 Hezbollah's Radawan commandos and now he's dead. I'm Albert Lewitson reporting from Tel Aviv. Welcome to our viewers around the world. This is I-24 News Rolling Coverage of the War Monday, January 8th, 2024, day 94 of the war. Let's bring you up to date on developments. First off, Hezbollah reports that Wissa Maltawil, who ran Hezbollah's Radawan commando force has been killed in an airstrike. This back and forth continues just hours ago. A Hezbollah anti-tank missile hit the northern city of Kiryashmona. Turning now to the West Bank, Israeli police forces have arrested three Palestinian suspects in the West Bank's shooting attack. They left an Arab-Israeli man dead and another woman critically wounded. Palestinian media reports the suspects were identified as Dr. Esar Balruti, an anesthesiologist, another doctor, Dr. Khaled Al-Harouf, and Marine Al-Latari, a nurse. Now to Gaza, the IDF's seventh brigade ground forces in the Gaza Strip have had intense clashes with Hamas fighters in Khan Yunus. But have also found training materials for child soldiers. Just a bit ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used Gaza as an example to Hezbollah, saying, quoting now, we gave them an example of what happens to their friends in the South, that's what will happen in the North. Now following the assassination of Hamas's deputy political leader, Saleh Al-Arouf Beirut last week, Hezbollah has sharpened its rhetoric and escalated its cross-border fire. In fact, just a couple of hours ago, there were sirens in the northern part of Israel, warning of hostile aircraft inclusions, the incursions, I can't say that. With more, we go to our correspondent, Robert Swift. The United States is clearly worried that the skirmishes on Israel's northern border will tip over into all-out war. We want to do everything possible to make sure that we don't see escalation there. But it's very important that Israelis have security in the North. The concerns heightened by the killing of Wissam al-Tiwal, a senior commander in Hezbollah's Radwan commando force. The Iranian proxy group is blaming Israel for the killing, which comes hot on the heels of other recent escalations. In the early hours of Monday, Israel conducted extensive airstrikes against Hezbollah positions and hardware. This followed the admission by the IDF that a large salvo of rockets and anti-tank missiles fired by Hezbollah on Saturday had hit home. Hezbollah fired at IDF bases in the North, including the Northern Air Control Unit on Mount Meron. The damage caused will be repaired and the unit continues to function as its systems were backed up. Hezbollah's strikes were likely a response to the assassination of Hamas figure, Salah Al-Aroori, widely blamed on Israel. Both incidents represent an escalation by the warring parties, but so far, one that remains under the threshold of full war. While around 80,000 Israelis remain displaced from their homes in Northern Israel, Jerusalem is determined to push Hezbollah away from its border. I'm suggesting to Hezbollah to learn what Hamas already learned. No terrorist is immune, and we are determined to defend our citizens and return the people of the North to their homes. I'm saying this to our enemies and to our friends. Sympathetic to this goal, the US is urging Israel to achieve it through diplomatic means and pressure, a strategy which Israeli leaders say they are willing to try, but not indefinitely. Washington is also concerned about Israel's willingness to rely upon force. With a US intelligence report cited by the Washington Post noting that Israel may struggle to prosecute another front after depleting much of its war resources, fighting in Gaza. We have a pretty good panel here for the next half hour, Lieutenant Colonel Doron Abital, the former commander of Special Forces of the IDF, joins us as well as our own altering I-24 News Senior Diplomatic Correspondent. Doron, let me start with you first. Let's find out a little bit more about this, with some altowheel. He was the head of the Rod 1 Commando Force. What is the Rod 1 Commander Force? Well, this is what they are boasting about, that they created, in fact, the Hamas Nukba, which is a commander force, is modeled on the Hezbollah Commando Force that showed its force already in 2006. In a kidnapping attempt, they triggered the Second Lebanon War. So this is the elite force that we are facing. And this is a senior commander. I'm not sure how to estimate the seniority, but this is a field commander. This is a very successful, targeted killing. It shows that we have a very good knowledge, a very good intelligence over the southern part of Lebanon. And I-24 News is reporting that just a few moments ago that Syrian opposition media say that he's the brother-in-law of Hassan Nasrallah. So that would be... This makes it, yeah. It makes it even more closer and closer to the rank. Now they are not... This is not hitting in the Dakhia. When we were hitting Arou in the Dakhia, this is the territory. This is where the command post of Hezbollah is, but this is in the southern part of Lebanon. So this is really the landscape of the battlefield right now. So this is really within the game. And after the attack yesterday, we had to show some... So this attack, let's let our viewers up to speed in case many of them were not watching over the weekend in the states or around the world, that this is an attack that was on a Maron, which is in the north. What was the significance of that? First of all, this is... First of all, we were exposed to a weaponry or to the ability of a weaponry, this Kornet missile in a land through the edge of its range, I mean, 2.5 kilometers from the border. So this is something, I think, took us a bit by surprise. We have to admit we didn't expect this. And this is... What's the significance of the actual site itself? This is like how Maron was... It's the highest mountain in there. This is where you have some air control command in which we can command or supervise the southern part of Lebanon, so this is as important, of course. Symbolic important. It's not an easy thing for us to accept. No real damage was done, nobody was hit, but still. This is something we have to take into account in terms of evaluating the weaponry and what they can do to us. Now, IDF won't say that they were responsible for the strike for the head of RAD-1. I mean, this is also we didn't take responsibility for Aurora, so we have to just let the audience guess who has these capabilities in Lebanon to operate in such a magnitude and such a preciseness. Now, there was a discussion also about the Gaza. Let's talk a little bit. There's a lot to talk about on that one. First of all, IDF troops went into the southern part of Gaza and they saw that they were child soldier manuals. Is that something you expected? Yeah, I think it's been expected. I'm not surprised. This is the education to be a Nukhba commando soldier starts at a general age. Yeah, yeah, but even the way they channel explosive, they let kids do those operations, let's kids scout and see where we're standing, our soldier. So this is part of the war that we are operating. I'm not surprised about that. Now, there's also discussion of the fact that about stage three, what is stage three? I think Gallant, yeah. Gallant talked about, in fact, Gallant, the minister of defense, in fact declared that we are moving to phase three or that we are already in phase three. I think phase three was supposed to be a very surgical operation, special forces operating in and out, incursion and so on. But still, it's hard for me to really mark the beginning of phase three when we don't have any estimation about the whereabout and the possibility to negotiate or rescue. What is one, what is two, what is three? So when Gallant says I'm wearing phase three, what is it? I think phase three, I think phase three, I think the first phase was the bombardment, the next second phase, main phase, was going into the incursion, the entering Gaza from the north, and then Hanuiness is the second phase of the second phase. And now in the third phase, which means we are positioning ourselves and we do more surgical operation after dismantling the main infrastructure in Gaza. Dornang, I'm gonna have you hold on for one second because as you mentioned, it was only hinted until now, but practically official now, Defense Minister Gov Gallant said that Israel is gonna soon end the massive operation, at least in the northern part of the Gaza Strip and then move to another kind of warfare. So what we've done, I-24 News Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regev reports on how long that next stage could take. On the ground, it may look the same, those operating on the ground clearly sound the same. We're fighting here together with the armored corps and the engineering corps, and we are ready for every mission. But there is an understanding that the current phase of the fighting in Gaza may be ending and a different kind of fighting may be kicking in. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Israeli Minister of Defense Gov Gallant said that in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Israel will soon be shifting from an intensive maneuver to various kinds of special operations. It's expected to be a long process of constant operations in the Strip. The IDF Chief of Staff has no illusions about it ending anytime soon. 20-24 will be a challenging year. We will certainly be fighting in Gaza during the entire year. There was no formal announcement at the beginning of the ground operation. Don't expect one to announce the move to the next stage of the war. Even without that formality, Israel seems to understand the current phase reached its peak, and it may be time to carry out a different approach. Let's actually now go to the south side of Israel, the border with Gaza. Our I-24 news correspondent, Pierre Kloschender, is there live now. Pierre, there is a report about this phase three, this next stage three, but it doesn't stop the actual ground incursions that are occurring in Khan Yunus. Tell us more about what's happening over there. Right. According to the Israeli Defense Minister, you have Gallant on the Wall Street Journal. He said that the IDF is now progressing toward a low-intensity warfare, which is phase three that you mentioned, but only in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip, about half of the territory of this 380 square kilometres. It's including also Gaza City, but south of Gaza City, the thrust of the ground offensive, which started in Khan Yunus in the southern sector on December 2nd, and was enlarged in the central sector of the refugee camps in December 23rd, is going on with full intensity. Because in the central sector, you have four battalions of Hamas facing the 36th Division of Combined Combat Teams. And in Khan Yunus, you have also four battalions of Hamas facing the 98th Division of Commando Units, as well as Combined Combat Teams. There is only one spot that hasn't been touched by ground forces, and only by pinpoint airstrikes. It's the border town of Rafar, which now houses something like 1.3 million Palestinians who are displaced. It's a city that used to number 200,000 inhabitants. And because of the proximity with the Egyptian border, it's a very sensitive town. And as a result, the IDF ground forces are not yet operating then. That would probably require cooperation, coordination with the Egyptian government with whom Israel signed the peace treaty already in 1979, and also with a little help of the U.S. administration. So right now there are still 12 battalions in the second half of the Gaza Strip. The 12 battalions in the northern sectors have been decimated basically. 