 Israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds We have no idea where she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line But the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well It's all war families completely done down in their beds We have no idea where she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line But the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well Some of these soldiers, the policemen and plain civilians who took up arms to defend their communities on October 7th, knowing that they were simply the last line of defense for their families, their friends and their communities. This story tells the story of Yossi Tahaar, an accomplished fighter in the IDF as well as Israel's internal security service, who lost his life fighting to defend his community. Here is his story. I miss him so much, my heart is dead. Why couldn't he be more careful? How? How could they not save him? Stay strong like you are. You cheer me up all the time. It's true. It's so painful, it's impossible. I can't believe that Yossi was taken from me. In fact, I went there with the feeling that this wouldn't happen to me. For what purpose? Why is he part of it? Yossi, the good Lord protects him. But no one defended him. Until October 7th, Mazal and Elie Tahaar knew nothing about them. Not what they looked like, or what their real names were. These are the friends of her son, Yossi. Killed on October 7th, who remained in the shadow. I never knew them. I've never seen them. And I said to myself, what a shame that Yossi never came home with them for dinner. Now when they come here, they give me a little bit of strength. But I miss Yossi a lot. We spoke on Thursday morning. Maybe now is the time to show what he wrote to me. It was Thursday. You read it, I can't. Dad, I want to tell you how much I love you and really appreciate that you're here by my side. You give me strength when I need it. Always thinking, always thoughtful, warm, friendly, with logic, and always sincere. It is important for me that you know how dear you are to me. I love you, Yossi. I love you. These are three of the most valiant elite fighters in the secret and very special unit of the Internal Intelligence Service, the Shin Bet. They are here to meet Yossi's parents and tell them about the side of Yossi they knew less about. He had a strong personality. Those who knew him got attached to him in seconds, at all levels. From the simple soldier arriving at the unit, the day before, to the IDF Chief of Staff. He knew how to connect with people. Just like that, he gave so much of himself. He would meet someone and two days later is invited over for a barbecue dinner. We don't wear our ranks. We don't treat people based on their position. People follow us because of the leadership, because of the personality of whoever leads the unit. And Yossi was all of the above, big time. He knew how to speak to people and touch their hearts. We cannot show Yossi's photo and his face will probably never be known to the public. Our slogan is protect and not be seen. In 99% of cases, we were the ones to surprise the enemy. We are the initiators, those who direct the situation. On October 7th, we were surprised by the intensity of the attack, the way it was done, the numbers. And that was what put us in great difficulty in the first hours of the attack. In many ways, Yossi is like Emmanuel Moreno, the heroic fighter of the famous Special Forces Commando, Syred Maktal. But in the ranks of Shin Bet, tales of his bravery and everything he did on October 7th will remain secret, except for what the sensors allow us to reveal. It was half past six in the morning of the 7th of October. I received the first phone call from Yossi. He told me, you're not going to believe it. There's something weird going on here. He was talking to me from his shelter and told me that he will call me back when he's on the road to decide what we're going to do. As we drove south, we realized that one of our fighters was hit and Yossi, with another small team of fighters, responded driving towards the terrace under heavy fire. He was in an area he didn't know and we could not yet understand the scale and complexity of the attack and the number of terrorists. He was able to reach our struggling fighter after a few minutes, and Yossi actually saved his life. Outside, violent fighting was taking place on all sides, and Yossi realized that the evacuation is well managed. It's under control. He analyzed the situation perfectly and said to himself that he is the force closest to the Kibbutz Mefalsim and decided to support the fighters in the area. Yossi is an experienced fighter, with a lot of hours of combat under his belt. He comes from Shete Shaloshesri, the Marine Commanders. Yossi was in a different level than the rest of us. He often faced terrorists, participated in many operations against them, and had a lot of experience. Pretty early in the fighting, he was able to get hold of one of the terrorist's tactical radios. At first, he listened to what they were saying, trying to figure out where the terrorists are. They killed two terrorists in a van. They saw another group of about 10 terrorists up the road. He ran to an open area, and the terrorists were hiding behind a concrete shelter at the entrance of the Kibbutz. At this point, he had been hit, and that's where he died. I heard on the radio that Yossi was wounded, and the next call I got was not from Yossi. It was from our medic. He told me, man, I can't keep fighting to save Yossi. It's done. And I know both of them very well. I know about the commitment we have towards each other here. However, when he told me that he did everything he could but could not save him, and that was the end, I realized that we're dealing with a totally different situation here. Did he suffer? No. He didn't suffer? No, he didn't suffer. First few days after Yossi died, I didn't want to deal with it. I tried to keep busy. Don't think about it. I tried to erase it. Sometimes I'd wake up at night saying to myself, it can't be. It can't be true. But after about four days, I stopped on the side of the road and said, I can't put it away anymore. Just like that. I wanted a moment to process. And I got on WhatsApp and listened to some of the messages he had sent me. And the last one was a song. This song suddenly hit me. It cut off half my heart. And I just stopped. This repression disappeared all of a sudden. Emotions came pouring out. It overwhelmed me because you hear Yossi in his own voice singing a song that is almost like a prophecy. Yossi was the son of every parent here in Israel. He defended them all by himself, all of them. He protected the state of Israel. He even told us once, if not me, then who would do the job? If not me, then who would do it? He's not here. It's just the body. Physical matter here. Materiality. I respect the cemetery and the burial, which is important in Judaism in our heritage. But for me, this is just a stone. Like you said, it's not him. It's a stone. I think that if there is, as they say, a world beyond this one, I am sure that he's up there giving it all he's got. I have no doubt. Grief hit Eli three times during his life. His brother, Lieutenant Colonel Yossi Tahar, a senior officer at the paratroopers brigade, was killed in July of 1981 fighting in Lebanon. It was a huge crisis in my life, a very, very difficult crisis. I've carried it around for a long time. Twenty years later when Roy was killed, then they asked me, they told me, you must be used to it. But I said that that was not the case. Now I understand what my parents felt. Roy, Eli's son, fighter in the Nahal brigade, was killed in a motorcycle accident on October 2001. When Roy died, a part of me died. It didn't hurt. It was just that a part of me was dead. Eli was sure he had already paid the ultimate price, that Yossi, despite serving as a fighter who in the Navy commando and later