breaking news on r.t. and foreign media offices in gaza a coming under attack from israel which maintains it's only targeting terrorists. among the targets also within the towns as the civilian death toll mounts with more children among those killed. and other stories from this we cannot see israel's troops exchange fire with syria but the rebels are getting more support from the west to get rid of the assad regime. the eurozone sinks into recession as millions take to the streets in the first quarter native pan-european strike to demand an end to austerity. that is china finishes its once in a decade power transfer with new leaders taking over the country's top post so we find out what challenges lie ahead for beijing.

with the top stories of today and of the week this is the weekly on r t let's go straight to our breaking news for you this hour a foreign reporters in gaza are being forced to scramble as their offices are targeted by israeli bombs already several journalists have been wounded the television says it wants to send gaza quote back to the middle ages and is preparing a ground invasion while militants to retaliate with unguided rockets the latest poll of syria. we are receiving reports of some six people six civilians who have been killed among them four children so what we're witnessing is a significant climb in the casualty count and increasingly more and more of these casualties are in fact civilians now they would really have to stick with his call

to holdings also hit by israeli missiles at least six people have been injured one of them is a come a man who they say had to have his leg amputated the i.d.f. the israeli defense forces has said that the journalists were not to create targets but that they were aware that they were journalists in these buildings in a statement released by the i.d.f. it said that a communications antenna used by hamas to target israelis was in fact their target but the thing is that you have in these media houses international journalists and the israeli army is fully aware of that fact we also are aware that in one of the buildings all sister organization. offices were completely destroyed in the strike unfortunately just an hour before all the staff members had gone home we are now however receiving reports that the journalists and people inside these two buildings have been ordered again to evacuate we obviously records that the israeli air force plans to strike these buildings again it's not something that the israeli air force is denying in fact they have stated that being on the eighth floor of one

of these buildings is the office of have nots and that this is ultimately a target now the leaders of hamas have gone into hiding they are fearing for their lives this comes as a statement from israel's interior ministry that the goal is to stand and i'm quoting here gaza back to the middle ages these signs so if you do dictate that a full scale ground invasion could be imminent we heard earlier from the israeli defense force chief has ordered to increase the number of sorties being fired against militants inside gaza some sixteen thousand israeli reservists have been called out they are all in the south of the country ready to enter gaza if indeed they given the order to do so now london has warned is right now. to launch a ground offensive saying that the country will lose a lot of international support if indeed it goes ahead and does this but what we have witnessed in the past is that israel by and large often does what it wishes to knowing full well that the united states is there to support it and so many people here don't believe that the united states would withdraw its support for israel at

this stage at his weekly cabinet meeting in jerusalem the israeli prime minister on sunday morning also said and i'm quoting here that he is ready to significantly expand the israeli operation into gaza service so he does send out alarm bells and raise questions as to whether or not this ground offensive is imminent there has been a lot of movement of tanks as well as on the personnel vehicles along the israeli gaza border we've witnessed up to the shelling from these tanks also all the roads around gaza have been closed off by the israeli army now the arab league hold emergency session on saturday in cairo where the arab league secretary general accused israel of war crimes he also called on arab states that had any kind of peace treaties in place with israel to revisit this we are witnessing a flurry of international activity trying to mediate between the two sides to egypt is playing a role we've also heard from turkey who has put forward some kind of peace proposal but so looking at this stage it doesn't seem as it's as if either side is ready for

peace what we're hearing from both the israelis and hamas is that it only prepared to lay down arms if the other side does so first. those of course want to write their keeping all of us up to date on air and online you can follow her twitter stream for the latest. now also you are a bit correspondent so what if you had been working in the media center in gaza just before the israeli rockets slammed into it this is what he told us just a bit. not in the hand of head that. no one expected this during the strikes power supplies often get cut off and then it becomes really difficult for us to find fuel for the generator that at that moment we decided to take a break in our work and go look for gas so that we can continue working early in the morning we left at around one am and had to at all have some of our friends are now in hospital just a little while ago there was a press conference where it was said that such an attack must be completely ruled out as a journalist can become targets for strikes

a correspondent should share what he or she sees with the world even israeli journalists report from gaza it's unacceptable that media workers get attacked in such a way in situations like this we usually don't go to our homes just like we did maturing that has deliveries of two thousand and eight in two thousand and nine democrat even though we know this is really dangerous up to the point of a ground operation however we prefer to stay at the office using any chance to do our job whenever the electricity comes on us and when the electricity was off we decided to go look for a generator fuel and that's what saved us up we're talking about four tower blocks in gaza that have been used by media outlets since two thousand but during the war in two thousand and eight two thousand and nine israel struck these buildings to death and some of our colleagues were injured and we know that we do a dangerous job. when home. and a u.n. spokesman chris gunness assess that gaza is heading for a humanitarian disaster thanks to political failure is ready bombing runs on the