8,500 terrorists killed out of 14,000. Hundreds surrendered. But many of them are still operating on a guerrilla mode in Hamas cells, getting out of shifts, Donald shafts that haven't been identified by the army yet. And some of them flew to the southern sector or the central sector to support the other battalions. So it's far to be over. The IDF has done practically half of the job. Pierre Kloschunder, thanks so much for telling us what's going on there. The southern part of Israel on the border with Gaza, what's going on in Gaza City. Pierre mentioned that there were 8,500 Hamas fighters who were killed out of thousands. What's also happened is that there have been hundreds and hundreds of those who have surrendered. So here's something you won't see on social media feeds or on Hamas protests in the West or on American news networks. Dozens of Gazans surrendering to IDF soldiers. And just so you know, they're stripped down to their pants just so that they're not carrying any suicide bombs. It's a protocol that almost every armed force in the world uses. So here's what happened. The Gazan men begging the world to free them from Hamas oppression. And it's original Arabic with subtitles lest anyone think it's any IDF propaganda. So take a listen. I'm joined again in studio by Lieutenant Colonel Daron Avital. Daron, when you see that video, what do you think? I think this is where we put our hopes that there would be the citizen of Gaza would understand fully what the oppression or the living under Hamas, what does it mean and would be able to create some kind of regime of self-control, the civil war operation of Gaza with some help of us, the other coalition around us. I hope there's enough political power that can really serve this purpose. As the chief of staff of the Israeli army said we have a year-long of fighting still in and out, incursion, surgical, but in the end we want to see Hamas out of at least the military Hamas out of Gaza and are weakening Hamas and a new rule in Gaza. But here there, this is maybe two dozen, three dozen here who are surrounded. Yes. You have 1.3 million Gazans who are in there with that. Yeah, the question, nobody can tell whether this is indication of the true spirit of the citizen of Gaza. But I think after the aftermath of this war I think most of them understand that there's no way that Hamas can allow Hamas command this territory. So I hope we'll find the new leadership and maybe together with the PA, though Bibi Netanyahu is very adamant against it, but maybe together with the PA because I don't think the Saudi, the Egyptian and the U.S. would agree to self-control that doesn't involve the PA in some way or another. So we'll have to see how it works. But the next year would be very challenging military-wise in terms of the reconstructing of Gaza. Jerome, you mentioned the international community and how they're planning on helping it. The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is here in his third day, fourth day of his tour all around the Middle East to try to tamp down the pressure that's up in the north. I'm joined in studio now with Owen Ultraman, the senior diplomatic correspondent. Blinken has a lot on his plate to try to figure all this out. Yeah, you know, as I put it in the report yesterday, Albert, if it's Sunday, this must be Jordan, right, taking off that 1969 movie. He's making eight or nine, depending on how you count them, stops on this trip. He's already made quite a number of them and arriving in Israel expected to arrive late tonight for another day and a half over the course of Tuesday and part of Wednesday meetings here. Obviously a lot of him in his plate, as I described it in the report yesterday, juggling three balls in the air. First of all, the situation in Israel's north and trying as he sees it to contain the war so it doesn't, to use his words, the war in Gaza doesn't, quote, metastasize into a larger regional context. Like a cancer. Yeah, yeah. Look, nobody wants to see a wider war, the Israeli public least of all. But again, the public here is obviously determined to see those in those northern communities return. As regular viewers know, I'm very skeptical of the idea that there's going to be a war between Israel and Hezbollah more than of course already is right now. I think the zone of possible agreement is quite wide to get to an agreement. It's just a matter of diplomacy to get there. But at any rate, that's one of the balls that Bill Blinken is juggling in the air. The second, of course, the ball we've become accustomed to. The war itself, right? The issue of minimizing civilian casualties and maximizing aid. And here, the report in the Wall Street Journal of Yav Galant, Israel's defense minister coming out and saying Israel's moving to that third stage of the war, obviously going to be welcome news, at least in the northern Gaza Strip, going to be very welcome news to the Biden administration. And third, this issue of the day after, right? This perplexing question that you are also talking about of what exactly happens to Gaza once the war is over. And here we again meet that vexing question of when is the war considered over? This is a question that comes up in terms of the day after, because you can't have a day after until the sun has set on the day of, okay? We meet this concept of the day after in terms of Israeli politics, right? Benny Gantz staying in this government for the duration of the war, which begs the question when is the war considered over? And also in the north, right? His Bullah's official position is it won't negotiate a diplomatic agreement until the war in Gaza is over. Again, begging the question, when is the war considered over? And could there be, at least from his Bullah's perspective, some wiggle room in terms of when the war is considered over so he should get to the business of negotiating a deal? We're not sure we're right there yet in the north, because right now as our viewers are seeing on the top of the screen, these are air raid siren alerts that are going up in the north so they continue to still send volleys across from Hezbollah. One question I had yesterday, I spoke with Abbey Passler and one of the things he said, he was very skeptical about Turkey getting involved in any of this and saying like, why would you trust Turkey to be involved in any of this? It's a fascinating question, you know, and Rob Swift's report that we saw earlier in the broadcast, we saw Anthony Bleke, I think in that tarmac when he was taking off from Greece before going to Jordan, speaking to reporters and coming off of his meeting in Turkey, saying about how much he talked to the Turkish government about their role in the post-war Gaza and of course I'm sitting here in our Jaffa studio wondering how exactly are we as Israelis supposed to see this after Recep Tayyip Erdogan has gone back to his old habits of spewing the most disgusting venom against our country, against our leaders and against who we are, comparing Benjamin Netanyahu to none other than Adolf Hitler. So now the Biden administration is going to that same man, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and inviting the Fox into the hen house of a post-war Gaza, how will the Israeli government feel about it? Although again, as always, Albert, it may be that there are more nuances and it's more complicated and Turkey's a big power and important economy and important presence of an American ally and all the rest but at the end of the day, Turkey has proven itself to be a very unreliable partner for Israel, so I think it's going to be very, very hard for the Israeli government to agree to that, but it does, if that's the case, show that to some degree the Biden administration is moving, I don't know about on its own, but it's starting to develop its own concepts with others around the Middle East about how a post-war Gaza looks, maybe because the Israeli government hasn't shown as much initiative as it could about defining as precisely as it could have what Israel wants to see in that post-war Gaza. Owen Alterin, Daryl and Abital, thank you both for joining us here in the studio. Many of the hostages still in Gaza were taken from the Nova Music Festival named Rahim. The hostages and missing family form arranged for the massacre, Ariel Osiron, was there and he spoke with some family members hoping to get through their grief and fighting on for those who are still alive. I tried to imagine the feeling that I'll have when I'll be here. I thought it would be different, but I thought it would be easier because I feel like I know everything here. I saw so many videos and so many pictures and I had so many stories that it almost felt like I know everything. But the second I just stepped into this area felt different. For Michail Levi, visiting this beautiful wood outside Kibbutz Reim near the Gaza border is an emotional roller coaster. It's the site of the deadly Nova Music Festival. And on October 7th, his brother Ol and sister-in-law, Einav, arrived just minutes before it was stormed by dozens of Hamas terrorists. Part of his need to know everything, as he describes it, led him to find a video that depicts Ol and Einav's last moments together. They stood close to the wall inside a bomb shelter. I didn't see what happened inside when those monsters threw the grenades and sprayed bullets into the shelter, but I can imagine. I can understand from the stories. He was... she was in front of him. He saw it. He saw his wife being murdered in front of him. And then taken to Gaza. And then taken to Gaza. Michail has not heard a word regarding his brother's condition since that day exactly three months ago. All he knows is that Ol was taken alive and uninjured. The reason Ol and Einav arrived in the morning of the party, and not the night before when it began, was because they wanted to spend the night with their two-year-old son, Almog, who they left at his grandparents before heading out to Reim at dawn. Now, Almog is essentially an orphan, not knowing if and when his father will return. He misses them. He misses them all the time. He wants to go home. He starts crying when someone mentioned the words dad or mom. It's as simple as that. He can understand that they are not here. I'm not sure how much of this he can understand, but he understands that they are not here with him. Michail is just one sibling of a kidnapped hostage now hollowed ground for an event arranged by the Hostage Family Forum. This was the dance floor at the Nova Music Festival where 364 partygoers were murdered, raped and mutilated by Hamas terrorists and Gaza locals on a dreadful October 7th. The air here is thicker. It's genuinely harder to breathe walking through here now. These are their faces. They are gone for good. But for some, there is still hope to return home. But time is running out. Besides a mock bar, bullet shells on the ground and the playlist from that day blaring in the background, the event also included a speech by 18-year-old Itairegiv who was taken hostage with his sister Maya from the festival. Both were freed after more than 50 days in the tunnels of Gaza. Some of his friends who were taken into captivity. I was in captivity for 45 days and every day there is like forever. The conditions there are very, very hard to survive. Very hard. The images cannot stay there for one more second. They all have to return home now. Asaf Pozniak lost two of his relatives at the Nova Festival. His sister-in-law's two sisters, Hodaia and Itairegiv, were initially believed missing following October 7th. Their burnt bodies were found six days later in the nearby woods. Since then, Asaf has been very active in the family's forum. From the first week, I've been working like crazy to try and bring Hodaia and Itairegiv. They were at my wedding in June and I remember thinking how amazing it would be to attend their weddings. Unfortunately, that dream has died. With negotiations over a second phase of hostage release faltering, both Asaf and Mikhail remain optimistic that the hostages will return and soon. 136 babies, children, elderly, women are all being held captive at gunpoint, 94 days in. You can get the very latest on the war here on TV on I-24 News, online on I-24 News.tv and push alerts on the I-24 News app. I'm Albert Lewerton reporting from Tel Aviv. The news continues. