 from Khamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Khamas saying in their joint operations capacity as they term it with the Jihad and Gaza that there will be some form of joint reaction that Israel will quote unquote pay the price for this operation, which has been ongoing. IDF troops going after Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in the West Bank and still around the periphery, the border regions here this morning, anti-tank squads, rocket squads already being shot from the air from IDF forces that are in the area, but rocket alerts sounding just as we were on break here and some of the communities around the Gaza Strip we know and stay wrote near some of those very close distance and are being told right now, Ashkelon as well, a city of some almost 200,000 residents in Israel, one of the big targets here. We have our Defense Correspondent, John The Reggae from the studio to take a look at what's going on. It's just really odd quiet since this operation was launched, uncharacteristic of previous rounds of targeting issues in the Gaza Strip or targets in the Gaza Strip usually led to sort of flare up immediately, mortar fire, rocket fire, certainly overnight everyone was on edge for that. Is it starting now? What's it look like? This seems to be the case. We're speaking about literally the five minutes ago at first siren sounding in the city of Zderot located roughly a mile even less from the Gaza border then in the city of Ashkelon a bit further away some five miles or so north of the Gaza border and in the adjacent communities. Israel has been awaiting this response on behalf of especially the Islamic Jihad. All of the questions which we were asking are still relevant. Are we looking at, are we looking at Hamas joining in? Was it the Islamic Jihad? Was it Hamas? Was it someone else? All these questions are pending. What exactly will be the radius of these rockets? Will they only be targeting the short range? The closer communities such as Zderot, such as Ashkelon, will the range be longer? Let's remember all of the communities which are 40 kilometers or 30 miles or so from the Gaza border. They have special instructions meaning no schools, many businesses are closed, no large gatherings. All these places could be target to further north Tel Aviv, perhaps you never know. Right, let me just sit here even seeing how life was affected. We touched on this earlier in the broadcast front of our viewers joining us now. Again, live images from Gaza City. We're sitting on edge as as most of Israel right now to see what happens with the Gaza Strip, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in there again and I say even in Tel Aviv here during the yesterday the cities this felt quieter. You know I'll say myself we put our children into the bomb room overnight just not knowing what would happen expecting like in previous rounds that we've seen these relatively minor operations that have resulted in multiple days if not two weeks of flare-up and rocket fire from the Gaza Strip IDS strikes in return. That so far hasn't materialized but obviously we're all waiting for that too and whatever may happen. There have been a lot of concerns too about well I want to mention again that what the situation you describe this you know the roads closed, the schools closed trying to keep people out of this area here to keep the easy targets so to say away from the crosshairs of those terrorists inside the Gaza Strip we know that they're looking for those easy targets on the road. You know a lot of the roads that these residents drive around their Kibbutzim and the border are well within the crosshairs and now we're getting siren alerts as well. In Ashkelon this is again Gaza City here it looks like from these images here and again the rocket alert siren sounding. It's far away as Ashkelon now which has become one of the really the new epicenter of rocket fire from Gaza. This is Ashkelon you can see here the city of Ashkelon again not far I believe only about some 50 kilometers less or I guess less from the Gaza Strip. Some 10 miles or so the southern outskirts of Ashkelon being eight miles or so from from the Gaza border being a very close. We're going to go down to Nicole we got Nicole Setic on the border here Jonathan who's been covering this here nearby the shelters we assume Nicole if not inside it right now what's just happened in the last 15 minutes or so? Yes I actually just left the shelter David because just 15 minutes ago we actually didn't even hear the sirens we saw the the the remnants of it right in the air of the the mortars of the rockets we saw just clouds of smoke we didn't even hear the sirens as I said we saw those and we got into the shelter as soon as possible this all comes out also about 15 20 minutes after I got an alert on my phone from Israeli home front command telling us that it was actually okay to leave the shelter about an hour ago we got an alert saying okay everyone in this these southern cities get into a shelter stay there until further notice then we got that further notice saying that it was okay to leave but stay nearby a shelter then about 10 minutes later that is when we see these rockets so we were out and about as I said and we actually just heard some more as you can see behind me this is live fire yeah this is live ballistic fire in the air over there yes yeah we can hear it and see exactly you you can feel it through the the ground David the ground is also you you feel just the the explosions going off looking at that in the distance so we do have our protective gear on here as I said even all of the Israeli security forces behind us have actually gone into the shelter behind me here as I said in this area you have about five seconds there is that no sirens going off right now you just hear it yourself and you can see it yourself what you're highlighting there is you don't always get a warning in those areas or often not I think is the case it's just too close to Gaza these low altitude munitions and interesting what we're seeing in the skies behind you here and Nicole left wondering what this is exactly if these are multiple interceptions made by Iron Dome or what exactly is exploding all over the skies there but certainly activity over your head there no question at this point here and the roads largely empty Nicole around you aside from military personnel roads you can see still cars kind of going out and about their daily business as you just saw one car going by the the roads are as you can see this road right now is actually closed heading into Nakhal Oz which is a a community really as close as you can get to the Gaza Strip we are just miles away from it right now so activity I don't want to say it's completely nothing but it is quieter than the normal as Israeli security forces are trying to limit that activity as well but as I just saw cars are still going by but for the most part especially as these explosions are going off quite literally overhead many people are taking right now as to get into their safe pace um and and stay there for who knows how long because as you said we are still finding out more information from the Israeli defense forces as far as exactly what is happening right now Nicole takes the update there as well obviously we're going to stay tuned minute to minute here as we know the sirens have started to pick up in that area here and we'll stay tuned we'll dip into when we can again this is the skyline of Gaza city big city down in there near the million people in this town and this has been the site of a lot of rocket launches over the various rounds of conflict here so all eyes on this skyline of course first and foremost those of the IDF watching for any launches here all sorts of equipment deployed in that department to trigger those early warning systems for any of the communities detected to be within the trajectory of anything coming out of Gaza and as Nicole highlights those within a short distance many thousands of them Israeli residents have virtually no warning 15 seconds max if they get that siren or own correspondent there in your state road saying this last little flare up there the last few things that got shot out there she got no warning like so many others in that area so this bit of a reflection in the reality and again the country the largely on edge this last 24 going on some 36 hours here not knowing what to expect in terms of any kind of response from the Gaza strip from the main elements in there of course Palestinian Islam Jihad being the target of this operation specifically but big questions looming around what Hamas may or may not do and along those lines we have IDF reserve colonel Olivier Raffovich joining a senior security and military consultant the fellow the Jerusalem Institute of strategy and security so thanks for being with us look what do you expect what does it look like to you this quiet has left a lot of us baffled here in Israel the last day and a half is this build up to some sort of larger coordinated response is it trying to lull us into a a sense of security to return to some normalcy what's the read on what they're doing from Gaza we don't know yet exactly what would be or should be or could be the reaction of Islamic Jihad groups with Hamas without Hamas what now we are seeing it actually almost a normal classical reaction from Islamic Jihad groups or smaller groups against Israel generally when they want to react to do something they do it around strictly around the Gaza strip now it's maybe a game now because they're playing with our nerves and since yesterday what we were expecting is not exactly what we are giving us so we have to be very cautious in order to assess exactly what is the process of the reaction for now it's it's bad because the population of around Gaza strips they wrote on the outskirts are under attack and they have to behave according to the civil defense instructions very clearly and go to the safe room that for now we have to wait to see the developments in the next hours Olivier there's been an interesting you know aspect to this I think it's important to bring in a lot of people questioning the timing of this right now what's Israel to why now certainly given the political moment that it is a fraught political moment in Israel a lot of skepticism towards the decision-making process but we saw you know the head of the Shabbat come out the head of the defense minister himself the head of the IDF alongside the prime minister here this was a security establishment decision to launch into this this was not a political calculation as far as we understand it's never political calculation even if people from the right or from the left or from I mean way up we'll give some political assessment about it it's a strict security situation we are facing terror activities from groups within the Gaza strip for years it's not a new situation and what have been carried out very successfully by the way by the Shabbat and the military establishment on the air force in particular and with intelligence is a must for the Israeli security for all Israeli because Islamic jihad groups like Hezbollah are growing like monsters and if you don't stop them they get bigger and bigger so at some point they are threatening us like today they are attacking us so we have to decide at some point this time it was we surprised and with our own initiative to stop them and better to do it before than after so now it's a reaction but to to mix I would say politics with security is actually normal in a democracy but as a matter of fact Israel since its very beginning is fighting for survival fighting for independence and fighting to be what we are an Israeli state in the Middle so nothing new and there's a term like say they're used to say king Solomon yes there's a lot a lot of history to refer to on this Olivia lots being said about the potential as well for a multi-front response a multi-front war bringing a lot of our defense officials still warning about that possibility here in this route of a parent flare up right now during this operation what's your take on how the other sides maybe out of Lebanon maybe out of Syria elsewhere could be joining into this that's exactly the most sensitive point and I think you ask the one million dollars question actually we don't know exactly what is now facing us if it is only islamic jet reaction and that's all if it is only the beginning of a process with Hamas inside if it is only I could say a kind of a military military way to to to make some diversion from Gaza and then they will do something for the Western border it's very very fluid for the time being that's why according to Prime Minister Netanyahu and according to different minister general you have gallon we are ready for all possibilities of the development like you just mentioned it's a possibility that we are facing the beginning of a multiple front conflict war I would say where is Hezbollah with policy and groups connected to Hamas chemical jet from Saudi Lebanon that with Hezbollah collaboration or coordination and also from Gaza also from the waste bank and let's not forget that the mastermind behind all these groups even if they are big but they are not big enough to decide the mastermind is Iran is still Iran and Zayatullah Mullah the regime in Iran is actually manipulating activating all these puppets all these proxies against Israel certainly this has been a top talking point of our top officials here as well Olivia thank you so far stay with us here again we're keep bouncing back to the live images of the skyline of Gaza city so much anticipation around you know what might happen or you know the scale of the response that would be coming from the terror groups in Gaza after the IDF launched its current operation shield and arrow I want to just reintroduce our studio guest with us too is again we're watching the screens as much as anyone here at this point Ari Levine Waldman joining us our correspondent still with our defense correspondent Jonathan Regiff Ariela just you know I'm sort of baffling this really you know what I think is the unique aspect of this moment we're in here is this odd silence the odd waiting game tension a lot being said about this being a psychological sort of play by elements in Gaza maybe it is maybe it isn't but it seems we having some effect what do you say about this really odd sort of quiet that we've been experiencing the last day its effect in a sense it's odd but in another sense it's simply a continuation of their tactics to try to so as much chaos as possible when they strike there's a reason that rockets are typically fired at three in the morning it's to cause psychological damages to make sure that people aren't sleeping it's to make sure that you feel that there is constantly a threat over your heads but that's not the only reason in this case remember that Hamas has been expanding its domain to say that they are the ones responsible for covering many different areas of Israel and many different effects and events in Israel as well it's not just rockets from Gaza anymore you have Hamas on the northern border too you have Hamas operating inside the west bank and you have an event that is a prime target for Hamas coming up and that would be the flag march in about a week's time that's hanging over everybody's head because they haven't responded yet and they didn't respond until very recently and again seven rockets is not the sort of response we're expecting not quite yet they could simply connect a future strike with the events that have been going on and say that we strike at a time of our choosing which their actual formal statement which is to say no response is its own form of response would actually back up that sort of analysis it lets them claim to have more power and authority that they legitimately would have it's a force of fire we're looking at live images here from Gaza city again we're bouncing back and forth to this these are the smoke trails essentially from IDF strikes targeted precision strikes right now on Gaza again this is the nature of the way IDF goes after targets with precision here looking for specific threats likely in these cases rocket launching sites that seems to be what we hear from the IDF when these strikes but this is all right out so we see there's still obviously a lot going on things flying back and forth across the board really for the first time since the initial strikes yesterday there hasn't been a lot of this yet but I know a lot of eyes of the world on this situation right now as they always are and I want to bring up Jonathan Ray bringing you back into the conversation here about you know one of the angles of this the Iranian pressure Olivier mentioned this here we know you know from our officials here the Palestinian Islam Jihad taking marching orders funding essentially you know working for Iran at this point is what we're told Hamas we don't know if they're sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place with this but that Iran has been pressuring decides to respond some reports indicating that there's pressure from Iran on these groups to take more robust action right now yes absolutely take more robust action actions and try to encircle Israel it was I think two weeks ago when the Iranian foreign minister was in Lebanon a overlook in Israel in the village of the way of high from the northern part of Maroon Aras that's on a hill overlooking Israel he was there and there were meetings between officials from Hezbollah from the Islamic Jihad from Hamas a whole a whole terror party was there and funded and backed and supported by Iran the Palestinian Islamic Jihad the closest Palestinian faction to Iran one distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad the Pij they have no concern whatsoever for the population they can deal with with what the the resistance as they call it and that's it they don't care about the population that the 17 000 or so workers that come into Israel the fact that the economic situation in the street has improved dramatically over the past two or three years this is something that Hamas has to worry about does that mean that Hamas will not join this party absolutely not it doesn't mean that but it's another consideration which Hamas has to do and the Islamic Jihad is not and Olivia if you're still with us here I think you are Olivia Rafavich still with us here look at this another another aspect that we've seen in the last couple years most notably in May of 2021 the sort of a home front you know erupting in a mess Hamas trying so hard in particular to tie what's called the various fronts together whether it be the West Bank it's really Arab citizens as well coming out in and up or are we seeing any sign of that yet in and around Israel how big of a concern is that right now that internal unrest will again spark up inside Israel I want to do something this time on the opposite of the other time before we actually initiated this operation by surprise that's why we are ready for all the developments I repeat we are ready for all the developments that means also if Hamas makes the very bad decision or decides a very bad decision to go with a joint reaction with Islamic Jihad the Israeli reaction will be very tough with the risk that Hamas inside the Gaza Strip could I would say lose the the power within the Gaza Strip the only issue here is that Iran a repeat Iran is pressing Hamas the outside side of Hamas Ismail Aniyeh and Khaled Mashal outside to go with Islamic Jihad against Israel but from inside Yixit Sinwar makes it more difficult to decide because he prefers to keep what he has right now so we are ready for any developments I repeat hopefully hopefully Israeli Arabs will not join this I would say dead dancing I think there's an interesting part we've seen so-called political leadership of Hamas making tough statements and talking but we haven't seen it's called that masked man at the podium in Gaza yet get up and declare the the start of real hostilities which I think you know we've seen from experience truly triggers a lot going on so you're right talking about this one thing from the political echelon outside the Gaza Strip another from those inside Gaza I don't not yet so much declaring any any sort of opening of hostilities yes if I if I may just one point for the audience abroad Israel is not in war with the Palestinian people we're not in war with the Gaza Strip we're in a war against terror groups only Islamic Jihad on the one we're fighting us it's very clear because the other side wants to show Israel against Gaza it's not true we are against terrorist activities against Israel from the Gaza Strip like the Americans were fighting ISIS in Iraq or in Syria they were not fighting Syria Iraq they were fighting ISIS the same for us we are fighting terror activities from the Gaza Strip if Gaza wants to be free wants to be in a good situation these groups should stop to attack Israel well put there thanks for being with us on this still I want to just remind our viewers looking at live images here in the backdrop Gaza city other places around Israel as well Ashkelon in particular that have been so in the crosshairs of the terrorists in Gaza in recent flare-ups around the Strip and Olivier certainly right that Israel is not a war with the people of Gaza that is should be evident by the nature of our military operations down there but again lost in the conversation with so many around the world looking in so important points at to hammer home there we are going back to Nicole Tedek a correspondent who's down there just outside stay wrote this is very close to the border Nicole and I know as we were talking to you just moments ago true some of those live things exploding over your head in the area there really no way raid sirens to speak of I know that's how it goes down there what are you seeing just last 10 15 minutes is still hearing distant bones explosions just update us a bit yes still hearing some distant explosions just in the past five minutes about now but actually haven't seen any other explosions in the sky we did hear an update from the spokeswoman for state road municipality saying that about nine rockets were fired all of them intercepted by the iron dome so none of them actually touched down in stay wrote and but those are most likely the explosions that we did see earlier in the broadcast now as far as what we are seeing right here we are still right next to a shelter with many of the Israeli security forces still staying inside there because as I said just moments ago really within the last five 10 minutes now we still have heard more sounds of explosions and we're still not quite sure when the next ones might come as I said we don't really have a warning out here we just kind of see it overhead here some of the explosions in the distance and are told to get into the shelter but as far as the sirens that you're hearing in and many of the big cities such as stay wrote Ashkelon we're not hearing those right here this is actually an area just miles away from the Gaza Strip really