 אף אני ארצה לא גיע בילפט וגם ככה ריבן רך כל השנים טיפחה ושמראה על קשר משפחתי חוצה דורות עד שומרת עליי מבין גם למה, למה אני מסכיר כאן את השיחה הזאת אוקיי, אולי שכבר הרבה עדים כך עלה על עבור חלושה שכה שני עדים קשר משפחתי חצות שכה כך עדים קשר שקשר זו פיילה אוקיי אוקיי אוקיי אוקיי אוקיי אוקיי נחמדת מבטח כשמרח היה בישראל ישראל תלווה בו שזה הוא שרמתי עוד ככה הכי הרבה שרמתי הימינטריה זאת כך קראתי מערוב לבחר ללב אין כך הימינטריה ואנחנו את החיים best friends שייתים איזשהו קודם וזה בייק כש нами שכפה עוד מדה תלוי בלב לב תמיד נקרות אינטריה ג'ונפן הרגף, who joins us on the Israel-Gaza border. ג'ונפן, talk to me more about the humanitarian aid that Israel is now allowing in Tugasa. What kind of aid? And is there a chance that this all ends up anyway in the hands of Hamas? The answer is yes. Anything coming into Gaza can end up in the end of Hamas. We saw that all of the stocks that UNRWA had, for example, UNRWA, the UN Reliefs and Works Agency, which supposedly should go to the people of Gaza, either stolen or maybe they don't even have to steal it. Sometimes UNRWA voluntarily gives it to Hamas a lot of time. They identify with their causes. So yes, it can unfortunately end in the hands of Hamas. Most of the aid which came in up until now included food and medicine. Now we're also talking of fuel. Fuel, of course, needed to work many systems around Gaza. סויג, and so on, because with literally millions of people now, again, becoming refugees. And with winter about to arrive, there's a strong danger of humanitarian issues and diseases beginning. But can that fuel eventually end in the hands of Hamas and work their infrastructures instead of the civilian infrastructures? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. And, Jarvan, the IDF continuing to push deeper into Gaza. And sadly, the death toll continues to rise as these battles intensify. Where is the IDF now operating inside Gaza? And what perhaps is the goal there? So what happened first is that the Israeli army, the IDF, encircled the entire northern area of the Gaza Strip, including the city of Gaza, first encircled it. And now they're pushing deeper into the areas, which mean deeper east from the Mediterranean coast, deeper east. And that means closer to the Israeli border, and we can hear it very well from the place where we are. There were about 30 minutes of constant artillery, constant fire, very heavy shelling that we could hear and even see from the place where we are. It has calmed down a bit in the past five, six minutes or so. But the Israeli army pushing forward east closer. The fighting actually is now closer to the Israeli border, places like Jebalia, places like Sajaiya, these neighborhoods of Gaza, of Eastern Gaza. And the aim is basically to try and cleanse those places all together, house after house, tunnel after tunnel, to make sure that no Hamas terrorist stays there. All right, Jonathan Regev with the update for us on the border. Thank you so much. And the Washington Post is reporting that Israel is close to a hostage deal that will see Hamas free dozens of women and children hostages. According to the report, Israel and Hamas will agree to freeze all fighting period for at least five days. Hamas will release at least 50 hostages overall in small batches every 24 hours of the ceasefire. The White House is denying officially that there is a done deal, but confirms the work goes on to secure one. Prime Minister Netanyahu also giving an update on the negotiations last night. לגבי ההסכאות. רגרדים לדיל, we are prevented from discussing the details of the conditions that we adhere to. We want everyone back. If we do it in a step or two, we will do it in such a way that we want to bring whole families together. It's clear as the sun. We want categories released together. This is also clear as the sun. I don't want to say beyond that, but that's what we want. It is hard. It is a cruel and cynical enemy which has no limitations. למטations we work and do the best we can. And US President Joe Biden making plain his desire to see an international coalition temporarily rule the Gaza Strip. It's the first time Biden is giving a more specific vision of what he wants to see after the war. Biden, writing in an editorial published in The Washington Post, also saying he eventually wants a revamped Palestinian authority to return to power in Gaza with still a long-term goal of a two-state solution. Netanyahu has said that the P.A. as it currently exists is unfit to govern, but isn't ruling out the Palestinian return to power. I think that the Palestinian Authority in its current form is unable to accept responsibility over Gaza. After we fought in Gaza and did all we did, will we hand it over to them? Abbas, 43 days after the most terrible massacre of the Jews since the Holocaust, still refuses to condemn it. His senior ministers are celebrating what happened. His authority pays the killers and their families. You know very well how they educate their children. If there is no change in this matter, then what have we done? In that same op-ed, President Biden threatening to issue visa bans against Israeli extremists in the West Bank who are attacking Palestinian civilians. Israeli media has reported that over the last six weeks, as many as seven Palestinians have been killed by violent settlers, although the exact nature of these altercations are still unclear in many cases. With us now in studio, I-24 News, senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Alderman. Owen, a lot to kind of sift through. A lot of newsworthy opinions in President Biden's opinion editorial in the Washington Post. I want to ask first about what he says about the Palestinian Authority, saying a revitalized PA ultimately coming to power, but first he wants to see an international coalition of sorts come to Gaza. Is that possible? Is that feasible? Well, first of all, you're right, that word revitalized, Jeff, does a lot of work. As people like to say, we have to understand what the flesh is on the bones as this goes forward. Obviously there are going to be a lot of questions to American officials, to Biden administration officials about what that word means. To try to see to what extent it's consistent with the kind of terms that Prime Minister Netanyahu has laid out. First of all, just a word about journalism, because a lot of Israeli media outlets rushed to find the headline, capital T, capital H from that op-ed and put it out, to the exception of everything else in the piece. I don't like that kind of journalism. I don't think it serves the public very well to try to find the headline and put that out to the exclusion of the 99% of the rest of the content. And this op-ed, that was a huge mistake, there are a lot of important things in this op-ed that have nothing to do about that one sentence and about that one word about the Palestinian Authority and I know we're going to get to those. As for the international coalition, obviously like everything else in the day after in Gaza, it remains to be seen and there are a lot of obstacles. Of course, if the Biden administration and the United States puts its weight behind it, including its weight with its allies in the West and in NATO and in the Arab world, obviously it increases the chances of something like that happening, but I think Biden was more focused on that in terms of money in any case, money for reconstruction and maybe there will be some actors, Jeff, including in the Middle East, who see it as being in their national interest to fund reconstruction in Gaza and then have the leverage over the society that emerges in Gaza that will come from it. Again, we don't tend to think of Gaza as a strategically situated place, but it is. It's a sliver of land right along the Mediterranean Sea, next to Israel, next to Egypt. There may be some takers. As for the revitalized Palestinian Authority, again, we need to understand more of the content of what Joe Biden means and to see to what extent there's a meeting of the minds with Prime Minister Netanyahu. You mentioned, you know, there's a lot here in this opinion editorial. Biden in many respects trying to lay the groundwork making the case for what happens today after Gaza. What do you make of how he tries to link in some ways Hamas to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and America's commitment to Ukraine, Putin and Hamas, kind of a corollary between them? Very, very important. And again, Jeff, this goes to the problem of push notification journalism, right? When an entire op-ed, that's quite a long op-ed, by the way, written by the president of the United States, gets reduced to one sentence. And by the way, that sentence itself often put out of context. By the way, as for Prime Minister Netanyahu, just going back for a minute, what he has to say about the Palestinian Authority. I said from the get-go, after his press conference last week, that he was not ruling out the PA coming back into Gaza, that the best reading of what he said is that he was driving a hard bargain. And I think that's certainly been borne out by events, including what the Prime Minister said last night. Again, we heard that soundbite and what Joe Biden puts in the op-ed. As for the link with Ukraine, it's extremely important, an extremely important for people here in Israel, not only to understand but to internalize. The Gaza War may turn out to be a kind of inflection point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and certainly in the way Israel's own society, in the way we look at ourselves. But as far as Joe Biden's concerned, it's full speed ahead with his previous strategy, right? The national security strategy of the United States did not change between October 6th and October 7th. Not globally and not regionally either. And that was the point of this op-ed. If before this war, Joe Biden's strategy was to try to confront Russia and China by doubling down on America's alliance system and trying to build the alliances and link them together, including physically right through the economic corridor from India through the Middle East to the Mediterranean, well, that's still full speed ahead. This war has not changed it, and Joe Biden is continuing to make the case for it, linking the issues of Israel and Ukraine and going back to that idea of the economic corridor and the normalization with Saudi Arabia. Jeff, incredibly important because if one of the speculations had been that one of the motivations, and one of the motivations particularly for the timing of the October 7th attacks was to try to foil that plan and to try to give a poke in the eye to American national security strategy, Joe Biden has said that that's failed and I think that's the mark of a good national security strategy, right? You take the strategy and as new events unfold, you take the existing strategy and you apply it to the events. The strategy isn't continually changing because the strategy itself is solid and it can accommodate new developments and not only accommodate them but respond to them and that's what Joe Biden is saying. There's a final note yet again, this needs to give Israeli policymakers real reason to think about how and when and to what extent to change Israel's policy toward the war in Ukraine. I have said for weeks the best way for Israel to win the political center in the United States even more so in Europe is to change that policy. This op-ed makes clear why. Thank you all for that analysis. Let's bring into this conversation IDF-retired Colonel Miri Eisen, who is now the director of the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Rashman University. I want to also note again here, Miri, what the White House spokeswoman saying that there is not a deal for a hostage release but the work is continuing to secure one. Is it moral in your estimation to negotiate the release of a fraction of Israeli hostages with Hamas? Is it moral to do a terror attack that in its attack itself is to take 240, you know, citizens, babies, old people? There's no morality when it comes to terrorism and because it's so unprecedented, Jeff, there is no precedent to try and talk now about the morals. I don't know. I'm saying this right now sitting here and listening to you. Listening to Owen, excellent analysis. And I'm thinking to myself, so what do you do? And I don't have an answer. I think that every single one of us is sitting right now and saying, how can you do it for only a fraction? And I'm going to ask everybody listening to us right now, how can you do it for if you can do for a fraction and you can release the children, the babies, some of the women, the families, whatever we're demanding. How can you not do that? Hamas or a terror organization, they are not going to stand up right now, take the 238, 9 hostages that we know of. Again, those numbers keep changing a bit, but that they have and say, oh, we're done. Because of what we're doing, they are under pressure. Because of what they're doing, they're willing to let out a fraction. Do you not do it? I don't know if it's moral not to do it. And I leave that as a question. I don't want people to have an exclamation mark when it comes to that. Ken Hamas, do you think even deliver on an agreement? If a deal is ultimately reached, there has been statements attributed to Hamas, perhaps as an element of psychological warfare here that they have lost contact with some of the hostages. They don't know where some of them are. They don't know they can't locate them or confirm their health. Is Hamas in a position to deliver, do you think? Or do they just want the publicity of a confirmed deal and a ceasefire? Hamas took the hostages, grabbed the hostage, terrorized the hostages as a bargaining chip. They need them. This is something that they need to be able to deliver on. They want to get something in return. And if they don't deliver the hostages, they don't get that in return. That is their bargaining chip. So in that sense, they certainly can deliver on many of them. They are holding many of them. And I'm not saying this to the viewers because I know something that they don't know. But Hamas themselves, when they did the attack and they put out so much videos of what they did in clips and go-pros of what they did at that time, that it is their terrorists that took a bulk. And yes, there are others held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, probably held just by the people. I don't want to call them people, terrorists in that sense. But I think that the fact that they can deliver a large bulk of them means that they can give them all. I'll rephrase your question. Can they deliver all of the children? I don't know. Can they deliver entire families in the way that Israel wants? I don't know. But that's going to be part of, you know, it's so immoral as we're talking. The entire event, as it started by what they did, that at this stage along the way, we are now in a negotiation. And then it becomes what you're willing to give, how much you're willing to give. This is their card. It's their bargaining chip. That's the horrifying reality of such a terror attack. Thank you so much for that analysis. I want to also turn our eyes to the North as well, where the violence is not subsiding with Hezbollah on the northern border. I-25 News correspondent Robert Swift joins us now from the north of Israel. Rob, in recent days, overall a dramatic and precipitous drop in rocket fire from Hamas and Gaza. But Hezbollah keeps upping their attacks, the idea of responding in a tit for tat kind of method. Is there any update perhaps on the impact this is having on life in the north and when families who've been forcibly evacuated may be able to return home? Ability to launch its rockets has reduced as the Israeli military have taken control of ground inside Gaza. That's not the same situation up here. Hezbollah controls the same territory that it controlled at the start of the war. And Israel's military response to it has been limited whilst it deals mostly with the south. Now, attacks have continued. Yesterday there was around five separate attacks across the border towards Israeli territory. That's a slight drop in the previous days, attacks 12. But some days there's more, some days there's less. Now, there's a weather front is moved in here. As you can probably see behind me, there's quite extreme weather conditions here. And that in itself may potentially cause the attacks taken place here to fall off. Now, while the Israeli military's technology enables them to have continued good surveillance of the terrain here despite the weather conditions, the same might not necessarily be said for the Hezbollah fighters. They do have some more advanced optics, particularly on their anti-tank weapons. But due to the fact that it'll be more difficult for them to spot for Israeli drones, to hear the drones in the air above them whilst the storm continues. And because of the reduction in visibility, visibility now being sometimes down to just 100 or so meters with the cloud and with the rain, it may be more difficult for Hezbollah to spot for targets. And that, again, may cause the attacks today to be reduced. But again, it's early days. We'll wait and see how that plays out. Robert, as you know now in the south and the war in Gaza, the circle tightening on Gaza City as our correspondent Jonathan Regev noting that the encirclement of Gaza City complete, the IDF still pushing closer and closer into the city center and they're also expanding operations in new areas as well. The battles are intensifying. Is that limiting the IDF ability to respond if needed in the north? Is the IDF able to have a multi-front war if this escalates? There's no evidence so far to show that the Israeli military lacks the resources, demand power for operations on both fronts. I mean, there's tanks all over the northern border. Just driving around, it's easy to spot them. So in terms of actual armor, no, it doesn't seem like the military is limited in that way. Just in terms of their focus, you can understand how it is easier to fight on one front rather than two. If push comes to shove and the Israeli military does need to open up a second front, it's likely that it does have the manpower, but obviously that would be more difficult. The second point is in terms of diplomatic resources. Israel is already under severe diplomatic pressure due to civilian casualties taking place in Gaza. If a second front were to be opened up and then civilian casualties were to occur in the south of Lebanon, that may increase the pressure that Israel's feeling on the cabinet for the time being may simply see no need to go down that route when it can hold off his bola, fight a defensive war here in the north while dealing with the objectives that it wants to complete in Gaza. All right, Robert, thank you so much for that report in the north. Let's go back to your studio with Owen Alderman. Another very important, newsworthy element to President Biden's op-ed in the Washington Post today that I touched on earlier and I want to get your analysis on is him floating the idea of visa bans for Israeli settlers. Not a floating thing, it's happening. So talk to me, I guess, the impact and the approach here from a U.S. national security standpoint and also as a policy standpoint on visa bans and how the term settler extremist would be defined by the U.S. government here. Wow, the last question is really an interesting one, Jeff, right? How broad is that definition? The way I read the op-ed is that the definition is actually narrow, right? It's about people who actually engage in violence against Palestinians rather than their fellow travelers and is in so many movements and certainly with the extremists, I think it's fair to call them that, among settlers in the West Bank, there are concentric circles, right? There are the people who are actually engaged in physical violence, then there are the people around them who help them, then there are people who agree with them and outward and outward and you're right, the question is how far out does the definition go. I actually read it as being quite narrow and I actually think that the statement is, Jeff, a kind of bald admission about how few tools the United States has of its own to take action against those people. The only thing that the United States can do itself against the individuals who are engaged in the violence is to stop them from coming into the United States. Jeff, it's not a big toolset. Even as a tool, this is ideologically motivated by religious extremists perhaps on the Jewish side, what's the impact going to be if they're told you can't ever take your family to a vacation at Disney World, you can't go to the Statue of Liberty, you're not going to be able to come to the U.S.? Is that going to stop the ideological impact perhaps of these attacks? I don't think it's going to do very much. Look, again, this is, as I read it, a very narrow definition, it's about people who are actually engaged in physical violence and that one would, not one would think, one knows is a fairly small circle of people with a very distinct set of ideologies. This isn't likely to be much of a deterrent to them. I think it's more of a symbol than anything. You are right though, Jeff, if the definition is extended outward and expanded, then it could take in other people. By the way, interestingly enough, visa bans would seem not to include American citizens. Again, American citizens, people hold American passports, much more difficult to take away citizenship and to bar entry. I don't know to what extent American nationals are involved in this kind of extremism. We know that American citizens, reportedly and anecdotally, are overrepresented among the wider circle in the far right of the settlement movement. I don't know, we don't know whether American nationals are overrepresented in that narrower group of