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front lines, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. I-24 News rolling coverage of the war Monday, January 8th, 2024, day 94 of the war. Let's bring you up to date on developments. First off, Hezbollah reports that Wissa Maltaouil, who ran Hezbollah's Radawan commando force has been killed in an airstrike. This back and forth continues just hours ago. Hezbollah anti-tank missile hit the northern city of Kiryashmona. Turning now to the West Bank, Israeli police forces have arrested three Palestinian suspects in the West Bank that left an Arab-Israeli man dead and another woman critically wounded. Palestinian media reports the suspects were identified as Dr. Esar Barouti, an anesthesiologist, another doctor, Dr. Khaled Al-Harouf, and Marine Alatari, a nurse. Now to Gaza, the IDF's seventh brigade ground forces in the Gaza Strip have had intense clashes with Hamas fighters in Khan Yunus, but have also found training materials for child soldiers. Just a bit ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used Gaza as an example to Hezbollah, saying, quoting now, we gave them an example of what happens to their friends in the South. That's what will happen in the North. Now following the assassination of Hamas's deputy political leader, Hezbollah has sharpened its rhetoric and escalated its cross-border fire. In fact, just a couple of hours ago, there were sirens in the northern part of Israel, warning of hostile aircraft and the incursions. With more, we go to our correspondent Robert Swift. The United States is clearly worried that the skirmishes on Israel's northern border will tip over into all-out war. We want to do everything possible to make sure that we don't see escalation there, but it's very important that Israelis have security in the North. Concerns heightened by the killing of Wissam Al-Tiwal, a senior commander of Hezbollah's Radawan commando force. The Iranian proxy group is blaming Israel for the killing, which comes hot on the heels of other recent escalations. In the early hours of Monday, Israel conducted extensive airstrikes against Hezbollah positions and hardware. This followed the admission by the IDF that a large salvo of rockets and anti-tank missiles fired by Hezbollah on Saturday had hit home. Hezbollah fired at IDF bases in the North, including the Northern Air Control Unit on Mount Meron. The damage caused will be repaired and the unit continues to function as its systems were backed up. Hezbollah's strikes were likely a response to the assassination of Hamas figure, Salah Al-Arouri, widely blamed on Israel. Both incidents represent an escalation by the warring parties, but so far one that remains under the control of full war. While around 80,000 Israelis remain displaced from their homes in northern Israel, Jerusalem is determined to push Hezbollah away from its border. I'm suggesting to Hezbollah to learn what Hamas already learned. No terrorist is immune, and we are determined to defend our citizens and return the people of the North to their homes. I'm saying this to our enemies and to our friends. Sympathetic to this goal, the US is urging Israel to achieve it through diplomatic means and pressure. A strategy which Israeli leaders say they are willing to try, but not indefinitely. Washington is also concerned about Israel's willingness to rely upon force. With a US intelligence report cited by the Washington Post, noting that Israel may struggle to prosecute another front after depleting much of its war resources and increasing in Gaza. We have a pretty good panel here for the next half hour, Lieutenant Colonel Daron Abitel the former commander of Special Forces of the IDF joins us, as well as his own ultimate I-24 news senior diplomat correspondent. Daron, let me start with you first. Let's find out a little bit more about this with some Al-Tawil. He was the head of the Rad 1 commando force. What is the Rad 1 commando force? Well, this is what they are boasting about, that they created. In fact, the Hamas Nukba, which is modeled on the Hezbollah commando force that showed its force already in 2006. In a kidnapping attempt, it triggered the Second Lebanon War. So this is the elite force that we are facing. And this is a senior commander. I'm not sure how to estimate the seniority, but this is a field commander. This is a very successful targeted killing. It shows that we have a very good knowledge, a very good intelligence of the southern part of Lebanon. And 9-24 news is reporting that just a few moments ago that Syrian opposition media say that he's the brother-in-law of Hassan Nasrallah. So that would be... It makes it even more closer and closer to the rank. Now they are not... This is not hitting in the Dakhia. When we were hitting Arou in the Dakhia, this is the territory, this is where the command post of Hezbollah is, but this is in the southern part of Lebanon. So this is really the landscape of the battlefield right now. So this is really within the game. And after the attack yesterday, we had to show some. So this attack, let's let our viewers up to speed in case many of them were not watching over the weekend in the states or around the world. This is an attack that was on a Maron, which is in the north. What was significance of that? First of all, this is... First of all, we were exposed to a weaponry or to the ability of a weaponry, this cornet missile in the land on the edge of its range. I mean, 2.5 km from the border. So this is something I think took us a bit by surprise. We have to admit we didn't expect this. What's the significance of the actual site itself? This is like... It's the highest mountain in there. This is where we have some air control command in which we can command or supervise the southern part of Lebanon. So this is something that has importance, of course. Symbolic important. This is... It's not an easy thing for us to accept. No real damage was done. Nobody was hit, but still. This is something we have to take into account in terms of evaluating the weaponry and what they can do to us. Now IDF won't say that they were responsible for the strike for the head of RUN1. I mean, this is also with the entire responsibility for Ruri. So we have to just let the audience guess who has operated in such magnitude and such preciseness. Now there was a discussion also about the Gaza. Let's talk a little bit. There's a lot to talk about on that one. First of all, IDF troops went into the southern part of Gaza and they saw that they were child soldier manuals. Is that something expected? Yeah, I think it's been expected. I'm not surprised. This is the education to be a Nukhba commando soldier starts at an early age. Yeah, and even the way they channel explosive they let kids do those operation or let kids scout and see where we standing, our soldier. So this is part of the war that we are operating. I'm not surprised about that. Now there's also discussion of the fact that about stage three. What is stage three? I think Galan talked about, in fact, Galan, the Minister of Defense in fact declared that we are moving to phase three or that we are already in phase three. I think phase three was supposed to be a very surgical operation special forces operating in and out, incursion and so on. But still it's hard for me to really mark the beginning of phase three when we don't have any estimation about the whereabout and the possibility to negotiate or rescue. What is one, what is two, what is three? So when Galan says I'm wearing phase three, what is that? I think phase, I think phase the day on the phase, I think the first phase was the bombardment, the second phase, the main phase was going into the incursion that are entering Gaza from the north, and then Hanyun is the second phase of the second phase. And now in the third phase which means we are positioning ourselves and we do more surgical operation after dismantling the main infrastructure in Gaza. As you mentioned, it was only hinted until now, but practically official now Defense Minister Gov Galan said that Israel is going to soon end the massive operation, at least in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and then move to another kind of warfare. So what we've done, I-24 News Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regev reports on how long that next stage could take. On the ground it may look the same, those operating on the ground clearly sound the same. We're fighting here together with the armored corps and the engineering corps, and we are ready to begin. But there is an understanding that the current phase of the fighting in Gaza may be ending, and a different kind of fighting may be kicking in. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Israeli Minister of Defense Gov Galan said that in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Israel will soon be shifting from an intensive maneuver to various kinds of special operations. It's expected to be a long process of constant operations in the Strip. The chief of staff has no illusions about it ending anytime soon. 2024 will be a challenging year. We will certainly be fighting in Gaza during the entire year. There was no formal announcement at the beginning of the ground operation. Don't expect one to announce the move to the next stage of the war. Even without that formality, Israel seems to understand the current phase reached at the end of the week, and it may be time to carry out a different approach. Let's actually now go to the south of Israel, the border with Gaza. There is a report about this phase three, this next stage three, but it doesn't stop the actual ground incursions that are occurring in Khan Yunus. Tell us more about what's happening over there. According to Minister Joav Galant on the World Street Journal, he said that the IDF is now progressing toward a low intensity warfare, which is phase three that you mentioned, but only in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip, about half of the territory of this 380 square kilometers. It's including also Gaza City, but south of Gaza City, the thrust of the ground offensive, which started in Khan Yunus in the southern sector on December 2nd and was enlarged in the central sector of the refugee camps in December 23rd, is going on with full intensity. Because in the central sector you have four battalions of Hamas facing the 36th division of combined combat teams. And in Khan Yunus you have also four battalions of Hamas facing the 98th division of commando units as well as combined combat teams. There is only one spot that hasn't been touched by ground forces and only by pinpoint strikes. It's the border town of Rafar, which now house something like 1.3 million Palestinians who are displaced. It's a city that used over 200,000 inhabitants and because of the proximity with the Egyptian border it's a very sensitive town and as a result the IDF ground forces are not yet operating then. That would probably require cooperation coordination with the Egyptian government with whom Israel signed the peace treaty already in 1979 and also with a little help of the US administration. So right now there are still 12 battalions in the second half of the Gaza Strip. The 12 battalions in the northern sectors have been decimated basically. 