 to the special broadcast here on I-24 News, as we continue our ruling coverage, day 27 of the war here in Israel. And on the southern front, it is day six of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Of course, the IDF is pushing forward with its ground offensive, killing dozens of terrorists overnight. The troops breach Hamas' first line of defense and approach Gaza City. A wide-scale operation to destroy Hamas' tunnels is currently underway. These advancements, however, come at a heavy price. 18 Israeli soldiers have been killed so far in battle. In the West Bank, an Israeli man shot dead while driving near the town of Bethlehem. Israeli defense forces have set up roadblocks in the area and an active manhunter for the suspected terrorist still ongoing. And in the north, squirmishes between Hezbollah terror squads and Israeli forces continue as well. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is warning here on I-24 News, Hezbollah should rethink and then think again if it really wants to provoke Israeli patience. I think Hezbollah should take into account that the degree of destruction that they will bring upon Lebanon, if they start up with us, it will be immense. And Nasrallah previously said about the Second Lebanon War, which I participated in, that had he known of the Israeli reaction, he would not have initiated it. So I suggest he recall his own statement. Well I think a lot depends on seeing the process actually in the south all the way through. The government has set an objective of eradicating Hamas. We need to do that. We need the government and Israel to deliver on that very solid promise. I think that will reflect not only to the communities around Gaza and in the Negev but also to the communities here and in fact it will resonate and it's being watched by all of the region. And we want to head now straight down south, I-24 News correspondent Pierre Colchandler standing by there, Pierre. As we speak, Red Alert sirens are being heard in the city of Beersheba and it's surrounding yet another barrage of rockets today from the Gaza Strip. What can you tell us? Right, there is a heavy barrage of rockets, a salvo of rockets targeting Beersheba and the vicinity. That's what we know at this point because it's happening as right as we speak. We haven't seen the rocket launches from here because they're probably being launched from the central sector of the Gaza Strip south of Gaza City which is in this direction. So there's no way that we can see any sort of interception or something from the air that we could notice. But in any case here what you can see is some plumes of smoke behind Bethanoun towards the Jebalia refugee camp probably, plumes of smoke that have been elevating and billowing for hours now because the army, the air force, gunships, tanks, artillery are unrelentlessly bombing terror targets across that sector and we're only in a very small sector, Ellie. We are not seeing everything, we're just seeing a very small segment of the 40 kilometer long front from north to south. Now we know that the Israeli army is operating on the gates of Gaza City that was said yesterday by a commander of a division yesterday evening but we also know that they're trying to cordon off Gaza City and probably section it in a way that they will be able to control each and every of the neighborhoods of Gaza City. I-24 News correspondent Pierre Kluchendler with the I-24 News team there on the ground. Thank you very much for this, Pierre. Joining us now here in studio Colonel Grisha Kobović, Israel-Palestinian relations expert and former head of the civilian department of Kogart. Thank you very much, Colonel Yakubović, for joining us. Well, it is day six of, again, we're still tiptoeing around the terms whether we should call it the ground operation or a ground operation, but in any event the IDF spokesperson is saying, Colonel Yakubović, in his daily morning briefing that the battle so far going as Israel expected it to, as the IDF expected it to. As I look at it, it's only the beginning. The ground attack actually started when the raids started. If you remember when we spoke about it two weeks ago, the first step was to stabilize the line and then switching from defense to attack with the air force and artillery and the third state started with the raids actually without declaring that this is the ground operation. And as expected, less wars, more action. Exactly what you want to see. First of all, less wars, more action, yes. And two, it's not to, you know, to state a date or something major that will become a test. Right. Right. As we mentioned, there were two tests actually. One was October 13th to flame all the borders around Israel and Hamas failed. And we said that the second test will be the ground attack. Actually nobody declared about the ground attack. So nobody actually had a reason to make a test out of it. Right. And as expected, the Gaza city, the Gaza-Nudin part is actually surrounded by the IDF. I just heard the Red Cross in the, some of the organizations that operate in Kutz Hospital, they said that the IDF is shooting on the hospital. It means it's in Tel-Hawa. In Tel-Hawa, this is the southern part of the city of Gaza. It means the IDF succeeded actually to, to split the city. It's the district. It's not the city. It's the whole northern part of the Gaza Strip. So let's say the line of Vadi Gaza from west to the east is splitted by the IDF. If they are Tel-Hawa, this is the southern neighborhood near Sheikhashbin. And you have two major efforts from the north. One is coming from the area of Bet-Lahiyah. Let's say the northern western part of the Gaza Strip. And the second effort are coming from the northern eastern part. It's from the area of Bet-Hannon. Actually closing step by step, day by day, surrounding the city of Gaza eventually. Yeah. So to create this, this split, dividing the space and isolating fighting zones. It's to isolate Hamas abilities because all the big headquarters, all the, let's say, warehouses where the rockets are stored. I don't know about the people who were kidnapped. Okay. This is, this is, this is a question about the military ability. We're talking about, it's not only the military, it's the military and the government abilities that are located in the city of Gaza in the north. And I believe that what we will see in the following days, that the IDF will increase the efforts to reach actually to the neighborhoods, to strangle the city of Gaza. So it will be in the north, the neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan and then Tufach and then Sajaya and then Rimal and Sheikh Hashbin. Those are actually the neighborhoods. And perhaps marking Gaza city, again, the main headquarters of both the governance and military ability of Hamas, is not just of military value, also symbolic, exactly. It's a symbolic thing. Let's go back to the second and the further, if you remember, the IDF entered to the Muqata in Rabal. Right. It is a symbolic act. Okay. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Symbolism matters. Of course. During the peak of the war, and again, still long weeks ahead, but we do want now to jump from north to, from south to north, rather, at 24 News Correspondent Robert Swift with the I-24 News team there on the ground. Thank you, Robert, for joining us and perhaps part of the reason that is currently Akhbovich mentioned that there was no big declaration of the beginning of a ground oppression down south. It's also not to give excuses or unnecessary reasons for the northern front to inflame. And yet, Robert, day in, day out, IDF forces continue to hit terrorist squads in the north and south Lebanon, including today. What can you tell us? Yeah. Indeed. The tip for attacks which have been taking place between the Israeli military and forces in southern Lebanon continue. Something that's interesting is that the Israeli military has just said in the last hour that it believes that not only is it facing off against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, but that there are other Iranian proxies, other additional Shiite militias from elsewhere that have been, that have been operating in this area previously and are now staged on the border and are assisting Hezbollah with their attacks against the Israeli military. This is interesting in itself. You also wonder if this will be an organization that Iran has a more direct control on as opposed to Hezbollah, which obviously operates in its own territory and is a powerful organization by itself. So that is interesting as the chairman of Hezbollah and as Rallah is set to make a speech tomorrow. And a lot of people are interested to hear what he has to say, particularly as you've been discussing in the studio. Now that the ground operations in Gaza have, you know, they're very much in full swing, the fact that Israel is about to make comments for the first time, you know, that in itself is interesting. With regards to the actual activity that's taking place here, it's like you say, it's the same as it is day in, day out. There was an exchange of fire with the Israeli military firing upon several anti-tank teams a couple of hours ago. This is, you know, it's par for the course here on the northern border at the present. Robert Swift, that 24 News correspondent on the northern border with Lebanon. Thank you very much for this. Back here in the studio with Colonel Gusha Kobović, Colonel Kobović, speaking of Nasrallah's speech tomorrow, the first one since the beginning of the war, and yet, you know, we do not want to build the expectations too high. We're not doing public relations for the Hezbollah leader. And yet, it is interesting to not just to hear what he has to say, but also how he's going to frame and build his speech. What should we be paying attention to? First of all, we need to understand, and I will flatter Nasrallah, although he's my enemy, he is a master of deception. And he really knows the job. By the way, he can be an excellent actor at Hollywood or maybe Bollywood is better. You know, we've seen this short video of Nasrallah walking at the corridor and then a short video of the hand that tries to speech. And tomorrow, 3 30, let's see, will that be an event that he will declare? And then there will be a surprise like it happened in 2006 when they launched a missile to one of Israel's boat ships at the Mediterranean and four soldiers were killed. Or it's going to be a surprise because during his speech, Israel will actually do something. It's also so we can also prepare surprises to go both ways. It can go both ways. Exactly. So, you know, you fool us once. Let's see what will be the second time. I can tell you for sure that the United States sent a clear message to Hezbollah. Do not do not increase the campaign. Do not push the boundaries. Yeah, do not increase the it's like don't end it to the campaign. OK, but I also hear some calls from Lebanon from the Prime Minister of Lebanon saying that it's an immediate need for five days of ceasefire. Otherwise, we will find ourselves in a in an event that it will be very difficult to stop it. And we have seen residents of southern Lebanon heading north since the beginning. What we've seen is that the foreigners also were asked to leave, like from the United States, from Kuwait, from Saudi Arabia and others. France also applying for the last 22 years, because a war is actually expected by them. I think that what we will see this time is something maybe a little bit different because what we are our logic tells us it started in Gaza. So according to the unity of the arenas, we should see now Hezbollah joining and then Syria joining and then he has to show me from Iraq joining and then the troops joining. And what we see is something else shifting. It's shifting actually from the south closing in. So yes, we started a war with they start the war. We had to react. But now we see actually from the south, the hoots. And when hoots say something, they mean it. OK, we need to be clear about it yet another Iranian tentacle. And it's proxy. It's a proxy Iranian force. It's like Hezbollah and Lebanon. The hoots is in Yemen, the same same stick. It's a war stick. Yeah, OK, because they are a little bit worse than Hezbollah. Hezbollah have different abilities. They would let it call obligations as well. Governments have obligations to Lebanon, but they are also close. They are on our border. The hoots as a proxy Iranian, let's say not unit, but in organization, they were trained to to to shoot from distance. It's one thousand six hundred kilometers. Then so we will need to see two things. One, what will be the outcome of the speech tomorrow? Three thirty. And we're going to see some action coming from a little shabby from Iraq. It means the hooties has shabby and then maybe Syria and maybe only then Hezbollah. Maybe they are waiting for us to enter deeper to the Gaza Strip to be so busy and only then to attack us. Yeah, all options are on all sides of the game. But I do want us to head back down south to what happened here and what and what it means about what might be happening when you listen to Hamas official Hazi Hamid committing just yesterday to redo the October 7th massacre as many times as possible. It's clear there is really no other way than to go all the way. The idea of revealing today yet another intercepted conversation during the barbaric massacre between two terrorists from Hamas as a command of forces. Take a listen. This is just yet another documentation of what unfolded during the massacre of October 7th. And yet all the proof in the world will not convince those who refuse to be convinced or rather those who decided that massacres and pure acts of terrorist evil are OK, even liberal, because if you're currently in an elite campus by any chance nowadays, your day should more or less be comprised of attending a pro Hamas rally and then rushing into ethics class. This is if you want to be considered liberal radical chic all the way. And it's not just stock because a Cornell University student appearing in a U.S. court overnight after a posting online threats to kill Jews in university wanting to quote rape Jewish women and behead Jewish babies. Yes, Ivy League we're talking about so the enlightened be educated intellectuals. And on that point, we want to head to London to speak with Dr. Amira Halperin, expert on refugees and media technology. Thank you so very much, Dr. Halperin for joining us. We've been focusing a lot on what's happening in U.S. campuses, but the situation on U.K. campuses, not better. We're obviously seeing those mass demonstrations in the streets of London. And in this respect, Dr. Halperin, for years we've been debating here, whether being anti Zionist is necessarily being anti Semitic, whether anti Semitism is really that prevalent or just a vocal minority bottom line ever since October 7th. All hell broke loose. Yes, thank you for highlighting this important issue. First, I would like to highlight looking at what you just talked about before I just joined these radicalization and Hamas stance relating to continue carrying out attacks and linking this to what the situation here on campuses. So first of all, we have to bear in mind that this is the global problem. Hamas radicalization is not merely in Gaza. It's not merely towards Israelis in Israel, but rather when I worked previously for BBC here and their research radicalization in the U.K. And we all know that the threat is very much evident also in the U.K. Relating to campuses, we have major problems on campuses, but it's not only the activities of students, it's not only the atmosphere, the toxic atmosphere, it's much more. It's a profound problem of prominent scholars and prominent professors that the gap between their intellectual, like you highlighted, their intellectual insights, their academic work and their daily activities is huge because I conducted my PhD here, I work in the U.K. for many years in academia. And I can see this, for example, how senior professors post on Facebook messages that are, I wouldn't say pro-Palestine, I would say messages that are ruin any opportunity for these two communities to live side by side without daily clashes. And I would just would like to explain what I mean. When we are talking about Palestine, when we are looking at these phrases being repeated by professors at universities, being repeated by the media by... From the river to the sea. These are usually people who allegedly support a two-state solution that you don't understand the meaning of, from the river to the sea, is no Jewish state, no Jews? No, yes, but there is, yes, I agree with you. And also, when I conducted my interviews for my research with Palestinians, both Hamas and Fatah members, the main political issue, the main political problem they are facing with is the fact that they are stressing they don't have a state, that the Palestinians are stateless. So when we see people here in the U.K. or elsewhere talking about the fact that there is a need to free Palestine, there is misunderstanding about the perception, because there is no Palestine, there is no state. This is exactly what the Palestinians are saying. This is what they are fighting for. So we need to look at it differently. There is no problem of Palestine. Anything that a Palestinian should be freed from Hamas that would undermine any prospects for a solution to this issue. Dr. Halperin, is there, what are the tools to battle this far too common notion in British universities and among the British public, the British administration, at this point of our conversation, siding with Israel, siding with truth, and taking action against some of them. But what are the tools to fight it? Is it the lost battle? No, it's not a lost battle, but it's going to be worse. And the reason is that as we hear there are many refugees now from Gaza that might arrive to the U.K., to the U.S., different countries. So the problem is a global problem. It's not a regional problem. It's not a problem that is basically evident only in Israel and in Gaza and the West Bank. It's going to be a global problem. And so if you ask me about tools and about solutions, it should be also global collaboration between governments, because otherwise there will be no solution for this. Because as we know, the problem, for example, that we saw in the past when I interviewed in 2003, at the time I interviewed the family of the terrorists that carried out, the British terrorists that carried out an attack in Tel Aviv. So what we saw is the problem of integration. He lived in the U.K., very educated, but he didn't feel integrated into society. The problem is more Palestinians and refugees will arrive to the U.K., they will not be very much integrated. So the tools are education, education, education, we should be more, there should be more training of journalists. And that university is about what does it mean? What does it mean, this conflict? Well, unfortunately, universities at the moment are siding with lies and with the forces of darkness, whether it's due to ignorance or because of this progressive liberal notion. Yeah, no battle should be declared lost without a fight, that's for certain. Dr. Amira Halper, an expert on refugees and media technology, joining us from London. Thank you very much for this conversation, Dr. Halper, and we appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Back here in the studio with Colonel Agrića Kupović, Colonel Agrića Kupović, before we wrap up by this broadcast, as we've been talking earlier, it is day six of the operations underground. We're still expecting long weeks ahead of that. What would you dub as the main objectives, knowing that time is not unlimited, when we're talking about the international backing or perhaps more importantly, American backing, yeah. Well, we have two major things. One is the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, yes or no. It depends on how will the Western world and the Arab world will look at it if they will blame Hamas or they will expect us to solve the problem without achieving what we actually want is to release. It's to let our people go. This is number one. So there will be huge pressure on fuel. And let's not forget, fuel fuels terror, as simple as it is in Gaza. And number two, we should wait and see are we expected to see another front opened from the Golan Heights. And this is, I think, one of the most important thing that we need to be with our hand on the pulse and wait for tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday. Those are the critical hours. So in terms of circling back to the humanitarian issue or the humanitarian corridor, we are seeing today or are about to see today around 400 foreigners leaving the Gaza Strip through the Ralfa Cross. I think they already did. They already did. And several dozen, 60 or so injured. We're likely to see more of that in the coming days. And that should, by time, to an extent, we are doing it because we are, first of all, human beings. We fight to go into international law. And yes, nobody wants to punish the people of Gaza. Although Hamas is Gaza and Gaza is Hamas. But I want to mention two things. Two things are breaking the spirit. Two things breaking the spirit of Gaza. One, the IDF is inside. It's like the fortress that Sylvain was talking about. The IDF is in. And number two, it's the back that they feel from the Arab world. Right, right. They wanted to see the unity, the pressure. Everything going on fire. It's not only, they say, OK, 1.5 billion Muslims. Yeah, we're doing nothing. Well, let's hope it stays that way. We do not mind it. That's for certain. Thank you very much, Colonel Yakubovich. We'll be back at the top of the hour. Over 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 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. Israel's story must lead to the whole world. The I-24 News Channel, broadcasting from Israel, with dozens of correspondents throughout the world, brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries. Bringing Israel's story to the world. I-24 News Channels, now on Hot. So, and welcome to this special broadcast here on I-24 News as we continue our rolling coverage due to Day 27 of the war here in Israel. And on the southern front, it is Day 6 of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Of course, the IDF is pushing forward with its ground offensive, killing dozens of terrorists overnight as troops breach Hamas' first line of defense and approach Gaza City. A wide-scale operation to destroy Hamas' tunnels is currently underway. These advancements, however, come at a heavy price. 