in the Shin Bet, would not be harmed. That's what almost everyone thought, those who knew Yossi. At one point I said, that's it. I have the impression that that's it. He's safe there, with this protective layer around him. I thought he was safe. Yossi had something immortal about him. In the eulogy his commander said that when Yossi would stare death in the eyes, death would back down. Many Israelis owe their life to Yossi and they don't even know it. Beyond the fact that October 7th, his actions stopped terrorists from entering in the kibbutz of Mefal Sin. He is responsible for hundreds of foiled attacks over the years, in service, and only a handful of which we were allowed to mention. With the departure of most of Israel's foreign workers in the wake of the October 7th terror attack, Israeli farmers are struggling to harvest their crop due to a severe lack of manpower. Now several private initiatives are bringing in volunteers from across the country to help fill in that gap. Roy Shapiro went to check out one of those in the coastal community of Rishbon and he found that they were joined there by a very special volunteer from a country halfway around the world in East Asia that in some ways identifies itself with Israel. More than 8,000 kilometers separates Israel and Taiwan, but today it seems that the two countries are closer than ever. Fishers from Taiwan have decided to join the current Israeli war effort and volunteer to work in the fields of the coastal village of Rishbon. Since the whole world looked at October 7th's Hamas terrorizing harrow, Taiwan was one of the first countries to express our solidarity with Israel and express our condolence to the perished people and political support is very strong. Over the past 30 years, the social foundation between the two societies and people are also very deep rooted. So we feel it's important to come more support with the civilian sectors including the aquaculture sectors. This is a part of a project led by Hashomer Hadash for the new guard, an Israeli organization which helps farmers across the country. Its co-founder says that walking in the field is a prime goal in Israel today as there is a lack of tens of thousands of workers. The power of this nation, the power of the people, the power of the society inside Israel, this is the strongest power that we have and to tell you the truth, I spoke with the Minister of Education and I told him please let the students come to the field for a few months to the field, stop the learning and come to the field and work because people all over Israel need to eat. Among the volunteers we found Yanir and Maayan, these students and a couple decided to take time off university and contribute to local industry. It's a tough job but it is very rewarding. Exactly. It is nice to see the container getting full of fruit. I think that working in the field really binds us as a couple. Yes. The Taiwanese representative in Israel says that despite the different cultures, Israel and Taiwan have a lot in common. In Israel, Taiwan has been under constant threat from our neighbor, country, China. We understand the commitment to defend the homeland and we understand the commitment to exercise the right of defense. Despite the hot weather, volunteers are not worried by the hard work and continue their contribution, one of many since October 7th. Let's go to Kibbutz Nahalos. This is one of the places which were most severely damaged on October 7th. Our correspondent Yuri Shapiro takes us there. October 7th caught the entire country by surprise. In Kibbutz Nahalos, one of the places closest to the Gaza border, the surprise was even bigger. We woke up around 6 a.m. My partner told me that there is a red alert. I wasn't very excited about it. I said, OK, we've experienced these situations. We'll walk it out so we enter the safe room. The first message I got was from a friend who texted me that his wife was injured. Eventually, she died from her wounds. The door was closed, but I suppose that it wouldn't matter to them. I guess that they realized that we are old people. There is not much to do with us. So they went to other places. Yechiel Chelnov is one of the founders of Nahalos. He is close to his 90s, but still very active. When we established the Kibbutz, we concentrated on agriculture. And indeed, we had very good agriculture. We have one of the best dairy industries. At least it was until the war, but it is still working. It's the first time I'm living the Kibbutz. There were security issues when you evacuated young families with the kids or whoever wanted to go, but never like this. Kibbutz Nahalos was the first Nahal settlement. A collective community of veterans of the IDF's Nahal Brigade who combined military service and building communities across the country. In the early days, the Kibbutz was considered one of the most famous in Israel as leaders and officials visited it. One of the most famous incidents occurred in 1956 when a member of the Kibbutz, Roy Rotenberg, was brutally killed by Egyptian forces. The eulogy of Moshe Dayan, then chief of staff, became one of the most iconic speeches in the history of Israel. Early yesterday morning, Roy was murdered. The quiet of the spring morning dazzled him and not see those waiting in ambush for him at the edge of the furrow. Let us not cast the blame on the murderers today. Why should we declare their burning hatred for us? For eight years they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza and before their eyes we have been transforming the land and the villages where they and their fathers dwelt into our state. It is not among the Arabs in Gaza but in our own midst that we must seek Roy's blood. How did we shut our eyes and refuse to look squarely at our fate and see in all its brutality the destiny of our generation? In 2014, another traumatic event happened when four-year-old Daniel Tragman died from a missile sent from Gaza. The Kibbutz was about to celebrate 70 years since its founding with a special ceremony. Ironically, the main show was a play which shows two women spotters who were cut off from their cameras. We were supposed to have a big celebration marking 70 years of the Kibbutz. On Friday we had rehearsals for the show. The plot where the spotters are disconnected. It seems like a crazy story for me, but this is what happened eventually. Around 35 people were murdered in Nakhaloz on October 7th. Today residents of the Kibbutz are staying in another Kibbutz in the north. Mishmar Hayamek and are waiting to decide on their next step as Nakhaloz remains a closed military zone. Israeli hostages released from captivity in Gaza have been recounting harrowing experiences of abuse and psychological terror. As we've been saying, there are still 138 hostages, young and old, being held in dire conditions. More in this next report. Is everything okay? My mother was kept in a one-and-a-half room apartment. She was in one small closed room, and the couple lived in the other room. It was a small window in the room, which they closed, and she couldn't see if it was there or not. As soon as she realized she was alone, she simply told us, listen, I decided, I read, I studied. All the stories from the Holocaust. I will keep a diary. I read that Gilad Shalit used to do some sports, and that's what kept her going. She realized very quickly that they prayed five times a day, and she would simply count prayers. She would record it in a journal, and the prayers and sound of the muazzin, all these things gave her a complex of understanding what day it was, what night, what hour, and she revolved around that. When I come to them, they see the distress. You see the distress. Yola, Yael, all the time by their mother's side, she never leaves Adi. Until two days ago, she was split. She didn't speak at all, not out loud. Now they're a little more, but you know, he's right away from the moment they were kidnapped, what happened. He