 closer to the border. We do see that these areas that are located that close to the border have already been widely void of civilians that have evacuated already before to different areas in the country here. Now there's Bala militia and Israel really delivering those scumishes alongside the border. This is not a local conflict. We've yesterday been seeing some of those impacts causing fires in different areas here alongside the border. Of course, posing a risk to the civilian population here is Bala reiterating also the Iranian Foreign Minister reiterating over the course of the past days that they will make their entry to this war, the entry of the northern front into this war dependent on developments in Gaza. Now the striking of that hospital in Gaza, of course, causing this area to boil. We're talking yet again about quite contained confrontations between Israel and his Bala, but really that could change any minute and cause a wider escalation. Well, thank you, Pia. And we're going to be coming back to you over the course of the day for updates from that front until then stay safe. We're going to now turn to our panel in studio. That is Jack Nerriot, former deputy head of assessment with the Israeli military intelligence as well as our Middle East correspondent, Ariel Osiram. We're going to open with you, Jack. We've been wondering ever since the first few days of the war, why has Bala has not joined? And that's because the situation in Lebanon isn't quite so clear cut as Iran orders them and they instantly join. You're going to have to understand just what the pressures are in the north that may determine one way or the other. Well, there are two main things that are that might determine the behavior of his Bala. One is the fact that the resurgence of Daesh in Syria. In the last six months, there have been more than 1200 attacks perpetrated by the Daesh inside the Syria inside the Syrian desert. Hundreds have been kidnapped and killed. And this means that his Bala has to think about sending units there to just back the Assad regime. And this is certainly a development that that his Bala is not is not keen to to to to to perform in this in this period. On the second hand, there is a rising tension between Shiites and Christians, those who are against his Bala involvement in the war with Israel. And we've seen the Shiites entering Christian cemeteries and institutions and just doing everything that they can in order to create a situation where the Christians feel that they are under attack. And this weighs a lot on on his Bala, who presents himself not only as a resistance, Lebanese resistance, but also as a as a guardian of Lebanese interest, which is not the case right now. So those two elements weigh a lot on on the decision, but it doesn't mean that it has to affect his Bala the confronting Israel. And it's not just on the northern border that there are a bunch of complications going on. We've only been looking at two real fronts in the war so far, Ariel, because we've been talking about the northern border. We've been talking about Gaza, but there's still the fact that Hamas has a growing presence in the West Bank as well that Israel is trying to stop from erupting into another front as we speak. Right, Ariel. So before we talk about what Israel has been doing against Hamas in the West Bank, just a clear update as to what Israel did in Gaza last night. Israel continued targeting terror infrastructure across the Gaza Strip. The IDF said that it killed overnight the head of the military wing of Gaza's popular resistance committees. This is the popular resistance committees are the third largest terror group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas and Palestine. In addition to that, at least 10 fighters are the commando elite commando fighters that led the rampage of southern Israel last week. And in addition to that, Israel targeted the first female Hamas target. We're talking about Jamila Shanti. She's a member of the Political Bureau, the first woman to be elected in the Political Bureau. She was the widow of Abdelaziz Rantisi, one of the founders of Hamas. And so Palestinians are highlighting her targeting on social media now. As for the West Bank, look, as you mentioned, a lot of the focus in recent days has been on the southern border and in the northern border. But the West Bank has been simmering, also leading up to last week's events. But obviously, ever since, we're talking about pretty much every night, including last night, wide scale arrest raids across the West Bank, about 80 terror suspects were arrested overnight by IDF and other Israeli security forces, including 40 members of Hamas. Of them, we're talking about Hassan Yusef, a key command, a key official, Hamas official in the West Bank. Look, we're talking about since last Saturday, about 65, 66 Palestinians dead by Israeli forces, the vast majority of them in clashes. Over night, five Palestinians killed three in clashes, two according to Palestinians. They were not involved. And this just shows how challenging this multi-front threat that Israel is dealing with, also splitting not only its forces and its attention, but trying to keep the different fronts at bay so that they can concentrate. This is at least according to IDF chief of staff, they want to focus on one front, and that's the southern front right now. We're definitely going to discuss that more at length in a moment. But first, we're actually going to take a quick look at that southern front because our correspondent, Pierre Closh, is down there right now. Pierre, give us the latest of what's going down and the preparations for that ground invasion of Gaza. Well, it's difficult to know. We know that there are preparations, but you heard yesterday, Defense Minister Joav Galan saying that the emphasis right now is on deployment up north in order to stem any threat from Hezbollah. Here we haven't seen huge staging grounds in, at least on the northern part of the security area bordering the Gaza Strip. We've seen staging ground of armored vehicles quite a few days ago, and that's, you know, that is still going on. But we haven't seen huge staging grounds of infantry forces, and we believe that infantry forces are still training in preparation of a ground offensive. Now, we've heard there's going to be many surprises in that ground offensive. So I don't know how this will shape. I'm no military expert. But right now, it doesn't seem that we're on the verge of an imminent ground incursion or offensive or maneuver, whatever you call it. Here in Zderot, it's been calm just like everywhere in the country for the past 11 hours since 10 p.m. last evening. No rocket fire, but at the same time, you clearly hear the artillery shelling by the Israeli armed forces onto Gaza. You hear the roaring of fighter jets overhead. You hear the surveillance drones. And this city, as you can see just behind me, is just a ghost town. We don't know how many residents have stayed, maybe a couple of hundred or maybe a couple of thousands. We know that many of those residents who've stayed are essential workers. Those who man the clinics, those who man the supermarkets, and the security forces, obviously. Some of them are homeless people that their house has been impacted by a rocket, and it's not livable there. And we've met one man a few days ago, and I've met him again today, Vlad. He lives in a public shelter at this point and refuses any assistance from the municipality to be able to leave the city of Zderot. He says, I'm going to stay until the end. So you have also this kind of people. It's an interesting situation there, and we're definitely going to see how that develops. We heard some interesting things from Pierre here. I'm going to turn to our panel in the studio. This idea that a ground invasion does not feel imminent. Do you voice that you had some disagreement? Well, you know, the deployment of forces has been ended. We are there, we are deployed, we are prepared. The training or the training of the forces that were just mobilized has ended. We are waiting for an order. We are waiting for a decision. So, be it imminent or not, we are. I mean, the moment the army will receive the green light, you will see the tanks rolling inside. And I think that it's a matter of the next 24, 48 hours, no more than that, because the public is putting more and more pressure on the government to see where it goes. And nobody wants to see this operation stop without Hamas being annihilated. And by the way, I think that there's the issue of the hospital is very important. We have to stress the fact that 450 missiles were fired by Hamas and Jihad Islamic Jihad and landed inside the Palestinian territories, killing scores of Palestinians. And this is not shown to the public and only yesterday because of when the IDF spokesman spoke about that, then this number was given to the public and it's a pity it wasn't known earlier. And you voiced that you wanted to say something as well. Yeah, I think in my humble opinion that another reason that this ground invasion is taking its time hasn't happened yet is because not all the fighting forces in the field have all the necessary gear. We know this. This is something that IDF commander, the head of the IDF, Herzli Alevi, he's admitted to it. I've personally spoken to units who are expected to enter Gaza who do not have enough tactical gear. They're ordering on their own. They're raising funds. This is a big problem that the IDF has. Herzli Alevi said in the Hagari the spokesperson said that any soldier that will go into Gaza will have everything that he needs. But he's also admitted that not all of them have everything that they need. And so this is also there's a logistical bottleneck that to my understanding is also affecting this timeline of the ground maneuver inside Gaza. I mean, Jack, I have to ask how that's even possible. He's describing a deplorable state of affairs for an army that says that they are ready to fight a war on multiple fronts at once. Well, last time Israel mobilized 360,000 soldiers is a long time ago. I don't think that even in October of the Yom Kippur War, 1973, we had that sort of mobilization. So these are the and then you have to understand that an army read is according to the assessment of the intelligence. If the intelligence tells you for more than 50 years that there's no chance of a total war with any Arab around you because of this and because of that. Then, you know, you have to take care of your budget. You just you just direct your budget to things that are more important. If the Army said if the Navy says we need the six submarines, so the money will go to the submarines. If the Air Force would say they'll say we have to think about the refueling aircraft. So each of them is is a hundred of millions of dollars. So, you know, if and if you say that there is no war on the horizon, why should you buy the special gears for for the infantry? This these elements, this equipment has has a shelf age. I mean, it doesn't it doesn't last forever. You have this protective vest can be the after five or 10 years of no use at all. So this is what's happened. And now you just wake up and see that we are surrounded by a real threat and existential threat. So you have to get to get ready there. And this is it takes time to get protective vests from Europe, from the United States, from any place in the world, maybe from from eastern sources. And it takes time to bring other equipment. And then you have the bureaucracy. Imagine yourself. People who are bringing protective vests have to pay taxes, import taxes to the state of Israel. Can you imagine that? There's thousands and thousands of items of tactical gear that are currently stuck in customs in Israeli customs. And these are these are materials that are supposed to serve the soldiers entering Gaza. And so far, they haven't made it to the units because they're stuck in customs. You would think that the entire point of the government's emergency powers in an emergency situation would be to bypass obstacles exactly of this sort. Well, the Prime Minister and the government is there for this special mission and they are not fulfilling it. If we're talking about the way emergency services, the government is handling itself. There are still families of people who have been kidnapped to Gaza, who have hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, who haven't been contacted by the government. I mean, there's so many different aspects. The more you break it down, the more harrowing the details are. I mean, the fact that in so many different aspects, state organs are not delivering. They're not functioning. And many Israelis are turning also to civilian projects that kind of help fill the gaps. And again, Israelis are fundraising to get money to buy tactical gear that will be used for fighting in the IDF front lines. I mean, it's just unfathomable to even say that this isn't something that the government is providing, but that ordinary individuals have to raise money. One battalion, 250 soldiers, they raised $60,000 from the U.S. in order to pay for their gear. And this is just one example. Unfortunately, there are too many of them. And before we continue, I have to cut in here because there has been a breaking news update. It will, of course, be that Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the UK has landed in Israel for his own visit, his own assessment of the security situation and the British government's interest in attempting to prevent the war from escalating into a regional conflict as well. But that'll be more on that later as we return to this situation. Ultimately, Jack, we're hearing about the difficulties in supplying troops with the necessary gears. There's something in general that the Israeli public as a whole can do to help. Well, you know, the public is mobilized. I think that the public has a very high morale. And we are just backing the army. We feel that we are part of the army. I myself, I have five nephews and a grandson in the army, one pilot and four fighters in elite units. So every one of us is involved in a way or another. And we are just waiting to see that the government fulfills its mission, which it failed on the 6th of October to protect the people of Israel. And this is what is expected of a government. And the sooner, the better. And we are going to come back to this discussion. I believe, though, we have been waiting for a while to bring another voice into this as well. We have been discussing the military situations and you mentioned, just in the studio a moment ago, the idea of public morale. Well, this is the story of Joshua Pleat, who had his wedding more or less pushed off, but still tried to hold it despite the situation. Joshua, tell us your story of attempting to ensure that you are maintaining resilience in these difficult times. Hi. Thank you very much for having us on. So I guess in short, we were, you know, planning for many months to have our wedding. A very special day. We've been together for more than five years already. And we woke up on that Saturday morning and, you know, as things kind of rolled out, we were, it was very clear that we would just, there was no kind of situation that we could kind of carry and holding the wedding. So we put everything on hold and, you know, we had many guests flying from really across the world to come and attend and come and join us. And of course, it all has to be canceled. Everything was canceled. And there was kind of a moment where we had made, we had sort of key ports that were handmade that were going to be given out to everyone. They had the dates and there was a moment where we, during the week, kind of two days before, in fact, where we saw the dates again. I think there was a moment where we decided to ask a bit of help. And so we spoke to the CEO of our company and my own manager and if they would consider helping us and they, frankly, they jumped to it. They, in less than 48 hours, they put together, I think, which was something that was so beyond any expectation. We were so fortunate to be able to get married. My parents were still in Israel before they were managed to get an emergency flight back. And so we were just so blessed with such kindness. And I think this was really important for us just to have a moment where we could kind of use this opportunity to give the people around us and who we care about something to be happy about just for a few minutes. The other thing I think is really important is that how many people threw themselves into helping us. We had everything from local cocktail bar, the alchemist, they came to help us. We had photo booths and the rabbi managed to come through. It was a really special moment and we couldn't be more grateful for it. And I can see from the videos there, it looks like you had the wedding in an office building at the end of it rather than at a proper wedding hall. What do you think this says about the resiliency and the ability to improvise that the Israeli people have shown in the aftermath of this horrific tragedy? I think it says a lot. I think it's something that really defines us as people. As Israelis is that, you know, I did aliyah 2015 and my partner, my wife. She came from Ukraine in the early 2000s and being Israeli is about doing everything you possibly can to support each other. And in the darkest of times and the best of times, we were a strong nation of people who care and love for each other hugely. And I think this was just a small representation of just how much people care in this country for each other. And certainly in the immediate aftermath, there was a sensation and many Israelis that I know that life was, if not over, shattered. But you're showing here that life still goes on, that people still show and have the events and the happy parts as well. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I mean, I think one of the things you learn after being through some of these events is that the whole point of terrorism is to push you down and to terrify you, to keep you afraid. And it's part of our duty to keep going and to make the most of everything we can because that's how we push forward, right? And otherwise they win. And I think that's part of our national duty is to make sure that life continues each day. The economy needs to go on. We need to keep working. And people are putting themselves into it through thick and thin. Well, Joshua, thank you very much for that story of resilience and fighting back against all the other things. And for Lilia as well, who was, well, congratulations on your wedding. Best way to put it. Thank you. I just want to say I'd just like to add that my company is called Otero. I just want to give a thanks to them because without them it would never have been possible. So thank you very much. Certainly, certainly. And I'm going to return to our panel just for the last couple of minutes that we have. Ultimately, that's one personal story of resilience and getting back on our feet. Ultimately, Jack, for the nation itself, how are we going to do that? Well, you know, in my view, the the secret weapon that the gold amir spoke about is still vivid and living in among us. We have no other choice. We don't have another country. We have this is the only country in the world that is the country of the Jews. And this is what we have to defend. So your question is logical, but it it has no no logical sequence, because this is basically relies on our feelings inner feelings and our common or social conscious as as a people who has survived the Holocaust and and antisemitism. And this is where we find ourselves. And when we see what's happening, what happened on the 6th of October, the savagery, the bestiality of our enemies, we remember that we are the light in front of the darkness. That's a good message for the end of our show for all of our viewers out there. We are just about out of time for now, but we will see you at the top of the next hour. With all that in mind, all that you saw the resilience of the people of Israel, that is a message to all of you out there as well to stay strong. We will get through this united. We are a people and we are going to get through this. Stay strong. Stay safe. Officially in a state of war, this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking. More than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. From Tel Aviv and welcome to coverage of Israel at war. War has now entered its 13th day as Israel prepares for a ground operation in Gaza to break the murderous Hamas terror group. All eyes though are still on the northern front where Israel has struck his bullet terror group military targets along the Lebanon border. After the Iranian-backed militia fired anti-tank missiles at the northern town of Rojhanikra. According to the IDF, nine rockets were launched from Lebanon setting off sirens in Karyat Shmona and several nearby communities. The IDF said four were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system. The United States has thrown its full support behind Israel with President Joe Biden set to address the United States in an effort to get an emergency budget to fund the war. But it comes at a price. Israel must allow humanitarian aid back into Gaza despite originally promising a siege until all 200 hostages seized by Hamas and their murderous rampage on October 7th are returned. U.S. President Joe Biden says this humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip will come via Egypt and may begin as soon as Friday. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has landed in Israel this morning as well. He's going to be heading to other countries afterwards in an effort to de-escalate the Israel-Gaza conflict, that's the words in his office. What he would do is open the gate to do two things. One, let up to 20 trucks through to begin with. Satterfield, my ambassador, is down there in Cairo now. He's going to coordinate this. He has my authority to do what is needed to get it done. They're going to patch the roads. They have to fill in potholes to get these trucks through. And that's going to occur. They expect it will take about eight hours tomorrow. So there may be nothing rolling through until, what's today? What's the track of days? Thursday? Wednesday? Probably until Friday. If Hamas confiscates it or doesn't let it get through or just confiscates it, then it's going to end. Because we're not going to send any humanitarian aid to Hamas if they're going to confiscate it. We are going to begin first with a view of the southern front where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is standing by in the south. Tell us what the latest in those preparations are. Much about the preparations. We know only that there's been a call-up of reserve soldiers for every front. Be it the central command, the northern front, the southern front. We've seen staging grounds for armored vehicle carriers and for armored vehicles in general. We haven't seen infantry troops because they're in the rear and still training as far as we understand. We also heard yesterday, Defense Minister Joav Galant, who said Hamas is Hezbollah, sorry, from Lebanon, is tenfold stronger than Hamas. So the attention right now is about deployment up north. And we know that there's also a lot of deployment of forces up north just in order to contain any aggressive act from Hezbollah. Now, here in this city, as you can see behind me, it's barely populated. According to the Home Front Command soldiers here, about 1,000 residents have remained here. Some of them are just homeless, living in public shelters on social welfare drip. Some others have decided to stay to keep their homes. Some others are volunteering just like here in this clinic, which is the only one open right now and serves the residents and also the security forces that are here. They're also volunteers in two supermarkets that we've seen. There is some sort of solidarity, strong solidarity network between the residents and the security forces. One woman told me that earlier, that a commander in the security forces, his cell phone was broken. Immediately, a resident of this impoverished city bought him an iPhone 14 and gave it to him. So the residents are very grateful that the security forces are here and at the same time they want to help them. So this is more or less the situation here and the situation of people that are still grieving and are traumatized. But what happened 13 days ago here in Zderot, where 44 people lost their lives? It's definitely a grim view of what seems to be a ghost town out there, Pierre. It'll be coming back to you as the situation down there develops. We are going to go now to studio where we have former senior intelligence officer from the IDF Rafael Yashalmi with us to break down just what we're looking at on the southern front right now. Certainly, it seems to be a sort of deceptive quiet over the last 12 hours or so since there's last missile launches. What's happening and what happens next? On the part of the Hamas, I think they are saving now their ammunition for later rounds. They had a nice shot at us last night after Mr. Biden's visit. Right now, they're still depleting their stock of missiles, so they should start selecting when and how to use them. That's their decision. They are starting to be under pressure from the pounding of the air force and the artillery of Israel. So it's becoming a little harder for them to organize, deploy and shoot these missiles. They are mainly busy preparing the ground entry of Israeli forces. The booby traps, they've been known to even take out of the ground pipes, water pipes to make more side explosives to booby trap a lot of places. So they are mainly bracing themselves for the ground operation on the Israeli side. The quiet is also relative. I mean, the pounding from the air force continues on a regular basis, mostly at night. The ground forces are training, preparing, waiting for the right moment. We have had such a surprise that even in the drawers of the strategic departments of the IDF, they didn't have that scenario. So this means a replanning of the strategy. The situation is different to what we thought it would ever be. We have to admit it. It's a surprise that we have to make new plans. According to these new plans, you have to retrain the troops accordingly. The objectives are different. The fighting will be different according to the strategy the tactics also used. So all this takes time. We want to ensure that the logistics are okay. There is enough equipment, ammunition, food for these tens of thousands that might go into Gaza. So we take our time and it's good that we do. The later we go in, the better because it's going to be a bloody warfare in there, a bloodshed on both parts. So we should really let the air force in the artillery bomb as much as possible. And that's why in a way, apart from the humanitarian aspect and apart from the fact that if we do not take care of this humanitarian aspect, the UN and others will ask us to cease fire or whatever, in which Joe Biden is absolutely right. We have to admit that evacuating the civilians gives us more leeway to bomb and bomb and bomb because the ideal situation would be, but of course it won't be, but ideally that there are no civilians left, no children left in that combat zone and we can just destroy it from the air, in which case we won't even have to enter. So that's why there is this lack, it's the quiet before the storm. Okay, before we continue this discussion, we're going to take a quick look at the northern border as well. Our correspondent, P.H. Dekalbach, is in the north and unlike the south, where the last 12 hours there have not been quiet at all. Well, Ariel, that is true. We are hearing that the Israeli military struck, his Bala military targets throughout the night specifically from the area of Rosha Nikra, which is at the very western part of the Israeli-Lebanese border. That comes after, again, according to an Israeli military statement, yesterday in the afternoon and evening hours, his Bala launched 10 anti-tank missiles into Israel alongside rockets and mortar shells. There was a rocket alert triggered in the area of Kiryat Shmona, which is in the eastern upper part of the Geleli, one person lightly injured from an anti-tank missile in the Kibbutz, very close to the Lebanese border right here. The Bala, yesterday, publishing a video showing that they're specifically targeting the cameras and the radar systems in Israeli military posts alongside the border. We're not talking about only one or two localities. We're talking about positions really alongside the Israeli-Lebanese border. Now, Ariel, it is interesting that despite the continuous threats coming from the Iranian foreign minister, but also from his Bala itself, the full on escalation has not yet materialized. Although they have been continuously emphasized that they will make their entry into this war, their full entry into this war, dependent on actions in Gaza and the day of anger of range that we have seen yesterday after the hospital in Gaza was struck, we still do not see a full blown escalation here, Ariel. We're talking about increased skirmishes. We're talking about very, very high tensions, but it seems to be still a contained, however, the civilian population here in the north is getting prepared for that possible escalation. We've been talking about that basically since the beginning of the war already, Ariel. The Israeli Home Front Command has recommended the civilians in a range closer to two kilometers to the Lebanese border to evacuate. Most of the civilians here have done so already. Now, yesterday, the Israeli government decided to extend that range to five kilometers here. The shelters are open. They're being prepared, because everyone is kind of expecting the next bigger escalation to come. So far, we have been seeing these skirmishes in different localities alongside the border all along. Behind me, you can still see some smoke arising from shells being fired into Israel yesterday. Causing fire is also in the forest here. But Ariel, we're really not talking only about the danger of rockets or anti-tank missiles being fired into Israel, but also infiltration attempts. We've seen several of those in the last week, in the last two weeks, actually, almost. And of course, after the experience in the south, the northern front is very much prepared for that as well, although we're talking about a very, very different landscape here, Ariel. In the very mountainous region, in many areas here alongside the border, you cannot actually look into Lebanon. We're talking about an area that has a lot of forests. And as we know, Hezbollah is specifically targeting Israeli observation systems, surveillance systems, and radar systems, in an attempt to continue those infiltration attempts that have been prevented so far every time by the Israeli army, Ariel. It's definitely a very tense situation, Pia, that will be coming back to you as it develops. Before we talk about that, though, we are going to bring in the American angle. Remember that US President Joe Biden just visited Israel yesterday to promise support for Israel during the war. And to help understand just how big of a deal this is going to be, we are joined by former Israeli consul to Los Angeles, Yaqui Dayan. Can you give us a quick overview of the outcome of this visit and a little bit more about his expected address to the United States about the war? Shalom. So this was an unbelievable, outstanding visit. First and foremost, it has uplifted spirits in Israel. And when I'm saying that, who came as a father, hugged everyone and spoke from his heart, spoke from his gut. That was really a tremendous show of support. Beyond that, we know about the military support the United States is providing Israel from the carriers that came to the region, up to all the weaponry and armory that is coming to Israel, already is coming to Israel, and the military aid bill that is going to pass Congress soon, I hope. And beyond that, the diplomatic umbrella that the US is providing, again, we still Russia with the two resolutions in the Security Council that the US already managed to block. So I would say, and another thing is the hostages, no doubt. I mean, this is a major issue, definitely also for the American president because he has American hostages over there. So what the Americans are going to do now is, one, on the southern front with the Hamas ISIS, they are providing, there is a share of interest. I mean, we heard President Biden himself saying that we should erase the Hamas. Although he said we should think about the day after in Gaza and definitely not occupying Gaza, which is an interest of Israel as well not to occupy Gaza. And most first and foremost, I think, is the northern front, which President Biden is trying to make sure that is not going to be open. I think we share, we the Israelis share the same interest as the Americans, but you know that there is a dynamic of war and we can't tell whether that is going to escalate or not. But if it does, the President Biden said that he's going to back his words with actions, meaning using his military force. And I would say that this is the first time that the president is, or any president is backing words towards Iran with a credible military threat. And this is a huge change, a sea change in this regional war that is taking place. Absolutely, Jackie. One of the things that Biden has mentioned is that he wants a budget that is going to increase the military aid to Israel. But at the moment, it seems that there's a lot of playing politics in the US as an attempt to link the Israeli aid with Ukrainian aid. And all this happening at the same time as the House of Representatives still has no speaker and no ability to pass a budget. How is this supposed to work? You're right. So what we hear from the White House is that they would like to pass a bill of $100 billion, which Israel is included inside, Ukraine is inside, Taiwan is inside, and also border protection, the US border protection is also included in that bill. And we know that there is a lot of political unwillingness by the Republicans to include the Ukrainian support in this bill. So we have to see. I'm saying in parenthesis, which is extremely important to understand that there is a bipartisan support towards Israel. So I have no doubt that this bill will pass for Israel. The question is the fact that the White House is trying to include other elements inside might be tricky, but nevertheless I'm confident that the bill for Israel will pass eventually one way or another. Chuck Schumer, the senator Chuck Schumer that just came back from Israel, said that he might start first in the Senate, which is a very unusual way to do that, but starts first in the Senate because as you said correctly, there is no speaker in the House and they are not working, they cannot legislate now in the House. And I don't know when they are going to have this speaker. I mean, the Republicans can decide whether to have a speaker. But another option is the pro tem to the temporary speaker, the Republican temporary McCannery will get some kind of extra, extra abilities or extra. He will be able to legislate that by himself, which is very unusual as well, but there is an understanding that time is of the essence. This is extremely crucial and they have to move as fast as possible. And Yaqui, before we come right back to you, let's actually let the audience hear directly from some of these senators because our senior correspondent Mike Wagenheim spoke to some of them so you can hear these remarks directly. I worry that much of his rhetoric though sounds the notes of caution and restraint and proportionality when Israel just suffered the most savage attack against the Jewish people since American GIs liberated the concentration camps in 1945. The last thing we should be doing is putting any pressure on the government of Israel or imposing timelines or holding them to a higher standard than any other nation would face when they've been attacked so brutally. The American people would not have tolerated calls for restraint on December 8, 1941 or September 12, 2001. We should not be imposing those demands on the people of Israel as they undertake what will be no doubt a very challenging war in some us. The Biden administration has sent hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza. This is after the Biden administration determined it was very likely that money would be used by Hamas for terrorism. I led a coalition of senators urging them not to because it was obvious the money would be used by Hamas for terrorism and what is Biden announcing today? An additional hundred million dollars going to Gaza, which I'll predict right now, will be used by Hamas for terrorism. They do not understand when you give evil people who want to murder you the financial resources to do so, it does not work out well. And Yaqui, what those Republicans just said, obviously there's some kernel of truth to all that, but at the same time, do they run the risk of undermining the rare bipartisanship we're seeing in Washington to actually get some support to Israel? They won't. What we see now in the Senate, for example, because you showed two senators now, there is an overwhelming support. 99 senators already said that they're going to support any bill for Israel with the exception of Rand Paul. So I see no exception. Don't forget, this is an election year in the United States and then they have to move some things against Biden. But I think when we see here and when we look at Biden and what he does for Israel, this is really outstanding. Yes, there were differences between the Israeli government and President Biden on the humanitarian aid to the civilian population in Gaza, but I think that eventually at the end of the day, I mean, to see the overwhelming support by the US government and administration and army and everything. You know, this is a very low price to pay on those minor differences. Well, thank you very much, Jackie, for explaining that. And to our viewers, that was once again, Jackie Dian, the former Israeli consul to LA. We're going to return to the studio now where intelligence officer Rafael Yershalami is still sitting with us to help us understand the conflict a little more broadly. We have been talking all about the northern front. We've been talking all about the southern front, but we know that part of Iran's plan has been a full surrounding of Israel. And one front that's not talked about is Hamas has a great deal of assets in the West Bank, where the population, the Israeli population is much more exposed to any efforts they could potentially launch. Is there a serious risk of them opening another front there? And what sort of assets is the military bringing in to prevent that? First of all, right now, fortunately, the West Bank is under control. There's even much, much less terrorist activity than before the war. There's like a clampdown of the army on the terrorists there. Dozens have been arrested since the beginning of this particular war. Dozens and dozens have been arrested. A few have been eliminated. So far, everything is contained. It's for sure that the orders are from the start to activate the Hamas cells operating there. And to create as much havoc as possible and to threaten settlements, et cetera. So I just can say that so far it's all contained. It's all under control. We have to remember that the North is still the main threat, with remembering that Syria is also involved. The Hezbollah is not only deployed in South Lebanon. It is also deployed in Syria. Pro-Iranian Shi'ite militias have come down from Iraq. So the Iranians are preparing this northern front. They are making quite a few mistakes of late that might force the Americans to enter the war because right now the Americans, for sure, will not enter that war. They will just support us. But just now, we learned that the American military base of Der Azur, where you have the last really physical military presence on the ground in the Middle East, in the border between Syria and Iraq, has been attacked by a couple of rockets. And we learned that the, and that's a signal, that's more than a signal, that the Mount Whitney, which is the flagship of the Sixth Fleet, is the command and control ship of the Sixth Fleet coming into the Mediterranean. So when you bring the command and control ship, Mount Whitney, this means the Sixth Fleet has to be ready for war. This might happen. They might just force the American hands that they're talking. And then we'll see what restraints, if American soldiers are killed by these actions, if American diplomats anywhere in Beirut or Baghdad are killed by terrorists, then we'll see if the Americans will have some restraint. We're going to see how that develops. We have to talk about Israel's own readiness. We're hearing reports of soldiers without enough tactical gear, vests and not even uniforms because it's never before has Israel called up so many people to the front lines. That has caused an outpour of support and strength from the Israeli public as volunteers from all sectors have jumped into action to help those on the front lines. Making sure they are dressed and ready for combat, our correspondent, showed us how these volunteers are making sure everyone is properly armed and equipped. As more than 300,000 reserve duty soldiers jumped into action to defend the state of Israel, those who couldn't serve found another way to join the fight. So many Israelis are looking for volunteering right now because everybody wants to be helpful. This war is everybody's business. Inna Avgaleel is one of dozens of volunteers using her sewing skills to suit up soldiers. Mending broken army supplies, broken uniforms, helping to fix, to maintain everything that we have here to be suitable for soldiers to fight with. I'm a former officer in the Israeli Navy and when I wasn't called for reserve duty, I decided that I need to take my skills and put them where I'm actually needed. Knowing her needle and thread is helping the fight one stitch at a time. Saying in your heart a little prayer that the soldier that wears this vest, it will save their lives and it will help them come back to us safe and sound. But it's not just Israelis volunteering their time. The war began but I was planning on coming to Surrell even before the war began. Surrell is the national project for volunteers for Israel with volunteers from all over the world coming to the Holy Land on a regular basis. The base that I come to every year is the medical base. We arrange medical supplies that are distributed throughout the country. Never knowing how crucial his work would soon be. It makes me feel very good that we're doing something positive but I'm very sorry that we have to do it. As the war broke out, these volunteers from abroad didn't jump on a plane back home. Instead joining the fight by helping Israel any way they can. I think that anybody who wants to help Israel can find their own way of doing it. Some in the United States, some here and some around the world. We have Jews, we have non-Jews, we have everybody coming here to help us. If you can come here to help us, come and help us. If you can't do whatever it is that you can do. Coming together, both Israelis and foreigners, bringing strength through service to the state of Israel. And we will see you all again at the top of the next hour until then. Stay safe, stay strong. Israel is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking. More than a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us, we don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. This particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year. We came here to claim for the rain. At this moment global warming is affecting Bolivia. And not only Bolivia but all over the world. And we need rain for the embryos. The Fakita Reserve, we have to write ingredients and we have to do the job. And then if we have the right ingredients and we do the job, the Fakita can be protected. That war has now entered its 13th day as Israel prepares for a ground operation in Gaza to break the murderous Hamas terror group. All eyes though are still on the northern front where Israel has struck Hezbollah terror group military targets along the Lebanon border. After the Iranian-backed militia fired anti-tank missiles at the northern town of Rojhani Krah. According to the IDF, nine rockets were launched from Lebanon setting off sirens in Karyat Shmona and several nearby communities. The IDF said four were intercepted by the Iron Dome Air Defense System. The United States has thrown its full support behind Israel with President Joe Biden set to address the United States in an effort to get an emergency budget to fund the war. But it comes at a price. The United States allowed humanitarian aid back into Gaza despite originally promising a siege until all 200 hostages seized by Hamas and their murderous rampage on October 7th are returned. U.S. President Joe Biden says this humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip will come via Egypt and may begin as soon as Friday. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has landed in Israel this morning as well. He's going to be heading to other countries afterwards in an effort to de-escalate the Israel-Gaza conflict. That's the words of his office. He agreed that what he would do is open the gate to do two things. Let up to 20 trucks through to begin with. Satterfield, my ambassador, is down there in Cairo now. He's going to coordinate this. He has my authority to do what is needed to get it done. They're going to patch the roads. They have to fill in potholes to get these trucks through. And that's going to occur. They expect it will take about eight hours tomorrow. So there may be nothing rolling through until what's today? What's the track of days? What was it? Probably until Friday. If Hamas confiscates it or doesn't let it get through or just confiscates it, then it's going to end. Because we're not going to be sending any humanitarian aid to Hamas if they're going to come be confiscated. And we are going to begin first with a view of the southern front where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is standing by in the south. Tell us what the latest in those preparations are. Well, we don't know much about the preparations. We know only that there's been a call-up of reserve soldiers for every front, be it the central command, the northern front, the southern front. We've seen staging grounds for armored vehicle carriers and for armored vehicles in general. We haven't seen infantry troops because they're in the rear and still training as far as we understand. We also heard yesterday, Defense Minister Joav Galant, who said Hamas is Hezbollah, sorry, from Lebanon, is tenfold stronger than Hamas. So the attention right now is about deployment up north. And we know that there's also a lot of deployment of forces up north just in order to contain any aggressive act from Hezbollah. Now, here in this city, as you can see behind me, it's barely populated. According to the Home Front Command soldiers here, about 1,000 residents who've remained here. Some of them are just homeless, living in public shelters on social welfare drip. Some others have decided to stay to keep their homes. Some others are volunteering just like here in this clinic, which is the only one open right now and serves the residents and also the security forces that are here. There are also volunteers in two supermarkets that we've seen. There is some sort of solidarity, strong solidarity network between the residents and the security forces. One woman told me that earlier that a commander in the security forces, his cell phone was broken. Immediately a resident of this impoverished city bought him an iPhone 14 and gave it to him. So the residents are very grateful that the security forces are here and at the same time they want to help them. So this is more or less the situation here and the situation of people that are still grieving and are traumatized by what happened 13 days ago here in Zderot where 44 people lost their lives. It's definitely a grim view of what seems to be a ghost town at their pier. It'll be coming back to you as the situation down there develops. We are going to go now to studio where we have former senior intelligence officer from the IDF Rafael Yershalmi with us to break down just what we're looking at on the southern front right now. It seems to be a sort of deceptive quiet over the last 12 hours or so since this last missile launches. What's happening and what happens next? On the part of the Hamas, I think they are saving now their ammunition for later rounds. They had a nice shot at us last night after Mr. Biden's visit. Right now they are still depleting their stock of missiles. So they should start selecting when and how to use them and that's their decision. They are starting to be under pressure from the pounding of the Air Force and the artillery of Israel. So it's becoming a little harder for them to organize, deploy and shoot these missiles. They are mainly busy preparing the ground entry of Israeli forces. Booby traps have been known to even take out of the ground pipes, water pipes to make more side explosives to booby trap a lot of places. So they are mainly bracing themselves for the ground operation on the Israeli side. The quiet is also relative. I mean the pounding from the Air Force continues on a regular basis, mostly at night. The ground forces are training, preparing, waiting for the right moment. We have had such a surprise that even in the drawers of the strategic departments of the IDF, they didn't have that scenario. So this means a re-planning of the strategy. The situation is different to what we thought it would ever be. We have to admit it, it's a surprise so we have to make new plans. According to these new plans, you have to retrain the troops accordingly. The objectives are different, the fighting will be different according to the strategy, the tactics are also used. So all this takes time. We want to ensure that the logistics are okay. There is enough equipment, ammunition, food for these tens of thousands that might go into Gaza. So we take our time and it's good that we do. The later we go in, the better because it's going to be a bloody warfare in there, a bloodshed on both parts. So we should really let the Air Force and the artillery bomb as much as possible. That's why in a way, apart from the humanitarian aspect and apart from the fact that if we do not take care of this humanitarian aspect, the UN and others will ask us to cease fire or whatever, in which Joe Biden is absolutely right. We have to admit that evacuating the civilians gives us more leeway to bomb and bomb and bomb because the ideal situation would be, but of course it won't be, but ideally that there are no civilians left, no children left in that combat zone and we can just destroy it from the air and in which case we won't even have to enter. So that's why there is this lack, it's the quiet before the storm. Okay, before we continue this discussion, we're going to take a quick look at the northern border as well. Our correspondent, P.H. Deckelbach, is in the north and unlike the south where the last 12 hours there have not been quiet at all. Well, Ariel, that is true. We are hearing that the Israeli military struck Hezbollah military targets throughout the night, specifically from the area of Rosha Nikra, which is at the very western part of the Israeli-Lebanese border. That comes after, again, according to an Israeli military statement yesterday in the afternoon and evening hours, Hezbollah launched 10 anti-tank missiles into Israel alongside rockets and mortar shells. There was a rocket alert triggered in the area of Kiryat Shmona, which is in the eastern upper part of the Geleli, one person lightly injured from an anti-tank missile in the Kibbutz, very close to the Lebanese border right here. Hezbollah yesterday publishing a video showing that they're specifically targeting the cameras and the radar systems in Israeli military posts alongside the border and we're not talking about only one or two localities, we're talking about positions really alongside the Israeli-Lebanese border. Now, Ariel, it is interesting that despite the continuous threats coming from the Iranian Foreign Minister, but also from Hezbollah itself, the full on escalation has not yet materialized, although they have been continuously emphasized that they will make their entry into this war, their full entry into this war dependent on actions in Gaza and the day of anger of range that we have seen yesterday after the hospital in Gaza was struck. We still do not see a full blown escalation here, Ariel. We're talking about increased skirmishes, we're talking about very, very high tensions, but it seems to be still a content, however, the civilian population here in the north is getting prepared for that possible escalation. We've been talking about that basically since the beginning of the war already, Ariel. The Israeli Home Front Command has recommended the civilians in a range closer to two kilometers to the Lebanese border to evacuate. Most of the civilians here have done so already. Now, yesterday, the Israeli government deciding to extend that range to five kilometers here. The shelters are open, they're being prepared because everyone is kind of expecting the next bigger escalation to come. So far, we have been seeing these skirmishes in different localities alongside the border all along. Behind me, you can still see some smoke arising from shells being fired into Israel yesterday, causing fires also in the forest here. But Ariel, we're really not talking only about the danger of rockets or anti-tank missiles being fired into Israel, but also infiltration attempts. We've seen several of those in the last week, in the last two weeks actually almost. And of course, after the experience in the south, the northern front is very much prepared for that as well, although we're talking about a very, very different landscape here, Ariel. We're talking about a very mountainous region in many areas here alongside the border. You cannot actually look into Lebanon. We're talking about an area that has a lot of forests. And as we know, Hezbollah is specifically targeting Israeli observation systems, surveillance systems, and radar systems in an attempt to continue those infiltration attempts that have been prevented so far every time by the Israeli army, Ariel. It's definitely a very tense situation, Pia, that will be coming back to you as it develops. Before we talk about that, though, we are going to bring in the American angle. Remember that US President Joe Biden just visited Israel yesterday to promise support for Israel during the war. And to help understand just how big of a deal this is going to be, we are joined by former Israeli consul to Los Angeles, Yaqui Dayan. Can you give us a quick overview of the outcome of this visit, and a little bit more about his expected address to the United States about the war? Shalom. So this was an unbelievable, outstanding visit. First and foremost, it has uplifted spirits in Israel. And when I'm saying that, who came as a father, hugged everyone and spoke from his heart, spoke from his gut. That was really a tremendous show of support. Beyond that, we know about the military support that the United States is providing Israel. From the carriers that came to the region, up to all the weaponry and armory that is coming to Israel, already is coming to Israel, and the military aid bill that is going to pass Congress soon, I hope. And beyond that, the diplomatic umbrella that the US is providing, we still Russia with the two resolutions in the Security Council that the US already managed to block. So I would say, and another thing is the hostages, no doubt. I mean, this is a major issue, definitely also for the American president, because he has the American hostages over there. So what the Americans are going to do now is, one, on the southern front with the Hamath Isis, they are providing, there is a share of interest. I mean, we heard President Biden himself saying that we should erase the Hamath, although he said we should think about the day after in Gaza and definitely not occupying Gaza, which is an interest of Israel as well, not to occupy Gaza. And first and foremost, I think, is the northern front, which President Biden is trying to make sure that is not going to be open. I think we, the Israelis, share the same interest as the Americans, but you know that there is a dynamic of war, and we can't tell whether that is going to escalate or not. But if it does, the President Biden said that he's going to back his words with actions, meaning using his military force. And I would say that this is the first time that the president is, or any president, is backing words towards Iran with a credible military threat. And this is a huge change, a sea change in this regional war that is taking place. Absolutely, Yaqui. One of the things that Biden has mentioned is that he wants a budget that is going to increase the military aid to Israel. But at the moment, it seems that there's a lot of playing politics in the US as an attempt to link the Israeli aid with Ukrainian aid. And all this happening at the same time as the House of Representatives still has no speaker and no ability to pass a budget. How is this supposed to work? You're right. So what we hear from the White House is that they would like to pass a bill of $100 billion, which Israel is included inside, Ukraine is inside, Taiwan is inside, and also border protection, the US border protection is also included in that bill. And we know that there is a lot of political unwillingness by the Republicans to include the Ukrainian support in this bill. So this is, we have to see, I'm saying in parenthesis, which is extremely important to understand that there is a bipartisan support towards Israel. So I have no doubt that this bill will pass for Israel. The question is the fact that the White House is trying to include other elements inside might be tricky, but nevertheless, I'm confident that the bill for Israel will pass eventually one way or another. Chuck Schumer, the senator Chuck Schumer that just came back from Israel, said that he might start first in the Senate, which is a very unusual way to do that, but starts first in the Senate because there is, as you said correctly, there is no speaker in the House, and they are not working. They cannot legislate now in the House. And I don't know when they are going to have this speaker. I mean, the Republicans can decide whether to have a speaker. But another option is the pro tem to the temporary speaker, the Republican temporary McCannery will get some kind of extra abilities, or he will be able to legislate that by himself, which is very unusual as well. But there is an understanding that time is of the essence. This is extremely crucial, and they have to move as fast as possible. And Yaqui, before we come right back to you, let's actually let the audience hear directly from some of these senators, because our senior correspondent, Mike Wagenheim, spoke to some of them, so you can hear these remarks directly. I worry that much of his rhetoric, though, sounds the notes of caution and restraint and proportionality when Israel just suffered the most savage attack against the Jewish people since American GIs liberated the concentration camps in 1945. The last thing we should be doing is putting any pressure on the government of Israel or imposing timelines or holding them to a higher standard than any other nation would face when they've been attacked so brutally. The American people would not have tolerated calls for restraint on December 8, 1941 or September 12, 2001. We should not be imposing those demands on the people of Israel as they undertake what will be, no doubt, a very challenging war in some us. The Biden administration has sent hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza. This is after the Biden administration determined it was very likely that money would be used by Hamas for terrorism. I led a coalition of senators urging them not to because it was obvious the money would be used by Hamas for terrorism. And what is Biden announcing today? An additional $100 million going to Gaza, which I'll predict right now, will be used by Hamas for terrorism. They do not understand when you give evil people who want to murder you, the financial resources to do so, it does not work out well. And Yaqui, what those Republicans just said, obviously there's some kernel of truth to all that, but at the same time, do they run the risk of undermining the rare bipartisanship we're seeing in Washington to actually get some support to Israel? They won't. What we see now in the Senate, for example, because you showed two senators now, there is an overwhelming support. 99 senators already said that they're going to support any bill for Israel with the exception of Rand Paul. So I see no exception. Don't forget, this is an election year in the United States, and then they have to move some things against Biden. But I think when we see here, and when we look at Biden and what he does for Israel, this is really outstanding. Yes, there were differences between the Israeli government and President Biden on the humanitarian aid to the civilian population in Gaza, but I think that eventually at the end of the day, I mean, to see the overwhelming support by the US government and administration and army and everything. So this is a very low price to pay on those minor differences. Well, thank you very much, Yaqui, for explaining that. And to our viewers, that was once again Yaqui Dhan, the former Israeli consul to LA. We're going to return to the studio now where intelligence officer Rafael Yershalami is still sitting with us to help us understand the conflict a little more broadly. We have been talking all about the northern front. We've been talking all about the southern front, but we know that part of Iran's plan has been a full surrounding of Israel. And one front that's not talked about is Hamas has a great deal of assets in the West Bank where the population, the Israeli population is much more exposed to any efforts they could potentially launch. Is there a serious risk of them opening another front there and what sort of assets is the military bringing in to prevent that? First of all, right now, fortunately, the West Bank is under control. There's even much, much less terrorist activity than before the war. There's like a clampdown of the army on the terrorists there. Dozens have been arrested since the beginning of this particular war. Dozens and dozens have been arrested. A few have been eliminated. So far, everything is contained. It's for sure that the orders are from the start to activate the Hamas cells operating there and to create as much havoc as possible and to threaten settlements, et cetera. So I just can say that so far it's all contained. It's all under control. We have to remember that the north is still the main threat with remembering that Syria is also involved. The Hezbollah is not only deployed in south Lebanon. It is also deployed in Syria. Pro-Iranian Shiite militias have come down from Iraq. So the Iranians are preparing this northern front. They are making quite a few mistakes of late that might force the Americans to enter the war because right now the Americans, for sure, will not enter the war. They will just support us. But just now we learned that the American military base of Der Azor, where you have the last really physical military presence on the ground in the Middle East, in the border between Syria and Iraq, has been attacked by a couple of rockets. And we learned that that's a signal, that's more than a signal, that the Mount Whitney, which is the flagship of the Sixth Fleet, is the command and control ship of the Sixth Fleet coming into the Mediterranean. So when you bring the command and control ship, Mount Whitney, this means the Sixth Fleet has to be ready for war. This might happen. They might just force the American hands that they're talking. And then we'll see what restraints, if American soldiers are killed by these actions, if American diplomats anywhere in Beirut or Baghdad are killed by terrorists, then we'll see if the Americans will have some restraint. We're going to see how that develops. But before that, we have to talk about Israel's own readiness. We're hearing reports of soldiers without enough tactical gear, vests, and not even uniforms, because it's never before has Israel called up so many people to the front lines. That has caused an outpour of support and strength from the Israeli public as volunteers from all sectors have jumped into action to help those on the front lines, making sure they are dressed and ready for combat. Our correspondent, Nicole Tzedek, showed us how these volunteers are making sure everyone is properly armed and equipped. As more than 300,000 reserve duty soldiers jumped into action to defend the state of Israel, those who couldn't serve found another way to join the fight. So many Israelis are looking for volunteering right now because everybody wants to be helpful. This war is everybody's business. In Avgaleel is one of dozens of volunteers using her sewing skills to suit up soldiers. Mending broken army supplies, broken uniforms, helping to fix, to maintain everything that we have here to be suitable for soldiers to fight with. I'm a former officer in the Israeli Navy and when I wasn't called for reserve duty I decided that I need to take my skills and put them where I'm actually needed. Knowing her needle and thread is helping the fight one stitch at a time. Saying your heart is a prayer that the soldier that wears this vest it will save their lives and it will help them come back to us safe and sound. But it's not just Israelis volunteering their time. The war began, but I was planning on coming to Surreal even before the war began. Surreal is the national project for volunteers for Israel with volunteers from all over the world coming to the Holy Land on a regular basis. The base that I come to every year is the medical base. We arrange medical supplies that are distributed throughout the country. Never knowing how crucial his work would soon be. It makes me feel very good that we're doing something positive but I'm very sorry that we have to do it. As the war broke out, these volunteers from abroad didn't jump on a plane back home. Instead joining the fight by helping Israel any way they can. I think that anybody who wants to help Israel can find their own way of doing it. Some in the United States, some here and some around the world. We have Jews, we have non-Jews, we have everybody coming here to help us. If you can come here to help us, come and help us. If you can't do whatever it is that you can do. Coming together, both Israelis and foreigners bringing strength through service to the state of Israel. And we will see you all again at the top of the next hour until then, stay safe, stay strong. 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on I-24 News. It's off-war. This is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us. We don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly were killed in the war with Hamas. We don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly were killed in the war with Hamas. Babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. Good morning from Tel Aviv and welcome to I-24 News's ongoing coverage of Israel at war. I'm Ariel Levin, Waldman. That war has now entered its 13th day as Israel prepares for a ground operation in Gaza to break the murderous Hamas terror group. All eyes though are still on the northern front where Israel has struck his bullet terror group military targets along the Lebanon border after the Iranian-backed militia fired anti-tank missiles at the northern town of Roche-Honey-Kra. According to the IDF, nine rockets were launched from Lebanon setting off sirens in Kiryat Shmona and several nearby communities. The IDF said four were intercepted by the Iron Dome. The U.S. has thrown its full support behind Israel with President Joe Biden set to address the United States in an effort to get an emergency budget to fund the war. But it comes at a price. Israel must allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. That's despite originally promising a siege until all 200 hostages seized by Hamas in their murderous rampage on October 7th are returned. U.S. President Joe Biden says humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip will come via Egypt beginning as soon as Friday. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is in Israel to talk about aid as well as other things before heading to other countries in the region in an effort to de-escalate the Israel-Gaza conflict as according to his office. I'm pleased to be here in Israel at this important time. Above all, I'm here to express my solidarity with the Israeli people. You have suffered an unspeakable, horrific act of terrorism and I want you to know that the United Kingdom and I stand with you. I'm looking forward to my meetings later today with the Prime Minister and President and I very much hope that they will be productive meetings. And we're going to turn first to our I-24 News UK correspondent Jonathan Sakradadi. Jonathan, good to have you with us. Here's the big question we've been hearing from Rishi Sunak's office that his goal is de-escalation. But Israel's goal is victory. That puts them at a bit of a crossroads, doesn't it? We often hear this sort of talk from international allies of Israel that they're after de-escalation. They want proportionate responses and things like that. I think in this war, there has been a marked difference not just from the UK, but of course from the US and other allies as well around the world. We're all saying that Israel has not just a right to defend itself, another cliche that we often hear, but a duty to, a responsibility to. So I think that obviously as time goes on, we expect some of those caveats to creep in. But I don't think there's any indication yet that Britain is going to be putting too much pressure on Israel to ease off, to take it off the pedal, let's say, because I think there's a full recognition that the horrors of what happened on the 7th of October were so grotesque, something that the whole Western world is against that those countries, including Great Britain, will be allowing Israel to do what they think it needs to do, what it think it needs to do, but obviously with an emphasis on trying to maintain the situation that as few civilians as possible are caught up in that fighting. And aside from solidarity, what is Rishi Sunak offering? Well, we haven't been told a lot about his trip. That doesn't mean that there isn't a lot going on. In fact, it might mean the opposite, because the less that said, the more he might be able to do. We saw the dangers of announcing too much of one's plans when Joe Biden came to Israel yesterday. There was that build quadrilateral meeting where he was meant to meet in Jordan with representatives from Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority as well in order to try to negotiate some sort of response from the other side. Of course, the fake news story about the explosion in the hospital car park hijacked that and it was canceled before he even arrived. So Rishi Sunak and his people have probably thought better than announcing exactly what it is they're planning to do while they are in the region. We do know that he's going to be visiting other capitals which have been unspecified, partly through security reasons. They obviously don't want to announce his movements, but also probably so that he can be flexible and move around, do what needs to be done rather than sticking rigidly to a plan that could be hijacked before he even landed. And I think that he may well be trying to pick up some of the slack that Biden and the Americans were unable to on their visit. Just seven hours Joe Biden spent there. Rishi Sunak is meant to spend two days. And also James Cleverly, the foreign secretary is in the region too. He's been to Qatar already. I think we can expect to see behind the scenes diplomacy really going on. Britain trying to exercise any influence it has with its allies other than Israel in order to try to ease the humanitarian situation for those in Gaza, but also in order to try to push along the aims of Israel without the war spiraling out of control and without other players being drawn in in the region too. Thank you very much Jonathan for explaining and we'll be coming back to you as we hear more developments coming out of Rishi Sunak and any details about this visit. Until then though, we are going to turn to our panel in the studio. That would be our Middle East correspondent, Dr. Saran right next to us here. And next to me here is the head of research at the Israel Defense and Security Forum. That is Oriyah Sahar. Thank you both for being with us very much. I'm going to actually open with you, Ariel. I want to hear the latest because when I understand the IDF just gave a briefing about the situation in the south. Right, so in his daily morning briefing to the public, which is a nice tradition that took the IDF a few days to get into it, but now that they're in full swing they are definitely should be continuing this. So IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniela Garis says that the military has notified so far the families of 203 hostages that their loved ones are being held in the Gaza Strip. So the number continues to rise and he says that that number is also expected to get higher as more and more bodies are identified. Additional information is acquired now. In addition to that, 306 soldiers have been killed. That's an increase also in the death toll of soldiers. Now he's saying that the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, the border communities, that area is still not cleared entirely of terrorists. Yesterday they found an exhausted terrorist who was trying to make his way back to the Gaza Strip. Now just to give a full perspective we're talking about between 40 to 50 terrorists that have been found inside Israel since last Saturday. Most of them were taken out, others arrested and taken into for interrogation like this suspect from yesterday. And in addition to that, he, Rear Admiral Hagari mentioned that IDF forces are conducting limited raids beyond the border into Gaza. Also to try and gather information about the hostages but also in preparation for the entry of the forces. So the fact that the area surrounding the Gaza Strip still hasn't been purified of terrorists is an explanation why it's still considered a closed military zone, but also why the residents, tens of thousands of residents were evacuated from the area. And certainly there's been a lot of speculation in the last few days because we've seen in the initial aftermath of the attack these demands to go in, send the military in, the Air Force said they were preparing the Strip for a ground invasion. But nobody's seen that materialized. Is the training just taking this long or is there too many other factors on the ground? Well, there's a lot of elements that need to be taken into consideration regarding the timeline. I mean, there's also the training, there's the different military planning that the situation can change very quickly. The situation on the ground, I mean, you also have the element of hostages. That is always, I mean, the IDF needs to fight as if there are no hostages but also needs to take care of the hostages as if there's no fighting. And those are two very challenging tasks that they're trying to balance. And as this war continues, that is going to be an issue. And also the continuation of surveying the area just to be able to finally announce to the Israeli public that there are no terrorists roaming around the streets and fields of southern Israel. That is not a statement that the IDF can say surely these days. Evelyn, or you've been a quiet one so far. But you are a researcher at a securities forum and you can help us understand a little bit more about the necessary preparations before getting such a ground operation. Right, we gotta bear in mind that you don't just send IDF troops in, right? You gotta have an operational plan. You gotta take care of like Erin said about the hostages and consider that factor. And also factor in the fact that the Air Force is doing massive work right now and clearing the area from much of the interest infrastructure there. But as we understand there hasn't been Israel wanted to avoid that for years now. There is no substitute for ground operation in order to really obtain the objective which is defeating Hamas. We also see, you mentioned the Biden visit and Rishi Sunak's visit. I think the really incredible and unprecedented international support for Israel is an asset. It's a strategic asset that you must leverage. We gotta bear in mind all of the previous rounds of fire where let's be real, a bit sterile. Rockets fired, iron dome intercepts and they're all like two sizes of fence here. But now everybody has a sense it's a whole different ballgame here. And Israel has every right to tell the world we know that the usual script like it was said before is de-escalation. De-escalation is sometimes, you know, it's a convenient path. It's often the wrong one. We need to escalate. We don't need to de-escalate because if you want to reach the objective of the war that is defeating Hamas we can't de-escalate. We gotta bring a guy's back from Gaza and we need to defeat Hamas. And to obtain that objective we can de-escalate and the international community needs to understand it and translate the incredible support of Israel to the understanding that Israel must, you know, double down. And that is the big challenge Israel's always had. There's this knowledge that going into Gaza is not going to be an easy operation. It's urban fighting in one of the most densely packed places on Earth. And Hamas's assets are not above ground targets for the military and the air force to hit. They have to go into a war in underground tunnels to hit those weapons and this is a very fortified position. For sure and they can expect booby traps and they can expect snipers and they can expect terrorists coming, you know, popping out of tunnels underground and surprising the troops like they have in the previous operation in 2014 and before that. And this is something the IDF is surely preparing and getting ready toward. And I think once, you know you always have surprise in the battlefield but once you take all of that into account you need to come as ready as possible. And for that I'm sure the IDF know what they're doing and we can everybody's talking about the ground operation but they're gonna do it in a time necessary. And before we do anything else here in studio we are going to get a look at the ground in the south. That's because our reporter Pierre Kloschenler is down at the southern border to give us an assessment of what is going on on that front. Well right now there's been a lull in the rocket launching by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for 13 hours which is quite unprecedented but at the same time the night according to the 1,000 or so residents that have been staying in this city of 30,000 inhabitants are saying that the night was very noisy with a lot of artillery a lot of bombing by the Israeli Air Force a lot of shooting the ratata of the gunfire but all in all no rocket alert that doesn't mean that people are not stressed by that noise which is ongoing as we're talking we hear from time to time the boom of an artillery shell or a tank shell I don't know exactly but the situation is such here that here another outgoing the situation is such that there is some sort of solidarity which is building up between the 1,000 residents here and the security forces I'll give you an example a commander broke his cell phone one of the residents bought one iPhone 14 immediately for him there are two supermarkets the soldiers don't pay they're given everything for free there are some homeless people that have lost their homes they live in public shelters and they sit next to the supermarket and people give them food and water and everything necessary for them to survive that predicament because they don't want to evacuate so there's a lot of stories and there's still that throats of what happened on Saturday and Sunday the 7th and 8th of October Angela, a nurse she's volunteering at the only clinic in town spoke to me about what she felt when she heard the ratata of the machine gun fire of the Hamas terrorists roaming the main streets she told me that a bit further down the road there were people waiting for evacuation about 14 or 16 they were all killed by Hamas all in all in this city 45 people security forces, firefighters police, residents we're killed in those two days of Hamas onslaught and massacre in the villages and towns bordering the Gaza Strip so people are still in that shock the Resilience Centre has been moved to the headquarters of the municipality and supposedly functioning but I think that these people need real road treatments to help them not to succumb to what they experienced earlier absolutely Pierre and we will be coming back as things develop in the south but first we're going to take a look at the northern border where our correspondent is standing by there's a border that has not seen any quiet is in fact escalating as we speak right Ariel today so far the day has been relatively quiet but we do know that the Israeli military has been striking military targets throughout the night from the area of which is further up north here from us at the western part of the Israeli-Lebanese border that coming after really skirmish is increased throughout the afternoon and evening yesterday according to an Israeli army statement has ballafired 10 anti-tank missiles into Israel as well as rockets and mortar shells rocket alerts there in the area of Kiryat Shmon in the eastern part of the Israeli-Lebanese border and one of the Kibbutzim right located on the border with Lebanon being lightly injured from one of those anti-tank missiles Hezbollah yesterday publishing a propaganda video showing how their fighters are targeting specifically surveillance cameras and radar systems located in Israeli military posts here alongside the border on these mountain ranges that you can also possibly see behind me now these exchanges of fire these firing of anti-tank missiles originally caused fires here in that mountain region on the Israeli side the location that is as close the areas that are as close as two kilometers to the Lebanese border have already been widely evacuated now the Israeli government deciding yesterday to expand that a range to five kilometers residents will always decide to stay in their homes this is also what we've been seeing in recent days when we are touring the northern border here you will always find residents that are living really close to the Lebanese border the Israeli home front command is preparing it has also been setting up road blocks in different areas according to where a threat is expected as the northern border has been heating up for the past days now we have been hearing the Iranian foreign minister and also Hezbollah representatives reiterating time and time again that they will make their full-blown entry to this war dependent on actions in Gaza now yesterday the day of range specifically in Lebanon after the strike on the hospital in Gaza however we do see some restraint both from Hezbollah and the Israeli side as we still haven't seen that full-blown escalation materializing here we're talking about skirmishes increased skirmishes alongside the border we're not talking about specific localities but really different locations along the very long border between Israel and Lebanon so yes the front is heating up although we haven't seen this full-blown escalation that security officials have been warning in front of SF now but also residents here know that the atmosphere here is tense and skirmishes can break out at any time as we've seen yesterday it has been a quiet day also yesterday until the afternoon evening where Hezbollah started to shell Israeli territories and also fire that 10 anti-tank missiles which pose a serious threat to communities that are that closely located to the border we have been seeing more troop enforcement more tanks being brought here to the Lebanese border throughout really recent days also yesterday evening we've seen a parade of tanks here and it's way closer to the border so you can say that the northern frontier is gearing up is preparing for that possible escalation that we haven't seen yet I have a question because you've been up there and you've been going through multiple security checkpoints I'm sure to get there and interacting with security forces is there a sense among security forces that these Hezbollah actions are a preparation for something bigger or that they're simply attempting to agitate on the border as a form of warning that is one of the estimates as I said not only is there the threat of the anti-tank missiles and the rockets but also the infiltration attempts and now that Hezbollah published a video really showing the shooting down of Israeli surveillance and radar systems might enforce that fear that they're actually preparing more infiltration attempts that up until now were always apprehended by Israeli security forces now these skirmishes could indicate that Hezbollah is warming up is warning up the Francis preparing something bigger now we do not we haven't seen any wider escalation although it was expected especially after that strike on the hospital we have seen an increase in Hezbollah action series especially after yesterday as I said 10 anti-tank missiles in one day being fired there Israeli security forces here are setting up these roadblocks, these checkpoints when you get a bit closer to the border we are here in the city of Nahria still about 13 kilometers you can't say normal but you do see civilians out in the streets you can get here into this area without being stopped but you do see roadblocks in the area closer to the border of course because this fear of infiltration continues infiltration attempts that we have been seeing since the war broke out is very real here and security forces have to prepare for that in a different way because this area here is different from the area in the south you see it behind me we're talking about a mountainous area it's going to be more difficult to spot these attempts but also one of the preparations here that the home front is currently doing is the evacuation or at least the recommended evacuation of civilians that are living in a proximity of up to 5 kilometers to the border which of course is one of the measures that the Israeli security forces are taking because the front here is so volatile and things can escalate really at any second we might see Hezbollah preparing the front we might see but also we do see some restraint here from the Hezbollah side as we have seen several threats that their actions might be dependent on what is happening in Gaza they might be as well waiting for the possible looming ground operation of the Israeli forces in Gaza there are a lot of questions here when it comes to the northern front Ariel a lot of very dangerous questions for sure thank you very much Pia for that report from the border and stay safe out there we're going to turn back to studio where we have Ariel or from the Israel defense and security forum or we were just hearing about some of the Hezbollah actions on the northern border that being attempts to take out Israeli censor suites and observation posts followed by infiltration which to me sounds like probing to check the response time and see how far they can get ultimately how significant is the threat of Hezbollah infiltrators what capacity does they bring to bear in the north and how is Israel going to prevent it yeah well I think Israel can't live with this kind of threat right beyond the fence especially in light of the bitter experience that's deadly Saturday and Israel understands it now and I think right now Israel is focused on the Gaza Strip but you heard President Biden you heard Secretary Austin they warn Hezbollah don't do it you are warned not to interfere but they were also warned to stop shelling as they said the shelling Israeli troops and using sniper fire and using anti-tank missiles they are playing underneath the threshold of war and they've been doing that you know Ariel they've been doing it for months now but they have intensified their efforts ever since that deadly Shabbat attack we've seen you know harassments on the fence and taking down cameras and blowing IEDs and all that but in the last 10 days in the last 13 days we do see Hezbollah taking responsibility for these actions on the fence we see them much more intensified we see Israeli troops being killed there we don't often report this but Israel cannot live especially in light of the Nukhba elite unit of Hamas who infiltrated and invaded into Israel and committed that Hamas attack we can't live under the threat of a Radoan force by Hezbollah who would make Nukhba force look like the promo to the real movie and I think to that end Israel has to be frank with the United States they tell them look we are dealing with Gaza now but there will come a time where we cannot live alongside the Hezbollah threat any longer and you need to back us up you heard the escalation please earlier no we can't de-escalate we need to take these cards off the table so long as they're there but there seems to be a bit of a challenge for Israel as well on one hand Israel needs to deal with Hezbollah and that might require some sort of preemptive action rather than waiting for their infiltration forces to open a massive front inside Israeli territory but the United States backing Israel has more or less directly told them do not dare preempt I don't know if they said in that language but they definitely