18 Israeli soldiers have been killed so far in battle. In the West Bank, an Israeli man shot dead while driving near the town of Bethlehem. Israeli defense forces have set up roadblocks in the area, and an active manhunter for the suspected terrorist still ongoing. And in the north, skirmishes between Hezbollah terror squads and Israeli forces continue as well. Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett is warning here on I-24 News, Hezbollah should think, rethink, and then think again if it really wants to provoke Israeli patients. I think Hezbollah should take into account that the degree of destruction that they will bring upon Lebanon, if they start up with us, it will be immense. And Nasrallah previously said about the second Lebanon war, which I participated in, that had he known of the Israeli reaction, he would not have initiated it. So I suggest he recall his own statement. Well, I think a lot depends on seeing the process actually in the south all the way through. The government has set an objective of eradicating Hamas. We need to do that. We need the government and Israel to deliver on that very solid promise. I think that will reflect not only to the communities around Gaza and in the Negev, but also to the communities here. And in fact, it'll resonate and it's being watched by all of the region. And we want to head now straight down south, I-24 News correspondent Pierre Klochandler standing by there, Pierre. As we speak, Red Alert sirens are being heard in the city of Beersheba and it's surrounding yet another barrage of rockets today from the Gaza Strip. What can you tell us? Right, there is a heavy barrage of a rocket, a salvo of rocket targeting Beersheba and the vicinity. That's what we know at this point because it's happening as right as we speak. We haven't seen the rocket launches from here because they're probably being launched from the central sector of the Gaza Strip, south of Gaza City, which is in this direction. So there's no way that we can see any sort of interception of something from the air that we could notice. But in any case, here, what you can see is some plumes of smoke behind Bet Hanun toward the Jabalia refugee camp, probably. Plumes of smoke that have been elevating and billowing for hours now because the Army, the Air Force, gunships, tanks, artillery are unrelentlessly bombing terror targets across that sector. And we're only in a very small sector, Ellie. We are not seeing everything. We're just seeing a very small segment of the 40 kilometer long front from north to south. Now, we know that the Israeli Army is operating on the gates of Gaza City that was said yesterday by a commander of a division yesterday evening. But we also know that they're trying to cordon off Gaza City and probably section it in a way that they will be able to control each and every of the neighborhoods of Gaza City. I-24 News correspondent Pierre Kloeschendler with the I-24 News team there on the ground. Thank you very much for this, Pierre. Joining us now here in studio, Colonel Grisha Kobović, Israeli-Palestinian relations expert and former head of the civilian department of Kogat. Thank you very much, Colonel Kobović, for joining us. Well, it is day six of, again, we're still tiptoeing around the terms, whether we should call it the ground operation or a ground operation. But in any event, the IDF spokesperson is saying, Colonel Kobović, in his daily morning briefing that the battle so far going, as Israel expected it to, as the IDF expected it to. As I look at it, it's only the beginning. The ground attack actually started when the raids started. If you remember, when we spoke about it two weeks ago, the first step was to stabilize the line and then switching from defense to attack with the air force and artillery. And the third state started with the raids, actually without declaring that this is the ground operation. And as expected. Less wars, more action. Exactly what you want to see. First of all, less wars, more action, yes. And two, it's not to, you know, to state a date or something major that will become a test. Right, right. As we mentioned, there were two tests actually. One was October 13th to flame all the borders around Israel and Hamas failed. And we said that the second test will be the ground attack. Actually, nobody declared about the ground attack, so nobody actually had a reason to make a test out of it. Right. And as expected, the Gaza city, the Gaza-Nudin part is actually surrounded by the IDF. I just heard the Red Cross in some of the organizations that operate El Kuts hospital. They said that the IDF is shooting on the hospital. It means it's in Tel-El-Hawa. In Tel-El-Hawa, this is the southern part of the city of Gaza. It means the IDF succeeded actually to split the city. It's the district. It's not the city. It's the whole northern part of the Gaza Strip. So let's say the line of Vadi Gaza from west to the east is splitted by the IDF. If they are Tel-El-Hawa, this is the southern neighborhood near Sheikh HaShbin. And you have two major efforts from the north. One is coming from the area of Bethlehem. Let's say the northern western part of the Gaza Strip. And the second effort are coming from the northern eastern part is from the area of Beth-Hannon. Actually, closing step by step, day by day, surrounding the city of Gaza eventually. Yeah, so to create this split, dividing the space and isolating fighting zones. It's to isolate Hamas abilities, because all the big headquarters, all the, let's say, warehouses where the rockets are stored. I don't know about the people who were kidnapped. OK, this is a different question. What about the military ability? We're talking about it's not only the military. It's the military and the government abilities that are located in the city of Gaza in the north. And I believe that what we will see in the following days that the IDF will increase the efforts to reach, actually, to the neighborhoods. To strangle the city of Gaza. So it will be in the north, the neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan and then Tufah and then Sajaya and then Rimal and Sheikh HaShbin. Those are actually the neighborhoods. And perhaps marking Gaza city, again, the main headquarters of both the governance and military ability of Hamas, is not just of military value, also symbolic, exactly. It's a symbolic thing. Let's go back to the second and the further, if you remember. The IDF entered the Muqata in Raballah. It was a symbolic act, OK? Right, yeah, symbolism matters during the peak of the war. And again, still long weeks ahead. But we do want now to jump from north to south to north, rather, at 24 News Correspondent Robert Swift with the I-24 News team there on the ground. Thank you, Robert, for joining us. And perhaps part of the reason that is currently Akhubovich mentioned that there was no big declaration of the beginning of a ground operation down south is also not to give excuses or unnecessary reasons for the northern front to inflame. And yet, Robert, day in, day out, IDF forces continue to hit terrorist squads in the north and south Lebanon, including today. What can you tell us? Yeah, indeed, the tip for attacks which have been taking place between the Israeli military and forces in southern Lebanon continue. Something that's interesting is that the Israeli military has just said in the last hour that it believes that not only is it facing off against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, but that there are other Iranian proxies, other additional Shiite militias from elsewhere that have been operating in this area previously and are now staged on the border and are assisting Hezbollah with their attacks against the Israeli military. This is interesting in itself. You also wonder if this will be an organization that Iran has a more direct control on as opposed to Hezbollah, which obviously operates in its own territory and is a powerful organization by itself. So that is interesting as the chairman of Hezbollah and as Rallah is set to make a speech tomorrow. And a lot of people are interested to hear what he has to say, particularly as you've been discussing in the studio. Now that the ground operations in Gaza have, you know, they're very much in full swing, the fact that Israel is about to make comments for the first time, you know, that in itself is interesting. With regards to the actual activity that's taking place here, it's like you say, it's the same as it is day in, day out. There was an exchange of fire with the Israeli military firing upon several anti-tank teams a couple of hours ago. This is, you know, it's par for the course here on the northern border at the prison. Robert Swift, I-24 News correspondent on the northern border with Lebanon. Thank you very much for this. Back here in the studio with Colonel Gusha Kobović, Colonel Kobović, speaking of Nasrallah's speech tomorrow, the first one since the beginning of the war in Yitz. You know, we do not want to build the expectations too high. We're not doing public relations for the Hezbollah leader. And yet it is interesting to, not just to hear what he has to say, but also how he's going to frame and build his speech. What should we be paying attention to? First of all, we need to understand, and I will flatter Nasrallah, although he's my enemy. He is a master of deception. Yeah. And he really knows the job. By the way, he can be an excellent actor at Hollywood or maybe Bollywood is better. You know, we've seen this short video of Nasrallah walking at the corridor and then a short video of the hand that tries to speech and tomorrow, 3.30, let's see. Will that be an event that he will declare and then there will be a surprise like it happened in 2006 when they launched a missile to one of Israel's boat ships at the Mediterranean and four soldiers were killed? Or it's going to be a surprise because during his speech Israel will actually do something. So we can also prepare surprises to him. It can go both ways. It can go both ways, exactly. So, you know, you fool us once. Let's see what will be the second time. I can tell you for sure that the United States has sent a clear message to Hezbollah, do not increase the campaign. Then I'll push the boundaries, yeah. Do not increase the, it's like don't end it to the campaign, okay? But I also hear some calls from Lebanon from the Prime Minister of Lebanon saying that it's an immediate need for five days of ceasefire. Otherwise, we will find ourselves in an event that it will be very difficult to stop it. And we have seen residents of southern Lebanon heading north since the beginning. That's did it through the beginning. What we've seen is that the foreigners also were asked to leave, like from the United States, from Kuwait, from Saudi Arabia, and others during the last 22 years because a war is actually expected by them. I think that what we will see this time is something maybe a little bit different because what we are, our logic tells us, if it started in Gaza, so according to the unity of the arenas, we should see now Hezbollah joining and then Syria joining and then Khashdel Shabi from Iraq joining and then the Khoots joining. And what we see is something else, it's shifting, actually from the south closing in. So yes, we started a war with, they started the war. We had to react, but now we see actually from the south, the Khoots, and when Khoots say something, they mean it, okay? We need to be also clear about it. But the Khoots are yet another Iranian tentacle. It's proxy, it's a proxy Iranian force. It's like Hezbollah in Lebanon. The same stick? It's a war stick, okay? Because they are a little bit worse than Hezbollah. Hezbollah have different abilities. They will totally- So they have political obligations as well, governance obligations. They have also political obligations to Lebanon, but they are also close, they are on our border. The Khoots as a proxy Iranian, let's say, not unit, but an organization, they were trained to shoot from distance, okay? It's 1,600 kilometers. So we would need to see two things. One, what will be the outcome of the speech tomorrow, 3.30? And we're going to see some action coming from El-Khashdel Shaabi from Iraq. It means the Khoots, Hezbollah, and then maybe Syria, and maybe only then Hezbollah. Maybe they are waiting for us to enter deeper to the Gaza Strip to be so busy and only then to attack us. Yeah, all options are on the table. From all sides of the game, but I do want us to head back down south to what happened here and what it means about what might be happening when you listen to Hamas official Hazi Hamid committing just yesterday to redo the October 7th massacre as many times as possible. It's clear there's really no other way than to go all the way. The idea for revealing today yet another intercepted conversation during the Barbarica massacre between two terrorists from Hamas's command of forces. Take a listen. This is just yet another documentation of what unfolded during the massacre of October 7th, and yet all the proof in the world will not convince those who refuse to be convinced or rather those who decided that massacres and pure acts of terrorist evil are A-okay, even liberal because if you're currently in an elite campus by any chance nowadays, your day should more or less be comprised of attending a pro Hamas rally and then rushing into ethics class. This is if you want to be considered liberal, radical, chic all the way. And it's not just talk because a Cornell University student appearing in a US court overnight after posting online threats to kill Jews in university wanting to quote rape Jewish women and behead Jewish babies. Yes, Ivy League we're talking about. So the enlightened, be educated intellectuals. And on that point, we want to head to London to speak with Dr. Amira Halper an expert on refugees and media technology. Thank you so very much, Dr. Halperin, for joining us. We've been focusing a lot on what's happening in US campuses, but the situation on UK campuses, not better. We're obviously seeing those mass demonstrations in the streets of London. And in this respect, Dr. Halperin, for years we've been debating here whether being anti-Zionist is necessarily being anti-Semitic, whether anti-Semitism is really that prevalent or just a vocal minority. Bottom line, ever since October 7th, all hell broke loose. Yes, thank you for highlighting this important issue. First, I would like to highlight looking at what you just talked about before I just joined these radicalization and mass stamps relating to continue carrying out attacks and linking this to what the situation here on campuses. So first of all, we have to bear in mind that this is a global problem. Hamas radicalization is not merely in Gaza, it's not merely towards Israelis in Israel, but rather when I worked previously for BBC here and their research radicalization in the UK and we all know that the threat is very much evident also in the UK. Relating to campuses, we have major problems on campuses, but it's not only the activities of students, it's not only the atmosphere, the toxic atmosphere, it's much more, it's a profound problem of prominent scholars and prominent professors that the gap between their intellectual, like you highlighted, their intellectual insights, their academic work and their daily activities is huge because I conducted my PhD here, I work in the UK for many years in academia. And I can see this, for example, how senior professors post on Facebook messages that are, I wouldn't say pro-Palestine, I would say messages that are ruining any opportunity for these two communities to live side by side without daily clashes and I would just like to explain what I mean. When we are talking about Palestine, when we are looking at these phrases being repeated by professors at universities, being repeated by the media by- From the river to the sea, these are usually people who allegedly support a two-state solution, they not understand that the meaning of from the river to the sea is no Jewish state, no Jews. No Jew, yes, but there is, yes, I agree with you. And also, when I conducted my interviews for my research with Palestinians, both Hamas and Fatah members, the main political issue, the main political problem they are facing with is the fact that they are stressing they don't have a state, that the Palestinians are stateless. So when we see people here in the UK or elsewhere talking about the fact that there is a need to free Palestine, there is misunderstanding about the perception because there is no Palestine, there is no state, this is exactly what our Palestinians are saying, this is what they are fighting for. So we need to look at it differently. So it's not problem of Palestine. They don't... If anything, but the Palestinians should be freed from Hamas that would undermine any prospects for a solution to this issue. Dr. Halperin, what are the tools to battle this far too common notion in British universities and among the British public, the British administration, it is perhaps important to note at this point of our conversation, is siding with Israel, siding with truth and taking action against some of them. But what are the tools to fight it? Is it the lost battle? No, it's not a lost battle, but it's going to be worse. And the reason is that as we hear there are many refugees now from Gaza that might arrive to the UK, to the US, different countries. So the problem is a global problem. It's not a regional problem. It's not a problem that is basically evident only in Israel and in Gaza and the West Bank. It's going to be a global problem. And so if you ask me about tools and about solutions, it should be also global collaboration between governments because otherwise there will be no solution for this. Because as we know, the problem, for example, that we saw in the past when I interviewed in 2003 at the time I interviewed the family of the terrorists that carried out, the British terrorists that carried out an attack in Tel Aviv. So what we saw is the problem of integration. He lived in the UK, very educated, but he didn't feel integrated into society. The problem is more Palestinians or refugees will come arrive to the UK. They will not be very much integrated. So the tools are education, education, education. We should be more, there should be more training of journalists and that universities about what does it mean? What does it mean this conflict? Well, unfortunately universities at the moment are siding with lies and with the forces of darkness, whether it's due to ignorance or because of this progressive liberal notion. Yeah, no battle should be declared lost without a fight. That's for certain. Dr. Amira Halper and Expert on Refugees and Media Technology joining us from London. Thank you very much for this conversation, Dr. Halper, and we appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Back here in the studio with Colonel Agrića Kobović, Colonel Agrića Kobović, before we wrap up by this broadcast, as we've been talking earlier, it is day six of the operations underground. We're still expecting long weeks ahead of that. What would you dub as the main objectives, knowing that time is not unlimited when we're talking about the international backing or perhaps more importantly, American backing? Yeah. We have two major things. One is the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Yes or no, it depends on how will the Western world and the Arab world will look at it. If they will blame Hamas or they will expect us to solve the problem without achieving what we actually want is to release. It's to let our people go. This is number one. So there will be huge pressure on fuel and let's not forget. Fuel fuels terror as simple as it is in Gaza. And number two, we should wait and see are we expected to see another front opened from the Golan Heights. And this is, I think, one of the most important thing that we need to be with our hand on the pulse and wait for tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday. Those are the critical hours. So in terms of circling back to the humanitarian issue or the humanitarian corridor, we are seeing today or are about to see today around 400 foreigners leaving the Gaza Strip through the Ralfa Cross. I think already, already left. We already did. And some several dozen, 60 or so injured. We're likely to see more of that in the coming days. And that should by time, to an extent. Yeah, we are doing it because we are, first of all, human beings. We fight to go into international law. And yes, nobody wants to punish the people of Gaza. Although Hamas is Gaza, and Gaza is Hamas. But I want to mention two things, OK? Two things are breaking the spirit. Two things breaking the spirit of Gaza. One, the IDF is inside. It's like the fortress that Sylvain is talking about. The IDF is in. And number two, it's the back that they feel from the Arab world. Right, right. They wanted to see the unity, the pressure. Everything going on fire. It's not only, they say, OK, 1.5 billion Muslims. And do nothing. Well, let's hope it stays that way. We do not mind it. That's for certain. Thank you very much, Colonel Yakubovich. We'll be back at the top of the hour. 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. But in 100 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. Come to the special broadcast here at 924 News as we continue our rolling coverage on day 27 of the war here in Israel. On the southern front, day six of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip, heavy barrages of rockets towards the Beersheba area this hour. The IDF is pushing forward with its ground offensive, killing dozens of terrorists over night. As troops breach Hamas' first line of defense and approach to Gaza City, a white-skill operation to destroy Hamas' terror tunnels underway. These advancements come at a heavy price. 