 in Israel, News 24, Unicamente, on I-24 News. 24 News, I'm Sebaan Irvive and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is Day 58 of Israel's war with Hamas. There are currently 137 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas and captivity in Gaza, following the release of about 105 Israeli and foreign national hostages in an exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, and five more hostages released alive in the earlier stages of the war. The conflict between Israel and Hamas resumed this past weekend, striking hundreds of terrorist targets, including the killing of the commander of Hamas' Sajjah-e-Battalion Wisaam Farhat. Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galan said yesterday that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreement and refused to release 15 women and two children still held captive in the Gaza Strip. The entire Israeli negotiating team was subsequently sent home from Qatar. Meanwhile, at least 11 rockets were fired yesterday evening from the Gaza Strip, to central Israel, including to the Tel Aviv area sending residents to shelters, with most rockets intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system. The IDF reported that Colonel Asaf Hamami, commander of the IDF's Gaza Division's southern brigade, was killed on October 7th and his body is held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The IDF also announced the deaths of two more of their troops killed fighting against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip over this past weekend. We negotiated very hard, very harshly, under fire from morning to night, from night to morning. I spoke to President Biden often and we exerted pressure on the mediators to improve the outline, and we indeed managed to improve it, to improve it substantially. The effort was from around the world, it was the IDF, the ISA, and I was in touch daily with the White House. This entire effort bore fruit. We doubled the number of those released, but we have yet to complete this mission. We will continue to fight with all our might. We have prepared for that. The IDF has prepared for that, for the final and total defeat of Hamas. Joining us now is our I-24 News Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regev, currently on the Israel-Gaza border. Jonathan, can you give us an update on the situation down there since the fighting resumed? How intense is the fighting? It's quite intense, Yvonne, and we're also hearing lots of artillery since we arrived here early this morning. We can hear it. There were no rockets fired overnight. There was one alert in the area of the city of Askelon, it turned out to be a false alarm, so meaning that after following that siren at 10 o'clock local time, which is 10 hours ago, which you mentioned in your lead, there were no rockets fired from Gaza. I think no one is under the illusion that this will go on for quite some time. We should expect rockets here in southern Israel and maybe even further north in the coming hours. Fighting is intense. Israel is now focusing mostly in the area of the southern Gaza Strip areas, which have not been so far a large part of the battle still, most of the activity being carried out from the air. Israel, I think, quite understanding that there's no choice but to expand its ground maneuver further south to the areas of Chanyones, Deir al-Balach, areas where the ground maneuver has not been taking place so far. This along with the fact that the movement on the ground will also continue right across the area where we are, to our backs, the city of Gaza, some neighborhoods which have not been conquered yet in the first phase of the ground offensive neighborhoods like Jabalia, like Zajaya, like Zaytun, quite large neighborhoods of Gaza City, where there's still a lot of work to be done. And the hope in Israel is that exerting more military pressure will eventually lead Hamas once again to enter into a dialogue, which will lead to a hostage deal. Thank you, Jonathan Rigiv, and we are seeing live images as we speak from Gaza. Joining us now is Brigadier General and Reserves Yosef Kupa-Vassil, former Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and former Head of Research Division in the IDF. Also here in studio with me is Danielle Sheik, the former Israeli Ambassador to France. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you. So Yosef, Israel has now renewed the fighting, but it still did not move to the second stage, which is expected to be more intense. What's the plan looking forward? Well, it's hard to say, but I believe that we are going to first finish the job in the northern part of Gaza. We have, as your correspondent said, we have still some neighborhoods to take over. And yesterday we saw the success in hitting the commander of the Zajaya battalion. So we are moving in this direction as we speak. And the next step is going to be Hanyunas, probably, or some other locations in the southern part of Gaza. Because the Prime Minister reiterated yesterday our goals have not changed. We are there in order to defeat Hamas, release the hostages and make sure that Gaza is not going to be a threat for Israel in the future. And for that to happen, we have to take over the entire Gaza Strip, not only the northern part of it. Now Hamas claimed yesterday that they will not speak about another release of hostages while under fire. Does Israel still have an opportunity to release the hostages? Do you think? I think so, because the pressure over Hamas is becoming greater and greater. This is the only option for them to breathe from air. And I believe that in the coming days, if we see the growing pressure, there's a chance that they are going to ask for another pose. This time, I believe the pose is going to be much shorter, it depends on the readiness to release hostages. But generally speaking, I think it's going to be much shorter. And we should see the opportunity to release more hostages in the next stage. Please stay with us. And here in studio with me is Daniel Shek. Daniel, we're seeing tens of thousands in the hostage square in Tel Aviv last night, demanding for everyone to be released now, now, including the released hostages speaking and calling out also. So what's the next stage do you think for the hostages? How will they be returned? What's the strategy? Well, the strategy is obviously not for the tens of thousands of people in hostage square to decide. I think the job of the forum of families of hostages and all the wonderful people who are working to support the families and to promote the release of their loved ones is to just make sure that the issue remains at the top priority, both in Israeli public opinion and for the government. And I think that by and large, these are difficult days in the sense that the first stage, the first agreement has most probably come to an end, although theoretically, we know that there are still women and children to be released, which Hamas won't do, which were part of the first deal. So we go straight ahead into trying to make sure that there is a second deal. And you know what Hamas says? They're not going to negotiate a ceasefire under fire. Well, that's what you do. When you're under fire, you negotiate a ceasefire. Otherwise, you've already obtained your ceasefire before you even start negotiating. So that doesn't sound like a reasonable demand. So we just hope that this is merely a brief interruption in the effort of the Israeli government and the international community to help the release of all the hostages as soon as possible. Now, I want us to hear a testimony from Daniela Loni, who was freed from Hamas captivity with her six-year-old daughter, Emilia, over the last week after being held for weeks in Gaza. Take a listen. I'm talking about it, and I see it as a success. It was amazing. It was amazing. There's no end to today. There's no end. There are others, there are victims. Every day that passes, it's a joke that doesn't come true. There's no one to blame. His sister, his wife, his wife and his sister. People there in the police. People who can die. Because he simply killed them. He freed them. He freed them from my hand. There's no time. I'm fighting in the name of the new government. They freed our brothers and sisters now. So we're seeing this testimony from Daniela Loni, and there were others as well. And a few of them spoke out at the square last night. And we know there will be a meeting with the released hostages and Prime Minister Netanyahu. What's expected to be said over there? Let me just say this. At the forum of the families of hostages where I try to contribute somehow, it started with the families. It then went on with the families of those released and unfortunately those killed, still joining in to the effort. And now it's gradually the hostages themselves after a period of recovery and according to a timetable that only they can set, they are beginning to participate in the fight for the others. And I think that just demonstrates something very beautiful that is happening in this community. It's become a real community. The forum of families has become a big family and that even those whose loved ones were released and the hostages themselves feel an obligation towards those who are still there and want to join the fight. Indeed, I heard one of them say that they've become a big family and they hope to become a very, very small one. But again, I'll ask you, what will they be asking Netanyahu for? Well, to make all the necessary efforts to show the reasonable flexibility that may be needed in these negotiations in order to open another window of exchanges. And this time to broaden the scope, not just to children and women. First of all, there are other fragile hostages. There are elderly males and there are people with chronic diseases and there are people who were injured during the hostage taking. So there are many people who are in immediate danger, in immediate danger for their lives. And then all the others. I mean, not one hostage should remain at the end of this process. Not one hostage should remain in Gaza. Absolutely. Yosef Koupe-Vasser, it seems the release of the hostages is the top priority at large for much of the Israeli public. How can these two goals of dismantling Hamas and releasing the hostages be achieved at the same time? Well, I think that for most of the Israeli public, the goals are intertwined. So it's not the release of the hostages and that's it. We want to see a release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas at the same time. And fortunately, what was proven in this deal that was implemented last week is that there is no contradiction between those two goals. You can contribute to raising the chances of releasing the hostages by putting more and more pressure over Hamas. And that's what is planned for the future and I think that's what the prime minister is going to tell the families. The families, of course, we can understand them, want first and foremost to see the release of the hostages and everybody wants to see that. But what the prime minister is going to tell them is that he believes that by putting pressure on Hamas by moving forward with the military plan, that is the best way to release the hostages and without contradicting the other goal that is not much less important. It's also very important. And that's what's going to be discussed in the meeting and here he would, of course, would have to prove that this is the case and you should definitely use the case of the previous deal in order to try to convince them that this is the case. It's not going to be easy for him and what we saw just now from Daniela Loni is telling you how difficult it is to be in this situation, to be in captivity and to be a relative of one of the people who are in captivity or to be any Israeli, because all the Israelis are in this family. The hostages, one big family of Israeli public that wants to see those hostages released as soon as possible. Daniela, you wanted to say? No, I actually agree with Mr. Kupovasser that there should be no contradiction. There is just one difference and that is the degree of urgency. The release of the hostages is probably more urgent than defeating Hamas. Defeating Hamas can be a process in time. All the military experts, which I am not, but all the military experts say that this might turn out to be a medium-term or long-term effort, whereas the release of the hostages, especially the fragile ones, is an immediate urgency. So there is no contradiction and I'm sure that the families of hostages would like to see Hamas defeated in a manner that it can no longer be a threat to any Israeli close to the Gaza border or far from the Gaza border. The urgent challenge now is the release of the hostages. We know that Israel insisted on releasing more women when the deal fell apart. What if Israel agreed to releasing other categories like men or soldiers? Well, that will now depend on the negotiation with Hamas. There is plenty to talk about. Israel holds a large number of Palestinian prisoners, many of them Hamas, others not from Hamas. It's not as if there's nothing to discuss. There's plenty to discuss. And the question is the goodwill of Hamas. Are they prepared not only to negotiate a deal and to agree on a deal, but also to abide by the deal, which they failed to do in the last few days? Yosef? I think that what's going on is that for Hamas, the rest of the hostages are sort of a tool to save their souls in the later parts of the war. Because they understand that they don't have a chance to win the war militarily. The pressure is going to grow, and their survival is going to be at stake. So that's what they need the hostages for. Originally their plan was to use the hostages in order to release the terrorists arrested in Israeli jails. But now they would very much like to do that, but it's not the top priority for them. For them now the top priority is to use the hostages in order to survive. And that's why the fact that it's going to be a long war is also something that affects the hostages' situation. We can expect tough negotiations on behalf of Hamas, because they need to translate the hostages into some better chance to survive at the end. Their hope was that this post that was in place last week would turn into something very long, lasting ceasefire, and that Israel would change its goals and would give up the goal of defeating Hamas. They are unhappy with the fact that it didn't happen, and they see that Israel is committed to achieving this goal as well. And they would have to reassess what they're going to do with the hostages, and this is where we stand right now. It's time for Hamas to reassess. There's going to be pressure on them, not only from the military operations of Israel, but also from the negotiators, especially from the United States, I guess, because the more pressure is put on Hamas, the greater the chances that Egypt is going to be under pressure as well, because the Palestinians in Gaza are going to ask for an opportunity to move into Egypt. And that's another reason for Egypt to put pressure on Hamas before this pressure materializes and people start crossing into Egypt. That's another tool that is being in play and using play, and I think that the situation is going to be more complicated as time goes by. Okay, Yosef Kolkovasel, thank you very much for joining us. Daniel, let me just ask you. We're seeing a terrorist attack last night in Paris near the Eiffel Tower. You were an ambassador in France. We are seeing one German tourist dead within this knife attack. The French Interior Minister said that the suspect told police he was upset because so many Muslims are dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine. What do you think is the scale of the Gaza war effect on France? Well, it's huge, unfortunately. First of all, in the mind-boggling number of anti-Semitic incidents that have spiked over the last two months and are causing a lot of concern among the authorities and the civil society in France, I remind our viewers that France has the largest Jewish community in Western Europe and the largest Muslim community in Europe. So the friction is widespread. I also want to remind our viewers that France is one of the countries with the harshest laws against anti-Semitism. People are being prosecuted for anti-Semitic speech and deeds, obviously. So there is a determination in trying to fight anti-Semitism, but the scale has just risen to proportions that are really worrying. So that's one side of it. The other is that, unfortunately, France is not a newcomer to terror attacks. There have been some very large ones. And periodically there are these individuals radicalized Muslims who live in France. This person apparently was documented as radicalized and was already spent time in prison for in the past. So, yeah, occasionally these individuals just move to action. And in this case, unfortunately, it cost the life of a German tourist. Unfortunately. Daniel Sheik, thank you very much for joining us. A handful of Israeli villages along the Gaza border, including Mosheb Naveh, were miraculously spared during the Hamas massacre of October 7th. But their harrowing ordeal, hiding in shelters for hours, followed by a subsequent military escorted evacuation in the direction of the Egypt border, no doubt left a mark on the community of over a thousand people. I-24's Emily Francis went with a community leader to visit their Mosheb in the days before they are hoping to move back home for good. It's been nearly two months since the horrifying events of the Hamas terror massacre in Israel's south. But here on Road 232, which only recently reopened, there is still an eerie feeling. Terrorists were all over the place. And this gas station in the woods, in the fields, running all over the place and just killing whoever they see. And a lingering smell of hell. You can still smell the burned-out trees. We can see the damage of the battles that took place on this road. And anti-tank missiles shot at cars on this road, civilian cars. Fort Siouan Leshem, who is now preparing his community to return home, stopping along the way at this gas station and convenience store, is a painful reminder of the nightmare they all endured on October 7th. This yellow gas station was completely taken over by the terrorists. They actually looted the yellow store. Thankfully, no one was there. The terrorists went on a murder rampage and then got the munchies. The refrigerator is completely smashed and shot at. See the bullet holes. There you go. Terrorists, terrorists like Ben and Jerry's as well. Siouan is from Mosheb Nave, located just a few kilometers from two enemy borders. We're right in the corner of both Gaza and Egypt borders. We enjoy the benefits of both borders. The terrorists have been on the way to us on October 7th morning. Thankfully, thank God they didn't come, they didn't make it. An army group kind of tackled them before they made it here. On October 7th, the playgrounds that are usually a source of joy for over 700 children who live here became a place of sheer terror for up to 20 people in a tiny shelter. Wow, this is not a fun place to have to run into. No. I'm possible to put racists with three of us. 6.30 a.m., the men are in the synagogue during the holiday prayers. Women and kids are in bed, sleeping. And 6.30 a.m., the siren goes off and we're used to that. We know what needs to be done. Everyone needs to run to the sheltered rooms. Unfortunately, not all the families actually have sheltered rooms. And unlike what we're used to, one siren, maybe two, a vague boom outside. This is going on for hours and tens and tens of rockets being fired at us. And children have to get out of their bed and run to the streets, out to the playground, to the sheltered rooms in the playground. And this time we're being locked inside for hours and hours. No door, no window, no electricity, and literally waiting for terrorists to come. Yes, this is a giant miracle. Not only for the residents and security team, but also for those of us from the Moshev who were called to fight. Even Moshev Navey's head of security, Omri Cohen, says it was a gift of God that they were spared. On October 7th at 6.30 a.m., there were many red alerts and dozens of missiles landing on and near our Moshev. After a while, I started to understand there was a major infiltration of terrorists. Men who had weapons left their wives and children to protect the residents of the Moshev. This bedroom community you see now also became ground zero for ambulances and helicopters bringing the wounded to get medical attention. And now there's a collection of the most unwanted reminders of the horrors of October 7th. Obviously we know what this is, but it's unbelievable that we're sitting here standing and holding this like a souvenir. Not normal. Yeah, so this is the remaining of a rocket that was shot at us together with our rocket collection and one of thousands. But Sion says they will no doubt turn this disturbing piece of trash into treasure. We're taking these rockets, cleaning them up, painting them and putting them in our yard, planting flowers. And I guess that's just one little thing that we can do to show the world that life is going on. Our enemies are seeking death and we are seeking life. And Moshev Nave is also known for their prized agricultural fields. In fact, Nave and other Moshevs near the Gaza border provide up to 70% of the produce consumed in Israel. And now it's up to volunteers to save the agriculture. What has it been like to be here volunteering? It's a very hard work. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. We'll be back at the top of the hour with more news and updates. Be sure to follow us on our website and our social media platforms. I'm Sivan Ravi. Thank you for watching. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front lines. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. I'm Sivan Ravi and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is Day 58 of Israel's war with Hamas. There are currently 137 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in captivity in Gaza, following the release of about 105 Israeli and foreign national hostages in an exchange deal between Israel and Hamas and five more hostages who were released alive in the earlier stages of the war. Fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed this past weekend with the IDF striking hundreds of terrorist targets, including the killing of the commander of Hamas, the Saja'iyah battalion, Wisaam Farhad. Israeli Defense Minister Yohav Galan said yesterday that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreement and refused to release 15 women and two children still held captive in the Gaza Strip. The entire Israeli negotiating team was subsequently sent home from Qatar. Meanwhile, at least 11 rockets were fired yesterday evening from the Gaza Strip to central Israel, including to the Tel Aviv area, sending residents to shelters with most rockets intercepted by the iron-dough anti-missile defense system. The IDF reported that Colonel Asaf Hamami, commander of the IDF's Gaza Division's southern brigade, was killed on October 7th and his body is held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The IDF also announced the deaths of two more of their troops killed fighting against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip over the weekend. We can staff Sergeant Ashawalu, Sama and Sergeant First Class in reserves or Brandes. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke last night. Here's what he had to say. We negotiated very hard, very harshly under fire from morning to night, from night to morning. I spoke to President Biden often and we exerted pressure on the mediators to improve the outline and we indeed managed to improve it. To improve it substantially. The effort was from around the world. It was the IDF, the ISA, and I was in touch daily with the White House. This entire effort bore fruit. We doubled the number of those released. But we have yet to complete this mission. We will continue to fight with all our might. We have prepared for that. The IDF has prepared for that. For the final and total defeat of Hamas. And joining us now on Israel's northern border is Ariel Osaran, our I-24 News Middle East correspondent. Ariel, the fighting resumed in the north as well as in Gaza down south. We are seeing Hezbollah pretty much aligned with Hamas. What can you tell us about the situation on the ground? Right, Sivan. Good morning. You could feel yesterday as if there was no ceasefire just a few days ago because the fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border resumed as it had been going on in the 50 days prior to the ceasefire. We're talking about at least 11 Hezbollah attacks on IDF border posts along the Israel-Lebanon border with Israel responding with multiple waves of airstrikes, artillery, and mortar fire to the source of the fire but also saying that it had targeted the IDF, targeted different Hezbollah terror infrastructure. Now, we're looking at this resumption of fighting as if it was before and that's also what we're hearing from Hezbollah leaders. Yesterday, a member of Hezbollah's Central Council, Nabil Kaouk, saying yesterday that the position of Hezbollah has not changed regarding its support for the Palestinian people in Gaza. He said that Hezbollah will not allow Israel any gain or to try to change the equation at the expense of Lebanese sovereignty. This is in line with the statements that we heard prior to the ceasefire and in the first weeks of the war by Hezbollah trying to show that while they're not escalating the situation into a full-out war, full-scale war, they are indeed intended to continue to show support to the Palestinian people. I think the fact that while the ceasefire did not include Hezbollah, the fact that they also refrained from firing against Israel I think can indicate as to their motivation in fighting against Israel right now beyond just support for Hamas and Gaza. Thank you very much, Ariel in the north. With us in the studio is our I-24 News Senior Correspondent, Owen Alterman and Orr Isachar, head of the research at the IDSF, Habitzu Nitzim. Thank you for joining us. Good to be here. So for the first time ever, Owen, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court visited Israel this weekend. All at the invitation of several families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. This was a private invitation. It wasn't an official visit. What can you tell us about this? Well, listen, Siobhan, the ICC is going to be a big presence over the long term in looking back at this war. One observer mentioned, and he's not the first to say so over the last few weeks, that it's complicated for the ICC to come in full force to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is obviously a conflict that's very contested around the world, not just in our own corner of the woods. And there are real risks to the ICC taking it on as it clashes with one side or another as it goes forward. But when you have an event of this magnitude, both October 7th itself and the war that followed, it seems to me inconceivable that in one way or another the ICC won't come in. And in a sense, it's coming in a surprising way, or starting to come in a surprising way, being invited not by the Palestinian side, or not only by the Palestinian side, but by Israelis as well, by the families, right? By the families of the victims and of the hostages. So Karim Khan came and met with the families and said that there's obviously strong reason to believe that Hamas committed war crimes in October 7th, obviously, no surprise. Now why is a prosecutor using those words strong reasons and not coming out and saying they're war crimes? Again, I don't think that he's trying to minimize what happened, quite the contrary. But again, a prosecutor's job is to investigate and establish facts. He hasn't started to do that yet, or at least do that in earnest. And so he needs to at least show some sense of caution before he reaches the conclusion. I think what everyone needs to understand though is once the ICC enters an incident, answers an event, it investigates claims from both sides. So obviously it will investigate October 7th. The evidence there, as we all know, is likely to be overwhelming and one-sided. There aren't real reasons here for excuse or anything of the sort. And one would imagine that down the line there will be arrest warrants issued for individual Hamas members who either orchestrated or participated in this. But he's also, of course, going to investigate Israeli activities and the Gaza Strip and allegations about that. Obviously something I think Israeli officials are going to be less enthusiastic about. Thank you, Owen. We'll be back to discussing. But in the meantime, with us now is our I-24 News senior defense correspondent, Jonathan Regev. Jonathan, you're on the Israel-Gaza border. Can you give us an update on the situation down there since the fighting resumed? Yes, plenty of artillery. Sivan, we're hearing it since we arrived this morning. Heavy artillery fired. We're hearing it fired towards the Gaza Strip. All over, meaning not only the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Hamas, Chanyones, Derel Balak, all of these Palestinian cities on the southern part of the Gaza Strip, they're all taking their head, they're tall. I don't know if you can hear, but we're hearing plenty of artillery now. And rocket fire is starting towards Israel as well, reaching the area of Tel Aviv last night, at 10 p.m. local time, silent sounding, so fighting is on all over the place, whether with artillery, and even with some ground maneuvers inside the Gaza Strip, but also with rocket fire towards Israel. Now Israel pulled out its negotiating team from Qatar, but there still might be a window to release some more female hostages. Do we know anything about this? No, we don't. We know that the negotiations right now are not taking place. Israel is hoping that the military pressure will eventually lead Hamas to look for another hostage deal. It is widely thought that it's the pressure applied in the previous round of the ground operation, which eventually led Hamas to look for some kind of hostage deal, which brought with it the ISIS fire, the hope is that more military pressure will lead Hamas to the same conclusion. And the IDF announced about humanitarian corridors and safe zones for Gazans to move in the south, too. Can you tell us about that? Yes, following pressure from the United States, Israel is hoping to minimize the damage as much as possible to uninvolved civilians, trying to move them into safer areas. This is basically what Israel is trying to do. Thank you very much, Jonathan, down south. And we're back here in studio with Owen and Ul, and we were discussing the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court visiting here in Israel. Ul, you wanted to respond to that? Yeah, I think the ICC we have to be careful what we wish for. Obviously, the ICC if we were on the right side of history and the right side of truth, it's a long investigated war crimes committed by Hamas, war crimes spoken by the Palestinian Authority. But we know the international fora, these international forums are inherently biased against Israel. There is currently an independent investigation by the ICC on Israeli war crimes alone as from June 13, 2014 because the previous day in June 12, 2014, there was the abduction of the three teenage boys, following which Israel rightfully launched operation in the Gaza Strip. And so, even if Israel doesn't commit war crimes, it bends reality and sort of stitches international law into Israel's sizes. I wouldn't count on the ICC to help us out in this case, but I wouldn't count on the United Nations as a whole. It is part of these international scene. We heard Francesca Albanese. She's the Human Rights Council's rapporteur for Israelis and Palestinians. She's actually pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli. What she basically claimed is Israel cannot claim the right of self-defense against a threat that emanates from a territory it occupies. The right of self-defense can only be invoked when a state is threatened by another state. Okay, not by a group, for example. So that would now in the United States right to fight against Al Qaeda and Frances right to fight against Boko Haram. So the international law this doesn't apply in general. It applies to Israel in very specific cases. And Guterres was comment. So I wouldn't count on the United Nations nor the ICC but I would count on the State of Israel to once this war is over, and we need Qatar right now for the hostages case to demand Qatar to extradite Hamas officials into Israel to have these Nuremberg trial style. Only maybe let's call it the Bayeri trials or the Nirooz trials against Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Hania and all the Hamas officials who are now lavishly taking refuge and really are hosted in the Qatar four and five star hotels. So we cannot have Qatar giving sanctuary to these people. I just want to respond very quickly. First of all I think we have to be careful in Israel not to sweep all international organizations and all actors under one umbrella and under one Ruth. Frigida Albanese is extreme. Her comment about that is just about the most idiotic statement of international law I've ever heard and I don't say that lightly. It is absolutely idiotic. The basis for it is idiotic. The implications are completely idiotic. It is so idiotic that anyone who says that including by the government of South Africa as well as said just about the same thing anyone who says that is full well of how idiotic it is and by definition by definition anyone who says that is offering it in bad faith that said the ICC may at least in some to some degree be different. Karim Khan is a reputation of being a professional. The ICC's reputation is at stake. Again none of us should be naive and also as I mentioned the Israeli government is not the one who invited Karim Khan to visit. It was a family themselves as their initiative. There's considerable risk for Israel in this for some of the reasons that you outlined. But I think that we have to be careful not to sweep all UN agencies and all international bodies under one brush and also whether Israel wants it or not the fact is reality dictates that the ICC will be involved and will be investigating it. It's a fact of life and whether Israel wants it or doesn't want it. It's coming to a theater near us. Again the proceedings will take a very long time. This is years down the road long after the new cycle has moved onward. But it is happening. So it's not a question whether Israel wants it or not. But how Israel should react to what will happen. The question is the question is not how Israel reacts in my opinion. It's the fact that it's been going on for decades. And when I see when I connect all the dots together I do see a pattern among international forms that are unfortunately explicitly and profoundly anti Israeli the general let's take the United Nations bodies general assembly 85% of resolutions are against Israel human rights council the only country that is condemned over 60% of the time this article 7 of the human rights council the only article the concerns of specific country you and women that have failed to condemn until yesterday where it has this sort of a vague statement about all the rape cases and abuse cases against Israeli women. I can see UNESCO. I can see UNICEF I can see the ICC which is entrusted by United Nations by the Rome Statute. I connect all these dots together and I can't avoid the impression the international forms are inherently biased against Israel. I'm not saying it is a talking point. I'm just it's just an honest observation. And even if the ICC is involved it has been involved for a decade now. Five years ago it has launched an investigation. I don't think Israel should cooperate with that even if it's already an ongoing process and the train has already left the station. I don't think Israel has any business with this charade with this mock trial of international law that is stitched to this. This is a kangaroo court. I don't think Israel has any business cooperating with it. But if the hostages families want to meet with them, I want to stand in the way. And let's not forget that there are still 137 more hostages still in captivity. I want us to take a listen to Hadas Calderon whose two children were freed from Hamas captivity this past week. She's calling out last night at the Hostage Square in Tel Aviv to release her husband who is still in captivity along with all the other hostages. Let's take a listen. My own private superheroes survived and returned. According to them it was the war game Fortnite. A game that has become a reality. A reality that is beyond imagination. Their father Ophel Calderon is still there. Sahar wants a father. Hez wants a father. Hez wants a father. Ya Fadar gave another testimony about her time in Hamas captivity. Here's what she had to say. So Owen and all, we're seeing these testimonies from people who are hostages, people whose families are hostages. What's the strategy? Where are we going to next? They're all saying, free them now. And obviously, everybody agrees with that. But how? First of all, it's heartbreaking to see it. And you can only imagine what they've gone through over these 50 days in captivity. I think that the state of Israel has made a bold step, even a very risky step, by agreeing to this deal with Hamas. It has lost some of its deterrence against Hamas. It has lost maybe some of the momentum of the war. But I think it was the right decision, given the fact that over 80 people, over 80 Israelis and over 100 people in total were given their life back, really. And the heart goes out to these people who are simply demanding their family members back. Having said that, I think the ball is not entirely in Israel's hands. I think that there is a bigger picture here where there are national interests involved. And I don't think that Hamas is the kind of organization or entity or sovereign states where you can deal with much like we dealt with Syria and Egypt following the Yom Kippur War about the captive Israeli soldiers there. I think that Hamas is much more cynical. And in that sense, the state of Israel has found itself in this embryo that is extremely complicated. They cannot possibly agree to Hamas's terms to release all Palestinian prisoners and make a halt to the war in exchange for some of the prisoners that they can find, some of the hostages they can find. I think these are demands that Israel cannot possibly agree to. What Israel can do is put maximum pressure when these 80 people were returned. And we are all happy to see them back home, to put maximum pressure on Hamas, on Qatar, and on Iran to free them in exchange for maybe only bringing Hamas officials to trial rather than bombarding them from the air. I think this is probably the interest of the Hamas leadership in Gaza is to stay alive. And I don't think that they have any interest in becoming martyrs in this war. We heard prison directors that knew them and interrogators from the ISA that interrogated them personally. And they attest that these people do not spare Gaza civilians lives. They couldn't care less about their own civilians. All they care about is their own life and their own mission. So we can maybe try to play with those cards a little bit. I mean, as a technical matter, and you're just about saying this or the ball is in Israel's court, right? If Israel wanted to end the war, empty Palestinian prisons, of course, then you could get to a deal to release the hostages. But that's not the proper balance between the two goals, right? The one goal of ending Hamas military, of ending Hamas control over the Gaza Strip, eliminating military capabilities. One goal and the second goal freeing the hostages. To some degree, the goals are consistent. And that's part of the Israeli debate. To some degree, they are not, they are inconsistent with one another. To the extent that they are inconsistent with one another, they have to be balanced. The kind of balance, the kind of steps that would be required to free the hostages is not a balance between those two goals that the public would accept. Or is absolutely right, we all know this, that the deal to free those 80 Israeli hostages and 20 plus foreign nationals in the end was widely popular among the Israeli public. I don't think anyone at this point is regretting it. And I think at this point, it's safe to say we're not likely to regret it, even at the end of the day. But to take the kind of steps right now to immediately free the others is not a balance between the two goals that the public would support. What kind of opportunities and balances will be available down the road, of course, is what we're all hoping to see something that would better be able to maximize them both and to bring those other hostages home. Now, at the point that this deal fell apart, Israel insisted on releasing more women. Hamas said it doesn't have more women to release. What if Israel agreed to other categories of releases? Men, elderly men, soldiers. For one thing, first of all, that might actually, obviously endanger the women who are at particular risk, knowing what we know about what was done to women in October 7th itself. And second, it may be that the cost, the price, so to speak, for releasing men would be different. It would be a different deal. It would take time to negotiate. If the ceasefire, the pause continues during the negotiation that obviously continues to give Hamas an advantage without any certain benefit for Israel because the negotiation would still be ongoing. And then the question is what the price would be on the other side. Look, it is a plausible avenue. You're absolutely right, right? It is not necessarily entirely binary of having to empty prisons and end the war in order to free a single additional hostage. But it still seems to me that that avenue is one that I think many in the public might not support as the proper balance between the two goals. But I do think it may be that over the course of coming days or weeks, there may be a balance that would free other hostages that would be more publicly acceptable. But I do think leaving women and children in captivity would be a very, very bitter pill for the public to swallow here. And I'm not sure how that would go over. Absolutely, I agree. And I think Israel is facing really bad options and more options. I don't think the cards in Israel's hands are anything short of bad options. But I do think that if you consider the wider picture of the war, like Owen said, it's a balance between all the considerations that a country has to make. And we need to take a step back a little bit and ask ourselves, why did Hamas take hostages in the first place? And I think this is precisely in order to blackmail Israel, to use these poor people as bargaining chips, and to force Israel's hand into concessions, into stopping the war. We heard the proposal that came from Hamas just the other day, saying we can release all hostages in return for the complete cessation, the complete halt of the war. This is something Israel cannot possibly accept. And Israel cannot possibly also accept releasing, like in Gilad Shalit's case, 1,027 prisoners for every Israeli soldier that is not going to happen. And I do think, given the deadly terrorist attack in Jerusalem just the other day, that we saw the percent of recidivism of prisoners, Palestinian prisoners who committed terror attacks and go back to terrorism and murder more Israelis. So this is a cycle of violence that Israel cannot allow itself to have. The first Intifada was instigated by the Jibril deal. The second Intifada by those prisoners who were released in the 1990s as part of the Oslo Accord gestures. And I don't think that Israeli public would ever agree. And this event by the Shalit deal. Exactly. And the Yahya Sinwar and others were really the poster child of the Shalit deal. And I don't think that Israel has an interest to really recreate this quote unquote big success. So there is a price to everything. Israel cannot pay any price. But we also have to remember, why did Hamas take the hostages in the first place? And we have to take a look at the bigger picture. Lebanon, and Iran, just bursting, breaking out to nuclear weapons. And Lebanon, who has interest in keeping that deterrence against Israel. I don't think that Israel can allow itself to show weakness here. And the human cost is one thing. And then decision makers will have to put maximal pressure, maximal military pressure on Hamas, maybe recreate some sort of successful operations, like the Orimagadish case, where IDF and ISA actually, when they're sorry, elite police units and ISA actually came there and rescued her, is going to be extremely complicated. But I think at this point, Israel doesn't have many other options. So looking forward over the weekend, it was reported that Israel is interested to carve out a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of the Gaza border. What will that look like? Is that even an achievable goal? Well, I'll give it to you in a second. It's usually an achievable goal, assuming Israel wins the war. I mean, if the war ends with Israel in control of the territory of the Gaza Strip, and Hamas not in control of the territory of the Gaza Strip, Israel obviously has the leverage to shape the geographic future of Gaza. Again, within the confines of international law, obviously. But presumably, there could be a way within the law to carve out this kind of buffer zone. How would it look? Some people have talked about the model of North and South Korea, a demilitarized zone where anyone who enters it is at risk of being shot, just on site, without a question about what the person is doing there and what their intentions are. So that seems to be Israel's direction. That's what it said. Again, we haven't had too many definitive statements about the day after. Other than, again, Prime Minister Netanyahu definitively coming out and saying, especially last night, he doesn't want the Palestinian Authority back. But this is another one of them. Will Israel be able to do it? It depends on the war's outcome. I think that Israel will have to be much more firm in the day after the war. In terms of the border with Gaza, assuming that there will be, we'll say that the situation and the state of affairs in Gaza after the war. But assuming that there will be millions of residents in Gaza after the war, I think that Israel cannot allow itself to be bashed and slandered by the international community once again. We saw, for example, the so-called March of Return, all those demonstrations on the Gaza fence in 2018. We know that all these rights instigated by Sinwar in order to muscle up in front of the other military leadership of the Hamas, was actually condemned by the international community as shooting peaceful protesters. We know that the protests, the riots on the fence, just a few days before October 7, were used then in order to put IEDs on the fence. The international community called it the extradition killing of mostly peaceful protests. And I think Israel will have to be much more firm and to enforce border protection vis-a-vis Gaza. Oris Sachar and Owen Alterman, thank you very much for joining us here in studio and for your important input. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage, providing you with the latest from Israel. I'm Siobhan Ravey. Thank you for watching. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. I'm Siobhan Ravey. And these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is day 58 of Israel's war with Hamas. There are currently 137 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in captivity in Gaza. Following the release of about 105 Israeli and foreign national hostages in an exchange deal between Israel and Hamas and five more hostages who were released alive in the earlier stages of the war. Fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed this past weekend with the IDF striking hundreds of terrorist targets, including the killing of the commander of Hamas, the Saja'iyah battalion, Wissam Farhad. Israeli Defense Minister Yohav Galan said yesterday that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreement and refused to release 15 women and two children still held captive in the Gaza Strip. The entire Israeli negotiating team was subsequently sent home from Qatar. Meanwhile, at least 11 rockets were fired yesterday evening from the Gaza Strip to central Israel, including to the Tel Aviv area, sending residents to shelters with most rockets intercepted by the Irindo anti-missile defense system. The IDF reported that Colonel Asaf Hamami, commander of the IDF's Gaza Division Southern Brigade, was killed on October 7th and his body is held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The IDF also announced the deaths of two more of their troops killed fighting against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip over the weekend. Staff Sergeant Ashawalu, Sama, and Sergeant First Class in reserves, Orr Brandes. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke last night. Here's what he had to say. We negotiated very hard, very harshly, under fire from morning to night, from night to morning. I spoke to President Biden often and we exerted pressure on the mediators that wanted to improve the outline and we indeed managed to improve it, to improve it substantially. The effort was from around the world. It was the IDF, the ISA, and I was in touch daily with the White House. This entire effort bore fruit. We doubled the number of those released, but we have yet to complete this mission. We will continue to fight with all our might. We have prepared for that. The IDF is prepared for that, for the final and total defeat of Hamas. And joining us now on Israel's northern border is Ariel Osaran, our I-24 News Middle East correspondent. Ariel, the fighting resumed in the north as well as in Gaza down south. We are seeing Hezbollah pretty much aligned with Hamas. What can you tell us about the situation on the ground? Right, Sivan, good morning. You could feel yesterday as if there was no ceasefire just a few days ago because the fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border resumed as it had been going on in the 50 days prior to the ceasefire. We're talking about at least 11 Hezbollah attacks on IDF border posts along the Israel-Lebanon border with Israel responding with multiple waves of airstrikes, artillery, and mortar fire to the source of the fire, but also saying that it had targeted the IDF, targeted different Hezbollah terror infrastructure. Now we're looking at this resumption of fighting as if it was before, and that's also what we're hearing from Hezbollah leaders yesterday, a member of Hezbollah's Central Council, Nabil Kaouk, saying yesterday that the position of Hezbollah has not changed regarding its support for the Palestinian people in Gaza. He said that Hezbollah will not allow Israel any gain or to try to change the equation at the expense of Lebanese sovereignty. This is in line with the statements that we heard prior to the ceasefire and in the first weeks of the war by Hezbollah trying to show that while they're not escalating the situation into a full-out war, full-scale war, they are indeed intended to continue to show support to the Palestinian people. I think the fact that while the ceasefire did not include Hezbollah, the fact that they also refrained from firing against Israel I think can indicate as to their motivation in fighting against Israel right now beyond just support for Hamas and Gaza. Thank you very much, Ariel in the north. With us in studio is our I-24 News Senior Correspondent Owen Alterman and Orr Isachar, head of the research at the IDSF Habitzonitzim. Thank you for joining us. Good to be here. So for the first time ever, Owen, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court visited Israel this weekend. All at the invitation of several families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. This was a private invitation. It wasn't an official visit. What can you tell us about this? Well, listen, Sivan, the ICC is gonna be a big presence over the long term in looking back at this war. One observer mentioned, and is not the first to say so over the last few weeks that it's complicated for the ICC to come in full force to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is obviously a conflict that's very contested around the world, not just in our own corner of the woods. And there are real risks to the ICC taking it on in terms of clashes with one side or another as it goes forward. But when you have an event of this magnitude, both October 7th itself and the war that followed, it seems to me inconceivable that in one way or another the ICC won't come in. And in a sense, it's coming in a surprising way, or starting to come in a surprising way, being invited not by the Palestinian side, or not only by the Palestinian side, but by Israelis as well, by the families, right? By the families of the victims and of the hostages. So Karim Khan came and met with the families and said that there's obviously a strong reason to believe that Hamas committed war crimes in October 7th, obviously, no surprise. Now, why is a prosecutor using those words, strong reasons, and not coming out and saying they're war crimes? Again, I don't think that he's trying to minimize what happened, quite the contrary. But again, a prosecutor's job is to investigate and establish facts. He hasn't started to do that yet, or at least do that in earnest. And so he needs to at least show some sense of caution before he reaches the conclusion. I think what everyone needs to understand though is once the ICC enters an incident, answers an event, it investigates claims from both sides. So obviously it will investigate October 7th. The evidence there, as we all know, is likely to be overwhelming and one-sided. There aren't real reasons here for excuse or anything of this sort. And one would imagine that down the line, there will be arrest warrants issued for individual Hamas members who either orchestrated or participated in this. But he's also, of course, gonna investigate Israeli activities and the Gaza Strip and allegations about that. Obviously something that I think Israeli officials are gonna be less enthusiastic about. Thank you, Owen. We'll be back to discussing. But in the meantime, with us now is our I-24 News senior defense correspondent, Jonathan Regev. Jonathan, you're on the Israel-Gaza border. Can you give us an update on the situation down there since the fighting resumed? Yes, plenty of artillery. Sivan, we're hearing it since we arrived this morning. Heavy artillery fired. We're hearing it fired towards the Gaza Strip all over, meaning not only the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Hamas, Chanyones, Derel Balach, all of these Palestinian cities on the southern part of the Gaza Strip, they're all taking their toll. I don't know if you can hear, but we're hearing plenty of artillery now. And rocket fire is starting towards Israel as well, reaching the area of Tel Aviv last night at 10 p.m. Local time siren sounding, so fighting is on all over the place, whether with artillery and even with some ground maneuvers inside the Gaza Strip, but also with rocket fire towards Israel. Now Israel pulled out its negotiating team from Qatar, but there still might be a window to release some more female hostages. Do we know anything about this? No, we don't, we know that the negotiations right now are not taking place. Israel is hoping that the military pressure will eventually lead Hamas to look for another hostage deal. It is widely thought that it's the pressure applied in the previous round of the ground operation, which eventually led Hamas to look for some kind of hostage deal, which brought with it a ceasefire. The hope is that more military pressure will lead Hamas to the same conclusion. And the IDF announced about humanitarian corridors and safe zones for Gazans to move in the south, too. Can you tell us about that? Yes, following pressure from the United States, Israel is hoping to minimize the damage as much as possible to uninvolved civilians, trying to move them into safer areas. This is basically what Israel is trying to do. Thank you very much, Jonathan, down south. And we're back here in studio with Owen and Ul, and we were discussing the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court visiting here in Israel. Ul, you wanted to respond to that. Yeah, I think the ICC, we have to be careful what we wish for. Obviously, the ICC, if we were on the right side of history and the right side of truth, the ICC would have long investigated war crimes committed by Hamas, war crimes committed by the Palestinian Authority, but we know the international fora, the international, these international forums are inherently biased against Israel. There is currently an impended investigation by the ICC on Israeli war crimes alone as from June 13, 2014, because the previous day in June 12, 2014, there was the abduction of the three teenage boys, following which Israel rightfully launched operation in the Gaza Strip. And so even if Israel, and it doesn't, Israel doesn't commit war crimes, it bends reality and sort of stitches international law into Israel's sizes. I wouldn't count on the ICC to help us out in this case, but I wouldn't count on the United Nations as a whole. It is part of these international scene. We've heard Francesca Albanese, she's the Human Rights Council's rapporteur for Israelis and Palestinians. She is profoundly pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli. What she basically claimed is Israel cannot claim the right of self-defense against a threat that emanates from a territory it occupies. The right of self-defense can only be invoked when a state is threatened by another state, okay, not by a group, for example. So that would now in the United States, right, to fight against Al-Qaeda and Frances, right, to fight against Boko Haram. So the international law, this doesn't apply in general. It applies to Israel in very specific cases. We heard Guterres's comment. So I wouldn't count on the United Nations nor the ICC, but I would count on the State of Israel to, once this war is over, and we need Qatar right now for the hostages case, to demand Qatar to extradite Hamas officials into Israel to have these Nuremberg trial style, only maybe let's call it the Bayeri trials or the Nirooz trials against Khaled Masha and Ismail Hania and all the Hamas officials who are now lavishly taking refuge and really are hosted in the Qatar four and five star hotels. So we cannot have Qatar giving sanctuary to these people. I just want to respond very quickly. First of all, I think we have to be careful in Israel not to sweep all international organizations and all actors under one umbrella and under one roof. Frigida Albanese is extreme. Her comment about that is just about the most idiotic statement of international law I've ever heard. And I don't say that lightly. It is absolutely idiotic. The basis for it is idiotic. The implications are completely idiotic. It is so idiotic that anyone who says that, including by the way the government of South Africa as well as said just about the same thing, anyone who says that is full well about idiotic it is. And by definition, by definition, anyone who says that is offering it in bad faith. That said, the ICC may at least to some degree be different. Karim Khan is a reputation of being a professional. The ICC's reputation is at stake. Again, none of us should be naive. And also, as I mentioned, the Israeli government is not the one who invited Karim Khan to visit. It was a family themselves as their initiative. There's considerable risk for Israel in this for some of the reasons that you outlined. But I think that we have to be careful not to sweep all UN agencies and all international bodies under one brush. And also, whether Israel wants it or not, the fact is reality dictates that the ICC will be involved and will be investigating it. It's a fact of life and whether Israel wants it or doesn't want it. It's coming to a theater near us. Again, the proceedings will take a very long time. This is years down the road, long after the new cycle has moved onward. But it is happening. So it's not a question of whether Israel wants it or not, but how Israel should react to what we'll have. Right, so Israel does not recognize the court's jurisdiction. Does not recognize the court's jurisdiction, that's correct. The question is not how Israel reacts, in my opinion. It's the fact that they've been going on for decades. And when I connect all the dots together, I do see a pattern among international forums that are unfortunately, explicitly and profoundly anti-Israeli. The general, let's take the United Nations bodies. General Assembly, 85% of resolutions are against Israel. Human Rights Council, the only country that is condemned over 60% of the time. This article seven of the Human Rights Council, the only article the concerns of specific country. UN women that failed to condemn until yesterday where it has this sort of a vague statement about all the rape cases and abuse cases against Israeli women. I can see UNESCO, I can see UNICEF, I can see the ICC, which is entrusted by United Nations by the Rome Statute. I connect all these dots together and I can't avoid the impression the international forums are inherently biased against Israel. I'm not saying it is a talking point. It's just an honest observation. And even if the ICC is involved, it has been involved for a decade now. Five years ago, it has launched an investigation. I don't think Israel should cooperate with that. Even if it's already an ongoing process and the train has already left the station, I don't think Israel has any business with this charade, with this mock trial of international law that is stitched to Israel's sizes. This is a kangaroo court. I don't think Israel has any business cooperating with it. But if the hostages' families want to meet with them, I want to stand in the way. And let's not forget that there are still 137 more hostages still in captivity. I want us to take a listen to Hadas Calderon, whose two children were freed from Hamas captivity this past week. She's calling out last night at the Hostage Square in Tel Aviv to release her husband, who is still in captivity, along with all the other hostages. Let's take a listen. My own private superheroes survived and returned. According to them, it was the war game Fortnite, a game that has become a reality, a reality that is beyond imagination. Their father, Ophel Calderon, is still there. Sahar wants a father. Erez wants a father. Erez wants a father. Yaffa Adar gave another testimony about her time in Hamas captivity. Here's what she had to say. Mi kol makab leach latot. Totsiyu et ailadim. Totsiyu et kulam. Ze l'okal, l'olam ishpachot. L'olam, l'olahem, l'olam ishpachot. V'ololahaf echa. Ani me bakeshit, mitchanem, tachsiru utam. Ve ani kovet nipor. Ve ani chesedet she ani ula iyepel, le'ol arbe ima'ot ve sabdarot, se me bakeshit etotam, etotam bakeshat. Sahariru et ailadim, arshav, arshav ani utam, l'ototam. L'ok sani iyepa'arot. So Owen and all we're seeing these testimonies from people who are hostages, people whose families were hostages. What's the strategy, where are we going to next? They're all saying free them now and obviously everybody agrees with that, but how? First of all, it's heartbreaking to see it and you can only imagine what they've gone through over these 50 days in captivity. I think that the state of Israel has made a bold step, even a very risky step by agreeing to this deal with Hamas. It has lost some of its deterrence against Hamas. It has lost maybe some of the momentum of the war, but I think it was the right decision given the fact that over 80 people, over 80 Israelis and over 100 people in total were given their life back, really, and you can only, you know, the heart goes out to these people who are simply demanding their family members back. Having said that, I think the ball is not entirely in Israel's hands. I think that there is a bigger picture here where there are national interests involved and I don't think that Hamas is the kind of organization or entity or sovereign states where you can deal with much like we dealt with Syria and Egypt following the Yom Kippur war about the captive Israeli soldiers there. I think that Hamas is much more cynical and in that sense, the state of Israel has found himself in this embryo that is extremely complicated. They cannot possibly agree to Hamas's terms to release all Palestinian prisoners and make a halt to the war in exchange for some of the prisoners that they can find, some of the hostages they can find. I think these are demands that Israel cannot possibly agree to. What Israel can do is put maximum pressure once these 80 people were returned and we are all happy to see them back home to put maximum pressure on Hamas, on Qatar and on Iran to free them in exchange for maybe only bringing Hamas officials to trial rather than bombarding them from the air. I think this is probably the interest of the Hamas leadership in Gaza is to stay alive. And I don't think that they have any interest in becoming martyrs in this war. We heard prison directors that knew them and interrogators from the ISA that interrogated them personally. And they attest that these people do not spare Gaza civilians' lives. They couldn't care less about their own civilians. All they care about is their own life and their own mission. So we can maybe try to play with those cards a little bit. Look, I mean, as a technical matter and you're just about saying this or, the ball is in Israel's court, right? If Israel wanted to end the war, empty Palestinian prisons, of course then you could get to a deal to release the hostages but that's not the proper balance between the two goals, right? The one goal of ending Hamas military, of ending Hamas control over the Gaza strip, eliminating military capabilities. One goal and the second goal for bringing the hostages to some degree, the goals are consistent and that's part of the Israeli debate. To some degree, they're not, they're inconsistent with one another. To the extent that they are inconsistent with one another, they have to be balanced. The kind of balance, the kind of steps that would be required to free the hostages is not a balance between those two goals that the public would accept or is absolutely right, we all know this, that the deal to free those 80 Israeli hostages and 20 plus foreign nationals in the end was widely popular among the Israeli public. I don't think anyone at this point is regretting it. And I think at this point in safety we're not likely to regret it, even at the end of the day. But to take the kind of steps right now to immediately free the others is not a balance between the two goals that the public would support. What kind of opportunities and balances will be available down the road, of course is what we're all hoping to see something that would better be able to maximize them both and to bring those other hostages home? Now, at the point that this deal fell apart, Israel insisted on releasing more women. Hamas said it doesn't have more women to release. What if Israel agreed to other categories of releases? Men, elderly men, soldiers. For one thing, first of all, that might actually obviously endanger the women who are at particular risk, knowing what we know about what was done to women in October 7th itself. And second, it may be that the cost, the price, so to speak, for releasing men would be different. It would be a different deal. It would take time to negotiate. If the ceasefire, the pause continues during the negotiation, that obviously continues to give Hamas an advantage without any certain benefit for Israel because the negotiation would still be ongoing. And then the question is what the price would be on the other side. Looks like it is a plausible avenue. You're absolutely right, right? It is not necessarily entirely binary of having to empty prisons and end the war in order to free a single additional hostage. But it still seems to me that that avenue is one that I think many in the public might not support as the proper balance between the two goals. But I do think it may be that over the course of coming days or weeks, there may be a balance that would free other hostages that would be more publicly acceptable. But I do think leaving women and children in captivity would be a very, very bitter pill for the public to swallow here. And I'm not sure how that would go over. Absolutely, I agree. And I think Israel is facing really bad options and worse options. I don't think the cards in Israel's hands are anything short of bad options. But I do think that if you consider the wider picture of the war, like Owen said, it's a balance between all the considerations that a country has to make. And we need to take a step back a little bit and ask ourselves, why did Hamas take hostages in the first place? And I think this is precisely in order to blackmail Israel to use these poor people as bargaining chips and to force Israel's hand into concessions, into stopping the war. We heard the proposal that came from Hamas just the other day saying we can release all hostages in return for the complete cessation, the complete halt of the war. This is Israel, something Israel cannot possibly accept. And Israel cannot possibly also accept releasing, like in Gilad Shalit's case, 1,027 prisoners for every Israeli soldier. That is not going to happen. And I do think given the deadly terrorist attack in Jerusalem just the other day, that we saw the percent of recidivism of prisoners, Palestinian prisoners who committed terror attacks and go back to terrorism and murder more Israelis. So this is a cycle of violence that Israel cannot allow itself to have. The first Intifada was instigated by the Gabriel deal. The second Intifada by those prisoners who were released in the 1990s as part of the Oslo Accord gestures. And I don't think that Israeli public would ever- And this event by the Shalit deal. Exactly. And the Yahya Sinwar and others were really the poster child of the Shalit deal. And I don't think that Israel has an interest to really recreate this quote unquote, big success. So there is a price to everything. Israel cannot pay any price. But we also have to remember why did Hamas take the hostages in the first place? And we have to take a look at the bigger picture Lebanon at Iran, just bursting, breaking out to nuclear weapons. And Lebanon, who has interest in keeping that deterrence against Israel. I don't think that Israel can allow itself to show weakness here. And the human cost is one thing. And then the decision makers would have to put maximum pressure, maximum military pressure on Hamas. Maybe recreate some sort of successful operations like the Orimagadish case where IDF and ISA actually, when they're sorry, elite police units and ISA actually came there and rescued her is going to be extremely complicated. But I think at this point Israel doesn't have many other options. So looking forward over the weekend it was reported that Israel is interested to carve out a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of the Gaza border. What will that look like? Is that even an achievable goal? Well, I'll give it to her in a second. It's usually an achievable goal assuming Israel wins the war, right? I mean, if the war ends with Israel in control of the territory of the Gaza Strip and Hamas not in control of the territory of the Gaza Strip, Israel obviously has the leverage to shape the geographic future of Gaza. Again, within the confines of international law, obviously. But presumably there could be a way within the law to carve out this kind of buffer zone. How would it look? Some people have talked about the model of North and South Korea, right? A demilitarized zone where anyone who enters it is at risk of being shot without just on site, without a question about what the person is doing there and what their intentions are. So that seems to be Israel's direction. That's what it said. Again, we haven't had too many definitive statements about the day after, other than, again, Prime Minister Netanyahu definitively coming out and saying, especially last night, he doesn't want the Palestinian Authority back. But this is another one of them. Will Israel be able to do it? It depends on the war's outcome. I think that Israel will have to be much more firm in the day after the war. In terms of the border with Gaza, assuming that there will be, we'll say that the situation and the state of affairs in Gaza after the war, but assuming that there will be millions of residents in Gaza after the war, I think that Israel cannot allow itself to be bashed and slandered by the international community once again. We saw, for example, the so-called March of Return, all those demonstrations on the Gaza fence in 2018. We know that all these rights instigated by Sinwar in order to muscle up in front of the other leadership, the military leadership of the Hamas, was actually condemned by the international community as shooting peaceful protesters. We know that the protests, the riots on the fence just a few days before October 7th, where they were used them in order to put IEDs on the fence. The international community called it the extradition killing of mostly peaceful protests. And I think Israel will have to be much more firm and to enforce border protection vis-a-vis Gaza. Orestah Kharan, Owen Alterman. Thank you very much for joining us here in studio and for your important input. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage, providing you with the latest from Israel. I'm Siobhan Ravi. Thank you for watching. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely gone down in their beds. We have no idea where is she. As our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Spanish news brings the analysis and information of the events of the war, Iron swords. Exclusive interviews and reports from the war zone, the reaction of Spanish-speaking countries. News 24, the only Spanish media that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community in Israel. News 24, only on I-24 News. Siobhan Ravi, even these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is the 58th of Israel's war with Hamas. There are currently 137 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in captivity in Gaza, following the release of about 105 Israeli and foreign national hostages in an exchange deal between Israel and Hamas and five more hostages who were released alive in the earlier stages of the war. Fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed this past weekend with the IDF striking hundreds of terrorist targets, including the killing of the commander of Hamas's Seja'iyah battalion, Wissam Fahad. Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galan said yesterday that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreement and refused to release 15 women and two children still held captive in the Gaza Strip. The entire Israeli negotiating team was subsequently sent home from Qatar. Meanwhile, at least 11 rockets were fired yesterday evening from the Gaza Strip into central Israel, including to the Tel Aviv area, sending residents to shelters with most rockets intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system. The IDF reported that Colonel Asaf Hamami, commander of the IDF's Gaza Division Southern Brigade, was killed on October 7th and his body is held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The IDF also announced the deaths of two more of their troops killed fighting against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, Staff Sergeant Ashalo, Sama and Sergeant First Class in Reserves, or Brandes. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke last night. Here's what he had to say. We negotiated very hard, very harshly, under fire from morning to night, from night to morning. I spoke to President Biden often and we exerted pressure on the mediators that would improve the outline and we indeed managed to improve it, to improve it substantially. The effort was from around the world. It was the IDF, the ISA, and I was in touch daily with the White House. This entire effort bore fruit. We doubled the number of those released. But we have yet to complete this mission. We will continue to fight with all our might. We have prepared for that. The IDF has prepared for that, for the final and total defeat of Hamas. With us now is our I-24 Senior News Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regive in the South. Jonathan, can you give us an update on the situation down there? We're hearing that there are sirens. Yes, it was the first siren of the morning, sounded roughly 30 minutes ago. After a very long break, it was almost 12 hours with no sirens at all and more than 12 hours with no sirens in the South. But as expected, the sirens did sound in the area of Kibbutzki-Sufim, which is a little bit to the south of us. And behind me is the Gaza Strip. We're hearing constant, constant artillery, constant shelling all the time towards Gaza. There are also slight, there's perhaps also slight ground movement of the Israeli forces within Gaza, but still not a major maneuver. That has not begun yet in a large scale, still mostly artillery and shelling from the air. But as we're moving towards the next phase of this war, it seems as if a ground offensive, especially in the southern part of the Gaza Strip is imminent. Now, the IDF announced about humanitarian corridors and safe zones for Gazans to move to. Can you tell us about this? Yes, Israel is trying to refrain as much as possible from hitting a civilian population, and that is why it is trying to concentrate them all in one area, understanding that the areas where they are now are exactly the areas used by Hamas, whether in schools or apartments or especially underground tunnels. So Israel knows that it has to operate in these areas in order to try and minimize the hit of civilian population. It is telling them to move as much as possible to other areas, perhaps right on the beach in the area of Rafah and a bit to the south of Chanyunes. This is the aim of trying to hurt the least amount of civilian population. Thank you, Jonathan, down south. Joining us on Israel's northern border is Ariel Osir on our I-24 News Middle East correspondent. Ariel, Syria fired a rocket into Israel overnight. What do we know about this? Right, Sivan, so the IDF issuing a statement a short while ago saying that launch was identified from Syria into Israel, not specifying exactly whether this was a rocket or a mortar, but the statement did clarify that there was no interception given according to protocol. That means that the launch was identified from the moment it was fired, that it was expected to land in open areas and when that is the situation, then interceptors are not launched because there is no need to as it is expected to land in open area. But the IDF saying that it responded with artillery fire to the origin of the launch and this comes in addition to that's on the Syrian border but also on the Lebanese border overnight there was an anti-tank guided missile that was launched towards the border community of Iftah. Also this hit in an open area. There were no injuries in this incident and in addition to that, the IDF saying that it carried out multiple artillery shelling on areas in southern Lebanon. And so as you could see overnight there was a little flare up along the border but this isn't new, this is the situation since the renewal of the fighting following the end of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Albeit the rate of fire exchanges along the border is a little bit different, a little bit lower than what it was to the days exactly before the ceasefire but as we saw the dynamic prior to the ceasefire was everyday continuous gradual escalation and so that could potentially be the situation now. Yesterday, Hezbollah claiming responsibility for 11 attacks on IDF forces along the border so far no attacks today but indeed this is following overnight an anti-tank missile launched towards a border community. No injuries in that incident or in any of the incidents overnight. Thank you Ariel on Israel's northern border. With us now is retired Colonel Miri Eisen director of the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Reichmann University and here in studio is our I-24 News senior correspondent Owen Alterman thank you both for joining us. Miri, the IDF resumed operations in Gaza with Hamas and we're hearing for a while now that one of the main goals of this war is to destroy Hamas. How feasible is it that Israel will actually dismantle and remove Hamas at the end of this? There's no question whatsoever that that is a main goal and the question is what that means and let's be specific about it. Israel has been operating in a ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip for over three and a half weeks and there was the pause during the humanitarian pause which was to get and release hostages and to be sure that the humanitarian situation of the civilians in the Gaza Strip is at a level again within a war to be sure that they're taking care of to a certain degree. What the Israeli Defense Forces has done in the northern Gaza Strip that dismantling as we call that is destroying the capabilities of the Hamas fighters in their structure and the weapons. That means that they systematically go and destroy the shafts into the underground tunnels that they find the different positions that were prepared in advance where you have anti-tank missiles, different type of suicide drones the different positions both above ground and below ground. We all know at this stage along the way quite clearly that these positions were built not just below ground in that underground subterranean arena but above ground in apartment buildings, in schools, in mosques, under hospitals, in the yards and that means that the continuation of destroying is that you have to go to the buildings, you have to get to the different positions. You do it combination with infantry troops together with the tanks, together with the artillery, together with the air force, it isn't a single mode and that is destruction. I think that everybody thinks it's like there's one terrorist, we'll target that terrorist and it's all done, this is a nasty harsh war that Hamas imposed on Israel and imposed this urban warfare because they built all of their structures inside the urban arena and underneath them. So it's systematic, it's slow, it is a factor in a slow way. Obviously, this was deliberately done. Owen, what do you think? How realistic is it? Well, listen, first of all, it has to be noted, Benjamin Netanyahu went to the podium last night and reiterated this. Reiterated this and we heard it the sound but at the top of the hour, right? Reiterated this as an explicit Israeli war goal. On the other hand, there are two obvious limits, right? One is the diplomatic limit, right? Anthony Blinken his press conference last Thursday night was there, did say that the United States supports the end of Hamas control over the Gaza Strip. And by the way, it's an important thing to hear him say because he hadn't exactly said it in those words in the days before. There had been a different set of phrasing as well as to make sure October 7th never happens again. But in addition to saying that, he also reiterated at least rhetorical in support in principle for that goal. But of course with the obvious conditions, right? That the way this was conducted in the North can't be conducted in the South as he said and as he famously added at that press conference is not only intent but also result that matters, right? So there's a diplomatic limits on Israel's activity that the conduct of the war in the South as far as the Biden administration sees it can't be the same as in the North. And also just in terms of the international law situation and the humanitarian situation in the South the fact that there's no place left for the civilians to go in most cases or at the end of the day means that Israel will be operating in a very different kind of environment. So how do you square the circle, right? How do you both achieve that first goal and also achieve the other goals, right? Of satisfying your allies and of taking care of civilians. It seems to me that the way the square is circled is with a war that looks less like at least over the medium to long term the intense campaign in the North. And more like for example, the way Israel fought the Second Intifada, right? More of an emphasis on raids, on more pinpoint military operations even on the ground, less aerial bombing. It seems to me and a war like that could in principle achieve the first goal while also satisfying the second. You know, Emmanuel Macron said over the last couple of days at the COP conference, destroying Hamas means that the war will take 10 years and he meant it as a way of delegitimizing the war. But I think the answer for Emmanuel Macron is, yes, the war will take 10 years. Maybe not in the current form, but in some other form because Israel's not going to abandon that first goal and certainly not rhetorically but I also think not in practice but that the way of achieving it maybe having to reduce civilian casualties and therefore be in a different timeline. What I don't know, and again this is the limits of my military knowledge is that a realistic plan militarily, right? Can you actually end Hamas control over the Gaza Strip with a strategy that looks more similar for example to the strategy in the Second Intifada than it does to what we've seen over the last month? I don't know but it's a central question to Mary Eisen and to others. Mary, what do you think? As I'm listening to Owen and I'm thinking to myself, Owen, you absolutely are an amazing correspondent. Let's add in that military aspect. When we talk about the goals of the war, I want to remind us all there's also hostages. You didn't add that in and the limitations on the military actions themselves is because of the hostages and that's part of what Hamas did on purpose for their own protection. You can achieve these military goals systematically and slowly and as said very clearly, there's a diplomatic limitation on how long you can continue to do so. But what has Israel also said throughout that we are targeting specifically the top officials, officials, the top terrorists that planned this attack, that see this as the way to achieve their goals, the Hamas goals, like Yixinguar, like Mohamed Deff, like Mohan Esad, there's three figures that are very, very known and clear. And at the end of my own understanding, there are going to be now in the southern Gaza Strip and that area that we have not yet gone into but that was heavily attacked from the air over the last two days. So yes, you can continue in that military pressure. You can destroy the Hamas battalions, their capabilities, and this does have a direct impact on their capability to control the Gaza Strip. They already do not control portions that were in. They're trying to show that they control. That doesn't mean that they do. There's a lot that has to do here with how they show things as opposed to what they can do. These steps that we can take, the continuation of that military pressure, on the, as I like to call them, the Troika, but in addition on to them, on to the Hamas battalions to that military terror capability that they've built over the last decade, these are achievable military aims. And oh, and I would say in that sense there, I have way more, not just faith, but understanding of the military capabilities. And I know that at the end, diplomacy will stop us, but that's not right now. That scenario of doing something similar to what we did in the second 55, the 20 years ago, mainly in the West Bank and that science that was a little different in the Gaza Strip, that type of scenario, we're not there yet. Maybe at the end of December, maybe in January, we are still fighting in the all out fight against these battalions, these figures, their capabilities, and we are having a lot of successes. The fact that they're not saying so does not mean that those successes do not exist. Now I want you both to stay with us and listen to 85 year old Yaffa Adal. She gave a testimony about her time in Hamas captivity. Here's what you had to say. When I was born, I was 49 years old in this country. I'm asking you, from the bottom of my heart, from all of you, from the bottom of my heart, please save the children, please save everyone. It's not right, it's not for the families, it's not for them, it's not for the families, and it's not for you. I'm asking you, from the bottom of my heart, please save them. And I'm coming from here, and I think that I might have a lot more mothers and daughters who ask for them, ask for them. Save the children now. Now I want to see them, not when I'm in the war. With us now is Adal, the granddaughter of Yaffa Adal, whom we just heard. Hi, Yaffa. Hi, how are you? We are so happy, firstly, for you to have your grandmother finally home. Please share with us, how does it feel and how were the last few days together? It's a mixed feelings. We are, of course, very, very happy that our grandmother is home finally after 39 days. But also, you know, we are very worried and sad about all the other hostages. Among them, my cousin Tamir was still being held hostage and now the ceasefire is over and the deal is not on the table. We don't know when we will ever be able to see them at home. So it's very hard. And we are listening to our grandmother of what she shares and what she's saying in the video. Just, you know, it's not even the beginning of the horrible things she's been through. And I can't think that so many people are still there without proper condition that any human being should be held. Did your grandmother tell you some details, provide you with some details of her time and captivity? How was she treated? Did she get food or did she lose weight? I can't share the information. I can tell you that she lost weight, a lot of weight. And I can tell you that the conditions she was held are not anything that an 85-year-old woman should stay on and more detail than that unfortunately I can't share. Are you able to say if she was held captive by her? Unfortunately not. I can't share this information. But, you know, you can let me say it without think and see the pictures and see her face. You're showing now a video. See how terrified she looks. Tell me if you think that's a way that an 85-year-old woman should be treated. Tell me if you can see her face. See how they are pushing her. See how they are treating her. See how they are celebrating. That's the basic. That's the human being fundamental needs to be treated with respect, to be able to feel safe. And they took her sense of security. So, you know, talking about if she got food or if she was able to where was she sleeping. But that's not the focus. She was taken from her house. So many people were taken just by living their lives. And they were held captive for so many days and terrified with no sense of security, with no proper conditions. So, I mean, look at the video. It tells the entire story. Absolutely. And we're seeing videos of this release as we're speaking right now on the screen. Now, your cousin, Tamil, you mentioned him. What is your next step for your family? What is your family's message now that your grandmother is back but your cousin, along with many other hostages are still held captive? Well, we continue the fight. We continue to ask the international community and the Israeli authorities to do whatever they can. We need to push Hamas leadership to understand there's no other option but bringing all of them back home. We can't recover from this hell without their return. Don't let the smile you can see here. Don't let it confuse you. The conditions there are horrible. It's hell. And we need to bring everyone back home now. We can't let them die there. Adva Dahl, thank you very much for sharing with us. Please give your grandmother a warm hug. I will. Thank you. We're back in studio with our I-24 News senior correspondent Owen Alterman. Owen, you're seeing this interview and these testimonies. How does that make you feel? The struggle goes on. The struggle to bring them home goes on, Sivan, in all of its elements. And it's human element, and it's sociological element in Israel. Even it's political element in Israel. And I think in terms of Israel's strategy in the war, most importantly in the diplomatic arena, too. It's going to put forward for Israeli diplomacy. And it's going to continue to be the strongest foot forward for Israeli diplomacy. Even with so many of the women and children released, because of course there are women and potentially children who have not been released. And now we also have the stories and the testimony of the people who are released who can tell us either through their relatives and or through their own words and their own testimonies. Tell people what this was like. And the awareness raising over this issue is going to continue to be a very, very important part of the diplomatic arena and the media arena as well. We saw the international media coverage over the week of the pause and how the international media and international public opinion related to this issue. At a more practical level, what we heard from Yaffa Adar in her own testimony was a plea to bring them home. What was missing and not by coincidence was the issue of the price that Israel should or should not pay. And obviously it's a delicate question because if Israel prioritized to the exclusion of all else bringing back all the other hostages we could end the war, empty Palestinian, empty prisons of Palestinian prisoners including those who committed the atrocities into parent war crimes of October 7th. And who will likely go back to Korea. Right, who would go back to doing the same thing. And then probably Hamas would release all of the hostages. And the balance the public is going to be willing to strike. And therefore, Yaffa Adar doesn't actually say that and may not, I don't know if she believes it or not. So we're still at the level of awareness raising which is so very important because it is so important and the released hostages and the families being advocates on this issue which they must be and will be and should be. And leaving it to the broader public and to decision makers to decide that balance an issue that we have talked about extensively and obviously we'll continue to talk about extensively. And still with us is retired Colonel Miri Aizen. Miri, you're seeing these testimonies as well. You're seeing the interview that we just had with the granddaughter and families of hostages. And a lot of these families are wondering why is Israel agreeing to send aid into Gaza when the hostages did not receive any visits until this release from the Red Cross? One of the things that I think to myself and I breathe in deep when I listen to everybody is that at the end the 2.2 million people inside the Gaza Strip we cannot hold them collectively responsible. I think we absolutely need to hold them individually responsible when they are. We're all aware of the fact that part of the individuals are the ones who participated both in the attack and probably took some of the hostages. But that's not all of the 2.2 million people. And at the end, I breathe in deep and I say, let us be on that higher moral ground not just because the international community is telling us to do so but because at the end if there is a humanitarian crisis inside the Gaza Strip we won't get our hostages back. If there is the breakout of cholera, of illnesses, if people don't have water, if they can't eat let's not put ourselves in the same situation as what these horrific terrorists are doing to our people. We're talking about a minimum of humanitarian aid this isn't about yay, they're having a good time but it's to make sure that people do not get illnesses that people have enough food to eat they are mainly intense we've dislocated over a million, even a million and a half people in the Gaza Strip this isn't about they're being in a kind easy situation that minimum is something that we should stand for because it assists our capability to get back the amazing hostages that have come back until now and if you keep showing the pictures of the gingerhead kids, I'm going to cry on TV and I don't want to do that absolutely that's the B-Bus family that we're seeing that's the B-Bus family that we're seeing on screen right now it makes it so hard all of us as we think of the B-Bus family and they're inside of our hearts not just the B-Bus family, every single one but also it's that we did this distinction of women and children but when we look at Israeli society grandfathers, fathers brothers, sons, grandchildren you know, and we're very focused on the women and children but there's, you know, 150 men of all types there it's just so harsh so to the question itself I breathe them deep I absolutely need to get the hostages back and to do so and to overcome an impossible humanitarian situation which would only hinder the end of the the destruction of Hamas itself let alone the return of the hostages just very, very quickly see it on to amplify the excellent things that Mary Eisen has said under international law there's no issue of reciprocity just because Hamas commits war crimes doesn't allow Israel to evade its responsibilities under international law such as they might be surrounding aid and in terms of the issue of collective responsibility also not allowed international law and by the way that includes the fact that even people have odious and horrific political opinions if they're at the level of opinions does not deprive them of status of civilians and again Mary Eisen beyond the legal issues and as she explained it ethical issues they're also realistic and strategic reasons why Israel needs to to allow the aid in Thank you very much Mary Eisen Owen Alterman for your important input here in studio and on view Thank you very much That's all for this latest edition of I-24 News, please stay with us as we continue to give us the latest to give you the latest updates from here in Israel. I'm Sivan Ravi Thank you for watching Is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where she is our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well News, I'm Sivan Ravi and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv Today is the 58th of Israel's war with Hamas There are currently 137 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas and captivity in Gaza following the release of about 105 Israeli and foreign national hostages in an exchange deal between Israel and Hamas and five more hostages who were released alive in the earlier stages of the war Fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed this past weekend with the IDF striking hundreds of terrorist targets including the killing of the commander of Hamas's Sejaiyya battalion Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galan said yesterday that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreement and refused to release 15 women and two children still held captive in the Gaza Strip The entire Israeli negotiating team was on the ground in Qatar Meanwhile, at least 11 rockets were fired yesterday evening from the Gaza Strip into central Israel including to the Tel Aviv area sending residents to shelters with most rockets intercepted by the Iron Dome Anti-Messal Defense System The IDF reported that Colonel Asaf Hamami, commander of the IDF's Gaza Division Southern Brigade was killed on October 7th and his body is held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip The IDF also announced the deaths killed fighting against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip over the weekend Staff Sergeant Ashalo, Sama and Sergeant 1st Class in Reserves or Brandes Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke last night here's what he had to say We negotiated very hard very harshly under fire from morning to night, from night to morning I spoke to President Biden often and we exerted pressure on the mediators to improve the outline and we indeed managed to improve it to improve it substantially The effort was from around the world it was the IDF the ISA and I was in touch daily with the White House this entire effort bore fruit we doubled the number of those released but we have yet to complete this mission we will continue to fight with all our might we have prepared for that the IDF has prepared for that for the final and total defeat of Hamas With us now is our I-24 Senior News Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regev Jonathan can you give us an update on the situation down there we're hearing that there are sirens Yes it was the first siren of the morning sounded roughly 30 minutes ago after a very long break 12 hours with no sirens at all and more than 12 hours with no sirens in the south but as expected the sirens did sound in the area of Kibbutzky Sufim which is a little bit to the south of us and behind me is the Gaza Strip we're hearing constant artillery constant shelling all the time towards Gaza there are also perhaps also slight ground movement of Israeli forces within Gaza still not a major maneuver that has not begun yet in a large scale still mostly artillery and shelling from the air but as we're moving towards the next phase of this war it seems as if a ground offensive especially in the southern part of the Gaza Strip is imminent Now the IDF announced about humanitarian corridors and safe zones for Gazans to move to Israel Can you tell us about this? Yes Israel is trying to refrain as much as possible from hitting civilian population and that is why it is trying to concentrate them all in one areas understanding that the areas where they are now are exactly the areas used by Hamas whether in schools or apartments or especially underground tunnels so Israel knows that it has to be ordered in order to try and minimize the hit of civilian population it is telling them to move as much as possible to other areas perhaps right on the beach in the area of Rafah and a bit to the south of Chanyones this is the aim of trying to hurt the least amount of civilian population Thank you Jonathan down south Joining us on Israel's northern border is Ariel Osir on our News Middle East correspondent Ariel, Syria fired a rocket into Israel overnight what do we know about this? Right Sivan, so the IDF issuing a statement a short while ago saying that launch was identified from Syria into Israel not specifying exactly whether this was a rocket or a mortar but the statement did clarify that there was no interception given according to protocol that the launch was identified from the moment it was fired that it was expected to land in open areas and when that is the situation then interceptors are not launched because there is no need to as it is expected to land in open area but the IDF saying that it responded with artillery fire to the origin of the launch and this comes in addition to that's on the Syrian border but also on the Lebanese border there was an anti-tank guided missile that was launched towards the border community of Iftakh also this hit in an open area there were no injuries in this incident and in addition to that the IDF saying that it carried out multiple artillery shelling on areas in southern Lebanon and so as you could see overnight there was a little flare up along the border but this isn't new situation since the renewal of the fighting following the end of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza albeit the rate of fire exchanges along the border is a little bit different a little bit lower than what it was to the days exactly before the ceasefire but as we saw the dynamic prior to the ceasefire was everyday continuous gradual escalation and so that potentially be the situation now yesterday Hezbollah claiming responsibility for 11 attacks on IDF forces along the border so far no attacks today but indeed this is following overnight an anti-tank missile launched towards a border community no injuries in that incident or any of the incidents overnight Thank you area on Israel's northern border with us now is retired Colonel Mealy Eisen from the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Reichmann University and here in studio is our I-24 new senior correspondent Owen Alterman thank you both for joining us Mealy the idea for zoomed operations in Gaza with Hamas and we're hearing for a while now that one of the main goals of this war is to destroy Hamas how feasible is it that Israel will actually dismantle and remove Hamas at the end of this there's no question whatsoever that main goal and the question is what that means and let's be specific about it Israel has been operating in a ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip for over three and a half weeks and there was the pause during the humanitarian pause which was to get and release hostages and to be sure that the humanitarian situation of the civilians in the Gaza Strip is at a level again within a war to be sure that they're taking care of to a certain degree what the Israeli defense forces has done in the northern Gaza Strip that dismantling as we call that is destroying the capabilities of the Hamas fighters in their structure and the weapons that means that they systematically go and destroy the