8,500 terrorists killed out of 14,000 hundreds surrendered but many of them are still operating on a guerrilla mode in Ashramas cells getting out of shifts, tunnel shafts that haven't been identified by the army yet and some of them flew to the southern sector or the central sector to support the other battalions so it's far to be over. The IDF has done practically half of the job. Pierre Kloschunder thanks so much for telling us what's going on there. The southern part of Israel on the border with Gaza is going on in Gaza city. Pierre mentioned that there were 8,500 Hamas fighters who were killed out of thousands and what's also happened is that there have been hundreds and hundreds of those who have surrendered. So here's something you won't see on social media feeds or on Hamas protests in the west or on American news networks dozens of Gazans surrendering to IDF soldiers and just so you know they're stripped down to their pants just so that they're not carrying any suicide bombs. It's a protocol that almost every armed force in the world uses. So here's what happened. The Gazan men begging the world to free them from Hamas oppression. Now we kept this in its original Arabic with subtitles lest anyone think it's any IDF propaganda. So take a listen. I think this is where we put our hopes that there would be the citizens of Gaza would understand fully that what the oppression of the living under Hamas what does it mean and would be able to create some kind of a solution. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. It's a good idea. I think it would be a good idea and would be able to create some kind of regime of self-control. A civil or operation of Gaza with some help of us, the other coalition around us. I hope there's enough political power that can really serve this purpose as the chief of staff of the Israeli army said we have a year-long of fighting still in and out, in permis, in surgical. In the end we want to see Hamas out of At least the Hamam Hamas and a new rule in Gaza. But here there, this is maybe two dozen, three dozen here who are surrounded. You have a 1.3 million Gazans who are there. So nobody can tell whether this is indication of the true spirit of the citizen of Gaza. But I think after the aftermath of this war, I think most of them understand that there's no way that Hamas can allow Hamas command this territory. So I hope we'll find the new leadership and maybe together with the PA, though Bibi Netanyahu is very adamant against it, but maybe together with the PA, because I don't think the Saudi, the Egyptian, and the U.S. would agree to self-control that doesn't involve the PA in some way or another. So we'll have to see how it works. But the next year would be very challenging, military-wise, and in terms of the reconstructing of Gaza. Deron, you mentioned the international community and how they're planning on helping it. The U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, is here in his third day, fourth day of his tour all around the Middle East to try to tamp down the pressure that's up in the north. I'm joined in studio now with Owen Alterman and the senior diplomatic correspondent. Blinken has a lot on his plate to try to figure all this out. Yeah, as I put it in the report yesterday, Albert, if it's Sunday, this must be Jordan, taking off that 1969 movie. He's making eight or nine, depending on how you count them, stops on this trip. He's already made quite a number of them and arriving in Israel expected to arrive late tonight for another day and a half over the course of Tuesday and part of Wednesday meetings here. Obviously, a lot of his plate, as I described it in the report yesterday, juggling three balls in the air. First of all, the situation in Israel's north and trying as he sees it to contain the war so it doesn't, to use his words, the war in Gaza doesn't, quote, metastasize. Right, which says that to a larger regional context. Like a cancer. Yeah, yeah. Look, nobody wants to see a wider war, the Israeli public least of all. But again, the public here is obviously determined to see those in those northern communities return. As regular viewers know, I'm very skeptical of the idea that there's going to be a war between Israel and Hezbollah more than, of course, already is right now. I think the zone of possible agreement is quite wide to get to an agreement. It's just a matter of diplomacy to get there. But at any rate, that's one of the balls that bit Blinken is juggling in the air. The second, of course, the ball we've become accustomed to, the war itself, right? The issue of minimizing civilian casualties and maximizing aid. And here, the report in the Wall Street Journal of Yav Galant, Israel's defense minister coming out and saying Israel's moving to that third stage of the war obviously going to be welcome news, at least in the Northern Gaza Strip, going to be very welcome news to the Biden administration. And third, this issue of the day after, right? This perplexing question that you are also talking about of what exactly happens to Gaza once the war is over. And here we again meet that vexing question of when is the war considered over? This is a question that comes up in terms of the day after because you can't have a day after until the sun has set on the day of, okay? We meet this concept of the day after in terms of Israeli politics, right? Benny got staying in this government for the duration of the war, which begs the question, when is the war considered over? And also in the North, right? His Bullah's official position is it won't negotiate a diplomatic agreement until the war in Gaza is over. Again, begging the question, when is the war considered over? And could there be, at least from his Bullah's perspective, some wiggle room in terms of when the war is considered over so you should get to the business of negotiating a deal. We're not sure we're right there yet in the North because right now as our viewers are seeing on the top of the screen, these are air raid siren alerts that are going up in the North, so they continue to still send volleys across from Hezbollah. One question I had yesterday, I spoke with Abir Pasner and one of the things he said, he was very skeptical about Turkey getting involved in any of this. They're saying that why would you trust Turkey to be involved in any of this? It's a fascinating question and Rob Swift's report that we saw earlier in the broadcast, we saw Anthony Blake and I think in that tarmac when he was taking off from Greece before going to Jordan, speaking to reporters and coming off of his meeting in Turkey, saying about how much he talked to the Turkish government about their role in the post-war Gaza. And of course I'm sitting here in our Jaffa studio wondering how exactly are we as Israelis supposed to see this after Recep Tayyip Erdogan has gone back to his old habits of spewing the most disgusting venom against our country, against our leaders and against who we are, comparing Benjamin Netanyahu to none other than Adolf Hitler. So now the Biden administration is going to that same man, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and inviting the Fox into the henhouse right of a post-war Gaza. How will the Israeli government feel about it? Although again, as always, Albert, it may be that there are more nuances and it's more complicated and Turkey's a big power and important economy and important presence and American ally and all the rest but at the end of the day, Turkey has proven itself to be a very unreliable partner for Israel. So I think it's going to be very, very hard for the Israeli government to agree to that. But it does, if that's the case, show that to some degree the Biden administration is moving, I don't know about on its own but it's starting to develop its own concepts with others around the Middle East about how a post-war Gaza looks. Maybe because the Israeli government hasn't shown as much initiative as it could about defining as precisely as it could have what Israel wants to see in that post-war Gaza. Oh, and I'll turn, they're all gonna be taught. Thank you both for joining us here in the studio. You know, many of the hostages still in Gaza were taken from the Nova Music Festival named Raeem. The hostages and missing family form arranged for an event at the side of the massacre, Ariel Osiron was there and he spoke with some family members hoping to get through their grief and fighting on for those who are still alive. I tried to imagine the feeling that I'll have when I'll be here. I thought it would be different but I thought it would be easier because I feel like I know everything here. I saw so many videos and so many pictures and had so many stories that it almost felt like I know everything. But the second I just stepped into this area felt different. For Michail Levi, visiting this beautiful wood outside Kibbutz Raeem near the Gaza border is an emotional rollercoaster. It's the site of the deadly Nova Music Festival and on October 7th, his brother Ol and sister-in-law Enav arrived just minutes before it was stormed by dozens of Hamas terrorists. Part of his need to know everything as he describes it led him to find a video that depicts Ol and Enav's last moments together. They stood close to the wall inside a bomb shelter. I didn't see what happened inside when those monsters threw their grenades and sprayed bullets into the shelter but I can imagine, I can understand from the stories. He was, she was in front of him. They saw it. He saw his wife being murdered in front of him. And then taken to Gaza. And then taken to Gaza. Michail has not heard a word regarding his brother's condition since that day exactly three months ago. All he knows is that Ol was taken alive and uninjured. The reason Ol and Enav arrived in the morning of the party and not the night before when it began was because they wanted to spend the night with their two-year-old son, Almog, who they left at his grandparents before heading out to Ra'im at dawn. Now, Almog is essentially an orphan, not knowing if and when his father will return. He misses them. He calls them all the time. He wants to go home. He starts crying when someone mentioned the words, the words, dad or mom. It's as simple as that. He can understand that they are not here. I'm not sure how much of this he can understand but he understands that they are not here with him. Michail is just one sibling of a kidnapped hostage who came to this now hollowed ground for an event arranged by the Hostage Family Forum. This was the dance floor at the Nova Music Festival where 364 partygoers were murdered, raped, and mutilated by Hamas terrorists and Gaza locals on that dreadful October 7th. The area here is thicker. It's genuinely harder to breathe walking through here. Now, these are their faces. Most of them are gone for good. But for some, there's still hope to return home. But time is running out. Besides a mock bar, bullet shells on the ground, and the playlist from that day blaring in the background, the event also included a speech by 18-year-old Itai Regev, who was taken hostage with his sister Maya from the festival. Both were freed after more than 50 days in the tunnels of Gaza. Some of his friends who were taken from the party remain in captivity. I was in captivity for 45 days. And every day there is like forever. The conditions there are very, very hard to survive, very hard. The hostages cannot stay there for one more second. They all have to return home now. Asaf Pozniak lost two of his relatives at the Nova Festival. His sister-in-law's two sisters, Hodaya and Tahir, were initially believed missing following October 7th. Their burnt bodies were found six days later in the nearby woods. Since then, Asaf has been very active in the family's forum. From the first week, I've been working like crazy to try and bring Hodaya and Tahir. They were at my wedding in June. And I remember thinking how amazing it would be to attend their weddings. Unfortunately, that dream has died. With negotiations over a second phase of hostage release faltering, both Asaf and Mikhail remain optimistic that the hostages will return and soon. 136 babies, children, elderly, frail women are all being held captive at gunpoint 94 days in. You can get the very latest on the war here on TV on I-24 News, online on I-24News.tv and push alerts on the I-24 News app. I'm Albert Lewerton reporting from Tel Aviv. The news continues. A state of war family is completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. 