as close as you can get without going through the security checkpoint so for now it's still just kind of a waiting game as we're waiting to see looking at the skies to see if anything else does kind of appear above us and I know there's been alerts even while you're speaking here in some of these small communities not far from you so whether or not you you can hear those in the background or nearby you yes as you mentioned here that that's a question mark when you're so close to the Gaza Strip we see some traffic on the roads behind you but just a bit on you know the regional impact Nicole thousands of people residents from the area yesterday bused out up to the center parts of the country we don't always see that there what's what's it feel like for the people down there they've seen this before obviously exactly they have seen this before and especially earlier today it was really just a waiting period a period of suspense really waiting for this exact situation to happen and so in preparation we did see many families evacuate places up and more central even Tel Aviv hotels offering people from the south places to say so it is really great seeing the entire country come together during a time like this but it is just that that period of anxiety and suspense unfortunately something that many of the residents here are used to even when we were in stay wrote earlier today many of the businesses some of them were choosing to close others were choosing to open as you see traffic still kind of going by on the road maybe less than normal but people unfortunately are used to this back-and-forth game they've seen it time and time again and so for many people they continue on with their daily life but make sure to have their their phones very close by in case another alert does come and they do have to run to a shelter as quickly as possible Nicole Tetic thank you very much for this frontline report there stay safe stay near that shelter we'll be coming back on the channel here for updates throughout the day as we get we approach the end of our program now Livia Raffovich thanks for being with us as well Correspondent Ari Levine-Walvin and Jonathan Regev in the studio as well so thanks for joining us special coverage again this is now IDF operation shielded era we're in the second day of it here and we're all the focus on the Gaza Strip right now on what form of response may or may not emerge the country already bracing so hard for that just in the last day the odd silence the odd waiting game taking longer than usual to see that robust response from Khamas of the Palestinian Islamic jihad and we know the IDF they're on top of it right now still this hour taking out what the term what they're calling rocket launching squads in the Gaza Strip some anti-tank missile squads as well along the border stay tuned live images here night 24 is we'll be having all of it for you as it occurs here throughout this again operation shielded an arrow by the idea for now for zoom in for our part that's all for now we'll be back tomorrow much more but stay tuned on the channel all the rolling 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including islamic jihad and hamas for its attacks in the strip in the last 24 or so hours and in the last hour this response arrived at least 20 rockets have been launched from gaza towards israeli towns and communities close to the border with the strip including ashkelon our endome system has been activated and intercepted at least some of the rockets this comes after earlier today israel shot at islamic jihad targets from the air in han yunus in the northern gaza strip in the last hours that's according to the idf and there are launches as we speak with alert sirens that sound also in drusla okay there are rockets being launched right now i'm not sure if they're sirens in drusla or not we just had that on the screen if it's incorrect i'll be happy to correct on air to make sure that our viewers stay informed the secretary general of the islamic jihad has arrived in kairu for talks with egyptian intelligence this morning and according to reports has instructed his organization to wait with the response to israel attack yesterday that killed three islamic jihad leaders and 10 citizens including women and children an official from the hamas terror groups says that israel will see a unified response from terror groups that will teach it a major lesson our correspondent nikol cedek is near the gaza border in nachalos so nikol just to make sure that our viewers are on the same page with us no sirens in drusla they are sirens in the south of israel including ashkilon and communities that are surrounding the gaza strip and we're seeing live images of interceptions there in the sky close to the gaza strip nikol yes you are absolutely seeing those live interceptions as we speak right now really within the past five minutes now i want to say 15 maybe 20 interceptions here rockets firing towards the city of stay wrote but as you can see with these clouds of smoke in the sky um that's that's interceptions from the iron dome so they have been intercepted but we are hearing these explosions and you can see right near us just really not even miles away but more mere meters away many of these interceptions are being fired from the system intercepting those really as i said in these past five minutes now really picking up so we are standing right by a shelter we're showing you those images but as i'm looking around actually doing a full full 180 i'm going to have our cameraman dean turn around here do a full 180 we are seeing these these clouds of smoke these interceptions all throughout the sky right now so really a a tense period right here as we are in the south you'll you'll continue to hear i'm not sure if you can hear those explosions but they are continuing to call i can update you and our viewers are you're not alone there we're hearing interceptions here as well in our studio that is located in jaffa and according to reports that i'm receiving at this moment these are coming from rishon let's see on that has been targeted by rockets fired from the gaza strip rishon let's see on is a city in israel south of televiv we're hearing interceptions right now here in our studio as we're speaking with you nicol can we spend another minute or two with you can you tell me who are you there with you're saying you're taking shelter there who are you there with we're really right here actually mainly with israeli security forces they've been blocking off this road heading towards nachal owes a community really just a mile away from the gaza strip so this is as close as we can get just mere miles away from the strip as is really security forces have been blocking off this area for anyone who is not a resident of the community and so right now they are staying right near this this shelter that we have also been in as well because as i said really just just constant sound of explosions going off behind us but as far as who we are here with that's really just is really security forces in this little intersection here kind of between areas behind us here that is where the city of stay rote is where we have seen many of those those overhead explosions happening okay nicol thank you very much take care there okay most importantly of course it's a stressful day here in israel not the first time neither probably the last that we're experiencing this rockets that are launched towards cities and communities in israel from the gaza strip but this has been something that israel has in israelis have been waiting for since the attack last night and i want to turn to kobi michael professor kobi michael he's a senior research fellow at the i n s s and he joins us from nestiona thank you very much for being with us um we're understanding that uh some of the rockets are being launched now to the center of israel as well not just to communities around the gaza strip uh perhaps the area of uh rishon let's see on batiam this is all being examined uh at this time hamas has indicated today that this is not a response to the assassinations of islamic jihad leaders by israeli a air force but actually to the attacks that were made today so are we still on hold for a more major offensive by uh the factions in gaza yes in a sense uh i mean this might be the the greatest achievements of the terror organizations mainly the palestinian islamic jihad but but hamas as well when they keep a population of more than one billion people under pressure and their their undermine or sabotage the routine of life but we have to understand that the hamas is in a sort of catch 22 because on the one hand hamas has no interest to drag the gaza strip to a broad military campaign vis a vis israel they have their interests and this is not their interest on the other hand they are the sovereign power in the gaza strip and they live under the pressure of the palestinian islamic jihad due to the severe israeli attack and they have to to allow the palestinian islamic jihad to retaliate in this way or another and to demonstrate a sort of unification you know or the united or the unified the rows of the of the palestinian society and i will not be surprised if hamas participated in the in the last last launches of the of the rocket in the in the last minutes but i assume that hamas will do all the possible efforts in order to keep everything under the the rules of the game which are accepted by israel which means that they will allow the palestinian islamic jihad to retaliate they will join the palestinian islamic jihad and they will hope that they will be able to restrain the palestinian islamic jihad to contain the situation and to come back to calm in two days or three something like this so in that sense what significance is there to the fact that the chief of staff of the islamic jihad has traveled to cairo today for discussions while the two factions are not working together and hamas wants to keep things quiet can it control the islamic jihad and and how much and let me just update before i ask you to reply that there has been a direct hit at a house in sderot according to reports that we're receiving right now there are no injuries at the moment but there is impact there and a house has suffered a direct hit so back to the question professor look there is a tension between hamas and the palestinian islamic jihad due to the reasons that i have just explained but the palestinian islamic jihad is is really dependent today much more on hamas because of the severe damages that the israeli attack caused it's not only the three persons that were killed it's also a lot of infrastructures and weapons that actually were destroyed and the palestinian islamic jihad doesn't want to retaliate in a very marginal or minor manner because it will project or we will reflect a sort of a problem that the organization has with regard to its military capacities and therefore they need hamas to join them in order to assure that the the retaliation will be considered as a as a severe or serious recreation on on on the one hand on the other hand they need it in order to to prove to their constituency that there is unified or there are unified roles and there is unification between the faction among the palestinians and the and hamas doesn't like the idea so much hamas is challenged by the palestinian islamic jihad and they have to maneuver in this way or another but at the end of the day the palestinian islamic jihad is a much smaller organization it is an organization that has no aspiration of sovereignty or controlling territory or population it is a pure terror organization a very radical violent one which is directly directed by iran where hamas is much more than terror organization much is a sovereign power and it has much broader interests professor kobi michael if you can please stay with us i want to join in our discussion um we have arielle have been walled when our correspondent here at studio arielle and understand that the range of rockets has has increased in the last few minutes where are we seeing these launches aimed at so the primary targets right now or at least primary interceptions because they're not the most accurate rockets in the world are aimed at israel's center this is a major escalation because usually it's considered sort of run-of-the-mill to get rockets in the south it's treated almost like the weather but when you start having rockets targeted at televivor the cities around televiv we're seeing some hits or some interceptions around ashtod around bayam some heavy bombardment in the southern parts of rishon lethseon these are all sort of the suburbs of televiv and very close it's showing quite a few things one they are willing to escalate to the point where they are targeting major civilian population centers in the center of israel that are usually considered off limits or out of range and that too they are willing to accept whatever pushback happens or whatever response the idf has to these sort of strikes it's always been a complaint for israelis living in israel's south that the moment there's a rocket fired at israel's center the military gets involved and there is some truth to that so if they are willing to pursue a sustained bombardment of these cities in israel's center it means that they are willing to carry this conflict out much further than they already have so far because they know by doing so they are about to invite a very heavy military response and while the military has been hitting tactical targets inside gaza itself hitting some targets in gaza city again the same thing as sort of an escalation sort of point once you're hitting targets in a very dense population center it means that both sides have officially commit towards carrying this out further towards escalating further and we are very likely to see much heavier fire in the hours ahead okay ariel thank you professor kobi michal are you still with us i want to ask you about the the the timing of of those attacks of course arielle van waldman mentioned that hamas and the different factions jihad islamic jihad and in gaza that is now by the way declaring that all factions are working together in this effort to retaliate and and strike israel with rockets um they are preparing of course for what would be an israeli response and my question is regarding the political timing here in israel this happens at a time yes there is an incline and terrorist attacks both in the west bank um and in in east jerusalem etc but also at a time when this government is at a very low position uh in the polls um what is your interpretation of the timing of the assassination yesterday of the three seniors of the islamic jihad i think that um there are no political reasons that affected seriously the timing the timing is the question of the the access that you have to the targets and the intelligence that you have because the operational capacities are there all the time you need to meet the targets to know where are they and you have to know that you can target them with minimum collateral damage and you need the very accurate information and i think that these are netanyahu said that this was decided upon last week already so but the people move around they knew that they knew that there that there might be an israeli retaliation and therefore they went down to the bunkers the idea is to surprise them and to surprise them in the most suitable moment or time or timing for you as the attacker but we have to take into consideration some limits that we have and some limits that we put upon ourselves like the collateral damage and you have to have to have the access and the accurate information and then to to target them to attack them and i don't think that it is something which is related to the political arena or the political considerations this is something which is much serious than that and i do not believe that netanyahu was affected by the political arena or by the political circumstances with regard to the retaliation as such okay professor kobi michel senior research fellow at the i n s s thank you very much for joining us and to our viewers joining now there have been over 60 rockets that have been launched towards israel from the gaza strip not only to towns and cities surrounding the gaza strip like sderot ashkelon and other villages in the regional councils of lachish etc but also to the center of the country to the surrounding cities around tel aviv places like ganyavne batiam rishon lezion we're gathering all this information that is coming in in the last few minutes but these rockets are launched constantly hamas is saying that this is a joint effort by all factions in the gaza strip not just by hamas not just by the islamic jihad by an operation that's carried out in coordination between the different palestinian factions in the gaza strip and what you're seeing is live imagery from the surrounding area of the gaza strip from the israeli cities and villages there and you're seeing interceptions by the iran dome system we now want to turn back to our nicole sedek who i see is not taking shelter at the moment there on the border with the gaza strip is that because the sirens are off at the moment nicole i will say we are within about a one minute walk the shelter is just right here but actually there are still explosions happening behind us take a look you can see these streaks of rockets firing up above us right now and so this is still happening really every two minutes every five minutes we continue to hear explosions here we are just mere miles away from the gaza strip and it's really you you see it happening in real time as these rockets are fired and then as the iron dome is intercepting them i know you said about more than 60 rockets have been fired in the past hour and we are seeing all of that explosion happening right overhead as i said we are just mere steps away from a shelter right now so we are staying in in our safe place we do have our protective gear on but you can see many people are still taking those precautions staying here but you'll see many people are still continuing to go on the road continuing to go about their day kind of checking what's overhead as well but you can really hear the explosion and and feel it at the same time and many people are then taking the chance to go to the nearest shelter in an area like this just so close to the gaza strip you have about five seconds to get into a shelter and so that's why it is so important for people right now to stay where they are and then stay near a shelter but as i said we're right here ariel we are continue to hear the explosions overhead and the iron dome continues to intercept those those explosions nicole nicole uh meanwhile i want to give two updates and stay with us i want some insight from you of course but first uh there are sirens uh in ramath ghan and also in the south of televiv i believe that has not happened since may 21 operation guardian of the walls so this is happening right now rocket alert sirens in televiv and in ramath ghan if you are in televiv or in ramath ghan and are watching us we encourage you to go to a safe space and we see our nicole zedek there and our cinematographer capturing that moment where missiles are intercepted there in the sky our connection got caught off i'm sure that they are fine our crew there but we could hear the interceptions in the sky and we're now hearing that there are some rockets being fired also at jaffa very close actually to where we are here in the south of televiv quite rare for the uh missiles from uh uh or rockets from gaza to be launched towards uh jaffa just because of the fact that jaffa has a mixed population but sometimes our elvin waldman as you mentioned there are errors the systems that are operated by islamic jihad or hamas are not the most accurate absolutely not we're not talking about for the most part military grade precision guided munitions here a lot of these are homemade for a given value of the term pieces of steel pipe welded together with chemical propellants salvaged from farms and the like turned into rocket fuel with crude warheads slapped on top those are the ones that are most often fired at the southern regions and that's the reason that they don't have much in the way of range they're also harder to intercept because you can't really predict any sort of predictable ballistic path the ones that reach israel's center though tend to be at least a little bit more sophisticated some of them are older generation things from old war sock packed arsenals that have been lying around for dozens of years unused rocket artillery like the grod rockets and the like that we've seen used in past conflicts here but more and more recently we've seen more advanced weapons flowing into the area courtesy of iran which has made a point to arm every single terror group that is nearby to israel over the past decades to ensure that they have weapons that could pose a legitimate threat to israeli cities anywhere in israel not just near the borders the ones that you're hearing explode around us even just moments ago are very likely the longer range ones carrying at least 20 kilograms of high explosive in the warhead they're accurate enough to say the least but when you are traversing that much distance the accuracy is it televieve is it jaffa that's close enough for well the rockets in question and there is enough deviation in their path to any of the above and frankly hamas probably doesn't care too much about the people in jaffa regardless of what their religion happens to be there still israeli citizens they still have a blue id certification which means that as far as hamas is concerned they could very easily be targets to yeah although they do have families that of course they have relatives from jaffa gaza the connections are very strong not just with jaffa but any mix city in israel and arab israelis and it hasn't stopped them in the past yeah it's true but i i always wonder if it's a it's a if it's a matter of error or if it was a directed hit uh professor kobi uh michael i want to turn back to you um what can we expect israel's response now to be it seems like we're we're deep in this cycle there was a wave of terror attacks carried out by islamic jihad in the west bank and israel of course went ahead with the assassinations from the air of those senior leaders of islamic jihad yesterday or should i say yesterday night and and now we're seeing already rockets being signed fired to the center of of israel that means israel is going to go full force into a large operation in in gaza again as we saw in may 2021 or is there a chance for for talks at this time professor kobi michael can you hear me yes i was muted sorry this happens to all of us here in there yes i said i said that i think that um everybody will keep the rules of the ceremony which means that talks will not take place now but after some some rounds of fire to this direction into the other direction now unless israel shifted its existing paradigm with regard to the palestinian arena generally speaking it looks that it will be more of the