 of rockets targeting the south, the center, the east of the country from Beersheba through Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, according to Hamas, over 5,000 rockets fired so far. Numerous direct hits resulting in casualties and great damage. Communities under complete lockdown, the entire country under lockdown, really, with citizens instructed simply not to leave their homes, the shelters. Declaring a state-of-war readiness, reservists have been called in. The head of Hamas military wing, Muhammad Def, announcing it is the beginning of a war urging Arab Israelis, West Bank Palestinians and armed groups in Lebanon to take up their arms and join. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yav Garland convening security chiefs for emergency meeting this very hour. The security cabinet will convene later on in the day. We need to say clearly there is a lot of information circulating at the moment on social media, some containing extremely difficult visuals and content. We are aware of it all. We get all of this from all sides of the border fence, and yet we will be reporting only verified information here. It is Saturday morning, October 7th, 2023, Jews across the nation, ready to celebrate the holiday of Simchat Torah. It was 50 years ago this weekend when the 1973 Yom Kippur War broke out. Today, Israel, once again, under a surprise attack, a surprise war. Joining us here in studio for this special broadcast, I-24 News correspondent, Handa Selhout, Lieutenant Colonel of the Reserve Jonathan Conriquez, international spokesman of the IDF, and Mr. Rafael Oshami, former senior intelligence officer at the IDF, will of course bring all the latest information and the sounds from the ground, the witnesses from the ground. Again, it is all happening as we speak in much uncertainty and clarity about what is currently happening. But, Handa Selhout, maybe we can begin with you to try and clear the clutter. What do we know about what is happening right now on the border fence communities? Well, look around two hours ago, three hours ago, Hamas launching a surprise attack against the Israelis. And Hamas lived the commander for Hamas's military wing, giving a rare statement to media that was broadcast through all Arabic media outlets saying that this is a revenge operation against the Israeli military. This is something they have been organizing for months, if not years. We haven't heard from him since 2014. He is a revered commander among the Palestinians. There were infiltrations from Hamas fighters in the south, horrifying scenes throughout those southern communities, as those fighters just opened fire and unleashed on Israeli civilians there. More than 5,000 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip today. Fighters are still trying to infiltrate an Israeli tank lit on fire near the border fence. A lot of really intense images, reports of kidnapped soldiers, dead soldiers, still we are unable to verify this information. A lot of different types of images circling. But what we do know is that Israel was really taken by surprise during this attack. Remember back in May when there was a targeted assassination, Israel targeting a Palestinian Islamic jihad commander. They were vowing revenge. So Israel had time to evacuate. All of those southern communities really increased their home front command mobilize reservists. This time it was not the same. So Hamas probably learned from that instance that a surprise attack was the way to go if they were going to launch this operation against Israel. They have coined it the al-Aqsa flood. This has been emanating from them since the beginning of the year, saying that they were running out of patience and the scenes over the last week of Palestinians really being beaten near the gates of the al-Aqsa mosque. A lot of Israelis going to the al-Aqsa mosque known as the Temple Mount to them. All of these things adding up in Hamas's eyes to an unacceptable situation where now they are revolting and hoping this will be the last operation against Israel. But the Israeli military will fight back and it will be something unprecedented. Yes, well orchestrated attack, no doubt about that. Which brings me to ask you, Lieutenant Colonel Conriquez, how come? It's not just the scope and scale that came as a surprise, but the mere attack that came as a surprise, the abilities of Hamas, this infiltration, again a situation that is happening as we speak and the idea for us yet to gain control over, how come? Many, many questions are there to be answered. I suggest focusing less on Hamas propaganda and nonsense of al-Aqsa and focusing instead on the murdering of Israeli civilians. As of now, once Hamas crossed the border went into Israel and sent their terrorists, not fighters, but bloodthirsty terrorists into Israeli cities to butcher Israeli civilians, the media war is on. The media war is on and yet to know Israeli official is speaking at the moment. Indeed, and that is unfortunate and I also think that it's unfortunate that Israel has not yet gotten out images of the results of the heinous attacks conducted by Palestinian terrorists, not fighters. Palestinian terrorists coming out of Gaza, led by an arch-terrorist, Muhammad Def and the rest of the Iranian ring of proxies. This isn't about al-Aqsa. This is about Hamas planning and executing so far, unfortunately, it appears quite well. A pre-planned attack into Israel, something that they have basically taken a page out of the book of Hezbollah, similar type of tactics. The