shafts into the underground tunnels that they find the different positions that were prepared in advance where you have anti-tank missiles different type of suicide drones the different positions both above ground and below ground we all know at this stage along the way quite clearly that these positions were built not just below ground in that underground subterranean arena but above ground in apartment buildings in schools in mosques under hospitals in the yards and that means that the continuation of destroying is that you have to go to the buildings you have to get to the different positions you do a combination with infantry troops together with the tanks together with the artillery together with the air force and is it a single mode and that is destruction I think that everybody thinks you know it's like there's one terrace we'll target that terrace and it's all done this is a nasty harsh war that Hamas imposed on Israel and impose this urban warfare because they built all of their structures inside the urban arena and underneath them so it's systematic it's slow it is effective in a slow way obviously this was deliberately done Owen what do you think how realistic is it well listen first of all it has to be noted Benjamin Netanyahu went to the podium last night and reiterated this and we heard it the sound but at the top of the hour right reiterated this as an explicit Israeli war goal on the other hand there are two obvious limits right one is the diplomatic limit right Anthony Blinken his press conference last Thursday night it was there did say that the United States supports the end of Hamas control over the Gaza Strip and by the way I had an important thing to hear him say because he hadn't exactly said it in those words in the days before there had been a different set of phrasing Israel's to make sure October 7th never happens again but in addition to saying that he also reiterated at least rhetorical in support in principle for that goal but of course with the obvious conditions right that what the way this was conducted in the north can't be conducted in the south as he said and as he famously added at that press conference is not only intent but also result that matters right so there's a diplomatic limits on Israel's activity that the conduct of the war in the south as far as the Biden administration sees it can't be the same as in the north and also just in terms of the international law situation and the humanitarian situation in the south the fact that there's no place left for the civilians to go in most cases or at the end of the day means that Israel be operating in a very different kind of environment so how do you square the circle right how do you both achieve that first goal and also achieve the other goals right of satisfying your allies and of taking care of civilians it seems to me that the way the square is circled is with a war that looks less like at least over the medium to long term the intense campaign in the north and more like for example the way Israel fought the second Intifada right more of an emphasis on raids on pin on more pinpoint military operations even on the ground less aerial bombing it seems to me and a war like that could in principle achieve the first goal while also satisfying the second you know Emanuel Macron said over the last couple days the COP conference destroying a mosque means that the war will take 10 years and he meant it as a way of delegitimizing the war but I think the answer for Emanuel Macron is yes the war will take 10 years maybe not in the current form but in some other form because Israel is not going to abandon that first goal certainly not rhetorically but I also think not in practice but that the way of achieving it maybe having to reduce civilian casualties and therefore be in a different timeline what I don't know and again this is the limits of my military knowledge is that a realistic plan militarily right can you actually end Hamas control over the Gaza Strip with a strategy that looks more similar for example to the strategy in the second Intifada then it does to what we've seen over the last month I don't know but it's a central question to Mary Eisen into others Mary what do you think as I'm listening to Owen and I'm thinking to myself Owen you absolutely are an amazing correspondent let's add in that military aspect when we talk about the goals of the war I want to remind us all there's also hostages you didn't add that in the limitations on the military actions themselves is because of the hostages and that's part of what Hamas did on purpose for their own protection you can achieve these military goals systematically and slowly and as said very clearly there's a diplomatic limitation on how long you can continue to do so but what is Israel also said throughout that we are targeting specifically the top officials officials the top terrorists that planned this attack that see this as the way to achieve their goals the Hamas goals like Yixinguar like Mohammed Deff like Mohan Issa who are three figures that are very very known and clear and at the end of my own understanding there are going to be now in the southern Gaza Strip in that area that we have not yet gone into but it was heavily attacked from the air over the last two days so yes you can continue in that military pressure you can destroy the Hamas battalions their capabilities and this does have a direct impact on their capability to control the Gaza Strip they already do not control portions that were in they're trying to show that they control that doesn't mean that they do there's a lot that has to do here with how they show things as opposed to what they can do these steps that we can take the continuation of that military pressure on the as I like to call them the Troika but in addition on to them on to the Hamas battalions to that military terror capability that they've built over the last decade these are achievable military aims and oh and I would say in that sense there I have way more not just faith but understanding of the military capabilities and I know that at the end diplomacy will stop us but that's not right now that scenario doing something similar to what we did in the second fifty-five or twenty years ago mainly in the West Bank in that sense it was a little different in the Gaza Strip that type of scenario we're not there yet maybe at the end of December maybe in January we are still fighting in the all out fight against these battalions these figures their capabilities and we are having a lot of successes the fact that they're not saying so does not mean that those successes do not exist now I want you both to stay with us and listen to eighty-five-year-old Yaffa Adal he gave a testimony about her time and Hamas captivity here's what she had to say I'm coming with us now is it bad are the grand-daughter of Yaffa Adal whom we just heard hi Adva hi how are you we are so happy firstly to for you to have your grandmother finally home please share with us how does it feel and how were the last few days together it's a mixed feelings we are of course very very happy that our grandmother is home finally after forty nine days but also you know they're very worried and sad about all the other hostages among them my cousin Tamir who's still being held hostage and there's now that the ceasefire is over and the deal is not on the table we don't know when we will ever be able to to see them at home so it's very hard and we are listening to our grandmother of what she shares and what you say in the video it's just you know it's not even the beginning of the horrible things she's been through and I can't think that so many people are still there without without proper condition that any human being should be held did your grandmother tell you some details provide you with some details of her time in captivity how was she treated did she get any food properly I can't share the information I can tell you that she lost weight a lot of weight and I can tell you that the conditions she was held are not anything that an 85 years old woman should stay on and more details than that unfortunately I can't share are you able to say that she was held captive with other hostages together unfortunately not I can't share this information but you know you can let me say it without think and see the pictures and see her face you're showing now a video see how terrified she looks tell me if you think that's a way that an 85 years old woman should be treated tell me if you can see her face I don't know how can we explain it better see how they are pushing her see how they are treating her see how they are celebrating that's the basic that the human being fundamental needs to be treated with respect to be able to feel safe and they took her sense of security so you know talking about if she got food or if she was able to where was she sleeping that's not the focus she was taken from her house so many people were taken just by living their lives and they were held captive for so many days terrified with no sense of security with no proper condition so I mean look at the video it tells the entire story absolutely and we're seeing videos of this release as we're speaking right now on the screen now your cousin Tamil you mentioned him he's still held in captivity what is the next step for your family what is your family's message now that your grandmother is back but your cousin along with many other hostages are still held captive well we continue the fight we continue to ask the international community and the Israeli authorities to do whatever whatever they can we need to push the Hamas leadership to understand there's no other option but bringing all of them back home we can't recover from this hell without the return don't let the smile you can see here don't let it confuse you the conditions there are horrible it's hell and we need to bring everyone back home now we can't let them die there Adva Adal thank you very much for sharing with us please give your grandmother a warm hug thank you we're back in studio with our I-24 news senior correspondent Owen Alterman Owen you're seeing this interview and these testimonies how does that make you feel the struggle goes on the struggle to bring them home goes on in all of its elements and it's human element and it's sociological element in Israel even it's political element in Israel most importantly in the diplomatic arena too this has been the strongest foot forward for Israeli diplomacy and it's going to continue to be the strongest foot forward for Israeli diplomacy even with so many of the women and children at least because of course there are women and potentially children who have not been released and now we also have the stories in the testimony of the people released who can tell us either through their relatives and or through their own words and their own testimonies tell people what this was like the awareness raising over this issue is going to continue and going to be a very very important part of the diplomatic arena and the media arena as well we saw the international media coverage over the week of the pause and how the international media and international public opinion related to this issue at a more practical level what we heard from Jaffa Adar in her own testimony was a plea to bring them home what was missing and not by coincidence was the issue of the price that Israel should or should not pay and obviously it's a delicate question because if Israel prioritized to the exclusion of all else bringing back all of the other hostages we could end the war empty Palestinian empty prisons of Palestinian prisoners including those who committed the atrocities into parent war crimes who would likely go back to doing the same thing probably Hamas would release all of the hostages but that's not a balance the public is going to be willing to strike and therefore Jaffa Adar doesn't actually say that I don't know if she believes it or not so we're still at the level of awareness raising which is so very important because it is so important and the released hostages and the families being advocates on this issue which they must be and will be and should be the broader public and decision makers to decide how to strike that balance an issue that we have talked about extensively and obviously we'll continue to talk about extensively. And still with us is retired colonel Mary Eisen Mary you're seeing these testimonies as well you're seeing the interview that we just had with the granddaughter and families of hostages and a lot of these families are wondering why is Israel agreeing to send aid into Gaza because hostages did not receive any visits until this release from the Red Cross. One of the things that I think to myself and I breathe in deep when I listen to everybody is that at the end the 2.2 million people inside the Gaza Strip we cannot hold them collectively responsible I think we absolutely need to hold them individually responsible when they are we're all aware of the fact that part of the individuals are the ones who participated both in the attack and probably took some of the hostages but that's not all of the 2.2 million people and at the end I breathe in deep and I say let us be on that higher moral ground not just because the international community is telling us to do so but because at the end if there is a humanitarian crisis inside the Gaza Strip we won't get our hostages back if there is the breakout of the cholera of illnesses if people don't have water if they can't eat let's not put ourselves in the same situation as what these horrific terrorists are doing to our people we're talking about a minimum of humanitarian aid this isn't about yay they're having a good time but it's to make sure the people do not get illnesses the people have enough food to eat they are mainly intense we've dislocated over a million even a million and a half in Gaza Strip this isn't about being in a kind easy situation that minimum is something that we should stand for because it assists our capability to get back the amazing hostages that have come back until now and if you keep showing the pictures of the gingerhead kids I'm going to cry on TV and I don't want to do that absolutely that's the B-Bus family that we're seeing that's the B-Bus family that we're seeing on screen right now it makes it so hard all of us as we think of the B-Bus family it's not just the B-Bus family every single one I mean for me also it's that we did this distinction of women and children but when we look at Israeli society grandfathers, fathers, brothers sons, grandchildren we're very focused on the women and children but there's 150 men of all types there and it's like this just so harsh so to the question itself I breathe in deep and to do so I need the Gaza Strip to not become an impossible humanitarian situation which would only hinder the end of the destruction of Hamas itself let alone the return of the hostages just very very quickly to amplify the excellent things that Mary Eisen has said under international law there's no issue of reciprocity right just because Hamas commits war crimes doesn't allow Israel to evade its responsibilities under international law such as they might be surrounding aid that's number one in terms of the issue of collective responsibility also not allowed international law and by the way that includes the fact that even people have odious and horrific political opinions if they're at the level of opinions does not deprive them of status of civilians and again Mary Eisen beyond the legal issues and as she explained it ethical issues are also realistic and strategic reasons why Israel needs to allow the aid in thank you very much Mary Eisen and Owen Alterman for your important input here in studio and on who thank you very much that's all for this latest edition of i-24 news please stay with us as we continue to give us the latest updates from here in Israel I'm Sivana Ravi thank you for watching is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where we're going to be as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well news I'm Sivana Ravi and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv today is day 58 of Israel's war with Hamas there are currently 137 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in captivity in Gaza following the release of about 105 Israeli and foreign national hostages in an exchange deal between Israel and Hamas and five more hostages who were at least alive in the earlier stages of the war fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed this past weekend with the IDF striking hundreds of terrorist targets including the killing of the commander Hamas al-Sajaiyya battalion Weesam Farhat Israeli defense minister Joav Galant said yesterday that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreement and refused to release 15 women and two children still held captive in the Gaza Strip the entire Israeli negotiating team was subsequently sent home from Qatar Meanwhile at least 11 rockets were fired yesterday evening from the Gaza Strip to central Israel including to the Tel Aviv area sending residents to shelters with most rockets intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system the IDF reported that Colonel Asaf Hamami commander of the IDF's Gaza Division Southern Brigade was killed on October 7th and his body is held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip the IDF also announced the deaths of two more of their troops killed fighting against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip over the weekend Staff Sergeant Ashala Usama and Sergeant First Class in Reserves Orobrandes Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke last night here's what he had to say We negotiated very hard very harshly under fire from morning to night from night to morning I spoke to President Biden often and we exerted pressure on the mediators to improve the outline and we indeed managed to improve it to improve it substantially The effort was from around the world it was the IDF the ISA and I was in touch daily with the White House this entire effort bore fruit we doubled the number of those released but we have yet to complete this mission we will continue to fight with all our might We have prepared for that the IDF has prepared for that for the final and total defeat of Hamas And now joining us on Israel's northern border is Ariel Osteran our I-24 News Middle East correspondent Ariel, Syria fired a rocket into Israel overnight the IDF fired back what are the updates on this? Right Sivan, so a short while ago Syrian opposition media reporting that Israel had targeted the area of Bet Jinn that is southwest of the outskirts of Damascus with several rockets this was an open area there are no reports of injuries but indeed this follows the IDF statement that launch was identified originating from Syria on its way to Israel it landed an open area also there were no injuries the Syrian observatory UK based war monitor did state that the area of Bet Jinn in southwest Syria is a known stronghold of Hezbollah and so this is another indication that while the fire does originate from Syria and Israel does hold the Bashar al-Assad regime responsible for anything that originates from Syria it still makes a point to try and target Hezbollah targets this is obviously also according to Syrian opposition media and so as for that's for Israel and Syria as for Israel and Lebanon the border has been fairly quiet this morning but it's a tense quiet as yesterday was a day of fighting with over 10 cross border attacks from Hezbollah on to IDF border posts and so the situation this morning remains quiet but obviously everyone up here knows that that could change in a moment's instant. Ariello Saran thank you very much up on Israel's northern front with us now is our I-24 senior defense correspondent down south Jonathan Regev currently in Sterot Jonathan we're hearing sirens in southern Israel can you give us sirens sirens for us in Sterot about five minutes ago and maybe up here in the sky you can see the interceptions at least five interceptions this happening five minutes ago still you can see the remains of the interceptions in the skies at least five of them we also heard of the explosions I think this was the fourth siren for the southern communities as of this morning it was a quiet night since 10 o'clock last night and up until around 9 a.m. this morning there were no sirens there was actually one siren in the city of Askelon but it turned out to be a false alarm so meaning no rockets were fired overnight but this morning already at least four instances of sirens sounding in southern communities the last one here in Sterot five minutes ago and you just saw the what remains from the interceptions in the sky and let's remember here in Sterot the time between the siren the red alert siren and the impact is 10 seconds sometimes even less that is why even with the numbers of rockets decreasing since the ground operation began most of the residents are still outside of the city most of the city is still empty this is a situation down here now we know that the IDF resumed operations in Gaza and they've announced about humanitarian corridors and safe zones for Gazans in the south to move into can you tell us about that yes Israel is trying to prevent as much as possible hitting civilian targets as opposed to Hamas which is hiding behind its own civilians Israel is trying to prevent hitting Gazan civilians and the way to do it is to make sure they all concentrate in specific areas those areas will not be targeted there's an understanding that and all other places in the southern Gaza Strip Hamas is using those civilians as human shields hiding behind them they have no importance whatsoever for any humanitarian disaster that might happen they might even welcome it so Israel is trying to convince as much as possible the civilian population to go to safer areas Jonathan Rega down in the south thank you very much with us in studio now is retired colonel Dr. Dr. Jacques Neria former deputy head of assessment of the Israeli military intelligence and former foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin also with us as Owen Alterman our senior I-24 news correspondent thank you both for joining Jacques now that the fighting Gaza resumed can you elaborate on the IDF's military strategy what are they trying to achieve in this next phase well we have reached phase two even though I mean the Hamas has proved to be more resilient than we thought at the beginning and the fact is that there are still pockets in the northern part of Gaza which was supposed to be under our total control so there's there's a tune there are some places where we we still have to fight because the time of the truth was was used by exploited in a way by Hamas in order to reorganize and to replenish its sources there and weapons and so on and this is why they came out of the tunnels and now they began fighting in our areas so we have to take care first of all of this part of Gaza in the meantime what is happening in the south is the softening what we call in the military jargon a softening of the positions meaning air force and artillery are just preparing the ground for the ground intrusion the tanks and the infantry will not go in before a preparation of the ground would be done and this will take a few days and but I mean this is the beginning of the activation of the war machine the Israeli war machine the Israeli war machine would mean entering the the Hanyunist this would be the main effort and in a movement to encircle it from both sides and reach the border with Egypt once the Hanyunist is surrounded and put under siege and so would be the fate of Direl Balak then the option would be either to surrender or to die this is all the third option would be for the Hamas leaders to ask for leaving the area like Arafa did in 1982 this is what's happening right now and it might take a few weeks enough enough time but before the glass hour would begin to tick and as the Americans have signified so much that we don't have months to fight we have weeks and during those weeks we have to concentrate and do the most what we can this is basically the the strategic plan while holding the northern border in a defensive offensive deployment meaning that at each provocation of Hezbollah we would answer with the twice or three twice for the attack by Hezbollah and we must be careful that we have another front that might be wakening up and this is the Syrian front so the the missile that were fired from Syria are not the first time but this comes in a sort of of exchange of fire where we've been Israel has been without admitting it had been hitting airports in Syria has been hitting positions of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and like we saw yesterday only two of them were killed and celebrated their death in terror so this is what's going on and if this happens it means that it is not the Lebanese front this is the Syria meaning that you have to confront the army and this is what stands before you is the force division arm the arm division which is commanded by Bashar Assad's brother which means that we are entering a conflict with the Syrian regime which might be a good thing for us because if we just finish with this regime then the whole puzzle that Iran has been so much putting effort to form would collapse because once Syria is not there then Hezbollah will have to look at his behinds and also Iran will have to just to see what can be done because with the absence of Syria the access north and access would be difficult to maintain. Now we're seeing that fighting resumed in the north and Hezbollah seems aligned with Hamas the ceasefire is finished fighting is resumed how will Israel keep fighting off both north and south simultaneously. We don't have a problem as you said the deployment in the north is a defensive deployment we have enough forces in order to first defend ourselves any attempt done by Hezbollah is met by an Israeli response and we have yesterday just eliminated three cells that try to fire missiles at Israeli positions. Hezbollah is suffering heavy tolls and certainly the inhabitants the residents of the area have all fled from the area they thought that they could come back and now they see that there's no way to come back under fire. Hezbollah has not said in the last word I mean there are still the strategic weapon he has not used and meaning the hitting inside deep inside Israel and if