24, day 94 of the war. My name is Albert Lewerton. I'll bring you up to speed down the rolling coverage of the war. It is day 94 of the war. Let's bring you to up-to-date developments. On the northern front, Hezbollah reports that Wissa Maltawil, who ran Hezbollah's Radawan commando force and who is Hassan Nasrallah's brother-in-law, has been killed in an airstrike. This back and forth continues. Just hours ago, a Hezbollah anti-tank missile hit the northern city of Kiryat Shmona. An IDF soldier was slightly wounded. Turning now to the West Bank, Israeli police forces have arrested three Palestinian suspects in the West Bank shooting attack that left an Arab-Israeli man dead, and another woman critically wounded. Palestinian media reports the suspects were identified as Dr. Ayser Bargouti, an anesthesiologist, and another doctor, Dr. Khaled Al-Harouf, and Murid Al-Atari, a nurse. Now to Gaza, the IDF's seventh brigade ground forces in the Gaza Strip have had intense clashes with Hamas fighters in Khan Yunus, finding more caches of weapons and ammunition, but also training materials for child soldiers. Just a bit ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used Gaza as an example to Hezbollah, saying that Sarala only needs to look at Gaza to see what could happen to him. Take a listen. Hezbollah made a big mistake about us in 2006 and is making a big mistake now. He thought we were cobwebs. Suddenly he sees what a spider we are. He sees here tremendous power, the unification of the people, a determination to do whatever it takes to restore security to the North. And I tell you, this is my policy. We will do everything to restore security to the North and allow your families to return home safely while they know not to mess with us. I-24 News Live, team coverage begins with Zach Anders. I-24 News correspondent joining us from north of Israel. Zach, there's been another incoming volley from Lebanon. I understand there's been alerts in Roshanikra. Within the last five minutes, Albert, and we're paying real close attention to each and every one of these alerts because of this targeted assassination of another senior Hezbollah commander. This apparently taking place about seven miles from the border in southern Lebanon, Hassan Hassan, to seem a senior commander, brother-in-law of Hassan Nasrallah. Again, this is a significant moment here, especially after we hear Hassan Nasrallah earlier in the week, or last week rather, tell us that this was going to be, there would be a heavy price to pay for the assassination of Al-Rouri inside Beirut. We're seeing an incredible amount of air activity. Actually, as I speak, we're here in the jet site. I can see the contrails from the planes that have been circling around here in northern Israel. This is going to be a very delicate night. I have a sense. And I do see a tweet here that I want to read to you, a tweet from another Hezbollah commander that was recently deleted. He tweets in Arabic, today Tel Aviv will burn. So you can, you see that the anger and the frustration of their losses in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah has now over 150 of its militants have been killed in the fighting since October 7th. And now senior commanders are starting to drop as well. We'll still have to wait and see what the consequences of this latest event will be. Great, Zach, just so our viewers at home know, Roshani cry, which is basically the border. It's a very, it's a large tourist attraction on the border with Lebanon. I was there over the summer. Shlomi, which is at the top of the screen, you'll see an alert for Shlomi, which is about, I would say about 30 minutes east of there. So it's right along the border. So it seems like those border communities are the ones that are constantly getting hit right now. Those, well, really this entire stretch of the border from the coast into the Galilee to the Golan is all under threat. And we've had a hard time in some places being able to put together an accurate tally of how many attacks have taken place because of the difficulty in understanding what the IDF provides, which is the interception numbers and potentially the hits and the damage. It does come out later in the afternoon. We worked to try and put it together. But again, all of these communities in the North here are constantly under threat. In some places though, the weapons do play a difference. The ATGMs don't depend on a line of sight. So if the Hezbollah is able to get closer to the border, those are the weapons that you won't get a red alert for. Great, Zach Anders. Stay tuned and stay safe. Thanks very much for joining us from the live from the North part of Israel. Thanks again. I'm joined now in studio by former Brigadier General Hanangeff and a former commander of the 8200 Intelligence Unit for the IDF. Thanks for coming in. Thank you, I'll be fine. So let's talk a little bit about this commander of the forces that was killed today. He is very well known. It's the Rod 1 Brigade. What do we know about the Rod 1 Brigade? This is the brigade that the Nasrallah prepared. There's one of his pillars to the big scheme of getting to Jerusalem, which actually is conquering the Galilee, all the Galilea. In the past, he has already, he has digged some tunnels along the border for the use of these forces to invade the settlements, the towns along the border, the same style, the same model that actually happened in the 7th of October. This is the model that Dev, I believe, taught the Hamas how to do this or how to go forward. This is the force that he prepared for. For many years, this force is training to invade Israel once the order is given. But this particular person who was struck today personally has scored an Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the Quds Guard, was the driver of Soleimani at one point from Iran, was the brother-in-law of Hassan Nasrallah, ran the Rod 1 forces. I mean, this is in terms of, if you're going to look for playing cards of who they want to strike, this is the number one playing card. It's not the number two playing card. Yeah, around number one or three. But it's very high. You cannot ignore it. And Nasrallah cannot go on as one of the other 152 or 58 soldiers that he lost during these three months. It's not the same. It's a different game, unless he's willing to lose his fame as the leader of the axis of anti-Israeli forces in the region. If you don't want to lose this title, he will have to do something. He'll have to do something. One thing that's a little bit concerning is what Zach reported moments ago, that someone put out a tweet saying, Tel Aviv will burn tonight, then took the tweet down. That's kind of rhetorics we have seen in the past. From the Shiites, it doesn't mean Tel Aviv. It means somewhere deep in Israel, maybe, or not, or even a whole straight, because this is too early for them to prepare for it. We'll take them some time to do it. In the past, Nasrallah, I remember saying I'm going to hit Haifa in whatever, beyond and beyond and beyond Haifa. So this is kind of rhetoric. We don't have to take it literally in this. Let's hope not. I'll get to the south in just a moment. I first want to tell our viewers that it was only hinted until now, but now practically official. Defense Minister Joav Galant says that Israel will soon end its massive operation, at least in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and move down to another kind of warfare. I-24 News Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regev reports on how long that stage could take. On the ground, it may look the same. Those operating on the ground clearly sound the same. We're fighting here together with the Armored Corps and the Engineering Corps, and we are ready for every mission. But there is an understanding that the current phase of the fighting in Gaza may be ending, and a different kind of fighting may be kicking in. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Israeli Minister of Defense Joav Galant said that in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Israel will soon be shifting from an intensive maneuver to various kinds of special operations. It's expected to be a long process of constant operations in the Strip. The IDF Chief of Staff has no illusions about it ending any time soon. 2024 will be a challenging year. We will certainly be fighting in Gaza during the entire year. There was no formal announcement at the beginning of the ground operation. Don't expect one to announce the move to the next stage of the war. Even without that formality, Israel seems to understand the current phase reached its peak, and it may be time to carry out a different approach. Let's go to the region now. I-24 News Correspondent Ariel Oceran joins us now from southern Israel. Ariel, there has been a lot of, looks like it's been a lot of action towards the Khanunis area. Tell us more. Indeed, Albert, that has been the main focus of IDF operation on the ground over the past few weeks, not the only place it's been operating. It also has significant operations going on in the central part of the Strip, what's called the Central Gaza Camp, such as Nussirat and Djokharadik, Direl Balach places like that. But what you're looking, what you can see behind me, and I'll let our cameraman, Rotem Ben Ham, I'll give you a better look. It's Jabalia, that's in northern Gaza, the northern outskirts of Gaza City, a bit to the south of it, are Shadjaia areas that IDF, this is the northern part of Gaza, that areas that IDF has significant control over, but we can constantly hear artillery, gunfire, and just the constant war going on, also as far north as here, obviously the situation, despite IDF forces holding much of the above ground areas, also as the situation in the south, the wars of multi-tier war, also above ground, also below ground, the IDF saying that over the past day, 30 significant targets in Chanyunes, back in the south, have been targeted, and this includes also rocket launch sites, which is something that, there hasn't been rockets to the areas here outside the Gaza Strip over the past 19 hours, but indeed yesterday we got a reminder in this area that Hamas maintains the capability to fire rockets towards southern Israel. Right, I'll join us from the south of Israel right now. Thanks so much for joining us right on the border with Gaza, and just to show you what life is like inside Gaza, in a conversation between an unidentified Gaza resident and the IDF unit that gathers human intelligence, a citizen of Gaza shares that Hamas murdered his cousin because he tried to request aid from UNRWA, and then that's the United Nations agency that was created for Palestinians. In another conversation, a citizen said that he won't leave his home because he's afraid Hamas will take it over and use it to shoot at the IDF, and yet in one more conversation, a cook who works for an American aid organization says that Hamas terrorists