 from Tel Aviv and welcome to I-24 News' ongoing coverage of Israel at war. I'm Arielle Levin-Waldemann and we are now 27 days in and the West Bank is starting to heat up as well a shooting attack in the Samaria region, West Bank town of Bitlid. One person now confirmed dead after he was shot in his car overturned. Israeli forces have launched a manhunt for the terrorists behind the attack. The IDF says they have struck 12,000 terrorist targets in Gaza since the start of the war. They have been reporting for the first time how the ground forces target bank is being updated in real time, including with intelligence from the interrogation of Hamas prisoners. There are also some new details on how the Givati Combat Brigade repelled a midnight ambush. Terror cells in North Gaza fired anti-tank missiles, detonated IEDs and threw grenades from ambush positions. After heavy fighting the IDF utilized air support artillery to dislodge Hamas from their fortifications and to kill dozens of terror operatives. This has come at a price though. Since the beginning of the ground operation 17 Israeli soldiers have fallen in battle in the fight against the enemy. The latest name is Lieutenant Yuval Zilber of the Jerusalem Brigade. Rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, not that long ago targeted Ashdod and in other grim news the number of hostages held by Hamas is now confirmed to be 242. On the northern front the Hezbollah terrorist fired a surface-to-air missile at an IDF drone on Wednesday night. The drone was unharmed according to the IDF and they responded by striking a cell which fired the missile. Not too long ago the IDF gave its morning breathing so let's hear the key updates. But before we do that we will turn to our correspondent Pierre Klosian there who is standing by in the south to give us some updates from that front. Well we don't see much from where we are on the Gaza border because the weather is very hazy. But we hear clearly the explosions, the detonations, the outgoing of the artillery shell, the roaring of the fighter jets. And we understand that the ground offensive is just going on unrelentlessly with it's even enlarging and it's trying to coordinate off the Gaza city. It seems that Gaza city is basically encircled, the news is tightening, the lines of defense surrounding Gaza city are gradually being destroyed. That includes weapons depot, ammunition depots, sniper nests, tunnel shafts, tunnel anti-tank positions, rocket launching pads, et cetera, et cetera. We know that the military engineering, as I'm talking to you we hear a few detonations in the area of Bethanounin behind me. The military engineering is already operating on over a hundred tunnels. They're trying to use different robots, different kind of robots to neutralize those tunnels and to trap the terrorists that are sheltering in those tunnels and to create some sort of underground grave for those terrorists. You mentioned earlier, one of the examples of the ferocious fighting between the Golan Brigade and 30 terrorists, 20 of them were killed in a three hour close range combat, 10 managed to escape, there were no casualties amongst the Golan Brigade unit. Thank you very much Pierre for that report from the front. We are going to look at something else happening on that very border as well. That'll be the reopening of the Rafa crossing. Egypt says 7,000 people are set to cross through that from Gaza into Egypt and we've had a statement from President Biden talking about the humanitarian efforts being made at that crossing. Let's take a lesson. This is the result of intense and urgent American diplomacy with our partners in the region. I personally spent a lot of time speaking with the Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel and the President Sisi of Egypt and others to make sure that we could open this access for people to get out. I want to thank our partners in the region and particularly Qatar who've worked so closely with us to support negotiations to facilitate the departure of these citizens. We're going to continue to affirm that Israel has the right to respond to the responsibility of defending citizens from terror and it needs to do so in a manner that is consistent with international and humanitarian law that prioritizes the protection of citizens. We've all seen the devastating images from Gaza, Palestinian children crying out for lost parents, parents reasoning and writing for the children's names on their hands and legs to be identified if the worst happens. And we're going to bring a couple more voices into this discussion. One of them is our senior correspondent Owen Alterman sitting in studio next to me. And the other one is joining us as well, Alon Pincas, former Israeli Consul General in New York. Thank you very much for being with us. Alon, I want to get into this right now. What do we make of Biden's comments, this push for more humanitarian aid and this sort of flip-flopping the demand for humanitarian pauses after saying, no, no, no, Israel can set the terms of its own engagements. No, no, no, there's no flip-flopping here, Ariel. I mean, the American position on humanitarian pauses has been consistent and it is compatible with what Secretary of State Lincoln said just yesterday in the Senate Appropriations Committee and in an article in The Washington Post that there's no ceasefire and no ceasefire at this point that would keep Hamas in some form of control is sustainable or acceptable. I see no flip-flopping here. Obviously, the president is under international but also domestic pressure because of those images and footage coming out of Gaza and he needs to make a statement. But I don't see that as flip-flopping. You go back to his visit here until about three weeks ago, Biden's visit that day. And you see that the American position on humanitarian pauses has been consistent. I want to follow up on that because I wanted this to be more of the pressures that Biden is under. We've had statements from Democrats in Michigan saying that he's going to lose the election. His support has actually dropped since this has begun as well. Actually, we're going to pause this for a moment because we're having some sound difficulties and we're going to move to you, Owen, because I want to discuss some more of the Biden angle as well because it's not just the support and pressures he's under. There's also the pressures that Israel's government is under and Biden directly saying, at least according to this political report, that he doesn't think that Nenon is going to be sticking around for long after this war. Right. But he may have said that behind closed doors, Arielle, it's a reason it's important to read the article carefully from Politico because I think it's been misread here in Israel a lot. What does the article actually say? It says that behind closed doors in meetings, the team in the White House is talking about the future of Israeli politics and the future of Benjamin Netanyahu, and that's what they should be doing. That's their job, is to try to analyze what's going on here, try to see how it fits into the big picture and to be able to speak freely. In terms of what Biden actually said to Netanyahu himself according to the article, all that Biden said is that Netanyahu needs to be thinking about lessons from the war for his, quote, eventual successor, eventual successor. Eventual could be five months. It could be five years. So the White House denial that Biden said this is actually of a piece with the article. But there's another bit in the article that's fascinating. If Alon Pickett is still with us, I'm interested what he has to say about this. The lead is absolutely buried here. What does it say in the political article that there's going to be a, quote, forthcoming internal Israeli assessment, M-dash, and one done by their American counterparts, right? So there's a big focus in Israel. What kind of commission is going to be established afterwards? Will it be a state commission, a government commission? What kind of influence is the government going to have over it? But all of a sudden, dropped between M-dashes in this article is a giant wild card, an investigation that's going to be done across the ocean in the United States, but of course reported on here in Israel, over which Benjamin Netanyahu will have zero control, over which other actors in the government will have zero control, and which could, of course, would be, if it's seen as credible here in Israel, there's no reason to think it won't be, could have a huge impact on Israeli politics. That's actually a great time to bring Pankos back into this discussion, because that is a very big, buried lead, and what should we make of that? I think they're doing it in real time. I mean, they're not going to wait until the war is over. And this stems from two or three points. The first is the Americans themselves were somewhat surprised, at least tactically, because they bought into the Israeli flawed intelligence assessments, the broad assessments, not the tactical intelligence, that Hamas is deterred, that Hamas is a first to conflict, that Hamas is inclining toward political accommodation. They were wrong because we were wrong because we misled and misguided them. The second is they will do this because they didn't have trust in Israel's initial reply. I think they do now, but in the first 48 or even 72 hours, they were shocked militarily from the military point. And the third, perhaps the most important thing, and this is why this is a big deal, as was said here correctly, I think, is because American interests are at stake. There's a reason why two carrier aircraft carrier strike forces are in the eastern Mediterranean, the Gerald Ford and the Dwight Eisenhower. There's a reason why a marine, the 26th marine expeditionary force is in the region. There's a reason why the fifth lead in Bahrain is a high alert. There's a reason why Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is coming back again to Israel tomorrow. And I have no doubt that they will look at this. Now I asked what the politics, you know, the White House sort of denied the report. I tend to think that these things were said. I think it's one of those, first we pop up the balloon, the trial balloon. Then we can deny it because it wasn't exactly verbatim. I think it was said, and I think it was right, what was just said here, that this is their job to assess the political implications. I do take issue with the eventuality. I think they're looking at a much shorter time frame. What exactly Biden said or did not say, I don't know, but look, Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022. You did not hear of a US Secretary of State, same Anthony Blinken, by the way, who sat in a war cabinet in Kiev for six hours. He did not hear. You did not see there were sensitivities because of NATO and Russia and so on. But you did not see a three-star Marine Corps general sit with Army planners in Kiev, as you did him do here, not far from here, and the IDF headquarters in the Kalyan Tel Aviv. So the Americans are very much hands on here. That's an interesting note to go on forward, and we will see how that does. Thank you very much, Alon, for breaking that down and helping us get a view behind the scenes. We are going to turn our eye now to the north, where our correspondent, Robert Swift, is standing by on the border. Robert, can you tell us what the most recent developments along the northern front are? Yes, the skirmishes that have been taking place and characterising this front in the war so far, they have continued overnight with the launch of an anti-air missile from the ground by Hezbollah forces at an Israeli drone. The Israeli military has said that the drone was not impacted by the attack and that they fired upon the unit responsible for this attack. Now, separately, Hezbollah have announced yet another death of one of their fighters, bringing the total number of their fighters killed so far during this war up to 50. And Israel's chief of staff had a few things to say about the confrontation that's taking place up here in the north. Let's have a listen to it now. In the north, we continue to attack Hezbollah targets along the border and eliminate enemy squads that try to launch anti-tank missiles, rockets and water bombs toward Israeli territory. IDF forces also in the last hour attack positions from which rocket launchers were fired in the direction of Mount Dorf, Mount Hermon and other directions. We attacked several squads who also fired in the last hour. Tonight a ground to air missile was fired at an unmanned aerial vehicle. The vehicle was not damaged and the squad was attacked. We continue to defend with high intensity the northern border and to attack from the air and on land any attempt to fire into Israeli territory. Now, in an update to a separate incident last night, there was reports that the Lebanese army had asked for a unifil, that's UN peacekeepers, asked for their assistance in locating two individuals who were missing in the area around Wazani, which is close to the village which straddles the border, the village of Rajah. Now, at the time I was understood that that search was called off due to darkness and due to landmines being present in the area. We've received no update from a unifil on what took place there. But a pro-Khuzbullah journalist has reported that the bodies of two shepherds, a 20-year-old and a 22-year-old, have been recovered from that area. And according to that journalist, they were killed by Israeli fire from across the border. We don't have information regarding to that, but we've spoken to the Israeli military and we'll update when we have a response from them. Thank you very much, Robert. We will be coming to you as those updates come out. And you can give us the latest briefing from that front. Now, before we do anything else, though, we're going to discuss it more in-depth in studio with Jack Nariat, former deputy head of assessment with Israeli military intelligence. Thank you very much for being with us. We're actually just hearing a report from the front in the north. That is your specialty of operations. What should we be making of these most recent developments? Well, first of all, Hezbollah has a huge problem. He doesn't, in fact, he has a riddle. He doesn't know how to overcome the Israeli defenses. Every single cell that's firing against an Israeli target is being targeted by Israel and killed. So it's not only 50. The 50 is the official number that Hezbollah would like to have, but it's much more than that. The most important thing is that Hezbollah is showing us the use of sophisticated weapons that we didn't see in the past, such as firing ground-to-air missiles, such as using attack drones on positions and, of course, firing the scores of Kornet anti-tank missiles and mortars. And this is what, right now, all is limited in-depth. We were talking about five kilometers on each side of the border. So Hezbollah has a problem. How does he, his credibility is at stake right now because he has promised to join the effort. I mean, the United Front against Israel, it is the time. Because he said, he declared very loudly that if Israel begins its landing cushion, he would react and he would intervene. Now we are at a junction because tomorrow at 3 o'clock we have a very, very important speech by Hassan Nasrallah. And certainly this will be a game changer because it's either, OK, we keep the things as they are today or we intervene much more. And I think that we should wait and see for a very warlike declaration. Certainly since he has put the ring, that special ring that gives you the idea that this is the time for war, not for peace. And we are actually getting in a report that's breaking right now. An 18th soldier has been killed in Gaza in operations against, that is Lieutenant Colonel Salman Habaka and an award has been given to his family. Unfortunately, this is the beginning. The costs will be steep, but the cost of appeasement as we learned are far higher. I want to discuss the southern front a little more with you, Jack, while we're still together in the studio. We've been hearing about these massive strides forward that the IDF is making. We just have a statement from the former IDF deputy chief. This is a topic we've actually discussed in studio with you multiple times. And that's destroying the tunnels. Saying that there's not a chance Israel is going to send soldiers into them, because that would be a death trap. But that we don't actually need to. We can disable Hamas' tunnels without exposing our people. Well, the more you put pressure on those tunnels and on the exits and entrances of the tunnels, the more you will see the Hezbollah terrorist, Hamas terrorist getting out and trying to fight the Israeli forces. And this is what's happening. We just arrived several places, several fortifications, several outposts where Hamas was supposed to fight there. And at the end of the day, you realize something that we could not expect. They ran away. They ran away. This is not the kind of warriors that you think that they would stand till the last ammunition. This is not the case. And as you said, there is no need to go inside the tunnels. You can send robots. You can send several things. And you can just close the robots. I mean, close the tunnels from the exits and the entrances and then leave them there and just suffocate because they will be out of air very quickly and they'll have to go out. And then when they go out, we just pick them up. There's a topic that I wanted to bring up, another report that broke fairly recently in the last hour. And this is really your area of operations as the head of assessment that's targeting intelligence. The IDF is saying it's using AI now to target terrorists and identify them quickly. Well, it was a big secret in the IDF for a long time. It's not yesterday. It's not the day before. It's been quite some time that Israel is using. The Israeli military intelligence is using AI in order to locate targets and to just make a bank, a data bank of targets. Now, what is special of this AI machine is that it produces along all the time new targets according to new elements that are fed into the machine. And this is a development that nobody else has today. I want to continue on that because we have seen technological means employed in Israel's war before. There was reports in 2021 of autonomous drones being used to select targets and highlight positions of the enemy. If we have this AI, we can identify the faces. We identify the terrorists. You have a very specific list of targets. You just let in a swarm of autonomous drones, let them do half the work for you without exposing troops. Well, if we had those drones that you're talking about, I think that we would have to do the job ourselves. And most of the job is done today by attack drones and by helicopters, attack helicopters, apaches that are on the ground, and, of course, artillery barrage and Air Force bombings. This is what it's all about. And if you see the way Israel behaves on the ground, this is quite different