same which means israel will do all the possible efforts in order to to target the the palestinian islamic jihad in a much more severe manner than hamas but israel will attack hamas as well under the the accepted rules of the game which are well known to both sides the egyptians the qatarian will will enter to the to the scene and they will begin the the talks between the between the sides and then we will reach to a sort of another calm in the in the region but if israel will decide to attack in a much more severe manner to attack hamas in a much more severe manner it means that israel has shifted its paradigm which regard to the palestinian arena and israel is going to reshape the reality what is going to to be the the nature of the characteristics of this reshaping i still don't know but i do not believe that there is such a change in the israeli perception or in the israeli paradigm and therefore i believe that we are going to find ourselves in a very similar ceremony to the previous ceremonies that we used to know okay professor koby michael senior research fellow at the i n s s thank you very much for joining us today i pleasure and we hope that things keep quiet where you are thank you so much for your time okay ariel van waldman it's midday today let's say actually it's a two p.m. right now here in israel 225 israel has been waiting to see a response from the gaza strip since yesterday morning citizens have been leaving the towns and villages closer to the gaza strip why was it prolonged why have we been waiting for so long and what happened now was it this recent attack that israel committed from the air just around 12 noon that instigated this this wave that's the big question on everyone's mind earlier in the day hamas themselves said that no response is in and of itself a form of response remember hamas has been trying to extend what it considers its authority its domain its sort of jurisdiction to every single corner of israel not just the gaza strip we have the flag march scheduled for a jerusalem next week and people were sort of speculating that they didn't want to release a major response until then so they could try connecting the two events to show that their authority extends over jerusalem over any part of israel it seems that israel forced their hands with these major strikes inside gaza itself because at a certain point once you start hitting targets inside heavily populated areas of gaza hamas has to give some sort of response to justify their own existence remember they only hold power so long as they are committed to fighting against israel and committing acts of terror against israel if they do not issue a response they lose prestige in the eyes of their people and rival groups like the palestinian islamic jihad could potentially take some of their political clout and over time degrade their position enough to become a de facto power which means they have every possible incentive to strike and to release some sort of armed response to the strikes that israel is doing in what they see as their own territory it doesn't really matter that the targets of israeli strikes were high-ranking figures in the islamic jihad itself israel considers all of gaza to be under hamas's jurisdiction hamas considers all of gaza to be under hamas's jurisdiction so if israel needs to carry out a strike on islamic it's still going to be on what hamas says is their territory and they're going to respond after a while their hand was forced here they couldn't wait until next week to issue a major response that doesn't mean they're not going to issue a major response next week as well they're even saying in their response in their statements about this strike that this is not a response to the strikes earlier and what we're seeing what we're seeing on air we're just seeing launches there straight from gaza city what we can see live launches from gaza city towards israel and in just a few moments we will know exactly where those are targeted to citizens in israel get an alert we all have an app on our phone this time i'm being told that this was targeted towards rishon let's see on south of televiv and citizens have just a few minutes to reach the security area in their apartments or be at the shelters of their buildings or if they don't have any than any shelters that they have in the neighborhood arielle i i i cut you off i'm sorry but i do want to use the opportunity to also discuss what this is doing to the israeli economy we're at a time where the israeli economy is not doing very well due to different factors a judicial overhaul and instability and terror attacks that have increased in in the west bank and east Jerusalem in the last few months but now the shekel is also decreasing in its value i see it's hitting 368 already today again against the dollar yeah you've hit upon a fundamental point of asymmetrical warfare the enemy does not have to be technologically superior to israel they don't have to be better armed they don't have to have more people they know that in conventional battle they cannot win that one but what they have is the ability to wage a war of attrition where they are using very cheap inexpensive tactics against israel and these tactics cost israel a phenomenal amount of money to defend against or simply to endure we've seen for the past few days you asked before why has hamas not responded yet well we've seen israel very much paralyzed in at least the south over the past a few days people fleeing southern uh cities people told to keep shelters open and stay near the shelters when this is happening it means that people are not going out living their lives generating value in their own lives or building a nation which is what these people are generally doing in their daily lives in israel it means that they put all that on hold which is inflicting opportunity costs it's inflicting economic damage it's inflicting psychological damages has right on effects on all this and all in all creating more and more costs for the state of israel even if hamas hasn't fired a single rocket when they do fire rockets the costs go up astronomically if they don't intercept the rocket it destroys a business if they do intercept the rocket the cost of intercepting that rocket is almost the cost of an apartment in the israel south or in some of the cheaper areas remember that each interceptor is close to a hundred thousand dollars and you have to fire two per rocket run the numbers on that there is an economic logic behind insurgency behind asymmetrical warfare and everywhere around the world we have seen it played out time and time again where they simply have to say as long as we can keep existing and firing cheap rockets and cheap tactics eventually the other side may run out of money and if that happens we can be in a better position for any sort of well negotiation or whatever sort of agreement comes next yeah well we do have to remember and acknowledge also is the israel's ability to fire two missiles at a time using the iran dome system is thanks to american support as well an american budgetary arrangements with regards to as well as security but at the same time we have to contend with the fact that hamas gets to have all of their material losses replaced almost overnight with money via qatar or via iran so neither side seems to be losing out on the economic angle so the question is how long can it endure for and the answer seems to be indefinitely on both sides or elvin wallman thank you we now want to turn to noga she's a resident of kibbutz mefal sim noga thank you very much for being with us tell me about your afternoon so far how has it been there in mefal sim and for the sake of our viewers can you describe how close you are to the gaza strip i'm close one and a half kilometers from the gaza strip so we are for the last i think two hours the safe room mostly in the safe room instead of running in and out going back and forth with each alarm what we have here is we hear everything that happens if you were talking earlier about the missiles going towards rishon we actually hear them going out and sent towards the north of the south of israel everything goes just above us we have a normal amounts of a alarms taking off in the last two hours and yeah that's what we do i've actually moved my office i'm a home employee so i moved my office into the safe room so i can work from here and not need to work in another room at the house noga we've seen an exodus of residents from that area heading to the center of israel or maybe to the north of israel it's really a great question of where they're heading towards because right now they're also rockets being targeted towards the cities in the center of israel is this something that was on your mind um yesterday as we were waiting for this response from the gaza strip uh or it wasn't do you stay put i'm stay i stay put for tourism first i don't have young kids my kids already are young adults they live in the center of israel so they're not here it's much easier secondly i take part at the um at the group that is the group that is in charge of the keyboards of all how we work out what we do during uh this situation so i have a part here and i need to do my job it's like a committee or a council that you're a part of the takes care of all the cubots on in direct emergency situations um you know again a lot of us cannot understand i think both in israel and definitely abroad the extent to which you the residents of villages and towns and cubots is around gaza have been experiencing trauma in the last few decades with constant barbarmint from from gaza can you start and describe what this does how this shapes um your life the life of your family first of all we're all traumatized it gets to the stage that if i'll go abroad a microphone will start a speaker will start speaking i will jump even it's in the middle of an kong it doesn't matter we're all the time intense we're all the time looking around wherever i'll go all over the world the first thing i'll search for is where is a safe place to go if something happens and where are the emergency exits it's your never 100 percent thinking of what you're doing 10 percent of your mind is all the time thinking and listening to surround to see if something is going to happen around you i won't be in areas with too many people around me because i'm afraid that if something will happen i won't be able to run away to get into cover noga what can i wish you on a day like this why it's at the end yeah and peace amen it would be great amen thank you very much you're you're our beauty queen thank you thank you very much uh noga ghost uh a resident there of kibbutz and falsim and we now want to turn to uh uzi rabi he's the director of the moshe dayan center for middle east studies at talvi university thank you very much for being with us uzi i'm trying to understand if this retaliation that we're seeing is uh brought forward by islamic jihad only or by hamas as well the idf spokesman is saying at the moment that there is no indication that hamas is joining the shooting towards israel of rockets that this is solely an activity and an operation that is commanded by the islamic jihad what do you know about the coordination between the the two factions today vis-a-vis their interests of course well it is pretty coordinated uh what we just heard from the hamas uh itself that uh this is uh kind of a joint action but this is the declarative level i agree uh and i honestly think at this stage that hamas is choosing to stand side by side verbally with islamic jihad because he should preserve his own position and legitimacy within the palestinian street but at the same time hamas still has a lot to lose and before he's getting into that in full volume he has to take a decision and this would be much more than tactics this might be a strategy but in this moment i uh do think that this is only islamic jihad these guys are trying to find out something by which to leave behind an impression that they fiercely and effectively retaliated uh on what israel actually had done to them yesterday or the day before but basically we are in kind of uh i would say crossroads we have to wait and see and we know this is the land of uncertainty this is a war dynamics and it remains to be seen whether or not hamas is going actually to be uh actively involved in the affair that would be a different opera because that would have oh that would uh uh uh force israel to uh go for some other targets very very instrumental in gaza so uzi i want i want to ask you about that operation by israel uh last night not this past night but the night before when israel um assassinated uh uh the three leaders of islamic jihad ten other citizens were killed among them uh children and and women and i want to ask about that decision of israel to launch that attack um was that necessary what do you make of that decision to do it at that time because in a few days uh everybody will forget what led to what in the palestinian will say that it was of course uh israeli uh planes that were targeting gaza israelis would say that it started with a wave of violence and terror attacks instigated by islamic jihad in the west bank what do you make of the decision of israel to to go forward with that operation and gaza considering the fact that also 10 citizens uh were killed well 10 citizens were killed and israel is uh basically uh uh informing the whole world in israel that this what happened nobody tried to hide it but basically i have to say in my opinion this uh action was sort of a must for israel because israel for years uh found itself in kind of a situation where it's responding to what hamas is doing or islamic jihad i think that the equation that was created in recent years made israel actually very very clear in terms of response when it comes to hamas and islamic jihad this is kind of an occasion where israel takes the initiative and this is why this is that important because by taking the initiative the whole rhythm is being grown from the side of israel and not actually be controlled by hamas and islamic jihad okay the guys that were killed were basically the i would say the main commanders of islamic jihad in gaza some of them actually were released in the shalit actually deal they had blood of many israelis on their heads at least two of them we know that basically you know you can say on the one hand that this is kind of a con circle full circle with things but as i think as i told you i think that this is very important and i wish is there would remain consistent in that this is the most important thing you shouldn't let these guys feel as if the keys for the rhythm and the action are in their hands and i think that you can see now that israel is not waiting because at this stage israel is attacking in gaza israel is basically attack launchers and some other i would say targets civilian targets in gaza because if hamas is going to be in he should know he is going to lose all these achievements that he had acquired in recent years okay and these achievements are yeah and these achievements are mostly economic benefits and all sorts of coordination with with israel who's irabi please maybe i would add maybe i would add just one more sentence with your profession yeah briefly just because i want to give also just an update to our viewers with regards to the to the launches towards the center of the country that are continuing so yeah but in a sentence please just a sentence hamas cannot actually leave under the impression that in gaza his life would be normal he would get those economic incentives at the same time he would fire rockets against israel from lebanon or judea in samaria and this you know multi arena thing this is something that hamas cannot actually build on and i think that in a way this is also something that israel would like to deliver okay thank you very much please stay with us uzi rabbi i want to turn to a correspondent guy is here in studio guy can give us a summary of the latest launches towards israel it's uh evolving as we speak so much going on just over the past uh hour and a half we're talking about some 50 launches perhaps more that's the latest number that we were able to hear and as we reported that rocket launches those firing has expanded to the center of israel we heard the siren here in tel Aviv in jaffa and give a time in rishon it's here on many central cities these this is the core of israel so many millions of israelis live here that's not to take anything from the rocket barrages on israel's south where also hundreds of thousands and millions together live there just to summarize we know of over 50 launches two hits in ashdod and in sterot no injuries in those cases some very minor injuries from people running to shelter but so now iron dome has managed to intercept most of these rockets so i know in sterot we mentioned there was a report on a house that suffered a direct hit what about the incident in ashdod yes the same story we know that at least in sterot that house was empty uh like many thousands of residents in the south the um this family who owns this house has evicted to the israeli center and was not at home at the time of that hit luckily so no one was injured in in that case and same in ashdod and we have to say that all of us israelis have been preparing for this since yesterday morning uh the the israeli leadership of benjamin it's an yahoo minister of defense garland have addressed the public saying there might be a retaliation attempt which we're seeing right now our response from gaza and this could be long range as well it's interesting because this is not only the case around the gaza border communities who of course have their lives have stopped completely over the past day and a half but many municipalities also here in the center as a precaution have opened shelters we know that in retrospect that was a good decision because i i just came out from the street where we heard the siren many people outside in tel aviv was still very much alive half an hour ago and people needed to find a place to run and something that is very important as someone who spends both time in tel aviv and in the south here in tel aviv it takes 90 seconds until an impact occurs you have 90 seconds to go to shelter that is a lot of time there's no need to run if you're nearby a shelter that is of course not the reality for the gaza border communities noga who you just spoke to lives in mefal sim that is right on the border they have less than 15 seconds one five to run to shelter that is an impossible reality much easier here but of course under the current circumstances anyone who is out and about should be aware of the fact that there could be more sirens the the um the firing of the rockets could expand further into tel aviv and people should be aware and at least know where is the nearest shelter where they are guy thank you uzi rabbi i want to turn back to you ziyad nahalla the secretary general of the islamic jihad went to cairo this morning for talks there can you give us a bit of an overview um in a time like this who is he discussing with is it the egyptians the kataris who is trying to take part in the negotiations and has it yielded anything or has it not yielded anything do we have any information from those talks in cairo well basically it's the egyptians of course i dare say that hamas representatives are always and also there and all of them are trying actually to find out kind of a formula by safe pace or say that you have retaliated and you leave behind the impression that you hurt or damage is really interests um or targets but at the same time once again i'm not sure that neither hamas mainly hamas nor islamic jihad would like to get into a full scale uh war with israel as i said before they have a lot to lose and if there would be a war this is a war that was not created under their long-standing planning on that they haven't been the creators or the initiators in that war it was something there is well actually force them and put them at a bay i think that this is going to be seen in cairo and ziyat nakhali would like actually to find out two things first of all to what extent hamas is committed to this whole thing and if at all hamas is going to be part of parcel of that second he would like actually to hear the interlocutors the egyptians what they have to say we're having difficulties they're hearing you uh uzi rabbi sorry yeah i think we hear you now sorry um okay the line is not great there with uh uzi rabbi of course at a time like this are also communication problems here in israel as everybody is trying to call everybody and get information um from the internet etc and different uh sources this is something that we encounter often uh uzi are you back with us yes sure so yeah um what i'm trying to say is that you know you were talking about you were saying that ziyat nakhali wants to understand first of all is hamas engage in this how deeply are they willing to commit uh to this retaliation to this joint effort and the second thing and the second thing is to find out from the egyptians the brokers what is the time span actually they're gonna provide the islamic jihad before getting into kind of or uh dealing with israel about sort of uh ceasefire or stopping the fire and that stuff because it goes without saying that the egyptians are the ultimate brokers here and uh this is why ziyat nakhali actually is in egypt or in qairo now hamas is also of course in the picture as i said hamas is at the bay one way or the other and once again i think that this is something that uh uh we have to take into account and we should be keenly aware that some other options could be also uh are also in the offing it is judean samaria it is jerusalem it is lebanon and i dare say also makes cities in israel all these are being taken into account by israel nobody would like to have sort of a huge flare up but at this stage i think that uh we should speak to what's going on in egypt what's going on in gaza and in israel i think that all parties would like actually to have kind of a swift and a quick kind of ending up of this circle of fight but you know we are in the land of uncertainty as i said this is kind of a war dynamic and we'll have to wait and see actually how things are being paid out by all parties um for the time for the time i mean i would i would be very very careful uh israel should pay attention to all these other arenas and once again is there should be consistent in uh in in what i think it had started two days ago initiative is in israeli hence and that must be kind of a clear message that should be left after this round of uh fight and we'll see actually how things are going to be laid out as i said before who's the abbey thank you very much uh for being with us was the abbey uh the director of the musadayan center for middle east studies at televiv university guys i want to turn back to you what are the latest updates uh uh interceptions uh uber cholon batiam yaffor amat gantel aviv ganyavne we've mentioned one direct hit in sderot one initiative no injuries um