18 Israeli soldiers have been killed so far in the battle. In the West Bank, an Israeli man murdered in a shooting attack. Israeli defense forces setting up road blockades in the area. An active manhunt for the suspected terrorist, still ongoing since the beginning of the war, over 740 Hamas operatives have been arrested across the West Bank and in the North sirens in the upper and western Galilee scrimmages between his volunteer squads and Israeli forces continue. And as we speak, once again, a barrage of rockets towards Israel's south, again, the Beersheba area, the Beersheba city and its surroundings. Israeli Prime Minister, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaking twice, 24 news earlier today and warning ahead of unexpected speech, first speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Astrola tomorrow that Hezbollah should rethink and then perhaps think again if it really wants to provoke Israeli patients. I think Hezbollah should take into account that the degree of destruction that they will bring upon Lebanon, if they start up with us, it will be immense. And Nasrallah previously said about the second Lebanon war, which I participated in, that had he known of the... And we want to take a listen now to IDF chief of staff, Ertilevi speaking this hour. Mohammad Zahal, who are living in the last few years, operating those recent days in the Gaza Strip, they're deepening the ground operation and we're deepening our advancing, rather the achievements as well. The forces are fighting in an urban tight area, complex one. It requires a very professional fighting and lots of courage. The land forces are accompanied by direct intelligence, specific intelligence and fire from the air and from the sea. This partnership, this cooperation, this is our secret. It accelerates the achievements. It makes the fighting much more effective. The fighters are conducting face-to-face battles with a brutal enemy. But they work, they operate out of a very clear principle. The spirit of the Israeli society, the just battle of the state of Israel is accompanying them in every single step. There's a heavy, painful price to this war and it is part of our ability to secure our existence here. We are embracing, closely embracing the families of the fallen soldiers and with their spirit and memory we will continue until we win. This week we were all emotional when a soldier, Private Ori Megidish, returned to her family. It was a very emotional moment for all of us and I'm allowing myself to say that after vast years of service it was a complicated, complex night with some difficult decisions to be made, but we succeeded. Ori, of course, is a full universe on her own, but this is, but we do know it's only a drop in the sea. We have a profound commitment to do everything, everything we can to bring back the hostages, all of them. We are maintaining our maneuverability in all the different fronts. In the north, vis-a-vis Hezbollah and in the West Bank, against Hamas operatives and we are always constantly ready for the expansion of the fighting on all the different fronts. The Air Force is operating in the Gaza Strip with great might, with great force and excelling in doing so, but we are, but you should understand it. We are using only half of the aerial ability of the IAF, of the Israeli Air Force. There are pilots who are ready at any given moment to hop on a plane and head to the battlefield as the battle required, as much as the ground needs it to. We are fighting for the sanctity of life against an enemy that is operating with death and destruction, out of death and destruction and we are fighting for our existence, for our right to be in our homeland. This is our country. We do not have any other country. This is our homeland. We are acting forcefully, cool-headedly and resolutely with very clear moral compass to fight over these things, those things that based on them, our country was established upon. The IDF is fighting at the forefront but is not forgetting the home front, our soldiers, the Israeli soldiers are also in the different communities with the refugees, with the bereaved families, with the families of the hostages. This is a national, a wide-scale national effort that is all driven and focused on bringing good. We will continue this battle with the home front in our hearts, the Israeli people strengthening us and we will not forget for a second what are we fighting about, a kid riding his bicycle in a kibbutz, a couple on their day of marriage, our grandmothers, our grandfathers, the founders of this nation, those who are trusting us to fight for them, for us, we will fight for the life of a free nation in its homeland. The army of the people is derived from the people and its mission is to solidify and maintain our existence here in our country, in our homeland. In recent days, I've been touring the forces underground I've met reservists who came from all across the universe, all across the world to take part in this privilege of fighting for the country. I've met soldiers who just finished their boot camp, their training, and they're insisting on being part of the battle to be part of this fight to protect the homeland. I am meeting commanders who are leading their people with great bravery, with determination, all of this with great professional talent, military talent. I am proud to be standing at the forefront of the IDF and I know, and I want to tell you that the Israeli people can trust the IDF to protect them, to protect the homeland. Question is now being asked, the IDF chief of staff addressing the nation this afternoon on day 27 of the war here in Israel, day six of the operation, the ground operation in the Gaza Strip. The IDF chief of staff been underground. The Gaza Strip looks different compared to what it looked like a month ago. The address responsible to the way the Gaza Strip looks like today is Hamas. This war began after a heinous assault a massacre on behalf of Hamas. So we approached action with a very clear objective to dismantle the Hamas-Sera group and to create the best conditions to bring back all the hostages. What we need to do in order to achieve these objectives we will do. The IDF is doing it not in order to harm any civilians or damage those who are not involved, but an enemy that is using the public as human shields is part of the battle. We have the ability in the IDF to use the best military technologies once you embark on a battle. There are risks, no defense mechanism can provide 100% of defense. Our forces were shot at or fired at. So far we have very few casualties. The equipment, the tanks are working very well altogether, but yes, there are incidents in which things are happening differently. In every confrontation we had with Hamas operatives, Hamas terrorists in recent days, every single time the IDF soldiers won the battle every single time. Dozens and dozens of Hamas terrorists are being killed every single day and we'll continue with that day and night. All right, and this is the IDF Chief of Staff Heratia Levy speaking this afternoon, speaking to the nation, joining us now here in studio, Mr. Nathaniel Shurok, a Middle East analyst in our very own I-24 News, a senior editor and senior correspondent, Guy Israel. Guy, very significant, meaningful address by the IDF, a Chief of Staff this afternoon as we are amidst, I wouldn't say the ground operation, but a very evident ground operations. And he's discussing the achievements that have been made so far and also pointing out what we should be looking ahead towards. Yes, I think, Ellie, beyond the statement that we just heard, a recorded statement from just a few minutes ago, the big headline coming out of Heratia Levy from the Chief of Staff this evening, answering a question from our colleagues at the Cannes Broadcasting Authority, confirming that fuel will be transferred to the Gaza Strip into hospitals and he says under our supervision, we do not know what would that mean, what sort of supervision can Israel provide so that fuel does go to the needs of hospitals and not to the hands of Hamas, as we know very well, that Hamas is using the infrastructure of these hospitals with its underground tunnels under the hospitals, how do you really differentiate between fuel that goes into the hospitals and those that go into the hands of Hamas? So a significant statement there and that is, of course, following the very heavy pressure from the Americans for more humanitarian aid and that is something that both the Israeli government but more than that, the families of over 240 kidnapped are saying no to, have been saying no to, no to any aid before we at least hear something about the condition, the well-being of those 240 and more Israelis at the end of Hamas, nonetheless, that confirmation from Heratia Levy. Yes, and he speaks about the idea of operation, obviously one that also has a heavy toll in terms of casualties to the IDF who's seen 18 IDF soldiers and officers killed already in this ground operation, something that is painful for the Israeli. When you listen to their families in recent days, every single one of them at this moment of such profound grief, they're saying, all we want is their death not to be in vain. Incredible. And this is perhaps a demonstration of this Israeli resilience. We keep on talking about the sacrifice that the Israeli public is willing to make nowadays in order to conclude a job. And guys, before we continue to unpack that, we do want to turn now to Dr. Irana Lehm and Vice President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, former Department Director of Foreign Policy and International Affairs, the International Security Council, the Prime Minister's Office. Thank you very much, Dr. Alemina, for joining us. You've been listening together with us to the idea of Chief of Staff. And guys, real here in studio mentioned, Dr. Alemina, the issue of fuel and in this respect, it is important to stress that fuel fuels terrorism, no other way to put it. And as we speak, a report on NBC suggesting that Hamas is currently, currently obtains around 200,000 gallons of fuel for terror purposes, mostly of course, rocket fire and electricity supply to the underground metro. And yet we keep on talking about new fuel entering district. Try to help us wrap our minds around it. I think the easiest way to organize our thoughts on this question is to remember that there's no longer a Gaza Strip. There are two different regions. South of Gaza Valley or Creek, the idea has a, and north of it. The IDF has basically organized its operations along this principle distinction from basically from day one or day three, when once we cleared out the penetrations of October 7. And the notion is this, the main command structure, the main combat capabilities, the governance infrastructure of Hamas are all concentrated in Gaza, sitting north. And this is where the IDF is fighting. Essentially without going into detail, we can gain the impression that the IDF is broken through the second line of Hamas defenses and is coming and closing in on the Gaza complex itself. This is still a large city with an extremely complex fighting environment that's not going to be easy or simple. It's possible to isolate the battlefield in that segment from the south, where we have been suggesting, forcefully, to the people of Gaza City and its suburbs and adjoining towns to move south and concentrate there, where they need to be fed, housed, or at least temporarily treated medically. And so the Egyptians are establishing a field hospital on their side of the border, but this is clearly not going to be enough. So we're drawing a distinction between the battlefield and the humanitarian refuge area to the south of it. What will happen in the next stage once Hamas is destroyed as a fighting force, as a government, as an entity in the area, in the Gaza City area, will depend on whether or not they will collapse all together or will try to, the remnants will try to melt into the south, and there we will have a different situation. So right now this is the distinction, and this also explains the humanitarian corridors and so on. It accords with the IDF interest to clear the northern area of the uninvolved. Right, so Dr. Lerman, I want to join Mr. Nathaniel Shoraki into our conversation here in the studio because Dr. Lerman is suggesting that the IDF is essentially encircling, dismembering the Gaza Strip, splitting it into, secluding the fighting areas, let's put it that way, and so in terms of the objectives of the fighting, there are no reservations in terms of fuel or humanitarian aid entering the southern part of the Strip, quite the contrary, perhaps helping the efforts on the ground. Well, basically this was very well explained that there is a kind of humanitarian area and a fighting area. Now, the question is, it's not sustainable. Obviously the fighting is gonna happen in the south as well, so that will present us with humanitarian difficulties, but fundamentally, we keep hearing terms in terms of the end game being already at hand when Hamas collapses, when Hamas is eradicated, and that worries me a little bit because it's not as simple as that, and I'm not even sure it is the actual goal of this operation. I'm not sure it is possible to do this, and I'm not sure it is what the Israeli Army has in mind. Without a total occupation of Gaza, and that could be an option, and it doesn't seem to be the option, it's not the one that's stated. It's very complicated to destroy a guerrilla terrorist group. We keep saying that, but the problem is, we also keep saying things like when Hamas collapses, as if it was able to collapse if we just strike beneath it. It's not how it works. No guerrilla organization was ever annihilated that way, unless it is on a reconquest terrain, which was the case with Daesh, with Islamic State. This is absolutely not what we're talking about here with Hamas. So a point of caution here, what is the end game of the Israeli Army? And if it's indeed the eradication of Hamas, how do we do that? How does it look like? It looks like it's that. It's a stated game, and that there's clear communications reason why it is the game, whether it's doable technically in such a complex terrain, without either occupying or eradicating the entirety of the Gaza Strip. So essentially, if I understand correctly, Mr. Sharaki, you're wondering what is the transition from stage two to stage three is going to look like. If we have now moved from stage one to stage two, which is the fighting, the fighting leads where? Yeah, what is stage three? Oh, I mean, stage three can be something, but stage four, what is it? Right, Dr. Lerman, stage three, do you have any illustration of what it looks like or how we get it? Not yet. Not yet. I don't know how to count stages. We are already in stage three, in a sense, in stage four and five ahead of us, but stage one, one, of course, was clearing the western negative of infiltrators. Stage two was preparing the battlefield to use the question military language, air force and artillery and so on. Now we are at stage three. Stage four will be the actual destruction of Hamas as a government, as a structured organization, and then we shall have to watch and see if this actually breaks their capacity to continue and conduct operations because they're no longer a terrorist organization in the old sense, a cell here and a cell there. This is a military of sorts with their capabilities, having changed quite dramatically. And once these capabilities are broken, we shall have, we, of course, have to be ready for the possibility of a prolonged counterinsurgency situation. We have to bear in mind in the south that we are not the only interested player. Egypt also will have to have cast an eye on what happens there because the last thing they want is for the uprooted population in Gaza to spill over the border. So we are just at the beginning of a long and very complicated set of changes in the very nature of governance in Gaza. And ultimately, the IDF does not want to stay there and rule, but as a transitional phase, in at least the key parts of Gaza, we are going to go in very deep and eradicate Hamas as a government system and as a terrorist organization. By the way, we should mention, we keep talking about Hamas. We should also mention Palestinian Islamic jihad. They're a smaller but nasty sister and the 100% owned Iranian proxy in this game. Yes, Mr. Jorger briefly before we head up north. Absolutely. I think we're now zeroing in on something that's much more realistic when you talk about a long war and a counterinsurgency because this is what is going to happen if this operation continues. And counterinsurgency obviously brings back memories of Iraq and Afghanistan. And we know these battles are very, very, very difficult to win if winnable at all. They're tall, yeah. So these are the things that this Syrian minister that used to say, the post-war is to be planned when the war is starting. And these are the questions we should be asking right now. How far are we willing to go and how do you destroy Hamas as a government, as was just said, when Hamas's legitimacy as a government is ideological and not technical? Right, the roots and the Muslim Brotherhood, the social infrastructures to yes, to win hearts and minds also by force but also to win hearts and minds. But in that respect, Mr. Sharkey perhaps are a little caveat. Obviously there's American trauma of the no exit point from Iraq and Afghanistan. And yet the fighting in Gaza is not parallel to the fighting in Mosul in many ways. And first and foremost, simply due to the fact that this is the same building, not- Absolutely, and that makes it more complicated because Mosul could be reconquered. Right, right, right. We're not sure it's the case with Gaza. Does Israel want to reconquer? And it just so happens that this war was forced on Israel. It's not as if Israel planned on going full steam there. They don't have the cards, yeah. Didn't have any other options. For certain. Well, gentlemen, as we speak, we just say that. Yes, Dr. Lerman, briefly, before we had to correspond up north, yeah. The reason the IDF was not eager to conquer Gaza was not its fear of casualties. Well, obviously, this engagement was a very, yeah. The idea, what do we do with it when we have it? But by now, the question is moved. Yes, indeed. We have to really need to conquer. You're right, right, right. I'm not sure about this. I think that's the question. We will put a stop right here, gentlemen, because we do want to head up north. I-24 news correspondent, Piyasek Abok, joining us from there, Pia, in the last hour. Red Sirens alert in the western and upper Galilee. What can you tell us? Right, Eli, we are talking about Redalot in different communities there, about a bit more than half an hour ago in the western part of the Galilee, in the community of Arab Al-Aramshah, then in the central part of the upper Galilee, in Avivim, and then also in the eastern part of Misgaf, Redalot, Sirens. We're talking about a large amount of anti-tank missiles and mortar shells being launched from southern Lebanon. Now also a couple of minutes ago, again Redalot in Avivim, which is a locality that hosts an army base that has been targeted by both mortar shells and anti-tank missiles quite a few times in recent weeks since the beginning of the war. And this is what usually happens, that squads in southern Lebanon target specifically localities that host army bases. But of course, we're talking about a mountainous region. The communities that are located right behind these mountains are of course also being targeted there. And we're talking about communities that have already been largely, widely evacuated. So once you are there and you hear Redalot, you have about also 15 seconds to get to a safe space there. This is also why very few citizens have remained in these communities. And as we're speaking about different localities that have been targeted there, which indicates that this has been a coordinated attack there. The incident is still ongoing as per protocol. The Israeli forces are striking back towards the origins of the fire in southern Lebanon. And this of course, all that is coming out of southern Lebanon now has to be seen as possible preparation ahead of tomorrow. The announced speech of Hassan Asrallah, the leader of Hezbollah tomorrow announced for 3 p.m. local time, possibly showcasing strength from side of Hezbollah. But we do know that we're also speaking about other militias operating in southern Lebanon, Palestinian militias. And just today, an Arabic spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces announced that we are also talking about another militia that has been founded in Syria, the Imam Hussein Brigades that also have been seen operating there in southern Lebanon. So we're speaking about multiple militias there. Hezbollah is seen as the landlord, if you will, there. Elliot, it remains to be seen what Hassan Asrallah will announce tomorrow. Yes, and obviously many domestic considerations Hassan Asrallah will have to take into calculation all ahead of the speech tomorrow. Hi, 24 News Correspondents, P.S. Takabakh. Thank you very much for this, much more from P.A. throughout the evening. Dr. Lehmann, very briefly, if you can, sir, we don't want to help Nasrallah's PR ahead of his speech tomorrow. And yet we are waiting to hear not just the what, but the how, if you will. Well, I think the considerations that have weighed down on Hezbollah and his Iranian sponsors are still there. First of all, the IDF is in the north in full mobilization. It's armored formations. Have more people showing up for reserve service than were called up. And it's in full complement. And the Air Force, while still needed in the south, can swing its capacity north. Yes, and IDF chief of staff at the level was talking about only 50% of usage of the Israeli Air Force activities. Unfortunately, the cost for Lebanon would be immense. So four considerations. Dr. Lehmann, unfortunately, we will have to say on our toes because this is all the time we have, but we will get back to you later on in our broadcast. So to hear those four points, thank you very much, Dr. Lehmann, for your time, for your insight. We appreciate it. Mr. Nathan Elsharaki here in Studio I-24 News, our senior editor and correspondent, Guy Israel. This is it from us. We'll be back at the top of the hour with all the latest updates, day 27 of the war here in Israel. This week on News 24, Israel under attack. News 24 in Spanish brings the analysis and the information of the events of the war, Spades of Iron. Exclusive interviews and reports from the war zone, the reaction of the Spanish-speaking countries. News 24, the only comedian in Spanish that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community in Israel. News 24, only on I-24 News. Welcome to the special broadcast here on I-24 News as we continue our rolling coverage on day 27 of the war here in Israel. On the southern front, day six of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip, heavy barrages of rockets towards the Beersheba area this hour. The IDF is pushing forward with its ground offensive, killing dozens of terrorists overnight as troops breach Hamas' first line of defense and approach Gaza City. A wide-scale operation to destroy Hamas' terror tunnels underway. These advancements come at a heavy price. 