said you know we prefer not to see another front now and I think to be honest Israel prefers not to see another front now either but there will come a time we'll open a war in conditions favorable to us where we have to do it because we did not want to throw a match into a hail load of barrels and explosive barrels which called Hezbollah because they threaten the fire of hell will open up and Israel will bring you back to stone age you heard the Nasrallah rhetoric but I think the United States needs to understand this is Israeli national security at the end of the day even if the United States and Israel are not interested in expanding this war to another front called Lebanon the war is already there we see IDF troops being shelled every day this is not normal and I think at some point you got to tell yourself we don't have an interest to open a full scale war against Hezbollah now but we're going to have to do it at some point people who talk like to me sounded like crazy persons until two weeks ago because fire of hell would open up you got 150,000 rockets at the end of the day Israel saw the results of neglect and the result of containment on the Gaza border and the systems go into a routine schedule and so on we can't allow ourselves to fall in the same trap in Lebanon and we gotta understand that absolutely and before we come back to any more discussion we are going to be discussing that strike on that hospital in Gaza by the Palestinian Islamic jihad and with hundreds of civilians were killed Robert Swift has a story showing the evidence now officially proving beyond any doubt that it was in fact done by their side a blast at the Gazan hospital on Tuesday night was quickly labeled by Hamas as the work of Israel but by the following morning Israel's military responded declassifying intelligence to share with international news outlets intelligence from few sources that we have in our hands indicates that the Islamic jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza it's not uncommon for Gaza's homemade artillery to misfire with the rocket that reportedly struck Al-Hali hospital being just the most deadly example Israel says signals intelligence intercepted from a phone conversation between two Hamas operatives shortly after the blast was released as further evidence from Al-Hali it seems from Al-Hali to tell the police that Al-Hali police is not Al-Hali additionally the army said that the destruction caused at the hospital was inconsistent with an airstrike lacking an impact crater or structural damage to the buildings extensive burn damage was likely caused by the rockets fuel which had been intended for a much worse effect Israeli media has rallied around the explanation but in the eyes of some western and Arabic media Israel has a credibility problem and information from its hands is suspect particularly after Israel's handling of the fatal shooting of the journalist Shireen Abu-Ahle last year but one key actor that Israel needed to convince buys the evidence presented and based on what I've seen it appears it was done by the other team not you but there's a lot of people out there not sure having been shocked into silence in the opening hours of Hamas' attack last week the IDF is eager to regain the initiative in the information war and that's pretty much absolutely conclusive at this point but that is all the time we have at least for now we're going to see you again at the top of the hour with breaking news updates from Israel from all fronts and from all possibilities that could develop until then to people all around Israel in the world stay strong, stay safe 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 news this particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year here where they see us to complain about the rain in these moments global warming is affecting Bolivia and not only Bolivia but the whole world and we need rain for the embryos the war has now entered its 13th day as Israel prepares for a ground operation in Gaza to break the murderous Hamas terror group all eyes though are still on the northern front where Israel has struck his bullet terror group military targets along 11 on border after the Iranian-backed militia fired anti-tank missiles at the northern town of Roche-Honey-Kraub according to the IDF nine rockets were launched from Lebanon setting off sirens in Kiryat Shmona and several nearby communities the IDF said four were intercepted by the Iron Dome the US has thrown its full support behind Israel with President Joe Biden set to address the United States in an effort to get an emergency budget to fund the war but it comes at a price Israel must allow humanitarian aid into Gaza that's despite originally promising a siege until all 200 hostages seized by Hamas in their murderous rampage on October 7th are returned US President Joe Biden says humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip will come via Egypt beginning as soon as Friday British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is in Israel to talk about aid as well as other things before heading to other countries in the region in an effort to de-escalate the Israel-Gaza conflict as according to his office I'm pleased to be here in Israel at this important time above all I'm here to express my solidarity with the Israeli people you have suffered an unspeakable horrific act of terrorism and I want you to know that the United Kingdom and I stand with you I'm looking forward to my meetings later today with the Prime Minister and President and I very much hope that they will be productive meeting and we're going to turn first to our I-24 news UK correspondent Jonathan Sacredotti Jonathan good to have you with us here's the big question we've been hearing from Rishi Sunak's office that his goal is de-escalation but Israel's goal is victory that puts them at a bit of a crossroads doesn't it we often hear this sort of talk from international allies of Israel that they're after de-escalation they weren't proportionate responses and things like that I think in this war there has been a marked difference not just from the UK but of course from the US and other allies as well around the world all saying that Israel has not just a right to defend itself another cliche that we often hear that we do so I think that obviously as time goes on we expect some of those caveats to creep in but I don't think there's any indication yet that Britain is going to be putting too much pressure on Israel to ease off to take its foot off the pedal let's say because I think there's a full recognition that the horrors of what happened on the 7th of October were so grotesque something that the whole western world is against that those countries including Great Britain think it needs to do what it think it needs to do but obviously with an emphasis on trying to maintain the situation that as few civilians as possible are caught up in that fighting and aside from solidarity what is Rishi Sunak offering well we haven't been told a lot about his trip that doesn't mean that there isn't a lot going on in fact it might mean the opposite because the less that said the more he might be able to do we saw the dangers of announcing too much of one's plans when Joe Biden came to Israel yesterday there was that build quadrilateral meeting where he was meant to meet in Jordan with representatives from Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian authority as well in order to try to negotiate some sort of response from the other side of course the fake news story about the explosion in the hospital car park hijacked that and it was cancelled before he even arrived so Rishi Sunak and his people have probably thought better than announcing exactly what it is they're planning to do while they are in the region we do know that he's going to be visiting other capitals which have been unspecified partly through security reasons they obviously don't want to announce his movements but also probably so that he can be flexible and move around do what needs to be done rather than sticking rigidly to a plan that could be hijacked before he even landed and I think that he may well be trying to pick up some of the slack that Biden and the Americans were unable to on their visit just seven hours Joe Biden spent there Rishi Sunak is meant to spend two days and also James Cleverly the foreign secretary is in the region too he's been to Qatar already I think we can expect to see behind the scenes diplomacy really going on Britain trying to exercise any influence it has with its allies other than Israel in order to try to ease the humanitarian situation for those in Gaza but also in order to try to push along the aims of Israel without the war spiraling out of control and without other players being drawn in in the region too very much Jonathan for explaining and we'll be coming back to you as we hear more developments coming out of Rishi Sunak and any details about this visit until then we are going to turn to our panel in the studio that would be our Middle East correspondent right next to us here and next to me here is the head of research at the Israel Defense and Security Forum that is or is a heart thank you both for being with us very much I'm going to actually open with you Arielle I want to hear the latest because when I understand the IDF just gave a briefing about the situation in the south there is a daily morning briefing to the public which is a nice tradition that took the IDF a few days to get into it but now that they're in full swing they are definitely should be continuing this so IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniela Garis says that the military has notified so far the families have 203 hostages that their loved ones are being held in the Gaza Strip so the number continues to rise and he says that that number is also expected to get higher as more and more bodies are identified additional information is acquired now in addition to that 306 soldiers have been killed that's increased also in the death toll of soldiers now he's saying that the area surrounding the Gaza Strip the border communities that area is still not cleared entirely of terrorists yesterday they found an exhausted terrorist who was trying to make his way back to the Gaza Strip now just to give a full perspective we're talking about between 40 to 50 terrorists that have been found inside Israel since last Saturday most of them were taken out others arrested and taken into for interrogation like this suspect from yesterday and in addition to that he Read Mural Hagari mentioned that idea forces are conducting limited raids beyond the border into Gaza also to try and gather information about the hostages but also in preparation for the entry of the forces so the fact that the area surrounding the Gaza Strip still hasn't been purified of terrorists is an explanation why it's still considered a closed military zone but also why the residents tens of thousands of residents were evacuated from the area and certainly there's been a lot of speculation in the last few days because we've seen in the initial aftermath of the attack these demands to go in send the military in the Air Force that they're preparing the strip for a ground invasion but nobody seen that materialized is the training just taking this long or is there too many other factors on the ground well there's a lot of elements that need to be taken into consideration regarding the timeline I mean there's also the training there's the different military planning that the situation can change very quickly the situation on the ground I mean you also have the element of hostages that as always I mean the idea needs to fight as if there's no hostages but also needs to take care of the hostages as if there's no fighting and those are two very challenging tasks that they're trying to balance and as this war continues that is going to be an issue and also the continuation of surveying the area just to be able to finally announce to the Israeli public that there are no terrorists roaming around the streets and fields of southern Israel that is not a statement that the IDF can say surely these days everyone or you've been a quiet one so far but you are a researcher at a securities forum and you can help us understand a little bit more about the necessary preparations before getting such a ground operation right we gotta bear in mind that you don't just send IDF troops in right you gotta have an operational plan you gotta take care of like I said about the hostages and consider that factor and also factor in the fact that the Air Force is doing massive work right now and clearing the area from much of the entire infrastructure there but as we understand there hasn't been Israel wanted to avoid that for years now there is no substitute for ground operation in order to really obtain the objective which is defeating Hamas we also see you mentioned the Biden visit and Rishi Sunak's visit I think the really incredible and unprecedented international support for Israel is an asset it's a strategic asset that you must leverage we gotta bear in mind all of the previous rounds of fire where let's let's be real a bit sterile you know rockets fired iron dome intercepts and they were like two sizes of fans here but now everybody has a sense is a whole different ballgame here and Israel's every right to tell the world we know that the usual script like the it was said before is de-escalation the escalation is sometimes you know it's a convenient path it's often the wrong one we need to escalate we don't need to de-escalate because if you want to reach the objective of the war and it's defeating Hamas we can't de-escalate we gotta bring our guys back from Gaza and we need to defeat Hamas and to obtain that objective we can't de-escalate and the international community needs to understand and translate the incredible support of Israel to the understanding that Israel must you know double down and that is the big challenge Israel's always had there's this knowledge that going into Gaza is not going to be an easy operation it's urban fighting in one of the most densely packed places on earth and Hamas's assets are not above ground targets for the military and the air force to hit they have to go into a war and underground tunnels to hit those weapons and this is a very fortified position for sure and they can expect booby traps and they can expect snipers and expect terrorists coming you know popping out of tunnels underground and surprising the troops like they have in the previous operation in 2014 and before that and this is something the IDF is surely preparing and getting ready toward and I think once you know you always have surprise in the battlefield but once you take all of that into account you need to come as ready as possible and for that I'm sure the IDF know what they're doing and we can everybody's talking about the ground operation impending but they're going to do it in a time necessary and before we do anything else here in studio we are going to get a look at the ground in the south that's because our reporter Pierre Kloschenler is down at the southern border to give us an assessment of what is going on on that front well right now there's been a lull in the rocket launching by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for 13 hours which is quite unprecedented but at the same time the night according to the 1000 or so residents that have been staying in this city of 30,000 inhabitants are saying that the night was very noisy with a lot of artillery a lot of bombing by the Israeli Air Force a lot of shooting the ratata of the gunfire but all in all no rocket alert that doesn't mean that people are not stressed by that noise which is ongoing as we're talking we hear from time to time the boom of an artillery shell or a tank shell I don't know exactly but the situation is such here that there is another outgoing the situation is such that there is some sort of solidarity which is building up between the 1000 residents here and the security forces I'll give you an example a commander broke his cell phone one of the residents bought an iPhone 14 immediately for him there are two supermarkets the soldiers don't pay they're given everything for free there are some homeless people that have lost their homes they live in public shelters and they sit next to the supermarket and people give them food and water and everything necessary for them to survive that predicament because they don't want to evacuate so there's a lot of stories and there's still that throat of what happened on Saturday and Sunday the 7th and 8th of October Angela, a nurse she's volunteering at the only clinic in town spoke to me about what she felt when she heard the ratata of the machine gun fire of the Hamas terrorists roaming the main streets she told me that on the road there were people waiting for evacuation about 14 or 16 they were all killed by Hamas 45 people security forces firefighters police, residents were killed in those two days of Hamas onslaught and massacre in the villages and towns bordering the Gaza Strip so people are still in that shock the resilience center has been moved to the headquarters of the municipality and supposedly functioning but I think that these people need real road treatments to help them not to succumb to what they experienced earlier absolutely Pierre and we will be coming back as things develop in the south but first we're going to take a look where our correspondent Pierre Stekelbach is standing by there's a border that has not seen any quiet escalating as we speak right Ariel today so far the day has been relatively quiet but we do know that the Israeli military has been striking military targets throughout the night from the area of Roshan Ikrah which is further up north here from us at the western part of the Israeli-Lebanese border that coming after really skirmishes increased throughout the afternoon and evening yesterday according to an Israeli army statement his Bala fired 10 anti-tank missiles into Israel as well as rockets and mortar shells rocket alerts there in the area of Kiryat Shmon in the eastern part of the Israeli-Lebanese border one person and one of the Kibbutzim right located on the border with Lebanon being lightly injured from one of those anti-tank missiles his Bala yesterday publishing a propaganda video showing how their fighters are targeting specifically surveillance cameras and radar systems located in Israeli military posts here alongside the border on these mountain ranges that you can also possibly see behind me now these exchanges of fire these firing of anti-tank missiles they occasionally cause fires here in that mountain region on the Israeli side the location that is as close the areas that are as close as 2 kilometers to the Lebanese border have already been widely evacuated now the Israeli border has been deciding yesterday to expand that range to 5 kilometers residents will always decide to stay in their homes this is also what we've been seeing in recent days when we are touring the northern border here you will always find residents that are living really close to the Lebanese border wanting to stay in their homes but the Israeli home front command is preparing it has also been setting up road blocks in different areas according to where a threat is expected as the northern border has been heating up for the Israeli military and also his Bala representatives reiterating time and time again that they will make their full blown entry to this war dependent on actions in Gaza now yesterday the day of range specifically in Lebanon after the strike on the hospital in Gaza however we do see still some restraint both from his Bala and the Israeli side as we still haven't seen that full blown escalation materializing here we're talking about skirmishes increased skirmishes alongside the border we're not talking about in locations along the very long border between Israel and Lebanon so yes the front is heating up although we haven't seen this full blown escalation that secret officials have been warning in front of SFNOW but also residents here know that the atmosphere is tense and skirmishes can break out at any time as we've seen yesterday it has been a quiet day also yesterday until the afternoon evening where his Bala started to shell Israeli territories and also fire that 10 anti-tank missiles which pose a serious threat to communities that are that closely located to the border we have been seeing more troop enforcement more tanks being brought here to the Lebanese border throughout really recent days also yesterday evening we've seen a parade of tanks here making its way closer to the border so you can say that the northern frontier is gearing up is preparing for that possible escalation that we haven't seen yet. I have a question because you've been up there and you've been at some point so I'm sure to get there and interacting with security forces is there a sense among security forces that these Hezbollah actions are a preparation for something bigger or that they're simply attempting to agitate on the border as a form of warning? That is one of the estimates as I said not only is there the threat of the anti-tank missiles and the rockets but also the infiltration attempts and now that Hezbollah published a video really showing the surveillance and radar systems might enforce that fear that they're actually preparing more infiltration attempts that up until now were always apprehended by Israeli security forces now these skirmishes could indicate that Hezbollah is warming up is warning up the France is preparing something bigger but SF now we do not we haven't seen any wider escalation we haven't although it was expected especially after that strike on the hospital we have seen an increase in Hezbollah action series especially after yesterday we have seen an increase in anti-tank missiles in one day being fired there Israeli security forces here are setting up these roadblocks these checkpoints when you get a bit closer to the border we are here in the city of Nadia still about 13 kilometers 10 miles away from the border here live is I wouldn't say normal but you do see civilians out in the streets you can get here into this area without being stopped but you do see roadblocks in the area closer to the border of course because this fear that we have been seeing since the war broke out is very real here and security forces have to prepare for that in a different way because this area here is different from the area in the south you see it behind me we are talking about a mountainous area an area that has quite a lot of force so it might be more difficult to spot these attempts but also one of the preparations here that the home front is currently doing is the evacuation or at least the recommended evacuation of civilians that are coming from the east side of the city of Nadia. We are talking about the proximity of up to five kilometers to the border which of course is one of the measures that the Israeli security forces are taking because the frontier is so volatile and things can escalate really at any second we might see Hezbollah preparing the front we might see but also we do see I think some restraint here from the Hezbollah side as we have seen several threats that their actions might be dependent on a lot of questions here when it comes to the northern front Ariel. A lot of very dangerous questions for sure thank you very much Pia for that report from the border and stay safe out there we're going to turn back to studio where we have Ariel or from the Israel Defense and Security Forum or we were just hearing about some of the Hezbollah actions on the northern border that being attempts to take out Israeli censor suites and observation posts followed by infiltration response time and see how far they can get. Ultimately how significant is the threat of Hezbollah infiltrators what capacity does they bring to bear in the north and how is Israel going to prevent it. Yeah well I think Israel can't live with this kind of threat right beyond the fence especially in light of the bitter experience we had that's deadly Saturday and Israel understands it now and I think right now Israeli is focused on the Gaza Strip but you heard President Biden you heard Secretary Austin they are trying not to interfere but they were also warned to stop shelling as they said the shelling Israeli troops and using sniper fire and using anti-tank missiles they are playing underneath the threshold of war and they've been doing that you know Ariel they've been doing it for months now but they have intensified their efforts ever since that deadly Shabbat attack we've seen you know harassments on the fence and taking down cameras and blowing the last 13 days we do see Hezbollah taking responsibility for these actions on the fence we see them much more intensified we see Israeli troops being killed there we don't often report this but Israel cannot live especially in light of the Nuhba elite unit of Hamas who infiltrated invaded into Israel and committed that heinous attack we can't live underneath the threat of a Radoan force by Hezbollah which would make Nuhba force look like the promo to the real movie and Israel has to be frank with the United States they tell him look we are dealing with Gaza now but there will come a time where we cannot live alongside the Hezbollah threat any longer and you need to back us up you heard the escalation please earlier no we can't de-escalate we need to take these cards off the table so long as they're there but there seems to be a bit of a challenge for Israel as well on one hand Israel needs to deal with Hezbollah and that might require some sort of preemptive action rather than waiting for their infiltration forces to open a massive front inside Israeli territory but the United States backing Israel has more or less directly told them do not dare preempt I don't know if they said in that language but they definitely said you know we prefer not to see another front now and I think to be honest Israel prefers not to see another front now either but there will come a time we'll open the war in conditions you know favorable to us where we have to do it we did not want to you know throw a match into a hill load of barrels and explosive barrels which called Hezbollah because you know the they threatened the fire of hell will open up and Israel will bring you back to the stone age you heard the Nasrallah rhetoric just a few days ago but I think you know the United States needs to understand this is Israeli national security at the end of the day even if the United States and Israel are not interested in expanding this war to another front called Lebanon the war is already there we don't see the idea of troops being shelled every day this is not normal and I think at some point you got to tell you got to tell yourself we don't have an interest to open a full scale war against Hezbollah now but we're going to have to do it at some point people who talk like me sounded like crazy persons until two weeks ago because you know fire of hell would open up you got 150,000 rockets at the end of the day Israel saw the results of neglect and the result of containment on the Gaza border and the systems go into a routine schedule and so on we can't allow ourselves to fall in the same trap in Lebanon and we got to understand that absolutely and before we come back to any more discussion we are going to be discussing that strike on that hospital in Gaza by the Palestinian Islamic jihad and with hundreds of civilians were killed Robert Swift has a story showing the evidence now officially proving beyond any doubt that it was in fact done by their side a blast at the Gazan hospital on Tuesday night was quickly labeled by Hamas as the work of Israel but by the following morning Israel's military responded declassifying intelligence to share with international news outlets intelligence from few sources that we have in our hands indicates that the Islamic jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza it's not uncommon for Gaza's homemade artillery to misfire with the rocket that reportedly struck al-Halli hospital being just the most deadly example Israel says signals intelligence intercepted from a phone conversation between two Hamas operatives shortly after the blast was released as further evidence they are saying that they are going to go to Gaza additionally the army said that the destruction caused at the hospital was inconsistent with an airstrike lacking an impact crater or structural damage to the buildings extensive burn damage was likely caused by the rocket's fuel which had been intended for a much longer flight Israeli media has rallied around the explanation but in the eyes of some western and Arabic media Israel has a credibility problem and information from its hands is suspect particularly after Israel's handling of the fatal shooting of the journalist Shireen Abu-Akhle last year but one key actor that Israel needed to convince buys the evidence presented and based on what I've seen it appears as though it was done by the other team not you but there's a lot of people out there not sure having been shocked into silence in the opening hours of Hamas' attack last week the IDF is eager to regain the initiative in the information war and that's pretty much absolutely conclusive at this point but that is all the time we have at least for now the top of the hour with breaking news updates from Israel at war from all fronts and from all possibilities that could develop until then to people all around Israel in the world, stay strong, stay safe 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 news this particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year I came out here to claim for the rain in these moments global warming is affecting Bolivia not only Bolivia but all around the world and we need rain for the embryos Fakita reserve we have the right ingredients and we have to do the job and that if we have the right ingredients and we do the job the Fakita can be protected welcome to I-24 news ongoing coverage of Israel at war I'm Ariel Levin Waldman the war has now entered its 13th day as Israel prepares for a ground operation in Gaza to break the murderous Hamas terror group but all eyes are still on the northern front where just moments ago an anti-tank rocket was fired towards Israeli positions and Israeli artillery is now pounding Hezbollah targets from where it originated this is as well as Israel having struck other Hezbollah targets along the border after they fired more anti-tank missiles at the northern town of Roche-Nikra according to the IDF nine I guess now ten rockets were launched from Lebanon setting off sirens and carry out Shmona and several nearby communities the IDF said four of those were intercepted in that previous exchange by the Iron Dome the United States has thrown its full support behind Israel with President Joe Biden set to address the United States in an effort to get an emergency budget for the war but it's coming at a price Israel must allow humanitarian aid into Gaza that's despite originally promising a siege until all 200 hostages seized by Hamas in their murderous rampage on October 7th are returned home U.S. President Joe Biden says humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip will come via Egypt and could begin as soon as Friday British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has landed in Israel and he is discussing matters as well Arab countries in the region an effort to de-escalate the conflict in his words in his office I'm pleased to be here in Israel at this important time above all I'm here to express my solidarity with the Israeli people you have suffered an unspeakable horrific act of terrorism and I want you to know that the United Kingdom and I stand with you I'm looking forward to my meetings later today with the Prime Minister and President I very much hope that they will be productive Directly to our studio discussion panel which includes Avi Milama the founder of the inside the Middle East Institute and intelligence background and Owen Alterman our senior correspondent I'm going to open with you Avi because we have just seen another anti-tank missile attack on Israeli troops this comes as Hezbollah has been launching attacks at observation posts and sensor units on the northern border and moving great deals of military supplies around in Lebanon in position to launch an attack the question is, is this the preface to them finally opening up another front Well Ariel, thank you for having me going back to what I say since they were talking about Hezbollah's strategy and tactic Hezbollah is doing a gradual very well calculated escalation of the situation but in a very small steps he's not doing something very dramatic and it basically indicating two major purposes Hezbollah wants and hope that through this intimidation that will stop possible Israeli major operation against Hamas and two, I think it reflects an inner dilemma within Hezbollah and Iranian because the United States is in the region President Biden send a very clear message to the Hezbollah and the Iranian saying don't they are looking at what's going on in Gaza Strip and it's definitely not incentivizing Hezbollah to move in full steam ahead right now as I'm looking at Hezbollah when I'm trying to look ahead I think there is some very interesting component at the Hezbollah's strategy. I think that in a way Hezbollah is right now preparing the strategy for his PR for the post war. Let me explain what I mean by that. One of the major issues that the Iranians the Hezbollah Hamas Islamic jihad were conveying as part of their marketing package to the Arab world was the concept that when the time will come and there will be a war and all those factors Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic jihad and others will stand shoulder to shoulder and fight. This is not the situation right now and there is a big question mark whether that is going to be the situation in the future. Right now you can already hear voices coming from Hamas and from Islamic jihad and other factors in the Arab world who are actually turning to Hassan Asrallah the leader of Hezbollah and said where exactly are you we are waiting Hezbollah and Iran are still with this dilemma and the more the war will be expanding as expected their dilemma is going to become more and more acute and relevant and they will have to make some sort of a decision so I think when I'm trying to look ahead I think that we should expect some sort of like more significant escalation of Hezbollah but not full steam ahead because when I hear the sub messages of the Hezbollah leader by the way in couple of days ago the second in command of Hezbollah and A'im Qasem said we will contribute meaning Hezbollah will contribute to this effort and I think that in a way this is kind of like laying the ground to some sort of like Hezbollah's PR messages following the war because assuming if that is going to be the case Hezbollah and Iran in the end of the day will watch Hamas and Islamic jihad falling down and will not interfere in the war full steam ahead they will come under a massive criticism by the circles in the Arab world who has been all the time praising the slogans and the rhetoric of the Hezbollah and the Iranians and I think that in a way the Hezbollah and Iran in that sense are kind of like thinking PR in the day post war. We're going to continue this but first I am going to bring in P.H. Dekalbach our correspondent on the northern border right now just to give us a little bit more background P.H. what can you tell us about that missile strike that was just fired on Israeli positions? Well Ariel only a couple of minutes ago we have been starting to receive reports about first of all motor shells being fired from southern Lebanon into the area of Kibbutz Manara very much in the upper region of the Galilee located right on the border with Lebanon these motor shells were fired and that has also been confirmed by the IDF by an anti-tank missile the residents there in the area are requested to remain in their houses to remain close to their shelters as more shelling from Lebanon is expected Ariel this is exactly the area that has been under fire yesterday as well according to an Israeli military statement yesterday alone 11 anti sorry 10 anti-tank missiles were fired as well as rockets and also motor shells now the area here as closes up to 2 kilometers to the Lebanese border has already been widely evacuated so actually there shouldn't be many people left but of course it is very difficult to evacuate all the residents from their homes now yesterday the Israeli government deciding to expand that area that might potentially be evacuated in the future to 5 kilometers because the northern frontier can really escalate at any minute this has been a quiet day so far Ariel but we've been seeing that also the IDF has been striking Hezbollah positions during the night from the area of Roshan Ikrah which is at the western part of the border with Lebanon so we've really been seeing these skirmishes Hezbollah all alongside the Lebanese border we're not talking about locally limited positions and when these motor shells or even anti-tank missiles also hit Israeli territory here they occasionally cause fires this is what we've been seeing in a number of locations yesterday behind me you can still see the smoke arising from it of course targeting a major danger for the residents that live in areas very close to the Lebanese border now of course Hezbollah yesterday publishing also a video how it is targeting especially Israeli posts located here at this mountainous range on the border between Israel and Lebanon specifically targeting surveillance and greater systems of the Israeli army possibly also preparing further infiltration attempts so we're not only speaking about the danger of what we've been seeing only a couple of minutes ago in the upper Galilee region the danger of motor shells and anti-tank missiles being fired but also infiltration attempts that we have been seeing in recent days as well Ariel it's a very disturbing situation to say at least Pia, keep yourself safe out there and we'll be back with you a little later in the day I'm going to turn back to our panel in the studio because Owen you were about to remark on that when we wanted to bring that news from the front first Yeah, what Avi had to say about Hezbollah look I want to go back to the first part of what you said that Hezbollah is doing this as a way of deterring Israeli operation or intense fight Israeli war operation in Gaza it's not going to deter in Israeli in escalated Israeli war operation in Gaza I think Hezbollah understands that very well by now so I think that that motive it seems to me can be eliminated and I think that focuses our attention on exactly what you said about Hezbollah and I also caught my attention right that phrase contribute to right that's far short of a full-on commitment that's far on its contribute that means be a part of that's far on a full force commitment especially by a force that according to Israeli intelligence is ten times the power of Hamas if they wanted to fully commit themselves they wouldn't use the word contribute because if they were to fully commit themselves Lebanon would quickly become the dominant front and not Gaza it would be much more than just a contribution and obviously the dilemma is very very clear because without intervention by Hezbollah and Iran Hamas Israel is going to be able to achieve its objectives with Hamas it may be at a high price it may take a long time but it seems that Hamas control over the Gaza Strip will come to an end with all that that means that Hamas has access and access and they have to decide do they want to come into the war to try to change that outcome or do they sit on the sidelines understanding that they probably won't be able to and to this point they've decided on option B but again if this is going to be as long of a campaign as Israeli leaders and policymakers say it will be then they can simply wait patiently for what they sense is the right moment where they can come in and from their perspective and from their perspective be able to land below and at least fight this war to a draw or to a victory of course as long as the United States is fully committed with two aircraft carriers that ensures that Israel will win the war and then it's just a question of how much risk Hezbollah and Iran would want to take and one would think in that in that sense they wouldn't take it which brings us back to what Abbi Malam had said at the end of the day this is to flex muscles for the day after to show the Arab world that they were at least there but obviously that still gives Hezbollah right given all that they have promised over the course of so many years and a problem that they will have to reckon with. Abbi does that essentially create a situation where time is for or against Hezbollah and ground operation in Gaza drags on and focuses attention there and Hezbollah keeps this low intensity striking observation sensor and radar dishes in the north giving them a chance later in the war to possibly blow through a fence and then create a massive infiltration or is it working against them because they're simply losing their credibility and they've lost any element of surprise to the best of my reading an assessment it is it is against them because look if the war is going to expand and every moment that goes by people will see what's going on in Gaza already there is a massive damage cost to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza in the infrastructure and the pictures are there in the Arab world I'm telling you there are already right now voices in the Arab world who are saying to Nasrallah where exactly are you so the more the war will expand and the more the damage will increase the less maneuvering capacity to best of my reading would be for Hezbollah because then there will be a point of like no return because if it's going to be clear that Israel is going to move full steam ahead Hamas is often said Hamas rule over Gaza Strip is going to be eliminated then people will say to the Hezbollah now we are coming you are coming at this point we're already this we don't buy it and then another thing you know people will say to the Hezbollah you saw what's happening Gaza Strip now we are going to sacrifice Lebanon for a lost cause meaning the devastation that will inflicted on Lebanon is in a significant and then there is one more thing which is very very significant as I said from day one US positions and the US presence in the region because we have to remember one more thing there is another arena that is called Syria and Israel doesn't necessarily have to just be we contain to the story of Lebanon Iran most significant strategic asset currently in the area of Israel is the deployment that they have in Syria the military deployment and that could be very I would say exposed to potential attacks right now there is enough military power in the neighborhood that could cause what the Iranian has been building in Syria for the last decade that could cause within hours an enormous destruction this is something that the Iranian have to take into consideration including the Hezbollah this is part of their biggest dilemma we don't have to play by the book here necessarily according to Hezbollah's Iran master plan we have maneuvering space so again when I'm trying to look at what would be Hezbollah's next move and as Armen said we are looking at something that is enormously bigger in its capacities than Hamas and Islamic Jihad all combined I would say that at least for the short term we should expect ongoing escalation of the Hezbollah's moves against Israel yet not total comprehensive involvement in the war I would say that if I try to assess what Hezbollah's ultimate participation would be and I'll be very cautious about it but I would say I think that Hezbollah will target the northern part of Israel closer to the Israeli-Libani border because there is some sort of like a deterrence equation here because here is the very simple deterrence equation once it's going to escalate to this point the next moment you will start seeing thousands of Libanese fleeing from south Lebanon they will be heading to the Dachda in Beirut Nasrallah has a bad memories from 2006 with that story so there is a limited maneuvering capacity if Hezbollah will try to go beyond it like targeting more strategic sort of speaking attacks then you could expect the expansion of the war and then again reminding us all United States of America is present in the region with a substantial military force and a clear statement by the American president message to the Iranians and Hezbollah basically saying the one famous word don't maybe one way of looking at this I don't know if you agree with this obvious is what's more important to Hezbollah its armaments or its reputation because if Hezbollah enters the war especially given Israel's preparedness right now these are horrible opening conditions for Hezbollah in a war all