Matt Frei is Europe Editor and Presenter at Channel 4 News.
This year he has led the Channel 4 News coverage of events in Ukraine from the crash site of Malaysia flight MH17, to the tensions in Crimea and reported live from Independence Square on Kiev’s bloodiest day. He has also secured major interviews with Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Aung San Suu Kyi.
Prior to his appointment as Europe Editor for Channel 4 News, Frei was the Washington Correspondent for two years and has reported on the Americas on everything from business and culture to US foreign policy and its view of the world.
He is also part of the presenting team across Channel 4's news and current affairs portfolio, including the award-winning Dispatches programme.
Matt previously anchored the BBC World News America bulletin and was also Washington Correspondent. He presented a weekly radio show called Americana, and in two decades at the corporation reported from Bonn, Rome, Bosnia, Kosovo, North Africa, Hong Kong and Singapore.
He is the author of two books: Italy: The Unfinished Revolution published in 1996 by Random House and Mandarin books and Only In America published in 2008 by 4th Estate.
Another large barrage of explosions has been reported in northern Gaza in the past hour, with reports communications and the internet have again been cut off. The Israeli army said today it had now struck “over two and a half thousand terror targets”. More than 9,400 people have now been killed, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry – appointed by Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organisation by the UK.
We’ve met with a number of families throughout this crisis – including Yonatan Zeigen, son of peace activist Vivian Silver, who spoke to us just a few days after the Hamas attack. Four weeks later, we sat down with him again.
We’re joined by national security expert and former Middle East advisor at the Pentagon, Jasmine El-Gamal.
We spoke to Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli Government and a former ambassador to the UK.
We spoke to the Beirut based author and journalist Kim Ghattas and to the American commentator and former speechwriter to President George W Bush, David Frum.
Earlier We spoke to former Israeli foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and began by asking with much of the world appalled by the enormous loss of life in the Gaza strip, what is her response to those critical of Israel?
Earlier we spoke to Nebal Farsakh from the humanitarian organisation the Palestine Red Crescent society, who are operating in Gaza and helping to transport patients to the border.
In Gaza new tragedies are delivered every day. Here in Israel the heartbreak does not abate either with fresh funerals or constant worry about the fate of the hostages. The military now says 240 are currently being held in Gaza by Hamas.
Ayelet Shaked was Israel’s Interior Minister until last year and before that served as Minister of Justice.
Matt is joined by Mustafa Barghouti who’s been a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for 18 years and Nour Odeh, former spokesman to the Palestinian authority.
We are joined by Danny Danon, former Israeli ambassador to the UN.
While the world’s focus has been on Gaza, the UN says as many as 120 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7th and the United States has warned Israel to rein in “extremist” settlers, saying violence against innocent residents in the occupied territory was “totally unacceptable”.
At a rare press conference yesterday, Israel’s Prime Minister sought to put on a show of unity.
We’re joined by Léo Cans, who’s Médecins Sans Frontières’ head of mission for Palestine.
We can’t get into Gaza ourselves, but filmmaker Yousef Hammash, who also works for the Norwegian Refugee Council, has been sending us moving reports about the situation there.