18 Israeli soldiers have been killed so far in the battle. In the West Bank, an Israeli man murdered in a shooting attack. Israeli defense forces setting up road blockades in the area. An active manhunt for the suspected terrorist still ongoing. Since the beginning of the war, over 740 Hamas operatives have been arrested across the West Bank and in the North sirens in the upper and western Galilee scrimmages between his volunteer squad and Israeli forces continue. And as we speak, once again, a barrage of rockets towards Israel's south. Again, the Beersheba area, the Beersheba city and its surroundings. Israeli Prime Minister, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has speaking twice, 24 news earlier today and warning ahead of an expected speech, first speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Astrola tomorrow that Hezbollah should rethink and then perhaps think again if it really wants to provoke Israeli patients. I think Hezbollah should take into account that the degree of destruction that they will bring upon Lebanon. If they start up with us, it will be immense. And Nasrallah previously said about the second Lebanon war, which I participated in, that had he known of the... And we want to take a listen now to IDF Chief of Staff, Ertilevi speaking this hour. The IDF wars are operating those recent days in the Gaza Strip. They're deepening the ground operation and we're deepening our advancing, rather the achievements as well. The forces are fighting in an urban tight area, complex one, it requires a very professional fighting and lots of courage. The land forces are accompanied by direct intelligence, specific intelligence and fire from the air and from the sea. This partnership, this cooperation, this is our secret. It accelerates the achievements. It makes the fighting much more effective. The fighters are conducting face-to-face battles with a brutal enemy. But they operate out of a very clear principle. The spirit of the Israeli society, the just battle of the state of Israel is accompanying them in every single step. There's a heavy, painful price to this war and it is part of our ability to secure our existence here. We are embracing, closely embracing the families of the fallen soldiers and with their spirit and memory, we will continue until we win. This week, we were all emotional when a soldier, Private Ori Megidish, returned to her family. It was a very emotional moment for all of us and I'm allowing myself to say that after vast years of service, it was a complicated, complex night with some difficult decisions to be made, but we succeeded. Ori, of course, is a full universe on her own, but we do know it's only a drop in the sea. We have a profound commitment to do everything, everything we can to bring back the hostages, all of them. We are maintaining our maneuverability on all the different fronts in the north, Vis-a-vis Hezbollah, and in the West Bank against Hamas operatives, and we are always constantly ready for the expansion of the fighting on all the different fronts. The air force is operating in the Gaza Strip with great might, with great force and excelling in doing so, but we are, but you should understand it, we are using only half of the aerial ability of the IAF, of the Israeli Air Force. There are pilots who are ready at any given moment to hop on a plane and head to the battlefield as the battle required, as much as the ground needs it to. We are fighting for the sanctity of life against an enemy that is operating with death and destruction, out of death and destruction, and we are fighting for our existence, for our right to be in our homeland. This is our country. We do not have any other country. This is our homeland. We are acting forcefully, cool-headedly, and resolutely with a very clear moral compass to fight over these things, those things that, based on them, our country was established upon. The IDF is fighting at the forefront, but is not forgetting the home front are soldiers, the Israeli soldiers are also in the different communities with the refugees, with the bereaved families, with the families of the hostages. This is a national, a wide-scale national effort that is all driven and focused on bringing good. We will continue this battle with the home front in our hearts, the Israeli people strengthening us, and we will not forget for a second what are we fighting about? A kid riding his bicycle in a kibbutz, a couple on their day of marriage, our grandmothers, our grandfathers, the founders of this nation, those who are trusting us to fight for them, for us. We will fight for the life of a free nation in its homeland. The army of the people is derived from the people and its mission is to solidify and maintain our existence here in our country, in our homeland. In recent days, I've been touring the forces on the ground of Matt Reservist, who came from all across the universe, all across the world to take part in this privilege of fighting for the country. I've met soldiers who just finished their boot camp, their training, and they're insisting on being part of the battle, to be part of this fight to protect the homeland. I am meeting commanders who are leading their people with great bravery, with determination, all of this with great professional talent, military talent. I am proud to be standing at the forefront of the IDF and I know, and I want to tell you that the Israeli people can trust the IDF to protect them, to protect the homeland. Question is now being asked. The IDF Chief of Staff addressing the nation this afternoon on day 27 of the war here in Israel. Day six of the operation, the ground operation in the Gaza Strip. The IDF Chief of Staff been underground. The Gaza Strip looks different compared to what it looked like a month ago. The address responsible to the way the Gaza Strip looks like today is Hamas. This war began after a heinous assault, a massacre on behalf of Hamas. So we approached action with a very clear objective to dismantle the Hamas-era group and to create the best conditions to bring back all the hostages. What we need to do in order to achieve these objectives, we will do. The IDF is doing it not in order to harm any civilians or damage those who are not involved, but an enemy that is using the public as human shields is part of the battle. We have the ability in the IDF to use the best military technologies. Once you embark on a battle, there are risks. No defense mechanism can provide 100% of defense. Our forces were shot at or fired at. So far, we have very few casualties. The equipment, the tanks are working very well altogether, but yes, there are incidents in which things are happening differently. In every confrontation we had with Hamas operatives, Hamas terrorists in recent days, every single time the IDF soldiers won the battle every single time. Dozens and dozens of Hamas terrorists are being killed every single day and we'll continue with that day and night. All right, and this is the IDF Chief of Staff, Herzia Levy speaking this afternoon, speaking to the nation, joining us now here in studio, Mr. Nathaniel Shorok, community analyst in our very own I-24 News, a senior editor and senior correspondent, Guy Israel, a guy, very significant meaningful address by the IDF Chief of Staff this afternoon, as we are amidst, I wouldn't say the ground operation, but a very evident ground operations. And he's discussing the achievements that have been made so far and also pointing out what we should be looking ahead towards. Yes, I think, Ellie, beyond the statement that we just heard, a recorded statement from just a few minutes ago, the big headline coming out of Herzia Levy from the Chief of Staff this evening, answering a question from our colleagues at the Khan Broadcasting Authority, confirming that fuel will be transferred to the Gaza Strip into hospitals. And he says under our supervision, we do not know what would that mean, what sort of supervision can Israel provide so that fuel does go to the needs of hospitals and not to the hands of Hamas, as we know very well, that Hamas is using the infrastructure of these hospitals with its underground tunnels under the hospitals. How do you really differentiate between fuel that goes into the hospitals and those that go into the hands of Hamas? So a significant statement there, and that is, of course, following the very heavy pressure from the Americans for more humanitarian aid, and that is something that both the Israeli government, but more than that, the families of over 240 kidnapped are saying no to, have been saying no to, no to any aid before we at least hear something about the condition, the well-being of those 240 more Israelis at the hands of Hamas, nonetheless, that confirmation from Herzi Halevi. Yes, and he speaks about the IDF operation, obviously one that also has a heavy toll in terms of casualties to the IDF. We've seen 18 IDF soldiers and officers killed already in this ground operation, something that is painful for the Israeli... Yet when you listen to their families in recent days, every single one of them at this moment of such profound grief, they're saying, all we want is their death not to be in vain. Incredible. And this is perhaps a demonstration of this Israeli resilience. We keep on talking about the sacrifice that the Israeli public is willing to make nowadays in order to conclude a job. And guys, before we continue to unpack that, we do want to turn now to Dr. Ilrana Lehmann, Vice President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, former Department Director of Foreign Policy and International Affairs at the National Security Council at the Prime Minister's office. Thank you very much, Dr. Ilrmann, for joining us. Together with us to the IDF Chief of Staff. And guys, real here in studio mentioned, Dr. Ilrmann, the issue of fuel and in this respect, it is important to stress that fuel fuels terrorism. No other way to put it. And as we speak, a report on NBC suggesting that Hamas is currently... currently obtains around 200,000 gallons of fuel for terror purposes. Mostly, of course, rocket fire and electricity supply to the underground metro. So... And yet we keep on talking about new fuel entering the strip. Try to help us wrap our minds around it. I think the easiest way to organize our thoughts on this question is to remember that there's no longer a Gaza strip. There are two different regions. South of Gaza Valley, or Creek, the IDF has basically organized its operations along this principal distinction from basically from day one or day three when once we cleared out the penetrations of October 7th. And the notion is this. The main command structure, the main combat capabilities, the governance infrastructure of Hamas are all concentrated in Gaza sitting north. And this is where the IDF is fighting. Essentially, without going into detail, we can gain the impression that the IDF is now broken through the second line of Hamas defenses. And it's coming and closing in on the Gaza complex itself. This is still a large city with an extremely complex fighting environment that's not going to be easy or simple. And it's possible to isolate the battlefield in that segment from the south where we have been suggesting, forcefully, to all the people of Gaza city and its suburbs and adjoining towns to move south and concentrate there where they need to be fed, housed, or at least temporarily treated medically. And so the Egyptians are establishing a field hospital on their side of the border, but this is clearly not going to be enough. So we're drawing a distinction between the battlefield and the humanitarian refuge area to the south of it. What will happen in the next stage once Hamas is destroyed as a fighting force, as a government, as an entity in the Gaza city area, will depend on whether or not they will collapse altogether or will try to, the remnants will try to melt into the south, and there we will have a different situation. Right now this is the distinction, and this also explains the humanitarian corridors and so on. It accords with the IDF interest to clear the northern area of the uninvolved. Right, so Dr. Lerman, I want to join Mr. Nathaniel Sharake into our conversation here in the studio, because Dr. Lerman is suggesting that the IDF is essentially encircling, dismembering the Gaza Strip, splitting it into, secluding the fighting areas, let's put it that way. And so in terms of the objectives of the fighting, there are no reservations in terms of fuel or humanitarian aid entering the southern part of the Strip, quite the contrary perhaps, helping the efforts underground. Well, basically this was very well explained that there is a kind of humanitarian area and a fighting area. Now, the question is, it's not sustainable. Obviously the fighting is going to happen in the south as well, so that will present us with humanitarian difficulties. But fundamentally, we keep hearing terms in terms of the end game being already at hand when Hamas collapses, when Hamas is eradicated. And that worries me a little bit, because it's not as simple as that. And I'm not even sure it is the actual goal of this operation. It's possible to do this. And I'm not sure it is what the Israeli army has in mind, without a total occupation of Gaza. And that could be an option, and it doesn't seem to be the option. It's not the one that's stated. It's very complicated to destroy a guerrilla terrorist group. We keep saying that, but the problem is, we also keep saying things like when Hamas collapses, as if it was able to collapse if we just strike beneath it. It's not how it works. No guerrilla organization was ever annihilated that way, unless it is on a reconquest terrain, which was the case with Daesh, with Islamic State. This is absolutely not what we're talking about here with Hamas. So a point of caution here. What is the end game of the Israeli army? And if it's indeed the eradication of Hamas, how do we do that? It looks like. It looks like it's that. There's a stated game, and there's a clear communications reason why it is the game, whether it's doable technically in such a complex terrain without either occupying or eradicating the entirety of the Gaza Strip. So essentially, if I understand correctly, Mr. Sharaki, you're wondering what is the transition from stage two to stage three is going to look like. If we have now moved from stage one to stage two, which is the fighting, the fighting leads where? Yeah, what is stage three? I mean, stage three can be something, but stage four, what is it? Right. Dr. Lerman, stage three, do you have any illustration of what it looks like or how we get there? Not yet. I don't know how to count stages. Fair enough. Stage three, in a sense. In stage four and five ahead of us. But stage one, of course, was clearing the western Negevara of infiltrators. Stage two was preparing the battlefield to use the question of military language, Air Force and artillery and so on. Now we are at stage three. Stage four will be the actual destruction of Hamas as a government, as a structured organization. And then we shall have to watch and see if this actually breaks their capacity to continue and conduct operations because they're no longer terrorist organization in the old sense, you know, a cell here or in the cell there. This is a military of sorts with their capabilities having changed quite dramatically. And once these capabilities are broken, we shall have, we of course have to be ready for the possibility of a prolonged counter insurgency situation. We have to bear in mind in the south that we are not the only interested player. In Egypt also we'll have to have cast an eye on what happens there because the last thing they want is for the uprooted population in Gaza to spill over the border. So we are just at the beginning of a long and very complicated set of changes in the very nature of governance in Gaza. And ultimately the IDF does not want to stay there and rule, but as a transitional phase in at least the key parts of Gaza we are going to go in very deep and eradicate Hamas as a government system and as a terrorist organization. By the way, we should mention, we keep talking about Hamas, we should also mention Palestinian Islamic jihad, the smaller but nasty sister and the 100% owned Iranian proxy in this game. Yes. Mr. Sharper before we head up north. Absolutely. I think we're now zeroing in on something that's much more realistic when you talk about a long war and a counter insurgency because this is what is going to happen if this operation continues and counter insurgency obviously brings back memories of Iraq and Afghanistan. And we know these battles are very, very, very difficult to win if winnable at all. So these are the things that this Syrian minister that used to say, the post-war is to be planned when the war is starting. And these are the questions we should be asking right now. How far are we willing to go and how do you destroy Hamas as a government, as was just said, when Hamas's legitimacy as a government is ideological and not technical? Right. The roots and the Muslim Brotherhood, the social infrastructures to yes, to win hearts and minds also by force, but also to win hearts and minds. But in that respect, Mr. Sharkey, perhaps a little caveat. Obviously there's American trauma of the no exit point from Iraq and Afghanistan. And yet the fighting in Gaza is not parallel to the fighting in Mosul in many ways. And first and foremost simply due to the fact that this is the same building. Absolutely. And that makes it more complicated because Mosul could be reconquered. Right, right, right. We're not sure it's the case with Gaza. Does Israel want to reconquer it? And it just so happens that this war was forced on Israel. It's not as if Israel planned on going full steam there. They didn't have the cards. Yeah. They didn't have any other options. For certain. Well, gentlemen, as we speak. As we just said, Dr. Yes, Dr. Larman, briefly before we had your correspondent up north. Yes. The reason the IDF was not eager to conquer Gaza was not its fear of casualty. Well, obviously this engagement was a very, yeah. The idea, what do we do with it when we have it? But by now, the question is moved. Yes. Yes, indeed. We really need to conquer. Right, right, right. I'll throw down this. I think that's the question. Well, we'll put a stop right here. Gentlemen, because we do want to head up north at 24 News Correspondents, P.S. Zuckerberg joining us from there, Pia, in the last hour. Red Sirens alert in the western and upper Galilee. What can you tell us? Right. We're talking about Redalot in different communities there about a bit more than half an hour ago in the western part of the Galilee, in the community of Arab Al-Aramsh, then in the central part of the upper Galilee in Avivim, and then also in the eastern part of Misgaf, Redalot Sirens. We're talking about a large amount of anti-tank missiles and mortar shells being launched from southern Lebanon. Now, also a couple of minutes ago, again, Redalot in Avivim, which is a locality that hosts an army base that has been targeted by both mortar shells and anti-tank missiles quite a few times in recent weeks since the beginning of the war. And this is what usually happens, that squads in southern Lebanon target specifically localities that host army bases. But of course, we're talking about a mountainous region. The communities that are located right behind these mountains are, of course, also being targeted there. And we're talking about communities that have already been largely, widely evacuated. So once you are there and you hear Redalot, you have about also 15 seconds to get to a safe space there. This is also why very few citizens have remained in these communities. And as we're speaking about different localities that have been targeted there, which indicates that this has been a coordinated attack there, the incident is still ongoing. As per protocol, the Israeli forces are striking back towards the origins of the fire in southern Lebanon. And this, of course, all that is coming out of southern Lebanon now has to be seen as possible preparation ahead of tomorrow. The announced speech of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah tomorrow announced for 3 p.m. a local time, possibly showcasing strength from the side of Hezbollah. But we do know that we're also speaking about other militias operating in southern Lebanon, Palestinian militias. And just today, an Arabic spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces announced that we are also talking about another militia that has been founded in Syria, the Imam Hassan Brigades that also have been seen operating there in southern Lebanon. So we're speaking about multiple militias there. Hezbollah is seen as the landlord, if you will, there. Elliot, it remains to be seen what Hassan Nasrallah will announce tomorrow. Yes, and obviously many domestic considerations Hassan Nasrallah will have to take into calculation all ahead of the speech tomorrow. I, 24 NewsCrisp, am P.S. Takabakh. Thank you very much for this. Much more from PR throughout the evening. Dr. Lehmann, very briefly, if you can, sir, we don't want to help Nasrallah's PR ahead of his speech tomorrow. And yet we are waiting to hear not just the what, but the how, if you will. Well, I think the considerations that have weighed down on Hezbollah and his Iranian sponsors are still there. First of all, the IDF is in the north in full mobilization. It's armored formations have more people showing up for reserve service than were called up. And it's in full complement. And the Air Force, while still needed in the south, can swing its capacity north. Yes, and an IDF chief of staff, Tel Aviv was talking about only 50 percent of usage of the Israeli Air Force activities, unfortunately. The cost for Lebanon would be immense. So four considerations. Dr. Lehmann, unfortunately, we will have to stay on our toes because this is all the time we have, but we will get back to you later on in our broadcast to hear those four points. Thank you very much, Dr. Lehmann, for your time, for your insight. We appreciate it. Mr. Nathan El-Shuraki here in Studio I-24 News, a senior editor and correspondent. This is it from us. We'll be back at the top of the hour with all the latest updates, day 27 of the war here in Israel. Over 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 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. Welcome to this special broadcast here on I-24 News, as we continue our rolling coverage on day 27 of the war in Israel. Gaza City encircled. The IAF is set to attack on all fronts. We're in it to win it. IDF Chief of Staff Ertile Levy taking the podium this hour as the ground operation in the Gaza Strip is now on its sixth day, and the northern front is heating up with ongoing sirens this afternoon, and Hisbala claimed UAV attacks. So we unpack it all here in studio with Lieutenant Colonel Mr. Doron Avital. Rather, Doron Avital. He has former commander of the Special Forces of the IDF and also here with us in the studio at the I-24 News as senior editor and correspondent Guy Azriel. Thank you, gentlemen. That's over and much for joining us. Lieutenant Colonel Avital, I thought I do want to begin with