saw everything. He doesn't speak at all, not asking, not about the father, not about the grandfather. As far as we know, all six of them were in one place. Tal was not with them, no. We saw some of the children who came with orthopedic injuries. There was a girl who needed surgery. Injuries to the legs, injuries to the hands, scars that were on children, a burn on a child's leg, which he said was a burn from a motorcycle. We saw very low hygiene conditions, at levels I don't remember encountering on children. Stories you hear from other areas, lice, rashes, skin infections. Some of them lost weight in a very, very significant way. What does that mean? Ten kilos in children, a lot. They arrived and after the first meeting with the family, what is the first thing they want to give children who meet them? We let them eat and at some point we found ourselves taking food from the children's rooms so that they wouldn't eat too much when they arrived. That's why I pulled yogurts and rolls out of the children's hands so that it wouldn't be too much. We will have to continue to support them and give them everything they need, both now and in the future, but they are amazing. We've received an inspiring group of children. We know that she did not know, for example, what happened to her father. She was very pleasantly surprised to see her father in that famous video that she actually ran quickly at the speed of light into her mother's embrace and suddenly she saw her father and she was sure that her father had been kidnapped. She did not know that her father was safe and that she had been kidnapped. She did not know that her father was safe and got out of it. The first thing she asked after looking around her and suddenly didn't see Lior, her brother, she asked about her brother and the parents had to tell her, this is actually the first thing they told her after she returned, about her brother, that her brother was murdered. From what I know, and this is almost the first thing I heard from her when I saw her, this whole time she was without shoes. For almost two months, this girl was without shoes. She says that she was humiliated very much, that she had a very difficult experience, that she was treated badly and this is now engraved in her heart. Everything she does, she remembers the experience from there. Was she there alone? She's very scared for the abductees who remained behind. They're still in danger. She was literally brainwashed there, really, and she doesn't live in our world right now, she's still there. L is in a state of war, families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front lines, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. We are in an ambush in the heart of Shazahiyah in one of the deadliest single encounters in the ground operation so far. Seven of the soldiers were from the Golanee Brigade and two from the elite 669 search and rescue unit. They include two senior commanders. Separately, a member of the combat engineering corps was killed fighting in northern Gaza. This brings the IDF death toll since the retaliatory incursion started to 115. Funerals for many of these soldiers are underway right now. You're looking at images from the funeral of 35-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Tomer Greenberg from Gaza. This brings the IDF death toll since the retaliatory incursion started to 115. Funerals for many of these soldiers are underway right now. You're looking at images from the funeral of 35-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Tomer Greenberg. The municipality is saying that there were no injuries. There were no direct, no rockets fell, but part of an interceptor did fall in a commercial center in the city. There were no injuries due to the fact that the citizens there did exactly what they should have done. They did not remain inside that commercial center even though it's a closed place. We have to say, it's not out in the air, but they went to the protected shelter. That is why they were spared. No one was injured, no injuries. There is a damage to that commercial center. Not a direct hit, but some part of an interceptor. That is why the Home Front Command is stressing again and again. Even after the sirens end and even after you hear the interceptions, stay indoors for another 10 minutes because these interceptors are very big and they fall from the sky and they can cause casualties. If they hit anybody, the people in Nasdod did exactly what they had to do. They remained inside the shelter and that is why there were no injuries from that part of an interceptor which fell on a commercial center. That is the message that the Home Front Command keeps on reiterating. Meanwhile, Jonathan, funerals are underway for most of the Israeli soldiers killed in that ambush. The death toll for the IDF since the start of that ground operation is at 115. What is the latest on the fighting right now? What can you share? Yes, and it's ongoing. Still a first battle behind us in Betchanon, which is right behind us. And further south, in Jibalia and the Gaza neighborhood of Sajaya where, unfortunately, this terrible, terrible incident happening last night. The fighting is ongoing. The incident of last night, of course, raises the questions of how exactly it is right to treat these kind of scenes. Is it right to send soldiers inside, putting them in danger? But there were tens or maybe even hundreds of similar scenarios in which soldiers came in and along with killing terrorists inside came back with valuable intelligence, came back with terrorists who can be interrogated. This is one consideration. The other is bombing it from the air, not necessarily putting your soldiers in danger but also not extracting valuable intelligence from these compounds and also not making sure that all of the terrorists are killed, that neighborhood of Sajaya very close to the border fence, very close to the Israeli communities of Nahal-oz, Farazah, and you want to make sure that these places are completely clear of terrorists before you allow people to come back. Therefore, difficult considerations for the Israeli army. You stay safe. Thank you for now. Senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev live from Southern Israel. Thanks, Jonathan. And now for more inside, we welcome to studio Dr. David Shimoni, former intelligence official in the Commanders for Israel's security. Dr. Shimoni, thank you so much for being here. It is a very tough day in the country. Ten Israeli soldiers, funerals are underway as we speak right now. The risks are high in operations that are unfolding. Talk to us about what is known, about what unfolded in terms of these soldiers. Ten soldiers killed, nine of them in that ambush. Well, as you said, a very sad day in Israel. Hanukkah and many families will not be lighting their candles tonight, especially ten of these fallen soldiers. We know they were in action. We know that at some stage four of them went off the radio and contact with them was lost. And their friends believed that there's a possibility that they've been kidnapped into a tunnel shaft in that area. And that's why they actually hurried to try to rescue them before they disappear in this tunnel. And they were met by booby traps, mostly explosives, that went off and killed the rest of the soldiers. A terrible loss for, yeah, the 13th regiment, Regiment Gulani, very glorious unit. Terrible loss. There's some talk in Israel that maybe if we would not adhere to the American demands, not to bomb so much, maybe these lives could have been saved, a spirit. I don't think that's the case. I think we reached a stage when this friction, unfortunate friction, is required if we really want to clear the area, bearing in mind also the presence of civilians but also our hostages who might be hidden in some of these tunnels. So this requires a very, very delicate infantry operation. Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security Advisor, arrives in Israel tomorrow. Lloyd Austin comes a couple of days after that. Talk to us about exactly that. The pressure from the United States right now when it's very clear that this war is far from over. Well, the pressure in a way is also coordination, is also support, is also good involvement advice that we get from American generals. And yes, and they're trying to maintain a reasonable amount of casualties on the civilian side. It's very important to President Biden. By the way, also our hostages are very important to President Biden. He took it as his personal project to safeguard these hostages. So yes, we will be coming under some pressure by the American government maybe to try to shorten the assault duration in Gaza, maybe to try to start folding things up, to regroup, to fix our lines. But that's not the big question between us and the United States. The big question between us and the United States is what happens after the war ends. What is the solution to Gaza? Who is going to take over? Who is going to govern Gaza? And the Americans have a very, very well-defined plan and understanding, and we do not. We are still debating. There's still the Cabinet and the government. They have different opinions. They haven't agreed upon one scheme, what's going to happen in Gaza. So we will have our differences with the United States. I believe the presence of high-power American diplomats and representatives now in Israel, I said it's also showing support to Israel, but it's also demanding us to start thinking about the day after. And certainly that is an issue that is going to spark much heated debate. There's no doubt about that. It's interesting you mentioned Joe Biden being so close to the issue of hostages. He is meeting later on in the day with the families of eight American hostages very briefly. Would you have expected the pressure from the Biden administration to be stronger when it comes to making sure that all the hostages come home and they come home safely, your take? I believe so. I have faith in President Biden. I think the President of the United States is not only a person, it's a symbol. And I think he made a commitment and he said that he cares for them. He spent two hours with the families of the hostages long before our Prime Minister met with him. He really, really took it to his heart to take care of our hostages, all hostages, not only American hostages. We know they're also hostages from other countries, Germans, Argentinians, and I think he wants all of them back safe. And certainly the whole nation here is hoping and praying for exactly that. You mentioned Hanukkah, waiting for a miracle during this festival time to make sure that all hostages get home and they get home safely. Dr. Shimoni, stay with us. We've got more to discuss, but talking of developments in the United States, we now welcome Gideon Naveh, the Marketing Assistant Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and he joins us right now from London. Thank you so much for your time, Gideon. Shocking accounts of anti-Semitism on American campuses, UPenn, Harvard, MIT, specifically, in the spotlight right now. Talk us through your personal experience, your perspective right now. Thank you, Obenita. And first of all, good evening as much as we can say it in this very, very sad day. I want to send my condolences to all of the families and all of the hard... I'm just with you in this really hard times in Israel. I want to start maybe by my own personal account. I know that things look very bad from far away. I'm a professor at the Wharton School of Business in UPenn, and I want to say that at the personal level I did feel throughout everything that goes on now a lot of support from my colleagues, from my faculty, from my international collaborators up to a level, for example, that my department chair made sure to call me quite regularly and pass on any messages that I had towards him. So I want to make it clear that we are not in a state where you feel like going out wearing a kippa on campus is something that is dangerous and so on, but we did have witnessed several very alarming events on campus and we were not very happy with the way that the University responded to them. So talk to us about those events and the responses that you are alluding to. Well, the situation in Penn actually started already back in September in a conference for Palestinian culture. It was supposed to be a celebration of Palestinian culture and maybe a lot of parts of the events included that, but there were several speakers invited to this conference that were very known anti-Semitic people, including Roger Waters, who actually ended up joining the event remotely from the airport in Philadelphia. But in any case, we felt that the University put so much emphasis on creating safe spaces, handling every potential microaggression is finding that an event like this kind, when we have about 20% of our students of our student body Jewish, was not a right event to hold, especially not with these speakers. Maybe the event itself could have been okay. And starting at this point, there has been a rising tension on campus with several anti-Semitic incidents, including swastikas that were painted on various buildings. And then, of course, came October 7 and the aftermath of it. And we all know, we all heard some things that were said in different campuses in the US. We've seen demonstrations with people whose faces were covered, calling very violent calls. I don't want to go into the terminology of what they said, but I can tell you that for me, being there, I did not feel safe around these demonstrations, and I can very much empathize with our students who felt that they are not safe, especially if there are American students who have never encountered anything like this in their lifetime. And when you have the scenario that you are describing and then, of course, that astounding hearing when the presidents of these institutions, including your own, couldn't answer if calling for genocide of Jews violates their schools' codes of conduct, talk to us about the channels that exist for these students who aren't feeling safe. What can they do when they are feeling that they are being targeted as you've described right now? There are various challenges, and I want to say that our school did come up with various, maybe, means to address this by forming committees and maybe starting to draw lines around the freedom of speech. My own feeling is that many of these responses came a bit too late, but again, I would like to emphasize that I feel like my university has responded pretty well to the situation, and now with having our president resigning as a consequence of this, it's very clear that what she said in the hearing was a poor choice of words, and she took responsibility to this and resigned. Yeah, I think that we are obviously facing now a problem, and this problem is a part of maybe a bigger challenge for universities that, on the one hand, have to make the place where speech is free, but on the other hand, they have to keep their students safe. We always say that the best approach is to keep the students maybe physically safe and intellectually unsafe. I feel like the current state of affairs is not really like that in both directions. I think that there is no doubt that students felt unsafe, and the events I mentioned were not the only ones. There were also screenings of things that anti-Semitic has sentences on different buildings. There have been various acts that during posters of children there has been a lot of violence expressed whether it is in actual violence or in speech. I think there should be no room for such violence speech, but on the other hand, we do want to make sure that the place is also intellectually unsafe where people can express their minds and talk about things, and I think that there has not been a very clear guideline on how to deal with this, and