 We do want to go live from the Hague where we have our contributor Alex Kedier joining us from just outside Alex. We did see that there were some mass demonstrations last night and we're hearing some reports of more of them today. What's going on out there? Yeah, well you could probably hear them over my voice. These protesters are assembled in their numbers. If I look directly in front of me, I can see hundreds of Palestinian flags, a few South African flags as well, and a few hundred feet, a few hundred meters down the road to my left you will see a few hundred Israeli flags as well as some Dutch flags as well. Between them, the International Court of Justice, the Peace Palace behind me, and also a couple hundred Dutch law enforcement officers as well. They are watching proceedings on the big screens. They have heard the Israeli defence accusing South Africa of ignoring altogether the atrocities committed on October 7th by Hamas in that terror attack, saying that in fact the violence, the level of atrocity committed on the 7th of October justifies Israel's right to defend itself, and therefore the accusations leveled by South Africa do not stick. That is the defence by Israel. Ronald Lamola, who is the South African Justice Minister, did acknowledge yesterday when South Africa was presenting its arguments the attack by Hamas on October 7th and saying that no matter how violent the attack, even if it included atrocity crimes, it does not justify a breach of the Convention, a breach that Israel firmly denies here of the Hague. Thank you very much for that report from what's going on out there. Is there any sort of indication that we are seeing about in public perception, which actually before we do that, let's listen live to the continuation of Shah's statements? The intention faced with the 7th of October atrocities and the continuing rocket fire and the incarceration of the hostages on the parts of Israel to act in order to defend itself so as to terminate the threats against it and rescue the hostages certainly exists. The intent to deal with the armed militants of Hamas and other such groups is undeniable. Were it the case which we deny that Israeli forces have transgressed some of the rules of conflict, then the matter will be tackled at the appropriate time by Israel's robust and independent legal system. But that is not the intent to destroy all or part of a people as such. Israel's actions in restricting its targeting practices to attack military personnel or objectives in accordance with international humanitarian law in a proportionate manner in each case as well as its practice of mitigating civilian harm such as by forewarning civilians of impending action by the unprecedented and extensive use of telephone calls, leafleting and so forth coupled with the facilitation of humanitarian assistance all demonstrate the precise opposite of any possible genocidal intent. South Africa in seeking to discover the necessary intent presents a distorted picture. It misunderstands the nature and provenance of certain comments made by some Israeli politicians. Let me try and explain the big picture. Israel possesses a clear and effective structure of authority with regard to governmental decision. The war against Hamas is managed on behalf of the government by two central organs. The Ministerial Committee on National Security affairs and the war cabinet, the latter established for the purpose of managing the war by the former. These bodies make the relevant decisions regarding the war's conduct and according to Israeli law, the decisions of the government and its committees obligate the ministers of the government in accordance with the principle of collective responsibility. It is the collective decisions of these bodies which are the binding provisions in question. The Prime Minister stands at the head of these organs, decides on the agenda of their meetings, steers their activity and summarises the meetings and the instructions issued therein. To make it clear, in order to determine the policy and intentions of the government of Israel, it is necessary to examine the decisions of the Ministerial Committee on National Security Affairs and the war cabinet and to examine whether the particular comments expressed conform or not with the policies and decisions made. Thus to produce random quotes that are not in conformity with the government policy produced as describing is misleading our best. Such as the statements by the Minister of Heritage, for example, who is completely outside the policy and decision making process in the war. In any event, his statement was immediately repudiated by members of the war cabinet and other ministers, including the Prime Minister. In tab 1A of the volume which Israel has submitted to the court, one may find numerous excerpts from internal cabinet decisions that attest to Israel's true intent throughout this war. For example, one finds the instructions from the Prime Minister in a meeting of the Ministerial Committee on National Security Affairs from the 29th of October stating the following. One, the Prime Minister stated time and again, we must prevent a humanitarian disaster. Two, the Prime Minister indicated the possible sorts of solutions that will ensure required supply of water, food and medicine, increasing the amount of trucks entering with the necessary inspections. Three, promoting the construction of field hospitals in the south of the Gaza Strip to re-emphasize this is a directive to authorities, nothing less. Tab 1A contains a considerable number of similar directives emphasizing the need to avoid harm to civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid. Genocidal intent? Let me turn to the IDF. This is, this like every army is a hierarchical body that operates by way of orders from... And now also joining us in studio is Ambassador Adlonel Thelmer, former ambassador to South Africa. Thank you very much for being with us. I want to actually open with you this time because we have seen these extremely strong invectives from South Africa. What's their motivation for putting on this show? South Africa was always strongly connected to the Palestinians from the time of the struggle. When we asked Mandela why is it so close to Arafat, he said, when I was 27 years in jail, only three leaders in the world cared about my whereabouts and it was Castro, Arafat and Gaddafi. Where were you? You all called me a terrorist. And when he came out of jail, he said, including in conversations with me, if you will enable the Palestinians to get the freedom, we'll open a new page. And this was always the guideline in South African foreign policy. Are we close to a Palestinian state? Are we close to Palestinian freedom or not? In the last few years, as you know, we had no negotiations and we had the deterioration in the West Bank and things deteriorated to the point that they had the decision to close our embassy and their relations were emptied of content. But there's a marked difference from having bad or virtually non-existent relations to directly using the international courts as a weapon of policy. Yeah, you're correct. But the South African, the only way the South African could approach the International Court of Justice was by the claim of genocide. They could not claim for crimes against humanity or war crimes because they were not a direct subject to any Israeli hostilities. So the only way they could approach the court is on genocide because genocide is something that is damaging the whole humanity and the court enables every country, even if it was not directly affected, to approach the court, every country that is a member, to approach the court and claim for genocide accusations. So this was the only way they could approach the court. But we also have to note that South Africa maintains very close relations with Iran as well, Russia and China. Is this them taking another shot at the Western world? Do they have any real interest in this? They have good relations with Iranians. By the way, in the past, they were very close to the Fatah, to our fat. In recent years, they became much closer to Hamas and definitely they act here on the behalf. But you must remember that they have their traumas from the past and they well remember the 20 years in which we were the allies of South African apartheid and they make all these connections and in a way they're punishing us now for being allies of those who tortured them when under apartheid. Are they not cutting off their own nose despite their face here? If they're trying to make a rhetoric equals genocidal intense speech, when you have their leading party filling stadiums of people chanting kill the bower, untold violence on racial grounds out in the countryside, is this not just opening them to a counter suit of their own and damaging their own interests? You mean the country, South Africa? Yeah. I don't think so. First of all, the world considered the fight against apartheid. It was very legitimate. The world joined the fight. The world was part of removing apartheid and the world was very joyful when apartheid was gone. So they didn't fight on their own and they couldn't do it on their own. Another thing is it's very difficult to claim that South Africa is an anti-Semitic country because a Jewish community was flourishing there in the past. When I was ambassador, there were 120,000 Jews there strongly into the business community, but also ministers and the Supreme Court judges and so on. And even I would dare to say that even today when the community is about half the size, I don't think they are in danger because there was no direct anti-Semitism. I have to remember that along Mandela, Jewish people fought in the struggle, joined the struggle, and some of them became ministers in Mandela's cabinet. So they have a good record in relations with Jews, definitely the whites in the apartheid because the Jews were part of the white community. But even later with the black community, they treated the Jews fairly. I want to move back to the very specifics of this case with you, Dr. LeRun, because we are seeing the case laid out and the basics of the defenses laid out here. We were speaking just a moment ago while we had some time about where Israel is going to run into its hardest legal discussions and that is on the invective and the rhetoric that Israel, some of its ministers have used. Let's walk into the pitfalls that are inherent to that part of the case. Well, I'll say the problems are a few problems which are, of course, connected. It's the rhetoric, which is very problematic and some of it from people of high position which are relevant. The actions, not the actions, the outcomes of what's going on in Gaza that you cannot deny that the situation is very hard, okay? And the fact that in this stage, you just have to prove a plausible case. So even if it's possible that Israel did not intend to destroy the Palestinian population, they can still have provisional measures, right? That's very problematic for Israel. That's really the core problem here. And Danny, I want to turn back to you because ultimately anything the court decides still has to go through the Security Council. As you said, when we're talking about provisional measures, how is that going to stand up to the United States of Iraq? Well, I think that whatever the outcome will be on the court in Hague, the real decisions will be made in New York in the Security Council. No way the United States will allow these outrageous allegations to sustain. Not only that, also the American geostrategical interest are very clear, a decisive victory over Hamas and over Iran at the end of the day. So even as Dr. Leibniz said about the risk of some countries invoking any kind of allege or any kind of decision by the court of not sending arms to Israel, I think this will not stand. I think you cannot stand. The United States will continue to supply the arms. Other countries will do the same because at the end of the day we see that what the Palestinians and the Hamas are trying to make it is really a division in the world between the United States and its allies, mainly the Western world and the other side, which we call it the Axis of Evil, maybe the New Axis of Evil, but basically it's Iran, it's proxies and Iran is being supported economically by China and politically and militarily by Russia. So at the end of the day, I think that the United States will not allow any decision in the Security Council which will be against Israel's interest, mainly also American interest. But if we go back to where we started, this is a total war by the Palestinian. This is part of the political war against Israel and the fact that Israel is standing there, it's already a victory by the Palestinians. By the way, there is another issue and I will close here, which is very symbolic because what the Palestinians are trying to do is take Israel down the road of South Africa apartheid and what we see in the campuses in the United States. Accusing Israel of apartheid is also something of quite successfully being presented by the Palestinians and the fact that South Africa is the one that is invoking the case against Israel is again more than symbolic and putting Israel in association with not just genocide, but also apartheid. I want to add here something about the Security Council. First of all, there are several interim measures possible on the humanitarian aid, on the displacement and so on, but the one that is worrying Israel very much is the total halt of hostilities. If Israel will not respect this interim demand of total seas to fire and it will go to the Security Council, it will be a very complicated veto for the