than any other army in the world. This is we are advancing. And we are at the surprise of everybody. After five days, we have succeeded in putting a siege around Gaza. And we are fighting now the Battle of Gaza. This is what's happening. And if my assessment is correct, and I see that some of the terrorists just choose to run away, I think that, of course, we will have to pay a price. This is always there. But it's to be a heavy price. But at the end of the day, we'll be advancing. And we are not very far from Al-Shifa Hospital. We are not very far from the Indonesian Hospital and the Kuwaiti Hospital. And if we don't do it very carefully, then this could be the spark that could start a humanitarian crisis because attacking hospitals would mean definitely that the world would look at it and say this is impossible to accept. And I want to turn back to the northern border because we do know that tomorrow, Nasrallah is supposed to give a major public address. And this could be the determining factor of whether or not they are going to commit significantly to the war. You said the circumstances on the ground aren't good for them, but that doesn't mean they don't have options. Well, look, I mean, Hezbollah has very, from the very beginning decided to join the war effort of Hamas. Question that he was surprised by the timing. Hamas surprised Hezbollah on the 7th of October. Hezbollah was not ready for that. And I think that there was some cracks in the wall because of that. And you know, Hezbollah has imagined yourself if Hezbollah had attacked on the same hour the same but the same day we would be in a different state today. So this is what this is one thing. But I just refer to a publication published today by an equity equity newspaper who's generally quite a good a good source. And he says that Hezbollah has sent a message to the United States that if by the end of today by the end of today, Israel will not stop will not accept a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Then Hezbollah finds himself free to do whatever he wants. And this is this means that he would he would call for all his all his terrorists to to to begin fighting against Israel. And I think that this is the beginning of a regional war because I mean, we know that Hezbollah has is being succumbed by Iraqi militias in Lebanon in the Iraqi militias on the on the Golan and Iraqi militias on the border with Jordan. So and, you know, the US is being under attack. I mean, all the bases from Erbil in Kurdistan to the to the border with Jordan, Syria and and Iraq, all the bases have been attacked in the last in the last week for most more than 30 times. And the US has more than 20 the 20 soldiers injured. So it has to respond. And let us not forget that we have a new partner in the war, and this is the Yemenite Houthis. And I mean, the missiles have been till now intercepted, except for one who just fell into Taba. But this is a danger that we have to take into consideration, certainly on the international waterways in Babylon. Absolutely, I want to bring in another angle in the international fight against Tehran. And that would be what's happening in Germany. We just saw German government ban any pro Hamas organizations, including one that was out in the streets celebrating the October 7th attacks. Well, what's the upshot of all of this? It's about time, right? Is it in about time that Hamas is treated as a terrorist organization across Europe, and that its tentacles in those countries are shut down, that we don't have some make-believe world where Hamas is either there's a political wing and a military wing and all this nonsense. Isn't it time? So obviously it's from Israel's perspective a great decision. Of course, the fight against terrorism isn't over, including in the West. We heard the director of the FBI say that Hamas presents the greatest risk for terror attacks in the United States since ISIS. So obviously they're very concerned. And this is going to be a big challenge for law enforcement across the United States and Europe and really around the world. And law enforcement's already warned that Hamas may have moved operatives over the southern border into the US. Look, the issue of the southern border in the US has been a fraught issue for Americans for many reasons. And this is obviously one of them. And there are cries out from police officers and sheriffs around the country for more to be done at the border. The Biden administration wants to do more at the border, changing its positions in a long-held beliefs there as, again, as part of this package at once. That, of course, includes the aid to Israel, won't get into all of that. But the southern border is obviously a challenge to the United States. But you're right, Ariel, including for this reason the possibility for bad actors, including terrorists, to come across. Thank you, Owen. Hopefully that also allows the ability to shut down their funding, which is going to help in the fight ahead. Now, we do have some more information coming out about the 18th soldier to have fallen in battle. As mentioned before, that was Lieutenant Colonel Salman Habaka, a brigade commander. But importantly, he was one of the heroes that actually fought against the terrorists at Kibbutz-Berry and helped liberate that Kibbutz near the end of the October 7th rampage. It is credited for killing dozens of terrorists in that fight. He leaves behind a wife and a child. That is all the time we have, at least for now, but we will be bringing you new updates on the war at the top of each hour here on I-24 News. So stay tuned for our one o'clock broadcast coming up. Until then, thank you for watching. Is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. More than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us, we don't know what to do. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly, were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready, and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. This week, in I-24, Israel under attack. I-24, in Spanish, brings the analysis and the information of the events of the war, Spades of Iron. Exclusive interviews and reports from the war zone. The reaction of the Spanish-speaking countries. News 24, the only Spanish media that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community in Israel. News 24, only on I-24 News. Words you know from where they come from. Look here. And the package for when. And recharge that you already know where they go. On International Recharges to TIZA, your people in R&D. Access our web page, recargas.tiz.com.b. Select Recharges and type the number you want to place the recharge. Also, they receive the double balance in Recharges of $8 or more. Altiz, the global network of the Dominicans. You're from Tel Aviv, and welcome to I-24 News' ongoing coverage of Israel at war. I'm Ariel Levin-Waldemann. We are now 27 days in, and the West Bank is starting to heat up as well. A shooting attack in the Samaria region, West Bank town of Batelid. One person now confirmed dead after he was shot in his car overturned. Israeli forces have launched a manhunt for the terrorists behind the attack. The IDF says they have struck 12,000 terrorist targets in Gaza since the start of the war. The IDF reporting for the first time how the ground forces target bank is being updated in real time, including with intelligence from the interrogation of Hamas prisoners. There are also some new details in how the Gevathe Combat Brigade repelled a midnight ambush. Terror cells in North Gaza fired anti-tank missiles, detonated IEDs, and threw grenades from ambush positions. After heavy fighting, the IDF utilized air support and artillery to dislodge Hamas from their fortifications and to kill dozens of terror operatives. This has come at a price though. Since the beginning of the ground operation, 17 Israeli soldiers have fallen in battle in the fight against the enemy. The latest name is Lieutenant Yuval Zilber of the Jerusalem Brigade. Rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, not that long ago targeted Ashdod and in other grim news, the number of hostages held by Hamas is now confirmed to be 242. On the northern front, the Hizballah terrorist fired a surface-to-air missile at an IDF drone on Wednesday night. The drone was unharmed according to the IDF and they responded by striking a cell which fired the missile. Not too long ago, the IDF gave its morning briefing, so let's hear the key updates. But before we do that, we will turn to our correspondent, Pierre Klosian there who is standing by in the south to give us some updates from that front. Well, we don't see much from where we are on the Gaza border because the weather is very hazy, but we hear clearly the explosions, the detonations, the outgoing of the artillery shell, the roaring of the fighter jets. And we understand that the ground offensive is just going on unrelentlessly with, it's even enlarging, and it's trying to cordon off the Gaza city. It seems that Gaza city is basically encircled, the news is tightening, the lines of defense surrounding Gaza city are gradually being destroyed. That includes weapons depot, ammunition depots, sniper nests, tunnel shafts, tunnel anti-tank positions, rocket launching pads, et cetera, et cetera. We know that the military engineering, as I'm talking to you, we hear a few detonations in the area of Bethanounin behind me. The military engineering is already operating on over a hundred tunnels. They're trying to use different robots, different kind of robots to neutralize those tunnels and to trap the terrorists that are sheltering in those tunnels and to create some sort of underground grave for those terrorists. You mentioned earlier, one of the examples of the ferocious fighting between the Golan-e Brigade and 30 terrorists, 20 of them were killed in a three-hour close range combat, 10 managed to escape. There were no casualties amongst the Golan-e Brigade unit. Well, thank you very much, Pierre, for that report from the front. We are going to look at something else happening on that very border as well. That'll be the reopening of the Rafa crossing. Egypt says 7,000 people are set to cross through that from Gaza into Egypt. And we've had a statement from President Biden talking about the humanitarian efforts being made at that crossing. Let's take a lesson. This is a result of intense and urgent American diplomacy with our partners in the region. I personally spent a lot of time speaking with the Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel and the President Sisi of Egypt and others to make sure that we could open this access for people to get out. I want to thank our partners in the region, and particularly Qatar, who've worked so closely with us to support negotiations to facilitate the departure of these citizens. We're going to continue to affirm that Israel has the right to respond to responsibility of defending citizens from terror, and it needs to do so in a manner that was consistent in international and humanitarian law that prioritizes protection of citizens. We've all seen the devastating images from Gaza, Palestinian children crying out for lost parents, parents reasoning and writing their children's names on their hands and legs to be identified if the worst happens. And we're going to bring a couple more voices into this discussion. One of them is our senior correspondent, Owen Alterman, sitting in studio next to me. And the other one is joining us as well. Alon Pincas, former Israeli Consul General in New York. Thank you very much for being with us. Alon, I want to get into this right now. What do we make of Biden's comments, this push for more humanitarian aid, and this sort of flip-flopping the demand for humanitarian pauses after saying, no, no, no, Israel can set the terms of its own engagements? No, no, no, there's no flip-flopping here, Ariel. I mean, the American position on humanitarian pauses has been consistent, and it is compatible with what Secretary of State Lincoln said just yesterday in the Senate Appropriations Committee and in an article in the Washington Post that there's no ceasefire and no ceasefire at this point that would keep Hamas in some form of control is sustainable or acceptable. I see no flip-flopping here. Obviously, the president is under international but also domestic pressure because of those images and footage coming out of Gaza. And he needs to make a statement, but I don't see that as flip-flopping. You go back to his visit here until about three weeks ago, Biden's visit that evening. And you see that the American position on humanitarian pauses has been consistent. I want to follow up on that because I wanted this because more of the pressure is that Biden is under. We've had statements from Democrats in Michigan saying that he's going to lose the election. His support has actually dropped since this has begun as well. Actually, we're going to pause this for a moment because we're having some sound difficulties and we're going to move to you, Owen, because I want to discuss some more of the Biden angle as well because it's not just the support and pressures he's under. There's also the pressures that Israel's government is under and Biden directly saying, at least according to this political report, that he doesn't think that Netanyahu's going to be sticking around for long after this war. Right, but he may have said that behind closed doors, Arielle. It's a reason it's important to read the article carefully from Politico because I think it's been misread here in Israel a lot. What does the article actually say? It says that behind closed doors in meetings, the team in the White House is talking about the future of Israeli politics and the future of Benjamin Netanyahu. And that's what they should be doing. That's their job is to try to analyze what's going on here, try to see how it fits into the big picture and to be able to speak freely. In terms of what Biden actually said to Netanyahu himself, according to the article, well, all that Biden said is that Netanyahu needs to be thinking about lessons from the war for his, quote, eventual successor, eventual successor. Eventual could be five months. It could be five years. So the White House denial that Biden said this is actually of a piece with the article. But there's another bit in the article that's fascinating. If Alon Pickett is still with us, I'm interested what he has to say about this. The lead is absolutely buried here. What does it say in the political article that there's going to be a, quote, forthcoming internal Israeli assessment, M-dash, and one done by their American counterparts, right? So there's a big focus in Israel. What kind of commission is going to be established afterwards? Will it be a state commission, a government commission? What kind of influence is the government going to have over it? But all of a sudden, dropped between M-dashes in this article is a giant wild card, an investigation that's gonna be done across the ocean in the United States, but of course reported on here in Israel, over which Benjamin Netanyahu will have zero control, over which other actors in the government will have zero control, and which could, of course, would be, if what's seen as credible here in Israel, there's no reason to think it won't be, could have a huge impact on Israeli politics. That's actually a great time to bring Pankos back into this discussion because that is a very big buried lead and what should we make of that? I think they're doing it in real time. I mean, they're not gonna wait until the war is over. And this stems from two or three points. The first is the Americans themselves were somewhat surprised, at least tactically, because they bought into the Israeli flawed intelligence assessments, the broad assessments, not the tactical intelligence, that Hamas is deterred, that Hamas is a first to conflict, that Hamas is inclining toward political accommodation. They were wrong because we were wrong because we misled and misguided them. The second is they will do this because they didn't have trust in Israel's initial reply. I think they do now, but in the first 48 or even 72 hours, they were shocked militarily from the military hold. And the third, perhaps the most important thing, and this is why this is a big deal, as was said here correctly, I think, is because American interests are at stake. There's a reason why two carrier aircraft carriers strike forces are in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Gerald Ford and the Dwight Eisenhower. There's a reason why a marine, the 26th marine expeditionary force is in the region. There's a reason why the fifth lead in Bahrain is on high alert. There's a reason why Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken is coming back again to Israel tomorrow. And I have no doubt that they will look at this. Now I asked what the politics, though the White House sort of denied the report, I tend to think that these things were said. I think it's one of those, first we pop up the balloon, the trial balloon, then we can deny it because it wasn't exactly verbatim. I think it was said, and I think it was right, what was just said here, that this is their job to assess the political implications. I do take issue with the eventuality. I think they're looking at a much shorter timeframe. What exactly Biden said or did not say, I don't know, but look, Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022. You did not hear of a U.S. Secretary of State, same Anthony Blinken, by the way, who sat in a war cabinet in Kiev for six hours. He did not hear. You did not see there were sensitivities because of NATO and Russia and so on, but you did not see a three-star Marine Corps general sit with army planners in Kiev, as you did him do here, not far from here, and the IDF headquarters in the Kalyan Tel Aviv. So the Americans are very much hands on here. That's an interesting note to go on forward, and we will see how that does. Thank you very much, Alon, for breaking that down and helping us get a view behind the scenes. We are going to turn our eye now to the North, where our correspondent, Robert Swift, is standing by on the border. Robert, can you tell us what the most recent developments along the Northern Front are? Yes, the skirmishes that have been taking place and characterizing this front in the war so far, they have continued overnight with the launch of an anti-air missile from the ground by Hezbollah forces at an Israeli drone. The Israeli military has said that the drone was not impacted by the attack and that they fired upon the unit responsible for this attack. Now, separately, because Bollah have announced yet another death of one of their fighters, bringing the total number of their fighters killed so far during this war up to 50. And Israel's chief of staff had a few things to say about the confrontation that's taken place up here on the North. Let's have a listen to it now. In the North, we continue to attack his Bollah targets along the border and eliminate enemy squads that try to launch anti-tank missiles, rockets