people engaged in physical violence, but that's a huge exception, of course, to this rule because they're much more difficult to take action. Important analysis, thank you, Owen. Let's go back to IDF-retired colonel Miri Eisen, Miri, want to return to Gaza. We have to read between the tea leaves a little bit here, but as we've been talking about, as Owen's been talking about, President Biden is saying that if the PA returns to power, it has to be revitalized before they can govern Gaza. Netanyahu is saying something similar that in its current form, currently the PA unfit, leaving a lot of leeway there perhaps for a new form of the PA would you make a V argument? Many are making that the PA was in power in Gaza, they were eliminated in a violent coup by Hamas. Hamas is more popular than the PA in Gaza poll show. If not by a majority than by a consistent plurality that the PA in any form could not effectively govern in Gaza and Israel would be safe. That's why I like the term revitalized because revitalized basically means anything. You could have a whole new leadership. You could have a new next generation, but I'm going to make it harder for us in our conversation, Jeff. You say that the base inside the Gaza Strip not just supports the Hamas, brought them to power and they were their base there. Let's turn back to the former conversation about Judea and Samaria, the West Bank and the fact that within the West Bank, Hamas have very strong public support. So it's not just in the Gaza Strip, it's also in the West Bank. And I say that because at the end we look at the day after and nobody knows what that means and nobody knows when that happens, but we're attacking right now Hamas terror capabilities. We are attacking them in the Gaza Strip not only in the Northern area where we are encircling and going step by step to get to the locations also in the central and south of the Gaza Strip, not where we have sent the bulk of civilians to. We're also attacking the Hamas in the West Bank and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. So when you talk about that revitalized Palestinian base, I'm looking into the future. We're all going to have to look there, let's state it clearly. Palestinians who support the idea of two states are not about Zionism and Jewish right and it's a good idea that we're here. It's much more about acceptance. We are here, we're strong, they have no choice. Hamas within that world still call for our annihilation and the revitalized Palestinians in that sense are not going to be about hugging, accepting that this isn't the kumbaya moment. It's about bringing in leaders who are willing to rule who think that two states is better than Hamas. It's not about two states being about, you know, again, everybody living together in harmony. It's about two states and mainly a Sunni base in that sense talking about more moderates because we could talk about the moderation of the Sunni countries around us. Also not something that if we looked at in depth we might enjoy but we have to take it one step at a time. We have relations with countries that their bases don't like us, okay? Egyptians don't like Israel and we have a very steady peace treaty with them. Jordanian people don't like Israel per se and you can have a steady peace treaty with them and a revitalized Palestinian arena would be again leaders that in their interests, in their understanding of their future think that it's better side by side in cooperation than trying to annihilate us through terrorism. מיריאז, and thank you so much for your analysis for joining us on I-24 News and Owen as well. Thank you so much for being here. Stay with us. We have more live coverage, live team coverage from the Israel-Gaza border in the south as the IDF continues to expand its operations and military campaign to destroy Hamas. Intentions continue to stay hot on the northern border as well with an eye towards ongoing attacks from Hezbollah, more live reporting and updates and analysis. Stay with us right here on I-24 News. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. 24 Israel bajo-attaque. News 24, en Español, trae el análisis y la información de los acontecimientos de la guerra, espadas de hierro. Entrevistas exclusivas reportes desde la zona de guerra, la reacción de los países hispanoparlantes. News 24, el único medio en Español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en Israel. News 24, únicamente en I-24 News. continues to intensify minutes ago, sadly. The IDF announced in two more soldiers were killed in fire fights yesterday that is seven IDF soldiers killed in battle over the last two days. The death toll in the ground invasions now stands at 58 Israeli soldiers. Prime Minister Netanyahu is justifying the start of daily humanitarian and fuel deliveries to Gaza, saying that delivering fuel is crucial ‫למנהות האמריקה ולמרות ‫למנהות כשחרות הלבי. ‫ישראל בוילת. ‫הישראל עובדה במהלבי. ‫היא היא גרועה שלנו. ‫השמורל הכתובה של המדע, ‫האנסה האנסה היא חיילה ‫למנהות הלבי. ‫בגלל האנסה האנסה, ‫אבל我們的 best friends ‫הלבין מטרדים לך ‫שכתובה על כך, ‫הוא מטרדים לך כך. ‫למרות עוד, ל-21, treffen אני [#4__ я . . עכשיו . . של גזע, הוא איזה שטולן או אולי הם לא צריכים לסתיל את זה. אולי אונרו פלוטרלי פגעו לך חמאס, כאילו הרבה פעמים, הם אוהבים את השעות שלהם. אז, כן, זה יכול, אולי. ובכלל, בין חמאס, most of the aid which came in up until now included food and medicine. Now we're also talking of fuel. Fuel, of course, needed to work many systems around גזע, sewage, and so on because with literally millions of people now again becoming refugees and with winter about to arrive. There's a strong, there's a danger of humanitarian issues and diseases beginning, but can that fuel eventually end in the hands of חמאס and work their infrastructures instead of the civilian infrastructures? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. ורבן, הידf continuing to push deeper into גזע, sadly, the death toll continues to rise as these battles intensify. Where is the IDF now operating inside גזע and what perhaps is the goal there? So what happened first is that the Israeli army, the IDF encircled the entire northern area of the Gaza Strip, including the city of Gaza, first encircled it and now they're pushing deeper into the areas, which mean deeper east from the Mediterranean coast, deeper east and that means closer to the Israeli border and we can hear it very well from the place where we are. There was, there were about 30 minutes of constant artillery, constant fire, very heavy shelling that we could hear and even see from the place where we are. It has calmed down a bit in the past five, six minutes or so, but the Israeli army pushing forward east closer. The fighting actually is now closer to the Israeli border, places like Gebalia, places like Sajaiya, these neighborhoods of Gaza, of Eastern Gaza and the aim is basically to try and cleanse those places all together, house after house, tunnel after tunnel, to make sure that no Hamas terrorist stays there. All right, Jonathan Regev with the update for us on the border. Thank you so much. And the Washington Post is reporting that Israel is close to a hostage deal that will see Hamas free dozens of women and children hostages. According to the report, Israel and Hamas will agree to freeze all fighting period for at least five days. Hamas will release at least 50 hostages overall in small batches every 24 hours of the ceasefire. The White House is denying officially that there is a done deal, but confirms the work goes on to secure one. Prime Minister Netanyahu also giving an update on the negotiations last night. לגבי היסכאות, יש... רגרדינג הדיל, We are prevented from discussing the details of the conditions that we adhere to. We want everyone back. If we do it in a step or two, we will do it in such a way that we want to bring whole families together. It's clear as the sun. We want categories released together. This is also clear as the sun. I don't want to say beyond that, but that's what we want. It is hard, it is a cruel and cynical enemy, which has no limitations. ובסנת אנחנו עוד לגרות ולעבודי Best Week Out ובספר היו, בידן, תפעיל לסתכל בני... הוי תרגמי נשאר לבית אינטרנטי-חלטון כמובע טרקטי, שירו את הגזה-סטריפ זה הרבה פעיל, בידן שירו על ידי שירו מה שאנגל שירו, כפי בגרות בידן, כתובר, כתובר, עוד לגרות שירו על הלבו אינטריאל, ולבדה ולביבה כך, הוא מגטרי שירו, כך לבד שבאמת, פל extending everybody to return to power In Gaza with still a long term goal of a two-state solution Deputy 1998 ‫המסקר המסקר של הולכוס ‫הוא מפגש את זה. ‫המסקר המסקר של הולכוס ‫הוא מפגש את זה. ‫התארכות הוא מפגש את כילורים ‫הם ואיזה פעמים. ‫אתה יודעת מאוד ‫איך הם יעדכים את הילדים. ‫אם לא יש שעה כאן, ‫למה אנחנו עדכים? ‫באמצע המסקר, פרסיטת בידן ‫תשעשו ויזה בנס ‫באתן ישראלי-אקסטרימיסטים ‫בסבנכות שתעשו פלסטיניים וסביליאנס. ו disagree עeds קיי קיי קיי קיי קיי קיי לעש flaw humour פלסטיניה האתורטי שירבנילי פי אולטמאלי באתורטי אבל first he wants to see an international coalition of sorts come to Gaza Is that possible? Is that feasible? Well, first of all, you're right that word revitalize Jeff does a lot of work as people like to say and we have to understand what the flesh is on the bones as this goes forward Obviously, there are going to be a lot of questions to American officials, to Biden administration officials about what that word means and to try to see to what extent it's consistent with the kind of terms that Prime Minister Netanyahu has laid out First of all, just a word about journalism because a lot of Israeli media outlets rushed to find the headline capital T, capital H from that op-ed and put it out to the exception of everything else in the piece I don't like that kind of journalism I don't think it serves the public very well to try to find the headline and put that out to the exclusion of the 99% of the rest of the content and this op-ed that was a huge mistake There are a lot of important things in this op-ed that have nothing to do with that one sentence and about that one word about the Palestinian Authority and I know we're going to get to those As for the international coalition, obviously like everything else in the day after in Gaza, it remains to be seen and there are a lot of obstacles Of course, if the Biden administration and the United States puts its weight behind it, right? Including its weight with its allies in the West and in NATO and in the Arab world obviously it increases the chances of something like that happening but I think Biden was more focused on that in terms of money in any case, money for reconstruction and maybe there will be some actors, Jeff including in the Middle East who see it as being in their national interest to fund reconstruction in Gaza and then have the leverage over the society that emerges in Gaza that will come from it Again, we don't tend to think of Gaza as a strategically situated place but it is, it's a sliver of land right along the Mediterranean Sea next to Israel, next to Egypt there may be some takers As for the revitalized Palestinian Authority again, we need to understand more of the content of what Joe Biden means and to see to what extent there's a meeting of the minds with Prime Minister Netanyahu You mentioned, you know, there's a lot here in this opinion editorial Biden in many respects trying to lay the groundwork making the case for what happens the day after Gaza What do you make of how he tries to link in some ways Hamas to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and America's commitment to Ukraine and Hamas kind of a corollary between them Very, very important And again, Jeff, this goes to the problem of push notification journalism, right? When an entire op-ed that's quite a long op-ed, by the way written by the president of the United States gets reduced to one sentence and by the way, that sentence itself often put out of context By the way, as for Prime Minister Netanyahu just going back for a minute what he has to say about the Palestinian Authority I said from the get-go after his press conference last week that he was not ruling out the PA coming back into Gaza that the best reading of what he said is that he was driving a hard bargain and I think that's certainly been borne out by events including what the Prime Minister said last night again, we heard that soundbite and what Joe Biden puts in the op-ed As for the link with Ukraine it's extremely important and extremely important for people here in Israel not only to understand but to internalize The Gaza War may turn out to be a kind of inflection point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and certainly in the way Israel's own society in the way we look at ourselves but as far as Joe Biden's concerned it's full speed ahead with his previous strategy the national security strategy of the United States did not change between October 6th and October 7th not globally and not regionally either and that was the point of this op-ed if before this war Joe Biden's strategy was to try to confront Russia and China by doubling down on America's alliance system and trying to build the alliances and link them together including physically right through the economic corridor from India through the Middle East to the Mediterranean well that's still full speed ahead this war has not changed it and Joe Biden is continuing to make the case for it linking the issues of Israel and Ukraine and going back to that idea of the economic corridor and the normalization with Saudi Arabia Jeff incredibly important because if one of the speculations had been that one of the motivations and one of the motivations particularly for the timing of the October 7th attacks was to try to foil that plan and to try to put a poke in the eye to American national security strategy Joe Biden has said that that's failed and I think that's the mark of a good national security strategy right you take the strategy and as new events unfold you take the existing strategy and you apply it to the events the strategy isn't continually changing because the strategy itself is solid and it can accommodate new developments and not only accommodate them but respond to them and that's what Joe Biden is saying and it's a final note yet again this needs to give Israeli policymakers real reason to think about how and when and to what extent to change Israel's policy toward the war in Ukraine I have said for weeks the best way for Israel to win the political center in the United States even more so in Europe is to change that policy this op-ed makes clear why thank you all for that analysis let's bring into this conversation idea for tired Colonel Mary Eisen who is now the director of the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Rachman University I want to also note again here Mary, what the White House spokeswoman saying that there is not a deal for a hostage release but the work is continuing to secure one is it moral in your estimation to negotiate the release of a fraction of Israeli hostages with Hamas? is it moral to do a terror attack that in its attack itself is to take 240 but you know citizens, babies, old people there's no morality when it comes to terrorism and because it's so unprecedented Jeff there is no precedent to try and talk now about the morals I don't know I'm saying this right now sitting here and listening to you listening to Owen excellent analysis and I'm thinking to myself so what do you do? and I don't have an answer I think that every single one of us is sitting right now and saying how can you do it for only a fraction? and I'm going to ask everybody listening to us right now how can you do it for if you can do for a fraction and you can release the children, the babies some of the women, the families whatever we're demanding how can you not do that? Hamas or a terror organization they are not going to stand up right now take the 238, 9 hostages that we know of again those numbers keep changing a bit but that they have and say oh we're done because of what we're doing they are under pressure because of what they're doing they're willing to let out a fraction do you not do it? I don't know if it's moral not to do it and I leave that as a question I don't want people to have an exclamation mark when it comes to that Ken Hamas do you think even deliver on an agreement if a deal is ultimately reached there has been a statement attributed to Hamas perhaps as an element of psychological warfare here that they've lost contact with some of the hostages they don't know where some of them are and they don't know they can't locate them or confirm their health is Hamas in a position to deliver do you think or do they just want the publicity of a confirmed deal and a ceasefire? Hamas took the hostages grabbed the hostage bitch terrorized the hostages as a bargaining chip they need them this is something that they need to be able to deliver on they want to get something in return and if they don't deliver the hostages they don't get that in return that is their bargaining chip so in that sense they certainly can deliver on many of them they are holding many of them and I'm not saying this to the viewers because I know something that they don't know but Hamas themselves when they did the attack and they put out so much videos of what they did in clips and go-pros of what they did at that time that it is there terrorists that took a bulk and yes there are others held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad probably held just by people I don't want to call them people terrorists in that sense but I think that the fact that they can deliver a large bulk of them means that they can give them all I'll rephrase your question can they deliver all of the children I don't know can they deliver entire families in the way that Israel wants I don't know but that's going to be part of you know it's so immoral as we're talking the entire event as it started by what they did that at this stage along the way we are now in a negotiation and then it becomes what you're willing to give how much you're willing to give this is their card it's their bargaining chip that's the horrifying reality of such a terror attack thank you so much for that analysis I want to also turn our eyes to the north as well where the violence is not subsiding with Khezbollah on the northern border I-25 news correspondent Robert Swift joins us now from the north of Israel רוב, in recent days overall a dramatic and precipitous drop in rocket fire from Hamas and Gaza but Khezbollah keeps upping their attacks the IDF responding in a tit for tat kind of method is there any update perhaps on the impact this is having on life in the north and when families who've been forcibly evacuated may be able to return home ability to launch its rockets has reduced as the Israeli military have taken control of ground inside Gaza that's not the same situation up here Khezbollah controls the same territory that it controlled at the start of the war and Israel's military response that has been limited whilst it deals mostly with the south and now attacks have continued yesterday there was around five separate attacks across the border towards Israeli territory that's a slight drop in the previous days attacks 12 but some days there's more some days there's less now there's a weather front is moved in here there's as you can probably see behind me there's quite extreme weather conditions here and that in itself may potentially cause the attacks taking place here to fall off now while the Israeli military's technology enables them to have continued good surveillance of the terrain here despite the weather conditions the same might not necessarily be said for the Khezbollah fighters they do have some advanced optics particularly on their anti-tank weapons but due to the fact it'll be more difficult for them to spot for Israeli drones to hear the drones in the air above them whilst the storm continues and because of the reduction in visibility visibility now being sometimes down to just 100 or so meters with the cloud and with the rain it may be more difficult for Khezbollah to spot for targets and that again may cause the attacks today to be reduced but again it's early days we'll wait and see how that plays out רוברד, as you know now in the south and the war in Gaza the circle tightening on Gaza City as our correspondent Jonathan Regev noting that the encirclement of Gaza City complete the IDF still pushing closer and closer into the city center and they're also expanding operations in new areas as well the battles are intensifying is that limiting the IDF ability to respond if needed in the north is the IDF able to have a multi-front war if this escalates there's no evidence so far to show that the Israeli military lacks the resources, the demand power for operations on both fronts I mean, there's tanks all over the northern border just driving around, it's easy to spot them so in terms of actual armor no, it doesn't seem like the military is limited in that way just in terms of their focus you can understand how it is easier to fight on one front rather than two if push comes to shove and the Israeli military does need to open up a second front it's likely that it does have the manpower but obviously that would be more difficult the second point is in terms of diplomatic resources Israel is already under severe diplomatic pressure due to civilian casualties taking place in Gaza if a second front were to be opened up and then civilian casualties were to occur in the south of Lebanon that may increase the pressure that Israel's feeling and the cabinet for the time being may simply see no need to go down that route when it can hold off Hisbola fight a defensive war here in the north while dealing with the objectives that it wants to complete in Gaza All right, Robert, thank you so much for that report in the north, let's go back here in studio with Owen Alderman, Owen another very important