of the communities near the Lebanese border are evacuated the entire country is mobilized including hundreds of thousands of reservists aircraft carrier strike groups either here or on their way the leadership of the entire western world is united with Rishi Sunic on his way and so on and so forth these strike me as horrible opening conditions at least as things stand for Hezbollah to enter a war and they would be entering a war with full knowledge that they would lose a lot of their power over the course of the war while inflicting a huge price on Israel but they would lose their hard assets they would lose their hard assets they would lose their reputation inside Lebanon at least potentially on the other hand they might enhance their reputation right around the Arab world being seen as those who are resisting they're a resistance group this is the time for quote resistance as tangled and as despicable as that phrase is the way it's used by Hezbollah because of course it's not resistance it's largely terrorism with the understanding they'll probably be targeting civilian targets at least in large part but maybe they would be willing this is the devil's advocate case to give up their arms in order to enhance their reputation or maybe not they have a lot of arms so maybe that's too big a price and I guess the next question is we're looking at one arena but there are more arenas in play here Avi because it's not just the north it's not just the south ultimately we know that Hamas is already commit to the war there's no further they can commit to this war and they still have significant assets not just in Gaza but also the power network they've been building in the west bank as well could they be able to activate that and open yet another front that's already been committed definitely I mean Hamas would like very much to see the west bank inflated he would like very much to see inside Israel they're repeating and even escalating scenes of clashes between Israelis civilians in Israel Arabs inside Israel Hamas is trying to play in different arenas by the way in the context of the story of right now in Gaza St Hamas has two major cards he's desperately trying to play with to maneuver with one is the story of semi story like the hospital story when Hamas is trying to play the card of humanitarian crisis and so on and so on and in that essence in that context I would say something very significant and it should be particularly addressing the international media Hamas are masters in fabricating and staging and I would be very careful with every piece of information coming from Hamas from the Ministry of Health in Gaza St which is Hamas and so on and so on we have to remember that Hamas we have no restrictions when it's come to fabricating and staging and I will add something else that we have to take into consideration I will not exclude the possibility that Hamas deliberately will booby trap hospitals or public facilities and he will detonate them in order to try desperately to stop basically we saw what happened with the story of the hospital when it comes to Hamas an Islamic jihad with Hezbollah we should remind ourselves there is no limit to their evenness there is no limit to their sophistication there is no limit to the way they are able to manipulate they understand and know how to manipulate we have to be very much aware of that so this is one aspect the other aspect the other story the hostages the Hezbollah Hamas is now playing the card of the hostages in Gaza St because he evaluated that that may be his card maybe to avoid a massive Israeli operation and he's playing this card but his maneuvering capacity is limited because there are foreigners and the western governments and particularly the United States of America will say to Hamas the more you are going to play with this card the more substantial the damage is going to be and the more we will give result the green light to move in forcefully operate on the ground and beyond it so I think that this is something very interesting to follow how Hamas will navigate its way with the story of this hostages and by the way because the other day there was Hamas senior leader giving an interview to NBC basically saying Hamas will release all the hostages in one hour in condition provided that Israel will stop the bombing in Gaza St so you see that Hamas is trying to play with this card it doesn't have an unlimited maneuvering capacity with that It actually brings up a very interesting question because you mentioned Hamas' ability to manipulate particularly when it comes down to foreign powers in their view there's a similar bind here when we're talking about who does time benefit right now Israel's strategy appears to be bombard Hamas positions in Gaza from the air inflicting massive damage before any ground operation goes in but in doing so you are going to get every single scene the international media can pick up half-truths, direct lies and the like and it damages Israel's operational capacity in the long run with more poor pressure on Israel but on the other hand if Israel goes in with half a plan then the losses they sustain and the gains they're going to get are going to be disproportionately bad for Israel how does Israel navigate this? Well that's a very delicate task you are very accurate about it when you present it this way I think that we have to look at it as following right now Israel has a full legitimacy to move on with its plan with its official statement of what's the objective it's very clear and Israel should take advantage of that both militarily and diplomatically and politically in the context of the PR meaning as long as the Israeli air force and up until now the air force has been doing a very accurate work, very precise work targeting Hamas, Islamic Jihad popular resistance committees and other groups in Gaza Strip military infrastructure that is good, that is fine, that is excellent we are all afraid of the situation where there will be some sort of like misattack which is a different story but we have to remember something different in addition to that once if there is going to be a massive Israeli ground operation in Gaza Strip the scale of the devastation will be enormously tripled we have to remember that but right now I think that for this moment Israel from its own perspective should not be working with a watch Israel should prepare whatever it wants to prepare Israel should continue to do what the Israeli air force is doing in Gaza Strip and other things that are being done and I think that Israel should be in the end of the day decide to move the way it would decide to move which may be different from what people are anticipating in the right timing for Israel so we are looking at a very complex system of lots of moving parts sort of speaking but right now as we are talking at this time point I think that Israel should take the time to prepare the preparation to conclude the plans and so on and so on because right now we do have this international legitimacy and Owen as he mentioned that international legitimacy is critical for Israel moving forward and now that Israel has an almost entirely unified western world behind them in the face of the savagery that we experienced here how can Israel capitalize on the support to actually gain the most of it I think there are two parts number one as Avi said to move quickly right because support it's likely is likely to erode over time likely although I don't necessarily think that it's certain to erode because of two reasons number one the sheer scale and barbarity of what happened on Simcha Torah and what happened on October 7th and also because the course of this war may not be similar ultimately the course of the Gaza operations which became so accustomed to over the course of the last 10 to 15 years this may have a different strategy and a different tempo and therefore the trajectory of public opinion although it's played out similarly to those broadly speaking to those campaigns so far it may not continue in that trajectory the other thing Israel must do and is doing is to work with those allies right we saw that Arielle with Joe Biden's visit before that with Anthony Blinken's visit right sitting there literally with Israel's work cabinet being there in the room making decisions and Israel quite clearly coming towards the United States if you will on the issue of the humanitarian situation in Gaza with I think some new ideas at least for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that the US put on the table that the Israeli government ultimately accepted and felt that it could at least sell to the Israeli public so yes to move quickly but also to work with these allies to be a considerate and to be attentive to their interests and to their ideas to keep them on side by treating them as partners and not as spectators and that has happened so far I think it's happened because Joe Biden has been so skillful in the way that he's managed this right because he has been so staunch and has done such a good job of connecting with the Israeli public it's one him credibility in being able to work with the government to get the things that he wants that he of course has said he also sees as being in Israel's interest as well and I guess a long time we're not just looking at Israel we're not just looking at Iran here Iran has its backers in the form of Russia and China they're watching this conflict extremely closely as well what is the message they're going to get from this and what sort of interference might they actually lend well as of now Russia and China are clearly on the Iranian side I mean the Chinese the Russians they are basically you know standing by Iran and sending their messages look China and Russia are playing along their interests that could change the melody could change the next day or the next week whatever we have to remember Iran is very significant player in the Middle East it's a big nation it's a big country it has a very significant relationship with Russia and China remember reminding us all Iran is supporting Russia in the war in the Ukraine the Iranian assault drones and other things Iran and China has a very close relationship so it's only natural that they are standing by the Iranians China and Russia at the same time have a very significant relationship with Israel for the time being their diplomatic choice is to take the Iranian sort of like side or to be more accurate to take the Gaza sort of like side we want to take the anti-American side to take the anti-American side and here is something that I want to say in the context of Iran which I don't think that has been mentioned obviously we all talked about the involvement of the Iranians in this attack we talked about the master plan this is something that we have talked in length in different forums in different places here is something that I think was not discussed and here is something that I would like to bring to the table Iran has frozen assets money, funds I think those funds should be refrozed or defrozed and they should be diverted to the following objectives the full funding of the rehabilitation of all the Israeli communities in the area of Gaza that were attacked and funding compensation for all the people that were killed their families and the families of the kidnapped people that would be something that we should think about just two very quick points on that last point about the money number one it is it was reportedly largely frozen and caught to our second question of legal obstacles about your plan definitely challenges but maybe it will have some message not sure how much of one that is all the time we have though for everyone watching stay safe out there stay strong Israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas says Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on i24 news this is what you know from where you come from see here and the package and recharge that you already know where you are going on international recharge your people in rd access our web page recharge.altis.com.co select recharge and type the number you want to place the recharge also they receive the double balance in recharge of 8 dollars or more Altis the global network of the dominicans news from Tel Aviv and welcome to i24 news is ongoing coverage of Israel at war the war has now entered its 13th day as Israel prepares for a ground operation in Gaza to break the murderous Hamas terror group but all eyes are still on the northern front where just moments ago an anti-tank rocket was fired towards Israeli positions and Israeli artillery is now pounding Hezbollah targets from where it originated this is as well as Israel having struck other Hezbollah targets along the border it fired more anti-tank missiles at the northern town of Roshanikra according to the IDF 9 I guess now 10 rockets were launched from Lebanon setting off sirens and Kiryat Shmona and several nearby communities the IDF said 4 of those were intercepted in that previous exchange by the Iron Dome the United States has thrown its full support behind Israel with President Joe Biden set to address the United States in an effort to get an emergency budget to fund the war but it's coming at a price of humanitarian aid into Gaza that's despite originally promising a siege until all 200 hostages seized by Hamas in their murderous rampage on October 7th are returned home US President Joe Biden says humanitarian aids the Gaza Strip will come via Egypt and could begin as soon as Friday British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has landed in Israel and he is discussing matters as well before he heads out to other Arab countries in the region to escalate the conflict in his words in his office stories I'm pleased to be here in Israel at this important time above all I'm here to express my solidarity with the Israeli people you have suffered an unspeakable horrific act of terrorism and I want you to know that the United Kingdom and I stand with you I'm looking forward to my meetings later today with the Prime Minister and President and I very much hope that they will be productive and I'm looking forward to the discussion panel which includes Avi Malamad the founder of the inside the Middle East Institute and intelligence background and I want to see your correspondent I'm going to open with you because we have just seen another anti tank missile attack on Israeli troops this comes as has Bala has been launching attacks at observation post and sensor units on the northern border and moving great deals of military supplies around in Lebanon and this is the preface to them finally opening up another front well thank you for having me going back to what I say since they want talking about Hezbollah's strategy and tactic Hezbollah is doing a gradual very well calculated escalation of the situation but in a very small steps it's not doing something very dramatic and it basically indicating two major purposes one Hezbollah wants and hope that through this intimidation that will stop possible Israeli major operation against Hamas and two I think it reflects an inner dilemma within Hezbollah and Iranian because the United States is in the region president Biden send a very clear message to the Hezbollah in the Iranian saying don't they are looking at what's going on in Gaza Strip and it's definitely not incentivizing Hezbollah to move in full steam ahead I think that right now as I'm looking at Hezbollah when I'm trying to look ahead there is some very interesting component of the Hezbollah's strategy I think that in a way Hezbollah is right now preparing the strategy for his PR for the post-war let me explain what I mean by that one of the major issues that the Iranians the Hezbollah Hamas Islamic jihad were conveying as part of their marketing package to the Arab world was the concept that when the time will come and there will be a war all those factors Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic jihad extend shoulder to shoulder and fight this is not the situation right now and there is a big question mark whether that is going to be the situation in the future right now you can already hear voices coming from Hamas and from Islamic jihad and other factors in the Arab world were actually turning to Hasan Asrallah the leader of Hezbollah and said where exactly are you we are waiting Hezbollah and Iran are still with this dilemma and the more the war is going to be expanding as expected their dilemma will become more and more acute and relevant and they will have to make some sort of a decision so I think when I'm trying to look ahead I think that we should expect some sort of like more significant escalation of Hezbollah but not full steam ahead because when I hear the sub messages of the Hezbollah leader by the way in couple of days ago the second in command of Hezbollah and Qasem said we will contribute meaning Hezbollah will contribute to this effort and I think that in a way this is kind of like laying the ground to some sort of like Hezbollah's PR messages following the war because assuming if that is going to be the case the Hezbollah and Iran in the end of the day will watch Hamas and Islamic jihad falling down and will not interfere in the war full steam ahead they will come under a massive criticism by the circles in the Arab world who has been all the time praising the slogans and the rhetoric of the Hezbollah and the Iranians and I think that in a way the Hezbollah and Iran in that sense are kind of like thinking PR in the day post war. We're going to continue this but first I am going to bring in P.S. Dekalbaka our correspondent on the northern border right now just to give us a little bit more background. Pia what can you tell us about that missile strike that was just fired on Israeli positions? Well Ariel only a couple of minutes ago we have been starting to receive reports about first of all mortar shells being fired from southern Lebanon into the area of Kibbutz Manara very much in the upper region of the Galilee located right on the border with Lebanon these mortar shells were fired and that has been also confirmed by the IDF by an anti-tank missile the residents there in the area are requested to remain in their houses to remain close to their shelters as more shelling from Lebanon is expected Ariel this is exactly the area that has been under fire yesterday as well according to an Israeli military statement yesterday alone 11 anti sorry 10 anti-tank missiles were fired as well as rockets and also mortar shells now the area here as close as up to 2 kilometers to the Lebanese border has already been widely evacuated so actually there shouldn't be many people left but of course it is very difficult to evacuate all the residents from their homes now yesterday the Israeli government deciding to expand that area that might potentially be evacuated in the future to 5 kilometers because the northern frontier can really escalate at any minute this has been a quiet day so far Ariel but we've been seeing that also the IDF has been striking Hisbala positions during the night from the area of Roshanikra which is at the western part of the border with Lebanon so we've really been seeing these skirmishes between Israel and Hisbala all alongside the Lebanese border talking about locally limited positions and when these mortar shells or even anti-tank missiles also hit Israeli territory here they occasionally cause fires this is what we've been seeing in a number of locations yesterday behind me you can still see the smoke arising from it of course targeting a major danger for the residents that live in areas very close to the Lebanese border now of course Hisbala yesterday publishing also a video how it is targeting especially Israeli posts located here at this mountain range on the border between Israel and Lebanon specifically targeting surveillance and radar systems of the Israeli army possibly also preparing further infiltration attempts so we're not only speaking about the danger of what we've been seeing only a couple of minutes ago in the the danger of mortar shells and anti-tank missiles being fired but also infiltration attempts that we have been seeing in recent days as well Ariel definitely a very tense and very disturbing situation to say the least we'll be back with you a little later in the day I'm going to turn back to our panel in the studio because Owen you were about to remark on that when we wanted to bring that news from the front first yeah what Avi had to say about Hisbala look I want to go back to the first part of what you said that Hisbala is doing this as a way of deterring Israeli Israeli operation or intense fight Israeli war operation in Gaza it's not going to deter in Israeli in escalated Israeli war operation in Gaza I think Hisbala understands that very well by now so I think that that motive it seems to me can be eliminated and I think that focuses our attention on exactly what you said about Hisbala and it also caught my attention that phrase contribute to that's far short of a full on commitment that's far on its contribute that means be a part of that's far on a full force commitment especially by a force that according to Israeli intelligence is ten times the power of Hamas if they wanted to fully commit themselves they wouldn't use the word contribute because if they were to fully commit themselves Lebanon would quickly become the dominant front and not Gaza it would be much more than just a contribution and obviously the dilemma is very very clear because without intervention by Hisbala and Iran Hamas Israel is going to be able to achieve its objectives with Hamas it may be at a high price it may take a long time but it seems that Hamas control over the Gaza strip will come to an end with all that that means for the resistance access and the axis and they have to decide whether they want to come into the war to try to change that outcome or do they sit on the sidelines understanding that they probably won't be able to and to this point they've decided on option B but again if this is going to be as long of a campaign as Israeli leaders and policymakers say it will be then they can simply wait patiently for what they sense is the right moment where they can come in and from their perspective and from their perspective be able to land a decisive blow and at least fight this war to a draw or to a victory of course as long as the United States is fully committed with two aircraft carriers that ensures that Israel will win the war and then it's just a question of how much risk Hisbala and Iran would want to take and one would think in that sense they wouldn't take it which brings us back to what Abbi Malaman said that the end of the day this is to flex muscles for the day after to show the Arab world that they were at least there but obviously that still gives Hisbala a bit of a credibility problem right given all that they have promised over the course of so many years and a problem that they will have to reckon with. Abbi, does that essentially create a situation where time is for or against Hisbala as a ground operation in Gaza drags on and focuses attention there and Hisbala keeps this low intensity striking observation sensor and radar dishes in the north giving them a chance later in the war to possibly blow through a fence and then create a massive infiltration or is it working against them because they're simply out of their credibility and they've lost any element of surprise. To the best of my reading and assessment it is against them because look if the war is going to expand and every moment that goes by people will see what's going on in Gaza already there is a massive damage caused to Hamas and Islamic jihad in Gaza in the infrastructure and the pictures are there in the Arab world I'm telling you there are already right now voices in the Arab saying to Nasrallah where exactly are you so the more the war will expand and the more the damage will increase the less maneuvering capacity to best of my reading would be for Hisbala because then there will be a point of like no return because if it's going to be clear that Israel is going to move you know full steam ahead Hamas is all and Hamas rule over Gaza Strip is going to be eliminated then people will say to the Hisbala now you are coming you are coming at this point and we don't buy it and then another thing you know people will say to the Hisbala you saw what's happening in Gaza Strip now we are going to sacrifice Lebanon for a lost cause meaning the devastation that will inflicted on Lebanon is significant and then there is one more thing which is very very significant as I said from day one US positions and the US presence in the region because we have to remember one more thing there is another arena that is called Syria and Israel doesn't necessarily have to just be contained to the story of Lebanon Iran most significant strategic asset currently in the area of Israel is the deployment that they have in Syria the military deployment and that could be very I would say exposed to potential attacks right now there is enough military power in the neighborhood that could cause what the Iranian has been building in Syria for the last decade that could cause within hours an enormous destruction this is something that the Iranian have to take into consideration including the Hezbollah this is part of their biggest dilemma we don't have to play by the book here necessarily according to Hezbollah's and Iran master plan we have maneuvering space so again when I'm trying to look at what would be Hezbollah's next move and as Armen said we are looking at something that is enormously bigger in its capacities than Hamas and Islamic jihad all combined I would say that at least for the short term we should expect ongoing escalation of the Hezbollah's moves against Israel yet not total comprehensive involvement in the war I would say that if I try to assess what Hezbollah's ultimate participation would be and I'd be very conscious about it but I would say I think that Hezbollah will target the future of Israel closer to the Israeli-Libani border because there is some sort of like a deterrence equation here because here is the very simple deterrence equation once it's going to escalate to this point the next moment you will start seeing thousands of Lebanese fleeing from south Lebanon they will be heading to the Dachd in Beirut Nasrallah has a bad memories from 2006 with that story so there is a limited maneuvering capacity if Hezbollah will try to go beyond it like targeting more strategic sort of speaking attacks then you could expect the expansion of the war and then again reminding us all United States of America is present in the region with a substantial military force and a clear statement by the American president message to the Iranians and Hezbollah basically saying the one famous word don't have to agree with this obvious is what's more important to Hezbollah it's armaments or its reputation right because if Hezbollah enters the war especially given Israel's preparedness right now I mean these are horrible opening conditions for Hezbollah in a war all of the communities near the Lebanese border are evacuated the entire country is mobilized including hundreds of thousands of reservists there's zero element of surprise and there are two American carrier aircraft carrier strike groups either here or on their way the entire the leadership of the entire Western world is united with Rishi Sunic on his way and so on and so forth these strike me as horrible opening conditions at least as things stand for Hezbollah to enter a war and they would be entering a war with full knowledge that they would lose a lot of their power over the course of the war while inflicting a huge price on Israel but they would lose their hard assets they would lose their hard assets and the reputation inside Lebanon at least potentially on the other hand they might enhance their reputation right around the Arab world being seen as those who are resisting they're a resistance group they're resistance group this is the time for quote resistance as tangled and as as despicable as that phrase is the way it's used by Hezbollah because of course it's not resistance it's largely terrorism and with the understanding they'll probably be targeting civilian targets at least in large part but maybe they would be willing this is the devil's advocate case to give up their arms in order to enhance their reputation or maybe not they have a lot of arms so maybe that's too big a price and I guess the next question is we're looking at one arena but there are more arenas in play here Avi because it's not just north it's not just the south ultimately we know that Hamas is already commit to the war there there's no further they can commit to this war and they still have significant assets not just in Gaza but also the power network they've been building in the West Bank as well could they be able to activate that and open yet another front that's already been committed definitely I mean Hamas would like very much to see the West Bank inflated it would like very much to see inside Israel they're repeating and even escalating scenes of clashes between Israelis civilians and Israeli Arabs inside Israel Hamas is trying to play in different arenas by the way in the context of the story of right now in Gaza St Hamas has two major cards he's desperately trying to play with to maneuver with one is the story of semi-story like this hospital story when Hamas is trying to play the card of humanitarian crisis and so on and so on and in that essence in that context I would say something very significant and it should be particularly addressing the international media Hamas are masters in fabricating and staging and I would be very careful with every piece of information coming from Hamas from the Ministry of Health in Gaza St which is Hamas and so on and so on we have to remember that Hamas we have no restrictions when it's come to fabricating and staging and I will add something else that we have to take into consideration I will not exclude the possibility that Hamas deliberately will booby-trap hospitals or public facilities and he will detonate them in order to try desperately to stop basically we saw what happened with the story of the hospital when it comes to Hamas an Islamic jihad with Hezbollah we should remind ourselves there is no limit to their there is no limit to their sophistication there is no limit to the way they are able to manipulate they understand and know how to manipulate we have to be very much aware of that so this is one aspect the other aspect the other story the hostages the Hezbollah is now Hamas is now playing the card of the hostages in Gaza St because he evaluate that that may be his card maybe to avoid a massive Israeli operation and he's playing this card but his maneuvering capacity is limited because there are foreigners and the western governments and particularly states of America will say to Hamas the more you are going to play with this card the more substantial the damage is going to be and the more we will give result the green light to move in and forcefully operate on the ground and beyond it so I think that this is something very interesting to follow how Hamas will navigate its way with the story of these hostages and by the way there was the other day there was Hamas senior leader giving an interview to NBC basically saying Hamas will release all the hostages in one hour in condition provided that Israel will stop the bombing in Gaza St so you see that Hamas is trying to play with this card he doesn't have an unlimited maneuvering capacity with that it actually brings up a very interesting question because you mentioned Hamas' ability to manipulate particularly when it comes down to foreign powers in their view because Israel is a bit of a similar bind here when we're talking about who does time benefit right now Israel's strategy appears to be bombard Hamas positions in Gaza from the air inflicting massive damage before any ground operation goes in but in doing so you are going to get every single scene the international media can pick up half-truths direct lies and the like and damages Israel's operational capacity in the long run with more poor pressure on Israel but on the other hand if Israel goes in with half a plan or less the losses they sustain and the gains they're going to get are going to be disproportionately bad for Israel how does Israel navigate this? well that's a very delicate task you're very accurate about it when you present it this way I think that we have to look at it as following right now Israel has a full legitimacy to move on with its plan with its official statement of what's the objective it's very clear and Israel should take advantage of that both militarily and diplomatically and politically in the context of the PR meaning as long as the Israeli Air Force and up until now the Air Force has been doing a very accurate work very precise work targeting Hamas, Islamic Jihad, popular resistance committees and other groups in Gaza St military infrastructure that is good, that is fine, that is excellent we are all afraid of the situation where there will be some sort of like mis-attack which is a different story but we have to remember something different in addition to that Israel is going to be a massive Israeli ground operation in Gaza St the scale of the devastation will be enormously tripled, we have to remember that but right now I think that for this moment Israel from its own perspective should not be working with a watch Israel should prepare whatever it wants to prepare, Israel should continue to do what the Israeli Air Force is doing in Gaza St and other things that are being done and I think that Israel should be in the end of the day tried to move the way it would decide to move which may be different from what people are anticipating in the right timing for Israel so we are looking at a very complex system of lots of moving parts sort of speaking but right now as we are talking at this time point I think that Israel should take the time to prepare the preparation to conclude the plans and so on and so on because right now we do have international legitimacy and Owen as he mentioned that international legitimacy is critical for Israel moving forward and now that Israel has an almost entirely unified western world behind them in the face of the savagery that we experienced here how can Israel capitalize on the support to actually gain the most of it I think there are two parts number one as Avi said to move quickly because support is likely to erode over time likely although I don't necessarily think it's certain to erode because of two reasons, number one the sheer scale and barbarity of what happened on Simcha Torah and what happened on October 7 and also because the course of this war may not be similar ultimately the course of the Gaza operations which became so accustomed to over the course of the last 10 to 15 years this may have a different strategy and a different tempo and therefore the trajectory of public opinion although it's played out to those broadly speaking to those campaigns so far it may not continue in that trajectory the other thing Israel must do and is doing is to work with those allies right we saw that Arielle with Joe Biden's visit before that with Anthony Blinken's visit right sitting there literally with Israel's work cabinet being there in the room making decisions and Israel quite clearly coming towards the United States if you will on the issue of the humanitarian situation in Gaza with I think some new ideas at least for the Israeli Palestinian conflict that the US put on the table that the Israeli government ultimately accepted and felt that it could at least sell to the Israeli public so yes to move quickly but also to work with these allies to be considerate and to be attentive to their interests and to their ideas and to keep them on side by treating them as partners and not as spectators and that has happened so far I think it's happened because Joe Biden has been so skillful in the way that he's managed this right because he has been so staunch and has done such a good job of connecting with the Israeli public it's one him credibility in being able to work with the government to get the things that he wants that he of course has said he also sees as being in Israel's interest as well and I guess a long time we're not just looking at Israel we're not just looking at Iran here Iran has its backers in the form of Russia and China they're watching this conflict extremely closely as well what is the message they're going to get from this and what sort of interference might they actually lend well as of now Russia and China are clearly on the Iranian side I mean the Chinese the Russians they're basically you know standing by Iran and sending their messages look China and Russia are playing along their interests you know that could change the melody could change the next day or the next day whatever we have to remember Iran is very significant player in the Middle East it's a big nation it's a big country it has a very significant relationship with Russia and China remember reminding us all Iran is supporting Russia in the war in the Ukraine the Iranian assault drones and other things Iran and China has a very close relationship so it's only natural to see that they are standing by the Iranians China and Russia at the same time a very significant relationship with Israel for the time being their diplomatic choice is to take the Iranian sort of like side or to be more accurate to take the Gaza sort of like side the anti-American side to take the anti-American side and here is something that I want to say in the context of Iran which I don't think that has been mentioned obviously we all talked about the involvement of the Iranians in this attack we talked about the master plan this is something that we have talked in length in different forums in different places here is something that I think was not discussed and here is something that I would like to bring to the table Iran has frozen assets money, funds I think those funds should be refrozed or defrozed and they should be diverted to the following objectives the full funding of the rehabilitation of all the Israeli communities in the area of Gaza that were attacked and funding compensation for all the people that were killed their families and the families of the kidnapped people that would be something that we should think about just two very quick points on that last point about the money number one it is it was reportedly largely frozen and caught to our second question of legal obstacles about your plan definitely challenges but maybe it will have some message not sure how much of one that is all the time we have though for everyone watching stay safe out there stay strong 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 news in quest I-24 we want to know from where they are watching us everything they should do is prepare the phone to point to the QR reader and there opens a brief questionnaire very easy to complete another option is to enter in the link that appears on the screen we wait for your answers we are ready to begin the war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped help us we don't want to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong the unity welcome to another breaking edition of zoom in I'm Nicole Zetic live in Tel Aviv and for the next two hours we'll be diving into the latest developments of the war here in Israel now in its 13th day western allies continue to show their support for Israel British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak landing in Israel to meet with his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog a solidarity visit as the UK and his counterpart for anti-Semitism I want to raise the issue of what I call objective or unobjective reporting about this tragedy because we feel that and I've made it out public that the way the BBC characterizes Hamas is distortion of the facts we are dealing with terror organizations in the world and I know that in modern democracies such as ours and yours you cannot intervene per se but because the BBC has a certain linkage and it is known as Britain as such all over the world there has to be an outcry so that there will be a correction and Hamas will be defined as a terror organization first and foremost I want to express solidarity with you and your country after you have suffered something unspeakable a barbaric act of terrorism and to your last point we should call it what it is an act of terrorism perpetrated by an evil terrorist organization Hamas that's what I believe and that's what we will continue to say Sunak's visit follows an unprecedented visit by US President Joe Biden Israel is still in a very passive state of war but despite the danger Biden showed his unwavering support for the Jewish state and its right to defend itself from the Hamas terror group who Biden said is even worse than ISIS but for this unwavering support Israel is having to lessen its grip on the Gaza Strip allowing 20 trucks of humanitarian aid into the Strip from Egypt has agreed to with President Biden all of these diplomatic visits to strike the Gaza Strip destroying hundreds of Hamas targets in the past 24 hours according to IDF officials the northern front is heating up as well as Israel strikes has blocked military targets after the Iranian backed terror group fires anti-tank missiles towards northern Israel now certainly a lot to unpack and to talk about all of the latest developments I'm joined in studio by Avi Posner former Israeli ambassador to France and Italy as well as former world chairman for Karen Hayesot United Israel Appeal Avi thank you for joining me let's start with diplomacy foreign leaders continue to flock to Israel most recently with UK Prime Minister Sunak it's obviously a great sign of solidarity but it also begs the question does Israel need this solidarity certainly they have the support from their western allies but this shows that they also need yes we you know every country who is in the situation that we are needs a show of solidarity I must say that we the United States it goes beyond solidarity what actually Biden did yesterday was to present us with a mutual defense pact more or less what Sunak does today this is solidarity Schultz the day before yesterday I hope Macron and Meloni and other European leader will follow because in our hour of really mourning it's like you come to make a Shiva visit people come to give you strength and we are strong so I hope that we will see more of those western democracies sending their leaders to us in our hour of need to encourage us because difficult days ahead that's obvious long difficult days ahead and we need all the support we can get from our natural allies who are the western democracies now in exchange for that unwavering support as we heard from Biden and we'll see what unfolds from Sunak's visit today as well but we also know that for that Israel is having to lessen its grip in the Gaza Strip allowing more humanitarian aid to enter now what we're hearing from the ground here in Israel specifically the families of those taken hostage now a number that is up to 203 confirmed hostages they're not happy with this decision the Israelis are not happy not only the families we want to tighten our grip on Hamas we want to destroy Hamas I mean it's military leadership political leadership economical leadership so everything that helps the Hamas is not good we made a condition to Biden that this humanitarian aid does not reach Hamas now how do you verify that the question the Americans said they will see to it with the UN let's hope so but if it were for many Israeli they would not let enter any humanitarian aid before we get our humanitarian gesture which is the liberation of our hostages and prisoners this is a humanitarian gesture innocent people are being held I don't know in what condition they are doing to them there are babies there young children women elderly people how are they treated so yes but in order to cement this alliance with the United States which is important you heard Nicole how much assistance they are going to give the quality of assistance weapons and munitions so we had to make a gesture you said Israel is going to do everything they can to make sure that this humanitarian aid does not end up in the hands of Hamas we are also hearing Russia sending 27 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza how much of that is likely to even get into Gaza in the first place and how likely is it that in those 27 tons there are some illicit goods coming from Russia first of all it doesn't come through us so it comes through the Egyptians I don't know if they will be allowed to cross into Gaza I don't know we allowed the particular 20 loads of humanitarian aid to cross into Gaza I don't know whether we are going to allow more and maybe there has to be verification at the border not by us because it's between Rafa Egypt and the Gaza but let's say UN observers or some kind of international observers it's obvious that we want to