notorious blockade. we were hearing as others that the situation in shifa hospital is deteriorating very rapidly and let's not forget that even before this latest flare up in violence shifa hospital had been hit by the blockade there was a lack of medicines there was a lack of training a lack of equipment so an already bad situation in that hospital one of the largest in the occupied palestinian territory has been made worse there are shortages according to the world health organization of essential and lifesaving drugs what we're seeing in gaza is the result of political failure we call on the politicians and the people who are able to make peace to redouble their efforts to do so because for every hour that goes past another child another woman another civilian the elderly the sick the dying they are in harm's way it's a situation which we in the united nations and in under find unacceptable in must

end and it must end forthwith. and a bit earlier in the program i spoke to a documentary filmmaker and actress terry fear he told me that israel is using internationally prohibited weapons during its offensive. understanding that the media centers in gaza of which there are about five to seven predominant ones that you see in apartment buildings totally taken out on different floors by various media organizations including the sister organization of russia today itself has been they have been targeted by israeli airstrikes and they have then been told to evacuate evacuate totally and some of these senses are actually basically been razed to the ground so i'm getting very panicked calls from friends of mine palestinians in gaza saying do not try and go anywhere near any of the live studios here in gaza it is too dangerous you're an international but you may well be targeted yourself so i heard from one source of within the i.d.f.

say these are perception strikes for example one building of journalists when he says a precision strike he targeted one floor however the building then collapsed so we are relying on the world not to doing anything while it uses disproportionate force or trying to assassinate its targets i don't doubt that it is targeting people accurately but it's using such level of force when it does that collateral damage is occurring every hour in gaza so israel has its objectives but it's the force and whether and really it's using which is international pressure to under the law. my colleague bill dodd interviewed the israeli defense ministry spokesman josh hunt and who gave no clear explanation as to why civilians are being killed and what he continues to call highly precise bombings. but when hamas are hiding rockets beneath mosques and hiding rockets and missiles within school yards and firing rockets actually next to the very hotel where most of the foreign correspondents are staying you just have to look at all the reports coming out across the world

today and pushing it's a very very difficult predicament and that's why the israeli government uses the most precise munitions is why the israeli army since flies out to the population even before we conduct these precision strikes a lot of minimize civilian damage that what those precise munitions are doing to the people of gaza we've managed to speak to several girls and says civilians who are suffering in this bombing campaign in a moment here's what they had to say let's have a listen. and then the civilian population here is then sleep in every house there are about twenty people until quarter to six everyone was asleep after daniel asked to begin shaking this entire area about sixteen killings were bombing innocent harmless people many were injured my family had four injured. we were listening to the news to find out what's going on in gaza. yesterday we slipped through because we wanted to risk what we walk up and rubbed in their brothers who visited think god all there were a lot of but what should we do now the roof collapsed walls or just roared the

children of you under the rubble as they were doing and. we were all sleeping parents and me with my sisters in a sixteen missile hits our house we were taken to hospital thank god you're alive but that's how it was going on so what do you say to these people in gaza. well first of all i'd like to point out that actually last night and every night and in particular last night even in the middle of the mission we had air force jets that were flying over and they had a precise target ready to be hit and the hamas organization or other organizations in the region brought civilians to the location and we diverted the attack we are doing our utmost to protect civilians on both sides while hamas is going out of its way to not only put their own civilians in harm but attack our civilians on a day to day basis. on air and online we are bringing you the latest from the middle east live updates on our twitter stream at a web site r.t.

dot com. this is a teeny and another tough week for the eurozone as we report just a bit later here on the program a single currency people push me back into recession after a twenty four hour european make a strike brought some twenty countries to a standstill plus. china gets its next chairman is using ping meeting a new group of officials to herald the country's furthering growth in a few moments we look at what the problems of beijing's a blistering economy could face.

catalonia wants to get its independence from the rest of spain locals feel that madrid texas all of catalonia economic success is a way putting the region into debt trust me hard only to have it all taxed away is very aggravating i can see why people are frustrated but the people who want independence have a very odd slogan catalonia a new european state so let me get this straight you want independence but you want to stay in the e.u. is that what you mean what exactly would that change that's not really gaining independence that shifting dependencies stay in the e.u. means you won't have control of your borders you'll still be on the euro so you won't have your own currency you will be able to establish your trade standards those will be dictated to you by brussels and if you don't like the austerity measures from outsiders like in madrid then you might want have a conversation with the greeks because being an independent country in the e.u. won't save you from people messing with your finances all i'm saying is that being

truly independent means answer to no one not madrid not brussels but that's just my opinion. resistance is not of politics but a culture. is could. on its own.