newsworthy element through President Biden's op-ed in the Washington Post today that I touched on earlier and I want to get your analysis on is him floating the idea of visa bans for Israeli settlers I'm not saying it's happening So talk to me, I guess the impact and the approach here from a U.S. national security standpoint and also as a policy standpoint on visa bans and how the term settler extremist would be defined by the U.S. government here Wow, the last question is really an interesting one, Jeff, right? How broad is that definition? The way I read the op-ed is that the definition is actually narrow, right? It's about people who actually engage in violence against Palestinians rather than their fellow travelers and it's in so many movements and certainly with the extremists I think it's fair to call them that among settlers in the West Bank there are concentric circles, right? There are the people who are actually engaged in physical violence then there are the people around them who help them then there are people who agree with them and outward and outward and you're right, the question is how far out does the definition go? I actually read it as being quite narrow and I actually think that the statement is, Jeff, a kind of bald admission about how few tools the United States has of its own to take action against those people the only thing that the United States can do itself against the individuals who are engaged in the violence is to stop them from coming into the United States Jeff, it's not a big tool set Yeah, even as a tool this is ideologically motivated by religious extremists perhaps on the Jewish side What's the impact going to be if they're told you can't ever take your you can't take your family to a vacation of Disney World you can't go to the Statue of Liberty you're not going to be able to come to the U.S. Is that going to stop the ideological impact perhaps of these attacks? I don't think it's going to do very much look, again, this is, as I read a very narrow definition, right? It's about people who are actually engaged in physical violence and that one would not one would think, one knows there's a fairly small circle of people with a very distinct set of ideologies this isn't likely to be much of a deterrent to them I think it's more of a symbol than anything you are right though, Jeff if the definition is extended outward right and expanded then it could take in other people by the way, interestingly enough these abeynes would seem not to include American citizens right again American citizens people hold American passports much more difficult to take away citizenship and to bar entry I don't know to what extent American nationals are involved in this kind of extremism we know that American citizens reportedly and anecdotally are over-represented among the wider circle in the far right of the settlement movement I don't know, we don't know whether American nationals are over-represented in that narrower group of people engaged in physical violence but that's a huge exception of course to this rule because they're much more difficult to take action important analysis, thank you Owen let's go back to IDF retired colonel Miri Eisenmiri want to return to Gaza and we have to read between the tea leaves a little bit here but as we've been talking about as Owen's been talking about you know, President Biden's saying that if the PA returns to power it has to be revitalized before they can govern Gaza Netanyahu's saying something similar that you know, in its current form currently the PA unfit leaving a lot of leeway there perhaps for a new form of the PA what do you make of the argument many are making that the PA was in power in Gaza they were eliminated in a violent coup by Hamas Hamas is more popular than the PA in Gaza poll show if not by a majority than by a consistent plurality that the PA in any form could not effectively govern in Gaza and Israel would be safe that's why I like the term revitalized because revitalized basically means anything you can have a whole new leadership you can have a whole new next generation but I'm going to make it harder for us in our conversation, Jeff you say that the base inside the Gaza Strip not just supports the Hamas brought them to power and they were their base there let's turn back to the former conversation about Judea and Samaria the West Bank and the fact that within the West Bank Hamas have very strong public support so it's not just in the Gaza Strip it's also in the West Bank and I say that because at the end when we look at the day after and nobody knows what that means and nobody knows when that happens but we're attacking right now Hamas terror capabilities we are attacking them in the Gaza Strip not only in the northern area where we are encircling and going step by step to get to the locations also in the central and south of the Gaza Strip not where we have sent the bulk of civilians to we're also attacking the Hamas in the West Bank and Palestinian Islamic Jihad so when you talk about that revitalized Palestinian base I'm looking into the future we're all going to have to look there let's state it clearly Palestinians who support the idea of two states are not about Zionism and Jewish right and it's a good idea that we're here it's much more about acceptance we are here, we're strong they have no choice Hamas within that world still call for our annihilation and the revitalized Palestinians in that sense are not going to be about hugging accepting that this isn't the Kumbaya moment it's about bringing in leaders who are willing to rule who think that two states is better than Hamas it's not about two states being about again, everybody living together in harmony it's about two states and mainly a Sunni base in that sense talking about more moderates because we could talk about the moderation of the Sunni countries around us also not something that if we looked at in depth we might enjoy but we have to take it one step at a time we have relations with countries that their bases don't like us okay, Egyptians don't like Israel and we have a very steady peace treaty with them Jordanian people don't like Israel, per se and you can have a steady peace treaty with them and a revitalized Palestinian arena would be again, leaders that in their interests, in their understanding of their future think that it's better side by side in cooperation than trying to annihilate us through terrorism מיר האזן, thank you so much for your analysis for joining us on i24 news and Owen as well thank you so much for being here stay with us, we have more live coverage live team coverage from the Israel Gaza border in the south as the IDF continues to expand its operations and military campaign to destroy Hamas and tensions continue to stay hot on the northern border as well with an eye towards ongoing attacks from Hezbollah more live reporting and updates and analysis stay with us right here on i24 news but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well thanks for joining us on the i24 news desk at this hour for the latest live update of the Israel Hamas war the battles deep inside Gaza continue to intensify the IDF this morning announcing the deaths of two soldiers killed in action that seven IDF soldiers killed in battle over just the last two days the IDF death toll in the ground invasion now stands at 58 prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is justifying the daily humanitarian aid and fuel deliveries that have now begun to enter the Gaza Strip saying last night that it is crucial to maintaining US and global support as the war inside Gaza goes on Israel abides by the laws of war that's how our army works the most moral army in the world הימניטריין-איד is also vital to maintain international support without humanitarian aid even our best friends will find it difficult to support us over time and it will be very difficult for us to continue the war until the end meanwhile tensions continue to rise in the north minutes ago a rocket alert siren blaring out in the northern border as well we are working to get set up with our correspondent on the Israel-Lebanon border we'll have an update from the north in just a few moments when we can restore that connection תק restor tickets תק קפuldה תק שקידות התפадות תק לחדות תק מוגריה תק חדות תק לצדות תק היום תק שקידות תק הם״ תק הנחמות ..... balanced to strike between the needs of the military but a part of those needs are the freedom to operate and it has to be said של שמישהו סביב על התביעה שהייתי מדררם שתמיד פיכון כמה זאת נותן בתנתרן ככה שככה ככה יש עד לך זאת כנראה או ככה כvet aprender כשכה יפה ככה ואני חושב שאתה אוכלת אואן אוהב קרע יש לי מישהו בלב אני חושב שזה נגמור ישראל היום ‫שכן שבגלל העולם ‫במקרה ובמקרה ובמקרה, ‫אבל כל כך, העולם ‫הוא להסתכל שישראל ‫הוא צריך להסתכל ‫במקרה כדי להסתכל ‫במקרה חמאס. ‫אבל הפיול הולך לחמאס. ‫חמאס הוא להסתכל ‫במקרה, לא? ‫אני לא יודע את זה. ‫אתה לא יודע את זה. ‫אפשרי, זו כל sorts ‫מסתכלות שהם אוכל ‫לתתרק את הפיול ותתתרק ‫במקרה כדי להסתכל. ‫אז הופעה שיש לה ‫הספקת של זה. ‫אבל העברה היא ‫שכן כפיים כפיים כפיים ‫שאנחנו באמת שאולי ‫שחררים כפיים כפיים. ‫אז אם תתן בפרסק ‫במקרה כפיים, ‫שאתה זכר שאתה, ‫הוא יעשי של איזה שהגדל ‫הוא מתואר את זה, ‫שאתה תואר את זה, ‫באריה הארלית, ‫אני חושב שזה ידע, ‫לא יש איזה זכר. ‫הוא שם פרשור, ‫הוא פרשור דמיסטובלית. ‫בספר רגע, נתניה הולישן ‫באתת הטעות, ‫באתת הארלית, ‫הוא פרשור עד כסופי. נתן יאו, זו דלברי, ובשכחים על המחשבים בבקשה בבקשה בבקשה בבקשה, מה אתם מגיעים על זה? Well, he went out and defended the policy, Jeff, and I think he did a terrific job. It was almost as if it was a Franklin Roosevelt fireside chat, right? Standing there methodically defending the policy, explaining why it was necessary, putting those realities out before the Israeli public. Extremely welcome. A month too late, a month too late. This should have happened a month ago. The decision should have happened a month ago. I said from the very first few days of the war that denying basic humanitarian aid to Gaza was a policy that was not realistic. Those are my exact words. We're not realistic. The realities of international relations were not going to allow them. And lo and behold, it's been absolutely borne out by events. And the prime minister explained it last night, Israel time, better than anyone else could. I think he really laid out the case extremely, extremely well using all of the most effective arguments possible. In a broader frame, I just think it's very, very difficult for the Israeli public to see Gaza not only as an armed base used and developed cynically by a terrorist organization that is similar to ISIS, which Gaza is, but it's also a place of a living and breathing community for 2 million people. Many of which may have odious opinions toward Israel, but not opinions that deprive them of their status as civilians. And people still need to drink water. They still need to drink water. I mean, we're still living organisms. Still need to drink water. Still need to eat food. Still need to have basic conditions for living. And that is what the humanitarian aid is designed to accomplish. It's simply not realistic to imagine that Israel could prevent that aid from coming through, even at the risk of some of the fuel going to Hamas. Even at the risk of some of the fuel going to Hamas, not realistic. Netanyahu couldn't go quite that far in making the case. I understand that kind of sad political reality, but he did, I think, do an excellent job of laying this out, of explaining and defending the policy, which you're right, Jeff, is going to be unpopular, and of course, there are going to be politicians who are going to want to freeride on this, who know very well that Netanyahu, Tuesday, who know very well that Netanyahu was right on the merits, but they themselves don't have to take responsibility for making the decision so they can stake out a popular political position, even populist political position, without having to cause any, quote, direct damage for Israel and instead reap the rewards for themselves, as I said, a case of political freeriding. Let's go live now to the south of Israel along the Israel-Gaza border. I'm joined by I-24 News correspondent Jonathan Regav. Jonathan, talk to me about the battles, new battles that are being waged inside Gaza right now. Unfortunately, we know that these are intense firefights, the IDF confirming seven soldiers killed in action over the last two days. I mean, horrific firefights going on. Tell me about perhaps the strategy here and also right now, live, the weather and the impact that might be having as the battles unfold. Yes, so regarding the weather, it is not raining yet. It is very windy and the forecast is for rain in the afternoon. It should not really affect the IDF. The IDF is well-equipped and well-trained to fight in the rain as well, but yes, it will. It can make things perhaps a bit more uncomfortable regarding the fighting and the fact that we see casualties חמאס-טראס are well-entrenched under the ground. So what happens is IDF forces go into new areas of the city of Gaza. In this case, the neighborhoods of Sejaia, Geballia on the eastern part of Gaza City, closer to Israeli border. We, they go into more places where terrorists are entrenched on the ground. They pop up fire anti-tank missiles. At the forces coming in, perhaps if heavy vehicles are coming in, they try to place IEDs and disappear on the ground, below the ground, meaning they're on the ground for a minute, maybe two, and disappear, and the IDF is targeting tens and tens of terrorists all the time. But can you target everybody all the time? The answer, of course, is no. That is why we're seeing casualties on the Israeli side. The fighting takes place right behind us, right towards that direction. The eastern outskirts of the city of Gaza, neighborhoods such as Geballia and Sejaia, as was mentioned, Israel first encircled the entire northern half of the Gaza Strip and then step-by-step more and more neighborhoods within that northern perimeter are conquered and cleansed. But that, of course, it's a difficult task and it comes with casualties. Jonathan, what about the south of the Gaza Strip? What is the plan of action now moving towards the southern part of the Strip where tens of thousands of civilian families have fled? Presumably, many Hamas fighters have fled, too, as well. Eventually, the battles will be turning that direction as well, correct? Probably so. And we heard defense ministry of Gaza saying in the press conference last night that now in the eastern outskirts of Gaza City people are feeling the might of the IDF and soon enough it will be felt on the southern part of the Gaza Strip so we can assume this will be the next destination. It will be very difficult as at least hundreds of thousands of people from the north fled to the south, just adding to the people already leaving there. Where will they move once the operation heads south? I don't exactly know. There's an assumption that perhaps the Hamas leaders will be hiding there in the tunnels under the ground. Possibly hostages as well. Let's remember something that I've said before about one-third of the hostages. Seventy-four people were kidnapped from Kibbutz near Oz which is right opposite to Chanyones which is the largest city on the southern part of the Gaza Strip. So there's a strong assumption that they're held somewhere there along the tunnels. If you want to eradicate Hamas you cannot just conquer the northern part of the Gaza Strip as important as that is. You have to conquer everything and cleanse everything. That means the southern part as well. Jonathan Regan for that update for us. Thank you so much. Stay safe as you continue to report along the border. The Washington Post is reporting that Israel is close to a hostage deal that will see Hamas free dozens of women and children hostages according to the report. Israel and Hamas will agree to freeze all fighting period for at least five days. Hamas will release at least 50 hostages overall in smaller batches every 24 hours of the ceasefire. The White House is denying that there is a done deal but says the work goes on. Netanyahu also giving an update on the negotiations last night. Regarding the deal, we are prevented from discussing the details of the conditions that we adhere to. We want everyone back. If we do it in a step or two, we will do it in such a way that we want to bring whole families together. It's clear as the sun. We want categories released together. This is also clear as the sun. I don't want to say beyond that, but that's what we want. It is hard. It is a cruel and cynical enemy which has no limitations. Within these limitations, we work and do the best we can. US President Joe Biden is now making plain his desire to see an international coalition temporarily rule the Gaza Strip. It's the first time Biden is giving such a specific vision for what he hopes will happen after the war inside Gaza. Biden writing an editorial published in The Washington Post also saying he eventually wants a revamped Palestinian authority to return to power in Gaza with a goal still of a two-state solution. Netanyahu says the PA must be overhauled before Israel could even consider a return to governance. I think that the Palestinian Authority in its current form is unable to accept responsibility over Gaza. After we fought in Gaza and did all we did, will we hand it over to them? Abbas, 43 days after the most terrible massacre of the Jews since the Holocaust, stood refuses to condemn it. His senior ministers are celebrating what happened. His authority pays the killers and their families. You know very well how they educate their children. There is no change in this matter. Then what have we done? And now let's go live to the north of Israel along the Israel Lebanon border where we have our correspondent Robert Swift. Ready for us, Robert, give us an update on the situation there. This morning, Hezbollah attacks appear to be continuing. That's right. There's an attack took place in about the last hour. It's understood that the community of Shlomi came under fire from around 8 to 10 mortar shells. This community is just to the south of the Lebanese border right at the far western end of it. Now for the last hour, we've been hearing intermittent artillery fire to the west of us which is likely in connection with that attack. That appears to be Israeli artillery responding to the attack and the IDF has confirmed that it is attacking in response to the fire that landed there. Now it's understood that the mortar fire landed in open areas and it has not caused any casualties. Shlomi is a community that has come under fire from this type of weapon in the past. It seems like this is a repeat of this. The Israeli military also said that it was attacking infrastructure in other parts of the border. Robert, stormy weather periods intense rain. Could this have an impact on the escalation, on the attacks? And could this also have an impact perhaps on the risk of miscalculation on the other side? Well, it certainly adds to the fog of war. I don't know if you can see behind me. Right now the weather has cleared up but it's very much coming and going at times. The weather system seems to be dropping down to visibility of about 100 meters. Now with a weapon system like a mortar that's not really likely to make a difference. If the mortar team can essentially set up in a position they've used before and just deploy the weapon at the angle that they've used in the past and fire off a few shells. Whether they can see the target or not doesn't necessarily impact their ability to do that so that's possibly why a mortar system was chosen as the method of attack as opposed to an anti-tank weapon system which would require more direct line of sight. With regards to whether this is likely to escalate things or not, it's very hard to say, you know, these attacks have been going on since the second day of the war. At times they spike upwards like they did two days ago. At other times like yesterday the attacks are less severe. Now it's not clear if this is due to deliberate attempts by Chasbulla to spike up the attacks. We have seen that occur on occasions when Nasrallah gave his second speech there was a string of attacks which took place there which you can imagine that maybe Chasbulla trying to essentially punctuate the statements of their leader with additional attacks. But also there's other days when the attacks seem to go up and that's possibly just due to opportunity that has presented itself for Chasbulla. Now whether or not the weather front that's coming in now whether that will give them additional opportunities today that's not clear and we'll have to wait and see how the day plays out. All right, Robert Swift, stay safe along the border there. Back here in studio, a lot to get to. Dale, I want to start with the reports of this hostage deal that's in the works perhaps for 50 women and children to be released as part of a multi-day ceasefire of the ethics. And there's no easy answers here. There's no clear cuts, clear cut right or wrong. But the ethics of a hostage deal where a country agrees to free, makes a deal to free a tiny percentage, a fraction of the hostages that are known to be held by a terrorist organization. Give us your analysis perhaps on what we may see here. Well, it's very simple. The objective is all the hostages have to be released. The tactics are set by realities and clearly this is not going to happen all at once. And those who think that pressure has to mount and we wait another week or two or three, they don't take into consideration that with every day that passes, it puts the lives of many of these hostages in jeopardy. Many of them are fragile human beings, young children, elderly people, sick people. So some people know that I'm active in the forum of families of hostages and we have the privilege, I have to say that we