I do hope that the events now will lead to the beginning of the discussion on where to draw the borders. The debate around freedom of expression and hate speech is a long way off. It's going to be unfolding for a very long time, given exactly what we've been seeing on those campuses, and I'm not entirely sure that they all took ownership or accountability the presidents, as you alluded to, I think there was enough pressure that they had to resign, but that is a discussion for another day, very briefly. The short-term solutions. You're on campus. You want to feel safe. Everybody wants to feel safe, regardless of their views on any development across the globe. What are the short-term solutions? Briefly, please. Oh, that's a big one. I'm not sure what are the short-term solutions, but it's clear to me that there are some things that should be clear and should not be done, like calls for violence. There is no room for it. Racist comments, there is no room for it. Bringing speakers or Holocaust deniers and denied events over seven, in my view, there is no room for it. This is not freedom of speech. This is hate speech. And I don't think that there should be room for hate speech in our campus. And this red line must be very clearly drawn and there should be no equivocal message surrounding it. Where a place of where people should feel safe should feel like they belong to and should feel like there is no bias and racism against them. No doubt about that. Gideon Navey, marketing assistant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Thank you so much for joining us on I-24 News, appreciate it. Thank you, Benita. Dr. David Chamourney, your take on exactly what we heard needs to be stressed. These are the top learning institutions in the United States and these incidents are unfolding. This rhetoric is unfolding. What do you make of it? What is your sense? Well, first of all, I've been in the academia for a while and I met stupid professors and ignorant doctors and we're facing that. We're facing people who are not making the right decisions not morally and they don't make sense. We also know that there's a lot, a lot of money pouring into major universities in the United States from Qatar and from other sources that are against Israel and in a way the universities are trying to accommodate to the demands of these new sponsors very, very, very rich sponsors. I think I feel pity for the students in these universities who are really ignorant about the Middle East, really ignorant about what Palestine should be, what it was, it was never a state as we know and the demand for them to have independence is shared by many Israelis including me, but not from the river to the sea because we need some space for ourselves as well and I say many, many of the protests are ignorant. They just don't know what the map looks like, they don't know exactly what the Palestinian issue is, but there's some kind of a trend to go against Israel and to accuse Israel of things that I think is exaggerated. It's so alarming because when you're talking about students and a generation that spends so much time on their phones looking at videos and we know that Hamas terrorists filmed the atrocities on the 7th of October and we know sadly that those images went viral, one would think that the sympathies might be for Israel and what happened to more than 1200 people who were killed not to mention the 240 were abducted and still today we're waiting for word on 135 hostages including 8 Americans. So Hamas reacted after these terrible videos saying that some of them were doctored, they're not original and then they said that a lot of the atrocities were not carried out by Hamas but by wild civilians who came in from Gaza so yeah they're trying to and again the instinctive reaction of many people around the world is the Jews deserve that, that's what the Jews deserve for some reason for the hate of the Jews, for the hate of Israel so this is what I can say about it. It is beyond alarming and as we were discussing earlier on a long road to go in terms of education and in terms of awareness in the United States and around the globe much to discuss as well when it comes to hate speech and freedom of expression. Dr. David Shemourni, former intelligence official and commanders for Israel security as always appreciate you being here in studio on I-24 News, thank you. Now as the war continues so does the campaign to release the Israeli hostages as we've just been discussing, 135 men, women and children are still being held captive. One of these hostages is 21 year old Joshua Molell from Tanzania who came for a short period to kibbutz Nakhal Oz and was abducted by Hamas on the 7th of October. Correspondent Orisha Perra has his story let's take a look. Among the dozens of hostages were still held by Hamas in Gaza one seems to be far from the public eye. His name is Joshua Molell he's a 21 year old student from Tanzania who came to Israel as a volunteer and stayed in kibbutz Nakhal Oz he arrived in Israel only a few days before the Hamas onslaught on October 7th. I met Joshua totally by coincidence. He worked in our dairy farm I once gave him a ride and we talked for a bit. I know that he was kidnapped and just like any other hostage he is dear to us and we want him to return. One of the few organizations which is in touch with Joshua's family is the Hotline of Refugees and Migrants Sidal Rosen the media coordinator of the center says Joshua's situation is unique. The families of those who don't live here it is so much difficult because first of all they have no knowledge about the situation they have no knowledge about Gaza they have no knowledge about Hamas they have no contact with other people in similar situation and they don't know what can be done to bring back their beloved son. I-24 News had the chance to ask Joshua's father about his son I would like to message the Hamas to release this boy because he is not a Jewish he is not Israeli he is a Tanzanian a boy from Africa who is not concerned with all at all so please this is my message the father of Joshua help me Rosen says that ever since October 7 she has assisted many migrants and foreign workers suffering a severe crisis one of the friends of Joshua I was talking to him the other night I was walking in the park and there was a rocket rocket attack and while I was talking to him I told him I'm just looking for a wall here there was a rocket attack I told him you can hear the siren and he said wow and he was in a kind of panic because for him rocket attack reminded him immediately of October 7th and I told him we have this rocket attack every day and sometimes we have it twice a day and I started explaining to him about the Iron Dawn and how it's not as if every day we experience what he suffered during the October 7th attack several other foreign workers were kidnapped on October 7 23 Thai workers and one Filipino were released several weeks ago we were happy to see the release of the hostages Joshua is just like any other hostage and I hope to see all of them coming back here the ambassador of Tanzania refused an I-24 news request for a comment in the meantime remains unknown the pain is real 135 men women and children are still being held captive by Hamas inside Gaza it's day 68 of the war we know that President Joe Biden is meeting with the families of eight of the American hostages later and of course we wait to see an outcome from that meeting and that is where we wrap up this edition of Outbreaking News coverage Jacob Elan is up next I'm Benita Levine our rolling coverage continues shortly stay tuned this is I-24 news breaking news edition thank you for watching we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well news special coverage it's 68 days since the war began and first fighting is still going on in Gaza I-24 news defense correspondent Jonathan Regev is standing by live in Sderot not far from the border what's the