 Joining us on the I-24 News Desk at this hour, rocket attacks continuing today already from both the south and the north. Hamas launching a short time ago a volley of rockets from Gaza towards Israel, and Hezbollah attacking Israel from the north today with mortar fire, rockets and also apparently drones too. On the ground, the battles deep inside Gaza continue to intensify. The IDF this morning announcing the deaths of two more soldiers killed in action. That's seven IDF soldiers killed in battle over just the last two days fighting Hamas terrorists. This is new video just released from the IDF of elite combat forces operating deep inside Gaza aiming to locate and destroy underground tunnel shafts and other infrastructure belonging to Hamas. About three dozen tunnel shafts were located and destroyed in the upscale remodeled neighborhood already, according to the IDF. Prime Minister Netanyahu says that the small amount of daily humanitarian aid and fuel delivery to the strip is critical to maintaining U.S. and global support as the war goes on. Israel abides by the laws of war. That's how our army works, the most moral army in the world. Humanitarian aid is also vital to maintain international support. Without humanitarian aid, even our best friends will find it difficult to support us over time and it will be very difficult for us to continue the war until the end. With us now is I-24 News senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev. Jonathan IDF to the IDF today released in several clips of new video showing some of their most elite battle-tested units operating inside Gaza searching for tunnel shafts and they've uncovered dozens of them in some of the more upscale neighborhoods. The upscale parts were middle class, Gaza families who live in the remodeled neighborhood uncovering and destroying a lot of terror infrastructure. What do you make perhaps of that new announcement of the discovery of these tunnels and what it means in a broader picture? And guess Jeff, who else used to live at the remodeled neighborhood? Of course the Hamas officials, they're the upper class of Gaza, so that's where they live. The remodeled neighborhood, they have no problem putting their own neighbors in danger, building tunnels, digging tunnels and having tunnel shafts right on their own neighborhood and right underneath them in the most upscale neighborhood of the city ammunition and headquarters and so on showing that once again the civilian population is the one that pays the price. Everybody, everybody, they take their own neighbors as their human shields. This is what Hamas is doing. This is how they operate wherever they are, whether it's their homes, other neighborhoods, they bring on ammunition and everything else putting the civilian population in danger. Jonathan, the Israeli defense establishment saying that the damage and destruction, the IDF efforts to root out terror infrastructure in the north will soon be seen in the south. The campaign will soon turn to the south. Can you give any insight perhaps on how the south might look different than the north as the battle unfolds? Many Hamas commanders, many hostages perhaps, are now in the south of Gaza, not in the north where the IDF is running? Yes and it will be a more challenging task considering the fact that the IDF will have to deal with many, many more civilians. Hundreds of thousands of civilians fled from the north to the south and then if you invade the south you're going to encounter them one way or another. So there are specific refugee areas that are set up for them, but eventually you're going to meet all these people. It's going to be extremely challenging. Jonathan Rodger, for us in the south of Israel, thank you so much for that report. Let's also talk with retired commander Dr. Eyal Pinko, who joins us now as well. Thank you so much for being with us sir. I want to ask your thoughts on the battles inside Gaza unfortunately, sadly a very high death toll from among IDF soldiers in just the last two days alone, but they are uncovering more tunnels, more shafts, dozens of them. How many more tunnels could there be to uncover? How much more intensive can the effort be to find hostages maybe in the tunnels, to find terror commanders like Mohamed Dief or Sunwar himself in this labyrinth of tunnel structures underneath the ground? Yeah. First, unfortunately in the last two days eight soldiers were killed. This is a very crucial war and it's being done in a very condensed urban area, which as you said, it's not only above the ground, but it's also below the ground. And in each building there are explosives and ambushes that are being done by Hamas. So this is the reason that the IDF when it comes forward and forward, it's using first artillery from the sea, artillery from the ground and also aircrafts to uncover whatever it's possible to uncover from the buildings and from the infrastructure, which is with explosives. So in this way, I think when the IDF entered the battle, the estimation was of hundreds of soldiers to be killed. And we see that now, it's much, much less, it's a lot, but it's much, much less than it was estimated. So I think the IDF is operated very slowly in a way that will promote the issue that as less as soldiers will be died. And I think the act is very good. As for the below ground or the tunnel system, Hamas is a tunnel system that goes up to 70 or 80 meters below the ground level, which is very, very deep. It's with several layers. It's a whole city below ground. The estimation was that there is some more than 1500 different types of tunnels over there, which are running through all the cities from the Egyptian border in the south to the northern border with Israel. And it's a huge network of tunnels. The IDF is using a lot of technologies in order to fight inside the tunnels that are covered or being detected with robots and drones and some other measures in order not to get, not to go inside, because the IDF understands that also inside the tunnels, there are a lot of explosives and ambushes that are can be discovered over there. So the issue is to go with technologies, robots, drones to identify if there are any kind of explosives and then one by one. And we don't know where you asked about Sinoir and all the top commands of Hamas. We don't know where they are, I believe. So only fighting day by day, tunnel by tunnel, we can reveal what will be over there. All of the civilians in the north have been told to go to the southern part of the Gaza Strip to a particular area in South Gaza, perhaps up to a million civilians have fled south. How can the IDF, how does the IDF proceed in the southern part of Gaza and still protect civilian lives? What's the plan to battle Hamas in the south when there are millions of civilians in a very small area now? Yes, it's a very complicated issue. It's a very, very complicated because not only there are civilians that are waiting in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, but it's also we understand that among those civilians there are Hamas operators as well, Hamas terrorists as well. So how you identify who is the innocent guy and who is Hamas, it's very difficult. And when you go to the south, you have over there refugee camps. Once again, it's a very, very condensed urban area. So the complexity of the war of fighting over there become much harder than in the northern part. And the IDF will have to deal with that, not to hurt and not to harm civilians to identify who is Hamas and who is civilian. And once again, to go below and above ground with all the ambushes and the explosive that Hamas prepared over there. It's going to be a very complex days, even weeks maybe. And it's a huge challenge there. Definitely a big challenge. Sir, thank you so much for being with us here on I-24 News and for your analysis on the battles to come. And let's go now live through the north of Israel. I'm joined by I-24 News correspondent Robert Swift near the Israel-Lebanon border where there have been frequent attacks today so far already from Hezbollah. What kinds of attacks have we seen from Hezbollah and has there been a response from the IDF? So throughout the day we've seen a mixed use of weapons by Hezbollah. They started out with mortar fire first thing in the morning. But that appears to have progressed onto the use of drones and possibly also rocket attacks. We have had some sirens, although no confirmations with regards to that. The IDF has responded using artillery in the morning in regards to the mortar fire and also using air strikes on a number of occasions throughout the day. Now just half an hour ago there was another possible incident, a possible attack. This one taking place on the far eastern end of Israel's northern border around the Kibbutz Mizgav. This was a rocket sirens that went off. Now this could possibly be an indication that the village has been attacked with either mortar or rocket fire. That village has been attacked in the past weeks with that kind of weapon system. But it could also be a response to the launch of an Israeli interceptor missile. Just to the north of there earlier today we saw two villages where that occurred. Rocket sirens went off but it was actually in response to the Israeli military firing missile to intercept a drone that Hezbollah appeared to be trying to send across the border. At the minute we don't have confirmation on this. But like you do say, like you have said there has been a number of attacks. This incident and just described would be the sixth security incident to have taken place today. That means so far today we've had a roughly about the same number of attacks that took place during the whole of yesterday. So as we've talked about before on the channel, some days are busier on this northern border, other days are quieter and despite the or possibly because of the heavy cloud cover and the rainfall today, it seems that today is one of those busier days so far. Robert Swift, thank you so much for that live update on the north. US President Joe Biden is making clear that he wants to see some kind of international coalition temporarily rule the Gaza Strip. Biden also says he eventually wants a revitalized Palestinian authority to return to power in Gaza with a long term goal still a two-state solution. Prime Minister Netanyahu says the PA must be overhauled before Israel could even consider allowing them to return to governance in Gaza. I think that the Palestinian authority in its current form is unable to accept responsibility over Gaza. After we fought in Gaza and did all we did, will we hand it over to them? Abbas, 43 days after the most terrible massacre of the Jews since the Holocaust, still refuses to condemn it. His senior ministers are celebrating what happened. His authority pays the killers and their families. You know very well how they educate their children. If there is no change in this matter, then what have we done? Prime Minister Netanyahu, thank you so much for being with us and giving us your perspective here. US President Biden says the Palestinian authority needs to be revitalized. Do you agree? Well, this has been a Palestinian demand since 15 years ago. President Abbas was elected on 2005 for a term of four years and then he continued to self-employ himself as the president until today. All has shown that 75 to 80 percent of the Palestinian people are requesting from Abbas to resign and they are calling for national elections. And I think that Abbas most powerfully has determined the destiny of destruction that is facing Gaza now when he cancelled the election in 2021. If he could have allowed this election, we could have had a more moderate government that is governing both the West Bank and Gaza. And maybe we could have evaded this destiny. The scale of destruction in Gaza is massive. And there should be some kind of a Palestinian after-war math where we should determine who has been responsible into pushing Gaza into this destiny. And it is Abbas. It's on his shoulder. He has been blocking the unity between Gaza and the West Bank. He has been blocking democracy. He has been blocking elections and he is imposing more and more authoritarian regime over the Palestinians. He brought corruption to the West Bank and he brought destruction to Gaza. Abbas, are you talking