you, your main takeaways with Alevi's speech, saying again perhaps that this message is heading up north more than it is to the south that the Israeli Air Force is only at 50% capacity, as in there's still a whole lot forced to be used, not just in the south. Exactly. I mean, of course, we are waiting to this speech of Nasrallah. There's a lot of build up for IDF tomorrow, but we have to show him where I think we are prepared. I think it has to be understood that Israel allocated its forces carefully and for sure the Air Force, which is very relevant to the northern command in case Hisbala decides to escalate, and then we'll have to exercise the full force against their missile attacks, which have this range and precision, which is a different level than Hamas, so it was an important notice. And also I think he gave us some encouragement about the way the thing is going now in the south. I mean, we have casualties, but the forces are building up the circling of Gaza. It's going to be a long battle. Yes, and heavy, heavy barrages of rockets now as we speak. Red siren alerts are being heard in Israel's center in the vicinity of the International Ben-Gurion airport in the south and also in the north. So really, yeah, heavy barrages of rockets at this hour as we speak. Guy Israel, we're used to seeing those barrages of rockets from the serpent, and yes, also those skirmishes up in the north, not necessarily all at the same time. Yes, obviously as the idea of continuing its incursion over Gaza city, the ground operation, Hamas has to be more careful about the use of its rockets being very selective and choosing particular times in the evenings. Very often this is what we see, barrages of rockets both towards the center and towards other areas. And this is, as you mentioned, quite a lot happening in the north. We can even hear interceptions from our studios. Yes, quite a lot is happening in the north. The Hezbollah group has announced that it has attacked IDF posts on the border using attack drones. We know that the community of Metoula has some security incident. There's quite a lot happening both on the northern border and around Israel with the rocket fire, and that is natural as Israel increases its pressure on Hamas. Those rockets will be fired as much as Hamas can still do that. Obviously, Israel is trying to reach those launch sites. Many of them are obviously buried underground. The IDF is only still holding on to parts, to very few parts of the Gaza Strip. So it will take quite a long time until we'll see an end to this rocket fire. Nonetheless, Hezbollah is also involved and there's a lot more for Israel to worry about up north. Of course, the West Bank. We had an incident, a terror incident. An Israeli settler was murdered. In the West Bank, we had also the controversy about the money that has to channel to the Palestinian Authority. We need a Palestinian Authority with us in this front. We don't want this front to open. We do a lot of preventive arrest, but there's still terror attacks there. So we have to be very careful about the West Bank. It's a front. Yes, and since the beginning of the war, over 740 Hamas operatives arrested in the West Bank. So the activity there is ongoing. And the fact that we do not hear, quote-unquote, about the West Bank on a daily basis is just because the IDF activities there are extensive and constant. Al-Zan Kernel Abital, I do want to start to shift focus back to what we're saying down south, it is clear that perhaps the main objective at the moment is dividing and conquering, so to speak, as in dividing up the space, the strip differently, including fighting areas, dismembering the strip. Basically, in two halves, the question that we will separate the north from the south, this was the main cry also for the population to go south. And then now closing in, and of course, this is part of the way we do it. And we take strongholds, and then we cut those into areas, and then we try to go into and clean them from tunnels, weaponry, and Hamas headquarters, and Hamas terrorists. So it's a process, and it's not a fast process. It's go inch by inch, as we say. So let's do cross now live to the South. I-24 News Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regive with the I-24 News team there underground. Jonathan, as we were just discussing here in studio, the main goal of encircling Gaza City is gaining steam. And the IDF Chief of Staff, Herzi Alevi, is talking about it this afternoon in his address. And the importance of this main Hamas hub, the both governance and military headquarters in Gaza City, has not just an imperative importance when we're talking about the fighting, but also the symbolism. And symbolism matters here. Exactly. First, just as you mentioned in the studio, the aim is basically to cut the Gaza Strip to two, cut the north from the south. And Israeli forces are nearly there. Let's remember the Gaza Strip is a very narrow place, meaning once you enter the Gaza Strip from the east, making it all the way to the Mediterranean coast is not a lot of distance, but in that short distance, there's plenty of Hamas resistance, not so much direct firefight, but Hamas terrorists coming from the very extensive network of tunnels that they built coming up, rising up for a few seconds, trying to shoot anti-tank missiles or anything they can towards the Israeli forces operating in the area and, again, disappearing under the ground. Having said that, IDF forces are coming in and basically dividing the Gaza Strip with forces coming in just to the south of the city of Gaza. This is where the main offensive takes place, coming in into the Gaza Strip just to the south of Gaza City, cutting Gaza into two. At the same time, Israeli forces coming along the coast also from the north and basically encircling Gaza City, putting Gaza City aside from the rest of the Strip. And then, of course, will come the main aim of cleaning everything that is in Gaza City, even if hundreds of thousands of people left south. There are still many people. It's a very densely populated area. And fighting in that populated area will be a very complicated issue. I'm 24 News Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regiv. Thank you so very much for this. Much more from Jonathan Regiv later on in the evening. Back here in the city with Lieutenant Colonel Adorno-Vital. Lieutenant Colonel Vital perhaps one of the main challenges in this, again, very tight, complex, urban fighting is the issue of the tunnels. We're talking about 10 years of investing in this underground terror city. I know other way to put it. And we do know that today the IDF engineers have begun this wide-scale operation targeting exactly that to dismantle the underground capability. Lieutenant, it is crucial. I think, first of all, we all that I'm even now a little bit surprised to the length and the depth and the width of this infrastructure that was built underneath our nose. And of course, in the last 10 years, our engineering corps was really working technology and any elements since, for sure, the 2014 campaign of Tsukatan, trying to really work out the tunnels, dismantle them. I want to add, of course, that we have a complexity that we don't have in a regular warfare, and this is the hostages. The hostages themselves are in this infrastructure. It really limits our ability to do many things. And they're also combat units who are trained to engage in tunnel fighting, if and when necessary. Exactly. When I'm saying once we have this terrible dilemma that we are stuck in with the hostages, then the whole tunnel fighting and the technology that we can use without risking our forces, become much more complicated. Absolutely. Gazrael, perhaps, on the issue of the hostages, their understandable plea to see some sort of progress is perhaps stepping up, and we're hearing of plans to conduct this big rally. We can, demanding answers, the idea of people with staff did address this issue, keeping it on the top of the agenda, the top of the consciousness, not to let anyone think that it is not leading the way in terms of the objectives of the operation, and yet the families now want action. The IDF and Israel as a whole has made it clear that returning the kidnapped the Israeli hostages is the top priority for Israel, and that is part of the reason why the IDF is getting so deep into the Gaza Strip in order to allow operational opportunities to collect more information, to get more opportunities to find about the whereabouts of those Israelis who are being held in those underground tunnels all around the Gaza Strip, basically. But that is the catch-22 here, because obviously this ground operation forces the IDF to engage in heavy fighting with these Hamas terrorists who care less about the well-being, both of their own people and certainly also of those Israeli hostages who they keep close to them, and that is the major complexity for the IDF. But speaking about the families, they have been very clear about being very strict about not allowing aid into the Gaza Strip until we know more about the well-being of their loved ones, until the Red Cross is able to see them, until we have more information on them. None of that is happening, and perhaps in discouraging message this evening, the Chief of Staff, Herzli Alevi, is answering a question from one of the reporters asking about bringing in fuel for the hospitals. Well, the Chief of Staff says that for now, we're hearing for a very long time now how the hospitals are about to run out of fuel, but he does say, he did say that once they do run out of fuel, Israel would allow fuel into the hospitals, and he also said that that will be done with supervision. We will make sure that that doesn't reach Hamas. That is a very difficult task if you're allowing fuel into Gaza to be able to separate that fuel from the activity of Hamas. In any case, a senior Israel official is saying that for now, for the time being, there's no intention of allowing fuel into Gaza. And another element that is making things even more complicated is that Hamas regularly uses hospitals in the Gaza Strip as terror infrastructure, meaning that the Shifa Hospital, for example, will have to be addressed at some point when we're talking about the military activity that is committed from there right underneath the hospital. So, yes, many challenges still ahead, but as we speak, the northern border is heating up. Let's cross there now. Live, I-24 News correspondent Pia Stekalbach standing by their Pia. Numerous red sirens alert, and now it seems that the IDF is hitting targets in southern Lebanon. An eventful afternoon, try to recap what is currently happening there. Right, only a few minutes ago, red alert sirens were triggered in several communities, in fact, more than 10 communities around the area of Safed, which is at the eastern part of the Israeli-Lebanese border, the eastern part of the Galilee region. That comes only a short while after. Red alert was triggered in several border communities very close to the Israel-Lebanon border in the west, Arab al-Aramshah, Avivim, in the middle part, and also at the very eastern part, Miskav Am. We're speaking about motor shells and anti-tank missiles that were launched from southern Lebanon, and Hisballah at least took responsibility for shelling towards the Haldov area that is the very eastern part of the Israel-Lebanon border, disputed area there. That comes after also earlier today, anti-tank missiles were launched towards communities very close to the Israel-Lebanon border. We're speaking about areas that have been widely evacuated, and that only shows once more how volatile and how tense the situation here is now. We're hearing that these lords have been targeted really, and as I said, more than 10 communities also but further, several kilometers away from the Lebanese border showing that their fire can actually reach also communities that are not close to the border but several kilometers far away, and I think we have to look at what is happening now at the Israel-Lebanon border in the light of tomorrow's speech that is announced. Hassan Asrallah is announced to speak for the first time since the beginning of the war tomorrow at 3 p.m. And Hisballah also seems to have launched UAVs for the first time in that war, which shows you that they're stepping up their offensive, their activity, their allies are on Hassan Asrallah in terms of what he's going to say tomorrow. But you can say that this front is heating up after a rather quiet 24 last hours. This front has been heating up in the past two, three hours with several lords triggered in very different areas here in the Upper Galilee region, really alongside the border here in communities. Also, as far as 20, 30 kilometers away from the border, well, of course, you have a population there. Of course, have not been evacuated here. We're speaking also, we have even here where we are in Qfavardim, which is also several kilometers away from the border. We heard artillery here as the IDF is, of course, striking back towards the origin of that fire there in Lebanon. Yes, I'm going to fire as we speak. I-24 News correspondent Pia Stachelbach. Thank you very much for this. Much more from Pia later on in the evening. Back here in studio with the Lieutenant Colonel Duron Avital. We obviously do not want to engage in assisting Nasrallah's PR leading up to his speech tomorrow. And yet, what are we expecting to hear? And what should we pay extra attention to? Not necessarily perhaps the what, but the how? Well, it's hard to predict or to anticipate, but it's very clear to us, I think, that the Northern border, even if things would not erupt now, is a question we would have to answer in the near future, because I don't think after the events that were in the South, people would go back to live in those villages, meters from the border, and feel secure to go to work, to go to their fields or whatever. So the issue that Hezbollah sits there with this powerful weaponry, with those declaration that he wants to invade and takes hostages or killer or settle out in our settlement so that he uses inventory of missiles, this is a real challenge in any way in the near future. It will have to be answered one way or another. And if not diplomatically, then by force, of course, and we'll have to attend to it. So we'll have to hear to what he says. And another round of words, we'll give him that. He's a good and creative buzz. Exactly, exactly. Do you remember the silhouette of him walking near the flag of Hezbollah? Yeah, again, we need to give a fair assessment of our enemies, and he knows the job. This is very important. It is one thing that we have to learn from the setback. Never underestimate, no, the intentions of the enemy, no, no, no, no. We have to learn from the setback. Never underestimate, no, the intentions but no, the capabilities of your enemy. Indeed. No doubt about that. One of many lessons we've learned in the past nearly a month. Unbelievable. And this war is being fought on multiple fronts at the same time, not just south, north or the West Bank. The diplomatic one is, of course, of imperative significance. Germany is banning today its sovereignty, meaning it's not just the TAMAS itself as a group that is already illegal in Germany, but also support of it is now outlawed. So we want to turn now live to Ambassador Jeremy Sakhaoff, former Israeli, former vice director general, of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to Germany. Thank you very much, Ambassador Sakhaoff for joining us. It was a busy, hectic, difficult days. We made your milestone really in this campaign when we're talking about the decision today in Berlin. We cannot underestimate its importance and specifically not just outlawing, supporting and Hamas altogether, but specifically targeting, dissolving rather, a specific group that was behind, maybe that's the best way to put it, behind the decisions of the October 7th massacre. Absolutely. Look, first of all, I think this decision today by Nancy Feis of the Minister of Interior who is somebody who I met when I was Ambassador and is incredibly friendly towards Israel and has always been very active in terms of excluding extremist views on the right or on the left in Germany. She made the decision today in terms of outlawing Hamas and Samidun. Samidun is an international organization that professes solidarity with prisoners around the world and it's been very extreme in its rhetoric against Israel using all the slogans of genocide and as you know, there's been in the last few days and last week since this war started I think a tremendous outpouring of support from the German Government, from the President to the Chancellor to Vice Chancellor, the Foreign Minister was here a number of visits and I think it's incredibly important in terms of the leadership support of Israel but there have been outbursts of anti-Semitism and incitement against Israel in the German public space which has caused a lot of concern. So I think this decision is a very, again a strong support in solidarity with Israel but a strong statement by the Government against anti-Semitic and anti- tendencies which only exacerbate internal tensions also within Germany against the Jews and inciting anti-Semitism. Yes, and as we speak about this, it's how of a report in France that a couple in their 30s suspected of marking Jewish homes with the stars of David unfortunately, I cannot even believe to them saying that out loud not the first incident in Europe since the beginning of this war and Ambassador Isachal, we usually use the term a domino effect in negative context. Are we to see the German move resonating elsewhere in Europe? Well, first of all, as you said exactly so, France is not the first instance of this. This has been reported already being doped on the doors of Jews in Berlin putting Maghen David on the doors and I can't tell you, having served in Germany for almost five years, the impact of this on America, on German public opinion is on the Jewish community is very immense and it's very deep as well and then you can see it being copied now in France and I just hope that just as the German government has taken a very strong stand against this outburst and very violent outburst of the in support of the Hamas savagery on October 7th that I would also hope that the French and German governments would also take similar steps like Germany like Nancy Feiser has taken as Hamas and Samidon. And Ambrose, how before we let you go obviously and rightfully so addressing or focusing on the issue of anti-Semitism in Europe and Pro Hamas, but is there an understanding or the beginning of such that the West is next? What starts with the Jews never ends there? Look, I think the brutal and extraordinary savagery of the attack on October 7th against Israel, the Germans follow this situation very closely they saw it was not provoked they saw that Israel even took measures immediately prior to this attack to alleviate the situation with Gaza, we keep them fully informed of our intentions to try and keep everything stabilized and they saw this type of attack against Israelis and the savagery and I have to say we took the German ambassador in Israel he was the first ambassador to visit the center for the kidnapped and abducted persons and it was a very important meeting first of all a number of German citizens have been killed and a number of them are in captivity in Gaza so I mean Germany has a very direct stake beyond the attitude to how this type of terror starts in the Middle East starts with Israel and in the end ends up in Europe so I think given the fact that now Germany has such a strong and numerous Muslim population obviously they are scared of this type of extremist tendencies Yes, indeed and the battle goes on Ambassador Jeremy Sakharov former Israeli ambassador to Germany former Vice Director General of the Israeli Foreign Minister, thank you very much for your time, for your insight we appreciate it, thank you Back in studio during our conversation with Ambassador Sakharov once again Red Sirens alerts being heard in northern communities I can't even count the amount of rounds in the past several of hours an active scene up north as we call it and also reports of a direct hit in central Israel guys Yes, so residents in the city of Kiryat Shmona have been asked to remain in shelters until further notice as we're seeing a barrage of rockets throughout the north of the country emanating out of Lebanon at the same time barrages of rockets from Hamas as well we're seeing one direct hit into a community in the very center of Israel on a home, no information yet from the emergency services rather on any casualties in this case as always extremely important when you hear that rocket alarm siren to run into shelter that saves lives we've seen it so many times here in Israel millions of Israelis at this very hour are running to shelters in the north and in the center of Israel. briefly before we wrap up this broadcast is it fair to assume these heavy barrages of rockets in the north or in response to the idea of chief of staff speech we've heard I'm not sure it works in tandem but perhaps anyway then we are in the midst of a war right the tension in the north is very high we are prepared and we have to see what's next yes and unfortunately there's a lot of next still long long weeks ahead thank you very much gentlemen for joining us on this broadcast this is it from us for now but the top of the hour will continue our rolling Israel is at war make an investment in Israel bonds it is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel visit israelbonds.com and invest now 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 inside school on what's going on only on I-24 news we don't really know how they are we are really worried to be honest it's really hard for me to sleep in the first few nights thinking about them trying to sleep over there thing from Israel with dozens of correspondence throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries completely done down in their best from the frontier that separates Israel the state of emergency and war in Israel bringing Israel's story to the world I-24 news channels now on hot to the special broadcast here on I-24 news as we continue our rolling coverage on day 27 of the war in Israel Gaza city encircled the IAF set to attack on all fronts we're in it to win it IDF chief of staff will have you taking the podium this hour as the ground operation in the Gaza Strip is now on it's sixth day and the northern front is heating up with ongoing sirens this afternoon and Hisbala claimed UAV attacks so we unpack it all here in studio with Lieutenant Colonel Mr. Doron Avital rather Doron Avital he has former commander of the special forces of the IDF