 The retaliatory strikes come as over 700 Israelis have been confirmed murdered by Hamas' onslaught with that number set to rise. The Israeli health ministry this morning, being Monday, saying around 2,400 are wounded with over 3,000 of the injured in serious condition. Well, let's now go to Israel's northern border, where our correspondent Pierre Kloschendler is standing by. Reports coming through just moments ago of the Lebanese foreign minister saying that his government has received assurances from Hezbollah that they will not join the fighting unless Israel harasses Lebanon. What are you seeing on the ground there? Do you trust them? That's the first question. Here it's quiet, but there's been some demonstrations and stone throwing from Palestinians emanating from the Enel Hilway refugee camp in the Tyre region, which is further west at the border fence. But those clashes were quite minor. Here it's quiet, but you hear the loud and incessant buzz of the uncrewed aerial vehicles of the Israeli army that are patrolling the skies along the Israeli-Lebanese border. And just an hour ago, we were apprehended by Israeli soldiers who checked us and asked us to leave immediately after this life transmission because they said this is not safe. The soldiers seemed quite relaxed. They have been called up on Saturday at the onset of this war. They are reservist soldiers from the Ghulani Infantry Brigade, and they're here not exactly knowing what will happen just as us, but obviously very active on the Israeli-Lebanese border patrolling, setting ambushes just in case of infiltration, that kind of job. Now the residents of the community villages adjacent to the border are asked to leave their homes to evacuate their places in order to leave way for the army to settle in those villages. In the particular sector in which we are, there's about eight community villages just like this one that Dean Barenboim will point at you. Those villages are just on the border a few, a couple of hundred meters away from the border wall that has been installed here. And 8,500 of these residents of these community villages have already left, but it's not mandatory, it's voluntary evacuation. Now Joav Galant, the Israeli Defense Minister, has instructed the Home Front Command to issue an evacuation plan called Safe Distance, similar to the one that is carried out with great difficulty along the Gaza border, because the fear of infiltration has always prevailed in the area where we are. And fortunately, and ironically maybe, the fear of infiltration did not materialise here as was anticipated, but was materialising along the Gaza border. Our correspondent, Pierre Kloschendler, we can hear the IDF planes just above you in the north of Israel. Thank you very much for that update. Obviously, more questions at this time than answers, but a big question being asked from the international perspective is what the fighting possibly means for both Israel and the Palestinians and the relations with other Middle Eastern counterparts. For one, analysts expect the conflict to derail a US-brokered negotiation between Israel and Saudi Arabia to establish formal relations with each other, a subject concerning officials in the United States as well. Here's Anthony Blinken, the United States Secretary of State speaking with ABC. George, it's no surprise that those opposed to the efforts to normalise relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel and more broadly to normalise Israel's relations with countries throughout the region and beyond, who opposes it, Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran. So to the extent that this was designed to try to derail the efforts that were being made, that speaks volumes. Right now the focus is on dealing with this attack, dealing with Hamas. And we'll come to the normalisation efforts, which, by the way, are incredibly difficult when it comes to Saudi Arabia and Israel, lots of hard issues to work through. But if we could get there, that would significantly advance stability in the region. It would offer so many greater prospects for people in all of these countries. And there are basically two paths that are before the region right now. One is the path of normalisation, of integration, of people working together. And by the way, in that and on that path, it's not a substitute for resolving the differences between Israelis and Palestinians. On the contrary, it needs to be used to advance that effort as well. But that's one path. The other path is what we've seen from Hamas, terrorism, horror and something that offers not only nothing to people throughout the region, it offers nothing to the Palestinians. On the contrary, everything that Hamas does makes their situation, their plight even worse. They bring nothing but death and destruction not only to Israelis, but to Palestinians. Let's cross now live to a front in the West Bank where I'm joined by Dr. Emanuel Navon, an international relations expert and the CEO of Elnit. Emanuel, good morning to you. This is obviously a very difficult couple of days in Israel and perhaps even premature to be asking about what is likely to happen to the Middle East after this sort of fighting between both Israel and Hamas is done with. But what we can be speaking about at least at the moment is the Abraham Accords, the countries of which we signed peace accords with not too long ago. Have any of them commented, sent their condolences, condemned Hamas, any news from them with regards to what is happening in Israel? There's been some mild condemnation from the UAE, but definitely I think Israel was looking forward and expecting some stronger condemnation in light of the fact that this is just not another round of fighting between Israel and Hamas. This was barbaric acts of terrorism by Hamas against Israeli civilians. And I think that you just interviewed, I mean, you just broadcast an interview by Secretary of State Blinken. And I think that Anthony Blinken has been working very hard to get a stronger condemnation from Arab countries that have normalized the relations with Israel because we're talking here about an act of pure barbaric terrorism against civilians. Right. Are we seeing that news is coming out that China, quote, opposes and condemns actions that harm civilians in Israel, Hamas, violence, more on the neutral side from them. But again, countries are coming out expressing both their condemnation and their concern. And Emmanuel, just before we let you go, I would like to ask you, there's been