are a single issue organization. We are representing only the needs of the families and clearly from our point of view, each and every hostage that is freed is an achievement. Now, we don't dictate what the counterpart, what the price of such a release is. All I can say about the reports now is that there are too many reports and too few hostages freed. We've heard many times already that we are on the verge of a deal, 15 people, 80 people, 100 people, only the foreigners, only the fragile people, the elderly, the children, bottom line, they are still in Gaza. So everybody can understand and should understand that for these people who met with members of the War Cabinet yesterday and are going to meet with them again today, they are increasingly impatient, worried, concerned and frustrated. So I want to ask about the report from the Washington Post that lays out what's on the table being worked out. According to that report, it's a deal for 50 hostages but not in one release, in small batches each day of the ceasefire, five-day perhaps pause and fighting. The goal I would imagine from Hamas society is that it would be extended or that it would be a break in terms of galvanizing international pressure. But even in terms of this report, we may see children being released first, separated from mothers or vice versa. There's no, even according to the report, it's small batches of hostages. That may have an impact on our TV screens if this does happen as the pressure continues to grow. Right. Well, I think that from Hamas' perspective, Jeff, it's not only about the international pressure, it's about something much more basic, right? Enabling them to, in a sense, regroup logistically, right? To be able to move people around, to move supplies around, to do all the things that the Israeli military is stopping them and preventing them from doing in order to carry out the objective, the central objective of the war which is ending Hamas' control over the Gaza Strip. And to do that, you have to break Hamas' apart and to break the meaning of breaking Hamas' apart is by stopping those processes. So those processes would go into reverse over the course of the ceasefire. Israel, by accepting this deal, were the war cabinet and larger government to accept the deal, would be walking into the situation with eyes wide open, understanding that Israel is hurting its chances of achieving that objective of the war in the name of achieving the second objective of the war, which is, of course, freeing the hostages. As for the details of ensuring that a child isn't released on day one for a mother then to not be released on day three because the process breaks down, one would hope the Israeli government will be smart enough to engineer a deal to prevent that kind of worst case outcome. It does seem that at this point increasingly, the stated war aims are becoming in conflict of destroying Hamas and also releasing, saving the hostages. There is no way to do that without giving Hamas a little bit of breathing room, so to speak. Jeff. There are two objectives. They are, I won't say contradictory, but they are not parallel. That is clear. One goes on the, there is a cost in one for achieving the other. So you can decide that you go black or white and you say, okay, I don't care about the hostages. I'm going to destroy Hamas. Or you can say, I don't care about Hamas. I'm just going to release 240 hostages. But that's not how real life works. There is a balance. You try to negotiate the best possible balance. You pay a price. It's not always pleasant and it's not going to be pleasant. As you say, these, maybe 10, I hope it'll be more than 50, to be honest. I really hope it'll be more than 50. But even if they are 50 and it's five days and 10 a day, okay, you just swallow your pride and you be happy for these 50 families who will reunite with their loved ones. Three quick points. First of all, it is true that once the deal gets negotiated and the ceasefire is being entered into in the name of freeing the hostages, it's true that the goals are in conflict. That said, I do accept the position of Defense Minister Yov Galan that in the first place, in the first order, the goals can be consistent and we see that by the nature of the deal. These hostages are not being exchanged primarily for Palestinian prisoners. They're being exchanged for the ceasefire. Why is the ceasefire an asset that Israel has in its hands? Because of the success of the military operation. So that has to be recognized. The other point that I wanted to make is actually going back to the point about the humanitarian aid that we talked about earlier. Of course, as Netanel spoke to it directly, the immediate issue isn't drinking water. It's treatment of sewage to stop waterborne diseases. But again, goes back to the point of why it's so essential and not realistic to deny the humanitarian aid. We're also getting more specific, more detailed reaction from Arab leaders who are speaking out about the war and speaking about Hamas' actions and Israel's attacks in the wars and the ongoing war in Gaza to eradicate the Hamas terror organization, walking a fine line increasingly. Here's some of that reaction. I condemn Hamas unequivocally. This is so everybody in the room can understand that I stand on the side of civilians and innocents and not on the side of political posturing. The attacks on October 7th were barbaric. I unequivocally condemn the air campaign that resulted in the death of over 11,000 people in Gaza, 4,700 of which are children. And let me just make clear, as the Crown Prince said yesterday, I condemn Hamas' barbaric attack on civilians on October 7th. But I also must also condemn the equally barbaric and more savage attack of the Israelis on Palestinian civilians, not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. One reason this is important, noteworthy, here in studio with our guest, Daniel Sheck, is because of the op-ed published by President Biden who is saying he wants to see some kind of international coalition, the international group that will temporarily have control of Gaza until long-term Palestinian governance. These more moderate Arab nations, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, speaking out against Israel, yes, but also speaking out against Hamas, is it possible that they would be willing or to be part of a coalition temporarily inside Gaza? I think we should all hope for that. First of all, in order to again motivate the moderate parts of the Arab world to do something productive, do something towards a bigger future. And luckily, there are still people who think big and don't just think about today's news cycle. They want to think about the aftermath of the war, about an exit strategy that can't just be military. It has to be military, obviously, but also diplomatic and economic and humanitarian and you name it. So if you think that, if you compare these two speeches, which are quite courageous coming from the people who speak them and you compare them to president of Turkey Erdogan who flatly now says that Hamas is not a terrorist organization and it's all Israel's fault. So you see what a long way we've gone with these moderate Arab countries and I think we should welcome a possibility that they will be part of a bigger exit strategy for after the war. We're out of time here on this hour here of I-24 News. Thank you, Daniel Schek, Owen Alderman and our correspondents as well. More live reporting coming up here both from the Israel-Lebanon border. We're already today, we do have an attack from Hezbollah, Sirens, Blarion. It appears to be mortar fire on the northern Israeli town. Also in the south of Gaza where the battles and firefights are intensifying as the IDF continues to press on deeper and deeper inside Gaza. Stay with us, we'll be right back with more updates and live reporting and analysis here on I-24 News. Thanks for watching. Is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where we see. As our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. This is the desk at this hour for the latest live updates on the Israel-Hamas war. The battles deep inside Gaza continue to intensify. The IDF this morning announcing the deaths of two soldiers killed in action. That's seven IDF soldiers killed in battle over just the last two days. The IDF death toll in the ground invasion now stands at 58. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is justifying the daily humanitarian aid and fuel deliveries that have now begun to enter the Gaza Strip saying last night that it is crucial to maintaining U.S. and global support as the war inside Gaza goes on. Israel abides by the laws of war. That's how our army works. The most moral army in the world. Humanitarian aid is also vital to maintain international support. Without humanitarian aid even our best friends will find it difficult to support us over time and it will be very difficult for us to continue the war until the end. Meanwhile, tensions continue to rise in the north. Minutes ago a rocket alert siren blaring out in the northern border as well. We are working to get set up with our correspondent on the Israel-Lebanon border. We'll have an update from the north in just a few moments when we can restore that connection. Back here in the studio joined by I-24 News Senior Correspondent Owen Alterman and also former Israeli Ambassador to France and political commentator Daniel Schaik. Here in the studio I want to talk to both of you about the situation in Gaza this morning. The IDF continuing to press on to close the circle so to speak inside Gaza City opening up new battle arenas as well. And yet the Prime Minister of Israel defending the humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip, defending the fuel deliveries in the context of the war not stopping anytime soon that it is a necessity diplomatically. What do you make of that Daniel? Well, I think he's right. I think there is a balance to strike between the needs of the military. But a part of those needs are the freedom to operate and it has to be said that this famous diplomatic window that we always speak about when there is violence in Gaza when there are confrontations or like today an all-out war is that this window tends to close quite quickly. And I believe maybe Owen has a better memory. I think this is an all-time record for the moment that the world generally with growing concern and growing criticism maybe but all in all the world understands that Israel has to continue to operate in order to significantly weaken Hamas. But the fuel goes to Hamas. Hamas will end up with the fuel, no? I don't know that and you don't know that and apparently there are all sorts of methods that they found to follow to track the fuel and follow the tanker trucks from point to point. So hopefully there is a sufficient control of it. But the fact is that with these tiny quantities we're really talking about very little quantities. Even if you take a risk to counter the result being that you have satisfied what the United States, your greatest ally is asking from you asking of you in the area of humanitarian aid I think that's worth the risk. There's no argument about it. There's also pressure of course internationally but also pressure domestically from within Prime Minister Netanyahu's coalition about the fuel deliveries about the humanitarian aid other lawmakers speaking out against it Netanyahu's delivery answering the questions about it last night in the press conference what do you make of that? Well, he went out and defended the policy, Jeff and I think he did a terrific job. It was almost as if it was a Franklin Roosevelt fireside chat, right? Standing there and methodically defending the policy explaining why it was necessary putting those realities out before the Israeli public extremely welcome a month too late. A month too late. This should have happened a month ago. The decision should have happened a month ago. I said from the very first few days of the war that denying basic humanitarian aid to Gaza was a policy that was not realistic. Those are my exact words were not realistic the realities of international relations were not going to allow them and lo and behold it's been absolutely borne out by events and the Prime Minister explained it last night Israel time better than anyone else could. I think he really laid out the case extremely extremely well using all of the most effective arguments possible in a broader frame. I just think it's very very difficult for the Israeli public to see Gaza not only as an armed base used and developed cynically by a terrorist organization that is similar to ISIS which Gaza is but it's also a place of a living and breathing community for 2 million people many of which may have odious opinions toward Israel but not opinions that deprive them of their status as civilians and people still need to drink water they still need to drink water I mean we're still living organisms still need to drink water still need to eat food still need to have basic conditions for living and that is what the humanitarian aid is designed to accomplish it's simply not realistic to imagine that Israel could prevent that aid from coming through even at the risk of some of the fuel going to Hamas even at the risk of some of the fuel going to Hamas not realistic Netanyahu couldn't go quite that far in making the case I understand that kind of sad political reality but he did I think do an excellent job of laying this out of explaining and defending the policy which you're right Jeff is going to be unpopular and of course they're going to be politicians who are going to want to free ride on this who know very well that Netanyahu Tuesday who know very well that Netanyahu was right on the merits but they themselves don't have to take responsibility for making the decision so they can stake out a popular political position even populist political position without having to cause any quote direct damage for Israel and instead reap the rewards for themselves as I said, a case of political free riding let's go live now to the south of Israel along the Israel-Gaza border I'm joined by I-24 News correspondent Jonathan Regev Jonathan talk to me about the battles new battles that are being waged inside Gaza right now unfortunately we know that these are intense firefights the IDF confirming seven soldiers killed in action over the last two days I mean horrific firefights going on tell me about perhaps the strategy here and also right now live the weather and the impact that might be having as the battles unfold yes so regarding the weather it is not raining yet it is very windy and the forecast is for a weather rain in the afternoon it should not really affect the IDF the IDF is well equipped and well trained to fight in the rain as well but yes they will it can make things perhaps a bit more uncomfortable regarding the fighting and the fact that we see casualties חמאסטראס are well well entrenched under the ground so what happens is IDFs go into new areas of the city of Gaza in this case the neighborhoods of Sejaia Jabalia on the eastern part of the of Gaza city closer to Israeli border we they go into more places where terrorists are entrenched on the ground they pop up fire anti-tank missiles at the forces coming in perhaps if heavy vehicles are coming in they try to place IEDs and disappear on the ground below the ground meaning they're on the ground for a minute maybe two and disappear and the IDF is targeting tens and tens of terrorists all the time but can you target everybody all the time? the answer of course is no that is why we're seeing casualties on the Israeli side the fighting takes place right behind us right towards that direction the eastern outskirts of the city of Gaza neighborhoods such as Jabalia and Sejaia as was mentioned Israel first encircled the entire northern half of the Gaza Strip and then step by step more and more neighborhoods within that northern perimeter are conquered and cleansed but that of course it's a difficult task and it comes with casualties Jonathan, what about the south of the Gaza Strip what is the plan of action now moving towards the southern part of the Strip where tens of thousands of civilian families have fled presumably many Hamas fighters have fled too as well eventually the battles will be turning that direction as well, correct? probably so and we heard defense ministers I've got a thing in the press conference last night that now in the eastern outskirts of Gaza city people are feeling the might of the IDF and soon enough it will be felt on the southern part of the Gaza Strip so we can assume this will be the next destination it will be very difficult as at least hundreds of thousands of people from the north fled to the south just adding to the people already leaving there where will they move once the operation head south I don't exactly know there's an assumption that perhaps the Hamas leaders will be hiding there in the tunnels under the ground possibly hostages as well let's remember something that I've said before about one-third of the hostages 74 people were kidnapped from Kibbutz near Oz which is right opposite to Chanyounis which is the largest city on the southern part of the Gaza Strip so there's a strong assumption that they're held somewhere there along the tunnels if you want to eradicate Hamas you cannot just conquer the northern part of the Gaza Strip as important as that is you have to conquer everything and cleanse everything that means the southern part as well Jonathan Reger for that update for us thank you so much stay safe as you continue to report along the border the Washington Post is reporting that Israel is close to a hostage deal that will see Hamas free dozens of women and children hostages according to the report Israel and Hamas will agree to freeze all fighting period for at least five days Hamas will release at least 50 hostages overall in smaller batches every 24 hours of the ceasefire the White House is denying that there is a done deal but says the work goes on Netanyahu also giving an update on the negotiations last night regarding the deal we are prevented from discussing the details of the conditions that we adhere to we want everyone back if we do it in a step or two we will do it in such a way that we want to bring whole families together it's clear as the sun we want categories released together this is also clear as the sun I don't want to say beyond that but that's what we want it is hard it is a cruel and cynical enemy which has no limitations within these limitations we work and do the best we can US President Joe Biden is now making plain his desire to see an international coalition temporarily rule the Gaza Strip the first time Biden is giving is giving such a specific vision for what he hopes will happen after the war inside Gaza Biden writing an editorial published in the Washington Post also saying he eventually wants a revamped Palestinian authority to return to power in Gaza with a goal still of a two-state solution Netanyahu says the PA must be overhauled before Israel could even consider a return to governance I think that the Palestinian Authority and its current form is unable to accept responsibility over Gaza after we fought in Gaza and did all we did will we hand it over to them? Abbas, 43 days after the most terrible massacre of the Jews since the Holocaust Sunil refuses to condemn it his senior ministers are celebrating what happened his authority pays the killers and their families you know very well how they educate their children if there is no change in this matter then what have we done? סבים בחירים של החוג כשאנחנו עשינו בבקשה, 15 אנשים, 80 אנשים, 100 אנשים, only the foreigners, only the fragile people, the elderly, the children, bottom line, they are still in Gaza so everybody can understand and should understand that for these people who met with members of the war cabinet yesterday and are going to meet with them again today So, for the international pressure, it's about something much more basic, enabling them to in a sense regroup logistically, to be able to move people around, to move supplies around, to do all the things that the Israeli military is stopping them and preventing them from doing in order to carry out the objective, the central objective of the war which is ending Hamas control over the Gaza strip ולמריא את זה, צריך לתתם חמאסה ואתи צריך לתתם, תמיד, הים הטבעות של זה מרקע חמאסה הוא שrastה מפגלר כשהרעיות, אז כפתאות כפתאות נופך לפחות כבשאת נכנסת הטבעה, אישראל, כקבוצה את זה, בפגלת המדגפה ולמרות כבשיר בטח cokeical יהיה מלכת קבוצה כבשל ביחד חמאסה, להביא שהאישראל היא קצת שעצקה üzו אין לפגובן ככה אי פיגו החמאסה, כימול לסמחandez שירים פbrance חמאס יתפológ חמאס חמאס ולשתות את הרגלית, אין שם שם אין שם חמוס קצת תגידי. כדי לבין. יש שני באמצעים. שם, אני לא אמרה, כפתריים, אבל הם לא פראות, זה נכון. שם, יש סוג כאן, לצליח את האחר, אז אתה יכול לדעת שם לצליח את ה-1, ואתה אומרת, אוקיי, אני לא אמור את הרגליות, אני אעשה לך חמאס, או אתה יכול לדבר,אני לא אעשה לך חמאס,אני רק אעשה למה 240 אוסטיג'ים, אבל זאת לא זאת אומרת שאיזה נכון. יש לך בלאנס,את עושה לנגוש את הרגל הכל בלאנס. אתה פייע לך פריס,זה לא siempre פלאסנט וזה לא יהיה פלאסנט. כשאת אומרת,זה אולי 10,אני חושב שזה יהיה יותר than 50, אני חושב שזה יהיה יותר than 50. אבל כשאתה היו 50 וזה 5 דברים ו10 דברים, אוקיי,את תלכת את הרגל, ואת תלכת את היו 50 פעמים, שאתה תלכת את הרגל הכל בלאנס. 