and also here with us in studio I-24 news as senior editor and correspondent Guy Azriel thank you gentlemen so very much for joining us Lieutenant Colonel Avital I do want to begin with you your main takeaways with Alevi's speech saying again perhaps that this message is heading up north more than it is to the south that the Israeli Air Force is only at 50% capacity there's still a whole lot force to be used not just in the south exactly I mean of course we are waiting to this speech of Nasrallah there's a lot of built up for it for tomorrow but we have to show him where I think we are prepared I think it has to be understood that Israel allocated it forces carefully and for sure the Air Force which is very relevant to the northern command in case Hisbala decides to escalate to exercise the full force against the missile attacks which have this range and precision which is a different level than Hamas so it was an important notice and also I think he gave us some encouragement by the way I think it goes now in the south I mean we have casualties but the forces are building up the circling of Gaza it's going to be a long battle and heavy barrages of rockets now as we speak the Syrian alerts are being heard in Israel's center in the vicinity of the international Ben-Gurion airport in the south and also in the north so really yeah heavy barrages of rockets at this hour as we speak guys real we're used to seeing those barrages of rockets from the serpent and yes also those skirmishes up in the north necessarily all at the same time yes obviously as the idea continues its incursion over Gaza city the ground operation Hamas has to be more careful about the use of its rockets being very selective and choosing particular times in the evenings very often this is what we see barrages of rockets both towards the center and towards other areas and this is as you mentioned quite a lot happening in the north we can even hear interceptions from our studios quite a lot is happening in the north the Ghazbalatar group has announced that it has attacked IDF posts on the border using attack drones we know that the community of Metula has some security incident there's quite a lot happening both on the northern border and around Israel with the rocket fire and that is natural as Israel increases its pressure on Hamas those rockets will be fired as much as Hamas can still do that obviously Israel is trying to reach those launch sites many of them are obviously buried underground the IDF is only still holding on to parts to very few parts of the Gaza Strip so it will take quite a long time until we'll see an end to this rocket fire nonetheless Gisbala is also involved and there's a lot more for Israel to worry about up north of course the west bank we had an incident a terrorist incident an Israeli settler was murdered and the west bank we had also the controversy about the money that has to channel to the Palestinian Authority we need a Palestinian Authority with us we don't want this front to open we do a lot of preventive arrest but there's still terror attacks there so we have to be very careful about the west bank it's a front yes and since the beginning of the war over 740 Hamas operatives arrested in the west bank so the activity there is ongoing and the fact that we do not hear quote-unquote about the west bank on a daily basis is just because the IDF activities there are extensive and constant I was in Colonel Avital I do want to start to shift focus back to what we're saying down south because it is clear that perhaps the main objective at the moment is dividing and conquering so to speak as in dividing up the space the strip differently including fighting areas dismembering the strip basically in two halves and the question that we separate the north from the south this was the main cry also for the population to go south and then now closing in and of course this is part of the way we do it and we take strongholds and then we cut those into areas and then we try to go into and clean them from tunnels, weaponry and Hamas headquarters and Hamas terrorists process and it's not a fast process it's go inch by inch as we say. So let's do cross now live to the south I-24 news senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev with the I-24 news team there underground Jonathan as we were just discussing here in studio the main goal of encircling Gaza city is gaining steam F chief of staff is talking about it this afternoon in his address and the importance of this main Hamas hub both governance and military headquarters in Gaza city has not just an imperative importance when we're talking about the fighting but also the symbolism and symbolism matters here. Exactly first just as you mentioned in the studio the aim is basically to cut the Gaza Strip to two cut the north from the south and Israeli forces are nearly there let's remember the Gaza Strip is a very narrow place meaning once you enter the Gaza Strip from the east making it all the way to the Mediterranean coast is not a lot of distance but in that short distance there's plenty of Hamas resistance not so much direct firefight but Hamas terrorists coming from the very extensive network of tunnels that they built coming up rising up for a few seconds trying to shoot anti-tank missiles or anything they can towards the Israeli forces operating in the area and again disappearing under the ground having said that IDF forces are coming in and basically dividing the Gaza Strip with forces coming in just to the south of the city of Gaza this is where the main offensive takes place coming in into the Gaza Strip just to the south of Gaza City cutting Gaza into two at the same time Israeli forces coming along the coast also from the north and basically encircling Gaza City putting Gaza City aside from the rest of the Strip and of course will come the main aim of cleaning everything that is in Gaza City even if hundreds of thousands of people left south there's still many people it's a very densely populated area and fighting in that populated area will be a very complicated issue I'm 24 news senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regiv thank you so very much for this much more from Jonathan Regiv later on in the evening back here in the city with Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Vital perhaps one of the main challenges in this again very tight complex urban fighting is the issue of the tunnels we're talking about ten years of investing in more in this underground terror city another way to put it and we do know that today the army and the IDF engineers have begun this wide-scale operation targeting exactly that to dismantle the underground capability and it is crucial I think first of all we all that I'm even now a little bit surprised to the length and the depth and the width of this infrastructure that was built underneath our nose and of course in the last ten years our engineering corps was really working technology and any elements since for sure the 2014 campaign of Tsukatan trying to really work out the tunnels how to dismantle them I want to add of course that we have a complexity that we don't have in a regular warfare and this is the hostages the hostages themselves I move in this infrastructure it really limits our ability to do many things and they're also combat units who are trained to engage in tunnel fighting exactly when I'm saying once we have this terrible dilemma that we are stuck in with the hostages then the whole tunnel fighting in the technology that we can use without risking our forces become much more complicated Absolutely Gazreal perhaps on the issue of the hostages they're understandable a plea to see some sort of progress is perhaps stepping up and we're hearing of plans to conduct this big rally we can demanding answers the idea of people staff did address this issue keeping it on the top of the agenda the top of the consciousness not to let anyone think that it is not leading the way in terms of the objectives of the operation and yet the families want action the idea of IDF and Israel as a whole has made it clear that returning the kidnapped the Israeli hostages is top priority for Israel and that is part of the reason why the IDF is getting so deep into the Gaza Strip in order to allow operational opportunities to collect more information to get more opportunities to find about the whereabouts of those Israelis who are being held in those underground tunnels around the Gaza Strip basically but that is the catch 22 here because obviously this ground operation forces the IDF to engage in heavy fighting with these Hamas terrorists who care less about the well-being both of their own people and certainly also of those Israeli hostages who they keep close to them and that is the major complexity for the IDF but speaking about the families that have been very clear about being very strict about not allowing aid into the Gaza Strip until we know more about the well-being of their loved ones until the Red Cross is able to see them until we have more information on them none of that is happening and perhaps in discouraging message this evening the chief of staff, Herzli Alabi is answering a question from one of the reporters asking bringing in fuel for the hospitals well the chief of staff says that for now we are hearing for a very long time now how the hospitals are about to run out of fuel but he does say, he did say that once they do run out of fuel Israel would allow fuel into the hospitals and he also said that that will be done with supervision we will make sure that that doesn't reach Hamas that is a very difficult task if you are allowing fuel into Gaza to be able to separate that fuel from the activity of Hamas in any case a senior is saying that for now for the time being there is no intention of allowing fuel into Gaza and another element that is making things even more complicated is the Hamas regularly uses hospitals in the Gaza Strip as terror infrastructure meaning that the Shifa hospital for example will have to be addressed when we are talking about the military activity that is committed from there right underneath the hospital so yes many challenges still ahead but as we speak the northern border is heating up let's cross there now live by 24 news correspondent Pia Stechelbach standing by their Pia numerous red sirens alert and now it seems that the IDF is hitting targets in southern Lebanon an eventful after noon try to recap what is currently happening there right only a few minutes ago red alert sirens were triggered in several communities in fact more than 10 communities around the area of Safed which is at the eastern part of the Israeli Lebanese border the eastern part of the Galilee region that comes only a short while after red alert was triggered in several border communities very close to the Israel Lebanon border in the west in the middle part and also at the very eastern part Miskav we are speaking about mortar shells and anti-tank missiles that were launched from southern Lebanon and Hisbala at least took responsibility for shelling towards the Hadov area that is the very eastern part of the Israel Lebanon border disputed area that comes after also earlier today anti-tank missiles were launched towards communities very close to the Israel Lebanon border we are speaking about areas that have been widely targeted for how volatile and how tense the situation here is now we are hearing that these alerts have been targeted really and as I said more than 10 communities also but further several kilometers away from the Lebanese border showing that their fire can actually reach also communities that are not close to the border but several kilometers far away and I think we have to look at what is happening now at the Israel Lebanon border in the light of tomorrow's speech that is announced Hassan and Hisbala also seems to have launched UAVs for the first time in that war which shows you that they are stepping up their offensive their activity their allies Hassan Nasrallah in terms of what he is going to say tomorrow but you can say that this front is heating up after a rather quiet 24 last hours this front has been heating up in the past 2-3 hours with several alerts triggered in very different areas here in the up-a-gallity region really alongside the border here in communities also as far as 20-30 kilometers away from the border where of course you have a population there communities that of course have not been evacuated here we're speaking also we have even here where we are in Kvaverdin which is also several kilometers away from the border we heard artillery here as the IDF is of course striking back towards the origin of that fire there in southern Lebanon Yes Hassan, I'm going to fire as we speak I-24 news correspondent Pia Stakilbaha thank you very much for this much more from Pia later on the evening back here in studio with the Lieutenant Colonel Duronov-Ital we obviously do not want to engage in assisting Nasrallah's PR leading up to his speech tomorrow and yet what are we expecting to hear and what should we pay extra attention to not necessarily perhaps the what but the how Well it's hard to predict and to anticipate but it's very clear to us I think that the northern border even if things would not erupt now is a question we would have to answer in the near future because I don't think after the events that were in the south people would go back to live in those villages meters from the border and feel secure to go to work to go to their fields or whatever so the issue that Hezbollah sits there with this powerful weaponry with those declaration that he wants to invade and takes hostages or killer or settle out in our settlement so that he uses inventory of missiles this is a real challenge in any way in the near future it will have to be answered one way or another and if not diplomatically then by force of course and we'll have to attend to it so we'll have to hear to what he says as I said and another round of red sirens and the northern cities of Kiryat Shimonar so again numerous red sirens it makes preparation for his speech we will give him that he's a good and creative we need to the silhouette of him walking near the flag of Hezbollah we need to give a fair assessment of our enemies and he knows the job very important it is one thing that we have to learn from the setback never underestimate not the intention but not the capabilities of your enemy indeed no doubt about that one of many lessons we've learned in the past nearly a month unbelievable and this war is being fought on multiple fronts at the same time not just south, north or the west bank the diplomatic one is of course of imperative significance Germany is banning today Pro Hamas activity meaning it's not just Hamas itself as a group that is already illegal in Germany but also support of it is now outlawed so we want to turn now on live to Ambassador Jeremy Sakharov Israeli former Israeli former Vice Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to Germany thank you very much Ambassador Sakharov for joining us we appreciate your time during those busy hectic difficult days thank you a major milestone really in this campaign when we're talking about the decision today in Berlin we cannot underestimate its importance and specifically not just outlawing support in Hamas all together but specifically targeting dissolving rather a specific group that was being maybe that's the best way to put it behind the celebrations of the October 7th massacre absolutely and I think look first of all I think this decision today by Nancy Pfizer the Minister of Interior who is somebody who I met when I was Ambassador and is incredibly friendly towards Israel and has always been very active in terms of excluding extremist views on the right or on the left in Germany she made the decision today in terms of outlawing Hamas and Samidun Samidun is an international organization that professes solidarity with prisoners around the world and it's been very very extreme in its rhetoric against Israel using all the slogans of genocide and as you know there's been in the last few days and last week since this war started I think tremendous outpouring of support from the German government from the President to the Chancellor to Vice Chancellor the Foreign Minister was here a number of visits and I think it's incredibly important in terms of the leadership support of Israel but there have been outbursts of anti-Semitism and incitement against Israel in the German public space which has caused a lot of concern so I think this decision is a very again a strong support in solidarity with Israel but a strong statement by the government against anti-Semitic and anti- tendencies which only exacerbate internal tensions also within Germany against the Jews and inciting anti-Semitism Yes and as we speak about this how of a report in France that the 1930s arrested suspected of marking Jewish homes with the stars of David unfortunately I cannot even believe in them saying that out loud not the first incident of Europe since the beginning of this war and Ambassador Issaqaf we usually use the term a domino effect in a negative context are we to see the German move resonating elsewhere in Europe? First of all as you said correctly so France is not the first instance of this this has been reported already being doped on the doors of Jews in Berlin putting again David on the doors and I can't tell you having served in Germany for almost 5 years the impact of this on America on German public opinion is on the Jewish community is very immense and it's very deep as well and you can see it being copied now in France and I just hope that just as the German government has taken a very strong stand against this outburst and very violent outburst of the in support of the Hamas savagery on October 7th that I would also hope that the French and German governments would also take similar steps like Germany like Nazi Pfizer has taken against Hamas and Samy don't and I'm as it's how before we let you go obviously and rightfully so addressing or focusing on the issue of anti-Semitism in Europe and pro Hamas but is there an understanding or the beginning of such that the West is next what starts with the Jews never ends there I think the brutal and extraordinary savagery of the attack on October 7th against Israel the Germans follow this situation very closely they saw it was not provoked they saw that Israel even took measures immediately prior to this attack to alleviate the situation with Gaza we keep them fully informed of our intentions to try and keep everything stabilized and they saw this this type of attack against Israelis and the savagery and I have to say we took the German ambassador in Israel he was the first ambassador to visit the center for the kidnapped and abducted persons and it was a very a very important meeting first of all a number of German citizens have been killed and a number of them are in captivity in Gaza so I mean Germany has a very direct steak beyond the attitude to how this type of terror starts in the Middle East starts with Israel and in the end ends up in Europe so I think you know given the fact that now Germany has such a strong and numerous Muslim population obviously they're scared of this type of extremist tendencies yes indeed and the battle goes on ambassador Jeremy Sakharov from Israeli ambassador to Germany, former vice director general of the Israeli Foreign Minister thank you very much for your time for your insight we appreciate it thank you back in studio during our conversation with Ambassador Sakharov once again Red Sirens alerts being heard in northern communities I can't even count the amount as a couple of hours an active scene up north as we call it and also reports of a direct hit in central Israel guys so residents in the city of Kiryat Shmona have been asked to remain in shelters until further notice as we're seeing a barrage of rockets throughout the north of the country emanating out of Lebanon at the same time we're seeing a lot of rockets from Gaza from Hamas as well we're seeing one direct hit into a community in the very center of Israel on a home no information yet from the security emergency services rather on any casualties in this case as always extremely important when you hear that rocket alarm siren to run into shelter that saves time here in Israel millions of Israelis at this very hour are running to shelters in the north and in the center of Israel. briefly before we wrap up this broadcast is it fair to assume these heavy barrages of rockets in the north or in response to the idea of chief of staff speak to have heard I'm not sure it works in tandem but perhaps anyway then we're in the midst of a war there's it's very the tension in the north is very high we are prepared and we have to see what's next yes and unfortunately there's a lot of next still long long long weeks ahead thank you very much gentlemen for joining us on this broadcast this is it from us for now but the top of the hour will continue Israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we're talking 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 I'm here watching I-24 news we're coming to you live from Tel Aviv on this day 27 of with Hamas a barrage of rockets were fired at Central and Northern Israel in the last hour a rocket fired from Lebanon hits the town of Kyriac Shmona fires seen around cars and stores in the northern town of Kyriac Shmona live pictures coming to us now looks like the fires have all been put out no reports of any injuries also rockets fired from Gaza this evening at one direct hit in Central Israel on the home there no injuries reported as yet either this is the IDF continues to strike Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon and the IDF has confirmed now that 19 Israeli soldiers have lost their lives in the fighting since October 7th the IDF Chief of Staff Halsey Halavi said Israel is making good progress in Gaza with many dozens of Hamas we have advanced another significant stage in the war the forces are in the heart of northern Gaza operating in Gaza City surrounding it and deepening the ground offensive and achievements the forces are fighting in a dense and complex urban area that requires professional combat and courage the troops are operating with accurate intelligence and with the assistance of the Air Force and the Navy this partnership is our secret it increases our achievements and our effectiveness well to talk about all of today's developments I'm joined in the studio by Shiri Fine Grossman the former head of foreign policy at the National Security Council welcome to you Shiri we're also joined in the studio this hour by our senior editor guy Azrael thanks for being with this guy as well all right well let's start