any further developments in the last few minutes right a few more launches uh towards the south nothing new here in the center uh something to touch on the conversation that you held with uzi rabbi well uh a source in the israeli security official a senior security official uh tells israeli army radio that the recent launches are only by islamic jihad and not by hamas so far that is an important distinction for israel uh if it wishes to at least keep this uh escalation uh at at bay as long as it is only directed towards uh the palestinian islamic jihad it's a once hamas comes into the story uh that's a whole different campaign hamas of course a much bigger organization with many more capabilities with dozens of rockets that can reach tel aviv uh as far as we know islamic jihad has only few of those rockets we're also hearing from the spokesperson of the ben grion airport uh he says for now the airport operates as normal they have made no changes to the to the flight schedule of course uh that can easily change how lovely to those who are leaving the country for vacation not not so sure for those who are coming in all right that is the reality in these circumstances i'll just add that an official from the hamas terror group says that israel will see a unified response from terror groups that will teach it a major lesson and this is not what we've been seeing uh so far so far as gaius real just mentioned uh this apparently seems to be a response that is solely uh put forward by uh the islamic jihad we now want to turn to our nicol cedek uh still there in the outskirts of the gaza strip nicol can you um give us an overview of the last few minutes there where you're at uh what is the sky looking like absolutely ariel well i will say for the past five minutes maybe eight minutes now we have felt a the first sense of quiet that we've seen really for the past 45 minutes now so overhead the skies are clear for now but i want to emphasize that that this has only been going on for about five minutes now we're with us since the last time since we have heard some of those explosions overhead in the sky now i want to remind you right now where we are we are just mere miles away from the gaza strip really about as close as you can get i'm gonna pan over here to show you really why we can't even get any closer to the the small town of nachal os which is where residents are right there at the gaza strip but as you can see uh is really security is blocking off this road making sure that only residents are going through they are not even allowing members of the press to go through so this is as close as we can get to the strip but let me tell you it is it's definitely close enough to see all of the action happening overhead we see it in real time as many of the rockets are firing uh towards the the southern city of stay wrote we see the iron dome launch into action just like that you'll see just the strips of white in the sky which follows the length of the rocket followed by a big explosion in the sky a white cloud of smoke and that is an image that we have seen time and time again as we've seen uh the upwards of a hundred rockets we're hearing reports fired from gaza many of them intercepted we have heard reports that maybe one house has been hit in the southern city of stay wrote this is actually where we were earlier earlier today we were in stay road and it was very much a a tense period of suspense as many people were waiting for this exact situation to happen which is now what we're seeing great my uh nicole thank you very much for joining us i won't question for you while you're still there have they has any other uh have there been any injuries that you report from now have there been any injuries at all we have only heard maybe one report of a of an injury of someone just running to a shelter but no reports of anything serious so far really right now we are hearing just everyone is supposed to be sheltering in place getting to their safe space as quickly as possible i have the uh is really homefront command alerts on my phone as many people in the area do and i have a alert on the phone saying to stay in your safe place stay there for for really the time being actually people are running to the shelter right now they just got one of those alerts you can see the the security running here right now we're going to head into the shelter with them i'm still with my my cameraman right now so we're heading here because they did just get an alert to go inside um we haven't heard any of the explosions overhead but that's why you're saying this this uh tense energy out here as everyone does get to their safe space so that is exactly what you are seeing in real time and that shows you just the quick efforts that people really need to go you see we were just steps away from the the shelter and that is really all of the time that you have um when you are in this type of situation you'll see sorry just trying to find out a little bit more information as some of these soldiers do go back outside um it does seem to be a period that we can be outside but as i said we are it's really us and the israeli security forces right here oh we're going inside now you can hear actually the i'm sure you could hear the sounds of that explosion just rippling through the sky as as everyone does kind of run back into the shelter um and this is what we've been experiencing for the past hour now as you as you uh the moment you step outside the shelter it feels like you're hearing another explosion and you're being told to come right back inside so right now even inside the shelter you you can feel the explosions rippling through the ground just mere meters away from us uh so really a tense period out here you can see it all happening in real time so you just have to be as i said just mere steps away from the shelter but as you can see uh still still life going on is really security behind me still now coming out but it's it's definitely the sense that you have to be ready you have to be aware to to hop back inside at a moment's notice great nicole said thank you very much for joining us live from their own thank you very much uh i just want to bring people up to date in case you're just joining us from around the world there has been attacks on televieve and metro area all across israel central israel right now this is about 45 minutes now i'm joined here in studio with guy israeli uh we're just getting word now also into the studio that there have been some attacks actually i'm hearing them actually outside our window there's it's just south of televieve in khalon which is about a it's a suburb about 20 25 minutes from here uh rishon the sion which is about not too far away also about 20 25 minutes from here guys joining us tell up to speed what's up very near us we will hear the the bangs in the sky from the iron dome very shortly we're talking about dozens of rockets that have been launched into israel out of the gaza strip over the past hour and a half now uh it's a real um escalation in the situation of course uh it has been very tense over the past day and a half uh israel was expecting a reaction from the palestine factions in gaza and that has come now uh with a full blow we heard those rockets uh towards televieve still uh towards israel's center uh at this very hour israelis are being asked to go to shelters once they hear the siren near them or they could get them on the app of the homefront command people here in televieve in nearby communities have about 90 seconds to go to shelter that there's a lot of time there's no need to run uh they can make uh their way safely to the nearby shelter we are hearing from a senior israeli source now um some um comments to i24 news and this is what he tells us he says uh the expectation is for two or three days of escalation but it is way too early to know where could this develop of course we've seen multiple um um campaigns of israel in gaza some of them lasted weeks in the years that have passed ever since hamas took over uh the gaza strip in the mid 2000s um but this is the largest amount of rockets we've seen in years um not in years uh but certainly over the past year for sure we've seen a hundred rockets towards the rot just last week we're not at a hundred yet but the magnitude is different because right that's right these are rockets towards televieve the center of israel so many millions of israelis live here and that is a whole different ball game islamic jihad we should mention is a smaller organization this is not hamas as long as it is just islamic jihad that is involved in the fighting right now the capabilities of islamic jihad are fewer than that of hamas hamas as far as israel knows holds many dozens of rockets uh heavy rockets that could reach televieve as far as israel knows the islamic jihad only has a few of those rockets several of them have already been used and for now the assumption is that it is only the islamic jihad that's firing these rockets let's hear more from this senior israeli he does repeat that statement that the hamas is no in a no rush to join islamic jihad but we do not know whether they will join later down the road he says there are many elements who are trying to inflame the situation ahead of next week that is jerusalem day there is a an annual flag march and he says iran is the one that directs those moves of course we saw iranian president ibrahim racy in beirut uh just recently earlier this month meeting with delegations of both hamas and islamic jihad so there is no surprise at all as israel sees all these arenas coming together that is perhaps israel's biggest fear to see uh those terror factions joining forces both from gaza and the west bank but more than that with iran and its proxies on israel's northern front more from the israeli official the assessment is that even if hamas joins the islamic jihad with the firing they will not they do not expect any rocket fire out of lebanon because lebanon understands very well that the israeli reaction will be very hard and we saw what were the devastating results of the lebanon war the second lebanon war major damage to lebanon and khizballah does hold some responsibility as being part of the lebanese government still it is too soon to say how will things develop the israeli official also says that the successful operation in which the islamic jihad members were assassinated did return some of the israeli deterrence against these terror factions and the element of surprise was a critical component of that attack now you would imagine that the idf does a calculus ahead of time when they know that they're going to go in and they're going to have a they're going to take a military operation in gaza they know that this could happen as a result as a responses what what calculus do they make how did they work that out look we know uh that this operation was actually planned the whole operational plan was already signed and ready on friday night right israel has so many elements that come into consideration when an operation like this goes into force uh many of these elements include the first the possibility of harming of hitting those uh terror suspects those uh heads of terror organizations that israel wants to target and also the um possibility to hit them with as little uh civilian injuries or casualties as possible and the decision was made eventually uh a day and a half ago to hit them in their beds at night um obviously 10 civilians uh killed in in that strike in addition to those three islamic jihad this is not something that israel is happy about um but unfortunately for israel that that is the uh the unfortunate price of targeting these uh terror operatives israel wants to bring back back the deterrence the deterrence is not the civilians this is not israel's goal it is these terror operatives and these were very senior ones of the uh palestinian islamic jihad israel hopes that these moves will return the deterrence as we saw ongoing rocket fire not just from last tuesday so many events over the past weeks and months of rocket fire slowly hitting israel and israel has been responding mildly because a situation like this where we have such a large scale escalation that you can see how it um impacts all of israel so this is not something that is taking lightly the uh the human toll is terrible both for the residents in the south and for many israel is living here we need to run for shelter uh that is not including you know uh possible damages injuries fatalities if if it comes to that and also a serious uh impact on the daily lives on the economy of israel so israel was waiting it was holding holding holding holding on eventually the time has come where uh israel could not live with these rocket fire anymore and also the time for israel was right we also saw rocket fire last month during the holiday of Passover that was again not a very convenient time for israel the time has come now so the risk assessment was done by militant by the ministry of defense to go through to do this attack towards gaza earlier today uh knowing that there would be some sort of response back what happens now like what so without we're not a fly in the wall what happens in ministry defense but now what goes through the minds of those in that office first of all all these scenarios were taken into consideration when that operation took place it was very important for israel to strike only those members of islamic jihad israel wishes to keep hamas out of this escalation whether indeed it does or not time will tell for now hamas is speaking out the rhetoric is such that it is part of the operation but the israeli assessment is that so far we have not seen hamas firing any rockets towards israel but going forward that would really depend on the scale of the escalation israel on its part fulfilled its its goal in taking down these operatives also hitting many many of the islamic jihad missile launching sites unfortunately there are dozens if not hundreds of them hidden on the ground israel with all its intelligence doesn't know where all of them are but we are seeing these little strikes today um where uh drones and other civilians means of israel locate uh terrorists who were getting ready to launch rockets and were hitting them so that these were parts of those hits the escalation will depend on the scale on and also on the human damage for now the iron dome is able to um to take down such a large percentage of these rockets if god forbid a rocket hits a highly populated building and creates a major damage that of course could change the picture completely let's talk a little about those missiles because right now from gaza to the televive is how many kilometers roughly 50 or so right so right so if you're looking at these missiles who can that can make they usually about 10 5 to 10 15 kilometers between gaza and sterot or astod or any of those but to hit televive is along means that the missiles much be larger or they're longer range missiles is there is something to be said about that that maybe they're without the help of hamas they're able to make that trajectory yes this is what we mentioned earlier the fact that the islamic jihad uh is a much smaller group at least uh in gaza doesn't have the same capabilities as uh hamas it holds a quite a barrage of of rockets that could reach those communities in the south israeli security establishment believes they only have maybe a dozen or two of those um longer range missiles the rocket sorry uh that could reach televy we saw at least two or three of them launched over the past hour it's interesting because uh it was not clear what was the strategy of islamic jihad israel took down uh those operatives a day and a half ago and uh since then there's been this major sense of suspense people were waiting they were they were waiting here but definitely were waiting in the south of israel in fear of uh this retaliation that didn't in indeed uh come and eventually today that was the time for islamic jihad we don't know their calculations they were very happy to keep israel um at bay to keep uh those residents in fear we know that thousands of them have have uh evicted to tel aviv to natanya to northern communities to jurist them away from the short range uh missiles and although they do reach these areas as well for now that that many of them and it is safer here because if you do have so much more time to run to for shelter can you imagine being a mother with three little children outside when you have 1515 15 seconds to run to shelter that is an impossible reality uh guy israeli thank you i just in case you're just joining us now we are live on i24 news there for the past hour now that had been a there's been a missile attack uh on is on israel uh through tel aviv the southern communities of tel aviv this has now been going for about an hour uh there have been some there've been many of the interceptions by the iron dome the iron dome seems to have been working uh our correspondents are in shelter they're actually out in the field as well and guy israeli is joining me here in studio uh one of the things that i want in case you're just joining us also from around the world uh we have not gotten any information on any injuries that have occurred here in israel uh we're getting the information coming in right into i24 news guy israeli still joins me here in studio uh you know when you walk around the streets of tel aviv yesterday there was always like this and the sense of something could happen right like and people i think for many who live here on a regular basis or or at least know the realities as you do for sure those who listen to the news who know what's going on in the south this sense of suspense was definitely uh evident here as well but i just came from the center of tel aviv uh two hours ago this is of square very central area was packed with people on their daily lives tel aviv is such a vibrant city anyone who visited know this very well the coffee shop the restaurants are full people are out and about it's a beautiful sunny day the beginning of the summer um and then the iron and then the sirens go off exactly and and and and that reality just stops just in in in a moment and uh and uh really reminds people what is the reality of their friends their families uh in who live just an hour it's just an hour away you know i think that our viewers in america uh sometimes uh have a difficult time understanding the distances here uh israel is such a small country it is only one hour away from from here in tel aviv to ashkelon to the wrought to these communities who are right on the border and that was a an alarm bell literally right that reminds people of what it's like dealing with these terror groups in gaza guy israeli is going to stay with me in studio let me first to just recap those of you just joining us from around the world there have been some missile attacks against israel that have occurred about an hour ago uh tel aviv was struck there was uh it was intercepted that you could hear the booms right outside our studio uh so as of now there are no reports of injury but let me first now bring in professor fray minbar he's the president at the jerusalem institute for strategy and security and he's joining me live now from jerusalem professor thank you so much for joining us um my pleasure so this obviously is now the game has changed right this is now we're now before where it was like we had a ceasefire we were getting we were trying to work things out the and now the game has changed here hasn't it is the game has not changed we are at the beginning of another round as we had in the past and i don't think that there is a change in in the behavior of the palestinian islamic jihad or in the behavior of his way but the idea though that the idea of attacking these high-level hamas uh and and pij members um this this was done for to make sure that it was a preventative idea it wasn't a retaliatory yes it is preventive and uh indeed it will take time for the terrorist organization to have new leaders as mature and as experienced and as those that were taking care of israel and uh is a attack on on palestinian jihad islamist targets definitely will have some kind of deterrence effect but now what would you say to those there are some senior sources in organizations and gaza have been saying to the media there we are only at the beginning i presume that they might be right that it's the beginning of a round and they have plenty of missiles there and they can shoot and paralyze parts of the country this is within their ability and unless there is a major israeli ground operation they will continue to have those abilities what do you think israel's response ought to be is it obviously i mean the rackets have came have come now it's been an hour and 15 minutes since the first launches is it a matter of wait and see or is it an immediate attack back well i think first of all we should make sure that our defenses are well calibrated and are able to intercept the majority or 90 percent of the missiles as they've done in the past and second to prepare for a larger attack maybe even a ground operation in order to limit the capabilities of the terrorist in gaza to terrorize large parts of the country so professor if if you are in the military right now in the ministry defense what's your what's the strategy here for you you think and i i think first of all we should have clear priorities our main priority still is iran and we have to make sure that we have enough preparations to deal with an iranian with an iranian project and this is why we have developed over the years as a strategy of mowing the grass basically we try once in a while to limit the capabilities of the terrorists in gaza to harm us and to maintain our focus on our main security challenge which is iran this is not always satisfactory psychologically for some people in israel but i think this strategy has to be continued right professor frayam imbar the president of the drusselm institute for strategy security joining us from drusselm thanks again for joining us if you're looking at our live pictures now these are live pictures coming in from gaza you'll see there was a plume of smoke in what appears to be gaza city but i also now just want to go to nicole said she's the i-24 news correspondent she's in sterot israel right now is nicole give us an update what's happening behind you yes definitely is still still really it's it's unknown what's happening as as we continue to hear these explosions overhead within the past five minutes hearing more right now none but there is the sense that at any moment we do have to be near our protected safe space we have been running in and out of this shelter really for the past hour and a half now and and it's not only us it's all of the israeli security forces that are here near the gaza strip as well i want to pan over and show you just kind of where we are right now we're just miles away from the gaza border this is as as close as they'll let us get you can see actually some of these israeli security officers talking to this man who's trying to