about... It's time for him to leave. You mentioned a few times the importance of having elections and it's 15, 16 years now into a four-year term. If there are elections, what makes you so sure that Hamas wouldn't win an election or that a more extreme group wouldn't win an election? Hamas is very popular across parts of the West Bank. What makes you think that someone that Fatah or a more moderate element would win an election? Well, I'll tell you something. Hamas has been able to gain support from the street because their strategy does not need a partner. They declare violence, they declare military resistance and they can implement the strategy alone. While Fatah has been losing support from the street because its strategy, depending on negotiations and diplomacy and political path, depends on a partner, which is Israel. And Israel apparently since 2009 didn't want to pursue political options. I'll tell you something. The Palestinian people is very much desperate for hope. When somebody comes, apparently the need of change in leadership is not only going to happen after the war on the Palestinian side. Apparently the Israelis also, they are going to do some after-war methods and bring a new leadership. If both leadership are able to offer the Palestinians some hope, people will vote for hope. Palestinian people is looking for a better future for prosperity, for justice, for security, for peace. By nature, we are looking for positive development in our life. We are the only people that are so sure that tomorrow is worse than today. If somebody comes, a leadership that is transparent, accountable, representative of the people, elected by the people, and finds the Israeli partner, and finds the endorsement of the international community, including the statement of President Biden where he said we should have a new Palestinian leadership that also leads towards development to achieve a political solution. Under this equation, the Palestinians massively will endorse this, will elect and vote for peace and for positive political development. But for now, there's no, I want to make sure I have your assessment here. For now, there are no elections, no election date, no elections scheduled. For now, and we know Mahmoud Abbas is almost 90 years old. If there is no succession plan, if there is no known successor to Abbas, what happens the day after Abbas to the Palestinian Authority and the possibility of governing in Gaza? If there is no election, there's no plan. What would happen in the West Bank in Gaza? Well, if Abbas does not want voluntary to leave the political scene, now after the creel position of the American president, well, it's a demand first of all from the Palestinian public. And now it's the international community also that are demanding him to do some compromises. If he does not want to do it voluntary, if he does not want to leave the scene, we need to force him to do so. If it is not directly towards elections now, and I think with the circumstances in Gaza, it will be very difficult to organize elections. But at least we should have some kind of unacceptable, non-corrupt government now, a unified government of national unity where the opposition of Fatih are there, the independent national political figures are there, decent people are there that can manage the situation until we have elections in one or two years when life comes back to Gaza because you cannot hold elections only in the West Bank and you cannot hold elections now in Gaza under this level of destruction. Gaza needs sometimes until it brings life back to its population and you need reconstruction, you need to organize a little bit how people are going to live under such harsh conditions. So it's the international community now that should push this, taking the consideration that in 2002 it was the American, Gondeliza Rice at that time and President Bush who pushed Arafat to allow a government led by Abbas himself and pass all the authority to Abbas. So we have an example in our history, in 2002 they can do the same exercise now. They need to convince the 90 years old man that it's time for him to leave and he needs to give all the authority to a government that is acceptable by the Palestinian and by the international community. Who is going to do this reconstruction in Gaza? This corrupt government, nobody will trust her. Yeah, Asamed, thank you so much for your analysis. Giving us your insight on I-24 News, activists with Fatih. Thank you so much for being with us. Back here in the studio, I-24 News senior correspondent, Alton Rowan. It's a fascinating conversation. By the way, we're going to see a lot of argument what that word revitalized means. So I want to get your take on it. Asamed is saying it was the first step, revitalized. He's interpreting it as meaning Abbas cannot be empowered anymore. I think that's certainly a fair assessment of what maybe was hinted at only by Biden. He's saying Asamed is an activist within the Palestinian Republic so it needs to be more specific calls from the international community saying the name Abbas needs to resign. Abbas needs to go. What do you make of that? Well, listen, again, Joe Biden in a sense closed a debate here in Israel when he used that adjective revitalized in his op-ed, right? The debate about to what extent he disagrees with Benjamin Netanyahu, but he also opened another debate. What does that word revitalized mean? It means one thing to Prime Minister Netanyahu, and he's been very clear about what that means, right? The end of the pay for slave policy, deep changes to the education system in the Palestinian Authority, clear voices of condemnation for terrorism from the leadership of the Authority. So that's what Netanyahu means, but Somer is a different view on what revitalized means. Again, speaking from someone who comes from within the Palestinian public, who has a different set of priorities, and it's going to be left to Joe Biden and the Biden administration to try to please everybody, okay? And there are points of common cause, right? The idea that Abbas needs to pass on the scene is I think something on which both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Somer, and maybe President Biden, would all agree. So you're right, maybe the idea of there being a new leadership is actually a point of agreement. But who would oversee elections? Who would administer elections? This doesn't seem to be in the cards for 16 years now. Several times, analysis then canceled. Right, would Benjamin Netanyahu want elections, right? Because as you correctly asked, Jeff, who's going to be able to stand in those elections? Who's going to win those elections, right? Somer has this vision of a government of national unity, which presumably would include Hamas as part of the leadership of the Palestinian Authority. That's obviously a non-starter for Israel, right? But he also talks about the idea of rooting out corruption. One would imagine that this could be a point of common cause for all of the parties. Again, if such a government would have more credibility among Palestinians, that could also be an Israeli interest as well. So this is all going to be negotiated, right? And not only negotiated between the United States and Israel, but also negotiated between the United States, Israel, and Palestinians as well. But I do suspect that Israel is absolutely going to stick to its red lines, that Hamas not be included, that voices calling for the elimination of Israel for the murder of Jews, as Netanyahu said, not be included for there to be deep changes to the way terrorists and terrorist families for that matter are approached by the Palestinian governing structure and, of course, deep changes to the education system. I don't think Israel's going to back down on those. And Israel's going to essentially be in control of the territory in Gaza. So Israel's going to have leverage to make sure that those red lines are met. And then we want to make sure Israel has announced that we will, when we need, be able to enter and exit the Strip for security purposes. We will have a security presence indefinitely as long as we need for security reasons. Whoever eventually is in charge of the Gaza Strip will accede to those demands. There'll be some kind of cooperation. There need, as Samar alluded to, has to be a new generation that will allow this to happen. Yeah, but you know what? I didn't hear Samar actually rule out that concept of Israel having the ability for freedom of action for the military in Gaza. I didn't hear that, which is interesting. I guess what I'm trying to say is there may be room for negotiation among these different points of view to come to some kind of agreement on at least a large part of the issues. But of course, there are going to still be some points that are going to be hotly contested, especially this idea of a government of national unity, right, which sounds in Palestinian ears like a point of consensus and reconciliation, but to Israeli ears, sounds very, very different, right, even before October 7th, let alone afterwards. So again, and our Palestinians going to be willing, given what we see in polls of Palestinian public opinion, to really root out the incitement against Israel that we reportedly see in the education system in a way that satisfies the Israeli public. So there are some going to be some points that are going to be hotly contested, but don't lose sight of the points on which there could maybe be a surprising amount of agreement. Very interesting insight here on I-24 News. I want to note, oh, and something that happened just in the last few minutes, confirmation from the Emir of Qatar, the Qatari Prime Minister, confirming that there is the final details being ironed out at some kind of hostage release deal, hostages being released in exchange for a multi-day ceasefire, the Premier of Qatar saying that the Hamas and Israel only a few final details left to be worked out. They're very close together. They may soon happen. We don't have any details, nor we may not, until it's actually announced publicly or before the war cabinet. But it appears this may happen in the day, hours if not the days to come. Right, Joseph Burrell, the EU foreign policy chief, making the pilgrimage to Qatar, right, and being there with the Qatari Prime Minister. The Prime Minister, I don't know, Jeff, that he got into the deal to the deal. As you said, what he did say is there are only minor details left to be resolved, and they're especially, quote, logistical difficulties. So it's either an accurate statement of the state of affairs or it's spin, right? And the Qatari's have an incentive to pry to present this deal as being almost done, why it enhances their stature. They're, in a sense, a mediator here, right? So they have every reason to try to push the idea that the deal is almost done. It obviously reflects well on them, and also spin in the sense that they may see it as being a way that puts pressure on the Israeli leadership by an, in a sense, dangling this in front of the hostages' families, and in that way having the pressure redound on the Israeli leadership. I actually think the situation in Israel is much more complicated in terms of the way the public looks at this. But never mind, the Qatari's, from their perspective, may see it. And again, getting a joint podium with the foreign policy chief of the European Union, Jeff again remains to be seen on the other side of this hostage deal. On the other side of the war, in which Qatar hosted and hosts in the present tense as far as we understand it, key political leaders of Hamas. But Qatar was not able to deliver the goods, right? Why were they hosting those leaders to be able to restrain Hamas on the day of judgment? It didn't work, it didn't happen, calling into question the whole strategy of enabling Qatar from the outside to do this. So this is their day in the sun when they have the leverage to get the hostage deal done. We'll see what happens after the war. All right, thank you so much for that analysis. We're going to have for a short break more live team coverage from the north and the south of Israel as the war wages on. More updates straight ahead. Stay with us on I-24 News. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Formation of war events, Iron Spades. Exclusive interviews and reports from the war zone. The reaction of Spanish-speaking countries. News 24, the only media in Spanish that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community in Israel. News 24, only on I-24 News. Draw story to the world. Thanks for joining us on the I-24 News guests at this hour. Rocket attacks continuing today already from both the south and the north. Hamas launching a short time ago. A volley of rockets from Gaza towards Israel and Hezbollah attacking Israel from the north. Today with mortar fire, rockets, and also apparently drones too. On the ground, the battles deep inside Gaza continue to intensify. The IDF this morning announcing the deaths of two more soldiers killed in action. That's seven IDF soldiers killed in battle over just the last two days fighting Hamas terrorists. This is new video just released from the IDF of elite combat forces operating deep inside Gaza aiming to locate and destroy underground tunnel shafts and other infrastructure belonging to Hamas. About three dozen tunnel shafts were located and destroyed in the upscale remodeled neighborhood already. According to the IDF, Prime Minister Yahu says that the small amount of daily humanitarian aid and fuel delivery to the strip is critical to maintaining U.S. and global support as the war goes on. Israel abides by the laws of war. That's how our army works. The most moral army in the world. Humanitarian aid is also vital to maintain international support. Without humanitarian aid, even our best friends will find it difficult to support us over time and it will be very difficult for us to continue the war until the end. With us now is I-24 News senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev. Jonathan IDF to the IDF today released seeing several clips of new video showing some of their most elite battle-tested units operating inside Gaza searching for tunnel shafts and they've uncovered dozens of them in some of the more upscale neighborhoods, the upscale parts where middle-class Gaza families live in the Rimal neighborhood uncovering and destroying a lot of terror infrastructure. What do you make perhaps of that new announcement of the discovery of these tunnels and what it means in a broader picture? And guess Jeff Fouels used to live at the Rimal neighborhood? Of course the Hamas officials. They're the upper class of Gaza. So that's where they live, the Rimal neighborhood. They have no problem putting their own neighbors in danger building tunnels, digging tunnels and having tunnel shafts right on their own neighborhood and right underneath them in the most upscale neighborhood of the city, ammunition and headquarters and so on showing that once again the civilian population is the one that pays the price. Everybody, everybody, they take their own neighbors as their human shields. This is what Hamas is doing. This is how they operate wherever they are, wherever they are, whether it's their homes other neighborhoods, they bring on ammunition and everything else putting the civilian population in danger. Jonathan, the Israeli defense establishment saying that the damage and destruction, the IDF efforts to root out terror infrastructure in the north will soon be seen in the south or campaign will soon turn to the south. Can you give any insight perhaps on how the south might look different than the north as the battle unfolds? Many Hamas commanders, many hostages perhaps are now in the south of Gaza, not in the north where the IDF is running. Yes, and it will be a more challenging task considering the fact that the IDF will have to deal with many, many more civilians. Hundreds of thousands of civilians fled from the north to the south and then if you invade the south you're going to encounter them one way or another. So there are specific refugee areas that are set up for them but eventually you're going to meet all these people. It's going to be extremely challenging. Jonathan Rodger for us in the south of Israel. Thank you so much for that report. Let's also talk with retired commander, Dr. Eyal Pinko, who joins us now as well. Thank you so much for being with us, sir. I want to ask your thoughts on the battles inside Gaza, unfortunately, sadly, a very high death toll among IDF soldiers in just the last two days alone but they are uncovering more tunnels, more shafts, dozens of them. How many more tunnels could there be to uncover? How much more intensive can the effort be to find hostages maybe in the tunnels? To find terror commanders like Muhammadif or Sinwar himself in this labyrinth of tunnel structures underneath the ground? Yeah, first, unfortunately in the last two days eight soldiers were killed. This is a very crucial war and it's being done in a very condensed urban area which, as you said, it's not only above the ground but it's also below the ground. And in each building there are explosives and ambushes that are being done by Hamas. So this is the reason that the IDF, when it comes forward and forward, it's using first artillery from the sea, artillery from the ground and also aircrafts to uncover whatever is possible to uncover from the buildings and from the infrastructure which is with explosives. So in this way, I think when the IDF entered the battle, the estimation was of hundreds of soldiers to be killed and we see that now it's much, much less. It's a lot but it's much, much less than it was estimated. So I think the IDF is operated very slowly in a way that will promote the issue that as less as soldiers will be died and I think the act is very good. As for the below ground or the tunnel system, Hamas is a tunnel system that goes up to 70 or 80 meters below the ground level, which is very, very deep. It's with several layers. It's a whole city below ground. The estimation was that there is more than 1500 different types of tunnels over there which are running through all the cities from the Egyptian bordering the south to the northern border with Israel. And it's a huge network of tunnels the IDF is using a lot of technologies in order to fight inside the tunnels that are covered or being detected with robots and drones and some other measures in order not to go inside because the IDF understands that also inside the tunnels there are a lot of explosives and ambushes that can be discovered over there. So the issue is to go with technologies, robots, drones to identify if there are any kind of explosives and then one by one. And we don't know where you ask about Sinoir and all the top commands of Hamas we don't know where they are, I believe. So only fighting day by day tunnel by tunnel we can reveal what will be over there. All of the civilians in the north have been told to go to the southern part of the Gaza Strip to a particular area in south Gaza perhaps up to a million civilians have fled south. How can the IDF, how does the IDF proceed in the southern part of Gaza and still protect civilian lives? What's the plan to battle Hamas in the south when there are millions of civilians in a very small area now? Yes, it's a very complicated issue. It's a very, very complicated because not only there are civilians that are waiting in the southern part of the Gaza Strip but it's also, we understand that among those civilians there are Hamas operators as well, Hamas terrorists as well. So how you identify who is an innocent guy and who is Hamas, it's very difficult. And when you go to the south you have over there refugee camps once again it's a very, very condensed urban area. So the complexity of the war of fighting over there become much harder than in the northern part. And the IDF will have to deal with that not to hurt and not to harm civilians to identify who is Hamas and who is civilian and once again to go below and above ground with all the ambushes and the explosive that Hamas prepared over there. It's going to be a very complex days even weeks maybe. And it's a huge challenge there. Definitely a big challenge, sir. Thank you so much for being with us here in I-24 News and for your analysis on the battles to come. And let's go now live to the north of Israel I'm joined by I-24 News correspondent Robert Swift near the Israel-Lebanon border where there have been frequent attacks today so far already from Hezbollah. What kinds of attacks have we seen from Hezbollah and has there been a response from the IDF? So throughout the day we've seen a mixed use of weapons by Hezbollah they started out with mortar fire first thing in the morning but that appears to have progressed onto the use of drones and possibly also rocket attacks. We have had some sirens although no confirmations with regards to that. And the IDF has responded using artillery in the morning with in regards to the mortar fire and also using air strikes on a number of occasions throughout the day. Now just half an hour ago there was another possible incident, a possible attack. This one taking place on the far eastern end of Israel's northern border around the Kibbutz Mieskava Am. This was a rocket sirens that went off. Now this could possibly be indication that the village has been attacked with either mortar or rocket fire. That village has been attacked in the past weeks with that kind of weapon system but it could also be a response to the launch of an Israeli interceptor missile just to the north of there earlier today. We saw two villages where that occurred. Rocket sirens went off but it was actually in response to the Israeli military firing missile to intercept a drone that Hezbollah appeared to be trying to send across the border. At the minute we don't have confirmation on this but like you do say there like you have said there has been a number of attacks. This incident and just described would be the sixth security incident to have taken place today. That means so far today we've had a roughly about the same number of attacks that took place during the whole of yesterday. So as we've talked about before on the channel some days are busier on this northern border other days are quieter and despite the or possibly because of the heavy cloud cover and the rainfall today it seems that today is one of those busier days so far. Robert Swift thank you so much for that live update on the north. US President Joe Biden is making clear if he wants to see some kind of international coalition temporarily rule the Gaza Strip. Biden also also says he eventually wants a revitalized Palestinian authority to return to power in Gaza with a long term goal still a two-state solution. Prime Minister Netanyahu says the PA must be overhauled before Israel could even consider allowing them to return to governance in Gaza. I think that the Palestinian authority in its current form is unable to accept responsibility over Gaza. After we fought in Gaza and did all we did will we hand it over to them? Abbas 43 days after the most terrible massacre of the Jews since the Holocaust still refuses to condemn it. His senior ministers are celebrating what happened. His authority pays the killers and their families. You know very well how they educate their children. If there is no change in this matter then what have we done? Ripping out as Fatah activist Samir Sinijlawa. Samir thanks so much for being with us and giving us your perspective here. US President Biden says the Palestinian authority needs to be revitalized. Do you agree? Well this has been Palestinian demands since 15 years ago. President President Abbas was elected on 2005 for a term of four years and then he continued to self-employ himself as the president until today. Alls has shown that 75 to 80 percent of the Palestinian people are requesting from Abbas to resign and they are calling for national elections. And I think that Abbas most powerfully has determined the destiny of destruction that is facing Gaza now when he cancelled the election in 2021. If he could have allowed this election we could have had a more moderate government that is governing both the West Bank and Gaza and maybe we could have evaded this destiny. The scale of destruction in Gaza is massive and there should be some kind of a Palestinian after-war math where we should determine who has been responsible into pushing Gaza into this destiny and it is Abbas. It's on his shoulder. He has been blocking the unity between Gaza and the West Bank. He has been blocking