United States. It's not a normal veto. It's a veto on a request of the International Court of Justice on accusations about genocide. I agree with Danny, they will veto, but they will put straightforward demands to Israel before they veto, including I think end of the war, including beginning of negotiations. So the Americans will negotiate with us the veto before and because if they don't veto, then it can go to section seven and so on in the Security Council and be very, very complicated. So they will veto, but have their conditions. Well, we're going to discuss this and what those conditions might be in a little bit, but first we're going to return back to Professor Shaw's arguments because he is addressing the question of rhetoric in this exact time. The court was prepared to consider not only the question of the plausibility of rights, well, some have shuffled my papers, but also the question of the possible breach of such rights. Power of the court to indicate provisional measures and Article 41 of the statute has its object. Yes, someone thought that my speech was a pack of cards. Indeed, in the Jadav case, my apologies, the court was prepared to examine evidence as to the existence of asserted rights and whether, as a matter of fact, the violations had plausibly happened. The final point to be made in this section of my pleading is simply to underline the obvious point that the court needs to consider the relevant respective rights of both parties, the respondent as well as the applicant. Article 41 provides that the purpose of the provisional measures is to preserve the rights of either party. I would note the court's order of the 16th of March, 2022, in Ukraine, Russia, stating that the power of the court to indicate provisional measures has as its object the preservation of the respective rights claimed by the parties. And further quote the comment in the Myanmar case that the function of provisional measures is to protect the respective rights of either party pending its final decision. This mutual protection or balancing criterion in the light of the rights of both parties is intended to prevent either party being placed in a situation of disadvantage and to ensure that irreparable prejudice will not be caused to either party. I will look briefly at the relevant rights of both parties here. As regards the applicant, I make three simple and brief points. First, South Africa has presented a confusing and a partial recycle of the facts. This will be discussed later this morning by Ms Rajwan. Secondly, that the appropriate legal framework for this tragic situation is that of international humanitarian law. Thirdly, that Israel's efforts both to mitigate harm when conducting operations, as well as its efforts to alleviate suffering through humanitarian activities have gone relatively unnoticed and dispelled or at the very least mitigates against any allegation of genocidal intent. As from Israel's withdrawal of its civilian and military presence from Gaza in 2005, which brought an end to its belligerent occupation, and the violent coming to power of Hamas in 2007, a situation of conflict has existed with Hamas firing rockets as Israeli towns and villages unceasingly. However, the attack on Israel on the 7th of October was qualitatively different from all that went before. The truth is that if there has been any genocidal activity in this situation, it was the events of 7th of October. Acts and intent can and have been adequately demonstrated. But Hamas recognized as a terrorist group by at least 41 states, including the US, the UK, all members of the EU, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Colombia is not before the court only South Africa, a third party that is not involved in the armed conflict appears. Nevertheless, as South Africa has pointed out, complicity in genocide is in play. States that supported, condoned, praised, or glorified the events of the 7th of October, both at the time and later, stand guilty of a violation of Article 3E of the Convention as being complicit in genocide, and indeed of the duty to prevent genocide under Article 1. And as the agent has pointed out, South Africa has given succor and support to Hamas, at the least. Clearly of relevance to a discussion of the situation is the facilitation of humanitarian assistance, something that hardly fits well with accusations of genocidal intent, as my colleagues will demonstrate. Israeli-Israel's activities in this area need to be addressed and not swept aside as South Africa seeks to do. Prime amongst the rights of the respondent that are critical to any legal evaluation of the situation is the inherent right of any state to defend itself, embedded in customary international law, and enshrined in the UN Charter, this right afforded to states, reaffirms and underlines the responsibility of all states towards their citizens, and marks the acceptance by the international community of the political reality and legal confirmation that states when attacked may legitimately respond in a forceful and proportionate manner. Professor Lowe yesterday sought to maintain that Israel has no right to self-defense in this situation. How could anyone possibly argue that Israel could not defend itself faced with the 7th of October atrocities and the incessant attacks against its civilians since? Indeed, a very wide range of states have acknowledged the right of self-defense here, ranging from the UK to the US, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, Ghana, and Guatemala, and others. Israel bears the responsibility to exercise its protection over its citizens, not only those constantly subjected to bombardment from Gaza, but also and critically, with regard to those captured and held hostage as a result of the 7th of October outrage. These rights exist and cannot be disregarded. Of course, Israel does not have any right to violate the law, still less to commit genocide, and indeed it does not, but it does have every right to act to defend itself in accordance with the rules and principles of international law, and so it has done. A link has to be established between the rights asserted and the provisional measures requested, and this issue will be addressed by Mr. Staker. And he will show that the measures proposed go far beyond the protection of the rights asserted. Other than President Members of the Court, this is an important case. Allegations have been made with verge on the outrageous. The attack by Hamas on 7th of October with its deliberate commission of atrocities clearly falls within the statutory definition of genocide. Israel's response was and remains legitimate and necessary. It acted and continues to act in a manner consistent with international law. It does so not in an unrestrained manner, but in investing unprecedented efforts in mitigating civilian harm at a cost to its operations, as well as alleviating hardship and suffering with investment of resources and efforts. There is no genocidal intent here. This is no genocide. South Africa tells us only half the story. Israel is guilty of genocide. We cannot deal with Hamas. Only Israel must be stopped from protecting its citizenry and eliminating the egregious threat that is Hamas. We cannot deal with Hamas. Meanwhile, we must bind the arms of the state of Israel. Hamas is to some other body. I conclude. First, the core of genocide is intent. Without intent, there can be no genocide in law. It is true for the merits. It is equally true for provisional measures. Any prima facie consideration, indeed, of intent, even at this preliminary stage, will only demonstrate its absence from Israel's activities. Second, there is here no dispute under the genocide convention as of the time of submission of the application. As are legs for South Africa, and as required for prima facie jurisdiction. Indeed, South Africa's own precipitate activities with notes over recent weeks demonstrates the lack of its confidence in this respect, and that is telling. Thirdly, the right to be protected in the provisional measures procedure cover not just the applicant, but also the respondent and chief amongst these rights is that of the right and obligation to act to defend itself and its citizens. This must be considered and weighed by the court as against the false accusations level of Israel. Madame President, members of the court, thank you for your kind attention. I would ask you to call Madame Rajwan at your convenience. Thank you, Professor Shaw. Before I give the floor to the next speaker, the court will observe a coffee break of 10 minutes. The sitting is adjourned. That's a perfect opportunity for us to discuss the situation further with our studio discussion. Panel, I want to open with you first, Liron, because we were talking about the merits of this case and where you think the stronger and the weaker arguments are. The stronger arguments for South Africa are the fact that the reality on the ground in Gaza is bad, right? And there are these statements, repugnant statements by Israeli politicians, right? About wiping Gaza and so on. That works for them, right? But they have to prove the connection, which is more harder, right? That's what would be problematic for them. But at this stage, it's just up to show that the case is plausible, plausible. There's a very low threshold, right? That would be the problem for Israel. Jurisdiction, if Israel would succeed in claiming that there's not a real dispute here, so there's no jurisdiction for the court, that would be an easy way for the court to get out without too many political ramifications. We are judges. This is the law. Our hands are tied. We do not have jurisdiction. But I suspect the chances are not very high. But as long as the court decides there's plausibility to the claims, then they can try to implement these sort of injunctions, which is a ceasefire and the like, for the duration of the case going forward. Exactly. And the context that Israel based its opening arguments around would be the closest or the best defense against exactly that sort of procedure. Yes, yes, exactly. To claim that since we do have other statements that of course South Africa omitted from Haiti, sometimes the same statement, just after the sentence South Africa used, has saying that we are at war with Hamas and not with the Palestinian population. But I mean, that does make Israel's case harder. Now, we've actually been having just during some of that break a discussion about the weaknesses of South Africa's case and why it reflects their own experiences rather than the points of law. And you wanted to open up on that. Yeah, I think here, I think the weakest point that Salafiqa made yesterday in the oral presentation is a point they even did not include in their application. And at one stage, Professor Van Roy I think said, well, if some ask why Hamas is not here, and we have a legal argument. Okay, Hamas is not a state. It is not a state party to the genocide convention. So we could not bring it here. Okay, so that's the reason why only Israel is here. Because we, of course, South Africa care for humanity, we're not just having here a political exercise in favor of Palestinians and against Israel. But this is a very weak argument for two reasons. First, while Hamas is not a state party, the state of Palestine is recognized by South Africa as a state and not just by South Africa, but many states. And the state of Palestine has ratified the genocide convention. And while Ramallah does not control Gaza, it does not say it doesn't have some obligation under the genocide convention. Did you hear Ramallah denouncing the genocide, opening an investigation into the genocide? These are all allegations against Israel, why you're not doing that, why there is such incitement. What about Palestinian incitement? Just not just by Hamas. In the Palestinian Authority textbooks, there are also a genocidal incitement, okay, taught to children. So if South Africa would come in clean hands, really caring about preventing genocide, they should have the case also against the state of Palestine. And they did not did it. The second point is that as I said earlier, South Africa has a relation not just with the Palestinian Authority, but also with Hamas. And South Africa's foreign minister had a phone call with Hamas leader Ismail Aniyah, I think like 10 days after October 7th. And Hamas claimed that he actually congratulated them for the Al-Aqsa flood. He of course immediately said it's not true, but he did acknowledge that there was a conversation about how to get humanitarian aid to Gaza. Now at 17th of October, it was very clear what happened in the Gaza envelope on the 17th of October. South Africa so very acutely caring about preventing genocide, its foreign minister did not say a word to Hamas leader about the genocide, did not denounce it, did not ask it to stop, nothing. In the heart they denounced it. Yes, but only now, not when it could have mattered. I mean, Hamas leader asked the call. That's an opportunity to do something because someone needs you. And at least say that you are against the genocide, you should not do it again, of course. Would it prevent Hamas from doing it again? I'm not sure. But if South Africa really cared about humanity and these very high values, it should have been done. So they come to the court in unclean hands. That would probably not bring this case to an halt, but it is an important point. About South Africa, as you probably know, South Africa goes through terrible years, economic deterioration, corruption. And all this exercise of toppling the apartheid is seen after 30 years as a failure. And many people who supported the fight, the struggle against