get into the town of nachal os it's only residents who are being allowed in there right now so he's been stopped at this checkpoint for about 10 15 minutes now um they won't let the press in through so this is really as close as we can get but we are still getting it a very real sense of everything that is happening right here near the gaza strip in fact uh to behind me here this is towards they wrote and that's where we have also seen many sirens going off in the past hour many explosions overhead and and really just authorities urging everyone to really stay in their safe space because really within a moment's notice you're going to have to go back in there and there's no telling exactly how much uh when it will happen and exactly where we are right now we have about five seconds to get into the shelter so that is why we are staying so close at all times really just walking distance a stone's throw away to the inside the shelter for whenever we do have to enter it so it's really uh continuing just in a feeling of anxiety here that residents have been feeling all morning waiting for this exact uh retaliation to happen that's what we were hearing from residents in state wrote earlier today they said they were waiting they knew this retaliation would happen they were wondering when now that is exactly what we're seeing with with more than reports of more than 100 rockets firing the iron dome intercepting them and and those are the images that we have seen with with these clouds of smoke overhead right above our heads right here as we see the rockets fired and immediately the iron dome with a thin line just going and an explosion with that plume of smoke so we are witnessing it all first hand here like I said just mere miles away from the Gaza Strip so Nicole I see a couple cars going past you so when does someone know that they all clear has been sounded like when were you able to get out of the shelter well really right now we are still under that period from Israeli's home front command telling everyone to continue to stay in their shelter but as I said in this area where we are right now we're actually not hearing sirens we're just seeing the rockets and feeling the explosion itself and that kind of gives us the heads up to quickly get into the shelter but as far as the sirens we're not hearing them and we are continuing to be under that that threat and that alert to stay in your safe space however as you do see cars are continuing to be out on the road this is unfortunately a reality that many citizens and residents are are used to here so they are continuing to use caution as I said you can see a lot of these explosions first hand and so they're going to continue about their daily life using their cars using their roads but but that is not what authorities are are saying to do right now they are urging everyone to really take precautions because as we have seen for the past hour hour and a half now it's just been a range of rockets and there's really no telling exactly when the next one might be great Nicole said thank you very much stay safe out there and Nicole said again her team that are in sterot israel right now i'm joined in the studio with guy israeli we just got this in from the islamic jihad spokesman apparently said some words to the al-jazeera why don't you go ahead and tell us what yeah so the spokesman of the islamic jihad daoud shihab speaking to al-jazeera and he says the the reaction to the assassination is a message to the occupation to his words that proves that it failed in his gambles and with its goals the government of the occupation and its military carry the responsibility for this escalation a lot it's interesting because we're also hearing from a senior IDF officer the head of kogat that's the body that is in charge of coordinating relations with the palestinian territories his name is rassan alian and he sends a message directly to the people of gaza he doesn't speak to al-jazeera he goes on his facebook speaking in his own language in arabic to the people of gaza and he tells them that the islamic jihad bears the full responsibility for damaging the security stability in the igaza strip he says the leadership of the islamic jihad has made a mistake and they pay for that mistakes the leadership and those responsible are traveling abroad enjoying luxury hotels and sending their people in gaza to fire rockets towards israel instead of protecting your needs your financial horizon and your well-being they are putting you and your family in danger for events that are not related to gaza at all he refers to the incident on tuesday last week in which a prisoner that belongs affiliate is affiliated with islamic jihad went on a hunger strike of 80 days eventually died of his hunger strike following the instructions of leaders also from iran those islamic jihad operatives decided to send over a hundred rockets it's an unbelievable number just towards one city in in in the course of an hour or two that's just the incredible barrage and the only goal here is to shed israeli blood this is this is the goal of these terror organizations to shed blood to harm the lives and to terrorize the lives of israelis and i think with that they're doing a very good job because for the past day and a half the people of israel especially in the south their lives have been halted children do not go to school workplaces are are closed many families need to evict and you see the daily reality here as well israel is being held hostage by a group of jihadists in gaza that fire rockets whenever they please under the guidance of iran and this is the reality that israel wants to put an end to will it be long term i doubt it but the message for israel is returning the deterrence and the message is that no one is immune including the most senior islamic jihad operatives in gaza and the idea being is that these are precision strikes this isn't just a barrage like the barrage of rockets that are coming this way to israel are indiscriminate they just basically blanket the entire area i think that is the most important distinction here the islamic jihad or hamas for that matter fires rockets towards civilian territories without any clear direction whatever hits that's that's good for them this operation it took weeks to plan it took days to execute because israel was only looking to harm those terror operatives those three senior members of islamic jihad responsible both for rocket fire and for inciting more violence in the west bank is well waited for the right moment to strike them while they were in their homes in hope for uh um results that would not cost the life of many other innocent civilians like their families unfortunately 10 of them have died as well in that strike that is not something that israel is happy about and not just because of the world reaction israel is not looking to kill innocent civilians in gaza if it wished to do that israel could have wiped out gaza completely within hours that is the last thing that israel wants to do israel wants a good life for the people of gaza israel was expending the number of work permits for gaza israel israel was promoting financial projects in gaza uh to certain degrees in cooperation with hamas the rules gaza and these terror groups when they fire dozens hundreds of rockets into israeli territory first of all harm the well-being of those residents who are also held captive by these terror groups there was talk of even lessening some of the restrictions so work restrictions permit restrictions entry restrictions there was there was talk of that before this happened yesterday two days ago so this obviously it's not as though israel said okay we're just going to jump in and randomly hit people yeah i think this is where hamas comes into the picture islamic jihad does not rule gaza it can do whatever it wants under the guidelines of iran it's a different story for hamas that does need to bear responsibility also for the people that he it controlled yes it is a terror group that terrorizes israel on a regular basis whose goal is to eliminate the state of israel this is what hamas islamic jihad and these terror factions the jihadists want to do eventually but hamas is also a political group that controls the gaza strip in israel as much as it doesn't like or at least likes to say that it doesn't negotiate with terrorists the reality is that israel has to deal with hamas hamas as the one who rules this enclave and israel shares some of the responsibility for their well-being although hamas is the main ruler of hama of of gaza and bears the responsibility israel tries to cooperate with hamas in order to achieve better life for those gazins and and to uh remove the incentive to uh to engage in terror all the more reason why that video message from kogat to the residents of gaza was extremely important the idea being is that the the idea is that the residents of gaza should take responsibility and do something about it that that is the message that israel sends to the people of gaza uh all the time unfortunately innocent people in gaza have very little power over such a wealthy wealthy terror group that is sponsored in millions by iran and other uh groups in in this area while its leaders live luxury life in the gulf or in syria in beirut we're traveling all over while so many people in gaza have to live uh from such a tiny income living a very poor life living in an enclave that's closed because of the terror activity of uh of hamas this was not the goal of israel i can remind our viewers israel withdrew all its forces out of gaza israel evicted tens of thousands of israelis off out of their homes in the settlements in the gaza area for for some of them forcibly unfortunately under a government decision that was highly controversial in hope for a better future and the the results were unfortunately the opposite of what it hoped for great guy israeli stay with me here in the studio let's look now go to batia levinthal she's i-24 news correspondent she's in televive right now batia right so an interesting scene happening in televive around an hour ago a rocket interception happening just over the i-24 news studios that are behind me in the corner there which is in jaffa but what's quite interesting albert is walking along the pier over here by the beachfront there's relatively few people out today and a lot of the the the actions point to the fact that first of all it is the middle of a working day and it's working hours but also a lot of the tourists saying that they feel relatively nervous to be outside and that's why they prefer to rather be at the pool side in some of the hotels i'll remind some of our viewers in may is when we start to see sort of an influx of overseas tourists coming in because the summer months of june july and august and obviously the summer holidays are just around the corner and so it's relatively a time where they do seem to flock to israel to lie on the beaches to relax a lot of them at least walking around here saying that they are huddling close to the bomb shelters that are open on the beach but also staying close to their hotel we also know that bengurian international airport located in televive had directed some of its flights at least in the air that we're about to land at the international airport here to circle around up until they knew that it was clear so they are in um contact with the idf um and the air force in order to make sure that those planes can land we are being told that they are operating on normal schedules as of now but waiting for situational updates in the meantime we do know that a british airways flight flight with a former employee was actually redirected to lanaka and cyprus and they have just landed there now and obviously that flight will hopefully make its way through to televive but it just goes to show you the disruption that happens when there are rockets that are being aimed towards more of the central uh cities but it also then puts a tinge in a lot of the people's thought patterns here in the center of what it must be like to be under such a barrage of rockets going off every second more than a hundred rockets being fired particularly into the south it must make for a very difficult situation and very difficult for residents to spend any inch of their day outside necessarily of the bomb shelters and as guy israel mentioned in the studio this really just touches on the fact that khamas and the palestinian islamic jihad we know khamas has not yet joined in on this but at least palestinian islamic jihad's response is aimed at terrorizing israel a lot of residents myself included waking up in the middle of the night last night for fear of possibly missing a siren because it would seem that it's a fatata operation or at least response and approach would have been the case since israel did end up uh citing that first operation at around two o'clock on tuesday morning but not necessarily the case as a result very much playing this wait and see game for a lot of residents here in israel so bacha when you're at the tayela which is that everyone knows i mean anyone who's visited televive knows that tayela it's extremely it usually busy you're saying that there's so many of the tourists who have disappeared disappeared for better lack of retirement because they're nervous what about israelis or israelis there are they saying that life just goes on we this is we're used to this israelis have got to be one of the most resilient populations on the planet but again this does disrupt their lives and you do sort of have uh the brackets of yes this is our life we don't have any other country and we saw that a lot during the recent protests that have gripped israel for the last 18 weeks a lot of these people feel so dedicated to the cause because their answer is this is our country we don't have another place besides israel a lot of the jews in the diaspora come here seeking a refuge from anti-semitism and from other issues that happen in the diaspora and so there very much is a sense that while this is our daily life and things do have to go on which as i mentioned a lot of israelis are currently at work it is a wednesday it's working hours there is still a sense in there of that nervousness when the rockets do get fired at central israel which is not common compared to the south great bachel 11th all joining us live from the televive tayela thank you so much for joining us in case you're just joining us now i just want to give everyone an update you're looking at live pictures of televieve right now where not about an hour an hour and a half ago some rockets from gaza about a hundred rockets were launched from gaza some of which were actually aimed right at televieve and just outside our studio just in downtown televieve you could hear the booms in the air you knew something was up you knew that the missiles were being aimed at televieve and that the iron dome was was intercepting these these rocket attacks these are live pictures coming from these are not lives this is from the elix momenty okay sorry thank you for updating me on that guy while i have you here so we're getting a couple words in from the prime minister benjamin at anyahu yes not much he just held a conference call with the heads of municipalities in the south and he tells them the unfortunate reality that we are preparing for a possibility of expanding this operation of course this all depends on what we will see out of gaza the rocket fire and whether hamas joins the pij or not in in firing rockets at israeli civilians is also saying that we could serve a gaza major blows if needed if if more israelis have to run to shelters if this impossible reality continues now there was there's mentioned here some reports that that some killed belong to the front of popular palestinian committee this is this is an important detail no um yes um we were discussing of course hamas and islamic jihad of course they are not the only militant factions they are not the only terror groups in gaza unfortunately um yes the popular resistance it's it is another group in gaza we i doubt that that would be a major game changer to uh to the reality to the reaction israel was hitting rocket launchers these two that were killed over the past hour were viewed by drones getting ready preparing to send more rockets towards israeli civilians towards israeli communities in in this case the idf was able to track them and and to target them before they fired those rockets and that is the message of deterrence i think here that israel will no longer sit idly by as rockets are launched as happened for so many times over the past weeks over the past months and particularly at this time israel is ready to react and everyone who goes out on his mission to fire rockets at innocent civilians will know that his life could be in danger those drones are so critical to this aren't they i think uh israel invests hundreds of millions of shackles uh into uh surveillance into intelligence into security when it comes to the gaza strip billions of shackles were invested in building a barrier because maybe our viewers can remember just a few years ago the main fear perhaps was that of tunnels that infiltrate israel we have had several instances of terrorists infiltrating through the ground finding themselves in the middle of civilian population and are and being able to slaughter israelis called blooded another thing that israel does of course invests so much money and resources into is the iran dome this is an israeli invention that is i think when we're just wouldn't they just suggested this in the mid two thousands you know hamas started firing rockets into israel from around year 2000 2001 very slow and weak rockets mortars perhaps more at that time the idea that israel would be able to stop these rockets made air seemed impossible though many in the defense establishment said this will never work and anyway the cost will be too high well israel does get assistance from the us as well in sponsoring these um defensive rockets and you see this reality every day now you you walk in tell of eve and you see the rocket the terrorist rocket explodes mid air by the iran dome launches uh this is an incredible achievement but i think it's also part of the problem because how when um rockets are fired on a daily basis sometimes and are being uh stopped mid air they're very fortunately for israel there is no human life damage obviously there's a trauma there's many people that need to run to shelters but i think that if it wasn't for the iran dome and of course we're all happy that israel has that the israeli um reaction would have been different if you think if these are if this security if and i think that if if rockets if those hundreds of rockets would have hit civilian buildings now killing hundreds or thousands of israelis on a daily basis the israeli reaction would be very different it would not be a targeted killing of three pj members right and that is why that in a sense is a problem of this ongoing situation going on over 20 years now of rocket fire that this is a problem that with no end inside as long as these terror groups control the gaza strip the situation of course has only become worse since hamas took over the strip now you mentioned moments ago we talked about kogat and the fact that they had a statement to the palace to the people in gaza the residents of gaza we have that clip right now we let's throw it away now let's listen to it residents of gaza the leadership of the palestinian islamic jihad made a mistake and they pay for mistakes the leadership and those in charge are traveling abroad and from the hotels they are sending their people to fire rockets at israel instead of protecting your needs and taking care of the economic horizon and improving your situation they are endangering you and your families because of false events that have nothing to do with gaza so guy now this video this video statement is as you mentioned was very important because it's pointed towards the people of gaza and it seems as though the idea here is for them to say try to rise up against that terrorism of being trapped in your own home from the folks that are doing these things at least explains what israel does right now explains who's responsible as far as israel sees it and very importantly this message is being sent in their own language rossan elian is a drus israeli speaks arabic that message is a video message in arabic to the people of gaza look what these terror groups are doing to you not just to the people of israel terrorizing israelis millions of israelis terrorizing millions of palestinians in gaza that have to suffer this unbearable reality you know we talk a lot about the human suffering here and it is severe the situation is a lot more dire in gaza it should be mentioned and and the solution to this situation is not terrorizing israel because there'll be no end to that israel is a hundred times stronger than these terror groups right if it wished it could have done a much greater damage to gather this is not what israel wants is all wants to live peacefully next to the people of gaza and as long as these terror groups control the strip that's that's not happening at the same time and this is incredible israel is promoting projects in gaza of employment of of industries of bringing in i personally met myself gazans who come travel to israel every day for work and the the money that they make in israel is worth a fortune in gaza in the income there is is so low is just a few dollars and here in israel they get paid as any regular israelis the former defense minister benny gans expanded the number of work permits for those gazans who are able to travel every day this is such makes such a big impact on their lives on their families and on and in the entire economy of gaza when that money flows in and and and so many things can happen and and and but in the moment that moment siphoned away in the moment some of it but still that is a relief for for those families and and what happens the moment that they fired those rockets the moment that this escalation started well the crossings into gaza both the eras crossing that this the human crossing where people go in and out of gaza that should be mentioned because people think that the enclave is completely locked out it's that is not the case gazans with work permits are able to travel to israel to visit and and and in the morning come in in the morning and go back to gaza in in the evening once they're done with their work in israel there's also the carom shalom crossing that is the goods also highly important bringing in so much supply israel allows thousands of trucks into gaza every day with food with uh with medicine with so many things that these people in gaza need because of this unfortunate reality of the area being closed because of these terror groups israel says that to the people of gaza very clearly if you want a better future you need to do what you can not to participate and know who's responsible for these actions as we're talking about gaza let's just we're going to go now live to