democracy. He has been blocking elections and he is imposing more and more authoritarian regime over the Palestinians. He brought corruption to the West Bank and he brought destruction to Gaza. You mentioned a few times the importance of having elections and it's 15, 16 years now into a four-year term. If there are elections what makes you so sure that Hamas wouldn't win an election or that a more extreme group wouldn't win an election? Hamas is very popular across parts of the West Bank. What makes you think that someone that Fatah or a more moderate element would win an election? Well, I'll tell you something. Hamas has been able to gain support from the street because their strategy does not need a partner. They declare violence, they declare military resistance and they can implement the strategy alone. While Fatah has been losing support from the street because its strategy, depending on negotiations and diplomacy and political path, depends on a partner which is Israel. And Israel apparently since 2009 didn't want to pursue political options. I'll tell you something. The Palestinian people is very much desperate for hope. When somebody comes, apparently the need of change in leadership is not only going to happen after the war on the Palestinian side. Apparently the Israelis also they are going to do some after-war mathes and bring new leadership. If both leadership are able to offer the Palestinians some hope, people will vote for hope. People, Palestinian people is looking for a better future for prosperity, for justice, for security, for peace. By nature, we are looking for positive development in our life. We are the only people that are so sure that tomorrow is worse than today. If somebody comes, a leadership that is transparent, accountable, representative of the people, elected by the people, and finds the Israeli partner, and finds the endorsement of the international community, including the statement of President Biden where he said we should have a new Palestinian leadership that also leads towards development to achieve a political solution. Under this equation, the Palestinians massively will endorse this, will elect and vote for peace and for positive political development. But for now, I want to make sure I have your assessment here. For now, there are no elections, no election date, no elections scheduled. For now, and we know Mahmoud Abbas is almost 90 years old. If there is no succession plan, if there is no known successor to Abbas, what happens the day after Abbas to the Palestinian Authority and the possibility of governing in Gaza? If there is no election, there's no plan. What would happen in the West Bank in Gaza? Well, if Abbas does not want voluntary to leave the political scene, now after the creel position of the American president, well, it's a demand first of all from the Palestinian public. And now it's the international community also that are demanding him to do some compromises. If he does not want to do it voluntary, if he does not want to leave the scene, we need to force him to do so. If it is not directly towards elections now, and I think with the circumstances in Gaza, it will be very difficult to organize elections. But at least we should have some kind of unacceptable, non-corrupt government now, a unified government of national unity where the opposition of Fatih are there, the independent national political figures are there, decent people are there that can manage the situation until we have elections in one or two years when life comes back to Gaza because you cannot hold elections only in the West Bank and you cannot hold elections now in Gaza under this level of destruction. Gaza needs sometimes until it brings life back to its population and you need reconstruction, you need to organize a little bit how people are going to live under such harsh conditions. So it's the international community now that should push this, taking the consideration that in 2002 it was the American, Gondelisa Rice at that time and President Bush who pushed Arafat to allow a government led by Abbas himself and pass all the authority to Abbas. So we have an example in our history in 2002, they can do the same except now. They need to convince the 90-years-old man that it's time for him to leave and he needs to give all the authority to a government that is acceptable by the Palestinian and by the international community. Who is going to do this reconstruction in Gaza? This corrupt government, nobody will trust her. Yeah. Asamir, thank you so much for your analysis, giving us your insight on I-24 News. Activists with Fatih, thank you so much for being with us. Back here in the studio, I'm joined by I-24 News singer, correspondent Owen Alderman. Fascinating conversation. By the way, we're going to see a lot of argument what that word revitalized means, right? So I want to get your tape in it. Some are saying it was the first step, revitalized. He's interpreting it as meaning Abbas cannot be empowered anymore. I think that's certainly a fair assessment of what maybe was hinted at only by Biden. He's saying, Salman, as an activist within the Palestinian Republic, there needs to be more specific calls from the international community saying the name Abbas needs to resign. Abbas needs to go. What do you make of that? Well, listen, again, Joe Biden, in a sense, closed a debate here in Israel when he used that adjective revitalized in his op-ed, right? The debate about to what extent he disagrees with Benjamin Netanyahu, but he also opened another debate. What does that word revitalized mean? It means one thing to Prime Minister Netanyahu, and he's been very clear about what that means, right? The end of the pay for slave policy, deep changes to the education system in the Palestinian Authority, clear voices of condemnation for terrorism from the leadership of the authority. So that's what Netanyahu means, but Salman has a different view on what revitalizing means. Again, speaking from someone who comes from within the Palestinian public who has a different set of priorities, and it's going to be left to Joe Biden and the Biden administration to try to please everybody, okay? And there are points of common cause, right? The idea that Abbas needs to pass from the scene is, I think, something on which both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Salman, and maybe President Biden, would all agree. So you're right. Maybe the idea of there being a new leadership is actually a point of agreement. But who would oversee elections? Who would administer elections? This doesn't seem to be in the cards for 16 years now, several times announced and canceled. Right. And would Benjamin Netanyahu want elections, right? Because as you correctly asked, Jeff, who's going to be able to stand in those elections? Who's going to win those elections, right? Samara is this vision of a government of national unity, which presumably would include Hamas as part of the leadership of the Palestinian Authority. That's obviously a non-starter for Israel, right? But he also talks about the idea of rooting out corruption. One would imagine that this could be a point of common cause for all of the parties. Again, if such a government would have more credibility among Palestinians, that could also be an Israeli interest as well. So this is all going to be negotiated, right? And not only negotiated between the United States and Israel, but also negotiated between the United States, Israel, and Palestinians as well. But I do suspect that Israel is absolutely going to stick to its red lines, that Hamas not be included, that voices calling for the elimination of Israel for the murder of Jews, as Netanyahu said, not be included for there to be deep changes to the way terrorists and terrorist families for that matter are approached by the Palestinian governing structure, and of course, deep changes to the education system. I don't think Israel is going to back down on those. And Israel is going to essentially be in control of the territory in Gaza. So Israel is going to have leverage to make sure that those red lines are met. And then we want to make sure Israel has announced that we will, when we need, be able to enter and exit the strip for security purposes. We will have a security presence indefinitely as long as we need for security reasons. Whoever eventually is in charge of the Gaza strip will accede to those demands. There will be some kind of cooperation there. A summer of literature has to be a new generation that will allow this to happen. Yeah, but you know what? I didn't hear Samar actually rule out that concept of Israel having the ability for freedom of action for the military in Gaza. I didn't hear that, which is interesting. I guess what I'm trying to say is there may be room for negotiation among these different points of view to come to some kind of agreement on at least a large part of the issues. But of course, there are going to still be some points that are going to be hotly contested, especially this idea of a government of national unity, which sounds in Palestinian years like a point of consensus and reconciliation, but to Israeli years sounds very, very different, even before October 7th, let alone afterwards. So again, and our Palestinians going to be willing, given what we see in polls of Palestinian public opinion to really root out the incitement against Israel that we reportedly see in the education system in a way that satisfies the Israeli public. So there are some going to be some points that are going to be hotly contested, but don't lose sight of the points on which there could maybe be a surprising amount of agreement. Very interesting insight here on I-24 News. I want to note, oh, and something that happened just in the last few minutes, confirmation from the Emir of Qatar, the Qatari Prime Minister, confirming that there is the final details being ironed out at some kind of hostage release deal, hostages being released in exchange for a multi-day ceasefire, the Premier of Qatar saying that the Hamas and Israel, only a few final details left to be worked out, they're very close together, that it may soon happen. We don't have any details and nor we may not until it's actually announced publicly before the war cabinet, but it appears this may happen in the day, hours if not the days to come. Right, Joseph Burrell, the EU foreign policy chief, making the pilgrimage to Qatar, right, and being there with the Qatari Prime Minister. The Prime Minister, I don't know, Jeff, that he got into the deal to the deal. As you said, what he did say is there are only minor details left to be resolved, especially, quote, logistical difficulties. So it's either an accurate statement of the state of affairs or it's spin, right? And the Qatari's have an incentive to pry to present this deal as being almost done, why it enhances their stature. They're in a sense a mediator here, right? So they have every reason to try to push the idea that the deal is almost done. It obviously reflects well on them and also spin in the sense that they may see it as being a way that puts pressure on the Israeli leadership by an essential dangling this in front of the hostages families and in that way having the pressure redound on the Israeli leadership. I actually think the situation in Israel is much more complicated in terms of the way the public looks at this. But never mind the Qatari's from their perspective, they see it. And again, getting a joint podium with the foreign policy chief of the European Union, Jeff, again, remains to be seen on the other side of this hostage deal. On the other side of the war in which Qatar hosted and hosts in the present tense as far as we understand it. Key political leaders of Hamas, but Qatar was not able to deliver the goods, right? Why were they hosting those leaders to be able to restrain Hamas on the day of judgment? It didn't work. It didn't happen. Calling into question the whole strategy of enabling Qatar from the outside to do this. So this is their day in the sun when they have the leverage to get the hostage deal done. We'll see what happens after the war. All right. Thank you so much for that analysis. We're going to have for a short break more live team coverage from the north and the south of Israel as the war wagers on. More updates