and water bombs toward Israeli territory. IDF forces also in the last hour attacked positions from which rocket launchers were fired in the direction of Mount Dorf, Mount Hermon and other directions. We attacked several squads who also fired in the last hour. Tonight, a ground-to-air missile was fired at an unmanned aerial vehicle. The vehicle was not damaged and the squad was attacked. We continue to defend with high intensity the northern border and to attack from the air and on land any attempt to fire into Israeli territory. Now, in an update to a separate incident last night, there was reports that the Lebanese army had asked for a UNIFIL, that's UN peacekeepers, asked for their assistance in locating two individuals who were missing in the area around Wazzani, which is close to the village which straddles the border, the village of Rajah. Now, at the time, I was understood that that search was called off due to darkness and due to landmines being present in the area. We've received no update from UNIFIL on what took place there, but a pro-Khuzbollah journalist has reported that the bodies of two shepherds, a 20-year-old and a 22-year-old, have been recovered from that area. And according to that journalist, they were killed by Israeli fire from across the border. We don't have information regarding to that, but we've spoken to the Israeli military and we'll update when we have a response from them. Thank you very much, Robert. We will be coming to you as those updates come out and you can give us the latest briefing from that front. Now, before we do anything else, though, we're going to discuss it more in-depth in studio with Jack Nariat, former deputy head of assessment with Israeli military intelligence. Thank you very much for being with us. And we're actually just hearing a report from the front in the north. That is your specialty of operations. What should we be making of these most recent developments? Well, first of all, Hezbollah has a huge problem. He doesn't, in fact, he has a riddle. He doesn't know how to overcome the Israeli defenses. Every single cell that's firing against an Israeli target is being targeted by Israel and killed. So it's not only 50. The 50 is the official number that Hezbollah would like to have, but it's much more than that. The most important thing is that Hezbollah is showing us the use of sophisticated weapons that we didn't see in the past, such as firing ground to air missiles, such as using attack drones on positions and, of course, firing the scores of Kornet anti-tank missiles, and mortars. And this is what, right now, all is limited in depth. We're talking about five kilometers on each side of the border. So Hezbollah has a problem. How does he? His credibility is at stake right now, because he has promised to join the effort. I mean, the United Front against Israel, it is the time. Because he said, he declared very loudly that if Israel begins its landing coalition, he would react, and he would intervene. Now we are at a junction, because tomorrow, 3 o'clock, we have a very important speech by Hassan Nasrallah. And certainly, this will be a game changer, because it's either, OK, we keep the things as they are today, or we intervene much more. And I think that we should wait and see for a very warlike declaration. Certainly, since he has put the special ring that gives you the idea that this is the time for war, not for peace. And we are actually getting in a report that's breaking right now. An 18th soldier has been killed in Gaza in operations against, that is, Lieutenant Colonel Salman Habaka. And an award has been given to his family. Unfortunately, this is the beginning. The costs will be steep, but the cost of appeasement, as we learned, are far higher. I want to discuss the southern front a little more with you, Jack, while we're still together in the studio. We've been hearing about these massive strides forward that the IDF is making. We just had a statement from the former IDF deputy chief. This is a topic we've actually discussed in studio with you multiple times. And that's destroying the tunnels, saying that there's not a chance Israel is going to send soldiers into them, because that would be a death trap, but that we don't actually need to. We can disable Hamas' tunnels without exposing our people. Well, the more you put pressure on those tunnels and on the exits and entrances of the tunnels, the more you will see the Hezbollah terrorists, Hamas terrorists getting out and trying to fight the Israeli forces. And this is what's happening. We just arrived several places, several fortifications, several outposts where Hamas was supposed to fight there. And at the end of the day, you realize something that we could not expect. They ran away. They ran away. This is not the kind of warriors that you think that they would stand till the last ammunition. This is not the case. And as you said, I mean, there is no need to go inside the tunnels. You can send robots. You can send several things. And you can just close the robots. I mean, close the tunnels from the exits and the entrances and then leave them there and just suffocate because they will be out of air very quickly and they'll have to go out. And then when they go out, we just pick them up. There's a topic that I wanted to bring up, another report that broke fairly recently in the last hour. And this is really your area of operations as the head of assessment that's targeting intelligence. The IDF is saying it's using AI now to target terrorists and identify them quickly. Well, it was a big secret in the IDF for a long time. It's not yesterday. It's not the day before. It's been quite some time that Israel is using. The Israeli military intelligence is using AI in order to locate targets and to just make a bank, a data bank of targets. Now, what is special of this AI machine is that it produces along all the time new targets according to new elements that are fed into the machine. And this is a development that nobody else has today. I want to continue on that because we have seen technological means employed in Israel's war before. There was reports in 2021 of autonomous drones being used to select targets and highlight positions of the enemy. If we have this AI, we can identify the faces. We can identify the terrorists. You have a very specific list of targets. You just let in a swarm of autonomous drones, let them do half the work for you without exposing troops. Well, you know, if we hadn't those drones that you're talking about, I think that we would have to do the job ourselves. And most of the job is done today by attack drones and by helicopters, attack helicopters, apaches that are on the ground, and of course, artillery barrage and Air Force bombings. This is what this is what it's all about. And if you see that the way Israel behaves on the ground, this is quite different than any other army in the world. This is we are advancing. And we are at the surprise of everybody. After five days, we have succeeded in putting a siege around Gaza. And we are fighting now the Battle of Gaza. This is what's happening. And if my assessment is correct, and I see that some of the terrorists just choose to run away, I think that of course we will have to pay a price. This is always there, but it's be a heavy price. But at the end of the day, we'll be advancing. And we are not very far from Al-Shifa Hospital. We are not very far from the Indonesian Hospital and the Kuwaiti Hospital. And there, if we don't do it very carefully, then this could be the spark that could start a humanitarian crisis because attacking hospitals would mean definitely that the world would look at it and say this is impossible to accept. And I want to turn back to the Northern border because we do know that tomorrow, Nasrallah is supposed to give a major public address. And this could be the determining factor of whether or not they are going to commit significantly to the war. You said the circumstances on the ground aren't good for them, but that doesn't mean they don't have options. Well, look, I mean, Hezbollah has very, from the very beginning decided to join the war effort of Hamas. Question that he was surprised by the timing. Hamas surprised Hezbollah on the 7th of October. Hezbollah was not ready for that. And I think that there was some cracks in the wall because of that. And Hezbollah has imagined yourself if Hezbollah had attacked on the same hour, the same day, we would be in a different state today. So this is one thing. But I just refer to a publication published today by an equated newspaper who's generally quite a good source. And he says that Hezbollah has sent a message to the United States that if by the end of today, by the end of today, Israel will not stop, will not accept a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, then Hezbollah finds himself free to do whatever he wants. And this means that he would call for all his terrorists to begin fighting against Israel. And I think that this is the beginning of a regional war. Because, I mean, we know that Hezbollah is being succunted by Iraqi militias in Lebanon, and Iraqi militias on the Golan. And Iraqi militias on the border with Jordan. And the US is being under attack. I mean, all the bases from Erbil in Kurdistan to the border with Jordan, Syria, and Iraq, all the bases have been attacked in the last week for more than 30 times. And the US has more than 20 soldiers injured. So it has to respond. And let us not forget that we have a new partner in the war, and this is the Yemenite Houthis. And I mean, the missiles have been till now intercepted, except for one who just fell into Taba. But this is a danger that we have to take into consideration, certainly, on the international waterways in Babylon. Absolutely. I want to bring in another angle in the international fight against Israel. And that would be what's happening in Germany. We just saw German government ban any pro-Hamas organizations, including one that was out in the streets celebrating the October 7 attacks. Well, what's the upshot of all of this? It's about time, right? Is it in and about time that Hamas is treated as a terrorist organization across Europe and that its tentacles in those countries are shut down, that we don't have some make-believe world where Hamas is either there's a political wing and a military wing and all this nonsense. Isn't it time? So obviously, it's from Israel's perspective of a great decision. Of course, the fight against terrorism isn't over, including in the West. We heard the director of the FBI say that Hamas presents the greatest risk for terror attacks in the United States since ISIS. So obviously, they're very concerned. And this is going to be a big challenge for law enforcement across the United States and Europe and really around the world. And law enforcement's already warned that Hamas may have moved operatives over the southern border into the US. Look, the issue of the southern border in the US has been a fraught issue for Americans for many reasons. And this is obviously one of them. And there are cries out from police officers and sheriffs around the country for more to be done at the border. The Biden administration wants to do more at the border, changing its positions and a long-held beliefs there, as again, as part of this package it wants, that, of course, includes the aid to Israel, won't get into all of that. But the southern border is obviously a challenge to the United States. But you're right, Ariel, including for this reason the possibility for bad actors, including terrorists, to come across. Well, thank you. And hopefully that also involves the ability to shut down their funding, which is going to help in the fight ahead. Now, we do have some more information coming out about the 18th soldier to have fallen in battle. As mentioned before, that was Lieutenant Colonel Salman Habaka, a brigade commander. But importantly, he was one of the heroes that actually fought against the terrorists at Kibbutz Bairi and helped liberate that Kibbutz near the end of the October 7th rampage. It is credited for killing dozens of terrorists in that fight. He leaves behind a wife and a child. That is all the time we have, at least for now. But we will be bringing you new updates on the war at the top of each hour here on I-24 News. So stay tuned for our 1 o'clock broadcast coming up. Until then, thank you for watching. 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured. And the war with Hamas continues. We bring you firsthand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived, and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the South and North. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on I-24 News. We're Paswa, Tel Aviv. Israel's story to the world. I-24 News channels. Welcome to this breaking edition of I-24 News, continuing our coverage of the war here in Israel. I'm Nicole Zadik live in Tel Aviv. An Israeli man was shot dead while driving near the West Bank town of Bate's Leed. Israeli Defense Forces have set up roadblocks in the area, and an active manhunt for the suspected terrorist is underway. This as the IDF is pushing forward with its ground offensive in Gaza, killing dozens of terrorists overnight. As troops breach Hamas' first line of defense and approach Gaza City, the IDF continues to target top leaders, eliminating the commander of the terror group's anti-tank missile array. Now, unfortunately, these advancements come at a heavy price, and 18 Israeli soldiers have been killed so far in battle. Meanwhile, in the North, Israel attacked an anti-tank missile launcher in Lebanon after a gunman reportedly targeted an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle near Mount Hermon. And that's where we wanna begin our coverage up in the North near Israel's border with Lebanon. That's where our correspondent, Robert Swift, is standing by. Robert, the IDF continuing to strike more anti-tank missile launch sites. I'm curious, as of today, what have you seen or what are you hearing in the area? So, so far this morning, things have been relatively quiet, but that by no means says that that will continue. As we've seen throughout these skirmishes, which have taken place essentially since the beginning of the war, there are periods of quiet, and then there are periods where things kick off quite rapidly. And one of those moments took place in the early hours of last night when a Hezbollah team attempted to down an Israeli UAV using a surface-to-air missile. Now, they were unable to hit it, but in response, the Israeli military fired at them, and it's understood that they caused casualties among the Hezbollah team. Now, this is the second time in a week that Hezbollah has made an attempt to shoot down an Israeli drone. What's interesting is that in both instances, Hezbollah has claimed that it has destroyed the vehicle although the IDF have claimed on both occasions that this is not the case. The fact that they are now aiming at UAVs is also interesting in itself. As you mentioned, anti-tank teams have been one of the main weapons that Hezbollah been using to attack Israeli targets since the start of the war. But now things have seemed to, not so much to escalate, but to evolve slightly as Hezbollah have switched from purely using anti-tank teams to using the same weapon, but this time backed up with mortar fire. We saw this in an attack yesterday on the community of Shatula and they are also evolving in their tactics by aiming at the UAVs. Now, the drones that the Israeli military has in the air above the border, these are a constant presence, providing both surveillance and a platform to fire from. So they are a serious threat to the Hezbollah teams that are operating on the southern border, attempting, sorry, on the northern border, attempting to hit Israeli targets. So it's likely that this is the reason that Hezbollah has now switched to targeting these drones themselves. Well, and as Hezbollah, you said, is almost switching tactics, possibly. This also comes as we're expected to hear from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrullah tomorrow. It'll be his first public statement since the war began. And do we have anything that we expect him to say or how this could just indicate any escalations in the region? Yeah, indeed. Everybody's kind of waited with bated breath to see what he will have to say. You can probably expect big rhetoric, him saying that Israel better watch out, that kind of thing. But at the end of the day, the Israeli military, the Israeli, the IDF's intelligence, they're probably just as likely, if not more so, to pay attention to what's happening on the ground. And Israel can say one thing and he can do something else. And so the actions of Hezbollah teams on the ground, whether they then escalate after he makes a speech, that may for the Israeli military and the intelligence teams be more significant. Correspondent Robert Swift up near that border with Lebanon. Thanks for giving us this up-to-date coverage. I want to bring in my guests in studio right now. I'm joined by Brigadier General and Reserves Amir Avivi, as well as our Middle East correspondent, Ariel Osron. Thank you both so much for being here. As we were coming on the air within the past several hours, there's been a suspected terror attack in the West Bank city, a drive-by shooting. As far as the latest information that we have on that, Ariel, what can you tell us? Right, Nikolso. Not much to add to what your initial reporting, shooting attack in the northern part of the West Bank, a man in his 30s, was shot while he was driving his car next to the village of Betlid that's near Tulkarem area. This caused his car to overturn, to flip, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. And as you mentioned, the army set up roadblocks in the area, and a manhunt is underway to try and find the attacker or attackers, shooters who carried out this attack. Amir, I'm curious, because since the start of this war, 27 days ago, we've been hearing that there could be some increased tension, specifically when it comes to the West Bank settlements, Israeli settlers, these clashes that we've seen for months now. Is this a sign that we could continue to see some of these tensions truly boiling over? Well, I think that we are with many forces now in Judea and Samaria, and they are very proactive. We are on the offense all the time. We apprehended more than 1,000 terrorists, 700 of them, at least, Hamas. So we are trying to suppress terror. We are making sure that the terrorists are on the run and not on the offensive. This is why, all this time, you didn't see too much terror emanating from this region. And the IDF will continue operating like that and doing their job and also securing the Jewish towns in the region. As they are continuing to foil some of those plans, we also know last night, the police and Shin Bet Security forces foiled a terror attack in East Jerusalem. So we are continuing to see some of these plans, but it seems the IDF, Shin Bet Forces, they're tackling it as best as they can. Definitely. I