with the latest on this day 27 a barrage of rockets and a couple of direct hits in Israel today we're talking both on the northern front and on the southern front Hamas in Lebanon has claimed responsibility for the firing of 12 rockets and Israeli communities and this evening actually started with direct hits on the IDF posts on the border that continued with rocket fire towards Israeli communities including Kiryat Shmona and Zfat several direct hits in those in that rocket fire including two that were wounded in Kiryat Shmona one of them in moderate condition one in light condition in a very central street in Kiryat Shmona basically this is a town of 23,000 people 20,000 people have already left the city but this street the main street was the only one that continued to remain open at the same time rocket fire from Gaza into central Israel you cannot help by thinking that this was a coordinated effort from both north and south in this case also direct hit on a home in central Israel very fortunately the residents of that home to an elderly couple ran to shelter remained in shelter and their lives were saved as they followed the instructions of the home front command thank goodness well we're looking at those pictures now coming to us live from Kiryat Shmona this town of course was hit earlier in the week as well wasn't it Guy the rockets fired from Lebanon do we know if this was Hezbollah or was this Palestinian group Hamas in Lebanon has claimed responsibility for the firing of 12 rockets but we know that there was also Hezbollah who claimed to have struck two IDF posts with drones with attack drones earlier this evening so there's quite a bit of coordination here both between Hezbollah and Hamas and Hamas in the north and that is in Gaza obviously Sherry Fine Grossman all eyes very much on the north Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is due to speak tomorrow do you think we're entering a new phase here yes it seems so I hope I'm wrong and the assessments of some of my what I'm hearing is wrong but it looks like we're entering a new phase and the next couple of days or few days ahead week ahead are going to be crucial what the IDF is going to respond to you have to understand that I mean in the last week we've been trying and the IDF is trying to create this fog of war right around what's going on in Gaza now it's very very much clear how deep we are inside the casualties that Hamas is having and the Iranian proxies are worried and the Iran is worried it's going to lose it's an Iranian proxy in the Gaza and so and we always said as you know as pressure will mount in Gaza the pressure on the proxies to join the war to attack from all fronts from Yemen from Syria from Lebanon and possibly from Iraq as well is going to continue just to update I think two people have been wounded in that latest barrage of rockets attack and Hamas is claiming responsibility for the latest rocket attack from Lebanon because we should remind people that it's not just Hezbollah based in southern Lebanon there are a myriad of Palestinian terrorist groups as well right and having said that Hezbollah is the one in control of southern Lebanon nothing happens in southern Lebanon without the permission or the coordination of Hezbollah in this case and we should mention that these two fronts are not the only ones that we are faced with today and Israeli was murdered in the west bank in a shooting attack when Hikar turned over after he was shot he was actually on his way back from reserve service and therefore he is now the 20th IDF to be killed over the past several days 19 in Gaza since the start of this ground operation a very heavy price that Israel pays for this ground operation but at the same time an understanding both in the IDF and in the general public how important this task is this war against Hamas is having hit Israeli homes at the most where it should be the safest place for Israelis the vast majority of the Israeli public believes that this is what should be done and this is what we're seeing with a very high turnout of reservists from the IDF taking part in this operation in Gaza Sherry let's talk about the operation in Gaza we got a bit of an update from the IDF chief earlier today and he says many dozens of Hamas operatives have already been killed the IDF is not just now surrounding Gaza city it's actually operating inside the city as well that's important isn't it they're making better progress I think than expected we have to remember I don't know how much people know the numbers are about 40 or 50,000 terrorists from Hamas mostly in the underground metro city in hundreds of kilometers there or dozens of kilometers so the task is really to go phase by phase the IDF is going stronghold by stronghold to try to find the terrorists and eliminate Hamas as soon as possible and it's doing it methodically systematically slowly by trying to protect the troops it's possible as we've seen there are already been hits and they're expected to be more and hopefully lessons will be learned along the way but this is going to be I said it again and Netanyahu the prime minister has said it just now in a message he delivered to the Israeli public a short while ago it's going to be a long war I'm not sure community to understand we're fighting against Iran we're fighting against forces of evil who are trying to take us back to the mid ages and we cannot let them win we're here for the western world and to protect us from the terror just cloning itself in other places the terrorist proxies across the region quite a guy I wanted to pick up on something that's been talked about by both the prime minister and by the chief of staff this is about whether or not fuel supplies will be allowed into Gaza an interesting statement from the IDF chief has been asked by reporters whether Israel would allow fuel to go into hospitals into Gaza of course something that Israel has been very strict about not allowing into the strip so far Hamas is very well known for using any humanitarian aid that goes there for its military purposes and definitely even more so when it comes to fuel the response of the IDF chief was that we've been hearing for quite a few days about the hospitals being running out of fuel well once they do eventually run out of fuel we will allow fuel into these hospitals but we will ensure that that fuel will not get into the hands of Hamas hospitals in northern Gaza they did not mention whether it's north or south but the bottom line is that it's impossible to differentiate between what goes to Hamas and what doesn't thank you guys we're going to take a listen to Benny Gantz who's speaking now the member of the unity government let's take a listen I wish to show my solidarity is to strengthen them on behalf of all of us in this incomprehensible situation that are in even at these moments we activate all of the means in our position in order to bring them back home I say this to the people of Gaza themselves to the civilians who understand the disaster that Hamas has brought on them those who will help return the hostages will be rewarded those who will hold on to this will pay with his life Israel has paid enormous prices over the years we continue to live on our sword no one there's not one person who did not shed a tear when he saw the givati fighters who died from the anti-tank missile religious and secular from towns and villages from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem from Yago from the north and from the south all of them together as brothers in arms the images are painful but they are the symbol for what will bring the victory on foot by tanks by air and by sea in the front and near the home front the Israeli society is at the peak of its strength from the wars we came back as brothers once Yoram Teahavlev said this war reminds us how strong we are when we are together it reminds us that we are brothers that we must fight as brothers and remain brothers after the wars together we will triumph together we will win can you say that you will not transfer fuel to the Gaza Strip we haven't decided to transfer fuel there's no such decision which will be examined later on as Gaza is surrounded there is a combined and powerful attack here it will advance as long as needed we will not elaborate on the details how do you see the disagreement between the Defense Minister and Smotrych about delivering the money to the PA to the Imam the issue of transferring the funds is a wide one we need to look at the full picture and all the arenas we will hold a discussion about this tomorrow and we'll receive a decision together I wish to correct the idea of settler violence I must say that the vast majority of the settlers 99.9% are law abiding citizens today we had another terror attacking the West Bank I denounce those so people who give a bad name to the State of Israel and we need to operate against them we should not confuse this with the entire community of the settlers that was Benny Gantz member of the wartime unity government they're just confirming that 20 Israeli soldiers are now confirmed killed following the fighting we have a little bit of information about what happened last night a very fierce gun battle it appears inside guards where the terrorists try to take control of armored vehicles we're not getting all of the information obviously the IDF cannot release that but this is kind of a glimpse into the challenges that the IDF faces inside Gaza yeah and will face nobody thought it's going to be easy I think the longer we wait the situation with the fuel we have to make it clear there has been cut off of electricity from Gaza so everything is operating on generators actually the tunnels and there are stockpiles of fuel for Hamas but they don't let the hospitals use those stockpiles so if we let it run out of fuel there won't be any air in the tunnels so as long as we wait and keep fuel out of it do you agree with the decision to let fuel in for the hospitals or do you we have to prioritize what do we want to achieve do we want to get the hostages of Hamas to the bitter and do we stay in Gaza mainly and not you know and hold off on the north if it's going to escalate and what are we going to do there there needs to be some prioritizing here and that's what the government is supposed to do when it's a decision and a tough dilemma it is and do you see some kind of disagreement between the Prime Minister and the IDF right now they're trying to unify stand all the wartime cabinet decisions are unanimous but the dilemmas are there and I think if like I said earlier if it's going to advance to another a northern front it's going to make the arguments there a little bit louder okay all right hold that thought we're going to now talk a bit about the hostages because Israel has raised the number of hostages being held in Gaza to at least 242 authorities are still working to identify the remains of dozens of victims who were murdered inside Israel well my next guest hid for hours in a safe room while Hamas terrorists went on a murderous rampage through her kibbutz al-Omim she was saved by a civilian guard who took care of the kibbutz residents and without whom the death toll would have been significantly higher Esther Marcus is with us now thank you for joining us Esther what a remarkable story first of all we're very glad that you are alive and well tell us a bit about what happened that terrible day well 6.35 in the morning I remember opening my back door thinking that I was going to sit outside and have a cup of tea and crazy crazy rockets and we're kind of used to rockets but not like this it was obvious straight away that it was very different very very different happening I ran into the safe room where my husband I'm a bit confused my son and his new wife were and ran in together with us the rest of my family that's another my daughter her husband and two babies and then we received texts telling us that we should lock our doors turn off all the lights highly irregular obviously and then we understood that that there are terrorists already infiltrated into our kibbutz and we didn't 100% know what was going on but it was incredibly scary this followed by shooting which was obviously very nearby we've already become so accustomed to the rockets that we know even our children know to differentiate between cannons and bombs from our cells when we attack Gaza or rockets from their side so we understand all of that but this was shooting constant shooting outside our house which meant that we had to stay quiet which with two babies as you can imagine two little babies with you what did you do to keep the babies quiet so we're religious religious kibbutz we're religious people but it was obvious to us that we had to open up the computer and allow the two-year-old to watch films and my daughter held her the babies a month she just kept feeding her and holding her in order that she wouldn't get to a stage that she needed to cry I'm a resilience worker I'm trained to help people and straight away I was receiving I had what's called a hotline so I was getting phone calls from all over the country about what was going on so I had to talk really quietly so at the same time that we're working stressed out we're trying not to cause the babies to feel too much anxiety but I spoke to many families on my kibbutz and many other kibbutzim that they put their children in the cupboard they put them in a drawer left them open the fear it was just horrific and even then I don't think we fully understood then what was going on to what extent although I knew that there was a battle I was receiving phone calls from people all over the country looking for their children who had gotten lost in the massacre they were at the party and people phoned me telling me I'm looking for my son who do I phone, who do I get in touch with chaos was enormous from that I then understood that the terrorists were already out right around us they were everywhere I received phone call from somebody telling me that they were online with their son that he'd locked himself in one of the petrol stations he'd managed to get himself into the bathrooms he was lying next to somebody who was injured could I please send help I tried to phone someone who could get to him and then I was told there's no way I still we can't get to anybody there's just this terrible feeling of helplessness and at the same time we just have to keep praying we're going to get through this we're going to push regarding the babies straight away that holocaust came into my mind with what people went through then with babies and what we had to do just shocking and we know now don't we Esther that the terrorists had no mercy be it children, women, babies I mean it must be hard to stop your mind going to a very dark place you know about what could have happened no absolutely we had 17 workers from Nepal and Thailand workers they were massacred and two were kidnapped so we don't know what's happening with them but we're very much in touch with their families and taking care of them when they came with us to the hotel that we were evacuated to we organised a translator and a historian to write down their story there's one in hospital every day somebody goes from Market Boots and interestingly enough there's even a WhatsApp group and I received a message telling me you'll be amazed Esther the Thailand workers are asking when can they come back they want to help us put our kibbutz back together again which is really phenomenal phenomenal and we lost two of our own children one a soldier who straight away as soon as the attacks began he jumped in his father's car he didn't have to he just that sense of I have to go and help my fellow soldiers he's an officer he jumped in a car and we knew later that he ran into terrorists and another one of our children lives on the kibbutz next door in Khwar Azar he was killed and the older man bullet went straight through him somehow he survived our army as you mentioned before the civilian army they went out to fight we're talking about men aged 30 even 50 they didn't have time to do anything but they got out there they started shooting they protected us three were injured one literally fought for his life thank god it's actually his parents English thank god a million times he's okay another one fought with two bullets in his legs he just kept fighting it was when you're fighting for your home it's a whole different ball game one trained for to fight in the army it's just non-stop oh as I'm watching you this is my kibbutz oh here what you're seeing now this is from a special unit that turned up and they fought together with our what time did they arrive what time did they get there it's not yet clear there was some that came at nine it started already at 7.30 some managed to get through nine ten o'clock some others only turned up at one o'clock two o'clock these guys are from the Shabas from the prison the prisons in Israel they have a special unit and it was really important for us to thank them obviously but at the same time as a therapist and a worker I also have to work to make sure that people aren't going to go through retraumatization what you're seeing now oh my goodness this is actually the first time I'm seeing this we have three older men gentlemen who sat in our safe room and they watched the screens and this is what they were watching so that they could guide our civilian army and tell them exactly where the terrorists were these are the terrorists that came to kill me that came to kill my family that came to kill my kibbutz I'm actually a little bit shocked because I wasn't aware that I was going to be seeing this now but that's okay resilience resilience we push through we have to push through friends who have been killed I have friends whose family have been kidnapped and it's just so important to keep well that's why I wanted to ask you Esther we've had so much evidence Israel is still identifying the bodies of people who lost their lives the world press has been here going around the kibbutz still you see people actively trying to deny what happened or downplay it the Queen of Jordan comes to mind for one but you know there are journalists in the UK no names giving a platform for two hours for someone denying what happened October the 7th I mean how does that make you feel I know as a resilience worker that I have to protect myself and I have to be available to the people that I'm working with and do my job so I actually don't watch television and I don't particularly listen to the news either I figure there are other people that I don't have a job that's too shocking for me one thing is silence even silence you're already a partner of that massacre and denying it the responsibility on you is just humongous I've been watching the scenes in England the Palestinians they're hiding behind freedom of speech they're violent violent people they don't just want my land they want our lives and they always have done and as I explained to a journalist as you mentioned before I was interviewed by someone from Australia and I explained to her that we have always we always worked hand in hand with Palestinians we had workers who came into Al Qibuz and when they weren't allowed to come across anymore a man in Al Qibuz went every week to bring them food to take care of them we have another man in Al Qibuz we have families of children who need medical help he brings them into the country takes them to the hospitals the centre we made a point of raising our children not with hatred with belief and hope that the government would come up with a plan the international people would come up with a plan and she also tried to put words in my mouth of is it eye for an eye tooth for a tooth and I explained to her that's not my language I don't speak in those terms but I think Israeli government cannot take responsibility for what is going on in Palestine anymore the governments around the world the United Nations the Arab world the Arab world has to step up and figure out what they're going to do and put them in Egypt give these people homes we already gave back the land of Gush Qatif as you know we all know did they carry on making it a flourishing they could have done they could have made it beautiful Palestine could be beautiful but they're not interested in that Hamas are just out to destroy we've heard them say they would do it again if they could we heard one of the Hamas official saying he would do it again if he could we're glad you're here to tell your story and thank goodness for those little babies and your family and we look forward to seeing you rebuild your kibbutz bigger and better thank you so much Esther Marcus incredible all right well meanwhile in Gaza foreign nationals are being evacuated via Egypt's Rafa crossing Cairo says it will help to evacuate nearly 7,000 foreign citizens some 400 American citizens plus their family members left yesterday Egypt refuses though to allow Gazans to enter Egypt as refugees even temporarily we're here to talk more about that hi Sam Hassanain is a junk fellow from the FDD thank you very much for being with us hi Sam great to see you again let's start with what's been going on over the last few days because there were some fears some concerns in Cairo weren't there that the border would be stormed from the garden side would you say the evacuations have been proceeding in an orderly manner there is a coordination between Egypt and Israel nowadays on the identities of those making the crossing to avoid Hamas or sneaking into the Sinai among injured civilians so as you mentioned there are foreign nationals already crossing there are also wounded Palestinians hundreds of them as well cross the Rafa border and Cairo described such a move as a temporary measure to help ease the medical burden in Gaza overall this is a significant shift for Egypt which till yesterday only allowed the Rafa crossing to be used to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza and allow strict quota of Palestinians with travel visas so these wounded are being treated at hospitals in Egypt are they yes Egypt has been preparing field hospitals for the past couple of days and they are being treated in these hospitals and we know that a lot of aid has been stacking up on the Egyptian side of the border waiting to go into Gaza how much is getting in would you say on a daily basis well according to statements coming from the US and to our national and humanitarian organization they say the number is not enough to help with the crisis happening on the strip before the war it used to be 500 trucks carrying aid and other goods enter the strip on daily basis according to a statement by the White House National Security spokesperson two days ago he said too far only trucks enter with assistance and