags and Fashion, said in a statement that Princess Diana “understood instinctively” that fashion can be a language in its own right.
“On her own terms, Princess Diana turned the dress into one of the most powerful messages she ever made, during one of the most scrutinised and emotionally charged episodes of her life,” Halimi said.
“She walked into a moment in which so much of her story was being told for her and, through what she chose to wear, reclaimed the narrative for herself.”

According to Sotheby’s, Anna Harvey, her stylist at the time, said Diana “wanted to look a million dollars”.
The princess made a last-minute wardrobe change for the fundraising dinner and chose the strapless evening dress by the Greek designer Christina Stambolian – which she accessorised with a royal jewel, a black clutch and black heels.
The vintage Jaguar XJ40 car that Diana arrived in at the event was sold at auction earlier this year for £66,250.
The revenge dress is expected to fetch a considerably higher price.
If it does, it will not be the first time an item from the princess’s wardrobe has sold for a significant sum.
Princess Diana’s sweater featuring a black sheep among rows of white ones was sold for £920,000 at an auction by Sotheby’s in New York in 2023.
[BBC]
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