3 פריסות קצת. בבקשה,זה נכון שבכלל,כי הדיל נגושה, כשזה נכון שבכלל,זה נכון שבכלל, זה נכון שבכלל,כי הדיל נכון שבכלל. That said I do accept the position of defense minister Yulaf Galam, that in the first place,in the first order,the goals can be consistent and we see the nature of the deal,right? These hostages are not being exchanged primarily for Palestinian prisoners. They're being exchanged for the ceasefire. Why is the ceasefire an asset that Israel has in its hands? Because of the success of the military operations, so that has to be recognized. The other point that I wanted to make is, זה factually going back to the point about the humanitarian aid that we talked about earlier, of course as Netaniel spoke to it directly, the immediate issue is in drinking water, its treatment of sewage to stop waterborne diseases, but again goes back to the point of why it is so essential and not realistic to deny the humanitarian aid. We are also getting more specific, more detailed reaction from Arab leaders who are speaking out about the war and speaking about Hamas's actions and Israel's attacks in the wars ‫ tended by the ongoing war in Gaza ‫to eradicate the Hamas Television Organization, ‫walking a fine line, increasingly, ‫here's some of that reaction. ‫I condemn Hamas unequivocally. ‫This is so everybody in the room can understand ‫that I stand on the side of civilians ‫and innocents and not on the side of political posturing. ‫The attacks on October 7th were barbaric. אני אונקוויקלי קונדם את הירכמפיין שהבסלטה במהלכת 11,000 אנשים בגזע, 4,700 שלהם היו הילדים בואו נכון ככה, כשכרון פרינס יצר, אני קונדם את הירכמפיין בברבריק על סביליון עד אוקטובר 7, אבל אני גם חושב שאתה חושב שבארבריקה ומסביג עתק של ישראלים על סביליון פלסטיניים, לא רק עם רזה, אבל גם עם הסביליון. בבקשה, זאת אומרת שזה מיוחד, כאן בבקשה שלנו, די נלשק, הוא בזכו מפגש בפרסיטנט ביידן, שהוא רוצה להראות שבאיסה מיגיה סטרלנט, פגת דגרנטים, שבאיסה סטרלנט חשב של גזע Pilestina הן שוב soleirabias הולכים לגמות קצת וכמוס לאו נדעת על כמוס איזה פשר שמריע שסטרלנטים הם עוד פרש וכמוס אני חושב כשאתה תלכת נשים first of all, in order to again motivate the moderate parts of the Arab world to do something productive, do something towards a bigger future, and luckily there are still people who think big and don't just think about today's news cycle, they want to think about the aftermath of the war, about an exit strategy that can't just be military, it has to be military obviously, but also diplomatic and economic and humanitarian and you name it, so if you think that, if you compare these two speeches, which are quite courageous coming from the people who speak them and you compare them to president of Turkey Erdogan who flatly now says that Hamas is not a terrorist organization and it's all Israel's fault, so you see what a long way we've gone with these moderate Arab countries and I think we should welcome a possibility that they would be, that they will be part of a bigger exit strategy for after the war. We're out of time here on this hour here of I-24 news, thank you Daniel Sheck, Owen Altman and our correspondents as well, more live reporting coming up here both from the Israel Lebanon border, we're already today, we do have an attack from Hezbollah, Sirens, Blarion, it appears to be mortar fire on a northern Israeli town, also in the south of Gaza where the battles and firefights are intensifying as the IDF continues to press on deeper and deeper inside Gaza, stay with us, we'll be right back with more updates and live reporting and analysis here on I-24 news, thanks for watching. L is in a state of war, families completely done down in their beds, we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. joining us on the I-24 news desk at this hour for the latest live updates on the Israel Hamas war and also the war in the north as I speak coming to air right now rockets, rocket sirens blaring out in both the south of Israel and in the north incoming rocket attacks from both Hezbollah over the Lebanon border and from Hamas terrorists in the south that would continue to follow these developments as the rocket attacks continue, meanwhile the battles deep inside Gaza are intensifying the IDF this morning announcing the deaths of two soldiers killed in action that is now seven IDF soldiers killed in battle over the last two days, 65 soldiers have died since the beginning of the war, this is new video right now on your screen just released from the IDF of elite combat units operating deep inside Gaza, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is justifying now the daily humanitarian aid and fuel deliveries that have begun inside the strip saying it is crucial to maintaining the U.S. and global support as the war goes on Israel abides by the laws of war that's how our army works the most moral army in the world humanitarian aid is also vital to maintain international support without humanitarian aid even our best friends will find it difficult to support us over time and it will be very difficult for us to continue the war until the end and let's go live now to I-24 news קורספונט רגב who is on the Israel-Gaza border with rockets sirens blaring out even now as we speak Jonathan what's the update what are you seeing over there yes after quite a long pause siren sounded about 15 minutes ago and not far from the place where we are on the Gaza border itself the communities of course are mostly empty even the city of sterot and the largest city on the border itself is almost completely empty even with with a little some people coming back still the vast vast majority is away from the city we're hearing very large sounds of artillery here maybe you could hear it just now sounding around us that is because the fighting is inside inside the Gaza strip but in the places in Gaza which are closer to us on the eastern outskirts of Gaza city גבליה ושגעיה these are two neighborhoods on the eastern outskirts of Gaza quite close to the border itself and we're hearing that very loud urban warfare a difficult warfare as Hamas terrorists are many times hiding under the ground in that very large tunnel infrastructure which they built through the years and it comes with casualties on on the Israeli side אצל אינגיה היד-אפ אנפרת demographic confirming two more deaths from soldiers this morning making the announcement seven soldiers killed in firefighters in the last two days we have new video from the idf we see these elite combat units operating pushing deeper inside Gaza what is going on in the north of the Gaza strip now that is perhaps leading to these really intense deadly firefighters with hamas זה מאוד קלטי, זה מהי, בבקשה, הפרקרסט שלהם לא מאוד קצת, אם anyone expected Israel to race into the Gaza Strip and conquer the area within two days, that's not how it works when you have an enemy that's entrenched under the ground, you have to be very careful and walk by slowly, step by step to make sure that there's no threat left as the idea of forces push in. With us, thank you Jonathan, our senior defense correspondent for that update, stay safe, with us now is IDF reserves, Brigadier General Hanan Geffen, thank you so much for being with us sir, I want to ask about the IDF battle in the north, eventually, perhaps soon, the eyes of the Israeli military will turn to the south of Gaza, what is the plan, do you think, what can be the plan for eliminating Hamas in south Gaza where so many civilians have had to flee to? Also where Hamas fighters have fled to the south of Gaza as well? Yes, that's a very different war that we have used during the past and the only silver line is that the IDF has prepared itself very meticulously, very precisely with this combined battle forces, battle teams, and the planners of this kind of operation from day one told us this will take months and even more than that. Was after 15 years or 20 years and you were, we were part, we were sitting in your studio when a ceasefire was abruptly decided by somebody in the government of Israel and then year after year after year there is a force built in Gaza and trench underground and within the civilian population. As well as two difficult tasks, one is to make sure that the war is going on for a long time, longer time, target precisely the target that will support and gradually build this kind of success of eliminating Hamas capabilities. One thing is that already done is moving over one and a half million population from areas that are vital for Israel to look for Hamas. So, and now this is part of the worldwide ongoing support for this population. And Israel is now targeting the elite forces you are seeing now and every day are not just scrambling or walking in the streets of Gaza. Each of them, and every day, every hour, have a specific target, because it's a bunker, which is an underground facility, a house of Hamas operatives, and they are combined with the air force and engineering and a very close intelligence support. We have never seen such a support with a few minutes between finding a target and targeting it. The life cycle of intelligence information here is amazing. You can see, I don't believe, any military, but in the West and not in the East, have achieved such a tremendous capabilities to close the circle between intelligence gathering, to targeting, whether by gun forces, air force or Navy. I just second that we are now in the middle of phase two, as Minister Galan said, which is taking care of what's happening in Gaza. They're taking some of the strong force already, and they are left about, strong one, we have to admit, in northern Gaza and Gaza city. Now the next phase, we have to move to areas in the southern part, where probably many of the Hamas operatives and commanders have managed to escape during the last 40 or so days. Okay, what's the latest? We are at during attacks from anti-tank missiles. Now that's the second series of attacks this morning. This is taking place in the far east, but in the far western end of the northern border. There was also a mortar attack a couple of hours ago. Around 10 mortar shells were fired across the Israeli border with the Israeli military responding with artillery fire to this. Now the IDF have also said that they've used airstrikes along the border targeting Hezbollah infrastructure during the day. This, you know, it's only early hours so far this morning, and we've already seen two attacks so far. So if anything, the weather front that is moved in and cut down visibility does not seem to be dampening down the level of kinetic attacks that are taking place here on the border. Yeah, Robert Swift, unfortunately a busy morning on the northern border. The attacks, several incidents of attacks so far already. Thank you so much. Stay safe, Robert. Meanwhile, the U.S. President Joe Biden is making clear that he wants to see an international coalition temporarily rule the Gaza Strip after the war. Biden also says he eventually wants a revitalized Palestinian authority to return to power in Gaza with a long-term goal of a two-state solution. Prime Minister Netanyahu says the P.A. must be overhauled before Israel could even consider a return to governance. אני חושב. I think that the Palestinian Authority in its current form is unable to accept responsibility over Gaza. After we fought in Gaza and did all we did, will we hand it over to them? Abbas. 43 days after the most terrible massacre of the Jews since the Holocaust, Israel refuses to condemn it. His senior ministers are celebrating what happened. His authority pays the killers and their families. You know very well how they educate their children. If there is no change in this matter, then what have we done? In that same op-ed in The Washington Post, Biden also is threatening to issue visa bans against Israeli extremists in the West Bank who are committing acts of violence against Palestinians. The term extremist is not more specifically defined and it apparently wouldn't apply to American citizens who wouldn't be in need of a visa to enter the United States. We're also now getting more specific reaction from Arab leaders this weekend, their thoughts on Hamas and also the Israeli War. I condemn Hamas unequivocally. This is so everybody in the room can understand that I stand on the side of civilians and innocents and not on the side of political posturing. The attacks on October 7th were barbaric. I unequivocally condemn the air campaign that resulted in the death of over 11,000 people in Gaza, 4,700 of which are children. And let me just make clear, as the Crown Prince said yesterday, I condemn Hamas' barbaric attack on civilians on October 7th. But I also must also condemn the equally barbaric and more savage attack of the Israelis on Palestinian civilians, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank. Back with IDF Reserves, General Hanan Geffen, I want to ask about the Hamas terror leaders that you mentioned before. The Israeli government, Netanyahu, the Defense Minister Galan saying that they are all dead men walking, that they will be found and they will be killed for these acts of atrocity and horrific war crimes that they helped perpetrate. Where are they, Dief and Sinwar? The IDF continues to look for them. The IDF continues to press further inside North Gaza. Are these commanders all in the South? And if so, how can the IDF commit firefights and root them out of tunnels perhaps with civilians and child shields and hostages nearby? Yeah, that will be kind of, you know, seeking and looking to try to find them all across Gaza. I'm not sure that they are in the south, Gaza might be there, you know, they prepared so many, so the details that even they might be that they are spreading this kind of rumors to North, so we have to be very careful to look for a precise intelligence to cover them. But the only way, you know, the only way to fight this kind of movement, this ideological very zealot, very, it's committed to annihilate Israel, to kill the Jews. The only way, and they educated all the youngsters for 15 years, all school graduates are trained to be soldiers in the purpose of killing Jews. So in order to approve this kind of organization, you have to go after their leaders and then try to get some kind of condemnation for the world, the Arab world, the Islamic world, and the other way, try to keep them at low level as possible. This kind of ideology exists for the last 100 years in the same form almost, starting from Hajj-Minal Hussein, over 100 years ago the same exact rhetorics are used. I am a veteran of this of the Middle East for the 50, over 50 years following this movement, kind of movement, nothing has changed. The only thing that changed in the last 15 years, they managed to get some space and we will have to check how we allow this space, 15 or 20 years to flourish, to build these tunnels, these infrastructures, monstrous infrastructure, but that will be dealt after the war. In the meantime, we have to make sure that everybody understands that Hamas has no existence as an organization. Ideology will have to fight it in the long years of fight. Thank you, John. You understand. Stay with us. I want to bring into the conversation Ariel Kahana, diplomatic correspondent with Israel Hayom paper. Ariel, thank you so much for being with me. I want to talk a little bit, if we can, about the hostage situation report that a deal is perhaps imminent. It's certainly in the works, the White House confirming that the work goes on to close a deal that would see dozens of hostages released. However, the vast majority of hostages would remain kidnapped by Hamas in Hamas captivity. What are your thoughts on the morality here, the ethics of negotiating with Hamas for the release of just a small fraction of the hostages, but perhaps the most vulnerable of the hostages? Well, hello, Jeff. Thanks for having me. So to be very sincere, my personal opinion, and I wrote it and told it to my colleagues in the Hebrew media, is that we should not go into details and into numbers publicly because that serves Hamas interests. They want us to begin, let's say, a kind of internal debate in Israel about how many people to release. Yeah, but Ariel, Ariel, it's too late for that. The Washington Post already has the specifics. I'm asking you to respond. I mean, I understand where you're coming from, but the report from the Washington Post, you know, this gives the numbers. That's 50 hostages, women and children. We do have some specifics that we need to react to. That's why I want to pin down your thoughts to react to the reporting that's out there. And the White House confirming they are trying to close the deal. So the White House is confirming that they're trying to close the deal, but they are not confirming that those are the numbers and those are the details. According to my knowledge, I would put it this way, and according to my experience from previous operations, is that as long as the deal is not closed and as long as it was not brought to Israeli cabinet, then all the numbers and all the data and all the reports you have before are not definitely accurate. Now, that's why if it's okay, Jeff, I don't want to go to those specific deals you mentioned because I'm really not sure that those are really the facts. What I can tell you is that it's about a week and a half now that every 48 hours we hear about different scenarios, different options for a deal. One day they're saying it's three days and it's five days, then it's 80s and it's 70s and 50s. I am not sure about that. And I would like to go afterwards. Leaders actually said, I mean, Tanyao, Gans and Galen said yesterday and that there is no current deal, real deal, final deal coming to approve by the Israeli side. I think as time goes on, it tells us that it's not sure you can really connect and be sure that Hamas really can give those hostages promising. I think we have to remember that, again, in previous operations, they broke the ceasefire that worried you read. I mean, they were supposed to ceasefire and they didn't. Hamas is not an organization you can trust. So for all those reasons, I think we have to be very careful. Now, if you ask, to my opinion, I would like to see everybody here. I can tell you if a child is more dear to me than an Holocaust survivor, also opposite. I don't know. I want everyone back. I want them home. I want them now. And I'm even ready to pay some price for that because we have to acknowledge that every time you release, you release terrorists from jail a few years later, they once again become terrorists. ייך הסינואר was released from Israeli jail 12 years ago because of the Shalidi, because we wanted our soldier back. So you have so many considerations. It's so many tough, I would say, even brutal decisions that our leaders have to take. And I don't have, I definitely don't have the full information. So if it's OK, I don't want to go to those specific details because I definitely don't have the full picture. Ariel, you also alluded to the press conference last night with Israel's Defense Minister and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the war cabinet. In that press conference, Netanyahu was saying, walking perhaps a specific tightrope line, saying that the Palestinian Authority in its current form, as it is currently structured, couldn't return to power in Gaza. Israel could not let that happen. Also, the US President Biden has op-ed saying that the PA would have to be revitalized. There's a lot of room for debate about what exactly these terms mean. But what's your sense here, your analysis of what we hear from Netanyahu and we hear from Biden, are they perhaps that far apart with what they envision long-term in the Gaza Strip? Great question, Jeff. My sense, let's say, from last evening's statements were that maybe Netanyahu and Biden are coordinated in a way they actually brought almost the same message because what Netanyahu said is I'm actually, I mean, it's a subtext, I'm ready for the Palestinian Authority to go back to Gaza if they will change A, B, and C. And what Biden said, as you quoted, is that if it's a kind of a new PA, again, he is ready for them to go back to the Gaza Strip. So, I guess, Biden, sorry, another important comment is that, you know, that's a pair for the Taylor Force Act was approved by a very wide consensus in Congress which tells you, and we know that the Biden administration is very strongly against the pair for slay. So that's just one of the demands that Netanyahu wants as well. Of course, Biden's administration is against terror and against insightful terror. And of course, he wants Abu Mazen to condemn the massacre, which he didn't do until now. So I believe that Netanyahu and Biden are maybe not on the exact same page, but their position seems to me is quite close. That's at least what I got from yesterday night's statements. Also, it's interesting to note to me that Biden specifically mentioned before a possible return of some kind of Palestinian Authority governance. He would like to see an international coalition of some kind. And we played earlier these soundbites from several crown princes, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Arab leaders condemning Hamas, speaking out against Hamas atrocities. Do you think there's a possibility of some kind of coalition involving some of the more moderate Arab states? Would they have a presence in Gaza? I think Israel is first of all checking all options, including the one you mentioned. And I think Israel would like to see the moderate Arab regimes taking responsibility about the Gaza Strip. Let's be very honest, Jeff. No one wants to deal with the Gaza Strip. Let's face it, that's the truth. Egypt don't want them. Israel don't want them. The US, nobody wants them. And unfortunately, they can't handle themselves. So what do we do? So all in all, first of all, everybody are checking options. I know there is a massive work in Israel, in the US and probably in other countries to talk about the day after, which is to me very close. I think the day after is actually here. And I believe that countries like Bahrain, like Arab Emirates, moderate Arab countries, which, you know, they are Muslim countries, we are fine with that, but they are strongly, strongly against Errol, strongly against any kind of extreme regime. Maybe they can help when it comes to what should be done in the day after, in the Gaza Strip. And I've no, I didn't