they are trying to push the number to make it to 100 a day talk to me a bit about what's happening inside Egypt Haitham we know that there is very strong support for the Palestinian cause and a lot of opposition to Israel fighting Hamas and we've seen attacks in Egypt against branches of McDonald's and other businesses who are perceived to support America and Israel I mean what's going on is there a risk to stability would you say not really because demonstrations happened few weeks ago in the country upon a call from presidency since then we have not seen much happening ever since so it shows the regime still has control over the situation so far as for calling the American businesses or western businesses this is not the first time by the way it happens in the country two decades ago during the second and father similar calls happened and nothing much happened and I would argue even nowadays the situation is more complicated the country is going through tough economic hardships and hundreds if not thousands of people will lose their jobs if western businesses in Egypt are boycotted so I don't think many people in the country will take such calls in a serious manner not to mention it will hurt the tourism sector in the country which the state depends heavily on and so far because of the war it has been suffering a lot all right so I'm going to talk you thank you very much indeed we appreciate it hi Samhasa and I there at the FTD all right just to bring you up to date with what has been happening in the last hour Hamas has claimed responsibility for 12 rockets that were fired at Israel around two hours ago one of them hit Kiryat Shmona that's a town in the north that has been largely evacuated of its residents but there was a fire some cars and stores were set on fire this as the IDF continues to strike Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon and the head of the Iranian backed terrorist group Hasan Nasranla is due to speak tomorrow the commander of Iran's IRGC Quds Force has been visiting the country today our Middle East correspondent Aril Osaran has the story for 27 days now the main focus of the IDF has been the threat from Gaza but Israel's northern frontier against Hezbollah continues to occupy IDF forces with daily exchanges of fire and the attempted downing of an IDF drone early Thursday morning in the north we continue to attack its battle targets along the border and eliminate enemy squads that try launch anti-tank missiles rockets and water bombs towards Israeli territory this is also in the last hour attack positions from which rocket launchers were fired in the direction of Mount Dorf, Mount Hermon and other directions following the IDF strike Hezbollah announced the death of another fighter among its ranks the 50th since the beginning of the war the real number is likely higher most of Hezbollah's casualties are the result of air strikes on its anti-tank units which have been attacking IDF outposts on the northern border some of them eliminated before they could fire their missiles although that's not how Hezbollah sees it we have seen over three weeks of Israeli attacks and strikes carried out by the resistance against Israeli military outposts the Israeli enemy hasn't managed to mark a single achievement despite all of its advanced technology attack drones, artillery and daily air strikes on our bases, none of this has brought a single achievement ahead of a much anticipated speech on Friday by Hezbollah leader Hassan Asrallah his first since the start of the war Iran's IRGC Quds Force commander Ismail Kani is visiting Lebanon this is Kani's second visit to Lebanon since October 7 to coordinate with Hezbollah concerning the conflict with Israel Asrallah's speech should also shed light whether Hezbollah will raise the border clashes to a full-scale war or not all right well I think we can head to northern Israel now our correspondent Pia Steckelback is with us and Pia once again, Kiryat Shmona direct hit right Laura we've been seeing those images, a direct hit causing fires there in the city center Hezbollah in southern Lebanon has also been firing mortar shells and anti-tank missiles towards northern Israel earlier because of two hours really three times red alerts were triggered in different locations throughout the north of Israel of course Kiryat Shmona we are hearing that Hamas is claiming responsibility for the firing of rockets towards that city there 12 rockets that is what is mentioned in the Hamas statement four of them indeed came down one of them hitting a street in the middle of the city and this is already the second time this week lower earlier this week there are luckily no casualties today we are speaking out two injured people one in moderate condition one in light condition there this of course comes ahead or mid of the very high tensions that we have seen throughout the past three weeks really but today we have seen another escalation here we are speaking about more than a dozen of targets that have been targeted by both rockets mortar shells and anti-tank missiles here we are speaking about areas as far away as Safed in the surrounding communities we are speaking about a distance of more than 20 kilometers here that all coming ahead of that very much anticipated speech of Hezbollah leader Hassan Asrallah tomorrow the IDF is currently striking back towards the origin of that fire in southern Lebanon we are speaking about areas of Maruna Ras and Ayat Hashab which are considered Hezbollah centers there which have come under fire really also throughout these three weeks as the IDF is protocol striking Hezbollah targets there and also infrastructure of those other proxies that are present there in southern Lebanon we are speaking about of course Hamas and other Palestinian proxies and as one Arabic IDF speaker today pointed out we are also speaking about another Iranian proxy the Hisham Brigades that have been founded in Syria but oh no now also operating there in southern Lebanon striking against Israel Laura all right Pia thank you very much indeed Pia Stechleback there in the north of Israel following a direct hit on the high street in Shemona too lightly wounded let's talk a bit more Shiri Fangosman is with us Gai Azrael as well Shiri we have this high ranking Iranian IRGC official in Beirut today I mean it said isn't it Hamas has been disappointed Hezbollah hasn't stepped up more do you think that Iran has been holding them back is Hezbollah reluctant to get involved and might that change well it's an issue of timing like I said before they're trying to figure out what are we doing exactly in Gaza and how severe is Hamas there's also pressure within Israel itself to be you know they understand very well that our reaction is going to cause a lot of damage to Lebanon and there are Lebanese forces in the Lebanese government that is trying to prevent Hezbollah from taking that step in fear of the destruction of Lebanon completely but of course Iran is worried that one of its main fronts is Hamas stronghold will be hit and vanishes and there's also a catch 22 here where Israel kept saying that it's going to destroy Hezbollah it's going to destroy Hamas and they're seeing we're actually doing that to Hamas but at the same time we're saying we're going to we're going to hit Lebanon so the catch 22 is do I hit before Israel hits that's for Nasrallah so it's kind of this game that we're playing and he's been saying about this speech for a long time for the last couple of days and we're seeing this escalation now I don't think it's any coincidence it's always convenient to say it comes from Hamas but actually we're controlling all those all of sudden Lebanon so I think we're going to see an escalation from Lebanon we're going to see an escalation I don't know how big that escalation is going to be and it's going to be dependent on how the IDF reacts and also our partners in the US President Biden said at first don't so it's a real test in the coming days what's going to happen because the Americans have sent significant military support to Israel including the world's largest aircraft carrier and they have warned that they will assist Israel if Hezbollah escalates to that point exactly the Israeli Defense Ministry is publishing a statement just an hour ago saying that it is getting ready for the second month of that war and announcing it has so far acquired 3,000 tons of equipment using 100 cargo planes, 5 ships also purchasing 10 billion shekels of ammunition from the Israeli industries this includes ammunition armored vehicles, protective equipment and medical care all of these as the Israel gears up for another month of war with Hamas and of course the potential of a much greater escalation with Hezbollah as both these fronts are still active Israel is well aware it needs to have enough ammunition with whether the Americans take part or not Israel has to be able to defend itself and therefore acquiring all that equipment is essential right now. I mean long term Syria, Israel has made it clear they cannot live with Hamas at its borders and they live with Hezbollah so unfortunately the issue is Iran and the bigger issue is the West versus Russia and China it feels a little bit like war ponds in a much bigger play here just before I came to the studio there was an announcement I don't know if it's correct that Putin, Russia is considering giving air missile defense systems to Hezbollah and we're seeing the signals it's not a coincidence he's supporting Hamas not supporting Israel which traditionally in the West there was a civil war in Syria but Israel wasn't attacked and although the IDF, the Air Force attacked many times in Syria but we're seeing a change here we're seeing a change and it has to do with the bigger picture with the war in Ukraine and remember that it's for us it's Iran and we can't do it alone we can't fight Iran by ourselves and our partners regional partners that we speak about often they have to see the bigger picture what's going on here it's been a strategy of Iran for the last 15, 20 years to surround Israel with missiles that can be attacked from five fronts at the same time there's also the West Bank seeing an escalation that just happened months ago that diverted us to look our attention to the West Bank and not to Gaza so nothing's a coincidence we're fighting against a very sophisticated enemy which is not a democracy like we have which plans ahead and we have to be united both in Israel but both like-minded nations and Iran of course was under significant domestic pressure over the past year following the death of Masa Amini there were unprecedented protests in Iran part of the strategy to counter Iran has been the Abraham Accords closer agreements with normalization agreements with Bahrain with the United Arab Emirates with Morocco and of course Saudi Arabia was just poised to do as well now we had a little bit of what some have been describing as a setback but it is a bit more complex this is a Lebanese media report which claimed Bahrain had recalled its ambassador and Bahrain's parliament which is very different to the leadership under King Hamad said that they were suspending or ending economic cooperation you worked on the Abraham Accords tell us about your reading from what I understand from my former colleagues Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs denying that statement and saying that the relations on track, the ambassador is in place and the relations will go on as usual for now I have to say about Saudi Arabia and the normalization process a very interesting development happened this week we saw the Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia visit Washington after we saw an attack from the Khoutis killing and reported killing four Saudi soldiers and we saw reports it was interesting to see reports that came out from the meeting from the Saudi part was we're talking about with the US on furthering our security cooperation and how do we end the battle in Yemen, the civil war and call for a ceasefire in Gaza and all that from the Israeli side we saw Barack Ravid who clearly the Americans issued a journalist that normalization process is still in play and they're looking forward to continuing that so the Americans are understanding the bigger game is going on what I explained about and about Iran and we have to continue with the normalization process as a counter for what Israel is trying to do I think a lot of Israelis were surprised the Saudis and the Emiratis condemned Hamas or any other countries in the Arab world I personally spoke right after the news broke of Bahrain I spoke to a political expert very close to the government there and he tried to downplay that report saying that the statement came from the parliament who is not involved with foreign relations and that was their way of easing the pressure on the streets of Bahrain, the protests against Israel obviously that is a country that is not unified in terms of its population and the support they have a big share of population 70% of the population is Shia, there is a majority minority Sunni who is the ruling family the Khalifa family I was in Bahrain myself earlier this year and there were parts of the city where us Israelis were asked to remain more quiet or low profile as the threat was there but I'll give you one statement that the Washington institute collected statements from Arab nations in this region regarding Hamas and here is one of the statements without Iran's presence Iranian soldiers, Iranian funds Iranian support for Hamas and the jihadists who control Gaza we would be much closer to achieving a better peace and that statement was in 2019 from Khalid bin Ahmad al-Halifa the minister of foreign affairs of Bahrain former minister of foreign affairs it just comes to show how much easier it is to speak about Hamas and its malign activity when it is not engaged in a war with Israel the traditional enemy the biggest enemy of Bahrain is Iran which is right on its doorstep exactly, Iran back in history was for a short time Bahrain was part of the Persian Empire Republic they're still saying it's part of Iran so there's a lot of conflict there there's conflicts outside of Israel who would imagine simmering away of course we all have a common enemy that is one of the driving forces behind the Abraham Accords for sure the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will be jetting into Israel tomorrow he's also set to visit Jordan this after Amman cancelled a meeting with the US President Joe Biden this month American support for Israel has been ironclad since October 7th but as our senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Altman now reports Biden's tone did seem to change somewhat over the past 24 hours take a look for Joe Biden the war has turned more complicated gone are the early days of emotive speeches from the US President connecting with the Israeli experience and here now is a more cautious style of looking at the war over in the Middle East we're going to continue to affirm that Israel has the right to respond to responsibility of defending citizens from terror and it needs to do so in a manner those consistent international and humanitarian law that prioritizes protection of citizens in principle Biden's positions are consistent from the start he has supported Israel's full on fight against Hamas from the start he has worried about protecting civilians notably he has not wrapped those two together he has wanted to achieve both but Biden must confront the pictures and the politics where his approval rating has dropped 11 percentage points among Democrats presumably because of the war the number of trucks entering Gaza continues to increase significantly but we still have a long way to go the United States is going to continue to drive humanitarian support for innocent people in Gaza who need help and they do need help by November 2024 of course the political impact of the war could diminish many news cycles will have passed the presumed candidacy of Donald Trump will focus minds on the left but Biden for all his Zionist order for all his commitment to building and boosting US allies around the world does need to manage the politics that means changing the tone and for civilians in Gaza bringing results well let's head to New York now we're joined by our senior US correspondent Mike Wagenheim so Mike I've just heard that Tony Blinken will be urging the Israeli government to agree to a series of brief cessations as they put it of military operations in order to allow for hostages to be released safely and for humanitarian aid how do you interpret that that's according to the New York Times that's not really breaking news here it's been hinted at both implicitly and explicitly by the State Department over the last few days that they were first pursuing or exploring opportunities for humanitarian pause and then gradually as the days go by as you listen to more comments and more briefings it's become more steadily gradually toward we want a pause here we want a humanitarian pause not a ceasefire but a pause for humanitarian reasons exactly what you're saying for the hostages to get humanitarian aid more humanitarian aid in Degas no surprise whatsoever that that's going to be a focal point of a Blinken's visit with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials during what will be a pretty brief time in Jerusalem alright and he will be headed to Amman as well this is after the Jordanians cancelled abruptly a planned visit by President Biden shortly after October 7th well yeah keep in mind the timing of that cancellation Biden was scheduled to visit Amman to have a four way summit with the king of Jordan President LCC from Egypt and also Mahmoud Abbas from the Palestinian Authority just a day maybe 36 hours before is when Israel launched its military operation in Gaza so as a result Jordan in support of the Palestinians decided to cancel that we're far away from that now obviously there's more urgency at this point in getting King Abdullah into the loop on things and making sure that he's essentially doing his part that there's coordination between the United States and Jordan on how things are going to be moving forward here and so Jordan welcoming Blinken this time around though they cancelled the meeting with Biden before and just another word then on calls for a humanitarian pause in the fighting do you think that this is due to political pressure at home on Joe Biden and is this something that is agreeable widely in the in the US? He's definitely feeling the heat there's no doubt about that whatsoever but I don't think the call for humanitarian pause is as a direct result of that if we see a call for a ceasefire that's something different and Biden by the way misspoke he said ceasefire to a reporter and then he said the word prisoners which he meant hostages so misstatement there by Biden rather than a change in policy now only one US senator is called for a ceasefire that was two years ago Dick Durbin a Democrat it has not come out of the Biden administration humanitarian pause is for obvious reasons at this point I think the Biden admin whether they're getting political pressure or not is disturbed at what they're seeing on the ground there in terms of humanitarian needs they don't want to look heartless and unsympathetic to the plight here and so it's a humanitarian pause that's the policy now I don't think that's a direct result of pressure if we see Biden go further in his demands on I think that might be an indicator of the heat that he's feeling all right well we'll hear more about that tomorrow thanks very much Mike Wagenheim there in New York thank you Mike well let's talk more about Jordan I want to bring in Dr. Nasir Alamari independent commentator and writer great to have you with this Nasir so let's talk about Jordan of course yesterday it withdrew it recalled its ambassador from Israel it also cancelled the meeting with President Biden they've very much taken a side in the conflict haven't they on the side of the Palestinians what do you expect from tomorrow's meeting I think to understand Jordan you have to understand the double role that the king has to play on the one hand he has to appear pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli at least for the time being but simultaneously he's a staunch US ally and he has a lot of interests with the state of Israel so but you know he's under a lot of pressure there have been demonstrations in Jordan demanding expelling the Israeli ambassador so the king has to look like he's standing up for the Palestinians he's for stopping this war but at the same time I think he understands that this is a fight this is a fight against Iran and Jihadi Iranian groups who if they win he will no longer be king of Jordan so he understands what the US is doing and what Israel is doing but he has to play this double game of looking like he is pro-Palestinian 100% and he's for stopping the war does Hamas have any support among the population inside Jordan is that a threat to the king and give us a bit of history Nassir because Jordan of course has had its own problems with Palestinians in the past hasn't it? Yes and Palestinians hold Jordanian passports some of them are refugees the majority of Jordan are actually Palestinians or of Palestinian origin so the king has to always look like he is a pro-Palestinian but everybody understands in Jordan that he's close to the Israeli security services he's close to the United States and a strategic alliance with Israel so it's a very tough situation I think the king wants this to go away as soon as possible but at the same time I think there is a feeling that if Hamas goes away that will probably pave the way for more reasonable Palestinians to that Israel can talk peace with so there is excitement but there is fear that this thing will last for a very long time and destabilize Jordan at some point. And do you think we might see a long-term impact on relations between Jordan and Israel? I think the king has always maintained behind the scenes relationship with the Israeli security forces he's not fond of the Netanyahu government or any right-wing government he just can't understand why the threats to him sometimes and to his throne keep coming from the Israeli right when they talk about Jordan being Palestine he doesn't understand that because he and his father and his grandfather probably his some of his family are very close to the state of Israel and they have always worked closely maintained close relationships with Israel so he I think he's angry because he doesn't understand why the Israeli right doesn't treat him as someone who's actually helping to stabilize Jordan to stabilize the Palestinian territories and as being a key player in the peace for Israel