straight ahead. Stay with us and I 24 news. In a state of war, families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she has our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. Draw story to the world. Soon and welcome to I 24 news is ongoing coverage of Israel at war. I'm Ariel Levin Waldman. The air force is stepping up its strikes in North Gaza as fighting expands on the ground. Overnight, further drug struck many Hamas targets inside the Gaza strip. Towns of Jabalia, Bethlehia and Gaza city's Zetun neighborhood. IDF recovered stashes of weapons from residential buildings further proof of Hamas hiding within the civilian population and using human shields in their war against Israel. Military announced the deaths of five more soldiers killed in action in North Gaza, bringing the total to 60 in the south. On the northern front, action against Hezbollah continues to escalate. Northern terror group expands the intensity of operations. Hezbollah attacking Israel from the north with rockets, mortar fire and drones as well. At least one of these Hezbollah drones was shot down on the northern border by the IDF. A total of eight soldiers have fallen fighting in north. This is the beginning of this war. Qatar's prime minister said a deal for an immediate ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages is close and that all sides see eye to eye on the details. This comes after both Israel and the United States say reports of hostages are very premature and Netanyahu says as of now, there is no such deal. Regarding the deal, we are prevented from discussing the details of the conditions that we adhere to. We want everyone back. If we do it in a step or two, we will do it in such a way that we want to bring whole families together. It's clear as the sun. We want categories released together. This is also clear as the sun. I don't want to say beyond that but that's what we want. It is hard. It is a cruel and cynical enemy which has no limitations. Within these limitations we work and do the best we can. And we're going to turn our eye to Israel's northern border where our correspondent Robert Swift is standing by in the north. Robert, can you give us what the latest developments on that front are? Just 15 minutes ago the community of Shalomit, the rocket sirens went off there. That's at the far western end of Israel's northern border. So far we haven't been updated on what's caused the rocket siren there, although that village was fired upon with mortars earlier this morning. Also at about the same time, slightly further to the east but still west of where we are, there was an additional community at the meet. There was a report there that there's been an anti-tank missile attack. We're looking for confirmation on this story. Now if confirmed, those would be the seventh and the eighth security incidents to take place today. We've seen attacks right along the border and in fact I can actually just hear from the west of us. I can hear what sounds like Israeli artillery fire that's likely responding to one or both of the two incidents I described to you. So as I was saying, we've seen attacks right along the border from the west all the way to the east. There's been a number of incidents, mortifier in the morning, rockets a little later but also a number of occasions. We've seen what appeared to have been drones attempting to infiltrate into Israeli airspace with one drone apparently shot down in the far north eastern end of the border. Rob, we're going to come back to you as we get some confirmation on some of those events that you just mentioned. Those are developing stories that we don't actually have a clear picture of but we will hopefully have some more details later. For more though, we are joined here in studio by Neri Zilber, adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Neri, it's always good to have you with us. We have seen a sharp increase in his bulk activity over the course of the past day. What's emboldened them to be so much more out in the open about it? Well, this is really from the first day of the war with Gaza that Hezbollah has joined in a very active way. If we had been talking about this say two months ago, Israel would already be at war with Hezbollah. This is far and away the deadliest escalation between Israel and Hezbollah since the 2006 war between the two old foes. And so now what we have really over the past month and a half during war time in Gaza is a war situation, not a full blown war but a war situation in the northern border on the Israel-Lebedon frontier, still very much contained to northern Israel and southern Lebanon, but the risk with each passing day and each passing Hezbollah attack, as the correspondent mentioned up north, it's been six to eight attacks just today, that one of these attacks will be quite deadly, the Israeli forces will retaliate, and that that in and of itself could escalate into a broader conflict. We're not going to go into exact details because there's very unconfirmed reports filtering through Arabic media right now about what's going on in the north, but what sort of attack are we looking at that would be a trigger condition for the war in the north going from low intensity to all-out? So you're looking at major casualties, especially on the Israeli side, or and or, further rocket fire deeper into Israel. So right now with a few exceptions targeting Haifa and Haifa Bay, the rocket fire has essentially been contained to northern Israel, really along and a few kilometers wide from the Lebanon border south into Israel, but also mass casualty event. Several fatalities, either Israeli forces or civilians, still on the northern border, that in and of itself would require Israel to escalate further, again beyond southern Lebanon, deeper, more widespread attacks against Hezbollah, perhaps up to and including Beirut. And we're going to continue this in a brief moment, but first we are going to take a look at the southern border. Our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regath is standing by at the Israel-Gaza border. I believe you are in stereo right now, Jonathan. Can you walk us through what the most recent developments on the southern front are? We're hearing new reports of heavy casualties in Gaza. Yes, heavy casualties in Gaza. Unfortunately on both fronts, Israeli armies has announced in the last hour that three more soldiers have been killed, but yes, heavy casualties in Gaza. We've been hearing today we were in Esderot and very heavy artillery can be heard. This due to the fact that the main fighting today is taking place in neighborhoods such as Jebalia, such as Sajaya. They are on the eastern front, on the eastern side of Gaza City, meaning quite close to the Israeli border, and the sound of the artillery could be heard very well from the Israeli side of the border, from Esderot, which is very close to that area. And this was the Israeli tactic, first encircling the city of Gaza, the entire northern half of the Gaza Strip, and then neighborhood by neighborhood come in and take away every capability that Hamas says, terrorists, ammunition, headquarters, you name it. And the main fighting today is taking place in those eastern outskirts of Gaza City. You mentioned some of the very heavy fighting going on there, Jonathan. Is there any indication that the weather conditions today are causing difficulties for Israel's close air support? I don't think so. Yes, it is windy and it is cloudy, certainly much more than it was in previous weeks. But the Israeli army certainly has the ability to fight under these conditions. It's not a hurricane or anything of the kind, but it is very windy, especially cloudy, but not something that should stop the IDF. Well, that's a good sign for the forces on the ground, Jonathan. We will come back to you over the course of the day as that situation down there develops. We are going to return to the studio where we have Nairi Zilber with us still to assess the situation in the south as well. We're seeing these reports of heavier casualties on the ground as Israel expands operations across certain parts of Gaza City. Ultimately, what has been accomplished over the last 24 hours that we know of, and what's left to do in the northern parts of Gaza? So a lot left to do in northern Gaza, and we should be clear. The IDF ground campaign has focused exclusively on northern Gaza deep into the heart of Gaza City, as you mentioned, but now expanding both north and eastwards back to what are perceived to be Hamas strongholds like Jabalia, which was hit very hard a few weeks ago from the air, and they say to a neighborhood. So this is, I believe, the reason for the heavier IDF casualties in recent days, since really the weekend, that IDF forces are now for the first time in a real way going in, like they went in into the northern neighborhoods of the Gaza Strip, as well as the heart of Gaza City, going in and finding either Hamas operatives, Hamas infrastructure, going and essentially clearing out these neighborhoods for the first time in a big way. And it's of a piece with the wider spread of the IDF ground campaign to include the entirety of the northern Gaza Strip. The idea is that you want to hold that area and clear it out before you shift in a real way, possibly to the southern Gaza Strip, which, as we all know, was the area now that's holding the bulk of the Gaza population after the IDF called for the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to move southward over the past month and a half. This expansion in neighborhoods like Zetun and Jabalea, is this going to be more of the same that we've seen over the past month, or is this going to be a different game entirely, is it different sort of fortifications and different kinds of bunkers? No, I believe it's going to be more of the same, because Hamas, as we all know now and as it's becoming clear since the IDF moved in, has built up a massive military infrastructure in the heart of every Gaza neighborhood, arguably in every Gaza house. And it could be an apartment block, it could be a school, it could be a hospital, both above ground and below ground. And so in order to get to these places, especially the underground tunnels, you have to physically be there, you have to physically send in forces, and then handle, especially the underground infrastructure. So that's what we're seeing now. It's more of a piece than what we've seen now since the ground campaign started, what, three or four weeks ago. So it's going to be heavy, heavy sledding, slow and methodical, is what IDF officers are calling this operation. But as of now, it's been relatively successful in getting to the heart of Gaza City in a relatively short period of time, and the casualties notwithstanding going in and actually taking out the Hamas military infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. One of the things that we have seen, as you just mentioned yourself, finding weapons in every single house, every single residential apartment, just about every possible room being a death trap or set up to be one. Ultimately, how is this supposed to clear every single place in Gaza, given just how extensive Hamas's infrastructure is? So I don't know if they're going to have to go to every single house in every single room in the Gaza Strip, but the hubs, the hubs that were before this war, major points of emphasis for Hamas itself. And I want to emphasize this again, the tunnels, the tunnels, right? That it's one thing to strike or even go in and seize above ground apartments or complexes. But the underground tunnels, as of yet, have not been that hardly touched by the IDF. In other words, there's still a lot of work to be done, and IDF officers are very clear about that. They're trying out new methods that so far have not been made public in terms of actually going in either with human forces or robotic forces or even K-down forces to actually go in and figure out what's underground and then finding a new technological way to actually neutralize these tunnels. That's still a work in progress, but that will be a major point of emphasis in the coming weeks and arguably months. And I'm just going to break in here because we're getting initial reports of rocket alerts in the case of FEMA region as well. So definitely has not stopped the