he does that because of miscalculation or because of a calculation that Iran would say okay this is the time in order to help Hamas which is crumbling right now under the Israeli attack just try to help Hamas by entering the conflict deeper and this would mean that we will have to just take care of the Lebanese front which is right now held I would say under control. We would not like that to begin to be under control and certainly this would not please the Americans who don't want the conflict to be widened in Syria and Lebanon. And a war with Hezbollah is a whole different ballgame. We can say that it's a different ballgame because the only thing that is different is that this militia has been trained in wars in the civil war in Syria so it has experience which Hamas doesn't have and certainly it has weapons that Hamas doesn't have precision guided missiles that can hit any point in Israel at any base in Israel. So there would be a need for a preemptive strike from Israel's parts in order to come from missiles that would hit us with 500, 600 or 1,000 kilos of explosives in different sensitive places that we have in Israel. Now speaking of American pressure how much room Owen does Israel have to maneuver how many weeks, how many months how much time does it have in order to maneuver? It depends how, it depends what the maneuver is. It was reported widely here in Israel that in the war cabinet right that Anthony Blinken famously said you don't have that much credit when presented with war plans that would go on for a number of months. But there was an interesting nuance in at least one of the reporting one of the outlets reporting on this that Horace what they said is that what Blinken meant was you only have X number of months or you don't have months you don't have months you implicitly have weeks which continues to be very high. So it depends how Israel does we talked about this in our last broadcast right in the current intensity of the fighting it would seem to be not very much but if the war takes on a different form if we're not only in phase two of the war but phase three of the war which by the way was in a sense outlined at the beginning of the war if this war starts to look more like the way Israel fought the second Intifada the beginning of the century and less like what we saw in the first month of the war at that time now if you want to fight the war that way and you still have as a goal ending Hamas's control over the Gaza Strip then presumably the timetable would be much longer right Manuel Macron trying to delegitimize the war said or the goal of the war well if you want to take down Hamas that means the war goes on for ten years well maybe Israel's answer is that's right the war goes on for ten years but maybe obviously not at the current level of intensity and maybe that's a way forward to serve the goal that the Israeli leadership has stated and I think has wide backing among the public certainly people living on the Gaza border of ending Hamas control over the Strip but a way of doing it which is sustainable both in terms of diplomatic support and in terms of meeting Israel's legal obligations under international law and humanitarian obligations maybe that's the way forward again the question as a non-military expert is can that be done militarily can you both defeat Hamas and also do it with the kind of plan I'm putting out there at least one of our guests has said yes I don't know how Jacques feels about that well you can fight a war according to the Americans in cartoons or comics this is not the reality we have done everything possible in order to spare the civilian population and Hamas has done everything in its capacity in order to prevent that to happen and to use this population as a shield so how can you try not to hit if you have a position that is hidden inside a school inside a hospital under a lab this is impossible we know that the Americans know that but I would add another element in the equation by saying that had Israel accepted the peace plan or the day after plan of the Americans I would think that the Americans would give us more time in our military actions so we're hearing actually the US Vice President Kamala Harris she was saying that the US would like to see a renewed Palestinian Authority controlling the Gaza Strip at the end of this she spoke that the US does not want any displacement of Gazans no occupation of the territory and obviously no terror in Gaza displacement I mean these were declarations by the most extreme in this government so it's not the main current it's not the main stream nobody is talking of forcing the Palestinians to go into Jordan or to go into Egypt this is a complete mistake and saying that again and again and again doesn't mean that they are right a couple things number one I don't necessarily think that's what Biden administration officials meant when they were saying that what they meant is they didn't want to see the kind of internal displacement at the end of the war and what's fascinating is that that is happening has happened over the last two days right reports that the military has dropped leads in parts of the communist and how will the Biden administration react to that we haven't heard a public reaction it's going to be interesting to hear what they have to say when they're interested in coming out and saying it publicly even including in media interviews and briefings or in their own statements one else point and then we'll get back to you in terms of the revitalized Palestinian Authority both the United States tries to unpack that Anthony Blinken did that his press conference here he talks about things like rooting out corruption new leadership and so forth things that are not what Israel has in mind when Israel talks about a changed Palestinian Authority which is changing deeply the education system Anthony really can didn't talk about that I think Israel's perspective that's very discouraging because you are starting to see that claim get traction for example among among some who you wouldn't automatically put the Israeli government is saying like Tom Friedman the New York Times columnist who has integrated that Netanyahu critique into Friedman's own columns even though we know how Tom Friedman feels about Netanyahu we're seeing it just pointing out that we're seeing live images of Gaza as we speak yeah two things once yesterday I heard a Palestinian journalist who was reporting about what's happening inside Gaza and he said that the information that a million Gazans fled from north to south is not correct they're still maybe he says maybe in the maybe 250,000 maybe went to the south because most of them understood that by going to the south they would be exposed to the Israeli army would just enter the Khanunis area this is very important to state because by saying bluntly that the northern part of Gaza has been emptied of its inhabitants it is not correct this is very important to say as far as the American administration and the reform the Palestinian Authority I think that everybody knows everybody knows that this Palestinian Authority has to be reformed and to reshaped but the thing is that here America comes the American Authority comes with a common interest with Hamas because even if you just change what's happening in the West Bank and leave it for democratic elections like we did in 2005 under the pressure of the George Bush then we would have Hamas in the West Bank in the new reform the Palestinian Authority which is not exactly the kind of thing that we would like to have. To be fair the Ministers are not calling for elections in any kind of time frame on the horizon it's talked about as a conceptual thing at the end of the road but they are talking about revitalized Palestinian Authority putting the emphasis and where I would have hoped that Israeli diplomacy on issues of incitement and education could get more traction in official American statements than it seems to have gotten so far I think that all hope is not lost there's a lot of easy work that can be done and fruits that are there easy for the picking diplomatically but the fact that it hasn't happened yet is at least slightly discouraging. Oh and insisting on education system is just that you know it's a fake because if you look at the books in Egypt the books in Jordan the books in Syria concerning Israel you would find the same elements the same hatred the same anti-semitism so we are concentrating on the Palestinian Authority it's just an excuse nothing else. It's much more the stakes are much higher in Gaza in the West Bank than they are in those parts of the Arab world. Now you know in Gaza you were speaking about this before it's a very populated region in the south how in Hanyunas and the area how does the IDF balance the military objectives with also minimizing the civilian harm in such a populated area. The main plan right now is to disconnect between the Gaza city and the southern part of Gaza. This is the main effort we did that in the north we just neutralized the northern part by putting Gaza city under siege from both sides and now we are doing the same cutting the communication between Gaza city and the south this is the first element. Second element the 98th division which is there will just turn southward toward Hanyunas whereas other forces will come from the area of of Kerem Shalom and the southern part of the Gaza Strip and would advance in such a way that would create a claw that around the Palestinian cities we would not advance inside because this would cost us and cost the Palestinians too much. I think at a certain point we just stop and put a siege and say okay let's see let's discuss the issue of maintaining the Hamas in Gaza. If they want to stay, if they want to surrender if they want to go out this is what I think that this is the most acceptable solution and most feasible option that is in my mind. I don't think that in an area where we have almost 2 million people you know how many army units you have to invest in order to control that this is out of our scope. Now if we take a look at the West Bank for example we're seeing a terrorist attack in Jerusalem just a few days ago are we expected to see more attacks coming from the West Bank? It's obviously an open question I think from Israel's perspective it's at least mildly encouraging that we haven't seen it so far but I think given what happened on October 7 everyone here is cognizant of the potential for surprise and not underestimating the abilities of the enemy and certainly not underestimating its intentions. Look you ask Israeli experts why is it that this hasn't happened and one of the answers you get is because the military has the upper hand in the West Bank and obviously the conditions in the West Bank are different in the Gaza Strip the freedom of action for the Israeli military is different in the West Bank than it is in the Gaza Strip the ability of terror organizations to build up their arsenal their infrastructure is obviously very very different in the Gaza Strip in the West Bank though it seems to me that we've seen some moves in that direction in those places but at the end of the day we are now almost two months into this war a dramatic upsurge in violence in the West Bank is something we have not yet seen but obviously the public and I assume the military and security services are on guard The question was asked as if we were in a sterile situation we have almost 200 alerts every day concerning terrorist attacks out of the 200 and these are foils that are thwarted by security forces this is something that we have to remember and since the beginning of the war more than 2000 operatives of Fatah and Hamas have been arrested more than 200 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces there is an ongoing war in the West Bank which we are trying to ignore and this is what's happening really there so we must not be surprised that they are just trying to hit us in Jerusalem trying to hit us in other places or in the Jordan Valley even in Tel Aviv if they could and this could happen because this is not only inspiration this is Hamas working and just inciting the people and you know those people are looking around and seeing the pictures that are spread by the Arab media concerning the bombings of Israel and the children that are killed imagine what sort of videos that Al Jazeera and others just spread in the Arab world and this just feed I mean hostility feed anti-Semitism, feed hatred and those people come out from where they are they are hitting and hit us when they can this is the real thing you know one interesting question about the long term future of the 125,000 Palestinians in the West Bank that have come to work in Israel and what we do with them okay thank you Owen Alderman and Dr. Jacques Mariah that's all for this edition of I-24 News I'm Sivana Ravi thank you for watching Israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well today is day 58 currently 137 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in captivity in Gaza following the release of about 105 Israeli and foreign national hostages in an exchange deal between Israel and Hamas and five more hostages who were released alive in the earlier stages of the war fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed this past weekend with the IDF striking hundreds of terrorist targets including the killing of the commander of Hamas the Sajaya Battalion Israeli defense minister said yesterday that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreement and refused to release 15 women and two children still held captive in the Gaza Strip the entire Israeli negotiating team was subsequently sent home from Qatar meanwhile at least 11 rockets were fired yesterday evening from the Gaza Strip to Central Israel including to the Tel Aviv area sending residents to shelters with most rockets intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system the IDF reported that Colonel Staff Hamami, commander of the IDF's Gaza Division Southern Brigade was killed on October 7th and his body is held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip the IDF also announced the deaths of two more of their troops killed fighting against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip over the weekend staff sergeant Ashelaou Sama and sergeant first class in reserves Meanwhile Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke last night here's what he had to say God very harshly under fire from morning to night from night to morning I spoke to President Biden often and we exerted pressure on the mediators to improve the outline and we indeed managed to improve it to improve it substantially the effort was from around the world it was the IDF the ISA and I was in touch daily with the White House this entire effort bore fruit we doubled the number of those released but we have yet to complete this mission we will continue to fight with all our might we have prepared for that the IDF has prepared for that for the final and total defeat of Hamas And now joining us on Israel's northern border is Ariel Ossiran our I-24 news Middle East correspondent Ariel Syria fired a rocket into Israel last night the IDF fired back what are the updates on this Right Siobhan so a short while ago Syrian opposition media reporting that Israel had targeted the area of Beit Jein that is southwest of the outskirts of Damascus with several rockets this was an open area there are no reports of injuries but indeed this follows the IDF statement that launch was identified originating from Syria on its way to Israel it landed an open area also there were no injuries the Syrian observatory UK based war monitor did state that the area of Beit Jein in southwest Syria is a known stronghold of Hezbollah and so this is another indication that while the fire does originate from Syria and Israel does hold the Bashar al-Assad regime responsible for anything that originates from Syria it still makes a point to try and target Hezbollah targets this is obviously also according to Syrian opposition media that's for Israel and Syria as for Israel and Lebanon the border has been fairly quiet this morning but it's a tense quiet as yesterday was a day of fighting with over 10 cross-border attacks from Hezbollah on to IDF border posts and so the situation this morning remains quiet but obviously everyone up here knows that that could change in a moment's instant Ariel Ossaran thank you very much up on Israel's northern front with us now is our I-24 senior defense correspondent down south Jonathan Regev currently in Sderot Jonathan we're hearing sirens in southern Israel can you give us an update on the situation on the ground yes sirens for us in Sderot about five minutes ago and maybe up here in the sky you can see the interceptions at least five interceptions this happening five minutes ago still you can see the remains of the interceptions in the skies some of them we also heard of the explosions I think this was the fourth siren for the southern communities as of this morning it was a quiet night since 10 o'clock last night and up until around 9am this morning there were no sirens there was actually one siren in the city of Askelon but it turned out to be a false alarm so meaning no rockets were fired overnight but this morning already at least five minutes ago you can see the instances of sirens sounding in southern communities the last one here in Sderot five minutes ago and you just saw the remains from the interceptions in the sky and let's remember here in Sderot the time between the siren the red alert siren and the impact is 10 seconds sometimes even less that is why even with the numbers of rockets decreasing since the ground operation most of the residents are still outside of the city most of the city is still empty this is a situation down here we know that the idea for zoomed operations in Gaza and they've announced about humanitarian corridors and safe zones for Gazans in the south to move into can you tell us about that yes Israel is trying to prevent as much as possible hitting civilian targets as opposed to Hamas which is hiding behind its own civilians Israel is trying to prevent hitting Gazan civilians and the way to do it is to make sure they all concentrate in a specific area those areas will not be targeted there's an understanding that in Chanyones, Derel Baloch and all other places in the southern Gaza Strip Hamas is using those civilians as human shields hiding behind them they have no no importance whatsoever for any humanitarian disaster that might happen they might even welcome it so Israel is trying to convince as much as possible the civilian population to go to safer areas Jonathan Regav down in the south, thank you very much with us in studio now is retired colonel Dr. Dr. Jacques Niria, former deputy head of assessment of the Israeli military intelligence and former foreign policy advisor to prime minister Yitzhak Rabin also with us is Owen Alterman our senior I-24 news correspondent thank you both for joining now that the fighting in Gaza resumed can you elaborate on the IDF's military strategy what are they trying to achieve in this next phase well we have reached phase two even though Hamas has proved to be more resilient than we thought at the beginning and the fact is that there are still pockets in the northern part of Gaza which was supposed to be under our total control so there's Beit Hanon, there's Jabalia, there's Shajair, there are Zaitun some places where we still have to fight because the time of the truth was used by exploited in a way by Hamas in order to reorganize and to replenish its sources there and weapons and so on and this is why they came out of the tunnels and now they began fighting in our rears so we have to take care first of all of this part of Gaza in the meantime what is happening in the south is the softening what we call military jargon is softening of the positions meaning air force and artillery are just preparing the ground for the ground intrusion the tanks and the infantry would not go in before a preparation of the ground would be done and this will take a few days but I mean this is the beginning of the activation of the war machine the Israeli war machine the Israeli war machine would mean entering the Hanyulis this would be the main effort and in a movement to encircle it from both sides and reach the border with Egypt once the Hanyulis is surrounded and put under siege and so would be the fate of Direl Balak then the option would be either to surrender or to die this is all the third option would be for the Hamas leaders to ask for leaving the area like did in 1982 this is what's happening right now and it might take a few weeks enough time that before the glass would begin to tick and as the Americans have signified so much that we don't have months to fight we have weeks and during those weeks we have to concentrate and do the most what we can this is basically the strategic plan while holding the northern border in a defensive offensive deployment meaning that at each provocation of Hezbollah we would answer with twice or three twice for the attack by Hezbollah and we must be careful that we have another front that might be awakening up and this is the Syrian front so the missiles that were fired from Syria are not the first time but this comes in a sort of exchange of fire where Israel has been without admitting it had been hitting airports in Syria has been hitting positions of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and like we saw yesterday only two of them were killed and celebrated their death in Tehran so this is what's going on and if this happens it means that it is not the Lebanese front this is the Syria meaning that you have to confront an army and this is what stands before you is the force division armored division which is commanded by Bashar Assad's brother which means that we are entering a conflict with the Syrian regime which might be a good thing for us because if we just finish with this regime then the whole puzzle that Iran has been so much putting effort to form would collapse because once Syria is not there then Hezbollah will have to look at his behinds and also Iran will have to just to see what can be done because with the absence of Syria the access north and access would be difficult to maintain or seeing that fighting resumed in the north and Hezbollah seems aligned with Hamas the ceasefire is finished fighting is resumed how will Israel keep fighting off both north and south simultaneously we don't have a problem as you said the deployment in the north is a defensive offensive deployment we have enough forces in order to first defend ourselves any attempt done by Hezbollah is met by an Israeli and we have yesterday just eliminated three cells that try to fire missiles at Israeli positions Hezbollah is suffering heavy tolls and certainly the inhabitants the residents of the area have all fled from the area they thought that they could come back and now they see that there's no way to come back under fire Hezbollah has not said in the last word I mean still the strategic weapon he has not used and meaning the hitting deep inside Israel and if he does that because of miscalculation or because of a calculation that Iran would say okay this is the time in order to help Hamas which is crumbling right now under the Israeli attack just try to help Hamas by entering the conflict deeper and this would mean that we will have to just to take care of the Lebanese front which is right now held I would say under control under control we would not like that to begin to be under control and certainly this would not please the Americans who don't want the conflict to be widened to in Syria and Lebanon and a war with Hezbollah is a whole different ballgame we can say that it's a different ballgame because the only thing that is different is that this militia has been trained in wars in the civil war in Syria so it has experience which Hamas doesn't have and certainly it has weapons that Hamas doesn't have precision guided missiles that can hit any point in Israel and any base in Israel so there would be a need for a preemptive strike from Israel's parts in order to prevent the disaster coming from missiles that would hit us with 500, 600 or 1000 kilos of explosives in different sensitive places that we have in Israel now speaking of American pressure how much room Owen does Israel have to maneuver how many weeks, how many months how much time does it have in order to maneuver? It depends how it depends what the maneuver is it was reported widely here in Israel that in the war cabinet that Anthony Blinken famously said you don't have that much credit when presented with war plans that would go on for a number of months but there was an interesting nuance and at least one of the reporting one of the outlets reporting on this what they said is that what you only have X number of months or you don't have months you don't have months you implicitly have weeks only if the level of civilian casualties continues to be very high so it depends how Israel does we talked about this in our last broadcast in the current intensity of the fighting it would seem to be not very much but if the war takes on a different form if we're not only in phase two of the war but phase three of the war which by the way was in a sense the war starts to look more like the way Israel fought the Second Intifada the beginning of the century and less like what we saw in the first month of the war maybe it's more sustainable over time now if you want to fight the war that way and you still have as a goal ending Hamas's control over the Gaza Strip then presumably the timetable would be much longer Manio Macron trying to delegitimize the war said or the goal of the war means the war goes on for ten years well maybe Israel's answer is that's right the war goes on for ten years but maybe obviously not at the current level of intensity and maybe that's a way forward that would both preserve the goal that the Israeli leadership has stated and I think has wide backing among the public certainly people living on the Gaza border of ending Hamas's control over the Strip but a way of doing it which is sustainable both in terms of diplomatic support and in terms of meeting Israel's legal obligations international law and humanitarian obligations maybe that's the way forward again the question as a non-military expert is can that be done militarily can you both defeat Hamas and also do it