mean, our whole strategy at the moment is being on the defense in the North, in Judea and Samaria, inside Israel, while being on the offense in Gaza. But being on the defense doesn't mean not being proactive. We're seeing the Northern Command attacking constantly positions of Hezbollah. Each time they try to push an attack on Israel, anti-tank missiles, or mortars, immediately, the Northern Command reacts and attacks these terror cells. We have more than 50 Hezbollah terrorists that have been killed. The big question is, what will be the decisions of Hezbollah and Iran in the coming days as the ground incursion increases and we're starting to go into the Gaza city? And this is a very defining moment in this war, because this is the moment that probably we'll see the decision. Are they in or out? Are they going to continue just exchanging fire along the border as something that we can deal with, or we are in a full-scale war? We will know probably in the coming days. And so you expect to learn a lot more from Hassan Nasrullah's speech? That's a very defining moment, definitely. And it also comes as the head of the IRGC's coups force is in Lebanon visiting its second visit since the war began. And in general, we're seeing the Iranians playing very close to the ground in Lebanon, everything that's going on there, trying to keep close tabs on that. Also, on the first days of the war, Iran's foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdullah Yan, also visited Beirut. And so while the threshold still remains definitely active, there's a war in the northern border. The threshold is at a low threshold, much lower compared to the southern border with Gaza or with the West Bank. But Iran does have alternatives to Hezbollah and engaging Israel, as we've seen, they've already activated the Houthis, which have targeted Israel multiple times. And so while it's not certain that we'll hear an announcement by Nasrullah that Hezbollah is going all in, we should definitely get an indication as to the immediate steps of Hezbollah after Friday. And we continue to see, just as you said, those slight indications that this could escalate at any moment. I'm curious, when we're putting our attention on the West Bank, how does the Palestinian Authority play into all of this? What's been their main stance since really the attack on October 7th and going forward also? And on the ground, nothing has changed in terms of the PA. The security coordination with Israel continues. Activity, Israel is operating on a nightly basis, every night arresting dozens of terror suspects. And this comes obviously, this benefits the PA that Israel is arresting these terror suspects. Obviously in terms of internal support, their coordination with Israel is never good. But in terms of public opinion, I think with the focus shifted on Gaza, this allows them some kind of quiet to get the job done and to continue their coordination with Israel that we've seen has not stopped for one day since the war began. It's important to say that PA hasn't condemned the murderous attack of Hamas. And not only that, they are going to pay every single murderer that slaughter their people, him and their families. The PA is going to pay the money. How so? This is what they do. They pay terrorists. They pay billions. But not from Gaza. They don't pay. From Gaza, yes, they do. They pay both Gazans and Judea and Samaria. All the terrorists that attack Jews anywhere are getting paid by the PA. And this is what's going to happen. It's terrible. And this is one of the reasons why the government of Israel doesn't want to transfer money to the PA. The PA has a law that for killing Jews, you get paid. They have under budget, designated budget, for paying people who kill Jews. And I think it's time for us to really wake up, not only talking about Hamas, but understanding also who the PA is. Now, of course, they have an interest. Hamas, they are their enemies. They are fighting each other. They have an interest to see Hamas being hurt and so on. But they are inciting in high schools. They are teaching hate. And this is the reality. We have to wake up to understand what we are dealing with. I agree regarding the incitement. And obviously, it's not a secret that they pay families of terrorists. My understanding is that this doesn't include terrorists coming out from Gaza. And if it had, then it's not the situation currently, because they have no connection to what's going on in the Gaza Strip. And also regarding the transfer of money, Israel, for years under the current government allowed the entry of millions of dollars to support the Hamas rule in Gaza, whereas it acted actively to weaken the PA in the West Bank. Meanwhile, we continue to just learn more coming out of this October 7 massacre and what truly happened on the ground. In fact, the IDF just released an intercepted phone call from some of these members of Hamas, telling them what to do with these severed heads as they were attacking these Kubut's communities in the South. Listen to what the IDF just released. This just giving a slight indication as to just what truly, truly happened there. As 27 days later, we continue to find out just about the atrocities that really happened on October 7, and why this war continues, been fighting continues in the Gaza Strip. We want to cross live now to our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler, who is in Israel's South near the Gaza border. Pierre, troops continue to go deeper and deeper into the Gaza Strip, approaching Gaza City, striking air, land, and sea. What are you hearing near the border? Well, what we hear is the pounding, the unrelentless pounding of targets, terror targets, inside the Gaza Strip, especially here in the northern tip of the Gaza Strip, what we can see from here. Now, the pounding by the artillery, the Navy, and the Israeli Air Force is not only secluded to here. It's all over the Gaza Strip, also in Hanyunas. We've heard that there were targets annihilated. Now, the Army is very laconic about the progression of the armed forces on the ground. In day six, they're only saying that they're progressing according to plan. What we know from different sources is that over 12,000 targets were eliminated since the start of the war that Hamas waged on Israel on October 7. What we also know, and that's also emphasized by the Army, is that over 1,200 targets have been eliminated in real time. That means, for instance, that there is a ground force which is progressing in a difficult terrain. The countryside or it could be urban terrain. And suddenly they spot a nest of snipers or a tunnel shaft in which probably terrorists are waiting to ambush them. All the combined branches of the Israeli Army are coordinated together. And the Navy, all the artillery, all the tanks, all the Air Force are all coordinated with the ground forces in order to give them support. And this is what's going on. Now, there have been very ferocious battles during the night. We've heard now the IDF has authorized for publication the death of Lieutenant Colonel from an armored brigade that is operating inside the Gaza Strip. He is the highest-ranked officer to have been killed. He is the 18th soldier since the start of the ground invasion on last Friday who was killed. He belongs to the Druze community. He's a father with a two-year-old child. And what we understand from the death of those 18 soldiers is that they are not only conscripted soldiers that are fighting their career officers as well, and they are reservists that are operating together shoulder to shoulder in order to annihilate the Hamas trade. Now, we've heard that the IDF is at the gates of Gaza City and trying to section Gaza City into different parts in order to impose control and try to work in a very measured and controlled way into those quarter of Gaza City. Our correspondent, Pierre Colotianler, reporting from Israel's southern border with Gaza. Thanks for bringing us an update on all the latest happening on the ground. Now, as the fighting does continue in Gaza, it's important to remember 242 people. That is the latest number from the IDF. 242 remain captive, held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Now, I'm joined now by Shiri Grossbar, her friend, Sasha Trubanov, was kidnapped by Hamas along with his mother, Elena, and grandmother, Arena. And also his girlfriend, Sapir. Also, Gopin Sapir, four people, four of your close friends also taken in one morning, October 7th. You're grappling with this horrible tragedy that so many people around the nation right now here in Israel are still grappling with 27 days later. Yes, the thing about this particular case is that no one's left from this family. The father was murdered. They found his body about 10 days after this started, right at the outskirts of Gaza. And the rest of the family have been kidnapped. So there's just no family left to speak out for them. So I'm not that close of a friend of the family, but something about this case, it dawned on me in a way that I couldn't stay indifferent. We know for a fact that mother, Elena, she's still alive because we saw her in the video that Hamas released three days ago. Elena was sitting on the right side wearing a blue flower dress. None of the women were wearing their own clothes. They were all kidnapped in their pajamas. That's Elena. We know that her mother, grandmother, Arena, was also taken with them. Arena is 73. As far as we know, she's the only doctor there. She's a children's doctor. And if they are kept together with the kids, we're sure that she's taking care of them. Sasha and his girlfriends were not staying with the parents that day. They stayed in a different house. They were taken from there. We have confirmation that's appeal. She's the girlfriend. She was seen on a motorcycle with two terrorists taking her. Yes, a very, very tragic story. I would also like to say that we keep getting this. They have no family. They don't have a family. But they lived in kibbutz. And kibbutz is one big family. But this particular kibbutz out of 400 people, 74 were abducted. And more than 25 were killed. So we're talking about a kibbutz that lost a quarter of their people. It was Neroz, right? This is Neroz. Neroz suffered, yes, suffered a massive attack. One morning, a quarter of their family, of the kibbutz family, all uprooted, uplifted. I have to imagine, when you heard this story and you're saying they have no family to speak out for them, how is this responsibility felt for you to be the voice for them? OK, so I'll say something about myself. I'm a proud third generation to Holocaust survivors, soul survivors from their families. And these stories that I grew up on, it really reminded me of these stories. Like, if this was 90 years ago, we might have never heard about this family, but it isn't. It's 2023. This is Israel. This is a civilized democracy. And no other country in the world would have that, 240 of our civilians, a nine-month-old baby, an 87-year-old grandmother who is kidnapped from her wheelchair. She's demented no other country in the world would have that. That's impossible. And by continuing to speak out for them, continuing to try and put pressure to get them home, what else are you doing, advocating, and what do you want to be seen done? I think that as the days go by, like, who can imagine when I say a nine-month-old baby, he's going to be 10 months in a very short while. And I think in a lot of people in the world, the focus kind of shifted towards what's happening in Gaza right now. And we want to keep this focus alive. These are people. These are our families. These are our friends. They are kept there. We don't know about their conditioning. Red Cross has not been allowed to visit with them. Honestly, we know Lena's alive. Again, we know that for three days ago. When you saw that video, likely propaganda, I want to remind our viewers, we're not showing that video because we don't know exactly the circumstances that led to that. But after seeing that, what was your reaction? It's a very complex feeling, OK? Because, yes, we were very happy to see that she's alive. But you're sitting with 150 other families. And it's amazing because everyone, they came to support us. They gave us that hug, that they're happy. But my heart goes out to them. They all want to know that their loved ones are OK, that they're alive, that they're taken care of. There's a boy there who has asthma. And he does not have his inhaler with him. So very complex feeling. Yes, we were happy that we know that Lena's alive. We want to know about the rest of the families. Yes, just like a sign of life for now, just to know that they're OK. That's what we need. And we need to bring them home. That's not, et cetera. Like, every day that goes by, I feel like, wow, it's been 27 days. How could that be? Did you think it would get to this point? No. Well, who would have think that someone would even do such a thing, such an atrocity? But no, we did not think that it would be 27 days. It's Friday tomorrow. Again, an empty Shabbat dinner, and a lot of families across Israel. No, we did not think that it's going to take too long, that long. Meanwhile, as the days go on, the days continue. Just tomorrow, actually, we are expecting to see Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrive here in Israel. We're continuing to see some international pressure. Do you think the international pressure has been enough, or is it really on the Israeli government to be doing more? Look, I'm not a politician. I think it's up to everyone of us to do more. You have a child, you have a mother, you have a father, you have a sister. You need to do something. Yes, I think the world could do more right now for us. What if this was your father, mother, children? Anyone who can help? I mean, America has been very supportive. I don't know about the rest of the world, but again, anyone who's human should stand up for them. We continue to see here in Israel. We walk down the streets. You see the posters. You see the faces of the 242 that remain kidnapped, remain hostage. Seeing the Israeli society come together right now, is some sort of a bright light. That is true. That is true. I want to send a message to them. I don't know if maybe the television is in the background. Maybe they can hear us. Please, please stay strong. Stay healthy. Please know that we are doing everything. Your family is, everyone is doing everything in their power to bring you home. Just stay safe. Stay healthy. Sherri Rosevard, they're so lucky to have you also as a voice for them right now. And thank you for sharing their stories as we continue to remember and push to return the 242 hostages as quickly as possible. Amen. Amir Avivia, I'm curious. When it comes to the hostage situation, we know that troops are in Gaza. They're going in deep. This is also part of what the IDF says is their plan. Not only eliminating Hamas, but they say, well, they are in there. We've already seen them rescue one Israeli soldier, one captain. I see from the very beginning that there is a complete connection between the ground incursion and trying to rescue our hostages. I mean, it's not a classic hostage situation where you take somebody to Beirut or to Damascus or Cairo far away from the zone of war. They are inside Gaza. And eventually, we're going to take all of Gaza because you cannot destroy Hamas. And the goals of the government are really clear. We need to completely destroy Hamas in Palestinian Islamic jihad, dismantle all of the terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Militarily speaking, there is only one way to do it. You need to conquer the whole Gaza Strip. And while we are doing that, we need to reach the places where our hostages are and liberate them. And now I can tell you, as somebody who is really connected to what's going on in the ground, these two missions are connected. And even the way we operate inside, it takes in account also the hostages and they need to rescue them. And Israel will do everything, everything within our hands to save them. I'm curious. The former IDF chief of staff said that as troops are continuing to go in, but they by no means should actually go into the underground tunnels because they would be, in his words, really a death trap for our soldiers. But how does that complicate the hostage situation where it's believed that many of these hostages are being held in those underground tunnels? So I don't want to get too much into tactics. But I will say this, once we really control the area, even if they hold hostages underground, then you will talk to the terrorists while surrounding this place and negotiating. They won't have anywhere to go. If they want to stay alive, they need to give us the hostages. Hamas is going to be destroyed. We are going to kill all of them. The only ones who will be spared will be the ones who will give us the hostages. Those are the only ones who will be willing to spare. And they need to know that. And the more we go in, we'll get more intelligence. We'll understand better what's going on. We'll know where they are. And every single Israeli soldier is willing to risk his life to save our citizens. We are going to do everything within our hands to save our soldiers and citizens. Which we've already seen with the death of 18 soldiers so far since this battle has started. Ariel, when we're still looking at the hostage situation, we continue to hear negotiations, talks abroad, Qatar, United States really instigating these talks. But as Israel continues to operate in the Gaza Strip, how does it put a backburner on any of those negotiations? I think if we're looking at the strategy that the Israeli government has adopted since the October 7th massacre and the kidnapping of the Israelis, it's engaged in two axes. One, it's fighting as if there are no hostages. And on the other hand, they're working to release the hostages as if there is no war. What does that mean? It means that the ground offensive is advancing. The aerial bombardments are very significant. Troops are moving in. And there is also criticism that this could in some way put in jeopardy the well-being of the hostages. On the other hand, we see Israel engaged in mediation, mainly via the US, but the key mediator here is Qatar. Qatar is a country that Israel has a very complex relationship with, a very complex history. But given their key positioning, Israel does appear to be doing whatever it can in relations to Qatar to try and facilitate some form of diplomatic avenue for the release of the hostages. I think the question remains whether Qatar is acting in good faith. I from here from the studio cannot say that for certain, but it does explain why I think Hamas is a, you know, it threatened to do a lot of things to the hostages and to publish a lot of things, but we're not seeing that right now. And I think that is a sign of encouragement that indicates that while there is no bottom line yet to the mediation, it's still ongoing and there's still a positive momentum, given that there is still a lot of diplomatic travel along the area, executive