footage of pro-Palestinian activists in New York, in Washington, D.C. We're talking about the United States of America, but not just there in countries around the world. Surely there's got to be a difference being made here with support with the Palestinians versus support with Hamas, an identified terror group. Generally speaking, all the Western governments, including in Europe, have been very supportive of Israel, have expressed their support for Israel's right to defend itself. The mainstream politicians, the mainstream media throughout Europe, the United States and the Western world. We know that within the free world, because the free world is free, there are voices that are against democracy, against freedom that support terrorism. This, of course, is part of the freedom of expression. But of course, we need to realize that when those people say free Palestine, what they mean is the murder of Jews and the elimination of Israel has nothing to do with freedom. And I think those people have to be exposed for what they are. They are celebrating the murder of children, of elderly, of innocents. And this has nothing to do with freedom. This has nothing to do with rights. This has simply to do with supporting the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews wherever they are. Dr. Menion, I want to stay with us, but I do want to cross now live to our correspondent Nicole Zedek, who is standing by for us in Storot in southern Israel. Nicole, earlier when we spoke to you, we're quite literally in the line of fire. Are you and the team safe right now? Where exactly are you and what is happening on the ground where you are? I think that's a difficult question to answer, Batya, because really where we are right now, it's a closed military zone. And we keep kind of being shuffled by Israeli forces to different safe places. But really, as long as we're here in the south, there is no real safe place because there are active terrorists on the ground. And Israeli forces continue to patrol the fields behind me. You continue to hear that was some Israeli artillery firing towards the Gaza Strip. Right now, the Gaza Strip, I'm here three miles behind me here in the distance. It's difficult to see because the sky is so hazy right now. There are different plumes of smoke that you can see in the distance over Gaza, but really it all just blends into this smoke that's filling the skies here in southern Israel. So we continue to hear these artillery booms and we do continue to also get rocket alerts coming from Gaza. So we are stationed right next to a public bomb shelter as well. Because in these southern cities, you have about 10 seconds, maybe 15 to quickly run to a bomb shelter as soon as you get some of those alerts. And we are hearing these these loud booms just shaking the ground and the streets here, Batya. You can feel it reverberating off of the walls, even inside the bomb shelter. So really, really a tense scene out here, as I said, a closed military zone. And so all of the residents here in the south are still told to stay inside their homes, lock their doors. Don't open it for anyone because there are active Hamas terrorists who continue to be in these fields. So Israeli soldiers are going through the fields. They're going door to door. They're looking through different gardens and in areas to try and find exactly where any more terrorists have infiltrated into southern Israel. But it is a difficult task, even with so many different soldiers and reinforcements on the ground. I mean, even as we're speaking, I continue to see different Israeli forces drive by on the roads behind us here. Different armored vehicles, different tanks being sent to different areas as they need reinforcements. Because as you've seen throughout the day, we are just being shuffled from city to city area to area really along the side of the road wherever it seems safest, depending on the hour. And that just shows exactly how ever changing and developing and constantly dangerous really this situation is down here for the Israeli soldiers, the police of the military and and the residents and the citizens in the area as well. So really a dangerous situation in this ongoing war down here in the south. Right, Nicole, we are looking at live visuals at the moment of the Gaza Strip with massive plumes of smoke. They're evidently probably those fires that you are hearing being shot over into Gaza that amounting there. Now, Nicole, on a bit more of a personal note at the end of the day, journalist in Israel, you are in the south. Many residents, as you mentioned, are behind closed doors told not to come out. How difficult has it been today being in the south, apart from the logistical difficulties of being moved and shuffled from place to place that's deemed safe or safer? What has it been like as a reporter on the ground currently in Israel? These are normally scenes reporters talk about in the Gaza Strip during conflicts, but this is actually happening right here at home in the south of Israel. Exactly, and that's what makes it so difficult to cover because this is our home. This is Israel. This is the place that we all all consider home and we've lived in for years, months, days, whatever it is. We all have a sense of pride for this land. And so seeing it completely taken over the fact that terrorists are still in this territory in Israel, in these residential areas, nearly more than 48 hours after the initial infiltration, it's sickening. It is hard to watch, hard to watch even the Israeli soldiers. We have to remind everyone that many of these people, they are so young. They're 18 years old who are on the front lines defending the country here in Israel. So that's what's truly difficult as we look at all of the different soldiers in this military police who many of them got called, had to be at their bases in the blink of an eye. Nicole, I am going to have to cut you off. I do apologize, but we do have the IDF spokesperson giving a statement now. Let's tune in. We're in control of the communities. There's no fighting going on in the communities right now. There could still be terrorists in the area like terrorists we found in Sharon Egev, people who were hiding. We took down these guys who were hiding. In every front, the terrorists are meeting military forces who attack and kill them. Our fighters, the special units, the ground troops are fighting bravely. As we speak, there are no live fighting going on. The arrangement of the area is our goal right now. And what I mean is closing