tried to steal food that's intended for civilians in the Gaza Strip. We've collected all of those. Take a listen. Join back in studio again with Brigadier General Hanan Geff and a former commander for the A-200 intelligence unit, and is that kind of human intelligence that the IDF is looking for right now, I imagine? Well, this is kind of the mood of the population, actually looking for much more than that and getting much more than that. And during these three months, piles of information, some of them are debriefing, investigation, but some of them are computer disks, and so on. As they have mentioned, the other day, a 60 million pages, 60 million different material, which has to be free. How can I go through all of that? There is a team that is going, working very hard. There are many reservists working there at night trying to find immediate intelligence, not in our background, but immediate for immediate use. Where are the headquarters? The commander, the birth of the houses. Some of you already noticed the way the IDF is working. Now, the last, I would say, two, three weeks, we see more targeted, not only persons. We see only for the weekers, but also the weekers, but also buildings, houses are targeted, with hosting various operatives, various commanders of the Hamas, and this is part of the third phase, which is intelligence driven, intelligence oriented. More intelligence, less forces on the ground, raids in and out, attacking a command post. This is actually going on in the northern part of the Strait. And it will go gradually down to the center and south, and the idea is, what the chief of staff mentioned, that what we see in the West Bank, we see this day, nightly invasion. So they are all intelligent targeted. You are going to the houses of operatives, go to the houses of those who threaten to commit this or that activities. This will happen again in Gaza in a few months. But now you're talking about specific targeted strike. One thing I want to make mention is that there are, they seem to be more targeted strikes in Syria, although the IDF doesn't announce whether or not they're doing these kind of targeted strikes in Syria. There's a reason they're doing that, and they're using this kind of intelligence to do that. That the IDF is claimed to be, some of the already taken responsibility, targeting Iranian, or Iranian affiliated forces, the Shiites forces that support them in the area of Damascus, Aleppo, and then the eastern part of Syria, where they are moving in weapons and support. To break off the trail, to break off the road, the supply road. They tried, even in the past, to have a base of hand-down vehicles from the eastern part, and then that was broken. I don't see, we don't see it anymore. They are trying it from Iraq, but they are Iraqi forces, Iraqi supporting forces. Great. I want to thank Brigadier General Hanan Geffen, former commander of the 8,200 intelligence unit from the IDF. Thank you very much for coming in today. Let me now turn to, I want to turn to I-24 News Correspondent, Nicole Setic. She's live in Tel Aviv at the hostage and missing square that's been set up from families and supporters of those who are being captive, Nicole. Three months now, Albert, which is crazy to think that the hostage and square has been here for three months, and yet still, look at how many people are out here in this square. I'm going to have my cameraman, Daniel, just pan around to give you a feel of how people are still coming and looking at exactly what's been happening here, because we still have 130-plus hostages who are held captive in Gaza. And so the more people that come out here and show their support and continue to raise awareness for the hostages that are held captive, that's exactly what the family members want to see. And they are remaining hopeful. In fact, we heard from some of the family members just yesterday after six different family members had traveled to Qatar to meet with some Qatari leaders to talk about possible hostage negotiations as we approached the 100th day that their loved ones have been in captivity. They said that the meeting with Qatari, it was, they were optimistic leaving the meeting. They said Qatari officials listened to their concerns. They were attentive. However, also the Qatari Prime Minister said that the targeted killing of Saleh Alaruri in Beirut with Israel is not claimed responsibility for, but everyone's pointing the finger at Israel. The Qatari Prime Minister said that is absolutely complicating these hostage negotiations. Now the families say that they're hopeful after meeting with the Qatari Foreign Minister, they're also going to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as he arrives here in Israel. They're hoping to hear an update from him as well about any possibility for future hostage negotiations. You know, Nicole, one of the things that here we are on day 94, three months exactly, the Red Cross has given absolutely no indication to the families that their family members are alive. And I'm sure that they're not happy about that at all. No, they are certainly not. And that's one of the things we also continue to hear is just pushing for medical attention to the hostages as quickly as possible because they say time is running out and every day that their loved ones are in captivity, they know that their health is likely deteriorating, especially as no one from the Red Cross has done anything to visit them. Nicole Setic live in Tel Aviv. Thanks so much again for your report. Danielle Eloni happened to spend the weekend of October the 7th, her family in Southern Israel. She and her six-year-old daughter Amelia found themselves in a horror movie, but it was real life. We have more in this report. She wasn't supposed to be there at all, but the family insisted that she come for the holiday. And so on that black Sabbath, Danielle Eloni found herself in a safe room in Kibbutz, near Oz. Together with her six-year-old daughter Amelia and her sister Sharon Aloni Cunio and her husband David, and their two twins, Yuli and Emma. When the terrorists closed in on their house and set it on fire, David escaped through the window together with little Yuli. Danielle, Sharon and the two girls remained in the smoke in the safe room. In the safe room, we realized that the house was being burned down. My sister left a message that we were being burned and we probably wouldn't make it out. We accepted our fate that we would die here by inhaling smoke or fire depending on which came first. Just an understanding, understanding, fear. There are no words, what can you do? Will you be scared you'll be dead in a second? You won't feel anything anymore? After I covered my daughter with a blanket, I don't even know why. Maybe the smoke wouldn't penetrate or penetrate it more slowly. And I hugged her tightly and I told her, I'm sorry, we're going to die. We no longer had much strength in our bodies. We had been in the safe room for six hours. My sister helped me open the window. There were a number of terrorists standing in front of us with guns drawn. I closed my eyes waiting for the barrage. We heard shots outside. Then I opened my eyes because they weren't shooting and they just pointed at us, told us like that and signaled we should get out. And we're already exhausted. They literally pulled us out. It was a relief when you suddenly realized that you weren't being shot at, that after all you were being taken somewhere or that it would be a lie to say otherwise. Yes, yes, because we were waiting for it. And you realized at that moment that from that point you have to live moment by moment. Absolutely. At this point, we were being taken and I didn't know anything. This cart they were waiting for arrived. They picked us up, started driving. What's going on here? It's a horror that cannot be explained in words. I think there are still no words in Hebrew that can describe this horror that new words need to be invented to describe what happened there that day. I was sure it was a lynching. They just kept giving me blows from behind, the head and the back. We arrived in Gaza, they told me to get up and they took the girl from my hands, Emma. They took the girl from her mother's hands. It's that they didn't know that I'm not her mother. I'm just her mother for there. Do they just physically take her from you? Yes, and that was the moment I managed to open my mouth and start shouting, no, no, my daughter, my daughter, no. He made out like this and here a curtain fell over my eyes. There's some mechanism at work, a mechanism that represses what I saw because I don't remember who the girl was handed over to. I don't know which direction they went in. I failed to protect my daughter. She's like my daughter, she's my girl. I don't wish for any mother to have to go through this test. You said it was a horror movie, imprisonment. They took us down the tunnels. They took you straight down to the tunnels. Yes, a prison anyone can understand, imagine. You saw in the movie, you saw articles in Israel about people sitting inside prison facilities. But if I were to ask you how you imagine tunnels, first of all, it's total darkness. They have infrastructure, electricity, water in places meant to house people. The passages are total darkness. What, it's hot, it's humid, no air? It's not hot, it's insanely humid. The clothes, wet all the time, smelly, no air, no air. What, is it hard to breathe? Yes, we got to the first tunnel, which was probably some sort of stopover where I saw people. There I saw adults, ties, a handcuffed boy. I think I saw a few more handcuffs there. Thailand, Nair, Azook. What did you see on their faces? Shock, fear, this unknown, this situation that this reality that we were thrown into from one moment to the next. When we entered the next tunnel and I saw the injuries, people who were so bruised with open wounds, with bruised faces, people who had already seen their loved ones murdered outside were there. And all these things my daughter also saw. There was someone who came once that I saw to collect a list of medicines. Real medical treatment, never. The situation is not good there. The situation is that there are, especially when many people are crammed together. What do you mean crammed together? Take me to this room. Imagine a room, roughly this width, mattresses like for refugees, one next to the other, close together. That means everyone with their own breasts and their injuries and everyone is crammed next to each other and the snoring and the voices and the diseases. What did you do there all the time? You are the mother of a six-year-old girl. What did you do? What did you do to take all the children together? First of all, lots of dead hours. Telling stories, it beautifies the painful reality. I told her that we are here, but why are we here? I told her because they took all the most special children and put them in this place to protect them from these booms outside. You see, booms happen outside, but they don't happen here. We're safe here. I would tell her that every day we are here brings us closer to getting out. We would choose a gift for each day we were there. And I had everything. Yes, all the gifts. Every day, every day I would take a moment in the day, sit Amelia next to me, and I would start praying to God, listen to the voice of a girl and praying for our return, for our release, for everyone's health. And I would ask my daughter to repeat every sentence after me. And when she would go to sleep, Shuliran's song, Lament, would play in my head a lot. Which is like such a prayer, like a call to the Holy One. Blessed be He, be here for me. As a mother, you mobilize forces that I'm not sure were even there before. You stay in captivity, I will do everything, so that my girl will get through this trauma in the most gentle way, in the most, quote unquote, gentle way that a child can have. And you do everything. You beg for food sometimes. You beg to shower her. Even if we can't shower, you find the strength for her. What a test of parenthood. This is the test of my life. It was a test of my life. And I marked everything with a tick, everything. 