jets making the route from Tel Aviv, Qatar, also Amman is engaged, there are a lot of actors in play here and the diplomatic avenue continues to be alive. Amir. Qatar is Hamas, okay? And I think it's time the world realizes that and we need to start sanctioning them and pressuring them. And there are the funders, not only them, Iran also, but they fund Hamas. And I think that if the world really, really pressures Qatar and understand that they are in jeopardy, this is the only chance they might be able to pressure Hamas enough to release the hostages. But the world is not pressuring Qatar enough. They need to sanction them, they need to threaten them militarily. We need to do everything because they are hiding behind, you know, buying football teams and you know, masquerading us as a state that is like engaging with the West and they're terrible, they're vicious, they're evil. And I think we need to really campaign against them and pressure them enough. So they say to Hamas, listen, if you don't give the hostages, we're not going to fund you anymore, we're not going to help you. This is the only way. That is not what we seem to be seeing so far and all of the West continues to be working with them. Israel needs to really convince the world that that's the way to go. Now, remember, many of these hostages are American, are French, are not only Israeli, this should be in the interest of the world. Well, meanwhile, as we're continuing to talk about what's happening here on the ground, it's important to also speak to our current and former leaders about the situation that's happening right now. In fact, I'm joined by former Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, who is in Israel's North right now. Thank you so much for joining us from the Northern border. Naftali, when we're talking about what's happening on the ground, let's begin where you are in the North as we continue to see these tit for tat battles between really Hezbollah, the IDF, IDF striking back. But should Israel be initiating a bigger response to what's happening in the North? I don't wanna give advice to the government. It's, regardless of my opinions, it's the Israeli government and I stand behind its actions. I think Hezbollah should take into account that the degree of destruction that they will bring upon Lebanon, if they start up with us, it will be immense. And Nasrallah previously said about the Second Lebanon War, which I participated in, that had he known of the Israeli reaction, he would not have initiated it. So I suggest he recall his own statement. The North's dozens of settlements and towns have been evacuated. All of those residents, they're going to need to come back at some point. They're going to want to feel safe knowing that another attack like October 7th won't happen on the Northern border again. So Hezbollah is sitting on that border right now. Should Israel be doing more to make sure that they're past that border and protecting the citizens up there? Well, I think a lot depends on seeing the process actually in the South all the way through. The government has set an objective of eradicating Hamas. We need to do that. We need to, the government and Israel to deliver on that very solid promise. I think that will reflect not only to the communities around Gaza and in the Negev, but also to the communities here. And in fact, it'll resonate and it's being watched by all of the region. So Israel has to deliver on the very clear promises it's made. You mentioned Israel's promise to eradicate Hamas. Let's talk about exactly what that means. The day after this war in Gaza, how do you expect it to look? Who's going to control the Palestinian authority as we've heard, international forces? What's going to happen on the ground? First and foremost, before we talk about who replaces them, all Hamasnik terrorists are either dead or expelled to foreign countries. That's what it means. Because if you still have Hamasniks, then you've not eradicated Hamas. As for who will come instead, as long as we understand the principle guiding us that we're not willing to have an armed Gaza anymore, there's several options and all of them are reasonable. I think after you clean it up from security problems and from terror, you can hold elections. There's other options you can affect there. However, we've seen in the past, elections, they elected Hamas. So how can we not expect that something like this won't happen again? Because Hamas will be gone. But your point is a valid one. As I said, there's a few transit solutions for that. But right now, the main goal is to topple this Nazi-like regime. And as I said, a few options for the day after. Well, meanwhile, when we're talking about just what's happening in the Israeli cabinet right now, we're seeing a lot of division specifically regarding some tax money. Should it be going to the Palestinian Authority and the West Bank as we're continuing to try and target some of these terror cells in the West Bank? Obviously, Finance Minister Smotris says that that should not go. However, Defense Minister says also that money should be going to the Palestinian Authority as former Prime Minister. What's your take on this? Well, I don't think that we should be showing any divisions within Israel, certainly not within the government at a time of war. That's why I back the government and I back, of course, the security forces. We need to wake up and see that we're in a new environment, a new world that we can't ignore any more harsh realities. The harsh reality is that the Palestinian Authority sends every month pay for slave money, which is effectively rewarding terrorists who murdered Israelis. And that in itself is a major incentive. I think it's vital that Israel insists that there's no more pay to slave money and only then can continue discussing the bigger question. And when we speak about what's happening within the Israeli government right now, obviously there's going to be a lot of questions after this is over about how this happened in the first place, where the blame is around the current government, but also any of the past governments. I mean, who takes responsibility for how this was allowed to happen this October 7th massacre in the first place? You're absolutely right that there's huge questions that will have to be dealt with when the battle is over and that's when we'll deal with it. Well, we'll continue to be asking these questions, but former Prime Minister Naphtali Bennett, thank you so much for your time and continuing to tell us the latest in hearing your perspective. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now I wanna come back to my guests in studio. I'm still joined by Amir Avivi as well as Ariel Osran Amir after we were just speaking to the former Prime Minister Naphtali Bennett. He has been going very vocal about what's happening here in Israel. Continue to speak out. I'm curious because what he said about the Palestinian Authority comes back to what you were saying earlier. Yeah, I wanna talk about the day after because I want to give a more accurate answer. Try to give a more accurate answer. When you talk about the reality the day after, you need to answer, the first question is how do we ensure that there will never ever be a buildup of terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip? Then if you know how to answer that, then you can ask who will run civil life in Gaza. It's two different questions. From a military point of view, the only way to ensure, after we dismantle completely all the terror infrastructure in Gaza and it will take months and maybe years, the only way to ensure it will never come back is controlling the border with Egypt, not enabling the connection between Gaza and Egypt because all the weapons, all the know-how, all the money, all the terrorists are coming from Egypt. The other thing is full freedom of operation for the IDF just as we have in Judea and Samaria, meaning Janine or Gaza is the same. If we need to go in and apprehend the terrorists, we should be able to do that. Once you have that, then we can talk about who will manage everyday life in Gaza. I can tell you who will not, the Palestinian Authority, it's not an option because an entity that deals with incitement, that builds a generation of terrorists, that pays terrorists, cannot go back to the Gaza Strip, that will be suicide for us. And I'll tell you something, I'm pretty sure it won't happen and the day will decide seriously that they're not going back to Gaza, that will be the day that we'll have to ask ourselves if we're not willing to have them in Gaza, why are we willing to have them in Judea and Samaria? That was going to be my next follow-up as we continue to see what's happening. It's not just what's happening in Gaza, it's also what's happening in the West Bank and all of our borders, really it's what we are keeping an eye on as we continue to see what happens, not just in Israel from the South, but also on the North with the threat of Hezbollah. Now the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Kudz Force Esmail Kani, is visiting Lebanon to coordinate with Hezbollah concerning the conflict with Israel on Wednesday. Lebanese media reports, now it comes amid continued border clashes between IDF and Hezbollah forces. And the question whether the Iranian bank terror group will escalate its conflict with Israel or Middle East correspondent Ariel Osron has more. For 27 days now, the main focus of the IDF has been the threat from Gaza. But Israel's Northern Frontier against Hezbollah continues to occupy IDF forces with daily exchanges of fire. In the North, we continue to attack Hezbollah targets along the border and eliminate enemy squads that try launch anti-tank missiles, rockets and water bombs toward Israeli territory. IDF forces also in the last hour attack positions from which rocket launchers were fired in the direction of Mount Dorf, Mount Hermon and other directions. Following the IDF strike, Hezbollah announced the death of another fighter among its ranks, the 50th since the beginning of the war. The real number is likely higher. Most of Hezbollah's casualties are the result of airstrikes on its anti-tank units which have been attacking IDF outposts along the Israel-Lebanon border. Some of them eliminated before they could fire their missiles, although that's not how Hezbollah sees it. We have seen over three weeks of Israeli attacks and strikes carried out by the resistance against Israeli military outposts. The Israeli enemy hasn't managed to mark a single achievement, despite all of its advanced technology, attack drones, artillery and daily airstrikes on our hills and villages. None of this has brought a single achievement. Ahead of a much-anticipated speech on Friday by Hezbollah leader Hassan Asrallah, his first since the start of the war, Iran's IRGC Quds Force commander Ismail Kani is visiting Lebanon. This is Kani's second visit to Lebanon since October 7 to coordinate with Hezbollah concerning the conflict with Israel. Masrallah's speech should also shed light whether Hezbollah will raise the threshold of the border clashes to a full-scale war or not. The threat of Hezbollah, will they get more involved in this war with Israel continues to be one of the major questions 27 days into the war. We have yet to see some of this large escalations on the northern border. But Ariel, as you were just saying in your report, we're saying these leaders in Lebanon meet for continuing to see some of this action. But what remains to be happening, we might find out more, I guess, from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah when he speaks tomorrow. Right, so before we talk about Hezbollah, I just wanna refer to some of the things that Foreign Prime Minister Bennett said. I think the choice between Hamas or the PA, it's between terrorists and terror funders, I don't know. I think it's pretty clear which is the lesser evil of those two. And if we're looking at one of the goals that he outlined of the day after, after killing every member of Hamas, will be either killed or expelled abroad. So Israel's tried that before, following the Gilad Shalit deal in 2011. It saw the release of Saleh el-Rouri. He's the number two in Hamas. He's been orchestrating all the terror activity originating from the West Bank. He's been doing that from Lebanon. So he was released from prison and he was exiled. Ismail Aniyah, the leader of Hamas, was exiled in that deal that didn't stop him from arranging terror activity against Israel. Same thing with Khaled Mashal, the former leader of Hamas. He's also exiled. It doesn't stop any of them from orchestrating what Hamas and Gaza does. Albeit, right now, the situation on the ground is managed almost entirely by Hamas and Gaza. Yihya Senwal, the leader of Hamas and Gaza, and Muhammed Def, the leader of the commander of the military wing, the Al-Qasam brigades. But these diplomatic officials, the diplomatic leaders, they're meeting, they're the ones who are engaged with Qatar, with Turkey, with Egypt, with Jordan. And these are key figures that are still running the show from exile. I'm not sure that just sending them away is the proper solution that will ensure Israel's security regarding the fate of Hamas leaders moving forward. As for the relations between Iran and Hezbollah, as we mentioned, we see that Iran is keeping a close eye on everything that's happening. Nasrallah for years has been labeled as an element that has been more moderate than the Iranians, and it's the Iranians who have been pushing Hezbollah to carry out attacks against Israel, because we have to remember, while this is all orchestrated by Iran, they don't want Persians to get killed, that's for the Arabs to do. So they're gonna activate the Arabs in Gaza, the Arabs in Lebanon, the Arabs in Yemen to die fighting Israel. They don't wanna get their hands dirty, so the question will be, how exactly are they gonna be using their different pieces? Lebanon, the Houthis, Hamas, so far, we see definitely Hamas engaged all in. Houthis joining in, Hezbollah maintaining a low threshold. Obviously, that could all change in a moment's notice. I'm curious about what you said about the idea of exiling some of these Hamas terrorists, because as the IDF says, their continued goal is to completely eliminate, destroy Hamas. If they're just working on what's happening on the ground, what's to say that, with these leaders abroad, we can't see. That's what I'm going to do exactly, what we did with the Nazis. We're going to hand them down, all of them, everywhere. Anywhere in the world, even if it takes a decade, we're going to kill them all. So none of them, none of them will survive, and we really treat them the way we did with the Nazis. So you're saying this is going to go abroad, this is going to go to Qatar, so. We're going to kill them. So why is the Ankhiruli still alive from 2011? Why is Ismaila still alive? Listen, what I'm talking about now, I'm not talking about what we did in the period, previously we didn't conquer Gaza also. Now, from now, after three weeks ago, after they butchered our people, they are going to be dead, all of them. None of them will survive, none of them. We're going to hand hold them down. And this needs to be clear. There is not going to be any exile, and people are not going to live. The only ones that would survive will be the ones who give us the hostages. That's it. The only ones that will get a chance to live will be the ones that return our people back. And that continues to be one of the most difficult aspects, but one of the another difficult aspect when we're looking into this, because you say if we're going to completely eliminate Hamas, whether that be on Israel's server or around the world as well, what we've seen time and time again is that other terror groups can continue to pop up. So this also just leads into the bigger question of Israel's existence in general. As we see with Hezbollah, as we've seen with Hamas, as we've seen with the Palestinian Islamic jihad. So if Hamas is gone, who's to say, and how does Israel make sure that another terror organization doesn't take its place? So the answer is really simple. You need to set the terms which I said before, which enable the IDF full freedom of operation to foil the buildup of terror infrastructure all the time everywhere. We have for a long time set the idea of we can live with terror armies, but we'll try to have deterrence. And if we don't have deterrence, we'll have an alert maybe for a few days. This hasn't worked. This hasn't worked. The only way to survive, to live, to ensure the security of our people is not deterrence and it's not alert. It's simply not having these threats. It's eliminating them. For this, you need full freedom of operation for the IDF to secure the borders of Israel, inside Israel, outside Israel. And I think we have a huge opportunity because we see the West waking up. I think that when they saw what happened to us, many people felt as if it's happened to them. They understand what's coming. They need a decisive win for Israel. And I think that the bigger the win will be, the bigger the chances are that we'll have a coalition that will be willing to deal with Iran. Because at the end of the day, as my dear colleague said here, we need to go to the head of the snake and destroy them. We are dealing with the, you know, we are playing Iran's game. They want us to deal with the militias, with the proxies. We need to go to the head of the snake and destroy them. And I think the right way to do it is a coalition. And I think the reason, understanding today that this is needed, we even heard President Macron when he came to Israel saying, we need a coalition. The West will be willing to build a coalition when they will see a decisive win. They want to see that Israel is strong enough to completely destroy the enemies. This will empower the whole Western world to really take on this evil axis. The thing is, the closer Hamas gets to its elimination, then Iran will amplify its other proxies to attack Israel stronger. And that will pose another threat. Now, I agree with everything that Amir just said. I just think that that described the situation where Israel operates in a vacuum. And unfortunately, at least diplomatically, that's not the situation. That's not the case. And I don't know. It's very hard to imagine the Gaza Strip without Hamas. They voted for them, but not just the Gaza Strip. The West Bank, the reason there hasn't been elections is because not only Israel identifies that if there were elections tomorrow, Hamas would win. But that's also the understanding in Jordan, in Egypt, the United States, all those have been working to thwart elections in the Palestinian Authority. And so this creates, it amplifies the understanding that Hamas is more than a terror organization. Hamas is more than an idea. It's a social movement that is deeply rooted in Palestinian society, whether it's in the West Bank or in Gaza. And just toppling them, eradicating them militarily, even killing every one of its fighters, that is not going