only thing really missing is close air support, which Hezbollah has and Hamas doesn't, but we're seeing very similar tactics, similar way of thinking, heavily media focused activities and we will see videos, gruesome videos of killed Israelis and we will see videos of Israeli soldiers in various conditions. That is part of what we're doing now and what I think will shape the future here is the amount of Israeli casualties and their condition and whether or not there are abductees in Gaza, civilians or soldiers, that will be a very important indicator of where this is going and the second thing will be what's happening on the other fronts. As far as I hear now, the other fronts are relatively stable and quiet. There's readiness in the north and Judea and Samaria seems to be stable at the moment, but that is something that needs to be actively monitored and anticipated. I don't think that this magnitude of a Hamas attack in the south is something that the Iranians and the rest of their proxies are not aware of, did not condone and are not prepared for, which means, which lends to the assessment that there will be more events to happen. I think that the IDF, the Israeli government, is in an unprecedented situation here where the level of attack, the atrocity and the casualties that Israelis have sustained will force Israel to conduct a response that has not been seen before. The level of attack is unprecedented and Israel will have to respond in an unprecedented way. There are various tools on the table and I think that there definitely is a time now to quickly shift from routine security, burning of fields, rockets, et cetera. This is a different stage. The terrorists have really escalated the situation to somewhere that we haven't been before and there must be a very, very heavy price paid by Hamas leadership and everybody down from there. Lieutenant Colonel Conriquez, obviously, as you've mentioned, more questions than answers at this point in time, but Mr. Yerushalmi, before we ask those many questions to be asked, what is happening now on the ground from the IDF standpoint? What is the focus of the security apparatus at these crucial hours? I suppose that the main focus right now, because we still rely on the iron dome for the rocket attacks, is taking care of the different points where the terrorists have been filtered into our cities and villages. There are places where we know for certain that Israelis have been taken hostages, meaning the terrorists came into a village into at least two houses and they are holding their civilian hostages. Israeli special forces are surrounding these two places, trying to free the hostages. We also know that in Silwan, in Jerusalem, are the first signs of an uprising in Judea and Samaria, meaning that the dormant cells of the Hamas and Islamic jihad are waking up there. We know that in the north, in southern Lebanon, there is a very important armed presence of Hamas in Palestinian refugee camps and also other Palestinian organizations that might come into action without counting the Hezbollah. The Hezbollah might still play it safe for now, stay out of it for now, but there are other factions that can operate. So, there are many signs for the IDF to operate on all fronts. Of course, we are now in the worst nightmare scenario. They are in the drawers of the planning and strategic branches of the IDF operations to mount facing such kind of scenarios. Nightmare scenarios have been taken into account. The problem will be now the decision at the political level. At one o'clock there is the meeting of the security cabinet and it's the political level that has to decide to what level of response they will allow the IDF. The IDF is ready to strike and strike hard. We know that this strike will be very dangerous for our troops. We will lose soldiers in that war. We are going towards a war. The Minister of Defense said there is a war. The Hamas has declared a war. A long war. There is a very important call of reserve forces from the IDF. Tens of thousands of soldiers are being called to reserve. It's not the first level of reservists joining, but more than that. Yes, but it's a lot of people already and they are massing them, of course, along the Gaza border. It remains now to be seen what is the efficient answer, because to strike hard, to bomb a lot of places in Gaza, we've done it in the past. We've destroyed buildings. We've destroyed offices. A large-scale aspiration will not be enough. I think the main mistake of the different governments, we can't even pick up one. Most governments of Israel made two mistakes. The first mistake was believing that the Hamas was a possible, even indirect, partner for any kind of negotiation. So if we had any doubt what are the Hamas' intentions, we have no more doubt today. It's just to kill Jews and to kill innocent people and pure hatred without any advance of the Palestinian cause. There is here no liberation of the Palestinian people. It's pure jihad. It's religion. And the last mistake I'm just saying not to have eliminated those leaders who are now leading this operation against Israel. Yes. As we speak, a scene of slaughter, no other way to put it, in southern Israeli communities. And we do want to tune in now to Israel's police chief, Yaakov Shabtai, as citizens of Israel's south, are essentially begging for help. Let's tune in. Yes. The chief of police wrapping up short statements. He's the first Israeli official to speak, saying loud and clear Israel is in a state of war. And again, this