apartheid, are very disappointed at the record of South Africa. Here they come back to the International Court of Justice and they've come back. They've come back. They remind the world about the heroism in the struggle against apartheid. And here they come to save the world again from a new apartheid, a new possibility of genocide. And look how much focus on South Africa. And who spoke about South Africa in the last decade? And if anyone did, they only mentioned the failures of South Africa, the fact that you have four hours of electricity a day in South Africa and shortages of water and endless cases of corruption, even high-level corruption. So here they come with the struggle and show the world, remind the world of the heroism of the struggle against apartheid and the attempt to come and do it again. Along the flip side, the flip side is that if it will be obvious to most of the international community that they came in for self-serving purposes, not for some lofty ideas, but they are really playing. They are an accomplice of Iran and Hamas. Actually they are playing for them. I think this will discredit the South Africa, certainly in Washington, in European countries. And that could be a real long-term danger for the status of South Africa and for its own interests. Sure, sure. They are part of BRICS. So they are anti-colonialism, anti-the West, if you want, strongly associated economically definitely with Russia, China, Iran and these countries. So these are known things. You don't have to have a new research to show where they stand internationally. And this might work against them, true. But the fact that Mandela is an international figure, a admired figure and here they come, the children of Mandela come to save the world from evil again, this is working in favor of South Africa. But it's not really Mandela that we're talking about. We're talking about a regime that seems to coordinate and cooperate directly with Hamas, which is a much blacker mark. This isn't talking about the existence of apartheid in the past. This is talking about the current government of South Africa coordinating, collaborating and possibly depending on how the court ends up looking at the subject of incitement, being part and parcel to that. I already said South Africa was strongly, always strongly recommending the case of Hamas, defending the case of the Palestinian people. Hamas became a player after the presidency of Mandela. But I remember when we expelled the 400 leaders of Hamas to Lebanon, I was summoned to Mandela and he asked me, what are you doing? And I told him, look, these are not the Fatah people. These are not the Mandela people. This is the opponent, the Arab Fat people. These are the opponents of Arab Fat. And so it was new to him. The phenomenon of Hamas was new at that time. But over the years, also because they have a strong Islamic community, they connected with Hamas and today they're closer to Hamas than to the Fatah. It seems like just trying to rest on some of their past accomplishments to hide their current corruption and links to these very sadistic, murderous regimes. Yes, I think so far they're succeeding. A lot of attention. The enemies of Israel definitely see them now as their ambassadors, as their representatives. And I think they have not much to lose because even if in two, three years, the court will decide that Israel is not exercising a genocidal method or so on, South Africa gained international attention that they were looking for. And I don't think they have much to lose. Of course, like Danny said, if we will be able to prove that Iran is financing it or friends of Hamas are financing it or they had legal advice from people connected to Iran, it would very much undermine the case. But we have to remember that South Africa has a very high level legal expertise, has a constitution that is considered a very modern constitution, excellent judges. By the way, in the past, the Goldstone, Richard Goldstone was a South African and so I don't think they need legal advice. They probably, they might need financial advice for all this exercise and it will be worthwhile checking who finances the whole thing. I want to turn back to you, Danny, because while we're discussing, in many ways, the minutiae and the fine points of the law, we do have that whole question hanging over us. Does it even matter? Is it possible that a fair trial here when you have not simply judges but national interests on the bench? Exactly. And actually what you see here really is a realignment of the entire international community. I mean, this is not just a war between Israel and Hamas. It's not even a war between Israel and Islamist jihad or global jihadist, which Hamas is a part of. It's basically now we see a real division between the Western civilization, Western world and Iran, Russia and China. I would add also North Korea and I think now South Africa can proudly join this axis of Iran and I think this is what is understood by Washington and I think clearly the European sentiment is also changing towards Israel as they understand what is here at stake, which is not just Israel in our own interest, but also the very, very security of European countries and the international community as a whole. Does that mean this entire case can be looked at through the lens of these illiberal powers, this axis you mentioned, using the rules that the Western world has tried to set up to promote fairness as a way of simply tearing down that exact system? That's a very good point and I think the fact that Justice Aaron Barack is there on the bench is very important because he was the one that coined the term of a democracy defending itself against undemocratic or against democratic ways to bring down democracies and I think here what we see that South Africa is trying really to represent the case of the villains under, I would say, the infrastructure of international law is very, very ironic and I don't think it will skip the eyes of, I would say, the people in the international community even in academia because this is such a flagrant use of democratic and humanitarian criteria to actually bring down a humanitarian case and I think it was very important that I think Tal Becker mentioned that the term genocide was coined after the genocide against the Jewish people and it was turned by Mr. Rafael Lamkin who coined it in 1949 so here we see really an atrocious way to really change actually the situation and he said instead of putting acute lenses on the court they're just blind folding the court so I believe at the end of the day in the long term Israel may be vindicated and Hamas in South Africa will lose badly. But that's in the long term. I want to turn back to you, Liron. When we're talking about the long term, is there a way, if this case is not thrown out on jurisdictional grounds, for Israel to beat the provisional measures to make sure that they can beat the rat but also beat the ride? Yeah, maybe I think it's important to say it's not a lost battle and I wouldn't paint the whole bench at black colors. I mean first there's the judicial ethos, right? So are sitting there on their personal capacity not as representatives of the states and I guess most of them do not get a note from the state what they are supposed to vote. So it's not a battle we have to lose, right? And I think it was very important as Ambassador Liron said that Israel decided to add an ad hoc Israeli judge and someone is distinguished as Justice Barak because now we have somebody in the inner circle of the court deliberations, right? Nothing would be done behind the closed doors without an Israeli representative being there and having the possibility to affect the discussions. Among the judges, exactly. We cannot have the deliberations too but only among the judges. Exactly. When the judges would discuss the case, Justice Barak would be there within the judges and this is important. I guess I don't think this case anyway would return on a consensus of the bench so that's also an important point, right? And I do think Israel has a good chance on the merit side and a more problematic case on the professional measures. And the court is reconvening now so we're going to take that live for you so let's take a listen to that. Thank you. Madam President, members of the court, it is an honor to appear before you on behalf of the State of Israel. As Professor Shaw noted, at this stage, South Africa does not need to prove that genocidal acts have been or are being committed but it does have to show that the genocide convention is actually relevant. It has to show some level of acts and some level of intent. Professor Shaw has spoken to the issue of express intent. It is my task to speak to the circumstances of Israel's actions. Israel cannot possibly comprehensively address today all of the allegations made in South Africa's application in this regard. The applicant paints a dire picture but it is a partial and deeply flawed picture. The application is so distorted in its descriptions that it prevents the court from properly assessing the plausibility of the rights asserted by South Africa. Plausibility cannot be determined based on the unsubstantiated allegations of one party to the proceedings alone if Article 41 of the court statute is to have any meaning. In the time available, I will address three aspects of reality on the ground that the applicant has either ignored or misrepresented. First, Hamas's military tactics and strategy. Second, Israel's efforts to mitigate civilian harm during operational activity. And third, Israel's efforts to address humanitarian hardship in Gaza despite Hamas's attempts at obstruction. With respect to Hamas's military tactics and strategy, it is astounding that in yesterday's hearing, Hamas was mentioned only in passing and only in reference to the October 7 massacre in Israel. Listening to the presentation by the applicant, it was as if Israel is operating in Gaza against no armed adversary. But the same Hamas that carried out the October 7 attacks in Israel is the governing authority in Gaza. And the same Hamas has built a military strategy founded on embedding its assets and operatives in and amongst the civilian population. Urban warfare will always result in tragic deaths, harm, and damage. But in Gaza, these undesired outcomes are exacerbated because they are the desired outcomes of Hamas. In urban warfare, civilian casualties may be the unintended but lawful result of attacks on lawfully military objectives. International humanitarian law recognizes this reality and provides a framework for balancing military necessity with humanitarian considerations. These do not constitute genocidal acts. In the current conflict, many civilian deaths are directly caused by Hamas. Booby-trapped homes detonate and kill indiscriminately, mines and alleyways collapse structures around them, and over 2,000 rockets, misfired by Hamas, have landed inside Gaza causing untold levels of harm. One telling example is a blast at the Al-Hali Hospital on October 17. Hamas claimed that the Israel Defense Forces, the IDF, attacked the hospital. Headlines around the world rushed to repeat this claim. The IDF later proved, and U.S. intelligence and other national security intelligence agencies independently confirmed that the blast was the result of a failed launch from within Gaza. It was not, as Hamas claimed, the fault of the IDF. Damage to civilian structures is another fact claimed by South Africa as evidence of genocide. But South Africa does not consider the sheer extent to which Hamas uses ostensibly civilian structures for military purposes. Houses, schools, mosques, UN facilities and shelters are all abused for military purposes by Hamas, including as rocket launching sites. Hundreds of kilometers of tunnels dug by Hamas under populated areas in Gaza often cause structures above to collapse. In the slides before you, you can see a militant priming projectiles for launch on IDF forces in Gaza. You can see the holes in the residential house to hide and launch them. You can see projectiles discovered underneath a bed in a child's bedroom. Here, a rocket being fired from a school. The launch site is circled in red. Here you can see firing from a UN school. You can see the letters UN on the roof and the fire is circled in red. And here, long-range rocket launchers hidden inside a scouts club building. Finally, you can see part of a tunnel that runs for four kilometers, including nearby the Eris Crossing, which is adjacent to Israel. Gaza's infrastructure has certainly been harmed during the conflict. However, South Africa would have the court believe that Israel is deliberately and unlawfully destroying homes without cause. But harm caused to lawful military objectives and harm caused as a result of Hamas' actions is not evidence of genocide. South Africa also alleges that Israel has waged an assault on Gaza's health system. What South Africa has neglected to bring before the court, however, is the overwhelming evidence of Hamas' military use of such hospitals. Hamas militants retreated to Rantisi Hospital in Gaza on October 7th with hostages from Israel, whom they then held in the basement. In the slide before you, you will see a militant going into Kud's Hospital with an RPG. Hamas fired at IDF forces from near and from within the Kud's Hospital. At Chifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, Hamas managed operations from a closed-off area. Here you can see an opening to the tunnel that ran for hundreds of meters directly under the hospital. Here, you can see the weapons found in different wings of the hospital. And here, CCTV footage showing armed militants