to bring the solution that Amir described and that many Israelis who have left the border communities saying that when we return, we're returning to homes that don't have bomb shelters. We are not going to live there with the threat just on the other side of the fence. And we don't even need a fence. When we finish with Gaza, you won't even need this fence. This is what we have to be. So I think militarily that's an option. But diplomatically, I don't think that's an option because that would mean that Gaza is a complete part of Israel. And I don't think Israel wants us. I don't think the international community will allow that. And what remains to be interesting to see as this war progresses is what two countries do. A, whether Qatar shows its true light and if it completely, formally, publicly aligns itself with Hamas, or if it will receive some sort of soul searching and do the right thing, the humanitarian thing that they're calling for. The second, Saudi Arabia. What role do they take? They wanted to become the new custodians of the Palestinian people. This is their chance. This is their opportunity. They're already engaged militarily on the side of Israel, downing five Houthi missiles that were launched to Israel that went over their territory. And I think the Axis Washington Riyadh that has been engaged in discussions for many months, leading up to the October 7 massacre. And we've been reporting on that extensively. I do not think that line of communication is dead. And I think what will increase the chances of what Amir described to happen that will be a tight-knit cooperation between Washington and Riyadh regarding this conflict. The day after the war continues to be one of the many questions. But we can also just focus on truly what is happening right now as the war continues and continues to rage on. In fact, our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler still in the south near the Gaza border as that war does rage on. Pierre, what can you tell us about the latest that's happening near the Gaza border right now? Well, I'm going to show you with Igor Balizelenko, our cameraman, what we can see in this very narrow sector of the Gaza Strip, which is about 40 kilometers long by bird eye view. You can see here the vicinity of Bet Hanun, which is just north of the Jebalia refugee camp. You have plumes of smoke billowing from some targets. And it's probably something which was provoked by an aircraft because there's a lot of smoke emanating from that target. Now, we know that in the past 27 days since the start of the war waged by Hamas on Israel, there's been 12,000 such targets that were annihilated. And at the same time, in real time, over 1,200 targets. In real times, means that since the start of the ground invasion on last Friday, ground forces, in order to secure some support from the combined branch of the IDF, needs intelligence. That intelligence is provided by many ways, including the internet, including listening to the military radio of Hamas. And as soon as there is some data provided by the intelligence, the ground forces have a more precise idea of where the next target will be. But at the same time, if the ground forces encounter a tunnel shaft, for instance, in which some Hamas terrorists will be barricading themselves and waiting to ambush them, then that data is immediately transferred to the air force, to the navy, to the artillery, to the armored brigades operating inside the Gaza Strip in order to neutralize that threat. And that works on real time, which means its instance. And that combined armed effort by the IDF is very much emphasized by the IDF spokesperson unit. In other words, they're trying to show to the Israeli public, first of all, that this war is very controlled, measured, step by step, precise. And that's also a message to the international community that the Israeli army is not blindly targeting just buildings. They know exactly what those buildings are hiding, or if there is an underground or a network of underground tunnels beneath those buildings. And this is what's going on now at the same time. The soldiers are not immune to threats. And 18 soldiers have already been killed since Friday, 334 since the beginning of the hostilities on October 7. One of them is a reserve officer. Another one is a lieutenant colonel. That's the higher strength among the victim in the IDF. And the war is going on, progressing according to plan according to the IDF. The war certainly does continue, as we can see. With those images behind you there, our correspondent Pierre Kloschen there reporting from Israel's southern border. Thank you so much for your coverage. Now, as we are in this 26th day of the war here, or 27th day of the war here, the days keep taking the IDF troops continue to go deeper in all the while. 242 hostages remain in the hands of Hamas terrorists as all of this action on the ground does continue to progress. But here at I-24 News, we continue to break down all of the latest developments. I want to thank my guests in studio, Brigadier General Nozev, Amir Avivi, along with our Middle East correspondent, Aril Osran. Thank you both for your continued analysis of the latest developments, not only here in Israel, but how it impacts the entire surrounding Middle East as we continue to look at all of the latest developments of the ongoing war here in Israel. We'll continue to break it all down and give you a new perspective as to what's happening and why it's happening. We're going out for a quick break here on I-24 News. But stay with us. We'll be back. 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured. And the war with Hamas continues. We bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived, and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the South and North. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on I-24 News. Officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. More than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us, we don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly, were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. The phrase is, what do you know from where it comes from? Look here, and the package for when. And loads that you already know where they're going. On International Loans, Alteez, your people in the R&D, access our website, load.altiz.com.b, or select loads, and type the number you want to place the load on. Also, they receive double the balance in 8 dollars or more. Alteez, the global network of the Dominicans. Back to this breaking edition of I-24 News, continuing our coverage of the war here in Israel. I'm Nicole Zadik live in Tel Aviv. Israeli man was shot dead while driving near the West Bank town of Beit Leid. Israeli Defense Forces have set up roadblocks in the area, and an active manhunt for the suspected terrorist is underway. Now, this is the IDF is pushing forward with its ground offensive in Gaza, killing dozens of terrorists overnight, as troops breach Maas's first line of defense and approach Gaza City. The IDF continues to target top leaders, eliminating the commander of the terror groups, anti-tank missile array. Unfortunately, these advancements come at a heavy price, and 18 Israeli soldiers have been killed in battle so far. Meanwhile, in the North Israel attacked an anti-tank missile launcher in Lebanon after a gunman reportedly targeted an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle near Mount Haramon. Tensions continuing to escalate in the northern region, and that's where we find our correspondent Robert Swift standing by in Israel's north near the border with Lebanon. Robert, a relatively quiet day so far, but always the feeling that that could change at any minute, as we've seen for the past 27 days now. What's the latest you can tell us from the ground? That's right. So, in the last hour, it's been announced that an anti-tank team operating in the southern Lebanon border was attacked by the Israeli military. This was one of three teams that we understand that the Israeli military engaged. And what's interesting with this one is there was no rocket alert sirens sounded in any of the communities along there. So that possibly indicates that the Israeli military was able to hit them before they were able to fire into Lebanon, but we will come out with more information on that as it emerges. Then, meanwhile, what's the feeling on the ground where you are right now? I mean, I can see that you're not right next to the border. Cars continuing to drive, but definitely a tense situation for the residents there, I can assume. Yeah, definitely. There's, I think you could say there's kind of layers of how the communities are behaving. We're in Naharia at the minute, which is close, very close to the border. We're close enough to the border that the residents here only have 15 seconds to get into shelter if there's rockets and waters fired from the Lebanese territory. But yet, nonetheless, there's still people driving around as you see behind me. If, however, we were to just go a few miles to the north of us, quite quickly you come into villages where, while you do find people, it's very clear that the average, that normal life is not happening. There are, you could maybe find one shop open, you could find houses with one or two people in them, but the vast majority of the people are not around. Meanwhile, all of this as we're also expecting to hear from Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrullah tomorrow, that'll be his first public address since the start of this war, nearly four weeks since the initial massacre by Hamas Tiaris on October 7th. What can we expect as far as the Hezbollah Chief's first public statement? You can expect him to come out very loud, a very belly course with attacks on Israel. In terms of if he's actually going to give any, suggestion of policy, what security direction Hezbollah are likely to take, it's not clear if he's likely to do that. Now, there was an incident that's taking, that took place last night, which he may refer to, we'll have to see, where the Lebanese army said that it was cooperating with Unifil, that's the UN peacekeepers on the border, in order to search for two individuals who had gone missing. Now, the search for these two people was called off due to darkness and due to landmines being in the area. But now, Lebanese media journalists there, including some pro-Hezbollah journalists, we have to say, they are now saying that these two individuals who were shepherds, 120 and the other 22 years old, that they have been shot and that one of the municipality heads in the area, this is in the Wazani area close to the village of Rajah, which is on the Israeli-Lebanese border. The municipality head has said that there is bullet holes in the bodies of the two young men who were found there. The accusation is that it was the Israeli military which fired across the border and caused this. We've reached out to the IDF, but as of yet, we're waiting for comment on this. Our correspondent, Robert Swift, reporting from Israel's Northern border. Thank you for all of those latest updates now. I wanna bring in my guests in studio. I'm joined by Yaakov Lapin, Military and Strategic Affairs Analyst for Jewish News Syndicate and Miriam Institute, as well as our I-24 News Senior Diplomatic correspondent Owen Alderman. Thank you so much for both of you for being here. As we just heard from our correspondent, Robert Swift, up on the Northern border, Iran, will they, won't they really continue to be using their proxies to get involved in this war? The big question being Hezbollah, however, we continue to see Iran using their other pawns in this game, specifically the Houthis, the Yemen Houthis, also getting more involved. Hezbollah getting more involved. Iran truly is the mastermind behind all of this. Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, the Iranian proxies are already involved, as we all see. And don't forget, obviously, the pro-Iranian militias in Syria report from one Israeli media source saying that some of those have now moved over to the Lebanese side of the border and are taking part in the fighting against Israel from there. And of course, there's the big speech, the countdown to that speech at three o'clock tomorrow afternoon, local time by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Rob Swift took the words out of my mouth, right? It is gonna be a lot of sound and fury. And the question is, does it signify something? And obviously, we won't know until Nasrallah speaks. He tends to know how to make headlines. Of course, with the sound and fury, he makes headlines. But if he wants to say something, he will know how to do it. So obviously, it's going to be a very closely watched speech. I don't want to say anticipated, because that almost gives it a positive buzz. But it is a speech that's going to be very, very closely watched in both sides of the border, and of course, far beyond. And as we're getting to just see how the world, it continues to watch what's happening here. It's not just on the northern border. It's on the southern border as well. That's where most of the action is happening right now as Israel continues with its ground operation, deep in, entering deeper into the Gaza Strip. I'm curious, Yaakov, as they continue to go deeper and deeper into Gaza, we continue to see, unfortunately, more Israeli soldiers injured. But this is the main operation right now. They're eliminating Hamas, but they're going to encounter more and more difficulties as they continue to go in there. More and more, we're already hearing more stories about different terror cells popping up, surprising them throughout some of these underground tunnels. Absolutely, it's a 360 degree threat for those ground forces that are operating deeper and deeper inside Gaza City, breaking down Hamas' first layer of defense, and continuing on, pushing into North Gaza, into the center of gravity of Hamas' war machine. And yes, they have to deal with threats that come from beneath, from at surface level, these multi-story buildings that look like residential buildings have been converted by Hamas into lookout and firing posts. And this is what Hamas has spent years building in Gaza, prioritizing its war machine over the needs of the people of Gaza. And we're seeing this war now unfold under those circumstances. The humanitarian dilemma continues to be a very difficult one. However, we are darsing Egyptian Rafa border crossing, opening up, allowing more foreign nationals out, as well as some injured dozens. I think the number's about 7,000 that need to leave. However, right now, we're still just seeing dozens. We're taking a look at some of these live visuals of the Rafa border crossing right now. Owen, as far as Egypt's play in this, allowing some of these foreign nationals out, what can you tell us? Right, well again, we're looking at the pictures from the crossing, at least at first glance, it doesn't seem to be all that busy right now. But of course, Nicole, imagine that the big crush, of course, was in the morning, local time. Look, this is great news for everybody, right? For those who want to leave Gaza and can leave Gaza, I think it's wonderful for everyone involved, especially themselves, that they can do it. And obviously for people, for civilians, for civilians who are injured, for them to be able to leave the strip and get in medical care in a place that is stable and more safe. Of course, it's wonderful, and we wish those civilians a speedy recovery. Look, obviously, this was carefully and painstakingly negotiated among a lot of different players. And it is being implemented, which again is great news. And again, it bears repeating to viewers, Israel was not the obstacle here, right? At least not the main obstacle. Israel obviously is interested in seeing who comes out, that it's not terrorists who are coming out of Gaza. But of course, it's the Egyptians who also don't want terrorists to be coming out of Gaza into their territory. And of course, it's the Egyptians for whom this is so very sensitive. The Egyptians do not want a stream of Gazans coming into their country for a lot of reasons, most importantly, security reasons. But they have again agreed to this limited number of people with foreign passports. And again, these hardship cases of people who are injured who are in hospitals who need medical care. And it has been the Israeli government that has been a force behind getting these injured people out. Again, the Israeli government insisting, continuing to insist that no fuel enter the Gaza Strip. And being met by the obvious question from the international community, what do you do about the fuel for the hospitals? What about people who are in hospitals? You can imagine, Nicole, the cases, premature babies, right? People who are in intensive care, even things that are unrelated to the war. This is a living, breathing place of 2 million people. And the Israeli answer is, let's get those people safely out of the hospitals, right? Move them to hospitals on the Egyptian side of the border, even to hospital ships docked offshore. And that way, the fuel won't be going into the Gaza Strip. And why is Israel so insistent? Because the fuel is literally the oxygen of the Hamas tunnels. And destroying the Hamas tunnels is the central part of winning the war. If those tunnels are not destroyed, Israel loses the war. Agakoum, maybe you have what to confirm that. And if they are destroyed, then Israel wins the war. And those tunnels can't function without the fuel that powers the generators, that allows the oxygen and electricity to be there. So it's so very important for Israel. But of course, there has to be a solution made for people through no fault of their own or injured or in in hospitals. So that's the idea, takes care of the need for fuel, takes care of the injured people. And then the hospitals are empty. And of course, Hamas's Pentagon is inside or under the main hospital in the Gaza Strip. So presumably once that hospital is emptied of the civilians who are there, presumably it is a military target that can quite easily and rightfully be destroyed. Yeah, Israel has not, as far as to my knowledge, even indicated for the residents of the hospital, besides announcing that the main Hamas headquarters are under the hospital, they have not yet told any of the victims or anyone at those hospitals to evacuate yet. We've seen in another hospital, the Al-Quds hospital, they've told them to evacuate. But as far as Shifa, no word as that. So even this, as they are approaching Gaza City and getting closer to the hospital. They've told all of the people of Northern Gaza to leave. And almost a million, if not more, have already complied with that, which is also, by the way, a sign of the beginning of the collapse of the Hamas political regime. People are ignoring what it's saying to them and doing what Israel is telling them to do. And that is also very important. So when they're saying that all of Northern Gaza has to leave, they're including every hospital and medical center that has been converted cynically