joins hours now long of Israeli residents who are, with a lack of a better term, simply begging for police, for the IDF, to help them as they're facing not just constant barrages of rockets, but again, the presence of Hamas terrorists in Israeli communities walking around streets of Israeli cities down south. And we do want to go now live to I-24 News correspondent Nikol Cedek in the city of Yavne, one of many cities to be bombarded since the early hours of this morning. Nikol, the Home Front Command, instructions could not have been any clear. Simply stay home, lock the doors until advised otherwise. Exactly, Ellie. I mean, we continue to hear just these interceptions happening overhead. In fact, I just left a bomb shelter about five minutes ago. A family right nearby has been letting us come use their family bomb shelter. It's something that they've been having to walk into about every 15 minutes since about 6.30 this morning Israel time. Now, the family says they've never experienced something like this with sirens going off that frequently here in Yavne. Now to put it into perspective exactly where we are, we're about 15 miles south of Tel Aviv, less than 30 miles away from the Gaza Strip. So they say this is really unprecedented and there was a direct hit actually on a home here in Yavne. I'm gonna have our camera zoom in so you can see just the fire and the smoke that's still in the building. One person was injured and taken to the hospital. We don't know the extent of their injuries at this time, but we're told by firefighters and police who were inside the house that everything is completely charred. You can see even some of the windows were completely busted out. So we spoke to a neighbor actually who lives right nearby. He said he's never experienced something like this in Yavne. He said his daughter is now experiencing trauma and she actually took herself to the hospital as well. And so that's what we're also hearing so many reports of just people experiencing such trauma in this area because they're not used to something like this and for them to have to go into their bomb shelter every 15 minutes or with a family with four kids and multiple other people and they're welcoming everyone who's around because once that siren goes off, you barely have any time to go into someone's house and get to your safe place. So that's exactly why the home front command is urging everyone to stay in their safe place, lock their doors and really, really hunker down right now during this, this period. And I can't believe I'm saying that, Nicole, but this might be one of the easiest scenes that we've seen since the early hours of this morning. Obviously the life of a family completely turned upside down, but compared to again what we're seeing now, that might be the case in so many different places right now across Israel as we still do not have a clear picture of the amount of direct hits of casualties of the scope and scale of the damage. The chief of police speaking short minutes ago and speaking about 21 active scenes, the term active scenes alluding to direct confrontations with those terrorists who infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip. This situation is still ongoing and again, unclarity still rains. And Nicole, just for our viewers here at Israel, let's do, give the clear instructions of the home front command for the coming hours. Reminder, it is the morning of holiday of Shabbat. Many people were planning to celebrate the holiday of Simchat Torah. The situation on the ground suggests otherwise that's an understatement perhaps, Nicole. Exactly. And so everyone is just encouraged right now when you do hear those alarms really just stay in your house because you have depending on where you are throughout Tel Aviv, you have about maybe 15 seconds. If you're right near the Gaza Strip or about a minute and a half, which is closer to where we are in central areas here in Tel Aviv, but that is still no time at all. And I can still hear actually interceptions happening overhead as we speak. You can even see every once in a while the thin line of the iron dome intercepting those barrages. So we continue to hear them. But with so much action happening in the area until you hear the exact siren, that's when we're going to head into the bomb shelter because that's when you know it's the clear message that that's actually happening in your exact area. Right. Nicole Tzedek with the rest of the I-24 news team down south. You will continue to bring us all the latest from the ground. Stay safe and much more from Nicole and all the other I-24 news teams throughout the country, throughout the day, of course. Thank you, Nicole. Mr. Oshalmi, 50 years plus a day. Once again, Israel is surprised. How do you explain this? I will not go as far as to say to give grades or deem it as a failure, but it was obviously lack of proper intelligence when it comes to Hamas intentions. There was the only similarity because on the ground it's completely different from the Yom Kippur war, of course. But the only similarity is what they used to call in Hebrew a misconception, the misconception. And there were a few misconceptions. Of late there was an impression and that impression was confirmed by experts in the security services that the Hamas were willing to kind of negotiate an appeasement in exchange for socio-economic help to the Gazan people and work permits. The Israelis even gave more work permits for Gazan workers. There was a feeling that the lack of popularity of Hamas