bringing hostages into the hospital's lobby. More than 80 militants hiding inside another hospital, the Edwan Hospital, surrendered themselves to the IDF. And here, you can see a weapon that IDF forces discovered hidden inside incubators at the hospital. The director of the hospital has admitted that numerous members of hospital staff belonged to Hamas's military wing. In the Indonesian hospital in the neighborhood of Jabalia, Hamas forces managed their operations from that hospital until the IDF reached it. IDF forces recovered the bodies of five murdered hostages from a tunnel dug underneath the hospital. The list goes on. In every single hospital that the IDF has searched in Gaza, it has found evidence of Hamas military use. Israel is acutely aware that because of Hamas's use of hospitals as shields for its military operations in gray violations of international humanitarian law, patients and staff are in danger. And we're going to discuss this for the last couple of minutes. We have Ambassador Leal. I want to come to you on this one because despite the merits or lack thereof in the case, the fact that there is a case is still causing untold damage to Israel's reputation. I think from the international angle, it's causing damage. It is associating the name of Israel with a claim for genocide repeatedly with unbelievable international coverage, unbelievably international interest. So it's causing damage, no doubt. But I want to say something as an Israeli about what's happening inside Israel, what it can cause inside Israel. The Israeli leadership, maybe not Netanyahu, but other politicians, were almost ignoring the international community over the last years, saying we care about ourselves, about the future of the Jewish people, we'll do what's necessary and kind of the world can shout and we will go on and here we are in the hug. The world is dealing with our case and who is defending Israel? Not politicians. There is no one politician here defending Israel. Only professionals, legal experts, civil servants that the Israeli government for many years kind of sidelined. I know it from my friends, the diplomats. They were sidelined and here they ever come back. Well, it is a question that is going to have to be looked at as we go forward of should Israel be dealing with that through politicians? Should it be trusting these international systems? But for today, we have to deal with the process as it stands. I thank both of you for breaking this down for us. For everyone else, though, we are out of time. Catch us again for some follow-up of this in our next broadcast at 2 o'clock local time. Casting from Israel with dozens of correspondents throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries. Completely shunned down in their beds. From the border that separates Israel, the state of emergency and war in Israel. Bringing Israel's story to the world. I-24 News Channels. Now on Hot. Martin Luther King's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the Promised Land. Well now, 55 years later, his prophetic words are coming true. Hundreds of African American women took a journey of a lifetime to the Holy Land. We'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual and religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of African Americans. The plastic particles break up. It does not stop at the micron size. It can actually go even smaller. So once the size goes below one micron, people call it nano plastics because now its size is in the nano range. Belong to elephants. They shoot their most beautiful on the elephants and we should leave them on the elephant. Every tusk you see today represents an animal that has been killed. Now shocking images of four terrified Israeli hostages were published on the front page of a British publication this week. Pictures taken on the day they were abducted by Hamas terrorists more than three months ago now. Family families are calling for global action as more harrowing accounts from released hostages continue to emerge. More in this report. Four new photos of kidnapped Israeli women made the front page of a major foreign publication on Monday. Later that same day, a video of the four women was made public as well showing them in a terrible state. Some of them bleeding and crying uncontrollably. In more footage released from that black Sabbath, October 7th, the day they were kidnapped by Hamas they can be seen in the back of a van in shock while an angry chanting Ghazan mob surrounds the van. Earlier this week one of the hostages who was released from Hamas captivity spoke of encountering some of the women still being held by the terrorist organization. At the same time, a huge opening and six girls were arrested and suddenly we realized that there were girls who were also killed. A lot of girls were killed due to serious injuries. They were injured, very serious injuries and bruises that were not healed. On Tuesday, Aviva Siegel, who returned from captivity spoke in the Israeli parliament disclosing more unsettling details about the condition of the young women. One of the girls returned from the bathroom and I could tell that she was distraught. I got up and gave her a hug. I apologized for my language but this mother-effer touched her. Another time a young woman that they thought was an IDF officer arrived and they tortured her in front of me. I'm her witness. 95 days after that brutal Hamas assault 15 women are still being held by Hamas. Israelis are demanding the international community intervene amid growing concerns over the mental and physical well-being of the captives. Rape can never be accepted. It cannot be justified by the context or by certain vacuums to which we've heard international community officials refer to. Some acts are purely evil and should always be denounced. Hamas, the group that committed such acts has taken hostage 90 women. 15 are still held there in Gaza by Hamas. As of now, you and women have failed to issue any message condemning this footage or the testimony. Pramila Padden, the special representative of the United Nations in matters of sexual violence in areas of conflicts, will visit Israel at the end of January at the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It will be her first visit since the events of October 7th. She has been granted full investigative powers in hopes that the stories of the victims will finally be heard and recognized around the world. For most Israelis, life has not been the same since that brutal Hamas assault on southern communities in the country on the 7th of October. Many finding ways to volunteer across the country as they slowly work through their trauma. A new organization called Mashif Harouach is offering psychological support. Our P.S. Tekelbach visited one of their retreats. Let's take a look. Slowing down for a second and processing the trauma, something that many of those who rushed to volunteer after the 7th of October never did. But here in a special retreat at the Dead Sea, some of them are now doing exactly that. We equip them with professional psychologists. I think it includes the best ones in the country. And we turn to organizations like Zaka, the unit that identifies the bodies, volunteers who saw difficult things. We want to give them coping mechanisms and a place to process their experiences. He offers two-day workshops at a Dead Sea resort where participants can open up, share their experiences with psychologists and finally enjoy some quiet in nature. For Kravitz, a retired naval captain, founding the initiative was about preventing post trauma in society and doing something himself in order to help. When everything started, I felt like a lion in a cage. It's the first time that Israel is at war and I'm not in uniform. I did some reserve duty, helped here and there where I was needed. But I felt like doing something in the trauma field, all the difficult scenes we see in the news and in videos raged in me. He teamed up with psychologist Vera Datsmon-Meshulam who specializes in trauma. Today she's receiving a group from the Kibbutz movement. The participants helped the communities in Israel south in the aftermath of the massacres. It's very difficult to take a break on a day-to-day basis. They are scared to share their fear because if they give their emotions space, they might fall apart. We are meeting in a safe space and we have time. The timeframe of two days enables them to let go of the layers, knowing that they can leave some of those layers on in order to return to their lives the next day but with the feeling of relief. Osnath Chavivgal, who works with the Kibbutz movement, coordinated funerals for murdered Kibbutz members from the Gaza border area. More than 380 in total in less than three months. She says she can't sleep at night. The conversations with families and the images are consuming her and her colleagues. From the first second on, we knew about the large amounts of missing persons and murdered. And therefore, I got up and we understood that one can't do this alone, so I got a team. From six in the morning, when you received the name of the first murdered, to 12 or one at night, you just work. If my family would not have put water on my desk or food, I found that I would have forgotten that as well. We all, all of our team, we were nine amazing women. We all worked around the clock. For many of the participants, the seminar was the first opportunity to open up about how their lives have turned upside down. When you spoke, anger was coming out of you. But then you stopped yourself again. I want to ask you to allow yourself to get help. You yourself help so much all this time. The support they receive during the two-day workshop is meant to empower them for the days to come. I'm talking about the experiences of the past three months might help society as a whole. We are missing space and opportunities for respectful conversations where it is allowed to have different opinions. Creating brotherhood despite different opinions is the result of psychological processes that we can train. And this gives me hope. Mashi Varouac wants to receive up to 2,000 people annually in their seminars, giving back to those who have sacrificed much of their lives to help others in those difficult times. Now more than three months in Hamas' captivity Israelis are praying for the safe return of all 136 hostages inside Gaza. Mass prayers have been held at the western wall in Jerusalem. Our Emily Francis was there. The Gates of Heaven opened when the chief rabbis of Israel did a prayer in Hamas' place in the world. The rabbis led a special Yom Kippur Katan which means small service referring to the custom of fasting and reciting slighalt prayers on the eve of the new month known as Roj Chodesh. Explain why it's so important to have this energy to be at the hotel and to really ask God for help on Roj Chodesh. As I understood from one of the rabbis that they visited yesterday a thing like that, a prayer like that happened only 50 years ago. That only shows us how important this prayer is to bring everybody here. Everybody means everybody doesn't matter if you're religious or not. Thousands of people came to the western wall plaza to take part in the opportunity to pray for the safe return of the hostages held by Hamas' terrorists and the IDF soldiers fighting the war in Gaza. One thing I've noticed over the course of the month or so interview families is how much faith all of you have. Where does that come from? It's an inspiration to not just me but the whole world. I think when you don't have anything to do because we can't go to Gaza and bring Shlomi back. So what we have is God is praying his faith and hope. Sunday, January 14th will mark the 100th day that over 130 hostages have remained in captivity. I have one target. It's to bring my home and my daughter and all the other 135 people back here to Israel to make sure they're okay, they're safe and this is one big mission. I don't have time now to be either depressed or to lie in bed. We have to make actions. We are a part of something very, very big. I think we have a lesson to learn and unfortunately Shlomi is one of the hostages there and he needs to come back. But despite this prolonged nightmare the sister of hostage Shlomi Svi and the mother of Romi Gonan know it in their bones that they're remaining strong. She's so positive. She has such an inner strength. She knows how to make fun of herself and she shows a lot of a person and she has a lot of friends. She knows how to communicate with people and I'm trusting. I'm counting on that that she knows we are doing everything to make sure she will come back. I'm sure of that. What kind of big brother is he? He's a good conversation man. He talks with everyone and with kids he's a kid and with grown-ups he's a grown-up. A big brother. And have unwavering faith that they will come home safely. The Jerusalem Air you feel here all the together the faith, the Emona we can hear now they are praying and all of the people that are coming here to support us. Mirav Leshem Gonan refuses to let doubt and fear enter her soul and has a special message to everyone around the world on how to help turn the tides of fate. What is your message to them because so many are watching and wondering how to remain strong and not really being able to do anything so far away. Wow, they are able to do a lot of things. First to hold the positivity that's first. Second to hold the faith and believe but really believe that they will come back home. This is two things which it's a must. You know you're waking up in the morning that's what you have to do and then explain it's not about Israel and Palestinian it's about