latest Jonathan Jacob it was about an hour ago when we could actually see the rockets which were fired from the northern part of the Gaza Strip those rockets which were fired towards Ashdod the rockets were all intercepted but we do know that part of the interceptor fell inside a commercial center in the city of Ashdod no one was injured because the people there did exactly what they have to do and went to the protected shelter and remained there even after the war ended even after they heard the interceptions in the air understanding that a debris can fall from the sky this is exactly what happened so we're speaking only of material damage no casualties behind us in Gaza fighting is ongoing about an hour and a half ago there was heavy bombardment towards Bet-Khanun which is right behind us a bit further to the south Jabalia and then Sajaiya as a neighborhood where the very difficult incident took place overnight with many Israeli casualties and the soldiers killed and fighting is ongoing here as well as further south in the area of Khanunas fighting is ongoing intensifying and as it seems this will be the case at least for the days to come as you've mentioned IDF suffered some heavy casualties in the past 24 hours and it's worth noting that many of those are high ranking officers that is true one of them is a colonel from the Golani Brigade this is the fourth serving colonel that has been killed since the war began the first three were killed on the opening day in October 7th and that terror attack coming from Gaza towards Israel and another colonel killed overnight Lieutenant colonels killed as well they're coming from the ranks of the Golani Brigade as far as Golani is concerned they're saying this is our legacy this is how we fight the commanders are at the front they're not back at the office or behind the soldiers directing them they are the first ones to come the first ones to fight unfortunately that also means they're the first ones to be killed the story of the Golani Brigade in Sajaya goes back to 2014 Operation Protective Edge also back then the Golani Brigade suffering victims and casualties at the Sajaya neighborhood it is happening once again this is a very sad incident but part of this war and at the Golani Brigade and generally at the IDF what we're hearing from the commanders is we're continuing the job eventually we will defeat all the opposition presented to us in Sajaya and generally at the Gaza Strip as we see it's urban fighting door to door it's going on all the time in those very dense areas in Gaza that is one of the main challenges there it is a densely populated area where Hamas enjoys the advantage of the home court let's call it this way this is where the homes and the alleyways in the streets that they know and they have prepared ambushes for the army they were well aware in Hamas that the Israeli army will come in after the October 7th attack there was a lot of criticism on the IDF why did the ground operation why was it delayed for so long why is the advance so slow it is exactly to try and prevent situations like this one the army is moving slowly but decisively forward but every move forward there is an understanding that ambushes of this kind could be presented that is why the advance has to be while going forward it has to be done slowly carefully understanding that Hamas had this ambush and there are many others perhaps waiting for the incoming forces Jonathan Regev thank you very much for that from Sderot Amir Oran here in the studio very painful casualties on the part of IDF but not surprising the yes Israel is in a very somber mood today and it has to do with the quantity as well as the quality of the casualty table being filled up with no end in sight one does not see how all of this adds up to a quote unquote victory now referring to what Jonathan Regev just mentioned there are two schools of thought regarding the place of the commander in the attack yes for moral example legacy reasons he should be upfront but he should also be where he can direct the fight where he can see everything not just what a rifleman sees ahead of him in this particular incident the problem which caused all of these senior officers to converge on the place they were not there when it began was the message coming from the very place that the connection with at least one of the officers who entered the building was cut and that brought forward the problem of someone being dragged into the pier and then to the tunnel and then disappear and being one of the captives dead or alive in order to prevent that they all stormed the alternate brigade commander that Colonel mentioned by Jonathan Regev came in from the headquarters of the brigade three battalion commanders came in a very very small place where all of them and other majors and captains converged and because of the ambush which was Al Qaeda style two charges being detonated one by one first in order to draw the force the main force in and then the other this caused the heavy toll right alright, yeah as you said it's a very sad day in Israel today among other days obviously since October the 7th meanwhile the past 24 hours saw a dramatic shift in Biden and Netanyahu's relations as US President calls for a change in the Israeli government and Israeli Prime Minister creating a public rift with the US, I-24 news senior correspondent Owen Alterman reports Joe Biden said Tuesday that he once wrote to Benjamin Netanyahu BB I love you, but I don't agree with a damn thing you have to say well yes, there is a disagreement about the day after Hamas I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of the Oslo Accords I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism support terrorism and so the argument breaks out into the open with that video from the Israeli Prime Minister and comments at a campaign fundraiser by the US President about the two-state solution and whether the Palestinian Authority should govern the Gaza Strip we have to make sure that BB understands that he's going to make some move to strengthen the Palestinian Authority strengthen it, change it, move it you cannot say there's no Palestinian state at all in the future the ultimate negotiation of a Gaza Strip day after will be a test of wills the prevailing view is that the Biden Administration along with allies in Europe and the Arab world will have the upper hand with the power of the purse the leverage of the money needed to govern the Gaza Strip and rebuild it so in the long run Netanyahu will need an out of the box idea of how to swing the balance his way in the meantime the politics work for both Biden and Netanyahu with each showing his base that he's pushing back on the other as long as this spat is contained and doesn't deepen into a full-on falling out between Israel and its essential ally and over here in the studio there was more in Biden's stock off-stripped possibly by the way I recommend to everyone to actually look at the full transcript right you get a real sense there first of all the full picture of how Joe Biden feels including plenty plenty plenty Jacob of really strong support for Israel so obviously these particular comments have been taken out and are obviously making headlines for good reasons they are news but still the overall picture is quite different and also you get a sense from that soundbite of both the charm of Joe Biden and the sloppiness of Joe Biden because the things he said about the two state solution about the day after in the Gaza Strip again about not necessarily how BB needs to change his government but how the government itself needs to change direction on this right setting up or should say Netanyahu set up and he was first out of the box with that video in a sense this clash with Netanyahu but he also said almost in passing almost off the cuff that Israel's quote indiscriminate bombing in Gaza is starting to cause it to lose this is not US policy it's a legal term of art