the gaps in the fence. These holes in the fence will be secured by tanks that would stand in front of each of those openings. Fighter helicopters and drones will all monitor the gaps in the fence in order to ensure that no terrorists infiltrate Israel. The settlements, the communities next to the fence are now liberated. We've evicted 15 of 24 communities. We're expected to evacuate all the communities near the fence. There will not be evacuated at this stage. The state of Israel has faced 4,400 rocket launches. We have high readiness in the northern command with our ground forces there. Yesterday, there were a number of local events on the border. On our post, there are no casualties. We returned fire. And we're maintaining the north strong. There's no fighting going on in the north as we speak. We have high readiness in the north, full readiness for any scenario. I wish to move to the attack. The IDF is on an attack. We transformed into heavy waves of attacks in a wide compound, aerial compound of 50 to 60 combat fighter jets dropping thousands of ammunition. As we speak and strike on the north Gaza Strip in an area that has hundreds of targets being attacked, we will reach thousands of targets being attacked. In each of those, there are terrorists. We do not attack areas where there are no terrorists. We are attacking terrorists. Every area that has terrorists will be attacked. Every headquarter, every office will be attacked. There are hundreds of killed Hamas terrorists on our borders. Hundreds of them. Hundreds of them on the fence. We took down everyone who attempted to reach the fence, with helicopters, with planes, with tanks, with ground troops. There are terrorists killed on the fence in the hundreds. Hundreds are buried under buildings in our attacks. In the wave with which we attacked in Beit Hanun, there are dozens of terrorists buried under buildings. The closures are closed. There is no power in Gaza. No one comes in or out. Aanda is under siege. We are conducting a wide reservists' drafting. We have never drafted this many reservists so quickly. We have reached 300,000 reservists in 24 hours. The best of the Israeli civilians are drafting to the IDF. IDF has equipment. There is a lot of talk about this. There is equipment. We have places and units where 150 and sometimes 200% of reservists arrived. Those who are not needed will be released back home. We are not short of equipment or food. Everything will reach, even if it takes some time. Not everyone will have the same type of equipment. Those are in the forefront, are not the same as those who are in the back. Everyone will have equipment. Everyone has food. We need to show resilience with great appreciation to the citizens who came in the hundreds of thousands to draft to the IDF. There are casualties. Civilians, IDF fighters, commanders, some 700 killed so far. IDF soldiers, who we informed their families so far, are 73. We hug the families at this difficult time. There are hundreds of wounded. We wish a speedy recovery to those injured. There are also people who are kidnapped and missing. Missing from the fighting areas and Hamas has published information. The murderous group is spreading videos showing their barbaric behavior. And we will inform the families. We have appointed Lior Karmeli to be in charge. We are also drafting dozens of HR personnel to collect DNA and find out who's missing, who's kidnapped. We will inform the media and the public only after we will update the families. It's the greatest terror event that the state of Israel has experienced. The political wing of Hamas is a murderous terror group. Sinwar is the leader of this campaign. Himself and are all worthy of dying. His infrastructure are part of the war campaign. We're attacking them very focused in terms of intelligence. We are attacking any place that has terrorists in it. We're attacking with force and that force will only increase. All of the capabilities of the IDF will be operated. Questions? Guys, I appreciate you very much for translating that. We've also still got with us Mr. Navon on the line. I wanted to ask you, Emmanuel, we've just heard the IDF spokesperson reassuring the families that up until they have been notified, there will not be announcements made to the public on those that are missing or possibly kidnapped. But the reality is that a lot of these families telling I-24 News that they have not been contacted at all about the whereabouts of their families. How likely is this to reach possibly the international sphere in similar senses, but albeit different to Gilad Shalit where the international community is called upon to be able to assist in hostage situations? Well, first of all, I must tell you that like the rest of the country I watched last night on the news, the representatives of the families, the parents of victims who have been lost. We don't know where they are. And it was really heartbreaking. The tragedy of those parents who simply do not know what their children are, who heard them last on the phone on Saturday with shooting around them. Nobody should go through such a horrible situation. There are now citizen civilians, innocents held hostage by a barbaric jihadist organization in the Gaza Strip. And Israel must do everything it can to gather the support of the international community to free those people, to give access to the Red Cross. Hamas is acting against international law, against the rules of war, against the rules of engagement. And I think that we need not only the support which we have today. Of course, we very much appreciate the expressions of supports which have arrived from capitals around the world. But we need the same governments to also do everything they can and use their influence to make sure that Hamas not only enables access to those hostages, but also frees them to Israel. So that is a number one priority. Dr. Emmanuel Navon, the CEO of Elnett and an international relations expert. Thank you very much for being with us this morning. Just to recap, the Israeli military says that aircraft continued to pound the Gaza Strip with their objective clear to devastate the capabilities of the Hamas terror group. Israel's retaliatory strikes come as over 700 Israelis have been confirmed murdered by Hamas's onslaught with the Israeli Health Ministry saying that 2,400 are wounded and around 300 of them in serious condition. Continue to follow I-24 news on our breaking news additions, as well as our website and social media pages for more updates on the situation.