hear any comments until now from the Israeli side about those videos you showed, but I have no doubt that Israel will welcome those statements, because that's the reason why we went for the Abraham Accord, the Abraham Accord is years ago. Let me bring back into the conversation, General Hanan Geffen. As the fighting in Gaza will turn soon to the southern part of the Strip, I want to ask about the Israeli army's ability to screen, I mean civilians, the plan for civilians. There's, with hundreds of thousands of families now, part of the Southern Gaza Strip they fled the north. Will they be told to return back to the north? Can the IDF filter out terrorists among civilians? Or will everyone be kind of stuck there in the battles to come? It will be, certainly will be a long process, because we are, I assume there will be months until we may say that Hamas has lost his power, which is one of the, lost his capabilities, one of the targets of Israel. And then there will be a huge task, rebuilding Gaza and getting people back to their places. And here we already started to see, along what you have already mentioned, Arab countries, the Emirates and so on, already sending equipment will be part of the reconstruction of Gaza. It will be a long process. It should have been, it will be coordinated with Israel. Because we take many, many months or even more to try to find all the operatives to get even with each of the, one of the Hamas, as Israel promised and Israel will go for it. Every Hamas person that was part of the, of the massacres or taking fighting Israel will be dealt with in one way or another. So I guess we all, we the Israelis, the Arabs, the Palestinians for certainly has to be prepared for many months for these kinds of activities. One of the bright side, if you may see bright in these dark days, is that all the Arab states, Islamic states and Arab states stay on the line, clearly staying on the line, sidelines are not intervening and sending very clear messages to the Palestinians, Abu Abbas, and the Hamas, that you are alone there, you have to deal alone with the situation and this is for us, it's a great opportunity for us in this dark day. General, thank you so much for being with us on I-24 News giving us your analysis of the unfolding events. We're going out for a short break, more news ahead, more live team coverage across Israel as the war continues, more expert analysis. Stay with us, we'll be right back. ישראל is in a state of war, families completely done down in their beds, we have no idea where is she, as our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. We're going out for an I-24 News desk at this hour for the latest live updates on the Israel-Hamas war and also the war in the north as I speak coming to air right now, rocket sirens blaring out from both the south of Israel and in the north incoming rocket attacks from both Hezbollah over the Lebanon border and from Hamas terrorists in the south. We continue to follow these developments as the rocket attacks continue. Meanwhile, the battles deep inside Gaza are intensifying. The IDF this morning announcing the deaths of two soldiers killed in action. That is now seven IDF soldiers killed in battle over the last two days. 65 soldiers have died since the beginning of the war. This is new video right now on your screen, just released from the IDF of elite combat units operating deep inside Gaza. Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is justifying now the daily humanitarian aid and fuel deliveries that have begun inside the strip saying it is crucial to maintaining the U.S. and global support as the war goes on. Israel abides by the laws of war. That's how our army works, the most moral army in the world. Humanitarian aid is also vital to maintain international support. Without humanitarian aid even our best friends will find it difficult to support us over time and it will be very difficult for us to continue the war until the end. And let's go live now to I-24 News correspondent Jonathan Regav who is on the Israel-Gaza border with rocket assaults blaring out even now as we speak. Jonathan, what's the update? What are you seeing over there? Yes, after quite a long pause siren sounded about 15 minutes ago and not far from the place where we are on the Gaza border itself the communities of course are mostly empty even the city of Zderot the largest city on the border itself is almost completely empty even with a little some people coming back still the vast majority is away from the city we're hearing very large sounds of artillery here maybe you could hear it just now sounding around us that is because the fighting is inside the Gaza Strip but in the places in Gaza which are closer to us on the eastern outskirts of Gaza city Jabalia and the Sajaia these are two neighborhoods from Gaza quite close to the border itself and we're hearing that very loud urban warfare, a difficult warfare as Hamas terrorists are many times hiding under the ground in that very large tunnel infrastructure which they've built through the years and it comes with casualties on the Israeli side unfortunately Jonathan, you have the IDF unfortunately confirming two more deaths from soldiers this morning making the announcement seven soldiers killed in the last two days we have new video from the IDF we see these elite combat units operating, pushing deeper inside Gaza what is going on in the north of the Gaza Strip now that is perhaps leading to these really intense deadly firefights with Hamas it's urban warfare you can see in those videos it's not some battlefield with a lot of space inside urban areas where Hamas has the advantage the fact that they know this place they've been entrenching there for years preparing for this for years hiding under the ground popping up literally for minutes shooting anti-tank missiles at the forces and hiding back down it's a very difficult fight that's why by the way the progress is not very fast if anyone expected Israel to race into the Gaza Strip and conquer the area within two days that's not how it works when you have an enemy that's entrenched under the ground you have to be very careful and walk walk by slowly, step by step to make sure that there's no threat left as the IDF forces push in with us thank you Jonathan our senior defense correspondent for that update stay safe with us now there's IDF reserves, Brigadier General Hanan Kephin thank you so much for being with us sir I want to ask about the IDF battle in the north eventually perhaps soon the eyes of the Israeli military will turn to the south of Gaza what is the plan do you think what can be the plan for eliminating Hamas in south Gaza where so many civilians have had to flee to also where Hamas fighters have fled to the south of Gaza as well yes that's a very different world that we were used to in the past and the only silver line is the IDF has prepared itself very meticulously, very precisely with these combined battle forces battle teams and the planners of this kind of operation from day one told us this will take months and even more than that because after 15 years or 20 years well and then year after year year after year there is a force built in Gaza and trench underground and within the civilian population there is one that is too difficult task one is to make sure that the war is going on for a long time, longer time target precisely the target that will support and gradually build this kind of success of eliminating Hamas capabilities one thing is that already done is moving over one and a half million population from areas that are vital for Israel to look for Hamas and now this is part of the worldwide ongoing support for this population and Israel is now targeting the elite forces you are seeing now and every day are not just scrambling or walking in the streets of Gaza each of them and every day, every hour have a specific target whether it's a bunker, whether it's an underground facility a house of of Hamas operatives and they are combined with the air force and their engineering and a very close intelligent support we have never seen such a support with a few minutes between finding a target and targeting it the life cycle of intelligence information here is amazing I didn't see, I don't believe any military not in the west, not in the east have achieved such a tremendous capabilities to close a circle between intelligence gathering to targeting whether by gun forces air force or navy what we I just second that we are now in the middle of phase 2 as minister Gallant said which is taking care of what's happening in Gaza they're taking some of the strong force already and they are left about strong one we have to admit in northern Gaza and Gaza city now the next phase we have to move to areas in the southern part were probably many of the Hamas operatives and commanders managed to escape during the last 40 days General, thank you so much for your analysis and for being with us here on i24 news with us now in northern Israel as i24 news correspondent Robert Swift Robert incoming rocket sirens blaring out in the north of Israel as well several times today what's the latest? yes, the latest incident taking place 10 minutes is in the far northeast of Israel's border this is up just to the north of Kiryat Shmona where two communities Margaliot and Manara have just in the last couple of minutes had rocket sirens sounding now we don't have any information yet on what is the cause of those attacks but both of them have been targeted with anti-tank missiles in the past in fact Margaliot has seen Israeli military casualties take place there during attacks from anti-tank missiles now that's the second series of attacks this morning this taking place in the far east but in the far western end of the northern border there was also a mortar attack a couple of hours ago around 10 mortar shells were fired across the Israeli border with the Israeli military responding with artillery fire to this now the IDF also said that they've used airstrikes along the border targeting the infrastructure during the day this you know it's only early hours so far this morning and we've already seen two attacks so far so if anything the the weather front that is moved in and cut down visibility does not seem to be dampening down the level of kinetic attacks that are taking place here on the border yeah robert swift unfortunately a busy morning on the northern border the attacks several incidents of attacks so far already thank you so much stay safe robert meanwhile the US אינטרו ביידן is making clear that he wants to see an international coalition temporarily rule the Gaza Strip after the war ביידן also says he eventually wants a revitalized palestinian authority to return to power in Gaza with a long term goal of a two state solution prime minister נתניהו says the PA must be overhauled before Israel could even consider a return to governance אני חושב אני חושב אני חושב אני חושב אני חושב אני חושב אני חושב אני חושב אני חושב אני חושב אני חושב אני חושב אני חושב אני חושב ‫או חייגה בלבדת, ‫מה אנחנו עדים? ‫באחר שלה, ביטניה, ‫באיתן גם תשאר את התחיל ‫בספארת זרקות ישראלית ‫בספארת זרקות ‫שערו את בישר של פלסטינית. ‫החלט זרק של פלסטינית ‫לא כמו פעמים, ‫אם כמו לא נפלג ‫באמרכן וילדות ‫ששכרות שזה לא נכנס ‫בספארת זרקות. We're also now getting more specific reaction from Arab leaders this weekend, their thoughts on Hamas and also the Israeli war. I condemn Hamas unequivocally. This is so everybody in the room can understand that I stand on the side of civilians and innocents and not on the side of political posturing. The attacks on October 7th were barbaric. I unequivocally condemn the air campaign that resulted in the death of over 11,000 people in Gaza, 4,700 of which are children. And let me just make clear, as the Crown Prince said yesterday, I condemn Hamas' barbaric attack on civilians on October 7th. But I also must also condemn the equally barbaric and more savage attack of the Israelis on Palestinian civilians, not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. Back with IDF reserves, General Hanan Geffen. I want to ask about the Hamas terror leaders that you mentioned before. On Palestinian civilians, not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. Back with IDF reserves, General Hanan Geffen. I want to ask about the Hamas terror leaders that you mentioned before. On Palestinian civilians, not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. Back with IDF reserves, General Hanan Geffen. I want to ask about the Hamas terror leaders that you mentioned before. The Israelis for the release of just a small fraction of the hostages, but perhaps the most vulnerable of the hostages. Well, hello, Jeff and Sam, for having me. So to be very sincere, my personal opinion, and I wrote it and told it to my colleagues in the Hebrew media, is that we should not go into details and into numbers publicly because that serves Hamas interests. They want us to begin, let's say, a kind of internal debate in Israel about how many people to release. Yeah, but Ariel, Ariel, it's too late for that. The Washington Post already has the specifics. I mean, am I asking you to respond? I mean, I understand where you're coming from, but the report from the Washington Post gives the numbers. That's 50 hostages, women and children. We do have some specifics that we need to react to. You know, that's why I want to pin down your thoughts to react to the reporting that's out there. And the White House confirming they are trying to close the deal. So the White House is confirming that they're trying to close the deal, but they are not confirming that those are the numbers and those are the details. My, according to my knowledge, I would put it this way, and according to my experience from previous operations, is that as long as the deal is not closed and as long as it was not brought to Israeli cabinet, then all the numbers and all the data and all the reports you have before are not definitely accurate. Now, that's why if it's okay, Jeff, I don't want to go to those specific deals that you mentioned because I'm really not sure that those are really the facts. What I can tell you is that it's about a week and a half now that you know every, I would say every 48 hours, we hear about different scenarios, different options for a deal. One day they're saying it's three days and it's five days, then it's 80s and it's 70s and 50. I am not sure about that. And I would like to go afterwards. Leaders actually said, I mean, Tanyao, Gans and Galen said yesterday, and that is that there is no current deal, real deal, final deal coming to approve by the Israeli side. I think as time goes on, it tells us that but it's not sure you can really connect and be sure that Hamas really can give those hostages promising. I think we have to remember that again, in previous operations, they broke the ceasefire that worried you read. I mean, they were supposed to ceasefire and they didn't. Hamas is not going to addition you can trust. So for all those reasons, I think we have to be very careful. Now, if you ask, to my opinion, I would like to see everybody here. I can tell you if a child is more dear to me than an Holocaust survivor or the opposite. I don't know. I want everyone back. I want them home. I want them now. And I'm even ready to pay some price for that because we have to acknowledge that every time you release, you release terrorists from jail a few years later, they once again become terrorists. ייחסינואר was released from Israeli jail 12 years ago because of the Shalidi, because we wanted our soldier back. So you have so many considerations. It's so many tough, I would say, even brutal decisions that our leaders have to take. And I don't have, I definitely don't have the full information. So if it's okay, I don't want to go into those specific details because I definitely don't have the full picture. ארל, you also alluded to the press conference last night with Israel's defense minister and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war cabinet. In that press conference, Netanyahu was saying, walking perhaps a specific tightrope line, saying that the Palestinian Authority in its current form, as it is currently structured, couldn't return to power in Gaza. Israel could not let that happen. Also, the US president Biden has op-ed saying that the PA would have to be revitalized. There's a lot of room for debate about what exactly these terms mean. But in what's your sense here, your analysis of what we hear from Netanyahu and we hear from Biden, are they perhaps that far apart with what they envision long-term in the Gaza Strip? Great question, Jeff. But my sense, let's say from last evening's statements, were that maybe Netanyahu and Biden are coordinated in a way they actually brought almost the same message because what Netanyahu said is I'm actually, I mean, it's a subtext, I'm ready for the Palestinian Authority to go back to Gaza if they will change A, B, and C. And what Biden said is you quoted is that if it's a kind of a new PA, again, he is ready for them to go back to the Gaza Strip. So, I guess Biden, sorry, another important comment is that the, you know, that's a prayer for slay, Taylor Force Act was approved by a very wide consensus in Congress, which tells you, and we know that the Biden administration is very strongly against the prayer for slay. So that's just one of the demands that Netanyahu wants as well. Of course, Biden administration is against terror and against insightful terror, and of course, he wants Abu Mazen to condemn the massacre, which he didn't do until now. So I believe that Netanyahu and Biden are maybe not on the exact same page, but their position seems to me is quite close. That's at least what I got from yesterday night statements. I also was interesting to note that, to me, that Biden specifically mentioned before a possible return of some kind of Palestinian authority governance, he would like to see an international coalition of some kind, and we played earlier these soundbites from several crown princes, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Arab leaders condemning Hamas, speaking out against Hamas atrocities. Do you think there's a possibility of some kind of coalition involving some of the more moderate Arab states? Would they have a presence in Gaza? I think Israel is first of all checking all options, including the one you mentioned, and I think Israel would like to see the moderate Arab regimes taking responsibility about the Gaza Strip. Let's be very honest, Jeff, no one wants to deal with the Gaza Strip. Let's face it, that's the truth. Egypt don't want them, Israel don't want them, the US don't, nobody wants them. And unfortunately, they can't handle themselves. So what do we do? So all in all, first of all, everybody are checking options. I know there is a massive work in Israel, in the US and probably in other countries, to talk about the day after, which is to me very close, I think the day after is actually here. And I believe that countries like Bahrain, like Arab Emirates, moderate Arab countries, which, you know, they are Muslim countries, we are fine with that, but they are strongly, strongly against Errol, strongly against any kind of extreme regime. Maybe they can help when it comes to what should be done in the day after, in the Gaza Strip. And I've known, I didn't hear any comments until now from the Israeli side about, about those videos you showed, but I have no doubt that Israel will welcome those statements, because that's the reason why we went for the Abraham Accord, Abraham Accord just three years ago. Let me bring back into the conversation, General Hanan Geffen. As the fighting in Gaza will turn soon to the southern part of the Strip, I want to ask about the Israeli army's ability to screen, I mean civilians, the plan for civilians, there's, with hundreds of thousands of families now, part of the southern Gaza Strip, they fled the north. Will they be told to return back to the north? Can the IDF filter out terrorists among civilians, or will everyone be kind of stuck there in the battles to come? It's long, it will be, certainly will be a long process because we are, I assume there will be months until we may say that Hamas has lost his power, which is one of the, lost his capabilities, is one of the targets of Israel. And then there will be a huge task, rebuilding Gaza and getting people back to their places. And here we already started to see, as along the, what you have already mentioned, Arab countries and Emirates and so on already sending equipment, will be Gaza and getting people back to their places. And here we already started to see, as along the, what you have already mentioned, Arab countries and Emirates and so on already sending equipment, will be, and then there will be a huge task, rebuilding Gaza and getting people back to their places. And here we already started to see, as along the, what you have already mentioned, Arab countries and Emirates and so on already sending equipment, will be, will be, will be as well. On the ground, the battles deep inside Gaza continue to intensify. The IDF this morning announcing the deaths of two more soldiers killed in action. That's seven IDF soldiers killed in battle over just the last two days. 65 soldiers have died since the beginning of the war. And this is new video. Just released from the IDF of elite combat forces operating deep inside Gaza. Last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justifying the daily humanitarian aid and fuel deliveries that have begun to enter the Strip, saying it is crucial to maintaining U.S. and global support as the war goes on. Israel abides by the laws of war. That's how our army works. The most moral army in the world. Humanitarian aid is also vital to maintain international support. Without humanitarian aid even our best friends will