in Gaza would push the Hamas to better the conditions of living in Gaza with the help of the Israelis, with the help of Arabic countries. So overall, there was a complete misconception of what the Hamas is about and what are the Hamas' intentions. Nobody saw it coming. They saw it exactly the other way around that we are going to kind, which was of course a mistake of more than 20 years. A lot of people in my branch, in my domain, always considered the Hamas as 100% and 200% pure terrorist organization that you cannot expect anything from and you should not negotiate with. That's the misconception, generally, in intelligence. Now on the ground, there's some many questions have to be asked after. Now we have to concentrate on defending ourselves against this attack, but after that, we will have to understand how come such a scale of an operation was not detected in the preparation stage. How come so many rockets can be shot to shoot that many rockets at the same time means that the troops were deployed and organized in such a way that the launching places were ready. You just had to wake up and in a few minutes you would join them. So why was it not detected? How come that a week ago when there was a show of strengths and a kind of maneuver by the Islamic jihad, the intelligence services didn't see that it was a smoke screen for preparing this attack? How come that we have so many drones, satellite images, spies on the ground, informants on the ground, we didn't find, there is here a problem with the intelligence for sure, but also I'm afraid in the first moments now of what is happening, a problem of readiness on the ground of the troops, of the friends with people begging for help in villages of Israel when the army and police taking some time to provide that help. A whole lot of time, if I may, and we're seeing all throughout our conversation here, the visuals, the images coming out from the ground, terrorists, again walking around Israeli streets, Israeli territory, Israeli towns, fully armed. And Hamda Selhut here with us in studio, Mr. Farid Ushami was talking about the misconception on the Israeli side. And yet, as he mentioned, there were signs on Hamas' side that something is going on, let it be those rocket fire towards mostly sea area recently, those launches or this parade, this parade to show the arms capabilities of Hamas a short time ago. So, and as you have mentioned, Hamas have been building up preparing for this moment for quite some time now. Hamas has been preparing. And remember, this has been the deadliest year for both Israelis and Palestinians, more than 200 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military, combatants and non-combatants, more than 30 Israeli civilians killed by armed Palestinians. The level that this situation is going to get to is going to be something that is never seen before, something we've never seen before. Mohammad Leif, the military commander, calling this a revolution, calling on Palestinians from the north to Jerusalem to the West Bank to get involved in this. And Arab-Israeli citizens as well. Correct, correct. Arab citizens from the north. This is going to be something that the Israeli military is really going to have to strategize how they are going to respond to this. It is also worth noting that Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip, a lot of them are civilians. A lot of them are people who are not involved in this conflict. And they are going to be the ones who are hit the hardest, just like the civilians in the south, who were killed this morning by the ambush. The infiltration of the border is something that is really going to have to be looked at, something that's going to have to be examined, how they were able to get there. The Palestinians were also able to take Israeli military vehicles and are now driving them in the streets of Gaza. Reports of several hostages among the Israeli forces as well. We're nearing the end of our broadcast and I really do want to conclude it by your statements, Jonathan Conriquez, former spokesperson for the IDF. A lot of unclearity. What should we focus on this hour? I think we should focus, I think Israel should be focusing on closing down the Gaza Strip, indicating to Gaza and all of the other terrorists watching and the entire world is watching. All of the other terrorists in the Iranian proxy network are watching and the severity of our response, not just the early stage of the response, but what will come after and what will come after that comes after will be watched. And this, I think, as difficult as the time is, and we're going to see horrible images of Israeli casualties, as difficult as this is, we should see this as an opportunity to significantly change the status of the Middle East, to significantly change what Hamas and other Iranian proxy organizations have been able to do and accumulate along our borders. And if this isn't a wake-up call for Israel, then I don't know what is. Yes, if Israel will not change the situation in the Middle East, the Middle East will change the situation for it. No doubt that we are facing prolonged hours, days of tough times and Israeli resilience should be underlined during those hours. We will continue to bring you all the live updates from the ground throughout the day. See you at the top of the hour. My name is Khanna Rivkin and welcome to this newest edition of Discover Bufferry. There are a wealth of beautiful beach fronts to enjoy in Bahrain. 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