and it's very very dangerous to have the US president coming out and saying it it's something that I said after reading this that they'll just have to walk back and lo and behold John Kirby reportedly over the last few hours and MSNBC asked about this and seemed to walk it back saying going back to the more traditional language they've used we want Israel to do more to to stop and to reduce civilian casualties that's one of the things that Jake Sullivan again coming here tomorrow and Friday that's one of the things he's coming here to help achieve that language is safe but a language saying that Israel is doing is intentionally indiscriminately right bombing civilians not really one of the one of the charges against Israel that is nothing at least not frivolous right that the losses are disproportionate that Israel's not taking civilian casualties into account much but actually saying that Israel is it can't even shoot straight right the same with Hamas shoots rockets up into the sky over Steroid over Tel Aviv or having no idea where they're going to land that's essentially what an indiscriminate attack is that's not what Israel's doing in the Gaza Strip each of these airstrikes is carefully planned and vetted through the military one can argue about the merits or demerits under international law but they certainly are in that sense not indiscriminate so very dangerous to have the president coming out and saying this off the cop and for all of Joe Biden's obvious charm and you read the transcript you really understand that right trying to connect with the people in that room as Scranton Joe but nevertheless trying to connect with these big ticket donors right a lot of them care a lot about this issue of Israel but still he is the president he has to be careful especially in legal terms of art about exactly what he says and how right I mean or and let me ask you about the Israeli side for Netanyahu that's exactly what he wants no not really Netanyahu is under pressure from many sides and when Biden talks about changing the government he means throw out small three banks because you are beholden to them because of them you are against putting the Palestinian authority in Gaza but why Netanyahu goes against the two states solution strategy of Biden right now because he doesn't have an answer to the question okay if not that what now Netanyahu was for Oslo before he was against Oslo but when he was elected in 1996 he promised the voters that he will continue with Oslo and then he said I wouldn't have been elected had I not promised that but I also want to continue with Oslo not because of my election pledge but because this is the safe way to peace and security now he has forgotten it over the last quarter century but what happened in Gaza had nothing to do with the Palestinian authority it happened because Hamas overthrew the Palestinian authority but obviously he counts on the very short memory of Israeli voters I actually think that it's a bit it's similar to what you're saying Amir but a bit different because obviously the focus is on Netanyahu and the failure of October 7th right the failure to keep the public safe the argument is when Netanyahu is saying well Oslo caused just as many casualties in October 7th that are keeping us that are keeping that are not keeping us safe as an Israeli public it's the failures of Oslo it's a kind of way of deflecting and putting attention on a different element obviously also meant to bring away to strip away those center right voters right who have gone Benny Gantz's way and also of course this is a kind of another league right remember the another league campaign with the big posters of Netanyahu round two of those five rounds of elections this to me feels like another league season buying the guy you can go up against nobody nobody else can when he refers to Oslo he goes back 20 years 15 years but this is internal politics yeah you know that yes but going against an American president is not going to be supported by the Israeli public maybe his own base which is getting narrower and narrower according to all public opinion polls most of the Israeli public would like to see him go there is no political mechanism right now and still most of Israelis now object to a Palestinian state they may we don't know that but Netanyahu himself three years ago in the Trump vision for peace came out for a Palestinian state in four years if it met several conditions and by the way in exchange for the West Bank and the settlements Netanyahu was willing to give the Palestinian state the western part of the negative which was now attacked but these are facts who cares about facts you know with us now he's Dr. Howard software from the University of New Haven and formerly from the State Department thank you very much for joining us what is President Biden's main concern when he calls for a change in the Israeli system well I can't read the president's mind but it was very clear he was speaking to donors yesterday and in that meeting I agree with your colleagues around the table that you know President Biden made a strong a possible support for Israeli says we have your back that the Hamas acted like animals that United States will be supporting Israel all the way that it could possibly support it however there is a difference of view I don't know what the right word would be but it's a difference of view about what the post conflict situation should look like nobody I think in Israel wants to see Israel running Gaza for any period of time that would be a nightmare and it would not be a very successful operation however the question of what to replace it with one can agree many in the Middle East agree that the Palestinian authority currently configured with a boss and making statements that are contrary to Israel's security and also paying modders for the families of modders for attacking Israel he is not an appropriate leader the time is ripe for in the post conflict period to find a young leadership that in the Palestinian authority could run the Palestinian authority effectively under Israeli sort of oversight and at the same time bring in sort of there it's talk of bringing in a Middle East peacekeeping force possibly with some African forces that have significant experience with peacekeeping and to run the security of Gaza and then the administration of Gaza could be left open to figuring out who would be the appropriate new leaders that can take over as far as the break that's the difference I think between Israel and the United States by the way but I'm going to go back to Biden it is very unusual for a US president to say that to a democratically elected foreign government you have to change the government right well it wouldn't be the first time the United States has said that to any government I can assure you over the years in 25 years in the State Department I've heard the United States say that to a number of countries saying that the government of Israel should change may only reflect the fact that at every single war that Israel has had the leader of that war including Golda Maier in the Yelp people war were all left office and there was a commission of inquiry and that leader did not remain in power but Bibi to think that he could possibly break the precedent and considering what has happened to Israel over this period of time it is time I think what Biden is saying for a new leadership in Israel. Bibi has been around since I was serving at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv in 1995 1996 and he won by 0.2 percent against Paris and he continues to manipulate all of these images and statements resisting the United States and going against the idea of a two-state solution there will be a two-state solution the question is only when is it going to be in the near future in the middle future but eventually there has to be some kind of way that Israel remains a Jewish state and that the Palestinians have