find it difficult to support us over time and it will be very difficult for us to continue the war until the end. Let's turn immediately to I-20's correspondent Robert Swift who joins us from the Israel-Lebanon border in the North. Robert, what has been happening in recent minutes? So in the last half an hour there's been three separate security incidents that have taken place along this central zone of Israel's northern border. These were a combination of rocket alert sirens and aircraft warning sirens. Now the first of these took place in three communities around the keyboards of Iran. This was quickly followed by another series of alerts just to the east of where we are. Both of these involved aircraft alerts, most likely a drone. And then on top of this there was rocket alerts going on in the community of Rosh Pina which is a bit further to the east. Now these come on the back of rocket sirens that went off in the far northeast of Israel's northern border around the community of Mar Galeot. Now it's understood there, this took place about an hour ago, now it's understood there that those rocket sirens were in fact due to an Israeli interceptor missile that was fired that then intercepted a drone that was attempting to cross into Israeli airspace. Now due to the shrapnel that can be thrown out by these interceptor missiles the rocket sirens do go off but that incident along with the incidents half an hour ago suggests that it is possible that Hezbollah are testing the border defenses along the whole of the north and northeastern edges of the border sending multiple drones into this airspace. Now it's worth caveatting this by saying that false alarms do occasionally happen but it does appear that Hezbollah are testing the defenses here. And just to remind our viewers that both sorry, all of these incidents on the eastern end of the border and the central end of the border they come following mortar attacks that took place at the far western end of the border earlier this morning and this very much does give the impression that right along the border Hezbollah are testing the defenses. A rainy dreary overcast day in much of Israel especially in the north the low visibility and the rain could this be having an impact as the events of today unfold? It's definitely possible you know earlier we speculated that it might actually dampen things down but this doesn't seem to be the case now as to how much impact the weather is likely to have on the drones that the minute doesn't appear to be clear especially as we've seen what appears to be at least two incidents of drone if not more visibility is down and that in itself could be assisting Hezbollah and getting its teams closer so that they can land then launch their drones Robert Swift for us on the on the Israel-Lebanon border in the north of Israel stay safe thank you so much for that update I want to turn now to Seema Schein Seema's a former Mossad agent and the former deputy head of strategic affairs with the Israeli National Security Council thank you so much for being with us in your assessment we have seen an increase in attacks from Hezbollah over the northern Lebanon border Is Hezbollah intentionally trying to increase the pressure to increase the attacks? Do you believe in recent days? Well, first of all it's not the most increase we had a week ago one day that was much more than that but I think you are right to ask what is the intention of Hezbollah and what I understand is one they want to be involved every day so that they can show that what Iran has established in the region the resistance front is operational is walking is supporting Hamas therefore we see also from Yemen from time to time rockets and UAVs from Hamas from Hezbollah point of view it looks that it's important to support Hamas but there is a limit to what they want to do for the time being it was also expressed by Nasrallah in his last two speeches he wants to make Israel to make Israel actually what he is saying everyone is that he by doing what he is doing on the border by attacking Israel has to put a lot of soldiers on the border they those soldiers are not available for the south so this is the contribution that he is showing and of course there is a huge achievement for him with the people that were evacuated from their houses on the border so on one hand he has he can portrait support for Hamas and bothering Israel very much on the other hand he's paying a lot he has around 100 of his people that were killed a lot of places that he was hiding before are destroyed so the balance sheet is a mixed one he has some achievements he is willing to continue and do it in order to make Israel occupied with the northern border I think for the time being he doesn't want to go into a full-scale war you mentioned the evacuation of Israeli families in the north dozens of communities have had to be evacuated it's unclear when they'll be able to return the attacks are continuing daily what will it take for Israelis to feel safe who live in the north of Israel that's a huge question and a very difficult one before the decision makers in Israel because everything we saw with Hamas on the south is much more in bigger numbers and bigger and better equipped when it comes to Hezbollah the whole plan of infiltrating the border into the kibbutzim and villages and occupying them is a plan that was planned by Hezbollah and actually Hamas has learned from Hezbollah so from the point of view of the people that were evacuated on the north once there is no change on the border it will be very difficult to come back of course Israel understands it and as you can listen also to the military personnel that is talking a spokesman that is talking every day we understand it but at the same time since Israel decided to concentrate on the south we don't open a full-scale war with Hezbollah the question will be on our table to decide when the war in Gaza come to its end and the question will be how long Hezbollah will continue is a text after the war is stopped in the south if Hezbollah stops I assume Israel will start by concentrating on the political side trying to make sure that the security council resolution 1701 will be fulfilled and Hezbollah will be will not be able to go down to the border to the Israeli border after the Litany River which is the security council resolution we don't think that Hezbollah cares too much about security council resolutions but that will give a legitimacy to Israel for some development some steps that it can do on the on the border or the mutual border in order to fulfill to make sure that Hezbollah is not immediately on the border that they are a little bit far away and that on the border we don't see their points where they had before we don't see any people walking on the border looking into Israel everything will have to be changed as well as the Israeli deployment of the army around the villages and on the border so we will have to rethink everything that was before because people will not come back to their homes if the situation remains as it was on the 6th of October yep an increased buffer zone on the north I want to ask your assessment on Iran here what do you make of the reports that Iran has told Hamas leaders that we were not informed we were not given the full scope of the picture of what you were planning on October 7th so we cannot support you further what do you make of the Hamas Iranian relationship and Iran's efforts perhaps to get Hezbollah I'll be unsuccessful for now to open up a wider front why hasn't that worked why can't Iran pressure Hezbollah more I think first of all for your knowledge Iran has denied that the leader has said these things to Hamas and I doubt whether he said it so openly so bluntly I suppose that he might have said that he is not going to open a full-scale war including Iran directly because of the current situation the international situation and other reasons now the issue with Hezbollah is not that Iran has to push them it is a situation where both sides are consulting each other there is no the relationship between Hezbollah and Iran is not that Iran gives an order and Hezbollah is just fulfilling it their relations are that they are cooperating they are thinking together they are evaluating the situation and I think Iran doesn't want to spend if I can use this word to spend Hezbollah for Hamas Hezbollah is the diamond in the crown of all the resistance one and from Iran's point of view it is there in order to save Iran if Iran is attacked it's not in order to save Hamas and of course this is something therefore we see the level of atrocity on the border the level of clashes on the border but not more than that because at the end of the day no one neither Hezbollah nor Iran wants to see a full-scale war that Israel will destroy the Dachia in Beirut and others that and you know on the south of Israel on the south of Lebanon on our northern border most of the population is the Shia population they are supporters of Hezbollah and they don't want to be in a situation like Gaza so there are many many reasons and the most important one is the American presence so there is a complex of reasons why both Iran and Hezbollah decided that this level of occupying Israel on the border is good enough Seema thank you so much for your analysis I want to turn in studio here to political and international security analyst Martin Himmel the war with Hezbollah the situation clearly unsustainable but it's unclear what will happen in the future especially when things change in Gaza when the IDF winds down the ground up campaign in Gaza will the IDF and your estimation turn to the north or will they hope other means of restoring deterrence well my crystal ball is a little bit limited on that but I'll try to do the best I can I would say that if Israel has not struck heavily into Hezbollah territory now I think that if it does reach some sort of calm in Egypt not Egypt I'm sorry in Gaza it is going to look for some sort of modus vivendi some sort of working relationship to keep some status quo of quiet with Hezbollah I'm not so sure Hezbollah will be against it because Hezbollah knows it can't maintain a low level war without Israel ratcheting up to a high level war because too much of the population is not living there the north is shut down it's in a tolerable situation so if Gaza reaches a status quo maybe Hezbollah will be looking for some status quo in the north I don't think it's going to be what the inhabitants of the north want a complete pushback of Hezbollah but it might be something that they could live with also today U.S. President Joe Biden making clear that he wants to see an international coalition temporarily rule the Gaza Strip Biden also writing in an op-ed in the Washington Post that he wants to see eventually a revitalized Palestinian Authority return to power in Gaza still with a long-term goal of a two-state solution Prime Minister Netanyahu says the PA must be overhauled before Israel could even consider a return to governance I think that the Palestinian Authority in its current form is unable to accept responsibility over Gaza after we fought in Gaza and did all we did Will we hand it over to them? Abbas 43 days after the most terrible massacre of the Jews since the Holocaust Soudal refuses to condemn it His senior ministers are celebrating what happened His Authority pays the killers and their families You know very well how they educate their children If there is no change in this matter then what have we done? In that same op-ed Biden also threatening to issue visa bans against Israeli extremists in the West Bank who are committing violent acts against Palestinian civilians there Let's go live now to our senior defense corresponding to Jonathan Regev on the Israel-Gaza border Jonathan Rocket, Sirens and incoming fire from Gaza as well in the last several minutes What's the latest where you are? We're hearing a lot of artillery Israeli artillery this morning This is due to the fact that the fighting now is centered on the eastern neighborhoods of Gaza such as Geballia and Sajair which are actually closer to us than the western part of Gaza where the Shefa hospital is for example So this is a situation here on the ground and then the activity is ongoing We also had Sirens in several communities here in southern Israel The fighting is obviously still ongoing Tell me more about being a general sense how the battle is unfolding I mean we have sadly in the last two days a high IDF death toll 7 soldiers killed in combat over the Israeli weekend We have new video from the IDF of elite commando units operating inside Gaza city What is the game plan? The game plan is basically to continue in neighborhood after neighborhood home after home keep on going into them and understanding that you encounter you encounter a position when you come in you encounter terrorists and it comes with victims and it comes with casualties Israel has basically to cleanse all of the area from terrorists which is difficult because many of them are underground This is something that takes time and comes with their casualties first in the northern Gaza strip and then in the southern Gaza strip How will the fight in the south do you think Jonathan be different? I mean will it be very similar to the way that the battle the ground invasion unfolded in the north or because hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the north were told to go south because Hamas is in the south now as well because maybe the hostages are in the south will the south look different? will it be a different campaign? It might be different exactly because of what you mentioned about roughly one million at least hundreds of thousands of Gazans from the north fled to the south once you go to the south you meet all of them down there so it can have an effect on the fighting the strategy might be similar but the difficulties of course due to this high presence of civilians could be much more difficult A lot of questions of course if the hostages are in the south if the Hamas leadership if Muhammadif and Sinwar or if they might be in the south as well a lot of attention already turning down there Yes exactly because of course there's an understanding that along this process of fleeing south terrorists might have fled there the leadership perhaps understanding that these really forces are in if they were really in Gaza city maybe fleeing closer to Kanyunas and let's remember Ichi Sinwar is originally from Kanyunas maybe it's easier for him to hide there many questions so far with little answers but we did hear minister of defense Joav Gal on saying last night that the force that is currently felt in the northern Gaza Strip will shortly be felt in the southern Gaza Strip a hint as to the fact that it may be that the battles may be heading south as well Jonathan with that report thank you so much for the update and we're getting now more specific more detailed reaction from Arab leaders this weekend about their thoughts on Hamas and also the Israeli reaction I condemn Hamas unequivocally this is so everybody in the room can understand that I stand on the side of civilians and innocents and not on the side of political posturing the attacks on October 7th were barbaric I unequivocally condemn the air campaign that resulted in the death of over 11,000 people in Gaza 4,700 of which are children and let me just make clear as the crown prince said yesterday I condemn Hamas's barbaric attack on civilians on October 7th but I also must also condemn the equally barbaric and more savage attack of the Israelis on Palestinian civilians not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank back here in studio Martin your reaction in response to President Biden's op-ed calling for in the near term after the war an international presence an international coalition that would be able to maintain security and come in Gaza while long-term governance is being worked out it's a great idea the question is is it a pragmatic idea it's not going to be a situation where Israel is going to go into the West into Gaza completely root out Hamas and it's going to be quiet and an international force comes in that's highly unlikely there's too much of a fluid situation there where they could have a low-level guerrilla warfare you can have low-level attacks the army coming in and out all the time because of it and will an international force or an international community apparatus tolerate that will it accept that certainly not the Palestinian Authority in its limited form right now that's why Biden's suggesting maybe an international force but it has to have teeth it has to withstand the possibility of casualties there'll be a target too Hamas isn't going to go away quietly even if it's destroyed to a large degree it will want to shoot and fire on anybody that prevents its rule there so there's a lot of questions there whether there's such a international apparatus could function but we heard you know for the crown princes of Bahrain of Saudi Arabia is there a chance perhaps that we could see Saudi Arabia have an insight they have a vested interest for their security for their future if you want to have a presence in Gaza Strip to come in or the risks are too great for Saudi forces or peacekeeping forces to be anywhere near the Gaza Strip well it would be great in the sense if they would come in but the question is can they handle losses can they handle casualties can they handle the fact that Israeli forces might be based on the edge of Gaza and becoming in and out every day to go after these people it's going to be a politically sensitive situation and only the future will tell to that I don't know the Arab international forces would agree to a situation like that I want to ask about the language you is the very particular very careful word choices here from President Biden saying that the PA now could not return to Gaza but it could if it was revitalized and unclear what exactly that term may mean you could interpret that however you want a revitalized PA would return to governance in the Netanyahu in a similar vein saying currently the PA is unfit to rule but not ruling out changes to the PA that may allow them to return is the US do you think in alignment here with the Israelis could there be are they trying to pave the road of some kind of adjusted revamped PA to return to power and will Israeli citizens tolerate that I think the prime minister Netanyahu has a very different idea of what a revamped PA looks like compared to President Biden President Biden is talking about PA that's emboldened with more firepower more political power that means Israel has to give it to the PA it has to allow it I don't see prime minister Netanyahu doing that in the constellation of the government he has right now which is trying to actually dismantle the PA to weaken the PA so a lot of changes has to happen politically in Israel for Biden to get the PA that he wants the PA that the prime minister wants is really a very crippled PA that will just take over Gaza in such a way to allow full Israeli movement in control and I don't think that that's something that the president of the United States envisions or something that's workable in Gaza and the PA had been in control of the Gaza Strip before yes it did and it lost in a serious war to Hamas that kind of control I want to end by talking about the hostage situation according to a report today in the Washington Post according to many reports a deal may be close we know that a deal is being worked on that's confirmed from Netanyahu is confirmed from the White House nothing is final nothing has been signed but there does seem to be movement towards some kind of release for ceasefire plan and in any way you cut it it would apparently be a fraction of the hostages a portion of them maybe the women and children only maybe a portion what do you make of that in exchange for a multi-day ceasefire well סינואר The leader of Hamas has correctly assessed that Israel's weak point is its humanity its compassion for the hostages and he's pressing on that as much as possible because his issue is survival and the only way he can have that survival are prolonged ceasefires at this stage and without that I don't think he's going to be releasing any hostages and on the whole though I think that this constant debate about what the Sinwar want where is the negotiations I think it hurts Israel a great deal to have such an open internal debate about it because it just shows Sinwar weakness and maybe he could press more and get more somewhere people have to be a little more quiet about it in Israel and grit their teeth and let the talks go and basically talk about it when it's real and the ceasefire talks is there concern on your end as an analyst that it would allow Hamas to move supplies move weapons reorganize regroup in an effective manner or at this point the IDF has their gains are too great to overcome if they could get a flood of petrol and a flood of armaments and a flood of weapons it would be very bad this ceasefire but I don't see Hamas getting a big flood of gas it's a trickle at this point it's a trickle exactly I don't see them getting massive rearmaments yes they can move forces around and bolster certain areas it will be a bit of a setback for the IDF but I don't think it's going to be a game changer מרטניהמל thank you so much for your analysis again rockets in the north of israel in the last hour and rockets in the south the attacks continuing both ends here no reports of any impacts or casualties at least one interception in the north perhaps of an unidentified aerial object might have been some kind of drone but again the fighting continues and it's even intensifying in Gaza as the war goes on we're going out for a short break stay with us right here on i24news we're going to have more live team coverage from