by Hamas as Owen has very accurately described as a terrorist military headquarters. And what does that mean in practice? That's where the orders come from. Fire the RPG at this unit. Fire the rocket at five o'clock at Tel Aviv. All of the orders are coming out of there. The information is flowing in. It's a military command post. It's a nerve center. And it will sooner or later be eliminated. And Israel has put the red flag on these places and announced its intentions to do that sooner or later. And speaking of the command orders, we continue to see the IDF striking these main leaders, really eliminating one by one, the main leaders that are making the calls we saw just yesterday. They took out the commander of the anti-tank missile unit. And so by eliminating these leaders, although they might be smaller than the head Hajo himself, Yahya Sinwar, how do that still make the operations more difficult for Hamas as they continue to fight against the IDF? Yeah, the less senior commanders you remove from the Hamas chain of command. And it is an army in that sense. It has battalions, territorial brigades. It has a hierarchical chain of command. The more people you remove from that chain of command, the more it's up to the field commanders to figure out what they have to do that creates disruption. It creates stress. And it creates basically chaos within the Hamas system. So they are able to function in a decentralized manner to a certain extent. But every one of these eliminations, which is, by the way, is an incredible act of intelligence to find out where they are, this needle in a haystack in this urban warfare jungle, get that information to the Air Force or to special forces, ground forces, and then convert that into a firepower strike is an incredible military feat. And it's one that we shouldn't take for granted. Not many militaries in the world can do this. And it is certainly the accumulative damage to Hamas will be massive. And that continues to be what we're seeing on the ground. Meanwhile, the repercussions felt abroad. Also, something that we have to keep an eye on as far as really who's standing with Israel and who's standing against Israel. Iran has campaigned relentlessly against normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Many observers see the massacres of October 7th as Iran's tool for blocking the impending normalization. However, as our senior diplomatic correspondent, Owen Alterman has said from the start, Saudi Arabia still has good reason to normalize with Israel on the day after the war. And now Saudi officials themselves are confirming that. It was only six weeks ago. When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strode the stage at the United Nations General Assembly. And Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sat for the cameras and touted the promise of normalization. And the reason why ties are a must. I believe that we are at the cusp of an even more dramatic breakthrough. An historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia. We hope that it will reach a place that it will ease the life of the Palestinians and get Israel back as a player Middle East. There bin Salman on Fox News Channel's special report. The Middle East has changed, of course. Feelings toward Israel are now out in the open, fully. And war is not the time for peace. But a steady stream of indicators points in one direction. On the day after, Riyadh wants normalization done because much has not changed. Before 7th of October, a lot of de-escalation have happened, which brought a lot of hope for the region. And we don't want the recent events to derail that. So we are making a lot of efforts with our partners. Saudi Arabia still would want a defense pact with the United States. And still would want to pursue its vision 2030 to the end. That vision has Saudi Arabia pivoting from an inward-looking religious hotbed to an outward-looking liberalized power. The outside world will be skeptical. Muhammad bin Salman needs to convince it. To show he's serious. To show he's really serious. There is a path to take. And it leads through Israel. So although the question about normalization between Saudi and Israel might be on the back burner for now in the future, it seems that it could still be very much a reality and a positive reality at that. I'm curious how when it comes to the Abraham Accords, seeing what's happening right now, are Abraham Accords partnered? It's more important now than ever before, correct? I mean, obviously, it's always been good for financial reasons for these close diplomatic ties and all of that. But when your country is at war, having your surrounding neighbors at least support you or not attack you, that's why we need this. Yeah, I agree with myself. Yeah, no, definitely you're right, Nicole. Look, there are bumps in the road. Report coming out that the parliament in Bahrain has asked that the ambassador, their Bahraini ambassador here in Israel be returned back and there be a stop or freezing of economic ties. Unclear to me if that actually dictates policy or if that simply within the Bahraini system as a way of expressing protest. But you're right, at the end of the day, the Abraham Accords have proven themselves, right? They're still here, they're still standing. They're still standing, right? Almost a month into this horrific war, they're still standing and they're still standing for a reason because they're important to everybody involved. They're important to Israel, of course. They're important, I would venture to say, to the UAE, to Bahrain, to Morocco as well. We've seen the UAE come out and condemn the massacres of October 7th. Even as of course, there's criticism of Israel and it imagines that there's a lot of concern in these capitals about what's going on. But the Accords have proven themselves. We always knew there were going to be ups and downs, but they have proven themselves. And of course, the promise of normalization with Saudi Arabia, I think is still here. And again, I've said that since the beginning of the war, when others weren't saying it. And now the Saudis themselves are just about saying it. And if they're saying it at this point, one would imagine they'll say it all the way to the end. And at some point, we will have that deal done. It was so close to being done. And the reasons, it's so important to have is the reasons and the rationale behind it getting done are just as true now as they were at the United Nations in September. So those are the moving forces behind it. I do want to go back to one thing I said before. We'll continue to move on this. One thing I said before about the hospital, it's important to note. One would imagine, I'm not a doctor, but one would imagine that there are people in a hospital who because of their condition can't be moved in this larger Israeli plan. And Israel's going to have to come to terms with that and how to keep those people safe, even as Israel does what it must in terms of attacking military objectives. And when it comes to it also, four weeks, they've given some time to gain plan and to think about exactly how to deal with some of these most delicate situations on the ground. Yakov, I'm curious your perspective when it comes to the Abraham Accord Saudi Arabia. So I would add, first of all, at the operational level, we've had reports of Saudi Arabia intercepting missiles coming from Yemen into Israel. There are the Abraham Accords having an operational military effect helping Israel's national security. And of course, the Saudis benefited from their cooperation in that system as well. Even though Saudi Arabia is not an official signatory, it had to give its go ahead. So I'm making the direct linkage. The Saudis are the leaders of the moderate Sunni bloc and the Emiratis and the Bahrainis could never have joined that Accord without their nod. And I believe the fact that the Israeli presence in Sencombe, the American regional command and the fact the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Bahrainis all are in Sencombe, this creates an architecture, a military architecture for sharing real-time information on threats, intelligence, using that information to intercept missiles and creating the sort of regional network of moderate powers and states that are all threatened by the radical Iranian jihadist bloc. So this is much more than Israel and Hamas. And I would also say that when we look at the right sequence of events, I think there's been a lot of assessments that the timing of Hamas's October 7 massacre was at least part aimed at sabotaging the Israeli-Saudi normalization process, which would have sidelined Hamas, sidelined the Iranians, and threatened their entire regional agenda. So it looks like the military task of destroying Hamas' terror army and regime and removing the Islamist regime from the map is a necessary precondition for expanding the Abraham Accords and bringing that long sought-after and vital normalization with Saudi Arabia. It has to be done in that order because Hamas has given us no choice. But it has to be admitted. Not everything is rosy. I mean, the Iranians may, at the end of the day, not prevent the normalization with Saudi, but the Iranians will have made it much more costly. Much more costly from Muhammad bin Salman to do this. That said, as I always say, it may be a costly signal from Muhammad bin Salman. By the way, in parentheses, that's the whole point, right? As that report said, the whole point is sending a costly signal to convince the world how serious you are about changing your country. But the signal is even more costly. He would obviously rather not have that be the case. And to that point, of course, at the diplomatic level, the Abraham Accords have absolutely proven themselves. But of course, it's going to be harder to implement the people to people element that has been the real success of it since 2020, right? Going to be harder to build bridges to the peoples in these countries, right? To the nationals in these countries. Tourism may be harder over the medium term to some of these countries. It's an unanswered question. So there's gonna be a lot of work to be done. Israel's in a position where they, in the big picture of considerations, given what we had in October 7th, given everything that we're facing, there simply is no choice but to absorb those costs. But we have to be honest that those costs are there. Well, speaking also just of how this all comes to play with the United States, a big push, a big benefactor in all of this. And we continue to see that time and time again when it comes to the war here. The United States really showing their say and their sway over Israel. Obviously this comes with a huge Western ally, but is it ever gonna get to the point where it's too much, where Israel is losing their own right to think for themselves because they're depending too much on the United States? It's a superb question. And you're right, it's a central question as we go through the war. Nicole, nothing, as you know, is more at the core of the Israeli ethos than the idea that Israel defends itself by itself. As I always say in studio, it's the line in Netanyahu's speeches that's on your mental big and go card that you almost don't even notice as it's checked off because it's just so considered such a part of what Israel is. Because of course it's not just Netanyahu saying that, it's just about every Israeli prime minister since 1948, we're every Israeli leader since 1948. And of course, long before that this is the core and the essence of Zionism. That instead of Jews being beholden to others for our protection, we are going to take our protection into our own hands and rely only on ourselves because at the end of the day, we don't trust the rest of the world to do it for us. And that's what our history has taught us. So you're right, it's a kind of central, not just political or strategic question, but almost philosophical question. And you're right, the presence and the apparent need to be honest, the apparent need for two U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups to be in the Mediterranean Sea brings that all into question in a very, very hard way. I guess what I would say, as any good lawyer would say that the judges don't need to actually handle a question until it's absolutely ripe. And the question isn't yet fully ripe. So I guess the best thing for the Israeli public debate to do is at this point put that question to the side. But of course it's something we're gonna have to deal with and what it means for Israel's larger national security doctrine coming out of the war is a huge question. Again, because the fact that the U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups are here, apparently means they're needed. And if they're needed, then maybe all of that stuff about Israel defending itself by itself and relying on ourselves and all the rest, maybe the end is not true. Yako, what's your take? Look, we have a war between Israel and Hamas, but this is part of a regional clash. And we need both the superpower alliance with the United States. And we need to ferment and build alliances regionally with the Sunni bloc. It's not a challenge that Israel can take on on its own when we're talking about the entire Iranian-backed access. Also, let's keep in mind that Iran is supplying firepower to Russia. So now Russia is indebted to Iran in a way that it's never been before. There is also Chinese involvement in the Middle East, which is its own issue. But the bottom line is that this is a global, regional, and local war all at the same time. And the idea that we can navigate this all on our own is not connected to reality. I think the way to navigate the decision-making is so far I have seen no evidence of the Israeli War Cabinet being forced, quote unquote, to take a decision that it is supposed to. I see Israel running the war and making decisions while taking into account, my earpiece fell out, while taking into account suggestions by the United States. That's fine. I don't see any problem with that. The United States can make suggestions, and they need to be considered. But the final decision is being taken by the Israeli War Cabinet, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. One of the suggestions that our hearings come out of the United States lately, the humanitarian pause, so to speak, which Biden, President Biden said, that he does support if it does allow hostages out. I'm curious, a humanitarian pause, though, what exactly does that entail? I know we're seeing different timelines, whether it's five days, whether it's a one week, also if the fighting stops, who says Hamas is going to let the hostages go? Yeah, those are long timelines, I think, for humanitarian pause. Hard to imagine the Israeli, yeah, Yaakov, you're nodding. Hard to imagine the Israeli government signing on to something like that. But it's important to emphasize the concept of a humanitarian pause is something that's known in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or the Israeli-Gaza conflict more narrowly. We've had humanitarian pauses in past rounds of fighting, especially in 2014, because it went on for weeks, and there were humanitarian pauses. In the context of that operation, especially for people in Gaza to simply go out and stock up on food and supplies, and knowing that they would be safe in doing so. And some of these were breached by Hamas, of course, but some weren't. So there were breaks in the fighting for people to do that, and one can imagine something like that happening here as well. Of course, the context is very different, because going to the store and stocking up on supplies is sadly, in a sense, maybe the least of the problems of civilians in Gaza who need to get the supplies in. So the idea, I think, would be partly to safely get humanitarian aid in as well, and to get, of course, hospitalized people out. All things that we'll continue to look at exactly. We'll continue unpack the latest, but we're going out for a quick break here on I-24 News. Stay with us. Israel is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us. We don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly, were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready, and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. There have been countless memorable moments broadcasting with I-24 News in the past six years. But for me, the one that stands out the most was the first time that I had ever personally heard a rocket siren sounding in Tel Aviv. And at that moment, we were live on air in studio. I will never forget the moment our senior producer said to me in my ear, the sirens are sounding in Tel Aviv. The control room is going to the shelter. With me in studio at the time were Michael Herzog, a former Brigadier General. Today, the Israeli ambassador to the United States. And Arsene Ostrowski, an international human rights lawyer. And their responses were completely different. Michael Herzog was calm and composed. And on the other hand, Arsene Ostrowski was trying to phone his family and check in to make sure that his loved ones were okay. The camera that normally faces us was hoisted from above. There was an overhead shot of the three of us in the studio. You could see colleagues going to the shelter if you looked at the glass behind the studio. And obviously, we lost contact with our team on the ground, our reporters in Ashkelon and all the witnesses that we were speaking to during that time. When rockets are coming towards a residential area, they don't distinguish between race, religion, political views, cultural views. They just intend to harm civilians. And that moment, being in studio, hearing those interceptions overhead was the most real coverage I've ever been involved in. Welcome back to this breaking edition of I-24 News as we continue to unpack all of the latest developments of the ongoing war here in Israel. We want to begin on Israel's northern border where our correspondent, Robert Swift, is standing by. Robert, I'm curious, it's day 27 now. We continue to see some of these clashes back and forth. What's the latest that you're seeing on the ground there near the border with Lebanon? The latest is essentially a continuation of the skirmishes that we've seen since almost day one of this conflict. Now, I think a lot of people are always concerned about whether it's an actual escalation. And I don't think we're seeing an escalation in terms of an increasing number, but rather an evolution in terms of the types of attacks that have taken place. Now, just over an hour ago, the Israeli military reported that its units had fired upon a number of anti-tank positions. And we've been seeing anti-tank missiles fired across the border on numerous occasions, on some occasions causing casualties. But as well as this standard tactic, we've also seen a slight evolution in that overnight Hezbollah also fired upon an Israeli drone using a surface-to-air missile. Now, this is the second occasion in this week that that's occurred, but that in itself is more of a new tactic. As an evolution, as