good and bad it's about good and evil sorry it's about light and darkness and we are part of a light. At the western wall in Jerusalem Emily Francis I-24 News. For the first time in its history Israel will tomorrow find itself in the dock in the international court of justice in the Hague charged with genocide. The claim is being brought by South Africa as Israel responds to the Hamas killing rampage inside the country on the 7th of October in which more than 1200 people were killed mostly civilians. Israel is sending top legal minds including a holocaust survivor to the Hague to counter the genocide allegations claims that have been dismissed by Israel as absurd but a ruling against it could affect the war against Hamas inside Gaza. Correspondent Ariel Levin Waldman takes a deeper look. On Thursday South Africa will try to make the case that Israel is committing genocide before the international court of justice's 15 permanent judge panel. Legal experts have described the case as specious and political and critics say the ICJ is as well interested as it is a court of law. Bear in mind that the judges appointed by the UN General Assembly with the approval of the Security Council which means they reflect these build up of the General Assembly and there's a lot of states that are not democratic hostile to Israel and some of them have judges on the court. On the 15 judge panel there are some names that stand out more than others. The rest of the court, American judge Joan Donahue has a stellar reputation for avoiding politics even apolitical events that might create the appearance of bias. The rest of the court, not so much. Some court allies are also geopolitical allies. Russian judge Kirill Giverdian wrote an opinion in favor of Iran saying the U.S. could not confiscate Tehran's assets to pay to the victims of Iranian sponsored terrorism against Russia against demanding a halt to Moscow's aggression in Ukraine. Heohan Shin was the other and has also been said to have a bias against the West. For instance, being the only judge of 15 to rule in favor of Beijing's ally Myanmar in the case of genocide proceedings filed on behalf of the Rohingya minority. It's not the court of law that we would have chosen. It's not composed of 15 impartial judges. Some of them are impartial for instance from the Lebanon, from Somalia. These people are not going to be objective. That Lebanese judge, Nawaf Salam, appears to be the most biased of the lot judging by past statements against Israel. He also famously argued in 2022 that his court could reverse the burden of proof to force the defendant to prove they did not commit crimes a logical fallacy in its own right. These sort of biases have led key allies to say the charge of genocide is bearless. It's particularly gallant given that those who are attacking Israel Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis as well as their supporter Iran continue to openly call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews. The stakes are high. The court could issue an immediate ceasefire order a total strategic victory and if Israel ignored that order it could invite international sanctions. Apart from the grueling images that emerged following October 7th, one is also shocked many Jews to their core was the sheer outpouring of support and justification for Hamas' massacre. Nowhere was that support louder and more obvious than on American college campuses. Now a delegation of students from some of the top schools in the US have come here to Israel to bear witness the evil wrought on Black Saturday. Hopefully with a strong message to take back to their fellow peers. Hezbollah I am alone or as mother and I really appreciate you coming to the square and seeing everything that's going on. Delegation of professors and alumni from the University of Pennsylvania came to Israel to offer support for the families of the hostages. Music is a language that transcends space and time and on this day there was not a dry eye in Hostage Square. This is the piano of Alon O'Hel, a 22-year-old jazz and classical music pianist who remains a hostage in Gaza. Music is part of his life. He plays all the time. He moves through music. Even when he walks, he walks through music. I am sure of it that he's like over there now sitting whatever he's doing. He's playing in his head music. I know this. Alon narrowly escaped the Nova Music Festival and hid in a bomb shelter with 30 people before Hamas terrorists kidnapped Alon and three others and killed 19 others. It's really important for me for people to know that he is a person that he is a life that he's wonderful and he's my son and I want him to come back home but the thing is that this won't happen if the world doesn't come and help us, Israel. And the fact is is that we need everybody to be with us. A few weeks later people were knocking on our doors saying we cannot stay in America or in the UK or in Australia while our brothers and sisters are here suffering. We cannot be silent and therefore we must come and show up. To me the reactivation of trauma in my own personal experience was because I was in Hamas terror attack in 1994 on October 9th of 1994. Really? And it took me 24 years to come back to Israel after that attack. Michael Kahana is one of dozens of people on the University of Pennsylvania trip. The psychology professor who happens to be a distant cousin and family teaches psychology of human memory a subject that hits very close to home. I was here for an academic visit and I went out to dinner and I met Hamas 29 years ago when Hamas terrorists shot automatic weapons and threw hand grenades in the restaurant where I was. And it wasn't until the massacre of October 7th that specific memories of his own trauma came to light. 24 years after the trauma I came back to Israel and I couldn't remember what happened. I went with my kids back to the restaurant and I couldn't remember details of what happened. And on October 9th, 8th, 9th, 10th at night I started to remember and I heard the screams things I hadn't heard in my head in almost 25 years. So that was the shock to me. Also shocking to the Jewish world and beyond is the vitriolic anti-semitism and violence against Jews at Ivy League universities. Fuck the Jews. Those words were said not here on Amsterdam not on Broadway those words were said in Jerome Green Hall Columbia's Law School building. Here I am experiencing hate. Hate is what people on our college campus feel towards us as we walk by simply because we are Jewish. My Jewish sisters and brothers and I are on the receiving end of death threats from our peers undergraduates who have filed reports about these incidents have been left with no emotional support no feedback and no consequences for the perpetrators of these hateful actions. And what's even more inhumane is the throngs of people tearing down posters and rally hostages still in captivity in Gaza. All over New York and the world people are ripping down posters of your son. So make you angry. Of course because he is a citizen he didn't do anything. He went to an ANOVA festival he's an innocent bystander he didn't fight anybody he wasn't in war they came in and they took him think about it in the United States somebody comes in and he wants to and you're fine with it I don't understand that how can you be fine with a person that is in your country you're supposed to feel safe and somebody comes and rips you out of your country and takes you hostage this is not supposed to happen and everybody who's everywhere in the world and they're thinking that everything is fine well terrorism is going to come to you they're going to do it to you and they're going to rip your sons and daughters and say well that's not my problem and you're and that's not okay that is not okay because my son is important and the University of Pennsylvania's president Liz McGill and Harvard's president Claudine Gay did nothing to stop the anti-semitic violence and calls for Jewish genocide and they didn't even back down during December's congressional hearing I am asking specifically calling for the genocide of Jews does that constitute bullying or harassment if it is directed and severe or pervasive it is harassment so the answer is yes it is a context dependent decision congresswoman it's a context dependent decision that's your testimony today calling for the genocide of Jews is depending upon the context amounts to bullying, harassment intimidation that is actionable conduct and we do take action so the answer is yes that calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard code of conduct correct again it depends on the context it does not depend on the context the answer is yes and this is why you should resign these are unacceptable answers across the board McGill and Gay have since resigned but the scars still run deep I think these are tensions and problems that are thousands of years old and this is a sad valley in that history and I hope that we can improve things but I think it's a constant fight that will go on forever I hope it doesn't but that's what history tells us one way to begin to make a change is to bring people to Israel to experience the relics of the horrors of October 7th first hand they need to see this, they need to meet the families this is not an issue of politics October 7th is not about who you vote for or which position you have on political issues this is about evil, this is about Hamas, ISIS, Al Qaeda it's about cults of death that just want to kill and destroy even still Edith O'Hell has unwavering faith that music can heal the binds of hate and on January 14th a piano in alone's honor will be placed in central Berlin in New York City inviting musicians to come play and bring on the spirit to bring alone home I use music because music is language and everybody understands that and music is beautiful because my son is beautiful and using music to fight is a good way because everybody can understand that they can understand that my son loves life, loves music and he's connecting that nose and his piano is here that people are coming and connecting I think so, I think so because I believe in energy and I believe that if I'm doing something for him that he will feel it because he's part of me that helps me cope Now Hotel Nofgin-Ossar is providing refuge for residents evacuated from Israel's northern border it's facing an uncertain future as the war continues more in this report Nestled between the mountains and surrounded by water the Nofgin-Ossar hotel is a picturesque retreat for those who want the Kibbutz hotel experience by the shores of the sea of Galilee since Israel's war with Hamas broke out the hotel has taken in refugees evacuated from Kibbutz Yiftakh and other northern communities who are unable to stay in their homes due to the security risk pro-Iranian Lebanese terror group Hezbollah We arrived in Nofgin-Ossar and they received us here in an outstanding way and they are keeping us busy too it gives us a little bit of air to breathe Although many hotels have welcomed evacuees with open arms some of them are struggling as they're unable to accommodate tourists Hotel managers are facing mounting pressure as the war continues and they are forced to navigate through the crisis We are currently operating the hotel under the northern command meaning that the hotel is obligated to the state the hotel is full of evacuees there is not a single room available all for the benefit of the evacuees even if I want to host tourists who are still willing to come here and take a risk showing some kind of solidarity I can't, I have no rooms for them Hotel Nofgin-Ossar is not the only one facing this dilemma while offering a refuge to those in need it has to navigate the stormy waters of war and uncertainty Did you know that Martin Luther King's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the Promised Land? Well now, 55 years later his prophetic words are coming true Hundreds of African American women took a journey of a lifetime to the Holy Land We'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual and religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of African Americans New Diplomatic Correspondent Owen Ultiman explains the administration's envoy is on his way to the region, let's take a look America's point man on Lebanon trying to do on land what he did at sea with Amos Hoxton reportedly set to fly back into Beirut this week to try to broker a deal that would bring quiet to the land border between Lebanon and Israel the way he did last year with the border between zones at sea The most important piece of this agreement is that it is entirely in the interest of each country to not violate it and to move forward The background now of course is the war and the element of it on the Israel-Lebanon border where the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has been firing for months at communities on the Israeli side and the Israeli military has responded by firing at Hezbollah targets The Biden administration wants the situation contained below the threshold of a wider war as does the French government Israel has killed more than 130 Hezbollah fighters Israeli attacks have intensified and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a warning We have approved operational plans for the continuation of the fighting if Hezbollah expands the war it would absorb it blows that it has not dreamed of and Iran as well Iran Hoxdeen's apparent plan to incentivize Hezbollah to move its troops away from the Israeli border in exchange for apparent Israeli concessions on marking that border in at least some of the 13 points of dispute The Biden administration does not want a