pier closer to he's he's adding to our live team coverage of the rocket attacks against israel he's joining us now live from the israel gaza border pier thanks for joining us tell yeah and tell me a little bit what is happening where you are right now where there's been a lot uh at least from the palestinian side uh onto the israeli territory right now for the past 20 minutes half hour there hasn't been any rocket launching in the sky over us we're in kibbutz saad nearby the security fence between israel and the gaza strip with they were interceptions earlier that we've seen uh toward zderot in that direction and the tivot in that direction we know that in zderot in about an hour and a half ago there was a direct hit on a house but the house was inoccupied there's been also direct hits on a chicken uh a place where they grow chicken and as well as in a in a kindergarten but there were no injuries the kindergarten was closed schools and kindergartens has been have been closed in the area since yesterday morning so all in all there's been no casualties here in the vicinity of the border with the gaza strip we've seen an israeli attack helicopter hovering above us earlier on so there is still intense activity over the gaza strip right now so pier for those of us just joining us who were not by a tv half hour ago walk us through what you experienced about 30 minutes 45 minutes almost an hour ago well i reached here and uh we just uh heard the shriek of one of the rockets uh with you know the tail the the white smoke tail and then after a few seconds a boom of an interception with a black smoke the iron dome anti-missile missile system intercepted one of those rockets we've seen other interceptions towards zderot zderot is a city of 30 000 inhabitants so it is very important to protect that city especially that last week during the previous round of fighting there were three chinese foreign workers on a construction site that had been wounded by a rocket fire they don't want that to be repeated again especially that this time the rocket fire is much more intensive than in the previous round last week we've seen this helicopter hovering over our head we are actually hearing helicopters but we don't see them right now and right now it's pretty calm great thank you very much plush under he's joining us live from the israel gaza border i'm joined here in studio by guy israeli i just i just we've gotten some spokesperson from the idf has just come out with something can you walk us through a little bit about uh now just in case you're joining us uh this is operation shield and arrow uh which was launched overnight into this morning uh and so guy talk a little bit about that just a small update from the idf spokesman that the idf has struck stations of launching mortars by the islamic jihad fighter jets actually targeted these two sides of mortars belonging to the islamic jihad also saying the idf will continue to operate in order to maintain the security of the people of israel great guy thank you very much i'm joined also in studio by oan alterman or senior correspondent here at i-24 this is a test this is a test of the prime minister this is a this is a test of the defense minister uh what goes on with them yeah they've been tested before i think that's the first thing to say this is certainly not benjamin it's yao's first time around the block in terms of a campaign uh with the gaza strip this one is different from most although not all of those campaigns uh albert in the sense that israel initiated this one of course obviously there were tax on israelis there was rocket fire in israelis there was things that israel was defending itself against but it was israel that decided the timing of an escalation meaning that strike just about 36 hours ago against those leaders of the islamic jihad that has not generally been benjamin it's in yao's practice in conflicts and in military operations he has tended to escalate in response to escalations from the other side here making a different calculus and a strategic decision to control the timing right to have the timing be on israel's terms and not the other side's terms that entails a certain amount of risk which nithin yao we should say in the past has not generally been willing to take so in that sense it is a bit of a new test although again at least in 2012 there was something a bit similar so again not the first time for nithin yao as for yov gala yes i believe the first time his defense ministry's faced anything like this but certainly again as a top leader in the in in the military certainly again been around the block of conflicts and military operations and so forth so these are two very experienced figures obviously having to make very careful decisions by all accounts this has been planned for a week two weeks with plans in the drawer and they're executing according to the plan that at least to the sense that they're giving to the public great only stand by one second we're getting live we're not getting live waiting a bit piece of videotape coming in now from prime minister benjamin it's now who let's go to that now we are ready for the possibility of the expansion of the campaign and for severe blows already now and in the future all in all i think we have the upper hand you are in this fight and i appreciate your support in standing then guy israeli expansion of the campaign first of all nithin yao with owin's voice unfortunate reality of having to do up here quickly fast yeah yeah latest information out of gaza left aside so far 19 people killed so far since the start of the operation 37 wounded of course among those 19 three of those senior in stabic jihad operatives that were assassinated 10 innocent civilians and and we're looking at live pictures these are live pictures coming in from gaza right now apparently a strike has occurred that's the plume of smoke coming in from an idf plane that obviously dropped something there could be related to the statement that we just heard about targeting these mortar launches as the rocket fire continues so do the idf strikes on those launching sites as we said there are dozens if not hundreds of those just for islamic jihad i'm not even talking about hamas and other factions in gubs on the way taking out those rockets getting ready to launch them when it has the chance it does target them and in this case two israeli fighter jets hate these operatives and that was what we're saying guys you'll stand by one second oh and let me go back to you for one second in terms of your diplomatic portfolio the prime minister the defense minister looks at this from a larger picture also we've had a rapprochement between some of them as some of them the gulf states with iran we've got some the us taking a distance of a stand a little bit where does that fit into everything here it's relevant it's relevant as israeli conducts the war as much as i think the leaders albert sometimes would like to tell us it's not and their only concern with the security issues obviously the diplomacy has to be part of it the pattern generally has been in israeli military operations that at the beginning of the campaign israel is strong support and that support erodes over the course of time why because generally the beginning of the campaign is provoked by the other side right the other side attacking israel in some kind of massive way in israel responding which helps israel internationally also the way the process works is the air force has what's called its target bank right you know a list of hundreds of targets i don't know how many but ranked in a sense right and the ones at the top of the list are ones where on the one hand you have a high value target and on the other hand a low risk of civilian casualties so those are easy targets to hit without much potential risk or backlash for israel including diplomatically but as you start to exhaust that that target bank you start to get into more gray areas and start to take on more risk and we've seen that time and time again israeli campaigns in gaza this one in that sense has to be said is different because the initial strike involves so many civilian casualties right so even that initial strike the military rightly or wrongly for better or worse took on this risk and which became a reality of significant civilian casualties alongside those very those three very senior commanders who were killed and you're right that means that israel doesn't have the strong international support at the start of the campaign that it has had in the past what does that mean going forward is there more erosion does the erosion happen more quickly does it cause israel to try to roll back the campaign sooner again i think those are questions that the the leadership is going to have to be testing as to use your word day in day out of an hour an hour out in case you're just joining us we are live now at i-24 news with a rocket attack that several many rockets being aimed at israel right now there are there's one rocket attack we've just gotten a red alert that says that zikim is an area that has been that's now under red alert that's in the southern part of israel this is not there had been about a lull for about a half hour but now apparently there's some more rockets being launched right now oh and in terms of you had talked a lot about the fact that this is different where before the prime minister had always done it as sort of a retaliatory incident now this is a little bit more of a on on nothing now whose terms is this where some of the the allies will say wait wait wait hold on a minute what why are we doing that yes in a word i can first of all say it's not unprecedented the 2012 Gaza military operation for example began with an Israeli targeted assassination on a major figure in Gaza and that led to an instant escalation so Netanyahu has done something like this before but that said when you look at the sweep of israel certainly the major guys of conflicts and even the ones that were lesser the general pattern has been an escalation from the other side that israel is responding to and you're right albert that gives israel a stronger measure of legitimacy abroad at the beginning and we have to emphasize that at the beginning we all know all of us all of our viewers know what has happened over the course of those campaigns to israel standing abroad in an international public opinion yeah we did hear something outside just in case you're just joining us we did hear a big large explosion just out of our studio very close yeah there's a three or four now yeah yeah no sirens in in Tel Aviv but we did hear the explosions anyway obviously an evolving situation and something is rarely sadly have become used to of course to remind everyone watching in israel important it is of course to follow the instruction of the home front command and how we have seen in past conflicts that it has often saved lives and it's something important for all of us to keep in mind but you're right albert that international standing and opinion is part of this but of course not all of it there also is internal politics and giving the israeli public a sense of confidence in the security and there is the strategic calculation right trying to take control of the timing trying to do this in israel's own terms so it's not during the month of ramadan on one hand so it's not after the drusselm day march next week which is tended to lead to escalations most famously in 2021 two years ago that this is a time when israel is doing it on its terms and not on the other side's terms to what extent will that actually give israel an advantage and actually get israel and prime minister netanyahu a better result of course that's the big question great oh and ultimate hold on one second i just want to get people up to date right now in case you're just joining us from around the world the i-24 news is live with breaking news coverage of the missile attacks that are occurring on towards israel they have been some interceptions in the past few minutes when the past 30 within the past 30 seconds that we heard a large boom there have been four or five of them that we can hear right here in our studio there have been interceptions all throughout the southern part of televieve we are in yafo which is just on the southern part of televieve we can hear it from here so we know that the interceptions are underway we are going to continue with our live coverage as this continues oh and let me go back to you for one second now the this would then presume that we we know the israel the israeli government knows that this is about to happen they are now intercepting as best as they can the iron dome is knocking out almost all of these missiles but now now comes the now what now what happens from here what happens from here is israel tries to get to a point where the security situation is better at the end of the campaign for israelis and israelis feel safer at the end of the campaign than they did before it that's always the standard when you're measuring gaza campaigns albert it's a different difficult standard to apply a very difficult standard to evaluate right especially since it often has to be evaluated looking backward rather than forward but that ultimately is the standard by which it will be judged it's the phrase that's often used in hebrew is the best translation i can make in english is the picture of victory right which is a kind of emotional sense that what you are seeing before you is something that means that you have come out on top in the campaign it's very very hard to pin down and i think what you're getting at in your question i think rightly is is how much that shows about how little strategic imagination there is here in israel's part but the reality is no one has come up with a better alternative we could talk about this later in the broadcast i think actually the biggest crisis is the crisis of strategy for mass and it's complete strategic failure great let's hold on one second all too much let me go now to piaz talk about she's joining us live uh at the in estad pia what's happening right behind you now well urban exactly we're here in estad we're less than 40 kilometers less than 25 miles away from the gaza strip here we had at least six rockets six times people had to run to the shelter within the last hours now people here are quite used to that regular rounds of escalations but still you see that the roads are relatively empty where you hear and a shopping mall and as you can see there are a few cars parked here most of them also belong to the workers here but there are really not a lot of people outside here now there are a few public shelters here also in the area of the shopping mall also we are being told that many of these shops have a safe room within also as i said because estad is if cities that is regularly targeted whenever there is an escalation with gaza chances are high that also estad is affected so people here are regular are relatively used to these rounds of escalations but of course the situation is very volatile as they can see it is relatively calm right now but we saw that an interception also happened quite close to the hospital here in estad so people of course are quite worried about what is there to come what is there to expect they have been albert under special instruction and the special instructions for the past more than 24 hours since yesterday morning special instructions were in place for people live in the area of about 25 miles away from the gaza enclave which means that public gatherings were restricted not more than 10 people were allowed to gather outside not more than 100 inside schools were closed were suspended today throughout the day as well now some train services were suspended as well in the area and also some roads were blocked now these special instructions from the home front command are in place until 6 p.m. in the evening but given the situation albert it seems very likely that they will be extended maybe also to further areas people here are not also were advised to stay very close to shelters not everyone also in a city like estad has a public shelter room in their houses there are lots of public shelters people are advised and have been advised to do so to stay as close as possible next to shelters since yesterday morning basically so people are also after a very tense and very tiring period of time as they were expecting that reaction from gaza to come now the escalation has begun we have seen that rocket fire also up for the north to up to televiv now people here are expecting that this round is not over yet of course they are remaining as close to their public as close to public shelters as possible or as close to their homes as possible people are rushing also to get their children from wherever they are school service has been suspended throughout the day but there is this feeling of people have to prepare for whatever there is to come of course there are many questions albert that need to be asked now is that rocket fire only coming from the palestine islamic had will have us join those are questions which we don't have the answer for right now but i guess the facts will speak in the coming hours so i'm looking behind you some people have left their security they've left the secure spaces are walking around in the streets is that mean that that they've gotten the all clear or are they just doing it on their own risk they're doing this basically at their own risk as the home front commands instructions still say that people should remain as close to shelters as possible but you'll also hear in an area that has some public shelters so here in us dot you have about 45 seconds to run to a public shelter when you hear the alert so people here in this area they are within that time frame of being able to run to a shelter in the case off so but as i also said albert here in us dot people are used to that rounds of escalations people are used to these scenarios so many people feel comfortable enough to leave also but also shops were not close throughout the day so we also have a lot of workers here who take their break who are outside to do not stay in their shops all the time because they also have a lot fewer customers than normal because of course people were advised to stay home if possible so also business as usually you cannot really say because as you see this shopping mall is quite empty and has been quite empty but yes there are people who feel comfortable enough to also wander outside although this is not recommended especially as we can expect a new alert basically any second great pia sheikh box he's joining us live now from asto with our live team coverage i just want to give a recap as we hit the top of the hour there have been about a hundred missiles aimed at israel in the past couple of hours now within the past five ten minutes there were about four or five interceptions right over televieve the rocket siren alerts have occurred in televieve we all got it on our mobile phones we hear the sirens outside in the televieve area so the this continues you're looking at live pictures now this is gaza this is now another idf strike at a gaza at a gaza point you'll see a plume of smoke there as the camera pulls back you'll see that's uh there in gaza city uh this is uh i've been going on now for about two hours i'm joining not only live in studio with on ultimate but also with rafael you're you're showing me he's a former senior intelligence officer at the idf and also security analyst thank you so much for joining us uh this is um quite the escalation that was expected uh yes and no because we were expecting them to fire at some point yes but not to fire that intensely and that's such a long range usually in the former rounds that we've had uh with the the guards and terrorists uh they graduate their shots they start by the south of israel then there's like a reprisals from the idf that's also those and graduated and then they shoot more inland and it takes usually a few good hours sometimes more than a day before they decide to shoot towards televiv which is usually a message uh saying we're ready for the big fight when they so usually it takes longer this was like between 130 and 213 in one hour they they did what they usually do in one day and they immediately sent the message we're ready for the big fight meaning for a bigger reprisal bring it on yeah come with us bring it that's right so the there are two possibilities here what did they do that uh the first is that they were frustrated by the fact that they were trying as we know since yesterday uh to do a different kind of hit uh with an anti-tank missile maybe to shoot at an idf patrol or some bus with workers uh to or any hit that would have had real casualties uh to maybe have a new formula uh not the missiles and they failed yesterday they tried the anti-tank missile people were trying to shoot got eliminated by the idf so there is this frustration that might justify or explain this intensity of firing of the missiles today another explanation is that they're in a panic they know that they will be able to operate for so long so they probably want to stop uh very strongly because they want to fire uh uh what they can while they can and use these long range missiles while they can knowing that sooner or later right now as we are speaking i think we can hear that there's a bit of a long it's a little quieter because uh of course the idea is in full swing over them with the drones with the artillery with the with the planes and they're now not going to be so easy for them now to shoot missiles uh not only to the north of israel or the center but even uh the mortars because they've just been hit a few positions have just been hit by the idea of uh mortar shootings we don't know on our sides of casualties on the palestinian side but the palestinian ministry of health has announced that they have received uh at least a few wounded people and maybe two or three corpses so the fact that they had very little time you also must remember that the islamic jihad doesn't have the quantity of ammunition and that the Hamas has right the Hamas you're talking thousands thousands of missiles in the islamic jihad is more like hundreds and missiles able to reach Tel Aviv a few dozens so that's might explain the fact that they shot so much so fast uh it the kind of panic like they say let's do it now because we don't know if we're going to be able to continue uh disquieting the the israelis uh for long so that would that would it seem to think that that what they're doing now is getting rid of everything which is all in one big barrage but that's at some point they'll run out of missiles at some point but the the estimate is between 3000 and 5000 projectiles I would call it meaning like real missiles I said a few dozen towards Tel Aviv for the south of Israel it's it's much more and then you have all the mortar or the little projectiles but these projectiles can be more lethal because they are much more difficult to intercept they're very short range it's a few seconds the the iron dome is not able to