cultures of resistance on our team. there's a six fifteen pm moscow time on a sunday you're watching artsy now aside from the ongoing conflict with hamas in gaza israel has also been fighting on its northern front the israeli defense force confirmed they fired artillery into neighboring syria in response to gunfire aimed at his troops in the disputed golan heights its first time in about four decades israel has fired into syria came amid reports the rebels have captured an airport in the east of syria strengthening their hold of the iraqi border cross this week western attempts to oust president assad have gained momentum but france and turkey recognizing a new opposition group that of the national coalition powers also says it will accept an envoy from the new alliance and even foreign ministers are expected to discuss lifting an arms embargo on monday which could pave the way for direct

weapons deliveries to rebels journalist neil clark says the west is using the libya blueprint to gain a foothold in syria for the long term goal of subduing iran but what we do is we get together some opposition up if you like not their heads together call them the government of libya and now syria and then we were too angry at arms embargoes and very soon we'll be hearing talk i expect no fly zones this is all part of a plan to a set of the western powers actually glaring it's ok for us to. the rebels in syria but to anybody else to arm the syrians it's not allowed so it's absolutely appalling the a policy we have the constitutional boat back in eighty seven percent of syrians voted for it we had elections in may you know there is a every possibility of a change in syria through the ballot box but the west don't want that because they know the president say these two popular party has probably majority support within syria the last thing they want is the people's will in syria to prevail they want

to impose by force a puppet government. and you know what would happen at libya is that if assad is toppled we have lost in syria more chaos we have more deaths destruction but the west doesn't really care about that he doesn't care what's happening in libya at the moment all he cares about is a new government in damascus which with ties the entire economy cut the links with iran and hezbollah and allow the you know the move against iraq to take place because this is all about paving the way to war gets there are. the euro zone has been hit by a second recession the supporting to figures published on thursday it's coming just hours after a twenty four hour strike so more than twenty european countries virtually paralyzed as people once again vented their frustration over disintegrating economies to sarah ferguson story. saying. greece. italy. and portugal.

it's nice debt rating countries doing together with many others for the continent's first cross border negat strike from the beginning it was clear that emotions were running high in many places the dreadful violence early on and i asked a priest come to write. this thing every day for various things put up between the protesters and the riot police is packing right on this thing to make sure it's not going to get more symbolic county for the he stood by the people say there are right now all across the yard to train their government and between the people than this is why we all start the back. of the bullets and violent confrontations with the authorities are becoming you know t. familiar sight at the consonance leaders stand for the disparity is a necessary evil but the sky high deficit only bend the fourteenth to keep the year it seems to have pulled it down to the union fight back against the prevailing tide

of the stereotypic ahead of next week's budget meeting brussels will have been watching closely as the scenes of police and protesters battling one another played out so close the only peace prize winning. all the protests over cuts turned violent in the most burden european states particularly italy portugal spain that's where unemployment is at unprecedented levels sociologist a carlos duck lawsuit took part in wednesday's strike believes that with around a heart of young spaniards are already out of work more cuts simply won't save anything. a protest isn't about a solution a protest is normally about something you don't want so in this case what they're protesting is easy to austerity is cuts in social spending and cuts in social rights and the expansion of social misery people can make the argument that austerity is the solution to the current problems being faced by your citizenry and

in particular by the southern european citizenry the problem is what does that austerity mean is it neoliberal you austerity where you cut basically all of those all of the social protection that keeps people from descending down to a sort of downward spiral of social misery and with all of that escalating conflict or do you leave social protection in place and cut in places where there really is overspending such as bank bailouts in and and areas like these. meanwhile on its way out of economic trouble the u.k. faces some disturbing problems of its own the police in england and wales at rock bottom with almost every single officer feeling abandoned by the government those details are just ahead. new leaders have been appointed this week in china with becoming the communist party's new secretary general he took over from hu jintao who saw through

a decade long transformation which led it to overtaking japan as the world's second largest economy the new leaders have vowed to tackle the challenges of corruption the growing divide between rich and poor and environmental pollution among others still though the main goal remains a keeping the economy booming the i.m.f. predicts it will overtake its american rival in just four years hong kong based financial expert francis luton believes the u.s. will no longer get everything its own way if indeed china continues to strengthen here. new leadership showed china very you believe key and continue it. so. what this means they continue to grow economically much higher now we would do is to continue to spring for. me to reach. china can achieve parity with america and if that is their keys i don't think america can for all its weight around the world