full-scale war Israel's plan A is not to have a full-scale war Israel's public does not want a full-scale war which all point to the sides getting to a deal that forestalls a full-scale war at least for now Until October 7th there were high hopes for big changes in the Middle East talk of US mediated peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia which in turn would spread to other Arab countries created much anticipation but then after thousands rampaged through southern Israeli communities and IDF bases slaughtering, burning and kidnapping everything in their path the delicate house of cards collapsed The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirms its categorical rejection of the continuation of aggression, occupation and the forced displacement of Gaza's population The Kingdom holds the occupation authorities responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people and their properties We are certain that the only way to end the occupation siege and settlements But sidelining Israel's Saudi normalization for the unforeseeable future was only one of the effects of that dark October 7th on the region It also saw the solidification of the Iranian axis of proxies From Iraq to Lebanon all the way to Yemen Tehran's branches all began to attack Israel We are in a multi-arena war We are being attacked from seven different sectors Gaza, Lebanon, Syria Judea and Samaria, Iraq Yemen and Iran We have already responded and taken action And I say here in the most explicit way Anyone who acts against us is a potential target There is no immunity for anyone In an attempt to get a better understanding of how the region as a whole was affected by the October 7th attacks I-24 News reached out to journalists in the region to give their perspective One of them is a journalist from Yemen. We blurred his face and distorted his voice for his safety speaking with an Israeli-based news outlet Perhaps the most surprising front to many has been the continuous drone and missile attacks by the Houthis in Yemen towards Israeli territory and then at international commercial ships navigating through the Red Sea The Yemeni armed forces affirmed their continued support for the Palestinian people as part of the religious, moral and humanitarian duty and confirmed the continuation of operations in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea against Israeli ships or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine until the food and medicine needed by the Gaza Strip brought in But according to the journalist in Yemen the Houthis are simply the ones pulling the trigger in service of their patrons Beyond emboldening the Iranian access the October 7th attacks also seem to have affected the streets in many of the region's capitals in support of the Palestinians I see a lot of change among the awareness of ordinary people who never really paid attention to political issues of the Palestinian situation I've seen especially in Arab countries Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia many of the countries are really much more involved now and I think we've seen also progressives and young people around the world taking up the Palestinian cause in a much more powerful way than we've ever seen before Like the journalist in Yemen Qutb 2 believes that the war in Gaza has put a strain on Israel's existing peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt Both peace treaties have held on so far but on a very thin ice I think that there is strong opposition in both countries to their countries continuing the peace agreements But more importantly I think people want civilian lives to be saved Besides threats there are some silver linings that have emerged from the horrific attacks on Israel and ensuing war in Gaza Not only the American-led Maritime Coalition aimed at ensuring the safe navigation in the Red Sea but that Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan all intercepted Houthi drones and missiles over their territories under way to Israel an indication that Jerusalem does have shared strategic interests in the balance of power in the Middle East I think Arab countries are trying to be peacemakers as much as they can they're trying to provide material support to people who are in terrible need and I don't think we've seen a major shift especially in countries that have had normalization relations with Israel Their leaders are still insisting in keeping some form of relationship even though public opinion has changed and so with the war in Gaza in full steam and further escalation with his Belan the horizon the October 7th attacks seem to have changed not only Israel but the region as a whole Now Israel finds itself at a critical juncture a regional war with Israel and Israel and Israel at a critical juncture a regional war or increased regional cooperation whether or not it's up to Israel to decide what the outcome will be that still remains to be seen there was no official statement to mark the beginning of the ground operation in Gaza neither should we expect one regarding the completion of one stage and the move to the next one but even without a statement that move is probably coming some of the reserve soldiers will return to their families into their jobs this week this will allow a significant relief to the economy and will allow them to gather strength ahead of the coming activities next year as the fighting will continue and we will need them the reservists are the backbone of the IDF more than 300,000 of them were recruited during the current war giving a major boost to the army no one will say it openly but if reservists are being released the meaning is less massive incursions such as the ones seen until now and more surgical operations that demand more precision but probably less firepower we will need to show plenty of resilience and determination we will try to release the reservists and bring them back during the coming year for specific periods to carry the burden of what is expected here more focused activity on terror enclaves carried out by units operating from Israeli territory and not from Gaza more airstrikes and artillery and fewer large units inside Gaza who many times are sitting ducks for Hamas terrorists this is probably where we're heading as 2024 dawns hello my name is Mia Shem I'm 21 years old from Shoham I'm from Gaza they've operated on my hand here at the hospital they've taken care of me they're giving me medicine everything is okay the only thing I'm asking is that you bring me home as soon as possible to my family Mia Shem became the hostage every Israeli knew she was in the thoughts of every Israeli soldier before going into war she was held in Hamas captivity for weeks injured in a small room with no daylight she was sitting in a mattress while a guard was across from her watching her 24-7 I can see his face in my mind his eyes are burned into my memory sitting in front of him she decided she will come back she will survive this and for the first time she's speaking candidly on the isolation and the brutality I was not allowed to cry why? because if he will cry I was in a tiny room 8 feet by 8 feet 2 people were in it me and a terrorist looking at me 24-7 examining me I was afraid he would rape me there's a fear of him taking his weapon and putting a bullet in my head with no warning the room was closed they would throw food once a day some days there was no food the kids would open the door look inside talk about me laugh about me they looked at me as if I was an animal I was afraid anything could happen at any moment he could touch me did he ever do something like that? no only because his wife was outside the door if we were there alone something was bound to happen in this small room there were rules Mia wasn't allowed to talk or move or even cry once I was choked up with tears he looked at me and said in Arabic enough stop crying or I'll send you to the tunnel I'm telling myself say strong don't fall apart here you'll be back home soon that's what I was telling myself all the time Mia understood that to survive she needed to pretend to play the cruel game of the terrorists that were sitting across from her once he lost it he started crying and took his Kalashnikov I was sure he was about to put a bullet in my head I got close to him and sat down and asked what's wrong what's wrong why are you crying he told me that two of his friends died in an Israeli attack secretly I was elated but I was like that playing the game you know I didn't see daylight for 54 days I also didn't move so I was barely walking my legs were shaking were you able to sleep there maybe for an hour you can't really sleep when a Hamas terrorist is sitting and staring at you I can hear the strikes heavy strikes massive strikes the windows shattered on me I lost my hearing I wasn't scared from the strikes for a moment it cheered me up and then one day it was completely silent and I told myself something is happening the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into effect when the exchange of prisoners and hostages started Mia was moved to another location there after almost 50 days alone she met other hostages we were all in the same boat and then what they tell people daily he was getting released it was a Russian roulette it was the most difficult thing that some are released and some others are not she was released in the final exchange and the moment she said goodbye to the hostages in Gaza does not leave her on her way home Hamas shot this video people very good very kind to me the kindness and everything you know your seconds away from going back home and Hamas is shoving a camera on your face he told me say the people of Gaza are nice say good things what can I say your crap Karen, Mia's mom did everything she could for this moment they are together again but her best friend Elia that was with her at the party and was kidnapped right next to her was killed the IDF extracted his body from Gaza she's still in Gaza and no one knows how long it will take until she'll return but physically she's here exactly like she dreamed all those nights in captivity this was my dream I can't believe I'm here at home two months into the IDF's ground operation in Gaza questions are rising as to the end strategy of the current high intensity phase and a move on to the next phase on one hand there are still constant firefights with Hamas terrorists especially in the area of Chaneunis we found here plenty of enemy infrastructure there was a terrorist here with a Kalachnikov that tried to shoot at our soldiers we killed him and caught another terrorist and took him for interrogation along with that Hamas officials are also being killed one of them is Abdel Fattah Mali the closest associate of Ichiya Ayash who was known as the engineer for various terror attacks in the 1990s on the other hand there's a feeling that in the current phase the IDF is not able to reach the hostages or the Hamas senior leadership and some other way is now needed when will Israel head for that other way the prime minister may have set the goal for that the Philadelphia corridor or to put it more correctly the southern end of Gaza must be in our hands no other solution can ensure the demilitarization we seek the Philadelphia corridor separates Gaza from Egypt and the assumption is that huge amounts of weapons were and maybe still are smuggled to Gaza in tunnels running under it on paper Egypt seems to refuse any such move and Israel needs Egyptian backing for another crucial move a hostage deal families and protesters believe the government is not doing enough in that field I'm afraid that the government of Israel has prioritized otherwise it's political ambitions and the hostages is not on the top priorities a possible hostage deal the control of the Philadelphia corridor the effectiveness of the IDF's current tactics many critical issues for the future of this war but none of them with a concrete solution at hand a trash with a smile this is a this is a dirty job but someone's got to do it I'm sure we're doing this in service to the country absolutely well great weather great people and a great cause has never been more gratifying we're preparing pallets of snacks I think we do about 50 pallets a day and the snacks go right to the front to the troops in Gaza and our incredibly important job of national security is compacting these boxes it's an assembly line of hundreds of volunteers from dozens of countries around the world it's one thing to give money it's another thing to go to rallies and support but it's something entirely different just to be here and lend physical support doing whatever we can and whatever they can involves packing boxes and doing the heavy lifting all with the goal of providing supplies to the volunteers fighting the war in Gaza and fighting the war of public opinion against the Jewish people my feeling is world opinion never saved one Israeli life so a lot of us just don't care you know we feel that Israel has to do what Israel has to do to protect its own people and if the world doesn't like it well too bad world doesn't like it when Jews fight back the non-profit organization Israel has existed for decades but since October 7th the volunteer program has been overflowing with people of all ages wanting to pitch in no matter what the cost since I started coming to the bases I just feel so relaxed I feel like my blood pressure is down my temperature is down I feel like I'm just walking on a cloud and there's never a sense of anything negative it's all positive I've heard a complaint from 80 Jews in a week which is unbelievable this one is for the Red Cross and this one is for the UN and they