with the kind of plan I'm putting out there you know at least one of our guests has said yes I don't know how Jacques feels about that well you can fight a war according to the Americans in cartoons or comics this is not the reality we have done everything possible to spare the civilian population and Hamas has done everything in its capacity in order to prevent that to happen and to use these populations as a shield so how can you try not to hit if you have a position that is hidden inside a school inside a hospital under a lab this is impossible and we know that the Americans know that but I would add another element in the equation by saying that if Israel, had Israel accepted the peace plan or the day after plan of the Americans I would think that the Americans would give us more time in our military actions so we're hearing actually the US Vice President Kamala Harris she was saying that the US would like to see a renewed Palestinian Authority controlling the Gaza Strip at the end of this she spoke that the US does not want any displacement of Gazans the occupation of the territory and obviously no terror in Gaza displacement, I mean these were declarations by the most extreme ministers in this government so it's not the main screen nobody is talking of forcing the Palestinians to go into Jordan or to go into Egypt this is a complete mistake and saying that again and again doesn't mean that they are right a couple things, number one I don't necessarily think that's what Biden administration officials meant when they were saying that what they meant is they didn't want to see the kind of internal displacement that we saw in the first step of the war and what's fascinating is that that is happening has happened over the last two days reports of the military has dropped leads in parts of the communist and how will the Biden administration react to that we haven't heard a public reaction it's going to be interesting to hear what they have to say when they're interested even including in media interviews and briefings or in their own statements one else point and then we'll get back to you in terms of the revitalized Palestinian authority both the United States has said that but in terms of the kind of changes when the United States tries to unpack that Anthony Blinken did that at his press conference here he talks about things like rooting out corruption new leadership and so forth things that are not what Israel has in mind when Israel talks about a changed Palestinian authority which is changing deeply the education system I mean didn't talk about that I think from Israel's perspective that's very discouraging because you are starting to see that claim get traction for example among some who you wouldn't automatically accept what the Israeli government is saying like Tom Friedman the New York Times columnist who has integrated that Netanyahu critique into Friedman's own columns even though we know how Tom Friedman feels about Netanyahu we're just pointing out that we're seeing live images of Gaza as we speak two things yesterday I heard a Palestinian journalist who was reporting about what's happening inside Gaza and he said that the information that a million Gazans fled from north to south is not correct there are still maybe maybe 250,000 maybe went to the south because most of them understood that by going to the south they would be exposed to the Israeli army who would just enter the Hanyunis area this is very important to state saying bluntly that the northern part of Gaza has been emptied of its inhabitants it is not correct this is very important to say as far as the American administration and the reformed the Palestinian Authority I think that everybody knows everybody knows that this Palestinian Authority has to be reformed and to reshaped but the thing is that here the American comes with a common interest with Hamas because even if you just change what's happening in the West Bank and leave it for democratic elections like we did in 2005 under the pressure of the George Bush then we would have Hamas in the West Bank in the new reformed by the Palestinian Authority which is not exactly the kind of thing that we would like to have. To be fair the binaries are not calling for elections I'm praying on the horizon it's talked about as a conceptual thing at the end of the road but they are talking about revitalized Palestinian Authority putting the emphasis on areas where Israel is not putting the emphasis and where I would have hoped that Israeli diplomacy on issues of incitement and education could get more traction in official American statements than it seems to have gotten so far I think that all hope is not lost there's a lot of easy work that can be done and fruits that are there easy for the picking diplomatically but the fact that it hasn't happened yet is at least slightly discouraging. Insisting on education system is just that you know it's a fake because if you look at the the books in Egypt the books in Jordan the books in Syria concerning Israel you would find the same elements the same hatred the same anti-semitism so we are concentrating on the Palestinian Authority it's just an excuse nothing else It's much more the stakes are much higher in Gaza and the West Bank than they are in those parts of the Arab world Now in Gaza you were speaking about this before it's a very populated region in the south in Hanyunas and the area how does the IDF balance the military objectives with also minimizing the civilian harm in such a populated area The main plan right now is to disconnect between the Gaza city and the southern part of Gaza this is the main effort we did that in the north we just neutralized the northern part by putting Gaza city under siege from both sides and now we're doing the same cutting the communications between Gaza city and the south this is the first element second element the 98th division which is there will just turn southward toward Hanyunas whereas other forces will come from the area of of Kerem Shalom and the southern part of the Gaza strip and would advance in such a way that would create a claw around the Palestinian cities we would not advance inside because this would cost us and cost the Palestinians too much I think at a certain point we just stop and put a siege and say okay let's discuss the issue of maintaining the Hamas in Gaza if they want to stay if they want to surrender I think that this is the most acceptable solution and most feasible option that is in my mind I don't think that in an area where you have almost two million people you know how many army units you have to invest in order to control that this is out of our scope. Now if we take a look at the West Bank for example we're seeing a terrorist attack in Jerusalem just a few days ago are we expected to see more attacks coming from the West Bank? It's obviously an open question I think from Israel's perspective it's at least mildly encouraging that we haven't seen it so far but I think given what happened on October 7th everyone here is cognizant of the potential for surprise and not underestimating the abilities of the enemy and certainly not underestimating its intentions look you ask Israeli experts we have one another security expert right here to ask too why is it that this hasn't happened and one of the answers you get is because the military has the upper hand in the West Bank and obviously the conditions we all know the conditions in the West Bank are different in the Gaza Strip the freedom of action for the Israeli military is different in the West Bank than it is in the Gaza Strip the ability of terror organizations to build up their arsenal, their infrastructure is obviously very very different than the Gaza Strip in the West Bank although it seems to me that we've seen some moves in that direction in places like the Janine refugee camp to Gaza if I those places but at the end of the day we are now almost two months into this war a dramatic upsurge in violence in the West Bank is something we have not yet seen but obviously the public and I assume the military and security services are on guard the question was asked as if we were in a sterile situation we have almost 200 alerts every day concerning terrorist attacks out of the 200 and these are foils that are thwarted by security forces this is something that we have to remember and since the beginning of the war more than 2000 operatives of Fatah and Hamas have been arrested more than 200 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces there is an ongoing war there in the West Bank which we are trying to ignore and this is what's happening really there so we must not be surprised that they are just trying to hit us in Jerusalem, trying to hit us in other places or in the Jordan Valley or even in Tel Aviv if they could and this could happen because this is not only inspiration this is Hamas working and just inciting the people and you know those people are looking around and seeing the pictures that are spread by the Arab media concerning the bombings of Israel and the children that are killed you cannot imagine what sort of videos that Al Jazeera and others just spread in the Arab world and this just feed, I mean hostility, field antisemitism, field hatred and those people come out from where they are they are hitting and hit us when they can and this is the real thing One interesting question about the long-term future of the 125,000 Palestinians in the West Bank used to come to work in Israel and what we do with them. OK, thank you Owen Alterman and Dr. Jacques Mariah that's all for this edition of I-24 News I'm Sivana Rabi, thank you for watching. Israel is in a state of war families completely gunned down in their beds we have no idea where she is sitting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. News I'm Sivana Rabi and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is day 58 of Israel's war with Hamas there are currently 137 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in captivity in Gaza following the release of about 105 Israeli and foreign national hostages in an exchange deal between Israel and Hamas and 5 more hostages who were released alive in the earlier stages of the war. Fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed this past weekend with the idea of striking hundreds of terrorist targets including the killing of the commander of Hamas's Sajayi Battalion, Wissam Farhat. Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galan said yesterday that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreement and refused to release 15 women and two children still held captive in the Gaza Strip. The entire Israeli negotiating team was subsequently sent home from Qatar. The UK Ministry of Defense said it will conduct unarmed surveillance flights over Israel and Gaza to search for hostage locations used by Hamas with information on captive's potential whereabouts shared with Israel. The initiative aims to support ongoing hostage rescue activities and prioritize the safety of British nationals amid renewed fighting in Gaza after the one week long truce. Britain's Maritime Trade Operations Agency said today that it has received reports of drone activity and a potential explosion in the Red Sea's Bab Al-Mandab Strait. It said the drone activity originated from Yemen and called on vessels in the vicinity to exercise caution. Joining us on Israel's northern border is Ariel Osirhan, our I-24 News Middle East correspondent. Ariel, Syria fired a rocket into Israel overnight. The idea fired back. What are the updates on this? Yes, Yvonne. Reports in Syria are that Israel fired multiple artillery shells to the Beijing area that is southwest of the capital Damascus. It is also a known stronghold of Hezbollah while there were no injuries in this strike. It obviously comes in response to the launch of one rocket from the area overnight towards Israel. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that reported on this Israeli strike in southern Syria also indicated interesting analysis that when you fire one rocket it doesn't have much operational value, but it is to send a message and the message that they're saying is being sent by Hezbollah is that Hezbollah can target Israel from Syria as well. Until now we have seen a mortar and artillery fire from southern Syria towards Israel in the Golan area. That is believed to have been carried out by Syrian forces or perhaps Palestinian militia. But the fact that this is being tied to Hezbollah is a potentially interesting development. Now as for what's going on in the Red Sea you mentioned the UK's maritime agency warning of a potential drone strike. Now this comes following yesterday the US Central Command operating also in the Arabian Gulf in the area saying that it had downed Iranian drone that was operating in quote unsafe and unprofessional manner. An aircraft from US aircraft carrier operating in the area downed the drone that was operating in its proximity in a dangerous fashion. And so we're seeing that while Israel continues to operate in Gaza in the north, in Syria there's also US and British involvement not only for searching for hostages with drones over Gaza but also in terms of their clashes you could say with Iranian pro-Iranian forces in the Red Sea in the Persian Gulf Israel's not the only one that is fighting Iranian proxies it appears that potentially UK military assets have also been dragged into this fight in the Red Sea. Ariello Siran our Middle East correspondent thank you very much. With us now is our I-24 News Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan currently in Sderot. Jonathan we were hearing sirens earlier in southern Israel can you give us an update? Yes it was quite a loud morning after a quiet night a loud morning at least five different instances of sirens sounding all over the Gaza border the last one of them here in Sderot the place where we are just about an hour ago fighting is on Israeli bombardment in Gaza is ongoing and we can hear it quite loudly behind us so are the rockets which last night even arrived as far as central Tel Aviv and this morning we had plenty of instances of red alert sirens all around the Gaza border. Now the IDF spokesperson in Arabic exposed the commanders of Hamas and Gaza and issued a threat to their lives. What can you tell us about this? Yes exactly and this comes a day after the head of the Jabalia region in Hamas was killed in an Israeli strike and I think the message is clear all of those all of those below him they got the message with their names and their faces appearing saying you're next if we found your commander we will find you either surrender or your fate will be the same as your commander I don't expect them to surrender I do expect their fate to be the same as their commanders. Now the IDF announced about humanitarian corridors and safe zones for civilians in the south to move into can you tell us about that? Yes Israel is trying to prevent hitting innocent civilians as much as possible that is why safe zones are created in the southern part of the Gaza Strip a similar process was done in the northern Gaza Strip when people were told to head south to safer regions now within the southern Gaza Strip people from areas in Chanyunis especially are told to move to places that will not be attacked in order to prevent hitting civilians Jonathan Regev in the south thank you very much here with us in studio is former senior intelligence officer in the IDF Rafael Hiroshalmi thank you for joining us Rafael Israeli renewed the fighting in Gaza it did not move into the second stage which is expected to be more intense what can we what can we see looking forward what's the plan when it will take a couple of days more at least if not more to prepare the ground we are bombing some infrastructure that can be hit from the air so there is no need to endanger our ground troops on that we are preparing the ground meaning destroying areas that we can use as a road just making roads inside the south and at a certain point when the job has been done from the air and the artillery and also the Navy by the way a good cleanup has been done then the infantry will come in the infantry is ready the orders of March have been authorized by the chief of staff a couple of days ago so everything is ready it's a matter of the timing the timing that should be good for us we have quite a few surprises in store for them in the south there are new weapons especially designed for urban warfare the gil and matador rockets there are rockets like from 50 to 100 meter range very very surgical very precise we have a couple more that are still classified and we also have the steel the steel sting which is a new kind of mortar all this is going to help a lot a lot our troops as compared to the difficulties they encountered the protective border protective edge before this going into the south is nothing urgent we have to make sure because we promised the Americans and international community to help the Gazans evacuate the combat zones so we have to give them time to organize and to have more humanitarian assistance coming in also the longer we wait the better because actually chaos is starting into the whole of the Gaza Strip the Hamas is losing control there is of course control of the military branch they still have control of the launchers and the rocket launchers but really the Gaza Strip is not really into their hands anymore it's complete total chaos for a few reasons the first reason is internal there are clashes inside the Hamas there are factions that are clashing there are a disagreement to how to continue also the police force they haven't been paid for two months their families are actually starving so they know where the store houses of the Hamas are because they are the police and they have attacked physically and with shots warehouses of the Hamas to get some food some private citizens have done the same we also have now coming into the game the mafia the gangsters of Gaza some of them might have put their hands on hostages they will ask ransom for later on they are doing a very good business still as we speak still some weapons coming from Sana'a into Gaza and that's just a business for them and also the first desertions from the Hamas ranks some Hamas fighters are just laying down their weapons mingling with the civil population and escaping so all this is still only at the beginning but it is a very good sign of this chaos meaning that Hamas is losing control of the strip which is the objective of that war so it does indeed sound like chaos I want you to listen with me earlier I spoke to Adva Adar the granddaughter of Yaffa Adar who was released from Hamas captivity one of the hostages released this past week after spending several weeks as a hostage in Gaza Adva's cousin Tamir is still held in Gaza along with over 130 other hostages inside of me I can't share the information I can tell you that she lost weight a lot of weight and I can tell you that the conditions she was held are not anything that an 85 years old woman should stay on and more detail than that unfortunately I can't share are you able to say if she was held captive with other hostages together unfortunately not I can't share this information but you know you can let me say it without think and see the pictures and see her face you're showing now a video see how terrified she looks tell me if you think that's a way that an 85 years old woman should be should be treated tell me if you can see her face I don't know how can we explain it better see how they are pushing her see how they are treating her see how they are celebrating that's the basic that's the human being fundamental needs to be treated with respect to be able to feel safe and they took her sense of security so you know talking about if she got food or if she was able to where was she sleeping that's not the focus she was taken from her house so many people were taken just by living their lives and they were held captive for so many days and terrified with no sense of security with no proper conditions so I mean look at the video it tells the entire story Al-Fail we're hearing from families of hostages and those released as well such as this one it seems the release of hostages is a top priority at large for much of the Israeli public but how can Israel accomplish these two goals of dismantling Hamas on the other and on the one hand and releasing the hostages to achieve that at the same time well it looks like a current trajectory paradox but really no because the only way that we can get these hostages free is by applying military pressure by frightening the Hamas leaders out of their wits the first phase that we had last week showed that the Hamas for the first month and a half of the war was not even willing to negotiate or was just asking for unacceptable conditions to liberate hostages and it's only when the north of the Gaza Strip was more or less conquered by the Israelis and that there was a lot of pressure it actually happened after the first two high-ranking political figures of the Hamas were killed so long as we were exterminating the military people the Hamas leaders were not impressed these military guys there to die their Shahidim their martyrs but we did hit for instance one member of the Hamas parliament 76 year old very respectable person and that's when the Hamas leaders starting to think twice about maybe going back to negotiations and they did so if we want to see the others we have to apply yet again a lot of pressure especially on Khan Yunis where we think the leaders of the Hamas are hiding but also holding hostages and we know that the clock is ticking because as we learn how they are treated the conditions they are in some of them I just died from mistreatment from starvation from being beaten up who knows also what we do not know is how many of them are still alive some of them are bodies and some people that were murdered and executed on the way how many of them are in the hands of the Hamas and how many as I said are in the hands of private persons mafia organizations other terrorist factions all this we don't know so we have to apply pressure at least to obtain at first a list a serious list because the Hamas have been lying through their teeth all the way we don't even know if some people babies are alive not alive they are just lying they gave us different versions that they are dead they handed them over to another faction and now they are not dead it's terrible so we need at first to demand through Qatar and the Egyptian a list who is alive who is this who is that and we have anyway a prerequisite whatever happens they have to finish the first phase they didn't finish the first phase was all women and children this is not finished they are still women and children held by the Hamas or whoever and until this is not completed we do not go to the next phase which are the younger people etc. or even elderly males that are also still detained very complicated but so far the only solution is pressure applying applying pressure and the frightening them out of their wits I think the bombing of Hanyun is a good start you know they might be underground but they feel the tremors and they hear the booms of the bombing above their heads so they know we are coming for them so when the ground I don't think they will do much before the ground offensive starts unless there is some success of the negotiators from Qatar and Egypt I doubt it so when the ground forces advance and when they near the bunkers of the high leaders high command of the Hamas that's when we can hope for them to try and negotiate because these hostages now why would they give them away they are their life insurance they are a human rampart a human shield for them so giving them away that will give us complete entire leeway to bomb them out of their wits but we have to be careful because of the hostages that's what they have to keep them it's a huge asset for them right and we know Hamas has the tendency as human shields whether it's their own or whether it's the Israelis now with the targeted elimination of the Hamas Sejiah battalion commander that we've heard of how does this impact Hamas yeah it has some psychological effect especially on the troops that were under these guys command if he was a charismatic they liked him so they are a bit depressed I wouldn't glorify ourselves too much on that it's very good to do it very satisfactory I am not sure also that this advertising of the other guys we're going to get to I know there are psychological experts for psychological warfare I personally am from the old school I remember when you don't say a word and you just do it I think it's a much better way usually when the Israelis are silent it's a much better sign than when they're talking too much and I don't think we should say anything just do it just kill them and just don't say anything before and don't say anything after just do the job now going into the very populated south of Gaza that must be very challenging and Hanunas in the area around how does the idea balance the military objectives the going into and achieving their military goals but also minimizing the civilian harm you mentioned that there are new weapons that are used here these weapons will avoid a lot of collateral damage because they can actually point a room in a building and just kill the guys there and not necessarily bomb the whole building to avoid 100% collateral damage in urban warfare is absolutely impossible there will always be somebody somewhere that shouldn't be there an innocent person I mean I think as usual in warfare the IDF is innovating there are these things that were never done before by any army in the world and not even by those American and other people who are asking us restraint and whatever they're asking us I can't remember what they did in Vietnam, Pakistan Afghanistan sorry Iraq they never did anything they killed thousands of people blind we are doing our utmost we're doing things that were never ever done before today a person who really wants to save his family in Gaza has the means to do so he will know where to go he has been given all the information from where he lives to go to be safe our conscience is completely clear and clean about what we are doing towards innocent people involved here Rafa Ali Roshan thank you very much for joining us and for your input four decades ago during the Lebanon war a special non-profit organization called Sahel was founded and ever since over 150,000 