know what enters into the Gaza Strip and even if we agreed to humanitarian aid this was a one time agreement we don't have to agree every time so the Russians helped their protege which is now to my great regret the Hamas but we don't want anything to get to the Hamas innocent civilians maybe not Hamas well and obvious we were talking earlier you just mentioned just the western support and I do want to note that we are expecting a press conference from UK Prime Minister Rishi Tsunaka any minute now and we will be taking that live when we do have that so that is something that we will look forward to as we continue to hear about just the relationship between Israel and its western allies really it seems to be that this war is almost really shining a light on the geopolitical landscape on the western allies the UK the US, France, Germany they're all standing with Israel versus China, Russia, North Korea, Iran they're all against Israel is this redefining the geopolitical landscape really showing clearly the sides now more not redefining because we knew I mean who are Russians allies in the war against Ukraine Iran China, North Korea I mean we know the situation but yes reaffirming reaffirming that democracies stand together against Muslim hatred Muslim terrorists and this is very important not only for Israel because we today we are the target somebody else might be the target tomorrow so this is very very important and it's not only words as you can see although about words I want to tell you something I listen now to President Herzog really telling the Prime Minister of Britain about the BBC who does not call the Hamas terrorists but I don't want to call them militants so I don't know what by the way that's not the only problem even within our biggest ally in the United States the New York Times I don't know it may call them even maybe freedom fighters they had horrendous the New York Times had horrendous headlines the day before yesterday when the Islamic Jihad sent a rocket into the hospital by mistake of course but what was the headline of the New York Times Israel bombs the hospital in Gaza you understand so there is much to do in that even within our allies much to do and we're going to continue to touch on that later in the show as well so Avi Posner bringing that up stay with us now I want to turn to our northern border though here in Israel where our I-24 news correspondent Pia Stechelback is right now Pia we are seeing Israel's northern border is heating up another anti-tank missile fired recently from Lebanon targeting a Kibbutz up near where you are IDF returning fire what can you tell us about what's happening on the ground right Nicole in fact two anti-tank missiles were fired a short while ago from southern Lebanese territory into Israel you're right it's the area of Kibbutz Manara Kibbutz in the eastern upper Galilee region sitting right at the border with Lebanon this scene has also been the scene of fire exchange yesterday according to an IDF statement yesterday alone 10 anti-tank missiles were fired from southern Lebanon into Israel his bala claiming responsibility there as well as rockets and motor shells now also showed a while ago further motor shells were fired into Israel the IDF currently operating here when we were driving here we are still at the western side of the border with Lebanon we saw that several fires that several sources of smoke were lit up here in the mountainous region of the border with Lebanon so we have been seeing this also throughout the past couple of days that we're not only talking about local small escalations but really incursions and skirmishes all across the border with Lebanon now the residents in a range of have been asked to evacuate really throughout the past days now the Israeli government yesterday deciding to give the option to expand that territory to an area up to 5 kilometers away from the border when we're driving here here where we stand right now we're about 3 or 4 kilometers away from the border we had to pass an army block a roll block we were led through but they had a sign saying we're warning the citizens you are entering an endangered area and still there are not a lot of civilians on the street you do not see a lot of civilians on the street this seems to be quite deserted as really the northern front has been heating up over the course of the week and we've been seeing massive skirmishes yesterday also is valla publishing a video they're showing how their fighters are shooting down Israeli surveillance cameras and radar systems because we're also dealing with the threat of infiltration attempts that we've been seeing really also we've seen several infiltration attempts already all were apprehended by the Israeli military and also infiltration attempts and this is also part of why this area here has been trying to be evacuated from citizens here as I said already a range of 2 kilometers now we might see an expansion of that also here on the ground Pia also as you said that 2 kilometers 5 kilometers that really expands exactly how many people are going to evacuate putting an extra burden on everything happening in the center of Israel as well and so is that possibly why it has been for people of 5 kilometers to be told to evacuate because it's difficult to get all these people out of there it is difficult and also the 5 kilometer range would include cities such as Kiryat Shmone and you will never be able to really evacuate all of the citizens we've been seeing this also in towns and villages in the 2 kilometer range here for example Shlomi with we've been a couple of days ago a village as close as 2 kilometers away from the Lebanese border and even their citizens decided to remain in their homes so this is an evacuation effort and this has also been coming from the defense establishment in Israel is extremely difficult to put into action because you will always have civilians who decide to remain in their homes because really once they leave them they do not know when they will be able to come back they do not know what will happen here at the northern front and I think really nobody knows what is going to happen at the northern front because Hezbollah and Iran have been threatening they're watching very closely what is happening in Gaza as well. We will certainly be keeping an eye up there on the northern border. P. S. Tackleback. Thank you so much for giving us the latest. Now as the fighting continues and as we continue to focus on the northern border, but still we're talking about quite contained skirmishes that have been increasing, but the fall in escalation is still potentially to be seen still as of now these escalations have been contained so far, but really this northern border has been quite tense and as we continue to focus on the latest developments. We're also learning about the events that unfolded on Saturday, October 7th and the acts of heroism that saved countless lives. Now I'm joined by Yami and Nomi Weiser parents of Roy Weiser who is an American Israeli soldier. Now the mother and father, both of you, your son's bravery saved dozens of other soldiers from Hamas terrorists. Can you tell us exactly what happened that Saturday, October 7th? Well, on Saturday morning obviously we all know that Hamas decided to come and attack Israel and they came through the border and my son was stationed there at the air is crossing in one of the one of the one of the stations there. I'm sorry I lost it. One of the stations there. They came right in to their base. That's part of the base and started shooting and shooting at everybody and they captured and they were taking back to Gaza. At one point my son saw that there were many of the Hamas terrorists whereas they were few soldiers there were not more than 20-25 soldiers at the time there and said this is fruitless we're being outnumbered we need to do something about it. And my son told his officer that it's time to do something go on the offensive instead of the defensive and the officer said what do you have in mind? Obviously they were under gunfire the whole time and my son said it's time to flank them. We have to go around go around the building obviously under fire okay we'll go meet you and we'll take three other soldiers we'll flank we'll go around the building and we'll go and we'll put down we'll go with crossfire in both ways okay and that should do it that should put us on the offensive and that's what they did that morning and because of that initiative that my son took at least 12 soldiers were alive to tell the story today. I mean hearing that story obviously as parents you must be filled with fear and concern but what are their emotions I have to imagine you're incredibly proud of your son as well of course pride pride is the main issue here there's anything that's consoling me but this whole thing is that my son was a hero all the way to the end was a good soldier a great soldier and a hero. As far as he had he had the sense and the brains to stop while being shot at to take a bigger look at the bigger picture and find a solution to a problem and I admire him for his quick thinking his bravery and running into the fire you know so we're very proud Is this act of heroism is it in line with your son's character is when you heard this story were you surprised at all about Roy's actions? I wasn't surprised at all absolutely my son was working for the fire department when he was a young kid and he'd run into fires he was he was fearless and he wouldn't do anything for the cause and he always was that way so it doesn't surprise us at all that he was a hero all the way to the end as war continues to look like it could be escalating are you concerned for his safety I mean already he's proven that he is a hero he will do anything to protect other soldiers and it looks like we might be needing that now also for the coming weeks coming months well we're not there right now but we're definitely concerned for the safety of all the other soldiers no other mother no family should have to go through what we went through certainly not the families of the kidnapped children and this war needs to end however it ends nobody else should have to suffer so of course we're concerned this war needs to be the last war no more half wars almost half wars this war needs to be the last one well thank you so much for sharing the story of your son Roy his memory may his memory be a blessing for everything that he did for his fellow soldiers on the front lines during that atrocious attack thank you for sharing his story thank you now Avi I want to come back to you as we continue to hear more about just everything that happened during that atrocious day 7th everything that we continue to prepare for possibly as we were speaking to our correspondent who's on the northern border right now we continue to hear that Hezbollah might get involved in this fight tit for tat fire happening on the border yet we haven't seen the major escalation that we were preparing for yet does this symbolize maybe cold feet on Hezbollah's part or that they're preparing for something larger you know after our failure 10 days ago 12 days ago on this terrible Saturday I don't want to say that Hezbollah has cold feet okay we thought Hamas had cold feet we have to be prepared for the worse with Hezbollah and if they're there really if they're there to attack us really not only the little skirmishes that are doing now I mean we have to take the state of Lebanon as responsible for that and those are very harsh words Nicole Hezbollah is a Lebanese organization they sit in the Lebanese government they're part of the Lebanese government it's true there are minority in Lebanon but they are important they actually they dominate Lebanon today so everyone in Lebanon has to know Shiite, Sunnah Sunni, Christians Greek authors everybody has to know that if Hezbollah opens hostility against Israel the state of Lebanon becomes the target and I don't want to say more than that I mean everybody has seen our capabilities now in Gaza I don't want to I don't want to threaten that we have to be ready and not to believe that they are deterred that Hezbollah is deterred because we have already shown regretfully enough that we don't know how to read the mind of the other side so what we have to be what Sahal has to be what our defenses have to be ready for the worst hoping it will not come but ready for the worst with a with an answer for the worst I am sure that they don't need my advice today to be ready I think what you pointed out is just so clear because what's happening in Hamas it came under Israel's noses we've always thought Hezbollah and known Hezbollah is the greater threat yet Hamas definitely took us by surprise now meanwhile as we're preparing on the northern front we're preparing any day now that there is going to be a ground operation in the Gaza Strip Israel has said that there's going to be a ground operation in the Gaza Strip why has it taken nearly two weeks though is this any sign that Israel is backing off or just preparing even more so for a powerful attack because there will be a ground operation we have to have a ground operation if our aim is to get rid of the Hamas as leaders of the Gaza Strip we have to take out their military leadership we have to take out their political leadership their economical infrastructures so we will have to go in whether it will be tomorrow or a week from today and about your question why does it take us so long this is very good Nicole remember we called in reservists we have to train them those are people who live like you and me every day of the year now they're in the army and if they have a week or two of refreshment on the very harsh battles which are going to be conducted in Gaza this saves human lives this saves Israeli lives they will be battle ready when the time come and the fact that so many diplomats can continue to visit Israel showing their solidarity yet a ground in operation was not going to happen while President Biden was here likely not going to happen while the UK Prime Minister is here so as all of these major heads of states continue to visit it's also potentially delaying an operation as well no because if let's say let's just imagine that we plan an operation for Sunday let's say then if there is a head of state who want to come Sunday we will tell him please delay your visit he will understand come a week from now come or come tomorrow so this we can easily handle the decision on the date of the ground operation is tactical and only tactical from the point of view of the army when we will be ready when our forces will be ready we will enter into Gaza and I have to ask Avi some people seem to be surprised that even as the IDF continues to strike targets in the Gaza Strip hundreds even in the past 24 hours Hamas Tara has continued to have enough long-range rockets to still target central Israel how is this possible that even after all of this demolition but this is also what happened in all the previous rounds exactly what happened in the previous whether there was or not a ground invasion like we had in Tsukaitan in 2014 or two years ago they continue to shell Israel why is that, how do they do that they are hidden underground and they open for a few seconds they open they are I don't know how to call it and they shoot and they close it's a question of seconds and it is very difficult for our air force to locate that but I can promise you one thing when we'll be there on the ground in Gaza we'll find all those sites and we will destroy them once and for all once and for all because Hamas will never be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip again we will continue to keep an eye on everything that's happening there Avi Pazner, former Israeli ambassador to France and Italy, thank you thank you very much Nicole we're going out for a quick break but we'll continue to break down the latest developments in Israel 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 news a particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year the Fakita reserve we have the right ingredients and we have to do the job and that if we have the right ingredients and we do the job that the Fakita can be protected made for me a unique concept in Israel. Custom made men's fashion to your measurements. Made for me, designer of all your events. Schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il. Made for me, official dresser of I-24 News. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to this breaking edition of Zoom In as we continue to focus on the latest developments happening here in the war in Israel. Now, for the latest that's happening in the south on Israel's southern border, our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is in southern Israel with everything that's happening on the ground. On October 7th, say agricultural minister, Avi Dierter, who was also the head of the Shin Bet Security Agency. On October 7th, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad signed their death certificates, he assured. Now he says it's gonna take the intensive war. We'll take probably a few months and then with a less amount of troops inside the Gaza Strip, more time, more time to come. But he says and he insists Israel has no choice because the attack inflicted on the Israeli residents was of the highest brutality. And there is no choice because Israel is caught into an existential predicament. Without the destruction of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad, he says, there is no way Israel can continue that way. Now, near barcat, the economy and industry minister insisted on the international arena. They started the war, we will finish it. At the end of this war, Israel and the free world has to wipe Hamas off the map. If Hezbollah will join with Iran, we will wipe them off the map as well. This is Pierre Kloschenler, our 24 news is there on the border with the Gaza Strip. Now, as we continue to see things heat up on Israel's southern borders, the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has landed in Israel to meet with his counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as President Isaac Herzog. Now, at least seven British nationals have been killed and at least nine are still missing since the attack on Israel according to Sunak's spokesperson. To talk more about the PM's solidarity visit I'm joined in studio by David Menser, former director of Labor Friends of Israel and senior international connector for honest reporting. David, this is a major solidarity visit coming while Israel is very much at war. Rockets not only targeting southern Israel but many still targeting center Israel as well. How is this such an important visit just to show the strength of the solidarity from the UK right now? Look, I think the barbarism which has been meted out to Israeli civilians has had a big impact in Europe and certainly in London. But of course, this is now 13 days into this crisis and that initial sympathy for Israel has largely dissipated in the UK. So it is even more significant now that Rishi Sunak Prime Minister actually makes this solidarity. He actually tweeted this morning in Hebrew solidarity. That is the main purpose of his visit. And of course, when you enter into a partnership and Israel will need these partnerships because there are difficult days ahead. And no doubt we saw that the Islamic Jihad attack on the hospital in Gaza changed things around instantly in the UK and in European capitals and in the US as well. So there will be difficult times ahead. The fact that the lines of communication are opening or strengthening now means that when the difficulties happen ahead there'll be someone to be able to pick up the phone to and talk about this in current terms because the friendship will still be very, very fresh. And obviously, Britain has a hand in this as some of their own nationals were killed. Some of them still missing. However, as you said, back home on the UK's own turf we are seeing a rise in anti-semitic attacks even fueled by what's happening right now. Absolutely right. Look, I've been here for six years originally from London living now in Tel Aviv and people are texting me almost every day from London Jewish people that they are afraid to send their kids to school. That they are afraid to let their kids wear their school blazer with a Jewish symbol of the school which their kids go to, they are afraid to publicly show their Jewish. All of us with kids here in Israel wondering what should we do? How can we keep our kids safe? Maybe it's the last thing we wanna do. We actually feel safer here in Israel with our families than we do in the UK. So it is tremendously significant. In my lifetime, in my political work over many decades I cannot recall a time when a British Prime Minister has made that journey. The US of course has a special relationship with Israel. We all know that but the UK making, the Prime Minister making this journey right now is highly significant and I think it's very welcome as well. And you said such a strong statement that so many Jews right now almost feel safer in Israel. While we are at war, then they do abroad because of this rise in anti-Semitism. Anything specific that we can expect, I know even right now as we're speaking we're awaiting a press conference from Sunak who's going to address the media at any minute. Any specific that we can expect from his visit or is it really just a sign of optics? Look, there's a real contrast between what Joe Biden did yesterday and what Rishi Sunak's doing today. Joe Biden led his trip with lots of information about where he was going. He was gonna see the Jordanians. He was gonna go to Amman. He was gonna speak to the Egyptians. He was gonna speak to the Palestinian Authority. They all canceled on him. Right, now you've seen the opposite now with Rishi. He hasn't said anything. It is deliberately vague, right? So he's left the door open. He's not grandstanding as perhaps Joe Biden did. I think that was a big mistake on his part because that meant that they gave the opportunity for these Arab leaders to cancel those trips. So he's blocked out two days for this visit. Don't forget, he's embattled at home as well. There's no doubt about it. He's not looking good in the polls. There is a mass demonstrations on Britain's streets, a hostile to him and hostile to the government. Lots of his government have been supportive even when the BBC, of course, have been absolutely appalling who they've jumped first and foremost to criticize Israel without actually knowing the facts. So he's going against the grain with the intelligentsia in the UK, but that makes it even more welcome. He hasn't said where he's going. I think that's very important. You mentioned the BBC. Let's talk about how the British media has been covering this and how they could cover Sunach's visit as well. But we know the BBC even specifically failing to recognize Hamas as a terror organization instead referring to them as militants. This is a general theme that we're seeing throughout the UK when it comes to the media's portrayal of what's happening here. Look, there is something very nasty, first and foremost, in the British character when it comes to Israel that they immediately rushed to condemn Israel first. Immediately. Now, unfortunately, that is the rule rather than the exception. There are, thankfully, many exceptions of people that are willing to hear the Israeli side of the story. But you can almost feel amongst the BBC that this initial wave of sympathy and understanding of the battle which Israel has against this barbarity, the battle which is this battle for civilization, which it is actually embarked on right now. You can almost feel that spring has compressed the hostility, the anti-Israel, but also, frankly, the anti-Jewish hostility that has sprung out, sprung out in British society, certainly on the BBC, unfortunately within the Muslim community, but also in politics as well. I mean, I've experienced this many times, having worked inside parliament for many decades. And I've known, when this situation happens, there's initial sympathy of Israel which doesn't last very long, but then many of these has been politicians. They often are, has been politicians. There's a sort of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish adrenaline which enters into their bloodstream and they become tremendously engaged, organizing themselves, creating petitions, trying to put motions down in parliament to make this all about hostility towards Israel. With a fake, I would say very much a fake concern for the Palestinian people, because of course, any right-thinking person would know that wiping Hamas off the face of the earth would help the Palestinian people, would help their cause. So this is a very serious time for the UK as well, lots of disharmony on the streets and in politics. So I think this visit is even more welcome right now. And we'll continue to keep an eye out for what Sunak has to say while he's here. David Menser, thank you so much for your insight on everything that's happening here and abroad and in Britain. Now, switching our focus from Israel's southern northern borders and the focus from abroad to the West Bank now, where it's really forces nabbed 80 terror suspects overnight in a wide-scale arrest operation, at least half of them from Hamas. Since last week's Hamas terror onslaught, Israel has ramped up its activity in the West Bank. As Palestinians report dozens of deaths, most of them in clashes with Israeli forces. Our Middle East correspondent, Ariel Osron, has more on the third front that has Israel concerned. Most of its attention focused on the southern and northern borders, Israel is witnessing a spillover of the conflict in Gaza also to the West Bank. Overnight, Israeli forces arrested at least 80 terror suspects, 63 of them belonging to Hamas. This includes senior Hamas official and co-founder Hassan Yusuf. We are walking very hard in the West Bank. Massive forces are there securing the routes, making arrests and forcing terror attacks. Together with Shin Bet and Israeli police, anyone who tries to challenge us in the West Bank will find a significant force ready to engage. At the same time, clashes between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians occurred in multiple areas in the West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that five Palestinians were killed by IDF forces overnight. That brings the death toll in the West Bank since last week's Hamas terror attacks to 67. The crime committed by Israel and the Western patronage and American support must be stopped. The bloodshed that has been going on for over 12 days must be stopped because our people in Gaza are being exposed as civilians, children, and women to this unprecedented killing. Recent days have also seen mass protests spread across the West Bank cities in support of Hamas's military wing and its spokesmen. We must stop! We must stop! We must stop! We must stop! We must stop! We must stop! We must stop! We must stop! Recent days have also seen a rise in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, some incidents leading to the death of multiple Palestinians. The IDF is investigating those incidents. And so with a ground invasion in Gaza on the immediate horizon and a rapidly escalating northern border, Israeli forces are working tirelessly to prevent a multi-front scenario from happening and to keep the different fronts at bay. Now to talk more about these brewing tensions I'm joined in studio by Middle East correspondent Ariel Osron. Ariel, as we are speaking right now, active exchange of fire between IDF forces and Palestinians in the West Bank. Right, Nicole. There's an ongoing incident right now in the Nour Shams refugee camp that's just east of the West Bank city of Tulkarem. And according to a statement by Israeli police, Israeli forces are currently engaging in a firefight with armed terrorists in the area. This is based on initial information. The moment there is further details, obviously will update regarding that situation. Well, and everything that you even reported on about these arrest operations, nightly arrest operations are nothing new in the West Bank. We've been seeing these for months. However, right now it seems like there's a lot more fuel behind the fire and it's a lot more important to make sure that the West Bank is under control right now. Oh, definitely. I mean, look, obviously there's no question that the Southern Front is completely active. But even though the fighting isn't as intense, the Northern Front is active as well in a capacity that is unprecedented since 2006. Similar situation in the West Bank. It's just when it's relative to the Southern border, it doesn't get that same attention. But we're talking about over 520 arrests carried out in the West Bank since October 7th. That's an average of about 40 a day. Those are numbers that we have not seen in the period leading up to last week's Hamas terror attacks. And of those 524 arrests, 330 of those belong to Hamas. And so Israel is really ratcheting up its attempts to try and get Hamas wherever they are because in the months leading up to October 7th, most of the focus was Hezbollah up north. That was the big looming war and increased terror activity in the West Bank. And gradually, that caused forces to move from the Southern border, from the Northern border to the West Bank. Some would say that weakened Israel's posture in defending the Southern border. Obviously, this is one of the many issues that are gonna be looked at moving forward. But indeed the situation of the West Bank with the close proximity between Jewish, Israeli, and Palestinian populations that is a tinderbox that is very close to erupting. And an eruption of that has Israel very, very concerned because it could potentially bring a similar scenario of fighting in Israeli and Jewish towns or settlements. Not necessarily similar to what we saw last Saturday because these settlers in many of these towns are armed to the teeth. We're seeing this in these increased attacks, but indeed that is a very real situation. And so Israel is engaged in widespread activity across the West Bank to try and prevent that scenario from taking place. Because as you said, we've been waiting for something to boil over in the West Bank, especially between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank for months now. But now, because of these most recent actions, it definitely seems like the boiling point would be there. And as it seems like you were implying it, it could be an even more dangerous situation because unlike the Southern foot communities near the Gaza Strip, the communities near the West Bank, these are settlers who are actually armed. Who are armed so on the one hand that could protect them, but on the other hand, there's a... We're actually going right now as the UK Prime Minister is about to start his press conference after meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu. Take a listen. Prime Minister Sunak Rishi, I wanna thank you for your solidarity, your clear unwavering support from the minute this war began. I think the fact that you came to Israel tells us a lot. I said to President Biden yesterday that there's one thing more heartwarming than standing with Israel. It's standing in Israel. And the fact that you came here to do that is a very strong statement of support which we deeply appreciate. Chancellor Schultz who also visited here called Hamas the new Nazis, he was right. You fought the Nazis 80 years ago, resolutely, and the entire world supported your action. President Biden called Hamas worse than ISIS. He's right too. Hamas are the new Nazis, they're the new ISIS, and we have to fight them together just as the world, the civilized world, united to fight the Nazis and united to fight Hamas, it must together now stand with Israel as we fight and defeat Hamas. This is not merely our battle, it's the battle of the entire civilized world. It's the battle of Israel, it's the battle of the modern Arab countries, it's the battle of Western civilization, the battle of the free world, the battle for the future. We have here two forces, one is an axis of evil led by Iran through Hezbollah, Hamas and others that want to bring back the Middle East to the Middle Ages to an age of bondage and war and slavery and annihilation. And the other forces, the forces of progress and humanity that want to push the Middle East into a world of peace and prosperity. We are on the cusp of expanding that peace and destroying that move was one of the reasons why this action was taken, we have to resist it and we have to win, above all we have to win. We have to release the hostages, you have nationals, understand that I know you do, that we have their children, babies, women, elderly Holocaust survivors and your nationals and we have to work together in every way possible and we're doing that to get them back. I appreciate the fact that you also sent some military forces into the region. We discussed a practical cooperation on many fronts and I value that very much. 80 years ago, 80 years ago, Prime Minister, the civilized world stood with you in your darkest hour. This is our darkest hour. It's the world's darkest hour. We need to stand together and we want to win and this is why I support, I value your support and the fact that you're here, we must win together. That means that this is a long war and we'll need your continuous support, continuous support, there'll be ups and downs, there'll be difficulties, the people here are united, they're prepared to take the necessary action. I've never seen the people of Israel as united, more united than they are now but we need that unity across the board and continuous support as we prosecute and win this just war against the modern barbarians, the worst monsters on the planet. Thank you, Richie, for coming here. Well, Prime Minister, thank you for your warm words and for welcoming me to Israel. I'm just sorry to be here in such terrible circumstances. In the last two weeks, this country has gone through something that no country, no people should have to endure, least of all Israel, which has lived through some of the most awful scenes, the specter of violence and terrorism every day of its existence and I want to share the deep condolences of the British people and stress that we absolutely support Israel's right to defend itself in line with international law, to go after Hamas, to take back hostages, deter further incursions and to strengthen your security for the long term. Now, I know that you are taking every precaution to avoid harming civilians in direct contrast to the terrorists of Hamas, which seek to put civilians in harm's way. But I also want to thank you for the support that your government has given to the families of British nationals caught up in this horror, including your efforts to release the hostages, the cure their release. And I know that we will continue to cooperate particularly with regard to the British nationals that are involved. Can I also say that we have seen the scenes over the past day that have shocked all of us, particularly at the hospital and we mourn the loss of every innocent life, civilians of every faith, every nationality who have been killed. And we also recognize that the Palestinian people are victims of Hamas too. And that is why I welcome your decision yesterday that you took to ensure that routes into Gaza will be opened for humanitarian aid to enter. I'm glad that you made that decision. We will support it. We're increasing our aid to the region and we will look to get more support to people as quickly as we can. The last thing for me to close on is this. You describe this as Israel's darkest hour. Well, then it's for me to say I'm proud to stand here with you in Israel's darkest hour as your friend. We will stand with you in solidarity. We will stand with your people and we also want you to win. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. You were just hearing from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alongside UK's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak discussing their joint solidarity. Sunak describing how he is going to continue to stand with Israel as Netanyahu described this as Israel's one of the darkest days in the region. Sunak saying that they support Israel's right to defend itself no matter what. And also realizing that they're grateful Israel has now opened up the quarter for more aid to be given to Palestinians who are also impacted by the atrocious actions of Hamas stating that they are going to be increasing aid as well. However, not giving a number or any figures into exactly how much that will be but certainly a strong sign of solidarity between the UK Prime Minister and Israeli's Prime Minister as they stand side by side on the podium and address the nation about their show of strength. Now, I want to continue to talk about the more signs of strength that we are seeing here in Israel. Joining me now is Rabbi Menachem Traxler, founder and director of Kolel Habad's Pantry Packers. Israel's longest continuously operating social services organization, which was founded 235 years ago. Truly remarkable. Now, Rabbi, it's really inspiring work, everything that Kolel Habad has done throughout the years. And now that work is especially vital. Can you tell us about what type of aid you've provided over the past two weeks specifically? So we've been providing food, as you said, for so many years and right away. Next morning, we got together and started discussing how we were going to distribute the aid. It did take a day or two till we got the social workers to update us. And right away, we're sending thousands of meals to the south, many of the towns were evacuated. The social workers helped us locate where they were to provide them and continue providing them with meals, food. And that has been what we're doing and what we're going to continue to be doing. But there's been a lot of areas as well that come to us with our extensive knowledge and experience of reaching all these towns and cities, they wrote in the Tivoto Fakim. So how to help kids that are lonely with toys. Food cards, so which we expanded to buy clothing or household wear. We're in middle of a huge campaign now to distribute 5,000 shackles to each family that was forcibly evacuated. So the immediate towns, that's unfortunately were hit the hardest, destroyed. And as the government is growing the list of mandatory evacuations, so we're going to extend that assistance as well. And many of them are in hotels where they get food, where they're taking care of shelter, but what about their pair of glasses that needs to be fixed? Or they ran out with sandals and each person has something else. And providing them with these 5,000 shackles and those questions asked, they're able to buy exactly what they need. And we continue to see, Rabbi, people stepping up time and time again, specifically here in Israel, your organization really a vital part of that has it inspired you or surprised you in any way seeing how the people of Israel have really come together in the face of this tragedy? I had a very special moment last night. One of the projects we got, this has been with our ongoing welfare departments throughout the year. We get a container, a month of brand new clothes and shoes like Nike and all these, like just end of line stuff. And right away we turned it around, well, let's start bringing them to the hotels where these communities are evacuated. So yesterday in Jerusalem, we were with the Kfar-Meimun community. And I don't know why, but it touched me to see the mother had four different pairs of Nike shoes to find that perfect fit for her kid and knowing that I was able to facilitate that. And it's such a small little detail, but 11 years in and out helping the needy in Israel, that's what touched me. And I think that symbolizes the entire country, Am Yisrael, everybody found their angle, whether it's soldiers, whether it's families that were relocated, giving them an empty apartment. It's just, there's no way to document it. How every single person found their way to help. Just from a phone call calling your friend's wife, that they're husbands and me, Louie. It's endless and the opportunities are endless. It's endless, however I- That's what we do. I wanna note also, it's difficult as powerful as it is for you to help someone. I have to imagine you and your volunteers have continued to see some heartbreaking scenes as well. Yep, so on Sunday, I went to Spain where Farazza was evacuated to, they all came together. And we were giving out these cards so that you get. And there was, you know, people were grateful and said smiles, but you could just see in their eyes were broken. And there was an elderly woman there, I was there for two hours. She didn't stop crying the entire time. Well, Rabbi, it's those sites of- It's heart-wrenching. It's heart-wrenching, but you're providing so much hope during this time, you and everyone else at Kulal Habad. So thank you. We're going out for a quick break here on Zoom In. 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured. And the war with Hamas continues. We bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived, and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the South and North. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on I-24 News. You know where you're coming from. You know where you're going. In my international downloads, Altiz, your people at NRD, access our website, www.recargas.altiz.com.au, select downloads, and type the number you want to put the download. Also, they get double the balance in 8 dollars or more downloads. Altiz, the global network of the Dominicans. Thank you for sticking with us here on a new hour of this breaking edition of Zoom In, where we're continuing to dive into the latest developments of the war here in Israel now in its 13th day. Western allies continue to show their support for Israel with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak landing and speaking in Israel with his counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, along with President Isaac Herzog in a solidarity visit, as the UK is becoming a hotspot for anti-Semitism. Now, Sunak's visit follows an unprecedented visit by US President Joe Biden. While Israel is still in a very active state of war, despite the danger, Biden showed his unwavering support for the Jewish state and its right to defend itself from the Hamas terror group, who Biden said is even worse than ISIS. But for this unwavering support, Israel is having to lessen its grip on the Gaza Strip, allowing 20 trucks of humanitarian aid into the Strip from Egypt, as agreed to with President Biden. All these diplomatic visits as Israel continues to strike the Gaza Strip, destroying hundreds of Hamas targets in the past 24 hours, according to IDF officials. The Northern Front, heating up as well as Israel strikes, has brought military targets after the Iranian-backed terror group fires anti-tank missiles towards Northern Israel. And that's where we want to begin our show this hour up on Israel's Northern Front, where our I-24 News correspondent, Pia Stekhlback, is right now on the Northern border. Pia, we've continued to see anti-tank missiles shot from Lebanon towards Israel. Israel firing back, what can you tell us about the latest on the ground? Well, Nicole, about two hours ago, at least two anti-tank missiles were fired from Southern Lebanon into Israel. We're talking about the eastern part of the border, the area around Kibbutz Manara, which is a Kibbutz that has also come under fire yesterday sitting right on the border with Lebanon in the upper eastern Galilee region. We haven't received any reports of casualties. However, it seems like one house has been hit by one of those anti-tank missiles. We're talking about an area that has already been widely evacuated of citizens because of his close proximity to the Lebanese border. And because this, especially the upper eastern Galilee region has become the area of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah before. We know that the Israeli military has been striking back with artillery towards Hezbollah targets in Southern Lebanon. I want to show you how these impacts coming from Lebanon, how these shelling, what kind of impact it can have here on the Israeli side. You see, now we're looking into the western region of the border with Lebanon that has been struck yesterday by motor shells and also possibly anti-tank missile fire. I'm not sure if this is actually a new fire that we're seeing or one that has been reignited since yesterday, but you can really see these clouds of smoke coming out of the mountainous region right behind this mountain ridge. This is where Lebanon already begins. And this is why also the areas, as you see there, we're talking about the villages of Shlomi, Betsat, as close as two kilometers really to the border there have been evacuated. Now, the issue with these evacuation operations is that you will always have residents who decide to remain in their communities as they cannot be promised when they will be able to return there. The Dalun Fund has been really heating up during a recent days. Only yesterday we know, according to an IDF statement that 10 anti-tank missiles were fired from Hezbollah in to Israel as well as rockets and motor shells as well. Now, yesterday the Israeli government announcing that they would enable the evacuation of residents in a proximity up to five kilometers to the Lebanese border. As I said, this is a very, very difficult procedure to really evacuate citizens also in terms of which other opportunities of accommodation to actually manage to organize for them. But also because residents here are not all of them are willing to leave their homes here at the northern border. We have to see how or if this will turn into a full scale escalation Hezbollah and the Iranian foreign ministers will have threatened that they are very closely watching the events in Gaza. We have been seeing this day of rage, the protests in Lebanon after the hospital in Gaza was struck. It remains to be seen if a possible ground invasion of Israel into Gaza will have an influence on this northern frontier, but the incursions and the skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah have definitely increased in recent days also yesterday into day, Nicole. Pia, as you said, we're all keeping an eye on that northern border tensions very, very high as we can see behind you smoke in the distance. Now with multiple anti-tank missiles being fired from Lebanon, Israel slightly responding with fire, but usually that alone would be enough for a larger response from Israel. Is it telling by any ways that Israel hasn't responded stronger to the small skirmishes we're seeing on the border? All right, I would say that both Israel and Hezbollah here are showing restraint as we know that we do not know what we're getting itself into here at the northern border. We're talking about Hezbollah, which has a lot more capabilities than Hamas. Israel is in some extent experienced with Hamas. It knows what to expect also in terms of rockets. When we're talking about Hezbollah, we're mostly talking about home-made missiles and rockets, Hezbollah. We do not really know what they're capable of, what kind of specific rockets they're using, but we do know that they are more professional, that they have backing from Iran, possibly much more than Hezbollah has, and that their missiles are much more sophisticated and possibly also long range. But we're not talking about missiles here. We're also talking about possible infiltrations. As you can see the region here behind me, we're talking about a mountainous region that is covered with a lot of forests, which makes it possibly easier for infiltrators to attempt and cross the border here. This is also what we've been seeing throughout to the last week, that there have been a couple of attempts off-squats here coming from Southern Lebanon trying to infiltrate into Israeli territory. Piaz Stechelback on our northern border. Thank you for that latest as we continue to keep an eye on everything happening up there. Now from Israel's northern border, I wanna cross now to Israel's southern border, where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is there standing by for us with all of the latest. Pierre, what can you tell us that's happening as everyone's also keeping an eye on the south, possibly a ground operation could happen any day now? Well, after a 15-hour lull in rocket fire over Israeli territory, in the past three quarters of an hour, there's been samples of rockets over the city of Ashkelon, for instance, which has already suffered over 1,060 rockets in a city of 130,000 inhabitants who are not being evacuated by the government, only those who voluntarily evacuate, evacuate. There were also rockets fired on localities near the security border with the Gaza Strip, but here in Zderot, the lull is still going on. There hasn't been any rocket fire launched onto the city of 30,000 in which only maybe a mere 1,000 residents are still living inside the city. Now, we've been listening to two ministers who came to Zderot to give a press conference, Avi Dirtair, who was a former national security agency chief, the Shin Bet, and is a minister of agriculture near Barcat, minister of economy and industry, and the messages we're hearing from them is a message of resolve, pretty much, like what Benjamin Netanyahu says in front of the cameras when he speaks with UK Prime Minister Richie Sunak. We are at the forefront of the war versus the evil that started the war. We are gonna finish it. The army has the green light to enter Gaza if we don't sleep at night. Neither Iran will. Our task is to wipe Hamas from the face of the earth and we'll talk about the day after, after. But some interesting elements from Avi Dirtair, for instance, 50,000 armed terrorists in the Gaza Strip from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad. He says that there were three waves of assault on October 7. The first and second wave were by terrorists, armed terrorists, but the third wave was by civilians from Gaza who took the opportunity to enter Israeli soil and rob and took with them hostages. So amongst the 203 confirmed hostages by the Israeli army, Dirtair says some are in the hands of Hamas, the bulk of it, some are in the hands of Palestinian Islamic jihad, but some are also in the hands of civilians. This is what he said. And he adds that Israel is facing an existential threat and as such, we're ready to pay the price, he says. Here, close in there, our I-24 News Correspondent in Southern Israel, thank you for providing us with the latest happening on the ground there. Now I wanna bring in my studio guest joining me in studio right now is Dr. Fadi Esmail, former senior staffer for US Congress and research fellow at the International Institute for Counterterrorism, along with Dr. Hayetan Cohen, Yanarojak, Turkey expert for the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. Thank you both so much for joining me. Dr. Esmail, I wanna start with you. As we just heard for our correspondents, both in Southern Israel and Northern Israel, we're preparing for a war on all fronts, but now we kinda see the operational tactics that Hamas has, Hezbollah is an even greater threat. Hezbollah is a real army. Can you talk to us a little bit about the training that we have? We know they even have fighting experience from Syria as well. Well, actually, people talk about Hezbollah and I'm thinking about the 100,000 troops that Iran commands in Syria, tens of thousands already, not very far from the Israeli border in the Golan Heights. While we're looking at Hezbollah, they're sitting there amassing there and these are all the whole area between Lebanon all the way to Northern Iraq. There are many, many fighters who have been fighting, have been doing nothing actually other than fighting for the last 10 years, if not even a little more. And they're mostly from Lebanon, Syria and Northern Iraq. They are ready. They are there. They are coming towards the borders. I've just heard, so a statement by a commander of Al-Waida Sadik, which is one faction of the Iraqi resistance. He says that he's already have 5,000 soldiers at the borders here and that 10,000 more on the way. So let's pay attention to that border. And it is not something that there's no military secret here. I mean, it's a known fact. And while we're thinking about the Rodwan Force, who's in the western part of the Israeli-Lebanese border and such famous entities, there are also others that are ready. So as far as the kind of training they have, I'm more interested in the kind of experience they have. You can train people, but the nothing is as important as experience. And if you have people who have been hardened by battle, and these are people who have been fighting for years, they can cause a lot of trouble and they will if activated. Now here's a question, are they gonna be activated? Would Iran spend all this money and effort and make them reach all the way to the borders with Israel and do nothing? Especially that, can Iran appear as somebody who abandons Hamas? I mean, if they do that, they would have a problem because the entire philosophy for the last four decades was we are building an axis of resistance against the West, against Israel, against, that was the whole, the whole shtick is this. And based upon this shtick, they have been oppressing their own population, spending hundreds of millions of dollars all over the Middle East in wars and taking over other countries. I'm not, from a politically speaking, if I'm trying to get into the heads of the leadership of Tehran, how could they not? And there's another interesting thing is that almost all of these fighters are Arabs, they're not Persians. This is part of their sort of brilliance. They're using Arabs to fight the wars. Those are the historical enmity between Arabs and Persians. It's been there. Are they Shiites? The fighters? Yes. Most of them, but not all. But there are Sunnis, Hamas. And there are others. The ones in Syria, are they Shiites? But there are Alawites, some Shiites. There aren't very many Shiites in Syria. There's a sectarian connection. Exactly, they managed to build it under this umbrella of anti, the thing is that the anti-Israel unifies the entire Muslim world. Actually, going off of that point, I think that brings in exactly what you have to say about everything that we're seeing in Turkey right now and how this anti-Israel rhetoric is absolutely brewing in Turkey. Yes, indeed. From the beginning of this war, Turkey refrained from condemning Hamas. Actually, what I understand is that Turkish government sees Hamas as an important asset in order to penetrate into the Middle East. And therefore, in the very first week, they were more cautious in their statements. As you know that recently, there was a new normalization process between Israel and Turkey. Even the President Erdogan and Prime Minister Netanyahu, they met at the outskirts of the UN. But when Israel began to take action, we began to see a very pro-Palestinian narration in the Turkish media that turned into, unfortunately, to a Hamas propaganda. And it is also, unfortunately, including hate speech towards Israel and the Jews. And the reaction of the people who are watching 24 hours and consuming this hatred news from the Turkish news channels. It's not surprising us. So two days ago, the Turkish angry mob, they came next to the Israeli consulate in Istanbul and also the Israeli embassy in Ankara. They protested. They even clashed with the Turkish police. They wounded four Turkish police, which is another scandal for the Turks. Unfortunately, I do not foresee a bright future for the relations in case that the IDF will launch a ground operation. Most probably the Turkish administration may call their ambassador back to Ankara and they even may declare our ambassador in Ankara as a persona non grata. So we should be also very cautious about it. But still I would like to emphasize that they do. I do not think that they will join to the axis of evil, but opening here a parenthesis, which is very interesting. Last week, the US downed a Turkish UAV in Northern Syria and United States President Biden tagged Turkey's actions in Syria as a threat against the American interests. Therefore, the Turks are looking at the air, these huge chips that air flight carriers and they are considering them as an important challenge for their national security. And as a result, nowadays, they are conducting a military drill in Eastern Mediterranean. So it's really unbelievable what is going on here. And even if Turkey does not join the fight, as you were saying, we see just how this rhetoric is fueling the hatred we saw on the screen as you were talking, just visuals of those protests, those anti-Israel demonstrations. Now, Israel even warning travelers not to go to Turkey because they are at risk for, they hate crimes potentially. Yeah, and I cannot blame the Israeli administration for issuing such a warning, four out of four. It means a very tangible threat. I only want to remind you that only last year, when the Iranian cells wanted to kill Israelis only for being Israelis in Turkey, the Israeli administration issued such a warning. It means that this warning is very credible, it's very tangible in case that an Israeli tourist who has nothing to do with the decisions of the Israeli government would identify himself or herself in the Turkish street. Unfortunately, he or she may become a victim of a violent attack. So this is unfortunately tangible. And therefore I call to all Israelis to refrain from traveling to Turkey. I mean, until the end of this war. And God willing, afterwards, when everything will be fine once again, I still try to be very optimistic. And then let's visit Turkey once again because Turkey is a friendly country at the end of the day. We never fought with Turkey. As we're talking about just what we're seeing abroad, we also are seeing a lot of support from our Western allies. Dr. Asmal, I wanna come back to you because not only UK Prime Minister Sunak's visit today, US President Biden's visit yesterday, all clear signs of strength with Israel's Western allies. But is it mainly optics in your opinion or if push comes to shove in some of these other groups, as you were saying, some of these major threats do get involved? Well, any of them actually have boots on the ground. That's the real question people were asking. I wanna say two things. First of all, it reminds me of I'm old enough to remember the days of the first Gulf War. And I remember somebody, there was also an outpouring of support to Israel after the first God missiles landed here. And somebody said, and might have been, might have been Shimon Pell, one of the big politicians said, when you have to know something, if the whole world likes you, then you're in trouble. And that's a sign. I think that this outpouring of love and support is actually, it tells us that we are, in terms of boots on the ground, look, Israel has, like the president said, Israel has a fine fighting force. We already have something between the three to 500,000 soldiers on the ground, Israeli soldiers who know what to do. In terms of manpower, Israel has a manpower. The issues that we know that exist have been talked about a lot. We all have heard the lectures by General Brick that has warned us from the problems that they have that we have in terms of equipment and command structures and training and so on. However, the manpower is there. What we need to do is now make sure that it has all the equipment. The dudes that, oh, I see them. I mean, I see if they are ready, they just need all the equipment. They have most of it. They need clear orders. Now that's the responsibility of the government. And in 2006, it was a mess. Like every few hours they changed the mission and the orders, so they need the leadership to get its act together. And that's something certainly will. And give clear strategy, clear tactical orders and let the boys do the job. And the girls, of course, do the job and something of get out of the way kind of situation. I have, I think- I think that's an interesting point. And I thought so. There is manpower. Yes. There is a lot of morale- Seeing the troops on the ground, we're seeing them preparing so now it's up to- The numbers are there. Seeing exactly what's going to happen. I want to continue to just talk about exactly what we have seen from the troops that have been on the ground so far. Scenes of devastation. We actually have someone who's been in the hospitals right now, looking at those scenes of devastation. I mean, hospitals around the country continue to treat hundreds of patients. More than 4,000 total have been injured. Since the start of this war, the death toll climbing over 1,400. Right now, joining me via Zoom, I'm joined with Dr. Deborah Gershov-Wes, the director of the emergency department at Samson Asuda University Hospital. And Dr. Deborah, thank you so much for joining us. The scenes and the horror stories that we've heard come out of these hospitals. Doctors, nurses, volunteers all working around the clock. Give us a feel of what it's like in the hospital system in Israel right now. So at the moment, there's actually been quiet before the storm. At the moment, most of us seriously weren't coming in the first few days. And now they're now being treated on the wards. It was the first few days that were really, really hectic. And now we're just getting ready, we're going to be carrying ourselves to the next wave. And we saw very seriously, weren't you, patients? There were all high-energy injuries, gunshot wounds and blast wounds and a lot of shrapnel wounds. The patients came in in huge waves and huge numbers at the same time. And each one of them was in a life-threatening situation. And if they had waited another half an hour, another 45 minutes, then they wouldn't have made it. The other side, the horrific injuries was their horrific stories. And what was something that we've never seen before was that the patients came in, especially the soldiers and the security forces, they weren't worried about themselves. Like normally they say, oh, thank God I'm here and I'm being looked after if they could awake enough to talk. Or you see the relief that they're in good hands. But in this situation, they were just desperate to get back. They were like, leave me. I want to get back. I want to go back to the field. I think all my friends are dead. Everybody around me was dead. So they came along with the physical trauma. This is a horrific emotional trauma from the side that they had witnessed and been part of. Well, and it's truly heartbreaking to hear these stories, everything that's happening, treating soldiers. But on the other hand, we're hearing specifically Ikhla of hospital in Tel Aviv under fire for treating terrorists, Hamas terrorists. Now I can imagine how a doctor, it makes that decision. On the one hand, you have the duty to save lives, but to save the life of a terrorist who brutally murdered, raped, kidnapped your own people. What is this decision that doctors are grappling with? You know, up until 10 days ago, I would have quoted to the Hippocratic Oath and I would have said to you, we're doctors and we treat everybody. And I can still quote to the Hippocratic Oath, but I can tell you on national television, international television that I don't want to treat the terrorists from Hamas. I'm not talking about Arabs, I'm talking about the terrorists from Hamas, who as you said, brutally murdered and mutilated men, women and children in their houses. We have actually been given a, not an order, but a recommendation, maybe even stronger the recommendations from the health ministry that we don't have to treat the terrorists. It's a real dilemma. And as I said, we've never had that before, never, ever. I've been a doctor for over 30 years and if you ever asked me, I would say I'm a doctor, I will treat the patients and I'll treat the terrorists, but we have never found ourselves in a situation of such atrocities and such bestiality that we've seen now with the Hamas and no, I'll be very clear, I'm not going to treat the terrorists, we're not going to treat terrorists in the hospital. And it's certainly posing an emotional toll I can hear just from your voice. There's an emotional toll on the families of all of the staff, treating friends their loved ones impacted, loved ones murdered, all of you continuing to give the best care, will rock, it's also fly overhead. How is that impacting the doctors and the nurses that you're working with? So we're fighting, we're working under fire, we're under missile attack, but that's not new for us unfortunately, where we are we're 25 kilometers from the northern border of Gaza. So this is at least the sixth or seventh time we've been under missile attack. So unfortunately we're used to that but just think what it means, it means we're under attack and we're being fired. We know that our family members are now in the inside their sealed rooms and they're being fired up, we don't know if they're safe. Many of our staff lives down south in the Kippel Tim and in the Moshavim that are around Gaza. We had a doctor who 24 hours was trapped in a sealed room with her one and a half year old daughter while her husband was going around to the neighboring houses trying to save people who were being injured, her husband's a paramedic and she's a doctor. We've had a lot of our staff is now living in hotels because their houses are from the Shurima, from the Sterot and their houses have been destroyed or it's unsafe to go back. Every single member of the staff knows somebody if it's a close friend or a family member who's been brutally murdered. And along with this emotional turmoil we just have to get through the next hour and the next hour and have a constant vigilance. So as I said before you asked how it is now that the wounded that happened, most of it happened in the first day in the first 24, 36 hours. So now the wounded are in the wards and the emergency departments about the country are quite quiet because people are staying at home, the whole country is shut down but we are absolutely feeling like it's a calm before the storm. We are preparing ourselves constantly, we're training ourselves up, we're learning from the injuries that we saw before. Gershaw West, we know that you'll continue to give the best treatment especially as you said as Israel possibly prepares for more on all of our other fronts. Thank you, we're going out for a quick break here on Zoo In. Israel is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us, we don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. We awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up, this is the unity. This particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year. Not only in Bolivia, but all over the world. We also need rain for the Embraer. Welcome back to this breaking edition of Zoo In. I want to remind everyone, my guests in studio right now are Dr. Fadi Asmail, former senior staffer for US Congress and research fellow at the International Institute for Counterterrorism, along with Dr. Hai Eitan Cohen, Yanar Oshak, Turkey expert for the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. Thank you both for joining me. Dr. Asmail, let's begin with you. It's been nearly two weeks now and everything we continue to hear, Israel is going to launch a ground operation. It's going to happen. They're going to completely re-change the way that the Gaza Strip looks. Hamas, they say, will no longer exist. What happens once that's done? What is the landscape going to happen the day that Hamas no longer exists and this ground operation is complete? Wow, well, that's neat. Once it's done, wait a minute, this once it's done by itself is a process. And I don't think it's going to be that smooth or easy. I mean, don't think so. The fact is, let's just ponder the thought that they are still shooting missiles. After all of this, all this shelling, all this systematic destruction of the centers or commenced on, they're still shooting back. They're still launching missiles and salvage of them, like once in 10 hours. Even after the IDF in the past 24 hours has targeted hundreds of their sites. They still have more rockets. In other words, they're so well-prepared. It means that it's all underground. They had years to 45% and don't forget they had a strong country as a mentor and as a sponsor, which is Iran. And Turkey, by the way, to some extent, but mainly Iran. And they have built the holes of something there. We don't know everything about what's happening under the surface there. And the fact that they are still, they are able, like almost a week and a half now, two weeks almost after that. And they're still sending salvage into and accurate ones. And they don't have accurate missiles. It's like ballistic missiles without it. Yeah, yeah, but they don't. And I want to stop you for a minute as we're getting a red alert that there's incoming rockets towards Tel Aviv right now, actually. Most of our people are heading out of the studio right now, right now. So if you guys want to come to a safe place, we're going off here. Welcome back to Zoom in. We were momentarily interrupted as sirens layered through central Israel here in Tel Aviv. Rockets once again being fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel. All of us here at the I-24 News Studio rushing towards our shelter as well. I'm joined by my guests once again, Dr. Fadi Esmail, as well as Dr. Hayetan Cohen, Yanar Hozhak, Dr. Esmail. Two weeks later, long range rockets continue to be fired from the Gaza Strip, targeting central Israel. Now in Gaza, they are out of food. They are out of water. They still have long range rockets. How is this happening? They do have food and they do have water because they're prepared. The VAs are prepared in this. The people, let me rephrase it, the people who are shooting them besides have water and food and electricity and internet connection and everything that they need to do that, they have prepared for a long time. I remember in the last war, it was almost a month and they were still shooting till the last minute because once you have stuff hidden under the surface, it is very hard to reach. And if you have them already prepared there on platforms that just open and shoot and close again, it's very hard to reach. Even if you hit it later, it's already, it's like a cat and mouse game. And I think that they've just, they said it, that, look, this is part of the reason why IDF is not rushing to go in because there's any number of traps that have been prepared and I would expect them to. And they said it, they're not hiding it. We are ready for you. This is a kind of warfare that there are units and IDFs that have been preparing for and training on. And I think that what they're trying to do, if I try to read what the generals are doing is to maximize the effect of the softening phase with all these strikes that will soften the resistance as much as possible. I assume this is what they're doing. The fact that they're still able to launch these kinds of attacks still is a lot. Just as the IDF has prepared more in some aspects, they haven't been sitting on their hands. And I'm always on the side of respecting what the other side can do so that they can be ready for it. I don't buy it all the, I don't like the arrogance. I don't like smugness. And I think that responsible work has to be done with respect to the possible abilities of the other side. This is probably why IDF is being very mindful and deliberate on how it's preparing its operations. Also, once you are sucked into Gaza, it takes away from your abilities to respond in other frontiers and to remind everybody, we've just talked about what is waiting on the other side, on the north. And in the north right now, we're also seeing rocket alerts, might I add. It's not only here in central Israel. We're seeing them being fired from the northern front as well. Just so far. And the IDF is responding there. So now it's a game, like it usually is, is who's gonna make the big mistake first? And actually in the first few days of the war, when the main combat was taking place in the western part of the Negev, that we call Otefaza, and people will say, well, we should just go in and say, no, wait a minute. Now you're fighting in your own terms in the territory, in the terrain that you know. Let them come out, more of them, so we can catch them on your own terrain. And that's actually worked out because imagine having to conduct these operations inside Gaza. And by the way, only a couple of hours ago, they caught another one that was, so we're not completely clean yet. No. There's another thing is, that I'm thinking about, sleeper cells. This is something I've been bothering me for years. There's more than one mechanism by which either Iran or others could have, and I assume they have implanted sleeper cells inside that they're just waiting. So I do think that I imagine, I guess, I venture to say that the people in charge are looking at all of that, and they don't want to, they don't want to be the ones who make the next big mistake. And as long as you're fighting on your own terms, setting your own clock as much as you can, and fighting in the terrain that you can control the best of your abilities, tactically, it's a very good decision. There's a strategic dimension that's a diplomatic one, which means the clock is also working diplomatically. Well, speaking of diplomatically, also I just want to reiterate how we continue to see these Western allies standing with Israel, more of them coming here as, at any moment, there can be rockets fired towards Central Israel. It's 2.30 in the afternoon here Israel time, yet residents all just like us running towards their bombshell, they're all as these major, major leaders are here in Israel, including the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. It's their completely uprooting life here. But I think it does show just the reshaping of the geopolitical landscape, or at least really painting a clear line between Western allies and who's standing with Israel, and Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Turkey, Arab countries, Dr. Yanar Ozak, how is this reshaping the political landscape? This is very complicated. You also mentioned Turkey in this infamous club, and this is very unfortunate because at the end of the day, Turkey is considered as a member of the Western camp. So this is making the things much more complicated, but we should focus on something. The fact that the international leaders, such as President Biden, Prime Minister Sunak, and others, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, they are all coming here to demonstrate support with the State of Israel. I think this should be highlighted. This is very important for our legitimacy. And Israel should restore its deterrence. I mean, unfortunately, this attack created a very dangerous precedent. The sense of security of the Israeli citizens unfortunately disappeared. And now people are thinking for the future if they are capable of reaching the outskirts of Ashkelon. So maybe in 10 years or maybe in five years, they may reach to Ashdod, to Rishon Litzion, to Tel Aviv. So this threat should be eradicated. Israel should eliminate Hamas. For years, we are speaking about the Iranian existential threat. But let us not be naive. This is if Iran is the octopus and the Hamas and the Hezbollah are its arms. So now it is the time to deal with the arms, and we have to cut it. Seriously, we should put an end to this rocket attack, threats, this infiltration, penetration attacks. This is unthinkable. I mean, I'm looking at my daughter. She is not leaving the bomb shelter. Do you think that it's normal? The fact that we have bomb shelters in our apartments, do you think that it's normal? No, it's not normal. I want her to grow up like I grew up, OK? So we have to do it for the next generation, because then they will pay the ultimate price. And let me be very clear. If we are not going to do that, I cannot stop her leaving the country, OK? So if we are calling this country a home, then we should safeguard our home, and it is the time to act. And there is only one home, one home for the Jewish people. Yes. One state of Israel. Definitely. No worries. No threats, Mayel. Thank you so much for your insight on all of this, even as central Israel continues to be under attack. Now, with the real war that is happening on Israel's southern border, there is also an information war that is happening abroad. News headlines around the world quick to pick up anti-Israel sentiments, such as the story of the hospital bombing in Gaza, with blame originally pointed towards Israel, which quickly proved they were not involved in the attack. Yet the media narrative was already out there. Opposition leader, Yair Lapid, addressed media here in Israel about the harmful consequences of the misinformation war brewing abroad. It is interesting and shocking how quickly the world has moved on. Israel was giving barely a week of sympathy and global shock. And then the world went back to attacking us for defending ourselves. I've got one question to you all. And that question is really the reason we're here. Do you think an organization which has no problem butchering babies, butchering pregnant women, and butchering a 13-year-old autistic girl with an 80-year-old grandmother, has any problem lying? Of all the distortions of the press coverage of the past days, the worst one is the balance. A large part of the media is offering its readers and viewers a balanced picture. They are presenting both sides equally. The story told by a democratic country that is trying to protect life, and the story told by a murderous terror organization that hates life. Hamas lies as a policy. They murder our children, and then they blame us. They murdered their own children, and then blames us. They use people as human shields, fire at them if they try to escape, and cover for this with vast amount of fake news. And I want to talk about what happened in the hospital. What happened in the hospital is that the lie was out there only for half an hour. But this half an hour is enough. This half an hour is the time in which people set their minds and their understanding of what has happened. So go to the next slide. No, no, the one before. Even when, after this half an hour, they reversed the allegation that Israel has bombed the hospital, they went to some sort of a balanced version, which is also a lie. Hundreds feared dead in Gaza, hospital blasted as Biden heads to Israel. Well, somebody blasted the hospital. And this is the Islamic jihad. This was checked again and again. I'm going to translate. This is what Hamas is doing. This is the headquarter of Hamas Polices in the city of Gaza. This is civil housing. This is a school. This is a school. There are two children gardens here. This is how they place their facilities. Go ahead. Next one. Again, rocket launch site, rocket launch site school. Again, civilian houses, civilian houses, civilian houses, civilian houses, civilian houses, rocket launch site. Again, rocket launch site, school and a mosque. I'm joined in studio now by our senior correspondent, Owen Alterman. Peter's university lecturer, huh? Exactly. Owen, we just heard from opposition leader, Peter, about how all of these international media sources were quick to pick up this information. I want to point out information that was spread by Hamas, a recognized terror organization. And now, even though Israel has proven that that information is not true, the media narrative, it's already out there. Well, listen, there are a couple parts to this, Nicole. First of all, the first night in the first few hours, one of the reasons why the international media picked up the Hamas points is there wasn't an Israeli point out there, right? For critical hours on that first night, the Israeli military didn't get something out there. And I remember just the feeling, and I've talked about this on air before, of just feeling unprotected. They were confronting this balance, right, between speed and accuracy. And the spokesperson, Daniel Higari, the next morning was very, very clear, it was yesterday morning, very, very clear, saying we aired on the side of accuracy 100% to the almost complete exclusion of speed, right? And I think the question is, is that the right balance? Obviously, the military needs to be accurate and reliable, and has paid a price in the eyes of these journalists, again, including those who are in that presser itself, has paid a price for not being accurate in the past, in its initial statement. That said, I wonder if we were fighting the last war. And I wonder if next time, God forbid, that there's a situation like this, if there has to be some consideration about at least getting somebody out on a rough video, having someone hold up a phone and someone do a rough Skype to get at least a piece of video out there saying that the Israeli military does not go and willy-nilly target hospitals, okay? It's being checked because it's a professional military and a liberal democracy, to at least get those points out there. So there's something that Western media outlets can't ignore, it wasn't there. There were leaks, Nicole, out to all places, Israel's channel 12, channel 12 is a Hebrew language media outlet in Israel. They don't need to be getting the leaks, that is not the audience and should not be the priority. So that was all very frustrating. As for where we're at now, once you have a press conference, right? Where the spokesperson steps to the podium in English in an organized professional way, goes through and lays out the evidence. And then on top of that, you have the US government come out and say, we're not 100% done collecting our intelligence, but from everything we've seen so far, we back the Israeli position. At that point, the media needs to not present this as he said, she said, right? Listen, I was listening to what the BBC is doing in terms of how they're independently verifying. Because by the way, these international media outlets are not budging. They are saying until we independently verify this information to our satisfaction with our independent investigation, independent experts, we're not willing to take a position. That's their view, okay? And I listened to what the BBC is doing in their methodology, it's fascinating. And in a sense, praiseworthy, but it doesn't answer the question. What do you do in the meantime, right? This investigation that they're gonna carry out, presumably, and others are carrying out are going to take a few days. What do you do in the meantime, right? Now what do you do in the first few hours before the spokesperson's office has made its point where I think they deserve to at least think about how to handle that in the future. But now that their story is out, shouldn't the presumption be, especially since the US government has come out and said so, shouldn't the presumption be that the Israeli side is right and that the Hamas side is wrong until proven otherwise, with the caveat that they have to do their independent investigation? That's where we should be. I don't think that's where we're at. And in that sense, yes, I think these outlets deserve a lot of blame. Well, and so moving forward, does this misinformation pose a threat in any way as the war continues to Israel's right to defend itself and how it's going to defend itself? Look, it's already had a practical impact, right? It canceled the summit in Jordan. It's caused protests all over the Arab world. It's elevated emotions around the region, right? Even more than they had been in the past. What it means in the long term, we don't know, because again, at this point, the Israeli story is out there. It's backed by the US government that has meaning, that has impact, maybe not in the Arab world, but in terms of Western public opinion. And should Israel's point be vindicated ultimately by these media, then I think Israel could be in a reasonably good position. Of course, damage still was done. Senior correspondent Owen Alterman will continue to look at the misinformation war as the real war here in Israel continues to brew. Thank you for joining us on this breaking edition of Zoom In. 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the South and North. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on I-24 News. Encuesta News 24. We hope you want to hear what we want to know from where we're seeing each other. All you have to do is prepare the phone, point to the Q&A, and a brief questionnaire opens there, very easy to complete. Another option is to enter the link that appears on the screen. We hope to see your answers. Seeing and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us, we don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. Welcome to this special broadcast here on I-24 News as we continue our rolling coverage. Day 13 of Israel's war against the vile terrorist group Hamas. As a ground operation in the Gaza Strip seems not to be an if, but a pending when. Targeted Israeli airstrikes eliminating another, our terrorist, the commander of the Hamas-led national security forces in Gaza. Hamas leaders high on Israel's to do this naturally. Dead men walking if you will. Meanwhile, Hamas rocket fire are renewed this morning from the south and from the north. Hezbollah is interesting either launching more anti-tank missile fire, but not just these two fronts are on high alert. People will have more on the terrorist activity in the West Bank and the security scare in central Israel. Meanwhile, the diplomatic train continues after the German chancellor, the American president. Now UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is visiting Israel telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this hour in Israelis. Of course a friend in need, a friend indeed and we are on your side by your side and we'll stay right there not budging an inch. Hamas are the new Nazis, they're the new ISIS and we have to fight them together just as the world, the civilized world united to fight the Nazis and united to fight Hamas. It must together now stand with Israel as we fight and defeat Hamas. This is not merely our battle, it's the battle of the entire civilized world. And I want to share the deep condolences of the British people and stress that we absolutely support Israel's right to defend itself in line with international law, to go after Hamas, to take back hostages, deter further incursions and to strengthen your security for the long term. Now I know that you are taking every precaution to avoid harming civilians in direct contrast to the terrorists of Hamas which seek to put civilians in harm's way. You describe this as Israel's darker sour. Well then it's for me to say I'm proud to stand here with you in Israel's darkest hour as your friend. We will stand with you in solidarity, we will stand with your people and we also want you to win. Thank you. And we begin at a broadcast down south, let's cross now live to I-24 News correspondent Pierre Clichandler there in the city of Zerot with the rest of the I-24 News team there. Of course, Pierre after a relatively quiet night when it comes to missiles, this is quite violently broken yet again. Right after about 15 hour, bad world wind started emanating from the Gaza Strip with rocket salvos Tel Aviv, Ashkelon that has been hit or impacted with over 1060 rocket launch since the beginning of the war initiated by Hamas and then back to the south, Netivot, but Zerot has been spared up until now. And I want to show you a picture, let's pick a southern word. This is a cabin from the feast of the Tabernacles, Sukkot, which was supposed to end in festivities on October 7th, the day of the onslaught by Hamas and of the slaughter over 1,400 civilians and soldiers Israelis. And the city is a ghost town. Now look down, Orange Meiser is gonna show you, garbage collection doesn't exist anymore here. There's a lot of flies in Zerot, only 1,000 residents are here refusing to leave. Some of them are essential workers, but now the situation is such that government ministers have come to Zerot, maybe a bit late to show their resolve, to show the resolve of Israel. And one interesting thing that, oh, there is an alert, there is an alert, we have 15 seconds to go to the shelter with Orange Meiser interception just over our head. We are getting at the entrance of the shelter. I hope you can still see me at the entrance. Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're in, we're in. So I told you we were spared, but not really. Yeah, the shelter is trembling by the impacts of the interceptions, the seating quiet, absolutely. There were three interceptions, I think, the fourth one, the fourth one now. Pierre, stay in, stay in, Pierre. I hope it's interceptions and not impacts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, you're describing this post-apocalyptic scene there. Back to, yeah, back to abnormal, normal. But it is important to stress at this point that the idea of spokesperson in his morning briefing, just today, short hours ago, said that a Hamas terrorist was found in Israeli territory on his way back to Gaza. So the cleansing operation of the South is not over yet. It is still a war zone. Absolutely, you know, we've seen in the past couple of days police forces, special police forces calming the area of Derot inside the city in search of terrorists who might have stayed inside the city of 30,000. So, yes, the situation is not quite clear at this moment. But what we know is that according to Abid Iqtah, Hamas, Islamic jihad, and also civilians took hostages with them in that slaughter on October 7th. Now, he said other things, you want to play what he said to us earlier? Yes, we will play this thought and thank you at this point in time. Pierre Kloeschendler, stay safe with the I-24 news team there down south. We will get back to you later on in the day. Of course, yeah, thank you, Pierre. I must say I live in Ashkelon, which is about 10 kilometers far away from the Gaza Strip. And I can tell you from firsthand what does it mean whenever they decide to launch rockets against Israel. And it's not the rockets against a military target or a security target. No, it's rockets against people. The assault, the attack on Saturday 7th of October was practically a hunting attack. They just came to hunt. But instead of animals, they hunted people. The people from the festival escaped. They got into a shelter, 15 people. They threw two hand grenades and killed them all. And then they put the bodies in the field when it's a kind of haystack and put fire on it. That was making it very complicated for us to understand who is who. We need the DNA test. You cannot take the fingerprint. You cannot take the face recognition. And what will be engraved in history books alongside the cruelty, the brutality of Hamas terrorists is the heroism, the bravery, the resilience of Israelis. Two of them, two of many are here with us here in studio now. Eli Levy and Yasmin Porta-Verham. Eli fought in the battles to defend his kibbutz, Meflasim and Yasmin really with a survival story that I suggested. I believe that if a screenwriter was to write it, it would be dismissed for simply being too surreal. Like no one would have believed it. And two of you are here and we appreciate you being here. 13 days later, you're constantly reliving those moments. Even this interview, and this is what you've mostly been doing, not even trying to get your life back together during those almost past two weeks, but reliving those moments. It's brutal. Yeah. Yes, it is. But in a way, telling the stories, we survived, both of us survived, quite a miraculous connection between two families that aren't together. I was fighting with the security volunteers squad in Meflasim, vending off a group of more than 30 terrorists and for three and a half hours without any help from the army. On your own, out there. We were 11, 12 guys just fighting to save our families. We succeeded, we survived through a terrible and horrifying three and a half hours. There's no other word for it. When we know that our children and my wife is just three meters behind me and if we will not succeed, it was quite clear to us even before we knew all the massacre that took place, we understood what will happen. And meanwhile, Yasmin was actually kidnapped from the party. You were in two horrific scenes from one to another. Yeah, you will tell it way better. I was in the party, in the festival and the rockets were started and we were in the car. It was our luck. And then we drove up for a few minutes and saw Migunit in Kibbutzka, Berry and stopped there to get a shelter and we've been there for 20 minutes and then we start to hear shootings and people start saying that there are terrorists here. So me and my boyfriend get into the car fastly and start driving and 500 meters after that wish. So pick up trender, that is a gunshot. So we turn around to Kibbutz Berry asking for a shelter from... We knocked up on the houses. And the terrorists were already there. Yeah, but we didn't know. We didn't know that in that time. So a nice couple let us into their house. We didn't know them. And we stayed in the safety room for eight hours and we hear in the WhatsApp and SMS from the Kibbutz members that are there's kids now and Arabs all over and we lose connection with them. And in two o'clock after we sit in the safety room for six or seven hours, we heard them crash on our home and a lot of screaming in Arab and shooting and stuff like that. And then they start knocking in our safety room very hard and tell us in Arabic to get out and in Hebrew and in English, all the kind of the languages. And for one hour we close the door and they didn't... Oh, wow. Yeah, for an hour. They just held the door for an hour. Yeah, yeah. And they throw a... And grenades. And grenades. And on the door. Blow them. And at the end of six hours. And then you were taken into another... Yeah, we said 10 terrorists taken for us to another home. And then we see that we are 12 together or 30. Hostages. Hostages. With at least 40 terrorists. Most of them was very young in the 20s. You saw some guys that are 30, 40. They're commanders. They're the commander, yeah. So we stayed there for two hours. In the meantime, one of the commanders saw me like a big woman, big woman. And he asked me to call the police. They wanted to kidnap, they didn't want to kill us. They wanted to take you hostage. Yeah. To Gaza. Yeah. So I'm calling to the police with the commander. And they tell... So the commander is pinpointing you out of the crowd. Yeah. And you become his liaison to an extent. For hours, he's communicating through you. Yeah, I'm talking with the police with them. And you are simply helping him to manage the situation? Yeah, something like this. But I still hosted as when he don't need me, I'm staying with the others. After two hours, the police is coming and they start shooting our home. And the terrorists also start shooting. So there was a... Gunfire. Yeah, gunfire. And I'm lying down. Everybody lying down. The terrorist and the bondage. And after one hour, all the time, we're gunned down between us, yeah. The commander tells me to come in Al-Arab, Tal, Tal. I'm coming to stay with him. He hugged me like this. And takes off his clothes. Takes off his clothes. When we start to go through the house, out to the police. It was five minutes, okay? And then he... Five minutes, I assume. Yeah, he was surrounded. And take me like... Like a human shoe? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And everybody stayed there. The other terrorists and the bondage. I'm going to the police. And now I'm here. You're here thanks to this... He just surrendered, yeah. This bizarre connection. Yeah, and the police also, they have the record. And I say this means... So the police told him when he's surrounded, they talk with the police in Arab. So I didn't understand. They told him, go with your smith outside. So you say not just your life, but the lives of... No, everybody was killed for... Just me and another woman. All the bondage were killed in the gunshot. No, Ellie, we're... And my boyfriend also. In the party, you were there together? Yeah. We're hearing this story. And even the terminology we're using. Survivors. That's what we are, actually. Because we just heard this main story. I was briefing my wife at the beginning of the gunshot. We had the south side of Kibbutz Mefalzim. I was briefing my wife in the protected room in the Mamad. Because at one point I understood we have a lot of terrorists attacking from the north side. And it may go bad. And I'm actually briefing her. You are holding the door. You are not opening the door. You are not even opening the door if you hear me telling you to open the door. If you don't hear a safe word I'm saying, we designated a safe word. From the fear of actually they using me as an hostage to go inside. And the moment after I'm completing the brief, my squadmate that's living just three houses to the right of me is telling me I'm seeing a truck with about 13 terrorists heading exactly your way. It's just you and me alone. I'm rushing to the window and I'm actually seeing this nightmare in front of my eyes. Guy Azriel, I, 24 News, a senior correspondent here with us. You know, I'm a third generation of Holocaust survivors. Many of us share this history. And I remember as a kid, I always, this cruel mind game I was playing with myself. If there was to be Holocaust, what would I do? Will I stay with my parents at the ghetto? Or try, you know, we've all been there in our minds. And then now it's the reality. We're not the only ones to make that connection. Olaf Scholz, German Chancellor who is here says, Hamas are the new Nazis. And these are the sort of atrocities that we've seen on that Saturday morning. I think part of the failure of the Israeli intelligence was the fact that no one in Israel believed that such atrocities could be committed and what is so significant about that day of October 7th, unlike any other war in Israel's history is the fact that terrorists infiltrated inside Israeli homes, inside Israeli communities, inflicting so much damage, so many atrocities, so many slaughtering, cold-blooded killing of Israeli families, children, babies, elderly. And this is part of the trauma. When you're not safe in your own home and these communities are the ones that suffered the most, waking up on 6.30 in the morning on a Saturday. Holiday, Saturday. No matter how many times we say it in the past 13 days, it's incomprehensible. Eli, Yasmin, I salute you. I hope that the world as we know it no longer exists, but I really do hope that we will be able to rise from the ashes and build a better, stronger one. I salute you. I salute you. Just one sentence, please. We survived, we won, we are living. That's a win for us, at least. And for all of those that are lost, it is very important for us to go back to normal life. Flowers will bloom again. Flowers will bloom again, and that's it. Amen. Thank you so very much for coming here. We appreciate it. We know it is not difficult to say the least. Thank you very, very much for this, guys real, or very young guys real. Thank you very much for this. And not that we needed more fronts, but there are a wide-scale arrest operation in the West Bank tonight. Israeli forces now bang 80 terror suspects, at least half of them from Hamas. Middle East correspondent Ariella Saran has more on the third front that has Israel constrained. With most of its attention focused on the southern and northern borders, Israel is witnessing a spillover of the conflict from Gaza also to the West Bank. Overnight, Israeli forces arrested at least 80 terror suspects, 63 of them belonging to Hamas. This includes senior Hamas official and co-founder Hassan Youssef. We are walking very hard in the West Bank. Massive forces are there securing the routes, making arrests, and fighting terror attacks. Together with Shin Bet and Israeli police, anyone who tries to challenge us in the West Bank will find a significant force ready to engage. At the same time, clashes between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians occurred in multiple areas in the West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that five Palestinians were killed by IDF forces overnight. That brings the death toll in the West Bank since last week's Hamas terror attacks to 67. The crime committed by Israel and the Western patronage and American support must be stopped. The bloodshed that has been going on for over 12 days must be stopped because our people in Gaza are being exposed as civilians, children, and women to this unprecedented killing. Recent days have also seen mass protests spread across the West Bank cities in support of Hamas's military wing and its spokesmen. Recent days have also seen a rise in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Some incidents leading to the death of multiple Palestinians. The IDF is investigating those incidents. And so with a ground invasion in Gaza on the immediate horizon and a rapidly escalating northern border, Israeli forces are working tirelessly to prevent a multi-front scenario from happening and to keep the different fronts at bay. Trauma, grief, anxiety, stress, all those terms seem so insufficient in trying to describe the mental state of the state of Israel these days. And similarly to physical first aid, you cannot put a band-aid on a bleeding wound, right? So there's a huge significance to mental first aid. And we want to welcome now here in the studio Rivka Tuvar Mashiach, chief psychologist at Natal. Rivka, thank you very much for joining us. To say there's an increase in those who are seeking mental relief is an understatement. What have you been witnessing in recent days? Okay, so it would be correct to say that the whole country is traumatized for the last 15 days, of course. Now everybody will need professional help because everybody now is anxious and it's very normal to respond that way. But we do see a huge increase for many, many populations in the country. Obviously there are different levels of trauma, you know, the different scales of hell, if you will. And things are still happening on the ground in a very rapid pace. The event is still ongoing. So many people are telling themselves, you know what, I'll address my mental state later, after the war, tomorrow's problems. And yet, there is an impact to early reaction. Mental reaction. That's true on the one hand, but it's important to remember that the majority of the population is resilient. Okay, and most of us have the capacity to cope by ourselves, for now, with the resources and the mechanisms that we have. Now, people know themselves. We are all anxious and as you mentioned, we do have scales and we do have circles of exposure. But the situation is so complex because many of us have, you know, family serving now at the interest of Gaza. Some of us are familiar with people who died. Most of us are exposed to the missiles. So we are really exposed in different ways. And each one of us responds differently. It doesn't mean that the majority of the Israelis need now professional support. And yet, helping others and helping yourself is somewhat intertwined to an extent. So give us the guidelines, the basics of how to help others and how to help yourself in a state that, again, we're all in great emotional distress, different levels, of course, different angles. And yet, we do share this emotional distress. Right. We do have a professional term for this called shared reality. Both the helpers and the volunteers are afraid from the same things. Not all of us were exposed to the terrors that you just heard from the people who were here. But we are all exposed and we are all afraid from the same situations, okay? Whether it's gonna be in the North or in Gaza, we are all afraid from the same things. But there are things that help us to cope better. And one of them, as you mentioned, is helping others. We do know that it helps. First, it keeps you busy. And when you're busy, you don't have time for negative thoughts, right? The second thing is that when you help, you feel that you do significant things. I worked in the Dead Sea last week. I worked with different locations where the people evacuated from the settlements are in. And it's amazing to see the huge amounts of people just coming to do something good for others. So it has a very beneficial effect on people. But on the other hand, it may exhaust your resources, okay? So everyone needs to find a balance between how much you can give and how much you can be exposed to the terrors that you hear and when you have to stop and take care of yourself. It's also okay to say, well, I want to tune out for a bit. I don't want to get all the push alerts every single moment. It's okay. We all have different mechanisms of coping. And it's okay. And it's okay. And if you feel that you need more mental assistance, you should definitely reach out. Rivka Tuval Mashiach, chief psychologist at Natal. Thank you very much for joining us here in studio. I-24 News Senior Correspondent Guy Israel still with us here. Thank you for this. This is it from us for now, but we'll be back at the top of the hour as we continue our rolling coverage here on I-24 News. Stay strong, stay resilient. We're here. 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you firsthand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the South and North. Get the inside scoop on what's going on, only on I-24 News. This particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year. I'm here, where they come to claim for the rain. In fact, at this moment, global warming is affecting Bolivia, not only Bolivia, but all over the world. And we need rain for God's sake. The Vakita reserve, we have the right ingredients and we have to do the job. And that if we have the right ingredients and we do the job, that the Vakita can be protected. Welcome to this special broadcast here on I-24 News. As we continue our rolling coverage, day 13 of Israel's war against the vile terrorist group, Hamas, is a ground operation and the Gaza Strip seems not to be an if, but a pending when. Targeted Israeli airstrikes eliminating another arcterrorist, the commander of the Hamas-led national security forces in Gaza. Hamas leaders high on Israel's to-do list naturally, dead men walking, if you will. Meanwhile, Hamas rocket fire renewed this morning from the south and from the north. Hezbollah is interesting either launching more anti-tank missile fire, but not just these two fronts are on high alert. We will have more on the terrorist activity in the West Bank and the security scare in central Israel. Meanwhile, the diplomatic train continues after the German chancellor, the American president. Now UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is visiting Israel telling Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, this hour in Israelis, of course, a friend in need, and we are on your side, by your side, and we'll stay right there, not budging an inch. Hamas are the new Nazis, they're the new ISIS, and we have to fight them together just as the world, the civilized world united to fight the Nazis and united to fight Hamas. It must together now stand with Israel as we fight and defeat Hamas. This is not merely our battle, it's the battle of the entire civilized world. And I want to share the deep condolences of the British people and stress that we absolutely support Israel's right to defend itself in line with international law, to go after Hamas, to take back hostages, deter further incursions, and to strengthen your security for the long term. Now, I know that you are taking every precaution to avoid harming civilians in direct contrast to the terrorists of Hamas, which seek to put civilians in harm's way. You describe this as Israel's darkest hour. Well, then it's for me to say I'm proud to stand here with you in Israel's darkest hour. As your friend, we will stand with you in solidarity, we will stand with your people, and we also want you to win. Thank you. And we begin at a broadcast down south, let's cross now live to I-24 News correspondent, Pierre Cleshander there in the city of Sderot with the rest of the I-24 News team there. Of course, up here after a relatively quiet night when it comes to missiles, this quiet violently broken yet again. Right after about 15 hour, bad world wind started emanating from the Gaza Strip with rocket salvos Tel Aviv, Ashkelon that has been hit or impacted with over 1060 rocket launch since the beginning of the war initiated by Hamas. And then back to the south, Netivot, but Sderot has been spared up until now. And I wanna show you a picture, let's speak a southern words. This is a cabin from the feast of the Tabernacles, Sukkot, which was supposed to end in festivities on October 7th, the day of the onslaught by Hamas and of the slaughter of over 1,400 civilians and soldiers Israelis. And the city is a ghost town now. Look down, Orange Meiser is gonna show you. Garbage collection doesn't exist anymore here. There's a lot of flies in Sderot, only 1,000 residents are here refusing to live. Some of them are essential workers, but now the situation is starting to get worse. That's government ministers have come to Sderot, maybe a bit late to show their resolve, to show the resolve of Israel. And one interesting thing that have been, oh, there is an alert, there is an alert. We have 15 seconds to go to the shelter with Orange Meiser interception just over our head. We are getting at the entrance of the shelter. I hope you can still see me at the entrance. Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're in, we're in. So I told you we were spared, but not really. Yeah, the shelter is trembling by the impacts of the interceptions, the seating quiet, absolutely. There were three interceptions, I think, the fourth one, the fourth one now. Pierre, stay in, stay in, Pierre. I hope it's interceptions and not impacts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, you're describing this post-apocalyptic scene there. Back to abnormal, normal, but it is important to stress at this point that the idea of spokesperson in his morning briefing just today, short hours ago, said that a Hamas terrorist was found in Israeli territory on his way back to Gaza. So the cleansing operation of the South is not over yet. It is still a war zone. Absolutely, you know, we've seen in the past couple of days police forces, special police forces calming the area of Derot inside the city in search of terrorists who might have stayed inside the city of 30,000. So yes, the situation is not quite clear at this moment, but what we know is that according to Abid Iqtah, Hamas, Islamic jihad, and also civilians took hostages with them in that slaughter in that slaughter on October 7th. Now, he said other things. You wanna play what he said to us earlier? Yes, we will play this thought and thank you at this point in time. Pierre Klushendler, stay safe with the I-24 News team there down south. We will get back to you later on in the day. Of course, yeah, thank you, Pierre. I must say I live in Ashkelon, which is about 10 kilometers far away from the Gaza Strip. And I can tell you from first hand, what does it mean whenever they decide to launch rockets against Israel? And it's not the rockets against a military target or a security target. No, it's rockets against people. Their assault, their attack on Saturday 7th of October was practically a hunting attack. They just came to hunt. But instead of animals, they hunted people. That people from the festival escaped. They got into a shelter, 15 people. They threw two hand grenades and killed them all. And then they put the bodies in the field when it's a kind of haystack and put fire on it. That was making it very complicated for us to understand who is who. We need the DNA test. You cannot take the fingerprint. You cannot take the face recognition. And what will be engraved in history books alongside the cruelty, the brutality of Hamas terrorists is the heroism, the bravery, the resilience of Israelis. Two of them, two of many are here with us here in studio now, Eli Levy and Yasmin Porta-Vehram. Eli fought in the battles to defend his kibbutz, Meflasim and Yasmin really with a survival story that I suggested. I believed that if a screenwriter was to write it, would be dismissed for simply being too surreal. Like no one would have believed it. And two of you are here and we appreciate you being here. 13 days later, you're constantly reliving those moments. Even this interview, and this is what you've mostly been doing, not even trying to get your life back together during those almost past two weeks, but reliving those moments, it's brutal. Yes, it is. But in a way, telling the stories, we survived, both of us survived, quite a miraculous connection between two families that aren't together. I was fighting with the security volunteers squad in Meflasim, vending off a group of more than 30 terrorists and for three and a half hours without any help from the army. On your own, out there. We were 11, 12 guys just fighting to save our families. We succeeded, we survived through a terrible and horrifying three and a half hours. There's no other word for it. When we know that our children and my wife is just three meters behind me and if we will not succeed, it was quite clear to us even before we knew all the massacre that took place. We understood what will happen. And meanwhile, Yasmin was actually kidnapped from the party. You were in two horrific scenes from one to another. Yeah, you will tell it way better. I was in the party, in the festival and the rockets was started and we were in the cow. It was our luck and then we drove up for a few minutes and saw Migunit in Kibbutz, near Kibbutz, and stopped there to get a shelter. And we've been there for 20 minutes and then we start to hear shootings and people start saying that there are terrorists here. So me and my boyfriend get into the car fastly and start driving and 500 meters after that wish. So pick up trender, yeah, that is a gunshot. So we turn around to Kibbutz Berry, asking for a shelter from, we knocked up on the houses. And the terrorists were already there. Yeah, but we didn't know, we didn't know that in that time. So a nice couple let us into their house. We didn't know them. And we stayed in the safety room for eight hours and we hear in the WhatsApp and SMS from the Kibbutz members that there was kidnap and Arabs all over and we lose connection with them. And in two o'clock after we sit in the safety room for six or seven hours, we heard them crash on our home and a lot of screaming in Arab and shooting and stuff like that. And then they start knocking in our safety room very hard and tell us in Arabic to get out in Hebrew and in English, all the kind of the languages. And we, for one hour we close the door and they didn't. Oh, wow. Yeah, for an hour. They just held the door for an hour. Yeah, yeah. And they throw a... And grenades. And grenades. And on the door. Blow them. And at the end of six hours. And then you were taken into another... Yeah, we said 10 terrorists taking for us to another home and then we see that we are 12 together or 30. Hostages. Hostages. With at least 40 terrorists. Most of them was very young in the 20s. You saw some guys that are 30, 40. They're commanders. They're the commander, yeah. So we stayed there for two hours. In the meantime, one of the commanders saw me like a big woman, a big woman, and he asked me to call the police. They want to kidnap, they didn't want to kill us. They wanted to take you hostage. Yeah, to Gaza, to Gaza. Yeah. So I'm calling to the police with the commander. And they tell... So the commander is pinpointing you out of the crowd and you become his liaison to an extent. For hours he's communicating through you. Yeah, I'm talking with the police, with them. And you are essentially helping him to manage the situation? Yeah, something like this. But I still hosted as when he don't need me, I'm staying with the others. After two hours, the police is coming and they start shooting our home and the terrorists also start shooting. So there was a... Gunfire. Yeah, gunfire. And I'm lying down, everybody lying down. The terrorists and the bounders. And after one hour, all the time, we're going down between us, yeah? The commander tell me to come in our area. I'm coming to stay with him. He hugged me like this. And takes off his clothes. Takes off his clothes. When we start to go through the house, out to the police, it was five minutes, okay? And then he... Five minutes as I assume... Yeah, he was surrounded and take me like a human shield. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And everybody stayed there, the other terrorists and the bounders. I'm going to the police and now I'm here. You're here thanks to this... He just surrendered, yeah. This bizarre connection. Yeah, and the police also, they have the recorders and I say this means... So the police told him when he surrounded, he talked with the police in Arab, so I didn't understand. They told him, go with your smith outside. So you say not just your life, but the lives of... No, everybody was killed for just me and another women. All the bounders were killed in the gunshot. No, Ellie, we're... And my boyfriend, Donaldson. In the party, you were there together? Yeah. We're hearing this story and even the terminology we're using, survivors. That's what we are, actually. Because we just heard this main story. I was briefing my wife at the beginning of the gunshot. We had to the south side of Kibbutz Mefalzim. I was briefing my wife in the protected room in the Mamad because at one point I understood we have a lot of terrorists attacking from the north side and it may go bad and I'm actually briefing her, you are holding the door, you are not opening the door, you are not even opening the door if you hear me telling you to open the door. If you don't hear a safe word I'm saying, we designated a safe word from the fear of actually they using me as an hostage to go inside. And the moment after I'm completing the brief, my squadmate that's living just three houses to the right of me is telling me I'm seeing a truck with about 13 terrorists heading exactly your way. It's just you and me alone. I'm rushing to the window and I'm actually seeing this nightmare in front of my eyes. Guy, as real, I, Tony Forne, is a senior correspondent here with us. You know, I'm a third generation of Holocaust survivors. Many of us share this history. And I remember as a kid, I always, this cruel mind game I was playing with myself, if there was to be Holocaust, what would I do? Will I stay with my parents at the ghetto? Or, you know, we've all been there in our minds. And then, now, it's the reality. We're not the only ones to make that connection. Olaf Scholz, German Chancellor who is here says, Hamas are the new Nazis. And these are the sort of atrocities that we've seen on that Saturday morning. I think part of the failure of the Israeli intelligence was the fact that no one in Israel believed that such atrocities could be committed. And what is so significant about that day of October 7th, unlike any other war in Israel's history, is the fact that terrorists infiltrated inside Israeli homes, inside Israeli communities, inflicting so much damage, so many atrocities, so many slaughtering, cold-blooded killing of Israeli families, children, babies, elderly. And this is part of the trauma. When you're not safe in your own home, and these communities are the ones that suffered the most, waking up on 6.30 in the morning on a Saturday. On a Saturday. No matter how many times we say it in the past 13 days, it's incomprehensible. Eli, Yasmin, I salute you. I hope that the world as we know it no longer exists, but I really do hope that we will be able to rise from the ashes and build a better, stronger one. I salute you. Just one sentence, please. We survived. We won. We are living. That's a win for us, at least. And for all of those that are lost, it is very important for us to go back to normal life. Flowers will bloom again. Flowers will bloom again. And that's it. Amen. Thank you so very much for coming here. We appreciate it. We know it is not difficult to say the least. Thank you very, very much for this, guys real, very young guys real. Thank you very much for this. And not that we needed more fronts, but there are a wide scale arrest operation in the West Bank tonight. Israeli forces now being 80 terror suspects, at least half of them from Hamas. Middle East correspondent Ariella Saran has more on the third front that has Israel concerned. With most of its attention focused on the southern and northern borders, Israel is witnessing a spillover of the conflict in Gaza, also to the West Bank. Overnight, Israeli forces arrested at least 80 terror suspects, 63 of them belonging to Hamas. This includes senior Hamas official and co-founder Hassan Yusuf. We are walking very hard in the West Bank. Massive forces are there securing the routes, making arrests and forcing terror attacks. Together with Shin Bet and Israeli police, anyone who tries to challenge us in the West Bank will find a significant force ready to engage. At the same time, clashes between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians occurred in multiple areas in the West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that five Palestinians were killed by IDF forces overnight. That brings the death toll in the West Bank since last week's Hamas terror attacks to 67. The crime committed by Israel under Western patronage and American support must be stopped. The bloodshed that has been going on for over 12 days must be stopped because our people in Gaza are being exposed as civilians, children and women to this unprecedented killing. Recent days have also seen mass protests spread across the West Bank cities in support of Hamas's military wing and its spokesmen. Recent days have also seen a rise in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, some incidents leading to the death of multiple Palestinians. The IDF is investigating those incidents. And so, with a ground invasion in Gaza on the immediate horizon and a rapidly escalating northern border, Israeli forces are working tirelessly to prevent a multi-front scenario from happening and to keep the different fronts at bay. Trauma, grief, anxiety, stress, all those terms seem so insufficient in trying to describe the mental state of the state of Israel these days. And similarly to physical first aid, you cannot put a band-aid on a bleeding wound, right? So there's a huge significance to mental first aid. And we want to welcome now here in the studio, Rivka Tuvar Mashiach, chief psychologist at Natal. Rivka, thank you very much for joining us. To say there's an increase in those who are seeking mental relief is an understatement. What have you been witnessing in recent days? Okay, so it would be correct to say that the whole country is traumatized for the last 15 days, of course. Now everybody will need professional help because everybody now is anxious and it's very normal to respond that way. But we do see a huge increase for many, many populations in the country. But obviously there are different levels of trauma, you know, the different scales of hell, if you will. And things are still happening on the ground in a very rapid pace. The event is still ongoing. So many people are telling themselves, you know what, I'll address my mental state later after the war, tomorrow's problems. And yet there is an impact to early reaction, mental reaction. That's true on the one hand, but it's important to remember that the majority of the population is resilient. Okay, and most of us have the capacity to cope by ourselves for now with the resources and the mechanisms that we have. Now people know themselves. We are all anxious, and as you mentioned, we do have scales and we do have circles of exposure. But this situation is so complex because many of us have, you know, family serving now at the interest of Gaza. Some of us are familiar with people who died. Most of us are exposed to the missiles. So we are really exposed in different ways. And each one of us responds differently. It doesn't mean that the majority of the Israelis need now professional support. And yet there is, helping others and helping yourself is somewhat intertwined to an extent. So give us the guidelines, the basics of how to help others and how to help yourself in a state that again, we're all in great emotional distress, different levels, of course, different angles. And yet we do share this emotional distress. Right. We do have a professional term for this called shared reality. Both the helpers and the volunteers are afraid from the same things. Not all of us were exposed to the terrors that you just heard from the people who were here. But we are all exposed, and we are all afraid from the same situations, whether it's going to be in the North or in Gaza. We are all afraid from the same things. But there are things that help us to cope better. And one of them, as you mentioned, is helping others. We do know that it helps. First, it keeps you busy. And when you're busy, you don't have time for negative thoughts, right? The second thing is that when you help, you feel that you do significant things. I worked in the Dead Sea last week. I worked with different locations where the people evacuated from the settlements are in. And it's amazing to see the huge amounts of people just coming to do something good for others. So it has a very beneficial effect on people. But on the other hand, it may exhaust your resources. Right. So everyone needs to find a balance between how much you can give and how much you can be exposed to the terrors that you hear and when you have to stop and take care of yourself. And it's also okay to say, well, I want to tune out for a bit. I don't want to get all the push alerts every single moment. It's okay. We all have different mechanisms of coping. And it's okay. And it's okay. And if you feel that you need more mental assistance, you should definitely reach out. Rivka Tuval Mashiach, a chief psychologist at Natal. Thank you very much for joining us here in studio. I-24, you've seen your correspondent, Guy Israel. Still with us here. Thank you for this. This is it from us for now, but we'll be back at the top of the hour as we continue our rolling coverage here on I-24 News. Stay strong. Stay resilient. We're here. Officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us. We don't know what to do. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly, were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. This particular project, with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt, will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year. I've come here, where they see us, to complain about the rain. In fact, at this moment, global warming is affecting Bolivia, and not only Bolivia, but all over the world. And we need rain for the embryos. The Vakita Reserve, we have the right ingredients, and we have to do the job. And that if we have the right ingredients and we do the job, that the Vakita can be protected. Welcome to the special broadcast here on I-24 News. As we continue our rolling coverage, day 13 of Israel's war against the vile Hamas terror group. As a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, seems not to be an if, but a pending when, targeted Israeli airstrikes, eliminating another, or terrorist, the commander of the Hamas-led national security forces in Gaza. Hamas leaders high on Israel's dualist natural aid, dead men walking, if you will. Meanwhile, renewed Hamas rocket fire from the south and from the north, this ballah isn't wrestling either, launching more anti-tank missile fire. But not just these two fronts are on high alert. We will have more on the terrorist activity in the West Bank and the security scare in central Israel. For the first time since the beginning of the war, Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galant is taking responsibility for the failures that led to October 7, but also vowing, it is my responsibility to bring about a clear victory. Meanwhile, the diplomatic train continues after the German Chancellor, the American President. Now it's time for the U.K., Prime Minister Hushisunok to visit Israel. He is here today telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a friend in need, a friend indeed. We are by her side and we will stay right there. Hamas are the new Nazis. They're the new ISIS. And we have to fight them together just as the world, the civilized world united to fight the Nazis and united to fight Hamas. It must together now stand with Israel as we fight and defeat, defeat Hamas. This is not merely our battle, it's the battle of the entire civilized world. And I want to share the deep condolences of the British people and stress that we absolutely support Israel's right to defend itself in line with international law, to go after Hamas, to take back hostages, deter further incursions and to strengthen your security for the long term. Now, I know that you are taking every precaution to avoid harming civilians in direct contrast to the terrorists of Hamas which seek to put civilians in harm's way. You describe this as Israel's darkest hour. Well, then it's for me to say I'm proud to stand here with you in Israel's darkest hour as your friend. We will stand with you in solidarity. We will stand with your people and we also want you to win. Thank you. And we begin this broadcast by jumping up north I-24 News correspondent Hamda Selhout with the rest of the I-24 news team there up in the north. Hamda, the northern border, remains far from quiet. More missiles from southern Lebanon towards Israel and also several communities instructed to lock themselves indoors earlier today. Many others already evacuated themselves. What is the situation? Well, the exchanges of fire continuing along the northern border, the Israeli military overnight striking several Hezbollah targets and the tit for tat exchanges of fire with mortars and other anti-tank guided missiles continue today. Hezbollah says that it's targeting surveillance and military posts, the Israeli military echoing that sentiment and targeting Hezbollah targets inside of Lebanese territory. Now there is some activity behind us here. You can see this is the iron dome now intercepting missiles that have just been fired. This is happening right now. New activity inside of the Lebanese territory it seems. We're actually not sure if it was a rocket launch or an iron dome. The trail of it though perhaps looks like a rocket. The iron dome has been activated from here during the week. You could hear that explosion overhead so that wasn't an interception confirmed by the Israeli military. The Israeli military has been firing a rocket fire on the Lebanese border at this time. The United States has been telling the Israelis that they are not interested in a war on the northern front, though they do recognize that Israel needs to defend itself when it comes to the exchanges of fire. They understand that the Israelis need to respond, but they are telling them not to have a larger conflict with the United States. We'll fight Hezbollah with them if there is a larger conflict that will erupt. Thank you very much for this. Much more from Hamda of course throughout our broadcast later on in the day. And as mentioned at the opening of this broadcast for the first time since the beginning of the war, Israeli defense minister Yav Gharant is taking responsibility for the failures that led or failed to prevent on October 7th, but it is also vowing that it is his responsibility to lead Israel, to lead the IDF, to a final complete, utter victory. I am in charge of the security establishment. I am responsible for it in the past two weeks, even in the difficult events. I am responsible to bring it to victory in the battle. We will be precise, deadly and sharp, and we'll continue until we complete it. Joining us now in studio Brigadier General on the reserves, Mr. Sal Relik Shafir, former commander of the Tel-North Air Force Base, former combat pilot at the Israeli Air Force and their very own at 24 News Senior Correspondent of Israel. Thank you gentlemen very much for joining us. Let's do begin with the statement of the Israeli defense minister because it's more than merely symbolic. There was this desire not just on behalf of the general Israeli public to hear the leadership taking responsibility, but also from the IDF from the security echelon in a bit to reinforce what we're likely to see in the coming weeks. Yes, it goes without saying that we've seen colossal failures here of the defense establishment and we have seen claims of responsibility both from the IDF chief, Herzl Alevi from the head of the veteran and bar from the head of the IDF intelligence and also from the national security advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi. So this is just the latest in the claiming of responsibility you have gallant the security minister, defense minister and to speak about these failures, of course, two major colossal failures here. The first one, the intelligence the fact that this operation was planned to such a detail for over a year and the operational one, the fact that those terrorists were able to infiltrate Israel so easily with thousands of Hamas terrorists, obviously Yav Gallant is responsible for that, but also we need to speak about the political level about primarily about Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu about the governments that ruled here for all these years. Obviously the government, if it doesn't get information from the intelligence, cannot do anything, but these governments under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mainly, but also under others have allowed Hamas to thrive for so many years. This is what led to what we saw on that Saturday. Yes, and as we speak Guy Sirens in the western Galilee area up north, while another barrage of rockets from the south to the cities, the southern cities of Jerusalem and Ashdod, so rocket fire continues all the time. Brigadier General Shafir, it seems that a ground operation now that if this week was perhaps colored in the diplomatic support Israel is getting with the arrival of so many foreign leaders the next few days or the next weeks will be focused on the Israeli military operations. Many suggest underground. My question to you, sir, is whether there is an alternative, whether operations from the air could be sufficient enough to achieve the end goal, dismantling eliminating Hamas altogether. I think the idea that we can dismantle Hamas altogether is not realistic. Hmm. Not by air nor ground. The end goal is, you know. Yes, because we're talking about an ideology. And ideologies don't tend to go away through military operations or taking down the head of their commanders and such. So we need to see with the end political and geopolitical goal is