deserve it even 82 year old New Yorker Rochelle Marshall suited up for her 18th Sarel mission they thought I was too old to compare this year and let me tell you they made a mistake thinking that and I'm so honored to be able to help these people that when somebody thanks me I feel silly because these are the people who are making it possible for me to come here I'm going home I'm going to be away from this and they're going to stay here with young soldiers in Gaza for months fighting for their lives in the hands of Israel every little bit of love and support helps especially now when we're getting bombarded with all kinds of messages outside and our kids are being attacked I thought for lone soldier parents it would be really important to come together we are packaging this week it sounds silly but different treat bags so that every day the soldiers would get something extra to eat and what makes this particular Sarel mission so fulfilling and comforting is that mothers of lone soldiers fighting the war in Gaza are also volunteering and getting moral and emotional support in the process and have a son in the army today right now in Gaza he's 20 years old he came in about a year ago to join the army what we're packing here happens to be Shabbat bags for soldiers when you're alone in your country and you hear the news you listen to the news and you're far away from your son you just can your mind cannot understand what's happening and it's really really really hard, really tough you really feel lonely nobody can feel what you go through so now we are a bunch of women strong women mothers and we are all together and every time somebody is down we come and see her and yeah it's amazing it's something I've never lived before I have two former lone soldiers ones in reserves one came back to America and I have a daughter drafting sorry next week and she feels really confident about her decision so coming back and having a physical way I know it doesn't seem like a lot there's some snacks but it's so important to physically be here in Israel to show support to show my kids that I'm proud of them I have three lone soldiers one has severe PTSD from his service and it doesn't matter if they're my three soldiers or if they're somebody else they're all my children and send them in and just we can be the last people they see it just kills me I love them all everyone's mom my son is in the Mishmar Ghul the border police he's been dreaming of joining Sahel since he was 14 if they would have taken him then he would have come he is absolutely built for this he knows he's built for this he's living his best life he has his dream living his destiny one son, he's actually been here for 18 years that's when he did his main service and he's been doing Miloim ever since and he was called up on day one and he's been he has had days off in between but he's basically still at it he's in the north he's new, he had just drafted a month before the war broke out I am just really really really proud you know, you want your child to be passionate about Israel he is very confident in his wanting to be here which brings me confidence and my husband confidence and I really as a mother believe it's all going to be okay and I send that from across the ocean every day on this particular day the moms and volunteers also got a morale boost by the president of the world's finest organization we need to remember that what happened on October 7th was not a war against Israel but a war against the Jewish nation we are one nation, one people this is our home we have to stay united and fight against anti-Semitism you look, it's just it's horrific anybody with any moral integrity or anything should stand up and come here and help and also on this sorrow mission the Jewish people have American Christian police officer Nick Jones to thank for taking a stand against the hypocrisy and anti-Semitic vitriol that is sweeping the globe I have friends that are Jewish of course and I'm part of the IDF every morning I get a briefing with them and I hear and I see the videos of everything that's going on here and if it were happening in America we would do just like we did in Iraq and Afghanistan we would stand up we would go take care of business and it would be over with you know, here it doesn't exist there's a farmer I live by it says good people remain silent bad things happen to him so as Americans we need to I don't care what your religious background is everybody needs to stand behind Israel because no one around her is sticking up for her at the Hotsiri military base in the Negev, Emily Francis I-24 News if the plastic particles breaks up it does not stop at the micron size it can actually go even smaller so once the size goes below one micron people call it nanoplastics because now its size is in the nano range these tusks belong to elephants they shoot they are most beautiful on the elephants and we should leave them on the elephants every tusk you see today represents an animal that has been killed I-24 News is ongoing coverage of Israel at war Israel has responded to South Africa's libelous charge of genocide at the international court of justice making the case that combat operations against Hamas are necessary defensive operations and totally legal under international law after South Africa tried to make the jaw dropping claim that Israel is not even allowed to defend itself against terrorism and that wartime losses incurred by the Palestinians in the lower war that they started are tantamount to genocide Israel's initial claims that the international law prohibiting genocide does not prohibit legitimate armed conflict and that the case is therefore not even under the remit of the ICJ and should be thrown out on its own merits or lack there of itself but Israel has also brought all needed evidence to demolish South Africa's case publicly in the court even in a protracted trial South Africa's case against Israel never even mentioned the attacks, the massacres and the crimes against humanity commit by Hamas on October 7th ignoring the reason for the war and the scope of operations a reason and a context that proves under international law that the war is defensive rather than possessing the intent to annihilate the population of Gaza let's take a listen to one of Israel's representatives laying out the context and the law there are many distortions in the applicant's submission to the court but as shall be demonstrated by council there is one that overshadows them all in the applicants telling it is almost as if there is no intensive armed conflict taking place between two parties at all no grave threat to Israel and its citizens only an Israeli assault on Gaza the court is told of widespread damage to buildings but it is not told for example how many thousands of those buildings were destroyed because they were booby trapped by Hamas how many became legitimate targets because of the strategy of using civilian objects and protected sites for military purposes how many buildings were struck by over thousand indiscriminate terrorist rockets that misfire and landed in Gaza itself and for more on this we are going to go live to the Hague right now where Alex Kediar our I-24 News contributor is standing by Alex it's good to have you connected now that we have seen and heard the arguments given from both South Africa as well as Israel what is the gist of it on each side and which arguments are legal experts saying look stronger in the ministry of justice well it depends which legal experts you ask some say that South Africa has an airtight case others say that it should not and would not stand up at the international court of justice as it doesn't fall under this court's jurisdiction so it will depend which experts you ask the summary certainly of the defense by Israel is one of self-defense of legitimate self-defense as we've heard President Herzog describing it saying that the legal teams here in the Hague saying that South Africa is not acknowledging the atrocities the crimes committed by Hamas on October 7th that would give Israel a right for legitimate self-defense now the South African argument is that the military action in Gaza since October 7th has been disproportionate and therefore creating conditions making it impossible to sustain human life in Gaza that is the crux of the argument one thing I would add is that the South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola yesterday saying no matter how the attack went down even if it included atrocity crimes referencing the October 7th attack he said it does not justify a breach of that convention and that those arguments really summarizing what's been heard by the 17 judges today at the Hague Thanks thank you very much for that summary after that we're actually going to take a little bit of a live listen to some of the arguments being given by the defense right now Indeed driven by destruction of the Jewish and Israelis but our legal system knows how to draw a line between statements that may be troubling and even obscene but fall within the right of freedom of speech in a democratic society and those statements which go beyond that right as the Attorney General reaffirmed publicly recently any statement calling for intentional harm to civilians contradicts the policy of the State of Israel and may amount to a criminal offense including the offense of incitement several such cases are currently being examined by Israeli law enforcement authorities you will find this statement in tab 16d in the volume Madame President members of the court a second general matter we alluded to is the broader implications of this application for Israel and the wider international community as we have shown this case concerns a large-scale armed conflict with tragic consequences for civilians on both sides yes there is a heart-reaching armed conflict but the attempt to classify it as genocide and trigger provisional measures is not just unfounded in law it has far-reaching and negative implications that extend well beyond the case before you ultimately entertaining the applicant's request will not strengthen the commitment to prevent and punish genocide but weaken it it will turn an instrument adopted by the international community to prevent horrors of the kind that shocked the conscience of humanity during the holocaust into a weapon in the hands of terrorist groups who have no regard for humanity or for the law if ever resort to force in self-defense against an enemy hiding behind civilians can be portrayed as genocide and trigger provisional measures an inevitable tension will be created between the genocide convention and states defending themselves against the ever-increasing capacities of terrorist organizations doing so would also signal to terrorist organizations that they can commit war crimes against humanity and then exploit this court to obtain protection for us provisional measures would lead to a perverse situation it would effectively allow Hamas to continue attacking the citizens of Israel to hold 136 hostages in unbearable conditions to keep tens of thousands of displaced Israelis from returning to their homes and essentially to promote its plan to massacre as many Israelis and Jews as it can Madame President, members of the court in living memory of the atrocities that gave birth to the term genocide in the aftermath of which the state of Israel was founded we are witnessed to a concerted and cynical effort to pervert the meaning of the term genocide itself the genocide convention is too important a foundation in humanity's aspiration to defeat barbarism and evil to be belittled in this way and the faith that has been placed in international law and its institutions and the United States and Britain have launched strikes last night against Houthi military targets in Yemen in response to the terror groups attacks on the Red Sea shipping the Iran-backed Houthis say the attacks are a show of support for Hamas and they have vowed to continue and to even escalate their attacks as long as the war between Israel and Hamas continues these attacks have garnered widespread condemnation from western leaders and caused shipping in the region to groan into a halt and prices to skyrocket US President Joe Biden says the international coalition launched the strikes last night in response to the Houthis use of an anti-ship ballistic missile in their latest attack Biden says he will not hesitate to protect people and the free flow of commerce other members of the coalition have voiced their own support for these actions Australia's support of these actions came in the form of personnel in the operational headquarters these are very important actions the actions that have been taken today supported by Australia are about maintaining freedom of navigation on the high seas maintaining global trade and that is completely central to Australia's national interest Japan condemns the Houthi forces continued actions that violate rights and free passage of vessels around Arabian Peninsula including the Red Sea also Japan supports the US and its allies decision to fulfill their responsibilities in order to secure the free and safe passage of vessels well joining me now in studio is professor Uzi Robbie director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern studies at Tel Aviv University thank you so much Uzi for being with me on this topic we've seen the first kinetic action directly against the Houthis positions themselves will this change anything I hope so this is the first of its kind it's definitely not enough considering actually the Houthi reaction or response they just declared that the war against Israel and in support for Gaza