ability to fire just yet. We were mentioning the tunnel system because that's been the big one. And we hear a lot of hope for a technological solution, but at the same time, we're hearing they have not made very major destruction of the tunnels just yet. Are they going in there with just hopes and prayers, or is there actually a method here? So there is a method. It just hasn't been explained publicly, by the way, not even to the Israeli media and the military correspondents. To the best of my understanding, and I spoke to someone about this late last week, the government and the military were throwing massive resources at this issue, at this problem, because we have to remember that's where Hamas leadership is. That's where the Hamas operatives are. Arguably tens of thousands of Hamas members and their families are underground. And the hostages are likely for the most part below ground. So in order to meet the objectives set for this war, for this campaign, you're going to have to go in and either take care or neutralize these tunnels. How you do it, that's a really good question. Again, to the best of my understanding, there are various means that are being explored, technological, and also other means. It's also been mentioned to me personally that prior methods that the IDF used to neutralize these tunnels, whether from the air or from the ground, have not been as successful this time. So the thinking is that Hamas actually prepared further these underground bunkers and tunnels and really underground cities for an IDF onslaught. The IDF is working through that problem right now. Let's hope they find some success there. Now, we're going to get a little bit more widespread in our look next. More specific and detailed reactions from Arab leaders about the war in Gaza, alongside their reactions to Israel's operation. There's also their thoughts on the Hamas terror group. Let's take a listen. I condemn Hamas unequivocally. This is so everybody in the room can understand that I stand on the side of civilians and innocents and not on the side of political posturing. The attacks on October 7th were barbaric. I unequivocally condemn the air campaign that resulted in the death of over 11,000 people in Gaza, 4,700 of which are children. And let me just make clear, as the Crown Prince said yesterday, I condemned Hamas's barbaric attack on civilians on October 7th. But I also must also condemn the equally barbaric and more savage attack of the Israelis on Palestinian civilians, not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. And we're going to return to the studio with Nairi Zilber here, because we just heard some Bahraini reactions. Seemed like a lot of equivocating there, condemning Hamas with half a sentence, then going on to call Israel even more barbaric. These are ultimately the Abraham Accords nations. And I guess Israel has to ask the question how useful have these accords been when it comes down to making friends in the region? If friends like these issue condemnations like that? So it's not that surprising. These governments, despite not being exactly democracies, are still susceptible and also responsive to public opinion. And public opinion in the Middle East and the Arab world is obviously heavily tilted against Israel. It has been for decades, and especially now since the outbreak of war, heavily, heavily tilted against Israel and arguably pro Hamas. Now, if you ask these officials from these Arab countries what they actually think about Hamas in closed doors, I think they you'd get a very different answer in terms of the threat Hamas poses, not just to Israel, but regionally in terms of both its actual military activities and its ideology. The Muslim Brotherhood is not exactly welcome in a place like Saudi Arabia or Bahrain. They're major, major enemies of both governments and both regimes. And so we have to take what they say these leaders and other diplomats in the region, whether by the way, also Jordan and Egypt, longstanding peace treaties with Israel. Their leaders haven't exactly been following over themselves to condemn Hamas or to stand by Israel. And again, that's of a piece with their own publics and where their public stands. So they're actually quite nervous about their own positions, their own chair is shaky due to the events of the past month and a half. But obviously, we'd all like to see a bit more moral clarity what their position will be and how this war actually started, which was a Hamas vicious Hamas attack on southern Israel. Well, at the same time, taking into account that public opinion, while you may not agree with it coming out of the Arab world, and by the way, not just the Arab world, also the Western world, you may not agree with it. You may have strong opinions against it. You have to take it into account because Prime Minister Netanyahu said last night, Israel needs time to prosecute this war, to achieve the war aims that it laid out. And time equals international legitimacy. International legitimacy in many places, even the Middle East, requires public opinion. And we're going to be focusing on other Middle Eastern countries, obviously ones not aligned with Israel. But of course, being Qatar now touting this hostage deal as possibly imminent. After what we've seen for the past month and a half now, is there any reason to believe this one's any more imminent than the others? So we've been hearing reports about an imminent hostage deal since I'd argue the second week of the war. It hasn't materialized really so far, except for one or two instances of one or two hostages being released unilaterally by Hamas. Look, the channel via Qatar is arguably the most realistic channel because Qatar both has relations and ties with Hamas and also leverage over Hamas. Much of the Hamas political leadership in exile is based in Doha, Qatar, so they do have some leverage over the group. Having said all that, while the Qatari channel is arguably or will be in the future, hopefully the most fruitful channel, it takes two to tango. And Israel has its own demands in terms of the number of hostages, the type of hostages women and children first and foremost, and what it's willing and not willing to do in terms of at least a preliminary hostage deal. Hamas also is a party obviously to this negotiation, and I'm still not convinced that Hamas really wants a substantial hostage deal. Hamas from the very beginning, it's playing for time. It wants this war to drag on for as long as possible, so the world, primarily the US, but not only the world will bring Israel to a halt, and then Hamas can sit back in its tunnels once again, its leaders and operatives and rockets intact, holding the hostages, and then negotiate a broader hostage deal. That is the overall strategy by Yahya Samar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, so while a deal may happen in the coming days, there's nothing stopping Samar from waiting two, three, four weeks coming to the same deal a month from now when both international pressure and domestic pressure in Israel will be much higher for a deal. I'm going to see how that goes. Thank you. We'll be back with you in a little bit, but first we're going to take a look here inside Israel. October 7th will be known as the blackest day in Israel's history, and still, but for the heroic actions of Israeli civilians who stood firm in the face of absolute evil, it could have been worse. Ekebutz Erez, one woman, managed to rally the emergency security force and took the fight directly to the terrorists, saving countless lives from sadism and death. Despite her actions, she refuses to be called a hero. This is Suggit Levy's account of her fight against Hamas adopted from local Channel 12. This is the first time she's returned home since the battle ended that Saturday, when the Ekebutz became a closed military zone. At 6.27, I was in bed, sleeping with my husband. The kids are sleeping, and I'm starting to hear the red alert for native Hasara, which is just beyond the fence. There were no alarms here? Not in the first moment. Something felt bad in my stomach. I don't know, but I can explain what happened. I immediately got up, got dressed, reached the kitchen counter, grabbed the keys to the safe room. My husband asked me, what are you doing? I told him, I don't know, I feel something's not okay. I sent a message at 6.34 to all my team asking who was in the Ekebutz. I opened the door, heard a shot. It sounded bad. Then I ran on the road to get to the operations room and open it. No one yet understood what was happening. I sent a message to the entire community, get into your houses, stay shuttered in, close blinds, doors, windows, stay in the safe room until further notice. On your own. On my own. This decision by Sagit as head of the emergency team is what would save her Ekebutz. When the alarm sounded, everyone immediately entered the protected spaces. The members of the emergency squad took radios that would help them report the number in presence of the terrorists and encourage the members from the nearby Ekebutz or Hanair to fight alongside them. The standby squad was being organized. Amir Naim went in to get a weapon. Some of the protective vests were inside the operations room. I said to him, you take care of yourself, boy, and he left. He distributed them among the squads and left. And you entered. I entered the operations room. There were terrorists on the fence, dozens of terrorists on the fence, non-stop exchanges of fire. And we hear everything on the communications net. We hear the calls for help from the security standby squads, that there's no ammunition and no shooting and where the hell is the army? There's no army and there's no one else. The members of the security squad gathered at the memorial to the Palmach fighters, which is located at a high point in the Ekebutz. From here, they see the approaching terrorist squads. At this stage, there were already two more wounded from our force. It's a corner house where their battle zone was. One of the battle zones, this house got hit by an RPG missile. And I'm in the operations room. I hear that on the communications net, they are being hurt. And after a few minutes, the owner of the house and his wife came here. And two children, two of our wounded, enter the operations room. At this point, I was without medical help. I called the Ekebutz council. I told them I need help. I heard in response, you are alone. See what you can do. There's no one. I called the army and you said there's a sniper and I shouted, get a chopper into the air. They are sniping at us. They are hurting us. And there was no one to talk to. I don't know how else to explain to you this feeling of being alone. Sagitt's phone didn't stop ringing with requests for help. Members of the security squad had already had several encounters on the fence, few against many. Then a report came in on the communications net. I have three more wounded from among the members of the Ekebutz, from the members of the security squad, who were injured. And one of them is Amir. Amir Naim is the son of Orna. This Orna is the chairperson of the legendary emergency squad, who you replace. I replaced her in the position. She told me Shahar, Amir's wife is alone at home. Her stomach hurts a lot. And I tell you a secret. She's pregnant. And I understood that I had to send help to Shahar, help that would stay with her. Amir Naim was killed in battle after fighting terrorists for two hours. He left behind Shahar in the fifth month of her pregnancy. Not many minutes later, Danny came and injured. Amir and I moved to the observation deck, actually at the errors checkpoint, we saw how the terrorists swept in and occupied the crossing. And after a few minutes, we saw their vans. How many terrorists did you identify? There were two vans there that were loaded, loaded with terrorists, 20 terrorists at the very least. The terrorists are coming into the Kibbutz. Making their way to the Kibbutz, yes. I also wanted to open my own encirclement and I was exposed and I was wounded. I took a bullet in the throat. It came out of there. I just see him with this movement holding his neck. I tried to somehow stop the blood and I looked at my hands and I saw that I was covered in blood, but I was still functioning. The five minutes, maybe the situation would have been different. If the terrorists would have just jumped the fence and entered the Kibbutz, look what happened in the other Kibbutz. This instinct to get up from a gut feeling and to open the operations room. I don't know where it came from. How many people did you save that day? I have a hard time with the word save. I have a hard time with the word rescued. I didn't save. I did what I knew how to do at that moment. After all this, she refuses to be a hero, even though thanks to her resourcefulness, an entire Kibbutz that entered the safe room was saved. I didn't do anything you wouldn't do or someone else wouldn't have done. The members of the security squad who were there with her, the paramedic from the Kibbutz, the woman who drove Danny in her private car to the hospital under fire, were the ones who stood alone in the face of the terrorist attack. In the midst of all that you're taking care of the Kibbutz, you also have a son in the reserves who's fighting now. My own son is up north in the northern sector in the reserves. I have two other daughters who are doing mandatory service who are also soldiers. Are they proud of mom? I think so. During the fighting, they worried a lot. I'm sure they did. My son at some point said, tell mom to stop being a hero and enter the safe room. And my husband told him, mom is doing what she does best. Let her go on with it. And before we go on break, just a few short updates about that situation in the north. There was an infiltration in the airspace by several suspicious targets that the IDF says they shot down. The incident has now ended. We're going to have more on this in a few brief moments when we come back from the break. So stay with us. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely gun down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front lines. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. With us as the war drags on the question of what the day after will look like is now hanging over everybody's head. The western world operating under the assumptions that perhaps a more moderate Palestinian government might rule Gaza in the aftermath. With the United States suggesting the West Bank, Palestinian authority is a prime candidate. But a new survey of Palestinian attitudes reveals this to be a dangerous delusion. A poll by Berzai University's Arab World for Research and Development of West Bank Palestinians found nothing moderate about them. A full 86 percent said they supported the October 7th torture, rape and massacre of well over 1,200 Israelis. And an incredible 98 percent said they felt greater pride as Palestinians since those crimes against humanity. To discuss this more, we are joined by Marcus Sheff, CEO of the Institute for Moderating Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, otherwise known as Impact SE, who can tell us exactly what sort of hatred is taught to Palestinians from the cradle all the way to the grave. Marcus, it's good to have you with us. What we saw in that survey was numbers that were just mind boggling to see. Ultimately, when we read into this, can it really be that high? Yes, it absolutely can. Listen, I think we all know that all surveys are snapshots in time. But when we look at the last few years of Palestinian education, it's less of a snapshot frankly, and much more of a long term review that we have of the way that Palestinian society views Jews, views Israel and views itself in the context of the possibility of peace. And I must say that as far as the textbooks are concerned, there's absolutely no possibility whatsoever. The textbooks taught in the Palestinian Authority are the same ones that are taught in Gaza. The textbooks taught by the Palestinian Authority are the same ones that are taught by UNRWA. So you have the West Bank, you have Gaza, you have UNRWA, you have the Palestinian Authority, you have Hamas. All of them are teaching exactly the same school curriculum. And here's a curriculum which is absolutely replete with ideas of jihad of martyrdom, horrific ideas of how young people need to sacrifice themselves. It is not in the least a curriculum which puts forward the possibility of peacemaking on the country. All ideas of peacemaking were taken out of this curriculum. And what is left is a vision of one state, one Palestine from the river to the sea, which will be gained by the, if you like, the sacrifice of these young people. So what we saw on October the 7th, the absolute horror, the absolute atrocities of October the 7th, is something that I see has been warning about for years. We warned that there was a direct link between hate teaching, financially supported by the international community, really important to say that, and committing these atrocities. So these 3,000 terrorists, the majority of whom one would imagine went to under the schools, as those are the majority of the schools in Gaza, were studying exactly the same curriculum as the Palestinian Authority teaches in the West Bank. There was a review, if you like, a reform, a change of the curriculum between 2014 and 2016. The curriculum became even worse than it was before. It became singularly obsessed with this idea of jihad and martyrdom, the idea of cutting the neck of the enemy. Such a terrible thing, it's barely possible to say that on television. This is part of the Palestinian school curriculum. The salute dehumanization of Israelis and Jews is part of the Palestinian curriculum. So the people who were surveyed went through this educational process. Again, so hard to call it education because what it is, is a strategic program by the Palestinian Authority to make sure that there are hundreds of thousands of people who are willing to sacrifice themselves and hundreds of thousands of people who are willing to applaud horrific barbaric acts of Palestinians out of Gaza. Marcus, this sort of indoctrination has been implemented over generations now, to the point where, as that survey said, 98%, 98%, it's a hard number to believe, have these views. How do you even begin to uproot that sort of indoctrination? Honestly, I'm not sure that you can. I do not think, and there are a great deal of folks all over the world who look at deradicalization and how that works. It's spotty. It is not particularly successful. Why? Because school education is uniquely authoritative. And that, by the way, is particularly the case in the Middle East, where you get one book, one grade, one subject. These are the values. This is the identity which is passed down to young people in schools. They do not arrive at the age of six at these schools with jihadi ideas, with these terrible ideas of acting out of violence. But if in first grade, first grade, you teach these six, seven-year-olds, an Arabic letter, the letter ha, through the idea of a martyr, Shahid, or through the idea of attack, would you not be surprised when the whole curriculum continues year after year, grade after grade, subject after subject to indoctrinate young people with these ideas, from first grade to 12th grade? So anybody who's been through that process, I genuinely do not think there is a particularly efficient, successful way of deradicalizing these views. As I say, there are people in the West who are specializing in this. One can argue as to the level of success. But there is one thing you can do, which is stop it now. Don't let this carry on. Stop this hate indoctrination right now, both in the West Bank and in Gaza, in those schools from the Palestinian Authority to whatever will take the place of those from schools the day after. There has to be an education which is based on ideas of peace and tolerance. It is not just not too much to ask. It is absolutely critical that we demand this and that we demand this right now before the day after. We have to make sure that the international community, which funds the educational processes, no longer allows for hate teaching because we've seen the result. The result was October the 7th. The result is the absolute horror and brutality which we all witnessed. And this poll gives you an idea that these exact same ideas are not exactly hiding themselves in dark corners in the West Bank either. Marcus, for those of us that grew up in the West with Western education, we have trouble wrapping our minds around just what could even be taught to bring people to commit these sort of acts. Can you give us some specific examples of what these textbooks include so that the viewers can understand just what we're looking at here? Sure. So as I said, the textbooks contain the idea of cutting the necks of the enemy. I come back to this because October the 7th was the acting out of this lesson. The textbooks teach young people that dying is better than living. This is a profound idea. This is an idea drilled into a young person's head that their own death in some form of glorious jihadi way is better than, and the textbook says, living a long and happy life. The textbooks are very clear about who Jews are and who Israelis are. Even Judaism itself, forget Jews, there is a teacher's guide in the Palestinian Authority which tells teachers to mark students down if they do not connect the religion of Judaism to the idea of murder. An absolutely shocking, hateful idea. And yet this is connected to, if you like, the educational success of these students. They are clearly told lesson after lesson, grade after grade, about the importance of jihad. It is made clear to them that their violent attack is expected of them. There is example after example in textbook after textbook. And what you are left is with a very clear, as I said, strategy created by the Palestinian Authority to ensure the radicalization of generation after generation of Palestinians. Marcus, it's a sort of terrifying eye-opening look into what happens there. Take the numbers used in this survey. I mean, thanks for helping us break that down even if thanks is not the sort of word you want to throw out after hearing something that terrifying. We are going to move on and we have to look at how you explain to a world currently denying atrocities. How you explain to them the suffering of families shattered by absolute evil. Various Israeli activists have tried to put fear, horror and despair to the screen so the world can't look away. Here's one of those examples. So as you know, we're looking for a babysitter. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I'm Sophia. I'm currently getting my master's in child development. I've been a Nani for the past 10 years. I was the head kindergarten teacher at a Montessori educational program. I used to babysit all the kids of my black when I was growing up. I'm happy to teach the child piano. I've potty trained. I can pick up the kids from school. And as a reminder, there are somewhere in the vicinity of 240 hostages currently being held by Hamas and unknown conditions, unknown anything about them. And international medical workers have not even gotten a chance to see them to check on their conditions. Something that's been a great consternation to the families of many of the hostages. We are joined by one of those family members right now, Sheryl Levy, grandfather of Naomi Levy, who was kidnapped to Gaza on October 7th. Sheryl, thank you for being with us though I have no good words of consolation to offer you right now. As the country seems to be on the cusp of talking about some sort of deal, ultimately what is your message to everyone in Israel and the world right now? I have to comment at the beginning of this interview that I saw the first item that you just show the people. I was crying and I'm still crying because I've never been into the videos that you just show. And it's really difficult for me to get more and more and more views of that horrible day. We just finished yesterday on Saturday evening, the March of five days, starting from Jerusalem, starting from Tel Aviv, going to Jerusalem. And it was really a good feeling to get all the warmth of the people of Israel. So this is one of the compassion that we are feeling here. But each family is standing by itself with the difficult feeling of how they feel there. And me as a grandfather, I hope that the message of this march will be that we are waiting for our beloved to come very soon. Being here with us, all of them immediately, as