intercept such small projectiles they might be be actually more dangerous even though we saw that we had at least two hits meaning the iron dome didn't stop everything today it was one hit on the house since they wrote and when we hit on the roof of a kindergarten fortunately the inhabitants obeying the instructions were not there but you see how dangerous the situation is they want they are frustrated more and more that they didn't manage to kill anybody and especially soldiers but now they would like to kill absolutely anybody a child would do the trick for them and this is very dangerous for us we have to be the civilians have to be of course very alert and the idea has to pound and pound and strike hard all the time to create like a oppression a oppression that makes it difficult for the terrorists to operate and to regroup because now what what this quiet means they're actually regrouping to redeploy somewhere else they've been spotted they have to find other places to shoot from so you're saying that basically what the IDF does right now is continue the constant pressure on them a constant barrage of of attacks on them as we saw a few moments ago there was a plume of smoke in Gaza City so they are they are attacking where they see these rockets coming from and where they see is a very important word because you have to see them and if you consider a shooting a mortar you you're speaking of two guys on a motorbike right they can arrive with the equipment they go into an orchard they hide me in between the trees and they're very difficult to spot sometimes they make it even more difficult they will go in a school or a hospital and then the IDF cannot shoot of course that's an important fact that human shields is an important fact that's their main weapon I mean look at the the chief of the Hamas in Gaza Mr. Sinoir he walks around always with two children at this side that's so would we want to target him okay we will but we had no choice the night before when we eliminated the three arch terrorists they were with women and children around them that's their tactic so at that point we have a moral dilemma and you have a calculation how many of our women and children uh lives are we going to save in exchange for this the collateral damage but it is a real technique Mr. Sinoir walks around everywhere he goes with children around him so Rafael one question one thing that was brought out earlier Owen brought it out earlier was that that the prime minister and the defense minister did this they do the calculation in advance they see what the potential repercussions are but that they went in advance as opposed to responding they they went first that's a different tactic that's excellent it was done last year as well by the preceding government at first people were yeah people were a bit frustrated at first like why why isn't the IDF answering strongly and they say it was very well played or very well played what was also well played is not to convene the security cabinet because right now we have a lot of ministers that are very outspoken that could have been a security risk so it was kept very secret it was very professional the operation itself was very surgical and of course on the very night that last week after the the rocket's fire if you try to shoot back you have no effect of surprise all the guys are in the bunkers hidden waiting so it's obvious that you have to wait a few days for them to be less vigilant and come out of their hiding places then strike and of course the security services gave the army the information when the guys came out when they were at home or in their car and they were easy easier targets and we have to have the initiative it's been too many too many years that the terrorists have had the initiative they are the one they are proactive they decide when to shoot want to shoot even this time I mean we limited three our terrorists but then we were waiting to see the good or ill will of the terrorists what are they going to shoot when are they going to shoot will they shoot will the Hamas go mean will not the Hamas come in also there there is a dilemma how good and efficient is it to give immunity this kind of immunity to the Hamas to try and leave the Hamas out of it the Hamas is not out of it it's full in it so is it a good strategy not a good strategy we will see now in the coming hours it seems to be that right now the Hamas does hesitate to come in even though it has declared that they want to come in they do not seem to come in right now they depend of course on their masters in Tehran that's where but I'm not so sure it's some thought as I would say that this kind of immunity given to the Hamas is good maybe last night we should also have stricken people from the Hamas leadership interesting may you bring that up before we let's get back to that just in a moment let me Jewish Lami thank you so much one second home on here let me go to Bacha 11th all she's in Tel Aviv right now on the Tayyel at Bacha just about a half hour ago a little less than that we heard the explosions out here in front in the I-24 studios in Yafo you are you heard it too tell us tell us where you were and what happened absolutely Albert well for some of our viewers that don't know the Tayyel it meaning the Tel Aviv boardwalk or promenade which we're currently on we heard what sounded like interceptions above us but from some of the alerts that were coming through realize that was perhaps further south in Batiam but from what residents have been telling us yeah and I'm gonna ask our cameraman just to swivel so you can see this is pretty unreal for Tel Aviv at this time the beach is practically empty some residents telling us that it could be on the account of the wind it is incredibly windy today we do see some parasails in the water but a lot of people mostly tourists that are here before the summer holidays in June July and August telling us that they would prefer to stay near the hotels and you'll see just on the other side of me we're standing right next to the Kempinski hotel and people are rather lounging there by the pools some people that did come downstairs saying that they prefer to stay at the hotel because at least there's a bomb shelter there and they know what to do when speaking to some of the tourists here on the promenade we did speak to one lady earlier um originally from Holland who said that the last time she was here was almost 40 well just more than 40 years ago during the Yom Kippur war and saying that that terrorized her so much to the point that she didn't actually want to come back but she's obviously here for a wedding and knowing that this is happening again she's very sensitive to a lot of the sounds and we hear that same semblance mind you Israelis are very resilient and this is part and parcel of their lives here but Israelis also feel it that the start of a car even the rile up of some of the scooters that are here has a slight resemblance to the sirens and that almost triggers a panic response for people to send them running and so a very unusual situation here on the boardwalk in Tel Aviv which is usually packed no matter the time of day no matter the season it's very unusual to see that a lot of people are sort of bunkering at the moment but if you take a listen to what we spoke to this woman about earlier you'll see exactly some of the sentiments that I've mentioned to you now what happened this morning I don't really feel safe but so I just heard a sound again and I thought what is this but that was the ambulance or was that a sireen also you I was in the hotel when the noise came and then the owner say where I have to go so that is Evelyn that is that tourist from Holland the last time being here more than 40 years ago during the Yom Kippur world we're getting similar sentiments from a lot of the tourists that we've been seeing walking in obviously closer to the hotels than they are to the beach but I will remind our viewers that a lot of these beach bars and cafes there are public shelters and we did see videos earlier surfacing of when that rockets actually came over Tel Aviv area with the interceptions there at around 2 30 p.m local time you did see many people running not necessarily off the beach but to the shelters the public shelters that are open all across the central areas including in Tel Aviv that were on the beach so there is a protocol there are rules in place for when this happens but it doesn't detach or take away from the fact that a lot of people here are still what would be considered a sort of tense calm given the situation that's unfolding at the moment in Gaza. Great Bacha Leventhal joining us live from the tail and from the boardwalk in Tel Aviv thank you so much for joining us we'll come back to you in a few moments we'll come back into the studio for once like an ultimate to stay with me here to join us. Rafael mentioned something before about the government making sure that it was done secretly that there wasn't a lot of discussion about this operation and I would imagine that the prime minister wanted to do that to prevent for lack of a better term rabble rousers in his government saying that they needed to do more they needed to do more talk to us a little bit about that. Yeah of course the security cabinet for example was not convened before the initial strike and that of course had to go through legal review so this was attorney general had to sign off on that she she released her predecessor had signed off on similar things in the past the rationale being that she had been convinced the standard being legally that that wouldn't be an act that would lead to quote war again it's the word war itself in israel has a kind of legal meaning that is itself a high bar but at any rate the security cabinet wasn't convened and reportedly albert in order not to have too many people understanding and knowing about this obviously as the campaign continues the security cabinet has been convened and ministers will have to be brought in as always in these situations and every democracy confronts this including of course the united states what is the balance on one hand between secrecy and putting the hands of decision in and the hands of the leader who must make it and on the other hand allowing a multiple multiplicity of voices to be able to be heard in the case of the united states different branches of government obviously this has been a constitutional issue over the course of time and it's always a balance that democracies have to strike that's how it was struck in in this case be that all as it may we have not seen opposition to this in israel right is that unusual no not unusual it's quite standard for an operation like this of course from the Arab partitions of course within the Arab parties including a month's robust is wrong party we have seen opposition very important to note that but from among among the Zionist parties among the Jewish parties across the political spectrum have not seen opposition at least to this point we had both it to mark Bengevier from the furthest reaches of the right and also your ear lapid the opposition leader from the center left coming out and praising the operation praising the renewal of targeted killings praising the taking of initiative on the time that you and rafael you will show me we're talking about before so this is something that at this point is is enjoying wide support in israel we should say in general in Israeli military operations that that is one element that has continued over the course of the operation still a large amount of trust in the military here still obviously opposition to the factions and the gods of strip they may think okay that each other side of the political spectrum in israel is less popular than they are right so that the left won't stand with the right when the right quote unquote goes to war against them because the left will somehow prefer them over the right whatever kind of warped thinking that reportedly was but as we see before as of course that's not true and of course the country is going to come together to fight terror groups in Gaza again of course the real question is what's the wisdom and will this actually get to a better result at the end of that of course we'll have to judge this time goes by oh and old friend stand by one second i want to go live now to pier cluster later he is joining us live from the border of israel and gaza right now where the just moments ago once again we heard sirens going off in southern israel pierre tell us what's going on with you well the latest alert was at 3 53 p.m. which which has given us a lot of almost half an hour which is quite appreciable we hear faint booms emanating from the gaza strip and i suppose that this is due to israeli actions operations into the gaza territory we hear also the rotor of choppers but we don't see them in the sky right now at this moment it's pretty quiet there is this checkpoint this israeli checkpoint which prevents people like us or other visitors to drive along the road that drives along the security border and that's because of security issues in the past they've been the the gaza factions have been firing anti-tank missiles cornet type russian type onto israeli vehicles causing casualties even fatalities that's why in certain areas where the road is not protected from such anti-tank missiles the army sets up checkpoints and do not allow people to drive on that road except for those who live in the communal community villages that are further down the road so a lot of security here but given that there's been some hits around the vicinity of the gaza border for instance in the kindergarten which was inoccupied because kindergarten's and schools have been closed since yesterday morning under the instructions of the home from command of the israeli army and there was also a direct hit on an unoccupied house inside there are the city of about 30 000 inhabitants in this direction sorry about that appear i'm sorry thank you one second i just wondered we're just getting word in from uh the gaza factions have sent out a joint operation room statement so let me just read that to our viewers who are just watching right now it says with the help of the Allah almighty and his might the joint chamber of the palestinian resistance factions announces the implementation of the revenge of the free operation that's what they're calling it revenge of the free which consisted in directing a large rocket strike with hundreds of rockets to enemy positions starting from the so-called gaza envelope to tell evive in response to the murder of the leaders of al-Quds and mujahideen brigades then there's they're going to say that they call this operation heroic it could they say it coincides with the anniversary of the eternal battle of the sword of jerusalem and they are this is now our first response back from the from the folks in gaza where they're saying they're saying that they are they are the resistance on all fronts of the homeland will remain a single unit a sword and a shield for our people our land and our holy places rafael this is pretty standard response from that declaration it's worth so far it's a rhetoric that first of all you identify immediately as a fanatical religious nothing to do with the liberation of the palestinian people right nothing nationalistic the PLO used to have different kind of language language of nationalism patriotism independence here you have a purely religious language so they're on a holy war to kill the infidel and that unites them for sure because nothing else does nothing else does unite them right the islamic jihad and Hamas are not best friends at all this declaration is obviously a safe face at this point they might be followed by actions but right now the Hamas cannot stand by and let the islamic jihad be the only hero in this in this scenario this brings up the point that you made moments ago where you said that the IDF needed to target Hamas as well why them why them because everything that happens in Gaza happens under the Hamas whether it's encouraged first of all the islamic jihad is very very convenient for the Hamas they don't like one another these guys but it's very convenient because the Hamas can have this islamic jihad do all the damage to israel and swash their hands of it and they say look this is the islamic jihad we haven't done anything we want to continue having the border crossings open our workers going to work to israel getting money to help rebuild we're fine the same way that they also operate in juli and samaria and the west bank and not from Gaza they always like like stay behind like they're not doing anything but they are doing everything they are the ones behind everything rafael or shalami thank you so much for joining us we continue our live team coverage of the rocket strike on israel from Gaza 100 rockets being launched televieve sirens being being heard all throughout the area central israel after the past two hours i24 news continues right after the break what it's like i it's unbelievable the just to be able to they're happy we're happy everybody's happy my project is about an endless loop of life that it's very fragile and we have to be responsible for our nature being a woman who dresses this week i have to do 10 times the work of the average woman because for people to even listen to me i must have gotten to a certain stage for news team of talented correspondents are working hard for you they're in the markets on the streets in the battlefields getting the pulse of the story tune in for beyond the headlines to see how the top stories of the week are affected real people no commentary no debate just the best stories presented by our best germans oh discover i24 news radio now you can listen to i24 news anywhere anytime for free i24 news radio is the audio live stream of the television network with world headlines every 30 minutes starting from 7 a.m. tune in for top news magazine traditions while in the car in your office join us from your smartphone tablet or desktop to stay connected in the middle east and around the world don't wait any longer head to our website or mobile application and click on i24 news radio to subscribe shalom and welcome to jewish world weekly i'm caled ben david and each week we're going to bring you the latest from the jewish world from politics to religion entertainment to the latest trends and everything in between join me each week as we explore the global jewish diaspora don't miss jewish world weekly only on i24 news middle east is changing old alliances make way for new partnerships bigger threats lead to new relationships and shared goals meaning new opportunities we speak to those who know the inside story and are the hearts of the changes don't get caught up with the same old story find out what's happening in middle east now middle east now on i24 news albert louis and in the i24 newsroom in televieve we continue our live team coverage of the breaking news that occurred about two hours ago when over 100 missiles were launched at israel at televieve from gaza all throughout the afternoon now we are now two and a half hours into this you're looking at live pictures of televieve at about two o'clock local time the sirens went off there were loud explosions in the air for those of us joining us around the world and from the united states and europe we could tell you that as of now there have been no casualties in televieve proper itself there have been some damage to areas that stirrup we heard of a of a kindergarten school that had been had been struck but that most of the kids are not at school today because they have been told in advance not to go to school now the the the loud explosions terrified many of the people who ran for cover that as you may know we have about 15 seconds once we hear the alarms to go into cover and to be in the sheltered space right out here in front of the i24 newsroom we heard very loud explosions at least four of them that occurred about 30 34 minutes ago now looking at the clock and it appears that there have been over a hundred projectiles headed towards israel this comes as israel also now strikes into gaza city and hitting attack and hitting some of the palestinian islamic jihad strongholds in gaza city i'm joining live in studio with oan ultraman the islamic jihad as well as some of the other factions put out a statement saying that they are that they were doing this in the name of Allah and that this is an attack that was done for the freedom of the people our guest a moment ago said it was a religious unification of such and you you have some comments on that well obviously there are strong religious overtones in there pretty explicitly right it's seen through a kind of religious framework with religious with a religious lexicon and obviously these are the religious groups right i mean these are islamic groups that's at the core of their identity but i disagree with with how rafael characterized it before the break i'm sorry we'll be here to to answer it obviously is religious but this obviously is not and it's a through religious framing and not a secular framing but certainly there are elements of nationalism and national goals in there right it talks about occupation and talks about we'll get to this in the second albert about how all of the elements in the fronts of the of the front will be united that's an important phrase an important paragraph it's gotten a lot of attention uh that element in israel last weeks but i want to it's not simply blind religious fanaticism obviously it's part of a context right a context of of the palestinian people's story the palestinian people's story over the last hundred years over the last 75 years in the gaza strip over the last 56 years for that matter uh over the last 20 some years since israel evacuated all of the soldiers and all of the settlers from every inch of gaza but nonetheless uh and this from the eyes of hamas and islamic jihad and the factions and i'm sure from the eyes of many of the people in gaza uh today and an every day is seen through part of of of rectifying a historic injustice done to the palestinian people and being able to as i don't know if the phrase if the statement used the phrase but liberate their land which is of course how the palestinian people see it so it's not just a blind religious fanaticism of people who woke up one morning and are acting uh because of because of what a la told them it's because of what they see is happening to their people uh i do think though of course the more important question is this strategy that hamas is using uh albert's been a complete failure okay this mukawama strategy this resistance strategy of using the territory of gaza that israel evacuated completely completely in 2005 and hamas took over in 2007 of using that as a base for fighting israel and for nothing else for the most part okay has been a complete failure hamas has been added for 16 years the strategic results are zero right except for maybe an erosion of israel standing among democrats in the united states and you could argue that that's not