we've out a poll i did this now you can't you really can't do any of it wants but if china becomes. our only parity with the us then things change. let's get to some other international headlines for you in brief this hour with the r.t. world update at least three people were killed and many more injured by an explosion in central iraq the attack is said to have targeted police officers and was reportedly carried out by a suicide car bomber who ran a vehicle full of explosives into a police checkpoint iraq has been struggling to find stability after nato coalition forces withdrew from the country following years of occupation. of iraq obama is in thailand on his first official trip abroad since being reelected his three country tour of southeast asia as part of a shift in american foreign policy with

a deeper commitment to a region that seeing growing chinese influence obama is due to travel to come both the next and will then become the first ever u.s. president to visit me in. the massive fire in a bangladesh shanty town is killed eleven and injured many more five women and four children are among the dead while over five hundred homes have been leveled in a densely populated area near the capital officials believe a cigarette or more skeeter coil may have caused the blaze. the way for your story first of a public vote in england and wales for local police commissioners took place this week are there hardly anyone turned up to the ballot boxes and recent polls of officers show morrall among the nation's law enforcers is at rock bottom floor smith looks at why the thin blue line has the blues. another day and not the demos and the police only with old hands to keep control but while the boys and girls in

blue do their jobs sometimes in every possible conditions the government is reducing their budget by a massive twenty percent the net result morrall in the force hits an all time low with just fifteen out of fourteen thousand officers saying they feel the government gives them a great deal of support rachel baines is surprised but not in a good way. say those fifteen offices are certainly in the force i work in lancashire and i don't know of any offices that fill up been supported by the government really is at rock bottom baines has lost five hundred fifty officers from her force meaning more work for those left behind and a genuine fear that when people call nine nine nine there won't be anyone left to deal with the emergency and she's not alone so i'm in pain is chair of the war except police federation says morale hasn't been this low in his twenty six year career we have

a plethora of issues over the last two years where the start or conditions of service or with pension reforms or were through forms of the police service person twenty percent cuts and for give an example here in work prior to this government coming to power we had a thousand and fifty offices we're now down into the seven hundreds we have one of the biggest nights way networks in the country and we have no traffic department. so it's coming from all sides time's a so hard in war that the force is even selling off its stations including its h.q. there's no first sale boards up here but the iconic scotland yard headquarters of the metropolitan police is also on the markets it's a real turnaround just a year ago the mets with trumpeting a three billion pound refurbish it spain was revolving starting now its downsizing

to a new size of the tens nearby and replacing smaller stations with counters in supermarkets and community centers. the force feels it's being disproportionately targeted secretary to reason may is on repentant let's stop pretending the police are being picked on they do you feel picked on and critically powerless to protect themselves as a legally the police aren't allowed to strike but that could change in february we are saying everyone can fall off the rank of chief inspector in england and wales and the very question is do they want full industry rights and and the reason that is important is because members need protecting from what they perceive is an unfair treatment by. a police force on strike it's the last thing the government needs to take you to listen it's not the winter of discontent in the

face your assessment our team. dot com right now thousands stage of march through dublin in protest at irish abortion laws that led to the death of a woman who was denied help to terminate her pregnancy also the gun store owner in arizona publishes an ad in the local newspaper telling president obama supporters they are not welcome in his shop online at all to dot com. more details on that. and after a quick break here at r.t. we take a look at how art and creativity can be used as ammunition in the battle for peace and justice. the mighty volga that runs deep through the russian soul it has provided

inspiration for songs and poems and is the country's main north south artery and decades ago schumann ingenuity connected it to the don't revert to the west the vocal dawn canal is an engineering marvel within a day a vessel can pass the canals thirteen blocks ten million tons of shipping does so every year. another concrete giant is this finished fifty years ago it's the biggest hydroelectric plant in europe it powers the local city of volgograd and sends lots more electricity to moscow the hydroelectric plant behind me is a potent example of how much the volga can provide but harnessing the river like this isn't without its cost. fishermen have been watching fish stocks for years they see the slow damage the downing of the river has done especially to russia's prized sturgeon the source of caviar but in the president of the hydroelectric

plant has done significant damage because it stocked fish swimming up river to their spawning grounds. within a year all these houses would have gone fallen into the river depending on how many of the hydroelectric plants turbines are on the water level can change suddenly and dramatically too suddenly for the banks to absorb. control of the river the flow by the plant has made building the bogus flood plain more attractive serious floods are less likely but the water that is put into the drains. taken away from the fish that need it now but lost the voice of the voters of color j. might start being heard. the first time in fifty years the rules will contain a point on maintaining biodiversity in the river still have a chance to bring the volga back to life. meaning that the mighty is treated with the respect it deserves.