essentially the IDF gets accustomed to the attacks that are being made against it by Hezbollah, as it then becomes more accustomed to dealing with those attacks, becomes a harder target, and Hezbollah has to change its tactics to continue to apply the same level of threat and pressure against the IDF. We're continuing to keep our eye up there on the Northern border, as you said. Tensions really could erupt at any moment. Our correspondent, Robert Swift, thank you. I wanna bring in my guests. I'm again joining me in studio. I'm still joined by Yaakov Lapin, Military and Strategic Affairs Analyst for Jewish News Syndicate and Miriam Institute, along with our senior diplomatic correspondent, Owen Alterman. Thank you both for joining me. Now, as we've just heard from our correspondent, Robert Swift, up in the North, we're also keeping an eye on all the latest developments in the South, where really the main warfare is happening. And I'm curious, because we're hearing more reports from the IDF that they're using artificial intelligence now to find some of these terror targets. One of the most interesting aspects of this war is going to be how Israel continues to use its new warfare and kind of show the whole world its capabilities militarily. Look, the use of AI has been a growing trend in the military for years, because we're talking about big data. There's huge amounts of data coming in from various sensors, electronic intelligence and signals intelligence and visual intelligence. It's a whole plethora of info coming in on enemy activity. And human beings simply can't sort through that. It's too much. You bring in AI, it starts analyzing, it starts prioritizing. These are algorithms, they're very sophisticated. Just like in the civilian world, they need AI to sift through data and make recommendations and flag the things that need to be flagged. That's what's happening here in the military. But then the trick is what they call the sensor to shooter cycle. In other words, once the information comes in, getting it to the right shooter, the right platform, whether that's a fighter jet, a drone, a tank, or any other thing that can deliver a firepower kinetic strike. And shortening that loop, that's what the IDF has been building for the past several years. And we're seeing this network-based war system now in effect, both on both borders. I think that's what's interesting. Also, the IDF continuing to say, specifically focusing in the Gaza Strip, we are striking by air, land, sea, all at the same time, we're going in on all forces. But when you're in this active military zone, the communication efforts between all of these different forces, that's something that also is truly remarkable as they find these terror targets, work with one another to also maintain their own safety. That's right. It's a digital combat and control, command and control network, and it really enables commanders down to the battalion commander level and even a little bit lower than that on their screen to see the location of friendly forces, enemy forces, and it's constantly being updated. Now, when you're operating in an urban warfare environment where the enemy is trying to make itself invisible, both to the IDF and also to the international media, I might add, trying to make itself invisible, you need to be able to turn on the lights. So that involves knowing that on the fourth floor there's an anti-tank squad, and knowing that before it fires, the missile will save soldiers' lives. Well, and meanwhile, Owen, just from the optics abroad also, the message that this sends from Israel about although we might have had one blip in our security system on October 7th, we continue to have these strong military capabilities. Yeah, technology was part of the disaster, so it's pretty ironic that technology is part of the solution from Israel's perspective, but here we are, and this is a horrendous and very complicated war. Look, there's obviously a huge debate about AI in general. It's a huge debate about AI in warfare. One of the founders of AI, the one who's known as the godfather of AI, has come out strongly against this. He's worried that once robots in particular start to be fighting, it lowers the social costs of war, right? You don't have to send your own soldiers to die as Israel is doing right now as we speak in the Gaza Strip because you can just send the robots and it just means warfare could just proliferate and get more destructive. And that's one point of view, nobody should dismiss it. On the other hand, from the perspective of international humanitarian law, I do wonder whether AI could actually reduce civilian casualties because it's able to be more targeted, because it's able to be more pinpointed, because it has the potential to be more accurate, that if the programs are done correctly, if it's used properly and if it works, then maybe this is actually a tool that could save lives, at least at the tactical level. So it's fascinating to hear about this and to watch this play out in real time. I would just add one more thing about the role of technology. And I agree with you. And the one thing that technology cannot do is replace an understanding of the cognitive mindset of the enemy. That's something that has to be done by human beings. And that, in my opinion, was the central failure here. An inability to understand how the enemy thinks what the enemy intends to do and projecting this sort of more rational Western thinking onto Hamas, I fear and I hear too many voices doing the same thing about Hezbollah and I don't know what they will do. But the one thing I would ask everybody to do is to drop all previous assumptions that they may have had about Hezbollah, it's decision making, it's deterrence. If there's one thing we can learn from this going forward is let's not assume that they think like we do because they really, really don't. And one day the technology might be there, right? As AI continues to develop, we shouldn't dismiss it, but it's not here in 2023. Exactly, I think you bring up that great point, just the inability to realize and comprehend how completely animalistic and barbaric the actions that occurred on October 7th could be. And so now 27 days later, all kinds of assistance is being used to treat the wounded, both physical and emotional from that October 7th massacre. And that includes some welcomed assistance from man's and woman's best friend. Of course, I'm speaking about the canine species in the form of therapy dogs. Here's more in this report adapted from Israel's Channel 12 News. This time, they decided to enter to the sounds of classical music. Every day for two weeks, they've been coming to Soroka Hospital. They're therapy dogs that have undergone long training and have come especially to help the wounded in the war. Hi, Dennis. Hello. Hello, Dennis. Hello. Simba, up. As we work on rehabilitation, try as much as you can to work on stretching the hand. Okay. And caressing. Let's try to expand the motor ability. Try to work with both hands and improve your reach. Come. Come. Good. Sit down. Sit down. And now give it to him. Dennis was wounded while trying to neutralize the terrorists with his personal weapon. You didn't feel the pain when he puts his hand on you? Yes. Despite its size, he is very, very careful. Because you now stepped on both my feet, basically to put them here. But you don't feel the pain at all? No. That's the uniqueness when you have a dog next to you. Yes, simply amazing. Days and nights in the hospital are very difficult. And such an atmosphere of hugs and that, it does something good. Yes. And connects. Hi, how are you? I think it allowed us to do a process of processing trauma with patients who had a very, very hard time talking. We had a patient, very seriously injured, who was in the middle of an anxiety attack. And the introduction of the therapy dog allowed him for a moment, for a moment, to open up to the world and talk about the pain, talk about his pain. And through the treatment of the dog, through his ability to regain control, even for a moment in his life, it really allowed him to talk about the injury as well, to tell about the painful places as well. I heard an alarm in Bershiba. I got dressed, put on a uniform, went to Steroz. A circle of 24 terrorists were inside the Steroz police station. I got shot in the chest and leg. They managed to pull me back to one of the shelters. Mati Tarfati fought for long hours against terrorists at the Steroz station. He was seriously injured, was sedated and ventilated. Now he's in the middle of a particularly long rehabilitation process. With a hand up over her nose, then she sits. She will reach out. Beautiful. All of a sudden, the dog moves his hand, knows the movement. There are certain movements that I'm allowed to perform with my hand. And it's even desirable that I perform them with my hand and with the dog. This is very helpful. Come on, Alpha. Let's go to Daniel. Hey, Daniel. What's going on? We came to work together. Alpha, this is Daniel. Daniel, let's try to work with the hand. With the injured hand, we'll try to slowly increase the range. I divided the force into two. Some fought inside, some fought outside. I was outside. Danielle Damari was wounded by a gunshot while fighting terrorists at Nativot Junction. From there, he continued with his team where he got shot again almost everywhere on his body. In this hand, I received the bullet that entered my bone. And it came out a little above the elbow and caused a fracture. Come, Alpha. Nice, Daniel. Excellent, excellent. Come on. Nice, Alpha. Nice. Excellent, Daniel. Not everyone is suited to dog therapy. And you know what? Sometimes the dog therapy is not necessarily with the patient but with his family members. And we will gain something else along the way. Sometimes the dog therapy will be with the department staff exhausted from long days of caring for the wounded and the dogs will be a respite for the staff. And through this, we will get help for the patients. What fun you are having. An experience. Nice. How are you? How are you getting on? Yes, they came in the morning. They were in the room with me and that's it. Yeah, it calms you down. When it directs your inner forces, come on to rehabilitation. Yes. To reach the abilities you had and maybe even beyond that. The connection between humans and dogs has proven itself since the dawn of humanity. And perhaps the great success here can continue to other hospitals as well and make it even a little easier for those who are at one of the most complex and difficult points in their lives. There is a feeling, a good feeling, like really, because a dog is the most simple creature. It loves the deepest. It is reliable and the most genuine. It's a little different in real life. The emotional pain from October 7th continues to be felt by so many people here in Israel who have lost loved ones from that October 7th massacre. I want to bring in my two guests in studio right now. I'm joined by Shai and Hagar Shimoni, the daughter and granddaughter of Bracha Levinson, who was killed on October 7th when they attacked her Kibbutz community near Oz. Thank you both so much for joining me. First, tell me a little bit about your mother. Who was Bracha? She was a Kibbutz person. She grew up in a Kibbutz and then she got married in a Kibbutz and she lived in a Kibbutz almost all her life. She loved the community. She loved the outdoor. She loved her small garden that she nurtured. She was full of life. She was still very young, 74, and she was very active. She worked. She was very active in the community life in the Kibbutz. Very loved by everyone. And of course, a wonderful, wonderful mom and grandma and very attached to all her eight grandchildren. On October 7th, when you found out about really what was happening, what was your initial reaction and did you know that your mother was one of the ones who had been killed by Hamas? Actually, our story is very, very hard because the way that we found out about what happened, it started around 6.30 in the morning on Shabbat. We were in Tel Aviv and it started bombing also in Tel Aviv. So immediately, we went to the shelter and we contacted my mom, asked her how was she doing. If she's in the shelter, she said she's in the shelter. It's a lot of bombing that day. She said she's fine. She's safe and she was very worried about us and making sure that we are safe. And we were talking to her and texting her until 6.50. And then around 7.00, 7.00 a.m., my daughter, Hagar, she was in a trip in Japan and she texted in our family group that grandma just posted something very weird and asked all of us to go and see what it is. She couldn't understand what she's seeing. So we all got on her Facebook page and we saw a terrible, terrible, scary video of her lying in her living room in a pool of blood around her and the terrorist pointing a gun over her. Like that, it was a few second video. We were hysterical. I mean, all the kids, my kids, my sister kids, we all watched it together and everyone was screaming and it was very scary. We couldn't understand what we were watching. Then we started calling people in the kibbutz like people who live just across from here. I called her neighbor Adina. She's now kidnapped. Her husband is murdered. And I asked her if she can just... I couldn't understand what's going on so I thought maybe she can go over and just see what's happened. So she answered that she's hearing lots of gunfire from the outside and she think the army's there. It wasn't the army. So she couldn't go. And I called many people and everyone said that it's impossible to go out and check on her. So we just waited all day long. We tried to call the police. We tried to call everyone we know to go there and help her but no one answered or could go there. And then just later on I think it was day after or in the evening that we got a message from the kibbutz people after the army came in that the terrorists, they burned the place down with hair inside. So we just recently got the identification of the body of hair. How did that make it more difficult having to wait so long for it to finally be confirmed and get the body identification? Actually it was terrible. The time that we waited in our mind even though we saw the video and we saw the house like it was all burned down, sorry. My mind, in my mind I was thinking maybe, maybe there's a possibility that she was kidnapped and she's alive. Somehow it was just a thought that went into my mind. So it was very difficult to be in the situation that you don't know, you don't know what really happened. I think when we got the news or we can breathe, we can breathe again. I think it didn't take anything down from the terrible, terrible things that happened that day. And that you had to see as well, Hagar, when you found that video and you sent it to your family. What were you thinking? What was going through your head? I could not understand what I'm saying even though the video is very clear. It's not like it's blurred or anything. It's very clear what you can see. My brain could not comprehend what I'm saying. I could not understand that this is actually happening. I didn't even know that terrorist across the border yet. So I didn't think of that possibility at all. So I just, I texted her and no reply and I tried to understand what could have happened. Such an unimaginable, no one, it's still in shock. So nearly four weeks later, how are you guys coping? How are you dealing with your grief? Actually, it's not just about our personal family grief and because many, many of our friends and my mom's neighbor and my mom's community that we all know because we grew up there and my kids used to spend all summer there, every summer. And we know so many people that was kidnapped. The daughter of Mikey Boots is not here anymore. I mean, it's like, I think almost 30 people were killed and almost 70 something were kidnapped and now they are in Gaza. And we don't know what's going on with them and we're worried and we just want them back here because I mean, my mom, we cannot bring her back. We can understand that and we will grieve on her for a long time. But the others, they are still alive and they are over there and we don't know in what conditions and we just want the world to help us bring them back. This is the most important thing for us now. How does that make it more difficult coping? Because as you said, it's unknown that so many Israelis are dealing with right now. It's 242. Remain a held captive, kidnapped in Gaza. It's just unbelievable. And innocent people that haven't done anything wrong. They were so helpless there and people just, they took them and now they're just so miserable and so we feel like we're worried about them all the time. We are waiting to hear. Maybe they're going to be released soon but it's a very terrible situation. Also the Kibbutz community, they were always such a peaceful community. They believed in peace. They believed in coexist. They believed that we can be neighbors. They tried to help in any way they know and to think that they did such a horrible, terrible thing to them and to anyone actually. It's just, your mind cannot understand this. It's just... You grew up on a Kibbutz and so you understand the community, the family. It really is a family atmosphere but also as you said, such peaceful people going forward. How do you rebuild these Kibbutz communities? That's a good question because we really don't know because the people, they are now in Elat in the hotel and they all want so much to go on and live together in the community that they build really amazing community sharing and loving but many of them think that it will be very hard to go back to the trauma over there and I mean, I guess they will wait until they feel that this place is safe again because actually we were there on a weekend, like two weeks before with all the grandchildren and we were there just we were sleeping in her house in the same living room that it happened so if we were there I mean we think about it all the time we felt very safe we felt so safe when we were there we couldn't imagine something like this can happen we trust everyone we trust the army we trust them to not do such terrible things And that's the last time you were there with your grandmother in the military she was so happy everyone were around her and she was so alive she hosted us taking care of everybody's needs asking if we need anything we would like to eat just kissing and hugging all of us and laughing together just it was a very wholesome holiday together with her sounds like even on October 7th how were you doing in Tel Aviv it sounds like that was very much in her character in her nature what would you want people to remember about her and know about her just of how loving she was she was so loving and generous just accepting everybody without judgment and just spreading love all the time yeah that's exactly yeah and I'm hoping that she didn't suffer for long because it was quick I hope it was quick and she didn't suffer and she didn't have the time to think I hope so