136 remain captive. Everything you need to know about the war you can get, push alerts on your phone. I'm Albert Lewits and I, 24 News, reporting from Tel Aviv. Did you know that Martin Luther King's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the Promised Land? Well, now, 55 years later, his prophetic words are coming true. Hundreds of African-American women took a journey of a lifetime to the Holy Land. We'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual and religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of African-Americans. 24, Day 94 of the war. My name is Albert Lewits, and I'll bring you up to speed now on the rolling coverage of the war. It is Day 94 of the war. Let's bring you to up-to-date developments. On the northern front, Hezbollah reports that Wista Maltaweel, who ran Hezbollah's Radawan commando force and who is Hassan Nasrallah's brother-in-law, has been killed in an airstrike. This back-and-forth continues, just hours ago, a Hezbollah anti-tank missile hit the northern city of Kiryashmona, and IDF soldier was slightly wounded. Turning now to the West Bank, Israeli police forces have arrested three Palestinian suspects in the West Bank shooting attack that left an Arab-Israeli man dead and another woman critically wounded. Palestinian media reports the suspects were identified as Dr. Aesir Bargouti, an anesthesiologist, and another doctor, Dr. Khaled Al-Harouf, and Murid Al-Atari, a nurse. Now to Gaza, the IDF's seventh brigade, ground forces in the Gaza Strip, have had intense clashes with Hamas fighters in Chanyunas, finding more caches of weapons and ammunition, but also training materials for child soldiers. Just a bit ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Antinahu used Gaza as an example to Hezbollah, saying Nasrallah only needs to look at Gaza to see what could happen to him. Take a listen. Hezbollah made a big mistake about us in 2006, and is making a big mistake now. He thought we were cobwebs. Suddenly he sees what a spider we are. He sees here tremendous power, the unification of the people, a determination to do whatever it takes to restore security to the North. And I tell you, this is my policy. We will do everything to restore security to the North and allow your families to return home safely while they know not to mess with us. I-24 News Live, team coverage begins with Zach Anders. I-24 News Correspondent joining us from North of Israel. Zach, there's been another incoming volley from Lebanon. I understand there's been alerts, and Russia may cry. Within the last five minutes, Albert, and we're paying real close attention to each and every one of these alerts because of this targeted assassination of another senior Hezbollah commander, this apparently taking place about seven miles from the border in southern Lebanon, Hassan Hassan, to seem a senior commander, brother-in-law of Hassan Nasrallah. Again, this is a significant moment here, especially after we hear Hassan Nasrallah earlier in the week, or last week rather, tell us that this was going to be, there would be a heavy price to pay for the assassination of Al-Ruri inside Beirut. We're seeing an incredible amount of air activity. Actually, as I speak, we're here in the jet sites. I can see the contrails from the planes that have been circling around here in northern Israel. This is going to be a very delicate night, I have a sense, and I do see a tweet here that I want to read to you, a tweet from another Hezbollah commander that was recently deleted. He tweets in Arabic, today Tel Aviv will burn. So you can, you see that the anger and the frustration of their losses in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah has now over 150 of its militants have been killed in the fighting since October 7th, and now senior commanders are starting to drop as well. We'll still have to wait and see what the consequences of this latest event will be. Great, Zach, just so our viewers at home know, Rochehoney Cry, which is basically the border, it's a large tourist attraction on the border with Lebanon, I was there over the summer. Shlomi, which is at the top of the screen, you'll see an alert for Shlomi, which is about, I would say about 30 minutes east of there. So it's right along the border. So it seems like those border communities are the ones that are constantly getting hit right now. Well, really, this entire stretch of the border from the coast into the Galilee to the Golan is all under threat and we've had a hard time in some places being able to put together a accurate tally of how many attacks have taken place because of the difficulty in understanding what the IDF provides, which is the interception numbers and potentially the hits and the damage. It does come out later in the afternoon. We worked to try and put it together, but again, all of these communities in the north here are constantly under threat. In some places though, the weapons do play a difference. The ATGMs don't depend on a line of sight. So if the Hezbollah is able to get closer to the border, those are the weapons that you won't get a red alert for. Great, Zach Anders, stay tuned and stay safe. Thanks very much for joining us from the live, from the north part of Israel. Thanks again. I'm joined now in studio by former Brigadier General Hanan Geffen, a former commander of the 8200 Intelligence Unit for the IDF. Thanks for coming in. Thank you, Albert Hall. So let's talk a little bit about this commander of the forces that was killed today. He is very well known. It's the Radwan Brigade. What do we know about the Radwan Brigade? This is the brigade that Nasrallah prepared. As one of his pillars to the big scheme of getting to Jerusalem, which actually is conquering the Galilee, all the Galilee. In the past, he has already, he has digged some tunnels along the border for the use of these forces to invade the settlements, the towns along the border, the same style, the same model that actually happened in the 7th of October. This is the model that Dev, I believe, taught the Hamas how to do this or how to go forward. This is the force that he prepared for many years. This force is training to invade Israel once the order is given. But this particular person who was struck today personally escorted Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the Quds Guard, was the driver of Soleimani at one point from Iran, was the brother-in-law of Hassan Nasrallah, ran the Radwan forces. I mean, this is in terms of if you're going to look for playing cards of who they wanted to strike. This is the number one playing card, if not the number two playing card. Yeah, around number one or three, but it's very high. You cannot ignore it. And Nasrallah cannot go on as one of the other 152 or 58 soldiers that he lost during these three months. It's not the same. It's a different game unless he's willing to lose his fame as the leader of the axis of anti-Israeli forces in the region. If you don't want to lead this to lose this title, you will have to do something. He'll have to do something. One thing that's a little bit concerning is what Zach reported moments ago that someone put out a tweet saying Tel Aviv will burn tonight and then took the tweet down. That's kind of rhetorics we have seen in the past from the Shiites. It doesn't mean Tel Aviv. It means somewhere deep in Israel, maybe or not, or even a straight, hollow straight, because this is too early for them to prepare for it. We'll take them sometime to do it. In the past, Nasrallah, I remember he was saying I'm going to hit Haifa in whatever, beyond and beyond and beyond Haifa. So this is kind of rhetoric. We don't have to take it literally in this. Let's hope not. Let me, I'll get to the south in just a moment. I first want to tell our viewers that it was only hinted until now, but now practically official. Defense Minister Joav Galant says that Israel will soon end its massive operation at least in the northern part of the Gaza Strip and move down to another kind of warfare. I-24 News Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regev reports on how long that stage could take. On the ground, it may look the same. Those operating on the ground clearly sound the same. We're fighting here together with the Armored Corps and the Engineering Corps, and we are ready for every mission. But there is an understanding that the current phase of the fighting in Gaza may be ending and a different kind of fighting may be kicking in. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Israeli Minister of Defense Joav Galant said that in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Israel will soon be shifting from an intensive maneuver to various kinds of special operations. It's expected to be a long process of constant operations in the Strip. The IDF Chief of Staff has no illusions about it ending anytime soon. 2024 will be a challenging year. We will certainly be fighting in Gaza during the entire year. There was no formal announcement at the beginning of the ground operation. Don't expect one to announce the move to the next stage of the war. Even without that formality, Israel seems to understand the current phase reached its peak, and it may be time to carry out a different approach. Let's go to the region now. I-24 News Correspondent, Ariel Osirun, joins us now from southern Israel. Ariel, there has been a lot of, it looks like a lot of action towards the Qanunis area. Tell us more. Indeed, Albert, that has been the main focus of IDF operation on the ground over the past few weeks, not the only place it's been operating. It also has significant operations going on in the central part of the Strip, what's called the Central Gaza Camp, such as Nussirat and Jocheradik, Derel Balach, places like that. But what you're looking, what you can see behind me, and I'll let our cameraman Rotem Ben-Kham give you a better look, it's Jabalia, that's in northern Gaza, the northern outskirts of Gaza City, a bit to the south of it, are Shadjaia areas, that IDF, this is the northern part of Gaza, areas that IDF has significant control over, but we can constantly hear artillery, gunfire, and just the constant war going on also as far north as here, obviously the situation, despite IDF forces holding much of the above ground areas, also as the situation in the south, the wars of multi-tier war, also above ground, also below ground, the IDF saying that over the past day, 30 significant targets in Chanyunes, back in the south, have been targeted, and this includes also rocket launch sites, which is something that, there haven't been rockets to the areas here outside the Gaza Strip over the past 19 hours, but indeed yesterday we got a reminder in this area that Hamas maintains the capability to fire rockets towards southern Israel. Right, I'll also run joining us from the south of Israel right now. Thanks so much for joining us right on the border with Gaza. And just to show you what life is like inside Gaza, in a conversation between an unidentified Gaza resident and the IDF unit that gathers human intelligence, a citizen of Gaza shares that Hamas murdered his cousin because he tried to request aid from UNRWA, and that's the United Nations Agency that was created for Palestinians. In another conversation, a citizen said that he won't leave his home because he's afraid Hamas will take it over and use it to shoot at the IDF. And yet in one more conversation, a cook who works for an American aid organization says that Hamas terrorists try to steal food that's intended for civilians in the Gaza Strip. We've collected all of those. Take a listen. My God, my God, my God... Come on. Who are you? What are you? What's with you? What do you know about this? When will you remove Hamas from this? When will you remove Hamas from this? Why don't we remove all of it? Why did we remove Hamas and his wife? Because Hamas has killed our own son. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm going, working very hard, the many reservists going, working there at night, trying to find immediate intelligence, not in our background, but immediate, for immediate use. Where are the headquarters? The commanders, the birds, the houses. Some of you already noticed the way the IDF is working. Now, the last, I would say, two, three weeks, we see more targeted, not only person, we see of the weakers, but also the weakers, but also buildings, houses are targeted, with hosting various operatives, various commanders of the Hamas. And this is part of the third phase, which is intelligence driven, intelligence oriented. More intelligence, less forces on the ground, raids in and out, attacking a command post. This is actually going on in the northern part of the center, northern part of the city. And it will go gradually down to the center in south. And the idea is, what the chief of staff mentioned, that what we see in the West Bank, we see this daily, nightly invasion. They are all intelligent, targeted. You are going to the houses of operatives, go to the houses of those who threatened to commit these activities. This will happen again in Gaza in a few months. But now you're talking about specific targeted strike. One thing I want to make mention is that there are, they seem to be more targeted strikes in Syria, although the IDF doesn't announce whether or not they're doing these kind of targeted strikes in Syria. There's a reason they're doing that, and they're using this kind of intelligence to do that. That the IDF is claimed to be some of the already taken responsibility, targeting Iranian or Iranian-affiliated forces, the Shiites forces that supported in the area of Damascus, Aleppo, and then the eastern part of Syria, where they are moving in weapons and support of his men. To break off the trail, to break off the road, supply road. They tried even in the past to have a base of hand-dumped vehicles from the eastern part. And then that was broken. We don't see it anymore. They're trying it from Iraq, but they are Iraqi forces, Iraqi supporting forces. Great. I want to thank Brigadier General Hanan Geffen, former commander of the 8,200 intelligence unit from the IDF. Thank you very much for coming in today. Let me now turn to I-24 News Correspondent Nicole Setic. She's live in Tel Aviv at the hostage and missing square that's been set up from families and supporters of those who are being captive. Nicole. Three months now, Albert, which is crazy to think that the hostage square has been here for three months, and yet still look at how many people are out here in this square. I'm going to have my cameraman Daniel just pan around to give you a feel of how people are still coming and looking at exactly what's been happening here, because we still have 130-plus hostages who are held captive in Gaza. And so the more people that come out here and show their support and continue to raise awareness for the hostages that are held captive, that's exactly what the family members want to see. And they are remaining hopeful. In fact, we heard from some of the family members just yesterday after six different family members had traveled to Qatar to meet with some Qatari leaders to talk about possible hostage negotiations as we approach the 100th day that their loved ones have been in captivity. They said that the meeting with Qatari, they were optimistic leaving the meeting. They said Qatari officials listened to their concerns. They were attentive. However, also the Qatari Prime Minister said that the targeted killing of Saleh al-Rouri in Beirut with Israel is not claimed responsibility for, but everyone's pointing the finger at Israel. The Qatari Prime Minister said that is absolutely complicating these hostage negotiations. Now the families say that they're hopeful after meeting with the Qatari Foreign Minister. They're also going to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as he arrives here in Israel. They're hoping to hear an update from him as well about any possibility for future hostage negotiations. Nicole, one of the things that here we are in day 94, three months exactly, and the Red Cross has given absolutely no indication to the families that their family members are alive. And I'm sure that they're not happy about that at all. No, they are certainly not. And that's one of the things we also continue to hear is just pushing for medical attention to the hostages as quickly as possible because they say time is running out. And every day that their loved ones are in captivity, they know that their health is likely deteriorating, especially as no one from the Red Cross has done anything to visit them. Nicole Setic live in Tel Aviv. Thanks so much again for your report. Danielle Oloni happened to spend the weekend of October the 7th with her family in southern Israel. She and her six-year-old daughter, Amelia, found themselves in a horror movie, but it was real life. We have more in this report. She wasn't supposed to be there at all, but the family insisted that she come for the holiday. And so on that black Sabbath, Danielle Oloni found herself in a safe room in Kibbutz, Niroz, together with her six-year-old daughter, Amelia, and her sister, Sharon Aloni Cuneo, and her husband, David, and their two twins, Yuli and Emma. When the terrorists closed in on their house and set it on fire, David escaped through the window together with little Yuli. Danielle, Sharon, and the two girls remained in the smoke in the safe room. In the safe room, we realized that the house was being burned down. My sister left a message that we were being burned, and we probably wouldn't make it out. We accepted our fate that we would die here by inhaling smoke or fire depending on which came first. Just an understanding? Understanding, fear, there are no words. What can you do? Will you be scared you'll be dead in a second? You won't feel anything anymore? After I covered my daughter with a blanket, I don't even know why. Maybe the smoke wouldn't penetrate or penetrate it more slowly, and they hugged her tightly and I told her, I'm sorry, we're going to die. We no longer had much strength in our bodies. We had been in the safe room for six hours. My sister helped me open the window. There were a number of terrorists standing in front of us with guns drawn. I closed my eyes waiting for the barrage. We heard shots outside. Then I opened my eyes because they weren't shooting, and they just pointed at us, told us like that, and signaled we should get out. And we're already exhausted. They literally pulled us out. It was a relief when you suddenly realized that you weren't being shot at that after all you were being taken somewhere or that... It would be a lie to say otherwise. Yes, yes, because we were waiting for it. And you realized at that moment that from that point, you have to live moment by moment. Absolutely. At this point, we were being taken, and I didn't know anything. This cart they were waiting for arrived. They picked us up, started driving. What's going on here? It's a horror that cannot be explained in words. I think there are still no words in Hebrew that can describe this horror, that new words need to be invented to describe what happened there that day. I was sure it was a lynching. They just kept giving me blows from behind, the head and the back. We arrived in Gaza. They told me to get up, and they took the girl from my hands, Emma. They took the girl from her mother's hands. It's that they didn't know that I'm not her mother. I'm just her mother for there. Do they just physically take her from you? Yes, and that was the moment I managed to open my mouth and start shouting, no, no, my daughter, my daughter, no. He made out like this, and here a curtain fell over my eyes. There's some mechanism at work, a mechanism that represses what I saw because I don't remember who the girl was handed over to. I don't know which direction they went in. I failed to protect my daughter. She's like my daughter. She's my girl. I don't wish for any mother to have to go through this test. I'm out. You said it was a horror movie, imprisonment. They took us down the tunnels. They took you straight down to the tunnels. Yes, a prison anyone can understand, imagine. You saw in the movie, you saw articles in Israel about people sitting inside prison facilities. But if I were to ask you how you imagine tunnels, first of all, it's total darkness. They have infrastructure, electricity, water, in places meant to house people. The passages are total darkness. What, it's hot, it's humid, no air? It's not hot, it's insanely humid. The clothes, wet all the time, smelly, no air, no air. What, is it hard to breathe? Yes, we got to the first tunnel, which was probably some sort of stopover where I saw people. There I saw adults, ties, a handcuffed boy. I think I saw a few more handcuffs there. What did you see on their faces? Shock, fear, this unknown, this situation that this reality that we were thrown into from one moment to the next. When we entered the next tunnel and I saw the injuries, people who were so bruised with open wounds, with bruised faces, people who had already seen their loved ones murdered outside were there. And all these things my daughter also saw. There was someone who came once that I saw to collect a list of medicines. Real medical treatment, never. The situation is not good there. The situation is that there are, especially when many people are crammed together. What do you mean crammed together? Take me to this room. Imagine a room, roughly this width, mattresses like for refugees, one next to the other, close together. That means everyone with their own breasts and their injuries and everyone is crammed next to each other and the snoring and the voices and the diseases. What did you do there all the time? You are the mother of a six-year-old girl. What did you do? First of all, lots of dead hours. Telling stories, it beautifies the painful reality. I told her that we are here, but why are we here? I told her because they took all the most special children and put them in this place to protect them from these booms outside. You see, booms happen outside, but they don't happen here. We're safe here. I would tell her that every day we are here brings us closer to getting out. We would choose a gift for each day we were there. And I had everything. Yes, all the gifts. Every day, every day I would take a moment in the day, sit Amelia next to me, and I would start praying to God, listen to the voice of a girl, and praying for our return, for our release, for everyone's health. And I would ask my daughter to repeat every sentence after me, and when she would go to sleep, Shuliran's song, Lament, would play in my head a lot. Which is like such a prayer, like a call to the Holy One, blessed be He, be here for me. As a mother, you mobilize forces that I'm not sure were even there before. You say in captivity, I will do everything, everything, so that my girl will get through this trauma in the most gentle way, in the most quote, unquote, gentle way that a child can have. And you do everything. You beg for food sometimes. You beg to shower her. Even if we can't shower, you find the strength for her.