before we can make a decision. But one thing is clear. We need to take out the tunnels and the underground infrastructure of Hamas in order to force them out or force them into a position where some kind of a negotiation. Hmm. But could these tunnels and the stair infrastructure can be eliminated solely by air? This is a very good question. And the answer is that these are dug about 25 meters underneath. Most of Gaza is sand. So it's not a problem for bombs. Even regular ones, it's not just bunker busters to reach down the tunnels, which are about two meters wide at most and puncture their system in such a manner that they are forced out for various reasons that we won't discuss technically or tactically. But they're forced out of their hiding and put pressure on them. That takes a resolute decision in time. And the question is do we drive through with combat troops on the ground and commit on the ground or whether we have the patience to stay with our patients? Okay. We will hold that thought right here because we want to head to the south at 24 News Correspondent Robert Swift standing by there, Robert, the fresh barrages of rockets coming from the Gaza Strip towards Israel. And also this morning, the idea of spokesperson in his daily briefing saying Hamas terrorist was found in Israeli territory on his way back to Gaza and he said, this is a cleansing operation in the south, it's not over yet. So it is still a war zone. It's very much an active war zone here. We've just had to for the second time in just over an hour make the sprint to the bombshell or next to us for rockets landing here in the Stiroat community. There's also been rockets landing in communities just to the south of the city. And as mentioned, Ash Dodd and Ash Golan. There was relative quiet earlier in the day but that was broken towards late afternoon with launches as far as Tel Aviv. And now you mentioned the infiltrator that was picked up by the Israeli military. And that goes to show that while most of the attackers from the 7th of October have been purged from the area, the area remains very much a war zone. There are IDF patrols moving around here. There are mobile patrols. They're not just sitting and watching the border because they're aware of the fact that infiltrators could make it into here and that's one of the security threats that they're having to look out for. And Robert, before we let you go, the targeted killings of Hamas leaders continue. We're seeing yet another arcterrorist being eliminated this morning. What can you tell us? So just in the last few minutes the IDF has lifted an embargo stating that its drones units, its UAV teams they have taken out since the beginning of the military operation they've taken out 800 targets. Now this they've said is both rocket launch teams, rocket launch platforms and the commanders associated with them. And that's just been released a few minutes ago. I-24 News correspondent Robert Swift thank you very much for this more from Robert of course in the I-24 News team there later on in the day and from one front to yet another a wide scale arrest operation in the West Bank, Israeli forces nabbing overnight 80 terrorist suspects, at least half of them from Hamas since the beginning of the war we're talking about over 500 suspects that have been arrested over 300 of them related to Hamas, Hamas operatives in the West Bank Middle East correspondent Ariel Osaran has warned the third front that has Israel concerned. With most of its attention focused on the southern and northern borders Israel is witnessing a spillover of the conflict in Gaza also to the West Bank overnight Israeli forces arrested at least 80 terrorist suspects 63 of them belonging to Hamas this includes senior Hamas official and co-founder Hassan Yusef we're walking very hard in the West Bank massive forces are there securing the routes, making arrests and forcing terror attacks together with Shin Bet and Israeli police anyone who tries to challenge us in the West Bank will find a significant force ready to engage at the same time clashes between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians occurred in multiple areas in the West Bank the Palestinian health ministry said that five Palestinians were killed by IDF forces overnight that brings the death toll in the West Bank since last week's Hamas terror attacks to 67 the crime committed by Israel under Western patronage and American support must be stopped the bloodshed that has been going on for over 12 days must be stopped because our people in Gaza are being exposed as civilians children and women to this unprecedented killing recent days have also seen mass protests spread across the West Bank cities in support of Hamas's military wing and its spokesmen recent days have also seen a rise in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, some incidents leading to the death of multiple Palestinians the IDF is investigating those incidents and so with a ground invasion in Gaza on the immediate horizon and a rapidly escalating northern border Israeli forces are working tirelessly to prevent a multi-front scenario from happening and to keep the different fronts at bay back here in the studio with Brigadier General Shafir and Guy Israel thank you gentlemen for staying with us Brigadier General Shafir we do we've heard in the past let's phrase it that way certain criticism on behalf of senior military officials that the diplomatic levels or the political leadership did not let them did not allow them to get the job done in previous so-called rounds again a term that we perhaps need to stop using there are no rounds of escalation long-enduring back to a question being sir is there a scenario in which the political leadership will hold back the military objectives or the on the ground should that be the dynamic between the two well think of the dilemma with the horns of the dilemma of the Shifa hospital that we know that underneath is the center central command of Hamas we don't know whether the hostages are housed there as human shields and the hospital itself houses perhaps thousands of people in order to hit the brains so to speak of Hamas we could easily create a large crater underneath is it something that we would like to do in being a Jewish state I think not for many reasons so there are limits to using the power because the long-term effects would be detrimental to the security of Israel so we can't do anything we want to and the question is what kind of intelligence do we have what are the targets that will probably create a lot of pressure on Hamas what type of munition to use are there are we able to remove civilians south further south so that we can clear the area so to speak these are all questions that have to be taken when making a decision because a bomb in a certain area plus minus five meters a two thousand pound bomb that's not the problem the problem is the decision making let's push on this dilemma further Garbi Fawih moved to you with some interesting revelations on what unfolded on October 7th itself let's push this dilemma a bit further if I'm trying to get into the twisted mind of Hamas leaders that are currently again as mentioned talking and they're not an army they have nothing to lose at this point so to an extent this situation could only further push them to the extreme what should what could what would Israel do in a situation which is sitting with a five-year-old boy or or Muhammad Def is sitting next to 80 something Holocaust survivor these dilemmas might be feasible in this hellish reality you're absolutely right and let's go back 50 years to the 73 war which ended with a lot of casualties and feelings that are much like the ones we have now frustration revenge it's a turmoil of emotions at the end of the day the mind should prevail over the heart in the long term because doing more of the same will not allow us to create a solution a viable solution so perhaps in these trying times with President Biden coming in telling us how to run the war he's the responsible adult we might offer with the United States and Arab countries a different solution for Gaza, for instance an idea that was floated years ago to enlarge the Gaza Strip down to El Arish about five times the size close off the borders and rebuild for disarmament the other side is disarmament of Hamas and international control this could be done with the international community and the Arab countries so we should offer meanwhile Egypt is suggesting that Israel will take Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and put them in the Israeli negative so I'm not sure that these fantasies on the Singapore of the Middle East and King Abdullah both said accepting refugees for them is a red line Scotland is ready just to emphasize I think the lack of solidarity solidarity in words very easy for those Arab leaders solving, making concrete steps to solve this problem not for them and of course we've seen the West taking in so many refugees from Syria and from other places in the Middle East why cannot Jordan and Egypt do the same believe that those questions open as for the Israeli kidnapped persons and soldiers the situation is a lot more complex because not only we have an incomprehensible number of 203 confirmed Israeli kidnapped with the number could be higher as well the fact is that it is not only Hamas that holds on to these Israelis to these babies as young as nine months old I can remind you it is Hamas, it is Islamic jihad it is other groups we have seen and cowardly enough Hamas is blaming Gaza civilians for kidnapping them as well look everything that Hamas says is completely cynical and not only that Hamas doesn't have anything to lose Hamas enjoys more human casualties this is the basic fact Hamas uses the people of Gaza that did elect it indeed but still uses them as human shields as cards and whenever there is a failed launch like we saw this week obviously that's a great reason for Hamas to party because civilian casualties for them are creating that sort of world attention that they want obviously had they cared about the people of Gaza that would not have engaged in this operation for any life Jewish, Palestinian Israelis doesn't matter they do not value life whatsoever and Guy we're jumping from the topic to topic here and yet US President Joe Biden most recently in his visit here yesterday could not have been clear in illustrating this modern version of the axes of evil and according to fresh evidence this connection might be even stronger than we thought because it seems that on some Hamas terrorists were talking about several thousands of them infiltrating Israel on October 7th conducting this brutal massacre, massacre is plural they had the drugs on them poor people's cocaine so to speak and this is exactly the tactics that are used by Wagner forces elsewhere suggesting that they might have been trained by them using their techniques several different reports let's start with the fact that I personally spoke with several Israelis who were part of these voluntary security teams in the Kibbutz and one of the main things they told me was their surprise when they approached the bodies of those Hamas terrorists they were able to take down inside their communities just like Ellie we had here in studio earlier they smelled, they smelled badly of something unusual that now we know was heavy drugs we're talking about captagon, it's a drug that has been used by ISIS, this is known as the ISIS drug it helps a sense of euphoria and keeps you alert for a long time obviously these terrorists were sent with very clear missions of axes of brutality and those drugs were to use in that another report that we saw in Ukrainian media and we're still waiting for more information suggests a connection to the Wagner mercenary group allegedly training some fighters in Africa and when you speak about connecting the dots obviously we've seen heavy Iranian ammunition also ammunition that came from North Korea Russian ammunition like Khornet missiles that we see in Lebanon by Hezbollah it is not complicated to see all these connections we don't need to to call in Sherlock Holmes this time around, Brigadier General Ashrafir before we concluded this broadcast what are we to see in the coming days as we're entering the second weekend since the world changed we'll probably see the air force clear corridors along which the ground forces can travel safely safe from mines in the area and from piers all kinds of booby trap areas that would be bombed in such a manner that these forces could reach central areas where Hamas is dug underground so I think that would be more channeled the attacks would be more channeled towards this while taking or trying to move the Palestinian civilians further south as much as we can Brigadier General Mr. Ashrafir thank you very much for joining us our very own I-24 News senior correspondent guy Israel this is it for this broadcast but we'll back at the top of the hour until then you can always stay updated online at 24news.tv or on social media all the updates could be found there stay strong stay resilient we're here www.israelbonds.com and invest now we're in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped help us we don't want to do it we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity I-24 News as we continue our rolling coverage day 13 of Israel's war against the vile Hamas terror group as a ground operation in the Gaza Strip seems not to be an if but a pending when targeted Israeli airstrikes eliminating another or terrorist the commander of the Hamas led national security forces in Gaza Hamas leaders high on Israel to do this naturally dead men walking if you will from the south and from the north this balla isn't wrestling either launching more anti-tank missile fire but not just these two fronts are on high alert we will have more on the terrorist activity in the west bank and the security scare in central Israel for the first time since the beginning of the war Israeli defense minister Yav Galant is taking responsibility for the failures that led to October 7 but also vowing it is my responsibility to bring about a clear victory meanwhile the diplomatic train continues after the German chancellor the American president now it's time for the UK prime minister Hushisunok to visit Israel he is here today telling Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a friend indeed we are by her side and we will stay right there Hamas are the new Nazis they're the new ISIS and we have to fight them together just as the world the civilized world is united to fight the Nazis and united to fight Hamas it must together now stand with Israel as we fight and defeat defeat Hamas this is not merely our battle it's the battle of the entire civilized world and I want to share the deep condolences of the British people and stress that we absolutely support Israel's right to defend itself in line with international law to go after Hamas to take back hostages deter further incursions and to strengthen your security for the long term now I know that you are taking every precaution to avoid harming civilians in direct contrast to the terrorists of Hamas which seek to put civilians in harm's way you describe this as Israel's darker star well then it's for me to say I'm proud to stand here with you in Israel's darker star as your friend we will stand with you we will stand with your people and we also want you to win thank you and we begin this broadcast by jumping up north I-24 news correspondent Hamda Selhout with the rest of the I-24 news team there up in the north Hamda the northern border remains far from quiet more missiles from southern Lebanon towards Israel and also several communities instructed to lock themselves indoors earlier today to evacuate the state or evacuated themselves what is the situation well the exchanges of fire continuing along the northern border the Israeli military overnight striking several Hezbollah targets and the tit for tat exchanges of fire with mortars and other anti-tank guided missiles continue today Hezbollah says that it's targeting surveillance and military posts the Israeli military echoing that sentiment and targeting Hezbollah targets inside of Lebanese territory there is some activity behind us here you can see this is the iron dome now intercepting missiles that have just been fired this is happening right now new activity inside of the Lebanese territory it seems we're actually not sure if it was a rocket launch or an iron dome the trail of it though perhaps looks like a rocket the iron dome has been activated from here during the week you could hear that explosion overhead so that wasn't an interception confirmed rocket fire on the Lebanese border at this time the United States has been telling the Israelis that they are not interested in a war on the northern front though they do recognize that Israel needs to defend itself when it comes to the exchanges of fire they understand that the Israelis need to response but they are telling them not to have a larger preemptive strike inside of Lebanese territory in order to avoid a larger war offering them reassurances that the United States will fight Hezbollah with them if there is a larger conflict that will erupt Thank you very much for this much more from Hamda throughout our broadcast later on in the day and as mentioned the opening of this broadcast for the first time since the beginning of the war Israeli defense minister Joav Garant is taking responsibility for the failures that led Hamas's massacre on October 7 but it is also vowing that it is his responsibility to lead Israel to lead the IDF to a final complete utter victory I am in charge of the security establishment I am responsible for it in the past two weeks even in the difficult events I am responsible to bring it to victory in the battle we will be precise, deadly and sharp and we will continue until we complete our mission Joining us now in studio Brigadier General in the reserves Mr. Sal Relik Shafir, former commander of the Tel-Norfer first base former combat pilot at Israeli Air Force and their very own I-24 News senior correspondent of Israel, thank you gentlemen very much for joining us let's do begin with the statement of the Israeli defense minister because it's more than merely symbolic, there was this desire not just on behalf of the general Israeli public to hear the leadership taking responsibility but also from the IDF, from the security echelon in a bid to reinforce what we're likely to see in the coming weeks Yes, it goes without saying that we've seen colossal failures here of the defense establishment and we have seen claims of responsibility both from the IDF chief Sia Levy from the head of the Shin Beton and Barr from the head of the IDF intelligence and also from the national security advisor Zahi Hanegbi, so this is just the latest in the claiming of responsibility you have gallant the security minister, defense minister and to speak about these failures, of course two major colossal failures here, the first one the intelligence, the fact that this operation was planned to such a detail for over a year and the operational one, the fact that those terrorists were able to infiltrate Israel so easily with thousands of Hamas terrorists obviously Yav Gallant is responsible for that, but also we need to speak about the political level, about primarily about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the governments that ruled here for these years, obviously the government if it doesn't get the information from the intelligence, cannot do anything but these governments under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mainly but also under others have allowed Hamas to thrive for so many years, this is what led to what we saw on that Saturday and as we speak Guy Sirens in the western Galilee area up north while another barrage of rockets from the south to the cities, the southern cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod, so rocket fire continues all the time, Brigadier General Shafir, it seems that a ground operation now that if this week was perhaps colored in the diplomatic support Israel is getting with the arrival of so many foreign leaders, the next few days or the next weeks will be focused on the Israeli military operations many suggest underground my question to you sir is whether there is an alternative whether operations from the air could be sufficient enough to achieve the end goal dismantling, eliminating Hamas altogether I think the idea that we can dismantle Hamas altogether is not realistic not by air nor ground the mere goal is yes because we're talking about an ideology and ideologies don't tend to go away through military operations or taking down the head of their commanders and such so we need to see with the end political and geopolitical goal is before we can make a decision but one thing is clear we need to take out the tunnels and the underground infrastructure of Hamas in order to force them out or force them into position where some kind of a negotiation but could these tunnels and the stair infrastructure can be eliminated solely by air? This is a very good question and the answer is that these are dug about 25 meters underneath most of Gaza is sand so it's not a problem for bombs even regular ones not just bunker busters to reach down the tunnels which are about 2 meters wide at most puncture their system in such a manner that they are forced out for various reasons that we won't discuss technically or tactically but they're forced out of their hiding and put pressure on them that takes a resolute decision in time and the question is do we drive through with combat troops on the ground and commit on the ground or do we have the patience to stay in the air? Patience, okay we will hold that thought right here because we want to head to the south at 24 news correspondent Robert Swift standing by there Robert the fresh barrages of rockets coming from the Gaza Strip towards Israel and also this morning the idea of spokesperson and his daily briefing saying a Hamas terrorist was found on his way back to Gaza then the cleansing operation in the south is not over yet so it is still a war zone it's very much an active war zone here we've just had to for the second time in just over an hour make the sprint to the bombshell or next to us for rockets landing here in the Sturot community there's also been rockets landing in communities just to the south of the city and as mentioned towards the cities to the north of Gaza there was relative quiet earlier in the day but that was broken towards late afternoon with launches as far as Tel Aviv and now you mentioned the infiltrator that was picked up by the Israeli military and that goes to show that while most of the attackers from the 7th of October have been purged from the area the area remains very much a war zone there are IDF patrols moving around here they're mobile patrols they're not just sitting and watching the border because they're aware of the fact that infiltrators could make it into here and that's one of the security threats that they're having to look out for and Robert before we let you go the targeted killings of Hamas leaders continue we're seeing yet another arch terrorist being eliminated so just in the last few minutes the IDF has lifted an embargo stating that it's drones units it's UAV teams they have taken out since the beginning of the military operation they've taken out 800 targets now this they've said is both rocket launch teams rocket launch platforms and the commanders associated with them and that's just been released a few minutes ago I-24 news correspondent Robert Swift thank you very much for this much more from Robert of course on the I-24 news team there later on in the day and from one front to yet another a white-scale arrest operation in the West Bank Israeli forces nabbing overnight 80 terrorist suspects at least half of them from Hamas since the beginning of the war we're talking about over 500 suspects that have been arrested and over 300 of them related to Hamas operatives in the West Bank Middle East correspondent Ariel Osaran has warned the third front that has Israel concerned with most of its attention focused on the southern and northern borders Israel is witnessing a spillover of the conflict in Gaza also to the West Bank overnight Israeli forces arrested at least 80 terrorist suspects and belonging to Hamas this includes senior Hamas official and co-founder Hassan Yusuf we're walking very hard in the West Bank massive forces are there securing the routes making arrests and fighting terror attacks together with Shin Bet and Israeli police anyone who tries to challenge us in the West Bank will find a significant force ready to engage at the same time clashes between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians in multiple areas in the West Bank the Palestinian health ministry said that five Palestinians were killed by IDF forces overnight that brings the death toll in the West Bank since last week's Hamas terror attacks to 67 the crime committed by Israel under Western patronage and American support must be stopped the bloodshed that has been going on for over 12 days must be stopped because our people in Gaza knows their civilians, children and women to this unprecedented killing recent days have also seen mass protests spread across the West Bank cities in support of Hamas's military wing and its spokesmen recent days have also seen a rise in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank some incidents leading to the death of multiple Palestinians the IDF is investigating those incidents and so with the ground invasion in Gaza on the immediate horizon and a rapidly escalating northern border, Israeli forces are working tirelessly to prevent a multi-front scenario from happening and to keep the different fronts at bay back here in the studio with Brigadier General Shafir and Guy Israel thank you gentlemen for staying with us Brigadier General Shafir we do we've heard in the past let's phrase it that way certain criticism on behalf of senior military officials that the diplomatic levels or the political leadership did not let them did not allow them to get the job done in previous so called rounds again a term that we perhaps need to stop using there are no rounds of escalation it's long enduring question being sir is there a scenario in which the political leadership will hold back the military objectives on the ground should that be the dynamic between the two well think of the dilemma or the horns of the dilemma of the Shifa hospital that we know that underneath is the center central command of Hamas we don't know whether the hostages are housed there as human shields and the hospital itself houses perhaps thousands of people in order to hit the brains so to speak of Hamas we could easily create a large crater underneath that we would like to do in being a Jewish state I think not for many reasons so there are limits to using the power because the long term effects would be detrimental to the security of Israel so we can't do anything we want to and the question is what kind of intelligence do we have what are the targets that will probably create a lot of pressure on Hamas what type of munition to use are there are we able to remove civilians south so that we can clear the area so to speak these are all questions that have to be taken when making a decision because putting a bomb in a certain area plus minus five meters a two thousand pound bomb that's not the problem the problem is the decision making you know let's push on this dilemma further Guy before we move to you with some interesting revelations on what unfolded on October 7th itself let's push this dilemma a bit further if I'm trying to get into the twisted mind of Hamas leaders that are currently again as mentioned dead men walking and they're not in army they have nothing to do with this point so to an extent this situation could only further push them to the extreme what should what could what would Israel do in a situation which is sitting with a five year old boy or or Muhammad death is sitting next to 80 something Holocaust survivor this these dilemmas might be feasible in this hellish reality right and let's go back 50 years to the 73 war which ended with a lot of casualties and feelings that are much like the ones we have now frustration revenge it's a turmoil of emotions at the end of the day the mind should prevail over the heart in the long term because doing more of the same will not will not allow us to create a solution with a viable solution so perhaps in these trying times with President Biden coming in telling us how to run the war he's the responsible adult we might offer with the United States and the Arab countries a different solution for Gaza for instance an idea that was floated years ago to enlarge the Gaza Strip down to El Arish about five times the size close off the borders and rebuild for disarmament the other side is disarmament of Hamas and international control this could be done with the international community so we should offer meanwhile Egypt is suggesting that Israel will take Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and put them in the Israeli negative so I'm not sure that these fantasies on the Singapore of the Middle East are accepting refugees for them is a red line Scotland is ready is saying okay just to emphasize the lack of solidarity solidarity in words very easy for those Arab leaders making concrete steps to solve this problem not for them and of course we've seen the West taking in so many refugees from Syria and from other places in the Middle East why cannot Jordan and Egypt do the same believe that those questions open as for the Israeli kidnapped persons the situation is a lot more complex because not only we have an incomprehensible number of 203 confirmed Israeli kidnapped with the number could be higher as well the fact is that it is not only Hamas that holds on to these Israelis to these babies as young as nine months old I can remind you it is Hamas it is Islamic jihad other groups we have seen and cowardly enough Hamas is blaming Gaza civilians for kidnapping them as well everything that Hamas says is completely cynical and not only that Hamas doesn't have anything to lose Hamas enjoys more human casualties this is the basic fact Hamas uses the people of Gaza that did elect it indeed but still uses them as human shields as cards and whenever there is failed launch like we saw this week obviously that's a great reason for Hamas to party because civilian casualties for them are creating that sort of world attention that they want obviously had they cared about the people of Gaza that would not have engaged in this operation for any life Jewish, Palestinian Israelis doesn't matter they simply do not value life whatsoever and Guy we're jumping from the topic to topic here and yet US President Joe Biden most recently in his visit here yesterday could not have been clear in illustrating this modern version of the axes of evil and according to fresh evidence this connection might be even stronger than we thought because it seems that on some Hamas terrorists we're talking about several thousands of them infiltrating Israel on October 7th conducting this brutal massacre massacres plural they had drugs on them poor people's cocaine so to speak and this is exactly the tactics that are used by Wagner forces elsewhere suggesting that they might have been trained by them or using their techniques several different reports but let's start with the fact that I personally spoke with several Israelis who were part of these voluntary security teams in the Kibbutz and one of the main things they told me was their surprise when they approached the bodies of those Hamas terrorists they were able to take down inside their communities just like Ellie we had here in studio earlier they smelled they smelled badly something unusual that now we know was heavy drugs we're talking about Captagon it's a drug that has been used by ISIS this is known as the ISIS drug it helps a sense of euphoria and keeps you alert for a long time obviously these terrorists were sent with very clear missions of acts of brutality and those drugs were to be used in that another report that we saw in Ukrainian media and we're still waiting for more information suggest a connection to the Wagner mercenary group allegedly training some fighters in Africa and when you speak about connecting the dots obviously we've seen heavy Iranian ammunition some suggesting also ammunition that came from North Korea Russian ammunition like cornet missiles that we see in Lebanon by Hezbollah it is not complicated to see all these connections we don't need to call interlock homes this time around Brigadier General Achaferi before we conclude this broadcast what are we to see in the coming days as we're entering the second weekend since the world we'll probably see the Air Force clear corridors along which the ground forces can travel safely safe from mines in the area and from piers all kinds of booby trapped areas that would be bombed in such a manner that these forces could reach central areas where Hamas is dug underground so I think that would be more channeled the attacks would be more channeled towards this while taking or trying to move the Palestinian civilians further south as much as we can Brigadier General Mr. Israel Waelich Achaferi thank you very much for joining us of course from guys real this is it for this broadcast but we'll back at the top of the hour until then you can always stay updated online at 24 news dot tv or on social media all the updates could be found there stay strong stay resilient we're here this particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt we'll be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year Vakita reserve we have the right ingredients and we have to do the job and that if we have the right ingredients we can do the job that the Vakita can be protected after having crossed a road we finally found in the middle of Casbah in the west part of the city near the combats and bombings of the international coalition we are here a few hundred meters from the mosque and nourish it we went from house to house to stay covered by Daesh snipers before arriving on a roof at the front line where the Iraqi young soldiers were able to spread their arsenal of fire in front of our cameras it is only after leaving this theater of war that I took the measure of what I wanted to live when the information fell according to which a French television team had been killed by an explosive machine a mine in the same place where we found ourselves a few days earlier first hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 news come to the special broadcast here on I-24 news we continue our rolling coverage on day 13 of Israel's war against Hamas and as a ground operation in the Gaza Strip seems not to be an if but a pending when it is the northern border that is flaring up these hours several heavy barrages of rockets being launched from southern Lebanon sending tens of thousands of northern residents to shelter Hezbollah not resting whatsoever renewed Hamas rocket fire from the south as well for the first time since the beginning of the war Israeli defense minister Joav Galan taking responsibility for the failures that led to October 7 but also vowing it is my responsibility to bring about a clear cut victory meanwhile the diplomatic train of support continues after the German chancellor the American president now the UK prime minister Rishi Sunak is visiting Israel telling Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a friend in need a friend indeed we're a buyer's side stay right there Hamas are the new Nazis they're the new ISIS and we have to fight them together just as the world the civilized world united to fight the Nazis and united to fight Hamas it must together now stand with Israel as we fight and defeat defeat Hamas this is not merely our battle it's the battle of the entire civilized world and I want to share the deep condolences of the British people and stress that we absolutely support Israel's right to defend itself in line with international law to go after Hamas to take back hostages deter further incursions and to strengthen your security for the long term now I know that you are taking every precaution to avoid harming civilians in direct contrast to the terrorists of Hamas which seek to put civilians in harm's way to describe this as Israel's darkest hour well then it's for me to say I'm proud to stand here with you in Israel's darkest hour as your friend we will stand with you in solidarity we will stand with your people and we also want you to win thank you we begin the broadcast by heading down south at 24 news correspondent Robert Swift standing by there Robert as we speak fresh barrage rockets plural of course from the Gaza ship towards Israeli southern cities that's correct we've just heard interception around six interceptions of rockets fired from Gaza these were directed northwards with the city of Ashkelon just to the north of Gaza targeted also around 30 minutes ago there was a barrage that was in the direction of the southern Israeli city of Bersheva and the sound of various combat sounds continue around us and there's the sound of jets overhead and intermittently we are hearing Israeli artillery likely targeting positions inside the Gaza Strip as well as that just to stress the fact that this is also an area which is very much in preparation for more war to come around about an hour ago we started hearing a large amount of small arms fire and there was a little bit of let's not say panic but there was interest in what was going on here when it was realized that this is likely the Israeli army training they've just deployed a large number of reserve forces and many of these are soldiers that need to get trained up quickly and so that was the sound of a firing range and the troops they're training most likely so Robert talk to us a bit more about the preparations that we're seeing on behalf of Israeli forces mobilized ready to act not if but rather when the order will be given down south and meanwhile the preparation of the air force ahead of ground operation continue as well not just terror infrastructure but our terrorists that are being eliminated that's right in these days as the Israeli ground forces get prepared for the time where they go in if that is what they do the air forces is working concurrently striking targets inside Gaza doing as much damage as it can to essentially to reduce the capabilities of Hamas they'll be targeting rocket launching sites targeting anti-tank teams and any other observation posts or defensive positions that they can see along the border between Gaza and and Israel proper now this preparation that these strikes will go on until the Israeli military considers itself ready to go and they could go on for a long time for days or even weeks until the Israeli military considers that it has done sufficient damage to Hamas that they're in a position to then begin ground operations and Robert Briefle before we let you go the IDF spokesperson earlier today in his morning briefing updating that a Hamas terrorist was captured in Israeli territory trying to make his way back to the Gaza Strip and that means that the the land down south Israeli territory is not yet liberated not yet clear or neutralized of terror threats there practically still a war zone that's correct I mean the majority the vast majority of the combatants that crossed into Israel they have been captured or killed by the Israeli military but they cannot rule out the possibility that there are one or two sleeper agents that have remained and that's what happened in this instance I24 news correspondent Robert Swift thank you very much for this much more from Robert and the I24 news team later on in the day of course and moving from south to north I24 news correspondent Hamas Elhout standing by their Hamda in the span of several minutes we're talking about 20 launches of missiles from south Lebanon towards Israel an escalation a very evident one just in the last few minutes 24 different alerts for northern communities here along the Lebanese border the Israeli military said it was retaliating by using artillery shells on Lebanese positions inside of Lebanon on the other side of the border now there are helicopters flying overhead this is the most activity that's been happening in terms of the crossfire along the border since the war began now we also saw several interceptions a lot of booms in the distance a lot of different activities we're going to maybe pan to show you some of the activities here you can see these Apache helicopters these are attack helicopters that can launch missiles onto different positions from the other side of the border there's a real view and they are flying here constantly overhead along Lebanese territory and back here so the Israeli military on high alert as this conflict now on the northern border seems to be escalating and Hamda many of the northern communities in the immediate proximity to the border with Lebanon either been evacuated by state order and many others what is the situation there in terms of the presence of Israeli civilians in this buffer zone so to speak right so the Israeli military has issued evacuation orders for communities within five kilometers of the Lebanese border for their safety out of fears out of this conflict intensifying the Israelis are prepared deploying several reinforcements and all other types of military equipment to the reinforce this front could prove to be a new part of the war I-24 news correspondent Hamda Salhout up on the northern border between Israel and Lebanon thank you very much for this Hamda and just this afternoon Israeli Defense Minister you have gone on for the first time since the beginning of the war claiming responsibility for the failures that led to October 7th but also taking responsibility of what we are about to see next vowing complete clear cut victory for Israel let's take a listen I am in charge of the security establishment I am responsible for it in the past two weeks even in the difficult events I am responsible to bring it to victory in the battle we will be precise, deadly and sharp and will continue until we complete our mission Joining now we are here in studio, Colonel in the reserves Mr. Grisha Yakubovich, head of the civilian department of Kogut and our very good I-24 news senior correspondent guys real thank you gentlemen very much for joining us let's do begin up north because this is definitely an alarming development Colonel Yakubovich what is the difference between poking provoking and more than that there is no difference it's some sort of a game if I may say so Hezbollah are obligated to support their allies in Gaza Hamas although it's weird because it's Shia and Sunna that slaughter each other in Syria but this is you know we all know that Iran is behind it let's not forget until today 13 Hezbollah terrorists were killed by the IDF during the last few days there was a funeral to bury them all and immediately after the funeral they launch anti-tank missiles I'm not sure about the rockets I think this is the the line that distinguish between Hezbollah activity and Hamas or Placid Islamic Jihad activity in Lebanon so from what I understand the Hezbollah respond to the funeral was anti-tank missiles to paces and Hamas and paged the rockets into Manara or somewhere else that were intercepted in the air and yet in this volatile climate no tit for tat for tit for tat this ping-pong what would be considered more than just this so to speak game you're saying if I take myself into the shoes of the decision makers I'm sure that on the table there's a huge pressure to respond in Lebanon and not to wait to the escalation to reach to a certain event that will be a good reason to stop I believe that this is actually this is the problem Hamas are teasing the IDF launching here launching there they are targeting only the bases and Israel is waiting for the event that will actually be a good reason to start a clean Hezbollah from the border but you know this policy of containment so to speak that was very evident both on the northern front and on the southern front and the north with this notorious tent tents two of them and then one tent that has been there for months we've been talking about it what does it mean that the Israel is not reacting or yes reacting to the southern residents alerting day in day out something boiling over the other side this policy of containment didn't it collapse to an extent alongside the collapse of the conception absolutely did it has been proven that when murderers Islamist radical terror groups with a Nazi ideology as we saw by Hamas the will and the means to slaughter Jews they will do so at the time that's right for them and we saw that Israel's toughest hour as Netanyahu put it on Saturday I can just also remind our viewers because we're seeing this retaliation from Hezbollah over the past several days at least 6 Israelis killed so far in those in those