volunteers from over 30 countries have suited up and come to Israel to help the IDF and soldiers take care of non-combat related duties since October 7th Sahel has seen a huge increase in volunteers I-24's Emily Francis went to a nearby IDF base and spoke to these volunteers about why this is the most important mission of their lives this is not the supermost I'm putting a date on gauze ok but it's a super important volunteer job that could mean the difference between life and death so we do what they say and it gets done and we save a life everything saves a life that's why we're here during times of peace and even more so during war the Tela Shomer IDF base is the hub where all the medical supplies and other non-combat support tasks fuel the entire IDF I love seeing all these people volunteering for Sahel they are coming from out of the country and don't really holy work here which is why this place exists well the fatigues came with the ticket what brings me here is that after October 7th we all I think everyone here had the need to be here just where we had to be for myself I was doing a whole bunch of work fighting against the insane explosion of anti-Semitism that's happening everywhere even in our little city of Winnipeg but it didn't feel like it was enough I wanted to do something physical really to help on Israel after October 7th lawyer Lawrence Pinsky of Winnipeg and dozens of other volunteers heated the call in tears for Israel a robust non-profit with an international reputation well I've been packing not right now but earlier morphine and ketamine and amputation bandages and serious stuff and it gives you a sense especially when you see how many were packing what Archialema really facing like everyone else that is here our desire to help Israel in any way we can pardon my emotion and we're here to physically help Israel in this time of special need my zady came to fight in the war of independence in 48 and if I get to do a tenth of what he did for the state of Israel and he did it for all of us and he did it so it would be here for me if I could do a tenth of what he did I'll be very proud I have two sons right now who are in me the way one of them up north and I have a son in law who is up north Sarel which is a Hebrew acronym meaning service for Israel has recruited over 150,000 volunteers from over 30 countries since its inception 40 years ago I graduated college at the time of the 6th day war in 67 I wanted to come then my family was not zionistic I knew they wouldn't admit me if I came I heard about Sarel when I was visiting my son in Teaneck, New Jersey and I said oh my god I can do today but I couldn't do 50 years ago this is now Rochelle Kimmel of Borough Park, Brooklyn 4th Sarel Volunteer Mission and for Dina Wolfe who is originally from Manchester, England Sarel volunteers have already become her family this is your first day volunteering do you feel like you've known her forever already? I just think she is just amazing she's an inspiration and I'm just in admiration everybody is doing as much as they can but some of us have that feeling it's just not enough so when my sister decided to come from Manchester to do Sarel I jumped on the bound with the hate and vitriol against Jewish people hitting a critical juncture around the world the existential fear is paralyzing we've been through an awful lot in the United Kingdom being Jewish there is an awful lot around the cemetery I had been racially hounded on social media I had had eggs thrown at my car Jenny Sadeh who was active on social media has been nearly silenced to the point that she's had to change her profile name and she even feels safer in Israel during wartime than in the UK I walk in the streets I hide my star of David what I'm trying to say is usually I'm very proud I'm very happy to wear my flag this time it's very scary I feel like I needed to be here and I'm very glad I am it's been very rewarding as you can see men and women of all ages and nationalities are united for a common cause fulfilling our soldiers' medical needs while also filling their souls in the Jewish homeland it's very disturbing my son said to me you're not going to want to listen to the news stations that you've been listening to when you come home and it's very depressing anybody who has the ability to be here should definitely take the plunge and come this is where we need to be it's our country at the Telo Shomer IDF Base, Emily Francis, I-24 News and that's all for this edition of I-24 News we have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel we'll be back at the top of the hour for more news and updates be sure to follow us on our website i-24news.tv and across our social media platforms i'm Sivana Ravi, thank you very much for watching date of war families completely gunned down in their beds we have no idea where she is our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well news 24 news 24 the only medium in Spanish that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community in Israel news 24 only on I-24 News story to the world news I'm Sivana Ravi and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv today is day 58 of Israel's war with Hamas there are currently 137 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in captivity in Gaza following the release of about 105 Israeli and foreign national hostages in an exchange deal between Israel and Hamas and five more hostages who were released alive in the earlier stages of the war fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed this past weekend with the idea of striking hundreds of terrorist targets including the killing of the commander of Hamas's Sajaya battalion Weesam Farhat Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galan said yesterday that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreement and refused to release 15 women and two children still held captive in the Gaza Strip The entire Israeli negotiating team was subsequently sent home from Qatar Meanwhile the UK Ministry of Defense said it will conduct unarmed surveillance flights over Israel and Gaza to search for hostage locations used by Hamas with information on captive's potential whereabouts shared with Israel The initiative aims to support ongoing hostage rescue activities and prioritize the safety of British nationals amid renewed fighting in Gaza after the one week long truce Britain's Maritime Trade Operations Agency said today that it has received reports of drone activity and a potential explosion in the Red Sea's Bab Al-Mandab Strait It said the drone activity originated from Yemen and called on vessels in the vicinity to exercise caution Joining us on Israel's northern border is Ariel Osirhan our I-24 News Middle East correspondent Ariel Syria fired a rocket into Israel overnight The IDF fired back What are the updates on this? Yes, Yvonne reports in Syria that Israel fired multiple artillery shells to the Beijing area that is southwest of the capital Damascus It is also a known stronghold of Hezbollah While there were no injuries in this strike it obviously comes in response to the launch of one rocket from the area overnight towards Israel Now, the Syrian observatory for human rights that reported on this Israeli strike in southern Syria also indicated an interesting analysis that when you fire one rocket it doesn't have much operational value but it is to send a message and the message that they're saying is being sent by Hezbollah can target Israel from Syria as well until now we have seen mortar and artillery fire from southern Syria towards Israel in the Golan area that is believed to have been carried out by Syrian forces or perhaps pro-Palestinian militia but the fact that this is being tied to Hezbollah is a potentially interesting development now as for what's going on in the Red Sea you mentioned UK's maritime agency warning of a potential drone strike now this comes also following yesterday the US central command operating also in the Arabian Gulf in the area saying that it had downed Iranian drone that was operating in quote unsafe and unprofessional manner aircraft from US aircraft carrier operating in the area downed the drone that was approaching its proximity in a dangerous fashion and so we're seeing that while Israel continues to operate in Gaza and the north in Syria there's also US and British involvement not only for searching for hostages with drones over Gaza but also in terms of their clashes you could say with Iranian pro-Iranian forces in the Red Sea in the Persian Gulf Israel's not the only one that is fighting Iranian proxies it appears that potentially UK military assets have also been dragged into this fight in the Red Sea Ariello Serrano our Middle East correspondent thank you very much with us now is our I-24 News Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan give currently in Sderot Jonathan we were hearing sirens earlier in southern Israel can you give us an update yes it was quite a loud morning after a quiet night a loud morning at least five different instances of sirens sounding all over the Gaza border the last one of them here in Sderot the place where we are just about an hour ago one Israeli bombardment in Gaza is ongoing and we can hear it quite loudly behind us so are the rockets which last night even arrived as far as central Tel Aviv and this morning we had plenty of instances of red alert sirens all around the Gaza border now the IDF spokesperson in Arabic exposed the commanders of Hamas in Gaza and issued a threat to their lives what can you tell us about this yes exactly and this comes today after the head of the Jabalia region in Hamas was killed in an Israeli strike and I think the message is clear all of those below him they got the message with their names and their faces appearing saying you're next if we found your commander we will find you either surrender or your fate will be the same as your commander I don't expect them to surrender I do expect to be the same as their commanders now the IDF announced about humanitarian corridors and safe zones for Gazans in the south to move into can you tell us about that yes Israel is trying to prevent hitting innocent civilians as much as possible that is why safe zones are created in the southern part of the Gaza Strip it's the a similar process as was done in the northern Gaza Strip when people were told to head south to save for regions now within the southern Gaza Strip people from areas in Chanyunis especially are told to move to places that will not be attacked in order to prevent hitting civilians Jonathan Regev in the south thank you very much here with us in studio is former senior intelligence officer in the IDF Rafael Rashalmi thank you for joining us Rafael Israeli renewed the fighting in Gaza it did not move into the second stage which is expected to be more intense what can we see looking forward what's the plan it will take a couple of days more at least if not more to prepare the ground we are bombing some infrastructure that can be hit from the air so there is no need to endanger our ground troops on that we are preparing the ground meaning destroying areas that we can use as a road we are just making roads inside the south at a certain point when the job has been done from the air and the artillery and also the Navy by the way with a good cleanup has been done then the infantry will come in the infantry is ready the orders of March have been authorized by the chief of staff a couple of days ago so everything is ready it's a matter of the timing the timing that should be good for us we have quite a few surprises in store for them in the south there are new weapons that are especially designed for urban warfare the gil and matador rockets there are rockets like from 50 to 100 meter range very very surgical very precise we have a couple more that are still classified and we also have the steel which is a new kind of mortar all this is going to help a lot a lot our troops as compared to the difficulties they encountered in border protective edge before this going into the south is nothing urgent we have to make sure because we promised the Americans in the international community to help the Gazans evacuate the combat zones so we have to give them time to organize and to have more humanitarian assistance coming in also the longer we wait the better because actually chaos is starting into the whole of the Gaza Strip the Hamas is losing control there is of course control of the military branch they still have control of the launchers and the rocket launchers but really the Gaza Strip is not really into their hands anymore it's complete total chaos for a few reasons the first reason is internal the Hamas they are factions that are clashing they are in disagreement to how to continue also the police force of Gaza they haven't been paid for two months their families are actually starving so they know where the store houses of the Hamas are because they are the police and they have attacked physically and with shots and warehouses of the Hamas to get some food some private citizens have done the same we also have now into the game the mafia the gangsters of Gaza some of them might have put their hands on hostages they will ask ransom for later on they are doing a very good business still as we speak still some weapons coming from Sana'a into Gaza and that's just a business for them and also the first desertions from the Hamas ranks some Hamas fighters are just laying down their weapons mingling with the civil population they are escaping so all this is still only at the beginning but it is a very good sign of this chaos meaning that Hamas is losing control of the strip which is the objective of that war right so it does indeed sound like chaos I want you to listen with me earlier I spoke to Adva Adar the granddaughter of Yaffa Adar who was released from Hamas captivity one of the hostages released this past week after spending several weeks in the hostage in Gaza Adva's cousin Tamir is still held in Gaza along with over 130 other hostages here's what you had to say to me I can't share the information I can tell you that she lost weight a lot of weight and I can tell you that the conditions she was held are not anything that an 85 years old woman should stay on and that unfortunately I can't share are you able to say if she was held captive with other hostages together unfortunately not I can't share this information but you know you can let me say it without think and see the pictures and see her face you're showing now a video see how terrified she looks tell me if you think that's a way that an 85 years old woman should be treated tell me if you can see her face I don't know how can we explain it better see how they are pushing her see how they are treating her see how they are celebrating that's the basic the human being fundamental needs to be treated with respect to be able to feel safe and they took her sense of security so you know talking about if she got food or if she was able to where was she sleeping that's not the focus she was taken from her house so many people were taken just by living their lives and they were held captive for so many days and terrified with no sense of security with no proper conditions so I mean look at the video it tells the entire story. We're hearing from families of hostages released as well such as this one it seems the release of hostages is a top priority at large for much of the Israeli public but how can Israel accomplish these two goals of dismantling Hamas on the other on the one hand and releasing the hostages to achieve that at the same time well it looks like a crime-credictory paradox but really no because the only way that we can get these hostages free is by applying military pressure by frightening the Hamas leaders out of their wits. The first phase that we had last week showed that the Hamas for the first months and a half of the war was not even willing to negotiate or was just asking for unacceptable conditions to liberate hostages and it's only when the north of the Gaza Strip was more or less conquered by the Israelis and that there was a lot of pressure. It actually happened after the first two high-ranking political figures of the Hamas were killed. So long as we were exterminating the military people the Hamas leaders were not impressed. These military guys they're there to die. They're Shahidim they're martyrs but we did hit for instance one member of the Hamas parliament, 76-year-old very respectable person and that's when Hamas leaders starting to think twice about maybe going back to negotiations and they did. So if we want to free the others we have to apply yet again a lot of pressure especially on Khan Yunis where we think the leaders of the Hamas are hiding but also holding hostages and we know that the clock is ticking because as we learn how they are treated the conditions they are in some of them I just died from mistreatment from starvation from being beaten up who knows also what we do not know is how many of them are still alive some of them we discover bodies and some people that were murdered and executed on the way how many of them are in the hands of the Hamas and how many as I said are in the hands of private persons mafia organizations other terrorist factions all this we don't know so we have to apply pressure at least to obtain at first a list a serious list because the Hamas have been lying through their teeth all the way we don't even know if some people like the two little babies are alive not alive they are just lying. The Bebas family yeah and they gave us different versions that they are dead that they handed them over to another faction and now they are not dead it's terrible so we need at first to demand through Qatar and the Egyptian a list who is alive and we have anyway a prerequisite whatever happens they have to finish the first phase that they didn't finish the first phase was all women and children this is not finished they are still women and children held by the Hamas or whoever and until this is not completed we do not go to the next phase which are the younger people etc or even elderly males that are also still detained very complicated but so far the only solution is pressure applying applying pressure and fighting them out of their wits I think the bombing of Hanyounis is a good start you know they might be on the ground but they feel the tremors and they hear the the bombing above their heads so they know we are coming for them so when the ground I don't think they will do much before the ground offensive starts unless there is some success of the negotiators from Qatar and Egypt that doubted so when the ground forces advance and when they near the bunkers of the high leaders high command of the Hamas that's when we can hope for them to try and negotiate because these hostages now why would they give them away they are their life insurance they are a human rampart a human shield for them so giving them away that would give us complete entire leeway to bomb them out of their wits but we have to be careful because of the hostages that's what they have to keep them it's a huge asset for them right and we know Hamas has the tendency to use people as human shields whether it's their own or whether it's the Israelis now with the targeted elimination of the Hamas Sejaia battalion commander that we've heard of how does this impact Hamas yeah it has some psychological effect especially on the troops that were under these guys command if he was a charismatic they liked him so they are a bit depressed they couldn't glorify ourselves too much on that it's very good to do it, very satisfactory I am not sure also that this advertising of the other guys we're going to get to I know there is a psychological word and you just do it I think it's a much better way usually when the Israelis are silent it's a much better sign than when they're talking too much and I don't think we should say anything just do it, just kill them don't say anything before and don't say anything after just do the job now going into the very populated south of Gaza that must be very challenging in the area around how does the idea of balance the military objectives the going into and achieving their military goals but also minimizing the civilian harm you mentioned that there are new weapons that are used here these weapons will avoid a lot of collateral damage because they can actually pinpoint a room in the building and just kill the guys there and not necessarily bomb the whole building to avoid a hundred percent collateral damage in urban warfare is absolutely impossible there will always be somebody somewhere that shouldn't be there innocent person I mean I think as usual in warfare the idea is innovating there are these things that were never ever done before by any army in the world and not even by those American and other people who are asking us restraint and whatever they're asking us I can't remember what they did in Vietnam Pakistan, Afghanistan, sorry Iraq they never did anything, they killed thousands of people blind we are doing our utmost we're doing things that were never ever done before today a person who really wants to save his family in Gaza has the means to do so he will know where to go he has been given all the information from where he lives to go to be safe our conscience is completely clear and clean about what we are doing towards innocent people involved here thank you very much for joining us and for your input four decades ago during the Lebanon war a special organization called Sahel was founded and ever since over 150,000 volunteers from over 30 countries have suited up and come to Israel to help the IDF and soldiers take care of non-combat related duties since October 7th Sahel has seen a huge increase in volunteers I-24's Emily Francis went to a nearby IDF base and spoke to these volunteers about why this is the most important mission of their lives that was that this is not the supermarket tell us please what it is you're doing I'm putting a date on Gaza it's year 18 okay but it's a super important volunteer job that could mean the difference between life and death so we do what they say and it gets done and we save a life everything saves a life that's why we're here during times of peace and even more so during war the tel-ashomer IDF base is the hub where all the medical supplies and other non-combat support tasks fuel the entire IDF I love seeing all these people volunteering for Sahel they are coming from out of the country and don't really holy work here which is why this place exists well the fatigues came with the ticket what brings me here is that after October 7th we all I think everyone here felt the need to be here for myself I was doing a whole bunch of work fighting against the insane explosion of anti-Semitism that's happening everywhere even in our little city of Winnipeg but it didn't feel like it was enough I wanted to do something physical really to help on Israel after October 7th Lawyer Lawrence Pinsky of Winnipeg and dozens of other volunteers heeded the call and hopped on the first plane to Israel that they could to participate in Sahel Volunteers for Israel a robust non-profit with an international reputation well I've been packing not right now but earlier morphine and ketamine and amputation bandages and serious stuff and it gives you a sense, especially when you see how many we're packing what our Hialima are really facing like everyone else that is here our desire to help Israel in any way we can in addition to donations and pardon my emotion we're here to physically help Israel in this time of special need my Zadie came to fight in the war of independence in 48 and if I get to do a tenth of what he did for the State of Israel and he did it for all of us and he did it so it would be here for me if I could do a tenth of what he did I'll be very proud I have two sons right now who are in Mithuim one of them up north one of them in the Merkaz I have a son in law who is up north Sarel which is a Hebrew acronym meaning service for Israel has recruited over 150,000 volunteers from over 30 countries since its inception 40 years ago I graduated college at the time of the 6 day war in 67 I wanted to come then my family was not zionistic I knew they wouldn't they would probably commit me I heard about Sarel when I was visiting my son in Tinnock, New Jersey and I said oh my god I can do today but I couldn't do 50 years ago this is now Rochelle Kimmel of Burrow Park, Brooklyn fourth Sarel volunteer mission and for Dina Wolfe who is originally from Manchester, England Sarel volunteers have already become her family this is your first day volunteering do you feel like you've known her forever already I just think she is just amazing she's an inspiration and I just in admiration everybody is doing as much as they can but some of us have that feeling it's just not enough so when my sister decided to come from Manchester to do Sarel I jumped on the bandwagon with the hate and vitriol against Jewish people hitting a critical juncture around the world the existential fear is paralyzing we've been through north a lot in the United Kingdom being Jewish there is an awful lot anti-Semitism I had been racially hounded on social media I had had eggs thrown at my car Jenny Sadeh who was active on social media has been nearly silenced to the point that she's had to change her profile name and she even feels safer in Israel during war time than in the UK I walk in the streets I hide my star of David what I'm trying to say is usually I'm very proud I'm very happy to wear my flag this time it's very scary I feel like I needed to be here and I'm very glad I am it's been very rewarding as you can see men and women of all ages and nationalities have been causing fulfilling our soldiers' medical needs while also filling their souls in the Jewish homeland it's very disturbing my son said to me you're not going to want to listen to the news stations that you've been listening to when you come home and it's very depressing anybody who has the ability to be here should definitely take the plunge and come and this is where we need to be it's our country at the Teloshel Mayor IDF base Emily Francis, I-24 News so I've been treated and that's all for this edition of I-24 News we have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel we'll be back at the top of the hour for more news and updates be sure to follow us on our website i-24news.tv and across our social media platforms thanks for watching