both the south of israel and the north and more expert analysis and reports here on the channel we'll be right back soon stay with us and thank you so much for watching a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well תלו יבי לב תלו יבי לב שםי אי 24news just at this hour rocket attacks this morning from both the south and the north קמאס launching a volley of rockets from Gaza towards Israel and also Hezbollah attacking Israel from the north with rockets mortar fire and apparently drones as well on the ground the battles deep inside Gaza continue to intensify the IDF this morning announcing the deaths of two more soldiers killed in action that's seven IDF soldiers killed in battle over just the last two days 65 soldiers had died since the beginning of the war and this is new video just released from the IDF of elite combat forces operating deep inside Gaza last night Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justifying the daily humanitarian aid and fuel deliveries that have begun to enter the strip saying it is crucial to maintaining U.S. and global support as the war goes on ישראל ישראל הבהדה במהלבי שזה אוהב המהלבי בו האדם האדם האדם האדם האדם האדם without humanitarian aid even our best friends will find it difficult to support us over time and it will be very difficult for us to continue the war until the end נכון, כפי כפי נכון בוקר בו בוקר בוilles בוקר בו בוקר בו בוקר בו בוקר שתי אתember intercepted a drone that was attempting to cross into Israeli airspace. Now due to the shrapnel that can be thrown out by these interceptor missiles, the rocket sirens do go off, but that incident along with the incidents half an hour ago suggests that it is possible that Hezbollah are testing the bordered defences along the whole of the north and northeastern edges of the border sending multiple drones into this airspace. זה נדבר כביעה את זה, עכשיו, זאת אומרת שגיפות שפגעים זכווינגים איתו שעוד לא יעבוד אבל זה בעבוד שחסבולה היו לדעות את התפלמנות ועכשיו, תכתבי, אני שמוכן כשכל הזאת בין השיר של העיר ובצלות השיר של עיר הם שחסבים לדעות המטור שלות לדעות כל הדבר ללבד כבשר כריש וזה כבר כל כך הביא לא ידע כבר בין השיר חסבולה תלו את התפלמנות אורייני, דרירי, מתחלות היום בישראל, ולבדות יגדות, המופיע, והרען חייבות נבחריים, כשזה לא נקוד את האנגרון הזה? זה נבחר, עוד כבר. נכון, שזה לא נקוד כשזה לא נקוד כך, עכשיו, כאילו, איך הרבה פעמים ככה נכנסו על דרונות, זאת אומרת, זה לא נסביר לך לך, שכמובן, כשאנחנו רואים, שכמובן, יש שני דרונות, אם לא יותר, זאת אומרת, זאת אומרת, וזה, בגלל, אפשר לעשות חזבולה, ולמדעת את הישראלים קצת, כשכמובן, שכמובן, להגיד דרונות. רבצוי, לך, על הישראל-לבנון בורטר, בבקשה של הישראל, תודה רבה for that update. אני רוצה לנסה עכשיו לסימה שיין, סימה זו פורמר מסעד האג'ק, ופורמר דפי דה של סטרטיגיק האפארס, עם הישראלי נשאקריטי-קונסל. תודה רבה for being with us. בבקשה שלך, אנחנו רואים אינקריסטים של חסבילה בין נורדון ולבנון בורדון, חסבילה זו אינקריסטים לנסה אינקריסטים, חסבילה לנסה? Well, first of all, it's not the most increase we had a week ago, one day that was much more than that, but I think you are right to ask what is the intention of Hisbala, and what I understand is one, they want to be involved every day so that they can show that what Iran has established in the region, the resistance front is operational, is working, is supporting Hamas. Therefore, we see also from Yemen from time to time rockets and UAVs, from Hamas, from Hisbala point of view, it looks that it's important to support Hamas, but there is a limit to what they want to do for the time being. It was also expressed by Nasrallah in his last two speeches. He wants to make Israel, to make Israel, actually what he is saying everyone is that he, by doing what he is doing on the border, by attacking, Israel has to put a lot of soldiers on the border, those soldiers are not available for the South. So this is the contribution that he is showing and of course there is a huge achievement for him with the people that were evacuated from their houses on the border. So on one hand he can portrait and support for Hamas and bothering Israel very much. On the other hand, he's paying a lot. He has around 100 of his people that were killed. A lot of places that he was hiding before are destroyed. So the balance sheet is a mixed one. He has some achievements. He is willing to continue and do it in order to make Israel occupied with the northern border. I think for the time being, he doesn't want to go into a full-scale war. You mentioned the evacuation of Israeli families in the north. Dozens of communities have had to be evacuated. It's unclear when they'll be able to return. The attacks are continuing daily. What will it take for Israelis to feel safe who live in the north of Israel? That's a huge question and a very difficult one before the decision makers in Israel because everything we saw with Hamas on the south is much more in bigger numbers and bigger and better equipped when it comes to Hezbollah. The whole plan of infiltrating the border into the Kibbutzim and villages and occupying them is a plan that was planned by Hezbollah and actually Hamas has learned from Hezbollah. So from the point of view of the people that were evacuated on the north, once there is no change on the border, it will be very difficult to come back. Of course, Israel understands it and as you can listen also to the military personnel that is talking, Spokesman that is talking every day, we understand it. But at the same time, since Israel decided to concentrate on the south, we don't open a full-scale war with Hezbollah. The question will be on our table to decide when the war in Gaza comes to its end and the question will be how long Hezbollah will continue is a text after the war is stopped in the south. If Hezbollah stops, I assume Israel will start by concentrating on the political side, trying to make sure that the Security Council Resolution 1701 will be fulfilled and Hezbollah will not be able to go down to the border, to the Israeli border after the Litani River, which is the Security Council Resolution. We don't think that Hezbollah cares too much about Security Council Resolutions, but that will give legitimacy to Israel for some development, some steps that it can do on the mutual border in order to fulfill, to make sure that Hezbollah is not immediately on the border, that they are a little bit far away and that on the border we don't see the points where they had before, we don't see any people walking on the border looking into Israel. Everything will have to be changed as well as the Israeli deployment of the army around the villages and on the border. So we will have to rethink everything that was before because people will not come back to their homes if the situation remains as it was on the 6th of October. Yeah, an increased buffer zone on the north. I want to ask your assessment on Iran here. What do you make of the reports that Iran has told Hamas leaders that we were not informed, we were not given the full scope of the picture of what you were planning on October 7th so we cannot support you further? What do you make of the Hamas-Iranian relationship and Iran's efforts perhaps to get Hezbollah, albeit unsuccessful for now, to open up a wider front? Why hasn't that worked? Why can't Iran pressure Hezbollah more? I think, first of all, for your knowledge, Iranians have denied that their leader has said these things to Hamas and I doubt whether he said it so openly and so bluntly. I suppose that he might have said that he is not going to open a full-scale war, including Iran directly, because of the current situation, the international situation and other reasons. Now, the issue with Hezbollah is not that Iran has to push them. It is a situation where both sides are consulting each other. There is no, the relationship between Hezbollah and Iran is not that Iran gives an order and Hezbollah is just fulfilling it. Their relations are that they are cooperating, they are thinking together, they are evaluating the situation and I think Iran doesn't want to spend, if I can use this word, to spend Hezbollah for Hamas. Hezbollah is the diamond in the crown of all the resistance one and from Iran's point of view, it is there in order to save Iran if Iran is attacked. It's not in order to save Hamas and of course this is something, therefore we see the level of atrocity on the border, the level of clashes on the border but not more than that because at the end of the day, no one, neither Hezbollah nor Iran wants to see a full-scale war that Israel will destroy the Dachia and Beirut and others. And you know, on the south of Israel, on the south of Lebanon, on our northern border, most of the population is the Shia population. They are supporters of Hezbollah and they don't want to be in a situation like Gaza. So there are many, many reasons and the most important one is the American presence. So there is a complex of reasons why both Iran and Hezbollah decided that this level of occupying Israel on the border is good enough. Seema, thank you so much for your analysis. I want to turn in studio here to political and international security analyst, Martin Himmel. The war with Hezbollah, the situation clearly unsustainable but it's unclear what will happen in the future, especially when things change in Gaza, when the IDF winds down the ground-up campaign in Gaza, will the IDF and your estimation turn to the north or will they hope other means of restoring deterrents? Well, my crystal ball is a little bit limited on that but I'll try to do the best I can. I would say that if Israel has not struck heavily into Hezbollah territory now, I think that if it does reach some sort of calm in Egypt, not Egypt, I'm sorry, in Gaza, it is going to look for some sort of modus vivendi, some sort of working relationship to keep some status quo of quiet with Hezbollah. I'm not so sure Hezbollah will be against it because Hezbollah knows it can't maintain a low-level war without Israel ratcheting up to a high-level war because too much of the population is not living there. The north is shut down, it's in a tolerable situation. So if Gaza reaches a status quo, maybe Hezbollah will be looking for some status quo in the north. I don't think it's going to be what the inhabitants of the north want, a complete pushback of Hezbollah, but it might be something that they could live with. Also today, U.S. President Joe Biden making clear that he wants to see an international coalition temporarily rule the Gaza Strip. Biden also writing in an op-ed in the Washington Post that he wants to see eventually a revitalized Palestinian Authority return to power in Gaza still with a long-term goal of a two-state solution. Prime Minister Netanyahu says the PA must be overhauled before Israel could even consider a return to governance. I think that the Palestinian Authority in its current form is unable to accept responsibility over Gaza. After we fought in Gaza and did all we did, will we hand it over to them? Abbas, 43 days after the most terrible massacre of the Jews since the Holocaust, still refuses to condemn it. His senior ministers are celebrating what happened. His Authority pays the killers and their families. You know very well how they educate their children. If there is no change in this matter, then what have we done? In that same op-ed, Biden also threatening to issue visa bans against Israeli extremists in the West Bank who are committing violent acts against Palestinian civilians there. Let's go live now to our senior defense corresponding to Jonathan Regev on the Israel-Gaza border. Jonathan, rocket sirens and incoming fire from Gaza as well in the last several minutes. What's the latest where you are? We're hearing a lot of artillery, Israeli artillery this morning. This is due to the fact that the fighting now is centered on the eastern neighborhoods of Gaza, such as Jibalia and Sajair, which are actually closer to us than the western part of Gaza where the Shifa hospital is, for example. So this is a situation here on the ground. And then the activity is ongoing. We also had sirens in several communities here in southern Israel. The fighting is obviously still ongoing. Tell me more about, being a general sense, how the battle is unfolding. I mean we have sadly in the last two days a high IDF death toll, seven soldiers killed in combat over the Israeli weekend. We have new video from the IDF of elite commando units operating inside Gaza City. What is the game plan? The game plan is basically to continue in neighborhood after neighborhood, home after home, keep on going into them and understanding that you encounter you encounter opposition when you come in, you encounter terrorists and it comes with victims and it comes with casualties. Israel has basically to cleanse all of the area from terrorists which is difficult because many of them are underground. This is something that takes time and comes with their casualties first in the northern Gaza Strip and then in the southern Gaza Strip. How will the fight in the south do you think Jonathan be different? I mean will it be very similar to the way that the battle, the ground invasion unfolded in the north or because hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the north were told to go south because Hamas is in the south now as well because maybe the hostages are in the south. Will the south look different? Will it be a different campaign? It might be different exactly because of what you mentioned about roughly one million at least hundreds of thousands of Gazans from the north fled to the south. Once you go to the south you meet all of them down there so it can have an effect on the fighting, the strategy might be similar but the difficulties of course due to this high presence of civilians could be much more difficult. A lot of questions of course if the hostages are in the south if the Hamas leadership if Muhammadif in Sinwar or if they might be in the south as well a lot of attention already turning down there. Yes exactly because of course there's an understanding that along this process of fleeing south terrorists must have might have fled there. The leadership perhaps understanding that these really forces are in if they were really in Gaza city maybe fleeing closer to Kanyounis and let's remember Iches Sinwar is originally from Kanyounis and maybe it's easier for him to hide there. Many questions so far with little answers but we did hear minister of defense Yoav Galan saying last night that the force that is currently felt in the northern Gaza Strip will shortly be felt in the southern Gaza Strip a hint as to the fact that it may be that the battles may be heading south as well. Jonathan with that report thank you so much for the update and we're getting now more specific more detailed reaction from Arab leaders this weekend about their thoughts on Hamas and also the Israeli reaction. I condemn Hamas unequivocally This is so everybody in the room can understand that I stand on the side of civilians and innocence and not on the side of political posturing. The attacks on October 7th were barbaric. I unequivocally condemn the air campaign that resulted in the death of over 11,000 people in Gaza 4,700 of which are children. And let me just make clear as the Crown Prince said yesterday I condemn Hamas's barbaric attack on civilians on October 7th but I also must also condemn the equally barbaric and more savage attack of the Israelis on Palestinian civilians not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank. Back here in studio Martin, your reaction in response to President Biden's op-ed calling for in the near term after the war an international presence an international coalition that would be able to maintain security and come in Gaza while long-term governance is being worked out. It's a great idea the question is is it a pragmatic idea? It's not going to be a situation where Israel is going to go into the West into Gaza completely root out Hamas and it's going to be quiet and an international force comes in. That's highly unlikely. There's too much of a fluid situation there where they could have a low-level guerrilla warfare you can have low-level attacks the army coming in and out all the time because of it and will an international force or an international community apparatus tolerate that? Will it accept that? Certainly not the Palestinian Authority in its limited forum right now. That's why Biden's suggesting maybe an international force but it has to have teeth it has to withstand the possibility of casualties. There'll be a target too. Hamas isn't going to go away quietly even if it's destroyed to a large degree it will want to shoot and fire on anybody that prevents its rule there. So there's a lot of questions there whether there's such an international apparatus could function. But we heard for the crown princes of Bahrain of Saudi Arabia is there a chance perhaps that we could see Saudi Arabia have decided they have invested its interest for their security for their future if you want to have a presence in Gaza Strip to come in or the risks are too great for Saudi forces or peacekeeping forces to be anywhere near the Gaza Strip. Well it would be great in the sense if they would come in but the question is can they handle losses can they handle casualties can they handle the fact that Israeli forces might be based on the edge of Gaza and becoming in and out every day to go after these people it's going to be a politically sensitive situation and only the future will tell to that. I don't know if the the Arab international forces would agree to a situation like that. I want to ask about the language used the very particular very careful word choices here from President Biden saying that the PA now could not return to Gaza but it could if it was revitalized and unclear what exactly that term may mean you could interpret that however you want a revitalized PA would return to governance in the Netanyahu in a similar vein saying currently the PA is unfit to rule but not ruling out changes to the PA that may allow them to return is the US do you think in alignment here with the Israelis could there be are they trying to pave the road of some kind of adjusted revamped PA to return to power and will Israeli citizens tolerate that? I think the Prime Minister Netanyahu has a very different idea of what a revamped PA looks like compared to President Biden President Biden is talking about PA that's emboldened with more firepower more political power that means Israel has to give it to the PA it has to allow it I don't see Prime Minister Netanyahu doing that in the constellation of the government he has right now which is trying to actually dismantle the PA to weaken the PA so a lot of changes has to happen politically in Israel for Biden to get the PA that he wants the PA that the Prime Minister wants is really a very crippled PA that will just take over Gaza in such a way to allow full Israeli movement in control and I don't think that that's something that the president of the United States envisions or something that's workable in Gaza where and the PA had been in control of the Gaza Strip before yes it did and it lost in a serious war to Hamas that kind of control I want to end by talking about the hostage situation according to a report today in the Washington Post according to many reports a deal may be close we know that a deal is being worked on that's confirmed from Netanyahu is confirmed from the White House nothing is final nothing has been signed but there does seem to be movement towards some kind of release for ceasefire plan and in any way you cut it it would apparently be a fraction of the passages a portion of them maybe the women and children only maybe a portion what do you make of that in exchange for a multi-day ceasefire Well, Sinwar the leader of Hamas has correctly assessed that Israel's weak point is its humanity its compassion for the hostages and he's pressing on that as much as possible because his issue is survival and the only way he can have that survival is our prolonged ceasefires at this stage and without that I don't think he's going to be releasing any hostages and on the whole though I think that this constant debate about what the Sinwar want where is the negotiations I think it hurts Israel a great deal to have such an open internal debate about it because it just shows Sinwar weakness and maybe he could press more and get more somewhere people have to be a little more quiet about it in Israel and grit their teeth and let the talks go and basically talk about it when it's real and the ceasefire talks is there a concern and you're right as an analyst that it would allow Hamas to move supplies move weapons reorganize regroup in an effective manner or at this point the IDF has their gains are too great to overcome if they could get a flood of petrol and a flood of armaments and a flood of weapons it would be very bad this ceasefire but I don't see Hamas getting a big flood of gas it's a trickle at this point it's a trickle exactly I don't see them getting massive rearmaments yes they can move forces around and bolster certain areas it will be a bit of a setback for the IDF but I don't think it's going to be a game changer מרדה חמור thank you so much for your analysis again rockets in the north of israel and the last hour and rockets in the south the attacks continuing both ends here no reports of any impacts or casualties at least one interception in the north perhaps of an unidentified aerial object might have been some kind of drone but again the fighting continues and it's even intensifying in Gaza as the war goes on we're going out for a short break stay with us right here on i20 for news we're going to have more live team coverage from both the south of israel and the north and more expert analysis and reports here on the channel we'll be right back soon stay with us and thank you so much for watching