fast as possible. Sure. That's a unified message from many families across Israel today. But ultimately, what does that mean? We've heard some families say ceasefire now just to get the hostages back and nothing else matters. Others that say no ceasefire, keep up the pressure on Hamas, blow them all the damnation until they give our people back. Where do you stand? Where does your family stand? My position is that we have to bring the whole wealth of the hostages. And if there is any price that we have to pay, we have to pay it. We can't wait. It's over 40 days. And there are sick people, there are children, there are wounded people. And every day that we delay these people to come back home, it's a very, very seriously situation. So what our message is, bring them all now. And if we have to make a ceasefire, we do it for a few days or some other days. We know that if we want to destroy the Hamas, it's not a period of one month, two months, it will take much more than that. So we can't wait until this combat will finish and then be destroyed. Do you believe that the Israeli government has been negotiating enough or working enough to ensure the return of hostages? We don't know. We really don't know. I think one of the goals of the March of the last days was to get some information. We want them to come sit with the families and tell us what's going, what are the negotiations and what are the plans for the kidnapped people who stay there. And so I'm glad you could be with us to share the story and what's going on. I'm sorry you had to see those videos and I'm sorry you have to experience all of this. Stay strong. The people of Israel are praying for you. All of us are right now. Thank you very much. Thank you, Sean. We're going to return back to Neri Zilber in studio. The Hassid issue has been the biggest issue hanging over the Israeli public. We've even just been discussing a few minutes ago whether or not we believe the Qataris are serious in any way, shape or form. Ultimately, how do you see this Hassid issue impacting the war over the coming months and ultimately is that going to change as it drags on? So we have to, if you zoom out, keep in mind that this is a major, major military operation in one of the most densely populated territories in the world against a very vicious but capable foe on top of the world's most complicated hostage crisis likely ever. Over 200 people being held hostage underground in separate locations. By the way, not just all by Hamas, the bulk by Hamas, but not only. So all of that taken together further complicates an already very complicated situation. Now having said all of that, I do take the government and especially the work cabinet at its word that they say that the two goals of the operation for right now, eliminating Hamas is both the military threat and the governing regime in Gaza and returning all the hostages are one and the same when it comes to the prosecution of the actual military campaign, i.e. the ground offensive into Gaza. I do believe that the Israeli thinking on this matter is correct. In other words, that you move in and you do what you can to achieve goal number one and that will facilitate goal number two, the hostages, to apply as much pressure as you can on Hamas and really the Hamas leadership to come to the table in good faith to the extent possible and negotiate a deal if not for all the hostages, at least for some of the hostages. That is where we are at right now. There's a back channel that we mentioned with Qatar, a smaller back channel with Egypt, maybe others that we don't know about and so right now, this is the state of play. It's a negotiation both in the diplomatic track and the military track. Whether that will succeed, nobody knows you're dealing with an organization that sent thousands of fighters across the border not to attack military posts, not even to kidnap soldiers to bring back for this kind of hostage negotiation but a nine month old baby, an 87 year old woman and everything in between. So in terms of what their own red lines are for this negotiation, nobody quite knows. What I said earlier, I think still holds true. Yahis and Muar the Hamas leader in Gaza thinks time is out of his hand, time is on his side rather that the longer this goes on, the families of the hostages will increase the pressure on Israel to stop the war, ceasefire or whatnot and to come to the table and under terms that Hamas wants or you'll play for time and the world will stop Israel from the military campaign and that way the hostage negotiations can continue on for months or years further down the line on terms that Hamas wants. It's going to be a very cold question next because we've seen at Shifa Hospital the bodies of hostages have been recovered that were killed by Hamas. There's a growing belief among money that maybe Israel's not going to get people back, that Hamas won't give them back under any circumstances and at some point is Israel going to accept that as the reality and if they do, does that mean the operational tempo changes against Hamas? I don't know. Nobody knows. I don't even think the war cabinet knows. For right now, I take them at their word that they're trying to do everything possible both to achieve the war aims of damaging and then eliminating Hamas and returning the hostages by applying pressure on Hamas inside the Gaza Strip. Whether that puts the hostages at risk perhaps, but we don't know quite where they're being held, what conditions are being held in, we also have to remember nobody's actually gone to visit the hostages. This were a normal country with a normal government and normal military. The Red Cross would have already gone and been allowed access to these babies and children and elderly and by the way not just them but also soldiers who were taken kidnapped. That obviously has not happened because you're not dealing with a normal government, you're dealing with a terrorist regime. So what condition they're in, by the way, they're also injured that were taken back. We don't quite know and by the way not just Israelis but also foreign nationals. I can't for life me understand why they're holding foreign nationals. They should just release them unilaterally. I don't know if you're going to get anything from the Nepalese government or the Thai government in terms of the workers and people that they're holding. That's a separate issue but in terms of what condition they are and whether Israel will get everyone back, we can only hope and pray. And we're going to turn our attention back to the northern border where our correspondent Robert Swift is standing by. Robert, we have some more details finally coming out on some of those developments we were talking about at the beginning of the show. Can you walk us through what we know actually happened? Yeah, so just to jump to the most recent incident about 30 minutes ago, there was once again rocket sirens at Margaliot. The communities in that part of the country that's in the far eastern end of the northern border, a couple of times so far today they've had rocket sirens go off and at least one of those incidents is it was actually not because of incoming rockets but rather because of outgoing Israeli missiles intercepting drones. So essentially what happened over the last hour is the Hezbollah have sent out a number of attacks in various locations along the border. It seems that this has been a combination of weapon systems, rockets, mortars and possibly even anti-tank missiles. We also have seen them make use of drones earlier in the day with at least one interception close to Margaliot as I mentioned. Now there's some thinking that perhaps due to the weather visibility being right down the Hezbollah are mixing up their tactics and are rather than sticking primarily with the anti-tank missiles which is their most lethal weapon here on the border, it seems that they might be using essentially whatever they've got their hands on a variety of different attacks. That's why we've seen mortars attacking in the west, drones in the east and possibly some some rockets in the center of the northern border. Well thank you very much Rob for the update on what's going on on there. We will come back to you over the course of the day as the situation develops because as we can see clearly in front of us it is developing rather quickly. We're going to turn back to you again Neri to discuss what's happening in the north before we go to the break. I want to take a look because we have been seeing this scaling operational tempo by Hezbollah this combined armed operation today probably one of their largest scale attacks since the war started. We've determined we've discussed many times in the past about this sort of everyone's playing carefully nobody wants to escalate past a certain point but it is definitely ratcheting up. Do they want a full-scale war? So the prevailing assessment by the Israeli military and intelligence services is that Hezbollah does not want a full-scale war for a variety of reasons. They've seen the cost to the Gaza Strip. Iran doesn't want to quote unquote waste Hisbollah and the strategic arsenal that it's amassed now for a decade or two just to sacrifice itself at the altar of Hamas in Gaza. All of that being said we just don't know. The Israeli intelligence services are a lot more humble now than they were on October 6th and so everything they assess about the enemy that was proven incorrect on October 7th. Now they're taking it a bit more cautiously and we also have to keep in mind that Lebanon and Hezbollah may have their own calculations. In other words what price they're willing to pay in order to escalate not just for Hamas in Gaza but also in terms of Israel's overall situation right now politically, militarily, economically to catch Israel where all the focus is on the south in Gaza and not the north in vis-a-vis Lebanon. So again the hope is that it stays quote unquote the same in terms of these parameters that we laid out earlier southern Lebanon northern Israel but any miscalculation any event on either side of the border that causes greater casualties or rockets and missiles further into respective territory could see an escalation that nobody wants especially the publics on either side. One of the things that we've said since the beginning is that Hamas is playing for time in Gaza the longer it goes on the more it works out in their favor where does Hisbollah enter that equation because if they join in the war will extend much longer? It may extend much longer but also it's a way to pin Israeli forces down to take forces away from the Gaza Strip and also it will just increase the level of international anger and criticism of Israel so maybe the thinking is from Hezbollah's point of view that if the war escalates and this is something the US administration very much does not want to happen that maybe that in itself will trigger a greater international response to actually stop the fighting not just in Lebanon if it escalates but in Gaza as well. Of course that discounts the fact that there is a couple of US carrier strike groups in the region specifically for the escalation in the north if that would happen that might change the equation as far as international pressure goes because suddenly you're going to have the United States rather than pressuring against Israel assisting Israel. Perhaps but these strike groups and other assets that were moved by the Biden administration very quickly into the Middle East are meant more as a deterrence than something that they actually really want to use whether against Hezbollah or if it comes to it Iran. So the Americans would rather not have to deploy these assets and by the way it's not at all clear whether Israel especially the Israeli Air Force will necessarily need the firepower that's sitting off the coast of Lebanon in terms of handling Hezbollah. It was more a signal it was a message a message of deterrence but if Hezbollah chooses to escalate the response at least from Israel will be severe. A lot of questions going forward and we're going to be seeing how that develops as things continue to escalate in the north. Thank you very much as an area for helping us understand all of these issues. For everyone else though we are about to go on a break. We're going to be back about