would continue basically they have declared a war on Israel this is what actually they did I hope that this coalition that just actually also asserted that what they did last day was kind of an act that should be regarded as an act of defense in nature I hope that they would go to further and this is high time for them for the coalition to start dealing with some Houthi targets in Yemen so it must be highly penetrative in order to send the message not only to the Houthis which are functioning as an arm of the Iranian octopus this would be a message to the other Iranian arms that I would say had harassed American targets actually in both Syria and Iraq recently there was a kind of a surge in those activities but on top of that it would be a message for Iran we have to understand all the time Iran goes nuclear it doesn't seem that the world is going to take care of that in kind of a serious manner Iran is very very dominant in this region called the Middle East so if somebody would like actually to prevent a regional war it won't be actually as the result of acts of defensive nature as was the case here so I do hope that this is just the beginning and I say in the same breath it's high time for the coalition to start or to come up with much more lethal and penetrating attacks in order to send the message otherwise actually the message will not be sent Well that leads to the follow up to that the Houthis have plenty of people that are willing to die for their beliefs as long as Iran can keep shipping them weapons it means that pairing back the arms of this beast as you describe it isn't going to stop Iran from deciding militias in the region to take these actions is there a point where the United States has to take action directly against the master of the region itself? We have reached that point let me remind you Houthis are well experienced with those ballistic missiles they fired them actually against Saudi Arabia for 7 or 8 years we have seen that before but when it comes to the Red Sea when it comes to the international shipping lines so to speak this is where actually the West and other states are coming to the fore in the shape of a coalition if this coalition would like just to actually deal with that on kind of a sporadic or kind of an act that is just very very local this would be a mistake this is part and parcel of the machinery we just see the Houthis here tomorrow it could be Hezbollah or Hashir Chabi in Iraq so here is the thing the diagnosis should be very clear it is Iran behind all these and those arms must be cut off otherwise no message can be sent and this is something that gives you kind of an understanding that Gaza and the war in Gaza should not be confined only to Israel versus Hamas it has wider implications I would say even regional and global and this is high time to start dealing with that as such that's precisely what I wanted to bring up because if the United States take these very narrow responses against specific Houthi targets is it not signaling weakness to destabilize the courses? Exactly and this is what I meant by narrowing down the significance of what the Houthis are doing you sent the wrong message and once again we have seen that in the 7th of October if you are not if you do not understand actually the way the other the other set of mind or the back of mind of the other works here this is a great mistake and I don't know actually what should happen on top of what already had happened come up with something as I said before much more useful much more effective I guess that we will see that actually gradually because Iran is not going to stop and all these proxies actually do entertain themselves that they have reached actually they crossed the line with no response from the west or from the free world it means that actually they are they are to prevail they should continue with those activities this is kind of a bad recipe for a future in our region absolutely and to remind our viewers that the war that was started on October 7 is still something that is ongoing hostages still being held our Nicole Setic is on the southern border where she was at the gathering of dozens of women demonstrating in solidarity with the hostages that are still being held still being abused and demanding some sort of answer or at least that somebody listen well here's our correspondent as we approach the 100th day since more than 130 hostages have been kidnapped, held hostage in the Gaza Strip we have dozens of women of supporters who are coming out here and raising their voice for those who can't be heard right now in fact I'm joined by Noah who you've been out here raising your voice tell me a little bit about what you and what you're doing today first of all we have two goals for us being here today approaching the 100 days of captivity first is to scream to bring our sisters back home they are held in inhumane conditions we have learned from witnesses that came back from captivity what they have been surpassed we have learned about rape about war crimes that are committed each and every single day and even one minute is like 100 days for them they're in captivity so we are screaming their names to bring them back home that is the first and foremost goal that we have we know in the Netherlands right now there's a case being made against Israel from South Africa calling their actions against Hamas genocide meanwhile there's 130 plus hostages who can't have a voice at that trial not only that the trial that is happening right now calling for Israel to supposedly be committing genocide is absurd it's hypocrisy because genocide is never what Israel intended and never what Israel is committing we are at war against Hamas not against Gaza not against the Gaza people we do not target civilians in the contrary and just to see what is happening to our sisters to our daughters they are not soldiers they are not they do not ask for this they were at their homes they were at a party they were innocent civilians that were targeted by Hamas we are targeting a terrorist organization not people and on the other side in the contrary this is not the case so it is shameful to see what's going on in Haag and we are all for human rights for women rights and the other side is very much not so Noah thank you so much for being out here and raising a voice for the hostages who don't have a voice right now thank you so much it truly has been a very powerful day you can hear the pain and not only Noah's voice but the dozens of other women who are out here right near the Gaza border continuing to scream blood-curdling screams and name the hostages who are still there in hopes that those hostages who are in the Gaza strip might just hear their name being called and know that everyone out here is supporting them reporting from southern Israel for I-24 news I'm Nicole Zedek we are now returning to studio we talk about the hostages they're still being held a hundred days later even as the international courts are accusing Israel of crimes what is the message that's being sent to the world with all of this well this is a theater of hypocrisy and I dare say that what is I am so concerned about for me actually this whole things together with what we have seen in the US in the academia media etc well the free world is on the verge of bankruptcy in terms of understanding actually what the menace is or what to just what the challenge ahead is I think that what we see here is kind of a result or a consequences that we're there actually for almost 25 years we have seen that in the universities we have seen that in the academia now it comes with the international bodies that were to actually just act the opposite way of what we see now here and I think that Israel should also learn a lesson here on top of the civilian staff that we have here in Israel which is a real struggle we have actually to bring in people with fresh mind about how to organize how to forge a campaign of influence working for Israel doing all that stuff that had been done by Palestinians for years because if we don't the future of this country and much of the western world seems to be at risk thank you so much for putting that down for us and we have to remind people the cost of this war is also measured in human life IDF soldiers seriously wounded in Gaza numbering in the thousands if you count that since October 7th but they refuse demobilization demanding to be returned to the front bloodied but unbowed you have no idea who this man is standing in front of you he's the bravest commander in the IDF he saved my life he fought like a lion with us he had 50 men behind him in a really crazy situation and this man sends only good energy but he's a bit crazy to go back into battle after losing his eye isn't he? what can I say to him? he's completely nuts you paid a high price didn't you? a wounded mother goes back to her children afterwards doesn't she? all my children were here waiting for me in civilian life Yossi is the father of a one and a half year old child lives in Ziron Yakov and is in his fourth year of automotive engineering studies on October 7th like many others Yossi was abroad as soon as he knew what was happening he immediately went back to Israel a month ago a bullet fragment penetrated his cornea and he lost use of his eye I felt very bad at home I really feel better here even under enemy fire when they're firing missiles at us but I prefer to be here with my soldiers they need me and I need them the trouble with doing a story about real heroes is that they usually don't see it that way how are you? you remember him from the first time I felt like his face was familiar but the truth is he recognized me first he said to me we know each other the only answer I could come up with was that we'd been seeing too much of each other lately yes, that's what you told me have you ever had a soldier wounded twice? no, never and do you remember the first thing you asked me? no you asked me when you could go back to combat Major Uri is a reservist in a special parachute commando unit and has found himself in this department twice in the course of six days both times after explosive devices were detonated as they went through Gaza and the two attacks 18 of his soldiers were wounded some were hospitalized with him including Elon who he met today for the first time until recently they were kept in an induced coma hi my brother, you're looking better you're a real miracle yes, that's what they say how do you feel? better I can't believe my eyes yes, I've been told it's a miracle they've managed to put me back together again I can even move my hand a little when you wake up and hear that Uri has gone back into combat is it something you understand or for him it's the obvious thing to do and I knew that's what he would do I have an image stuck in my head I'm on the ground completely stunned when I look up I see our friend with a bloody face he was bleeding from his nose eyes and mouth and still he managed to shout call him any officer who had been wounded instead of me would have reacted in the same way there's nothing extraordinary about this situation and all the strength and courage is shown by the families who support us the medical teams who take care of us and our comrades who are in there fighting bravely during the two attacks against the terrorists Uri lost three of his officers Sholev Zaltzman Alex Spitz and Shai Tromin losing so many comrades reinforces your sense of responsibility and our obligation to see through what we've started you also look at the world differently and it puts life's values in their rightful place it's something else that's enough you've risked your life enough already I'm no hero I think you are hyper-motivated full of courage but that's enough you've given enough your whole future is ahead of you you've got to let it go now I don't think I can do it it's too difficult for me we meet Sharaf commander of the Nahal Commando Unit in a hotel in central Israel where his parents, residents of Methalsim on the edge of the Gaza Strip are being temporarily re-housed the famous Sabbath morning of October 7th and immediately went out with three other officer friends from the Kibbutz to position themselves on the fence and protect his house he was wounded in the hand by a grenade thrown at him as soon as he was healed he joined his men in Gaza leading them in an operation against terrorists he was wounded when a large explosive was detonated as they passed don't you ever wonder why fate has already struck twice don't you ever say to yourself why us? of course it was very devastating when it happened what are the odds of something like that happening I tried to get on with life in a more or less normal way but when I was alone with myself I told myself that after two injuries Sharaf had given enough of himself I don't think I can stay cooped up at home knowing that my team my men are still fighting in Gaza since the war isn't over when you give your child this kind of education for so many years and the moment of truth arrives how can you tell him right now not to go you've played with your fate once then again these people have all the right qualities everything that makes these people so proud to be Israeli but as we expect them to listen to what we have to say they expect the same from us the only thing that will tell us if everything we are doing was worth it is if we stay united as a people, as a nation and we'll come out of this hardship even stronger more united and we'll defeat our enemies there is no doubt about it we have no other choice and that's all the time we have for now thank you so much for watching see you again at another time thanks for watching