connected to this in any event so this entire strategy of resistance of mukawama from hamas from his valla from others has been a complete failure israel is stronger economically than it was stronger militarily than it was and yes even even despite what we've seen or maybe because of what we've seen the last few months israel is stronger socially than it was then this is made no dent israel is simply adjusted built the iron dome built shelters have a new routine for the public it's obviously difficult for children and for the elderly and for the handicap but a new routine for people to manage this and israel is simply thrived and hamas has made zero strategic dent into israel and so the words and and essentially putting this strategy out again okay simply shows a complete lack of strategic imagination for a group that might actually have better options i want to just finally say one more thing that paragraph about all parts of the front being united right this is a reference what we saw two years ago in 2021 right where incidents in jerusalem uh in mixed arab jewish cities throughout israel including where we're sitting here in jaffa and of course what happened in the gaza strip and now in 2023 we can add the situation in lebanon right about a month ago we saw rockets fired by palestinian groups in lebanon that this is all part of the whole and hamas wants those fronts to be ignited and acting in unison to try to spread israel thin and to make it more difficult for israel to achieve its goals uh that is something a bit new and might present more challenges for israel but would actually get the kind of strategic results that the mukama strategy has completely failed to get over the last 16 years i don't think so so this is almost going back i mean the question i had about triangulation you've had the north you've had the east now you have this the southwest uh this triangulation is the newest part of it all but this is nothing israel remember i mean i'm going back like chalk to 1948 when all the arab countries attacked israel so it's not as though israel is not ready for something like that yeah i mean listen um you know some palestinian strategies over time have been say more successful than others i seems to me that this particular one uh is one of the less successful and again israel has done overall a good job of adjusting that's it israel certainly hasn't been able to win right the strategy that israel's use has been in a way that's it's always dehumanizing uh but still a reasonable metaphor although problematic mowing the lawn right the idea of a chore that has to be done time and time again because the lawn is going to continue to grow and the best that can be achieved is cutting the grass so applying the metaphor to the situation in Gaza right these terrorist groups are not going away israel is not going to be able to get rid of them what israel can achieve is mowing the lawn right targeting some of the leadership some of their military assets and then when those come back targeting them again and again and again to contain them that's not a strategy to win that's a strategy to contain it is a lack of strategic imagination but the problem albert is that no one in israel has been able to actually supply a real alternative for the most part not been able to supply a real alternative that the israeli public and israeli establishment fields could actually get a better result which is why we continue to see that strategy again maybe 14 or more years after it's after it was initiated so taking a look now live pictures you're looking at live pictures of Gaza there have been some strikes now by the idea in Gaza city at some of these locations you'll see a plume of smoke in Gaza city these are targeted locations exactly what Owen was saying is that the idea has to specifically target these pij strongholds these mortar areas the places where they're launching this as part of operation shield and arrow this is sort of this is the idea the idea is you target the top leaders in precision strikes and then from here i mean i'm looking now live pictures we're looking at live pictures of Gaza this is exactly what the IDF needs to do to get it done from what your perspective is look there's a plan the plan is then executed as i described it before there's a target bank with the targets as i understand it essentially ranked and you go down that list right at the top of the list again targets that have high value and low risk of civilian casualties and then as you start to exhaust the target bank it starts to get more problematic obviously the the spokesperson's unit the idea of coming out and telling us exactly what has been hitting each time in some cases of course these are rocket launchers being rolled out and about ready to launch right and so are being hit in other cases these are other military assets of Hamas or of course human beings as as we saw at the initiative at the outside of this campaign that are not connected necessarily to something that's happening here now but to the general campaign that that Hamas and other groups we should say because of course Islamic jihad that's been at the front here are using to target the israel and target israel civilians so while you're talking now we're just getting some word into the i-24 newsroom we're getting a red alert on our phones basically there there is a red alert on Yad Mordechai which is nishterot but there we're getting nativ hasara which is also getting attacked right now through rocket attacks they're moving they're telling people to seek shelter right now this is now we're talking two minutes as you probably know they have about 15 seconds to race into their shelters we're now we hear that there are once again they're coming i'm looking through we can hear the sirens in the area as well let's now we're going to go live now to bacha 11thal who's in the televiv right now bacha are you there yes albert i'm with you it's relatively quiet still in televiv a lot of tourists that did hit the beach in the early hours or at least the morning before the sirens started going off in the south but also that one that came through to televiv and that interception above our channels in jaffa have more switched over now and moved into some of the hotels a lot of them also hovering by the cafes and bars on the beach that do have public shelters that are just right next to them what we noticed in the last couple of hours which has been quite interesting is that the lifeguards on the beach are updating people on where the rocket alerts are going off in the south but also updating and we're updating earlier today when those rocket alerts went off in televiv they're making an announcement both in english and in hebrou for a lot of the tourists mentioning that they are not saying the alerts in order to worry anyone but just to give them an update on the situation knowing that a lot of the tourists don't have some of those applications that a lot of us locals use during times like this for the red alert sirens as well as the homefront command app so just trying to explain to people where the red alerts are how far away they are from televiv and instructing people where the shelters are along the beachfront every couple of minutes we are hearing some of those announcements coming from the lifeguards quite a few tourists that have been at least walking on the promenade a little bit sort of in between and you can see almost their hesitancy as to whether they actually go and sit on the beach or whether they go back to the hotel not knowing exactly what to do with themselves we did speak to a tourist earlier in the day from holland who said the last time she was here was over 40 years ago during the yom kippur war and this was obviously not what she had intended on her next visit here to israel but saying that she understands that it's part of israeli life but also saying that there's a lot of noises that give her sort of an icky feeling when it comes to listening to the sirens or whether it's just noises that are happening on the streets around her albert great batch 11th all thank you very much for joining us she's live at the tayela the boardwalk in televivo get back to her as soon as possible i just want to bring us up to date on what's happening now we've just gotten word that the minister of defense you have galant has submitted a request to the government to for the emergency declaration for the southern part of israel to continue it now is going to be within a range of 80 kilometers from the border this extension will let the idf determine some safety guidelines for the civilian population this is uh an extension of the emergency order and to that end we're going to go live right now to pia she's an astod which is within that 80 kilometer zone pia tell us more about what's happening with you well albert actually astod is less than 40 kilometers away from gaza so within the range that already had special instructions in place since yesterday morning public gatherings were restricted as well as train services some roadblocks education activities were suspended and people were advised to stay as close as possible to their shelters because when an alarm goes off here in astod you have about 45 seconds to run to a shelter as you can see we're here in a shopping mall that is relatively empty only the workers came here today not all the shops open because as i said people had these special instructions but here in astod people are often targeted by these rounds of escalations between israel and gaza and many people are already used to what is happening in these rounds of escalations and we are here with one of the residents yonatan kirov i want to ask you you grew up in astod how do you feel in those days what do you do when an alarm goes off most of the homes here are they have shelters if not there's a neighborhood shelter when an alarm goes off people already train people are used to it they go to the shelters we have an excellent alarm system never eye and functions none of functions always functioning so people are used to it although there is this instruction in place that people are supposed to stay as close as possible to shelters you decided to go out you just told me you wanted to go to the bank what is your personal feeling are you scared are you anxious or do you just go by your day as if nothing was going on no i go my day as it is i'm used to it i live here since i was a kid um like there's excellent defense system the iron dome does its work also all the shelters are open also like i said every house has a shelter so you can go about your day now we're hearing that many especially families from the south are looking for an accommodation elsewhere in the country well how are you going to proceed do you plan to stay in astod how do you see what do you think the next couple of days will look for you i guess the round of finding that will go on for like about a week 10 days so you plan to you plan to stay here and you're not afraid that's what we're hearing from you and that's what we're hearing from from many residents here who are used to these rounds of escalations who are used to alarms who are still applying to the instructions of the home from command as you see it is relatively empty here these instructions have been in place again since yesterday already the cars that you see here in this parking lot are mostly from the employees here in the shops many of the shops also have a safe room within the shops there also public shelters here so also the customers the very few who decided to come here today they're in this time frame of 45 seconds they will be able to go to public shelters in the time but we also spoke to some of the employees here who said that especially yesterday evening there was no one here as people were of course expecting that reaction from gaza there was a very very tense day yesterday also this morning up until we saw that first round of rockets eight rockets were fired here to ashkelon one landed in an open area very close to a hospital so there is this form of tension and residents here know that they are being prepared also by the israeli army and the home from command that this could lead into a multi-day campaign and they are prepared for the next dialogue that could go off any second great piaz chah back joining us live now from from ashkelon and ashkelon area thank you so much for joining us on this now we we you spoke she spoke with a resident there and let me i'm joined here by the way with oan ultraman uh she spoke with a resident who had this understanding that it's commonplace and we're ready but there's a human element to this you can't walk through the streets of tel aviv without every backfire of a car freaking people out yeah and then obviously the situation becomes more severe and more tense as the closer you get to the border with gaza first of all it is important to stipulate that again we don't know exactly what the situation is on the ground in gaza we certainly know from experience in past campaigns that if you're a civilian you'd much rather be on this side of the border than that side of the border right given the lack of protection that there is there the lack of concern hamas has philosophy and of course we have to say the obvious the massiveness of the israeli attack right and the poverty of the public and the fact that it's not a developed country like israel is right or even a country officially at all so you would much rather be a civilian on this side of the border than that side of the border the numbers have certainly borne that out in terms of the people who are actually civilians actually killed and wounded in past campaigns that said it's no a great deal to be a civilian on the israeli side of the border either certainly right on the border with gaza right yad mordechai nativa asara those those kibbutzim that you mentioned because they are kibbutzim close to the gaza border by the way yad mordechai of course named for mordechai and alevich right the leader of the war sageto uprising which just marked the 80th anniversary of just a month or so ago these are communities kibbutzim that are in many cases very very close to the border in the case of nacho those for example you can see the gaza fence from there right i think we have a team on their way there i've been there it's 800 meters that's it okay before the first intifada it's almost unimaginable now people from there in these communities would go to gaza city to go to the beach i mean as a child as a child my parents and i would go down to gaza as it so it's not as though you know it was a different world back then really was but obviously talking to today's world these are communities where as you mentioned very very very short time to be able to go to a shelter many cases are insensitive living in the shelter in a situation like this you ask why do people want to live in these places but then you go there and you understand it quite well these are lovely places wonderful communities wonderful homes beautiful areas and these are places that have a high standard of living you're looking at live pictures this is gaza city this is these are our cameras i-24 cameras in gaza that are taking a shot now you'll see there's a plume of smoke apparently the idf continues to say that they have struck some mortar this mortar launching positions that belong to the islamic jihad throughout the gaza strip and the idf goes on to say that they'll continue to act in in order to preserve the safety of the residents of the state of israel so just just to keep our viewers up to date now we are just after two hours worth of of barrage is back back and forth some 300 rockets have been fired towards israel from gaza 300 of them and now it's the sirens continue to go off we had another siren about five minutes ago and in this in the southern part of israel we're now going to go live to pierre clush later he's at the israeli gaza border right now pierre go ahead well the last alert was at 4 36 p.m. which is about 15 minutes ago and it was trying to hit villages on the northern tip of the gaza border in this in this direction here it's pretty quiet at this moment there's been some sort of a lull after that intense rocket fire of the first one and a half hour which basically covered not only the villages and towns around the gaza strip but also the central part of the country with tel aviv as a the price the golden price for the for the palestinian factions as you said the israeli army is still operating into the gaza strip we hear from time to time the roar of shoppers that are aiming at a mortar and rocket position we know from the idf that's over 40 rocket and mortar launchers have been neutralized we hear from the palestinian ministry of health in gaza that's over 20 people were killed in israeli military activities tens of wounded here on the israeli side you said over 300 rockets were launched toward israeli territory but something like 130 were intercepted a lot fell into open space also inside the gaza strip and as far as i know three or four where direct hits on you know unoccupied places such as a house in derot or a kindergarten in one of the community villages around the gaza strip and that's about what's happening right now great pier thank you very much for joining us i will you know while i have you on i just want to let you know the idf just sent out a small statement that combat helicopters were the ones that attacked the military position in belonging to the islamic jihad at the same time some jet fights as you see here another plume of smoke so that both the jet fighters and the firefight and the helicopters have been dropping dropping and attacking let me go to oan ultimate for one second here let me talk to you about the the of course is the i word iran they are from what we know they're directing they're calling the shots they've got their puppet strings this is all from them it's from them is it all from them i think their question mark amas existed before having iranian support i think it would exist even after having iranian support it has its own motives it has its own goals it has its own drivers it is part of the israeli palestinian conflict in a way that iran is not much as iran is trying to muscle its way in it is not in principle part of the israeli palestinian conflict again which gives hope for an israeli iranian reconciliation of course over the course of time in a way that's much more straightforward than in the israeli palestinian conflict but obviously iran plays a role in funding groups that surround israel it has been said that iran is playing a role in coordinating the workings of these groups around his own right again he pointing to that statement from the gazin factions right all parts of the front are united that's a reference to this that's a reference to what we saw in 2021 in may of 2021 just about two years ago exactly right the unity of events in jerusalem and mixed arab jewish cities inside israel in the gazin strip potentially also could impact the west bank and lebanon as we saw those rockets coming from there a month ago so again the idea is iran is a kind of hidden hand here even were iran not doing that and of course in some groups like khizball of course iran plays an oversized role right does iran play that kind of role in hamas a question mark maybe in islamic jihad more so but at any rate obviously iran is very important and but iran is a problem for israel a irrespective of rockets of hamas and hama akats from hamas or from islamic jihad we should focus on are a problem irrespective of iran yeah but these missiles these rockets come from someplace you can't you you're not going to home depot or go buy yourself rockets well a lot of them as i understand are actually built in gaza but you're right the money has to come from someplace and the training has to come from someplace certainly that's been supplied from iran it's certainly finding a way to change iran's incentives and change iran's policy from israel's perspective and not only israel's perspective god willing change iran's regime obviously albert would greatly help israel's security situation that said of course iran's regime is a reality its activity in the areas that surround israel is a reality and its reality israel needs to confront as we discussed before in terms of the situation in gaza the israeli strategy and a somewhat dehumanizing term is called mowing the lawn right the idea that the terrorist groups cannot simply be wiped away it's like grass that grows and simply needs to be mowed over time whether that means targeting leadership targeting assets and targeting financing that the targeting simpson needs to be done to bring the grass down to size and that the task simply needs to be repeated over time at any rate it's obviously a strategy that doesn't have much imagination doesn't really lead you anywhere the problem is no one in israel has been able to to to find a better alternative um so let me bring up everyone to speed right you know we're almost nearing the top of the hour here in israel i just want to let everyone know it's happened for the past couple of hours now about 300 rockets have been fired towards israel from gaza uh there have been uh at least 22 who have been killed uh not in israel but actually in in the gaza strip from idf responses back 40 have been injured uh the idf now says that 40 rocket launchers and mortars throughout the gaza strip have been eliminated because of uh the idf fighter fighter jets and helicopters the sirens are still going off in the southern part of israel the last one about 15 minutes ago you're looking at live pictures this is the gaza strip this is gaza city on on there are now rocket alerts going off we're being told right now uh give me one moment i'm hearing it now yad morachi we talked about this this is the this is the kibbutz that's right on the israel gaza border uh this is maybe the fourth or fifth time oh and that we've seen they're being attacked it seems as though these are the smaller mortars the smaller missiles rather not the large range because it's more uh how many kilometers away from the edge yeah it's a nightmare being in these places in a situation like this albert and i i can't for better or worse said from experience i've never experienced anything quite like with people in those communities again much closer even than the city of sterot which is a real town but at least a bit further away from the border although also very very close but these these kibbutz are extremely close to the border uh they each home in these kibbutz will have a fortified room and as do many and many we should say in many towns and cities across israel but there it's a place where people are living and we've seen families leave these communities for obvious reasons imagine being with children with children small children a situation like this great uh oh and ultimate thank you very much for joining us i24 news coverage of the breaking story of 300 missiles attacking israel from gaza continues right after the break by midnight tonight thieves will have stolen 2400 vehicles