some kind of authority over their own affairs. How far will Biden go against Netanyahu on this in an election year of all things do you think? Well the election year is already upon us in the United States and there will be in five weeks there will be offices for the Republican Party and in February for the Democratic Party Biden is not facing any threat internally to run as president but his numbers are low but I don't think Americans are going to be voting on the question of what leadership Israel should have and what kind of peace agreement or understanding or administrative role there should be in Gaza there will be voting on economic issues there will be voting on abortion issues important to the United States you're right it is a little bit unusual speaking to donors maybe he was not thinking about the fact that the press was there but you know Netanyahu has to also be thinking about for the good of Israel after 12 weeks of almost you know all of Israel going into the streets against his supreme court proposals I think it's time for new leaders to be able to rise up and Benny Gantz is one of the ones that seems the most likely one to replace Netanyahu when the war is over let me ask you Amira in the studio about the Netanyahu side again how far will he be able to go against Biden that also has to do with the name Dr. Sofer just mentioned Benny Gantz as long as Benny Gantz is in the emergency war cabinet Netanyahu can go very far but once Gantz leaves along with Gadi Aizenko who is now in mourning because his son was killed in Gaza but he will be back soon and is esteemed all over the political spectrum then the party which Gantz heads will probably start leaving the cabinet gradually perhaps they will first announce then they will implement and then the road to early elections will start to be short and if that happens Netanyahu will have to consider whether he takes a plea bargain in his trial rather than testify in his own defense a few months from now whether he wants to lead Likud and face defeat in an early elections a whole sort of issues and Joe Biden will be the least of his problems back to you Dr. Sofer I want to ask you about the buy partisanship in America regarding Israel this is still very strong despite the fact that aid financial aid is not coming because of Ukraine yes that's correct first of all I wanted to say that President Biden is not President Barack Obama and run around this president especially during wartime and when the United States is trying to put a bill forward that would give 14.6 billion dollars to Israel to cover its costs that bill is being held up because it's linked to aid to Ukraine and it's also being held up because the Republicans want to see some kind of language that would change our policy on our southern border which is allowing so many refugees to be coming in by the thousands per day which is a very disturbing process so I think if they can't work it out before the end of next week when the Congress will break for the holidays the American holidays then the bill with money for Israel will have to wait till July I mean January of course it's Ukraine that's the much more vulnerable party in this Dr. Sofer I thank you very much thank you now to this reintegrating into society being held in Hamas captivity in Gaza for about 50 days is a big challenge in the case of the Aloni Cunio family it goes to kids as small as three year old twins their family members speak in the next report the weeks following the Aloni Cunio families release from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip come with the slow revelation of trauma lingering in both sisters Sharon and Danielle as well as their young daughters I told Amelia that we are going to see Aunty Sharon to welcome her back from captivity and I noticed that she is slightly sort of thinking to herself and after a few seconds she asked will we be walking through the tunnels and then it's like a punch in the stomach you understand that although the girl is handling herself pretty well these fears still exist in her just one small taste of hell this recollections of the hostages include food scarcity darkness little to no medical assistance and more the fear they fight to shake is security they were scared that Hamas could come and harm them here in Israel and it took them both Danielle and Sharon some time until they were able to let go of this feeling that if they may say something to the media or say anything they could kill them terrified as they were they had to shield their young girls from what horrors they could from what Danielle recounted she invented stories to calm Amelia down one day they were over ground and they told them we are now going underground Amelia was frightened why where are they taking us and Danielle was telling me she invented a narrative that those were the good guys who took them underground so as not to cause them harm and to protect them and Amelia calmed down thinking it wasn't a bad thing it reminded me of the film life is beautiful where they made up a narrative so that the boy would not realize the tragedy occurring in front of them Sharon told her parents that she and the girls were together with her husband who is still in captivity and their kidnapping are now revealed Emma was in Sharon's arms and they ripped her away Sharon shouted and resisted they pointed a gun at her and said if you're not silent we will shoot you it was inside another hiding place inside a hospital and there she suddenly hears a child crying and she says to her husband this is Emma's cry this ordeal of a little girl kept away from her mother for 10 days the use of a mother's heart and trying to describe it would be beyond any imagination it means killing a mother's soul despite a long path ahead sisters Danielle and Sharon are doing everything they can to restore normalcy kids in captivity we'll take a short break and we'll be right back with more special coverage here on I-24 News stay tuned date of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where she is our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well to I-24 News special coverage of the war I-24 News correspondent Zach Anders is in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon with the latest from there we have no idea where she is we have no idea where she is I-24 News correspondent Zach we have seen red alert in the 4 o'clock hour for a community in the western half near the coast of northern Israel this apparently did not involve any damage or injuries to anyone on the ground the IDF says they struck the sources of fire in southern Lebanon there were large plumes many could see from northern Israel this also corroborates with what posts in southern Lebanon were showing of massive apparent airstrikes targeting this earlier source of fire it does appear there were also some sort of projectile launched in the area of Kiret Shemona here closer to our location but there was no red alerts we heard the outgoing artillery apparently targeting also the source of fire in the last 24 hours and here is fire from Syria three projectiles launched in somewhere in Syria it's still unclear if this was southern Syria near Israeli territory or further inside Syria that is yet to be determined but two of those launches the IDF says fell inside Syria and the third fell somewhere in an open area inside Israeli territory and the IDF says that they were striking the Syrian army positions of the Syrian army a major moment here as Syrian forces under Assad's regime apparently targeting Israelis Alright Zach Anders, thank you very much from northern Israel let's talk about Syria this is not Syria attacking Israel, what's going on? Syria is a launching pad another one and there are several militias there Shiite militias from Afghanistan, Pakistan they are not under strict control they want to join the fight and contribute some projectiles and when we are reporting on what they are doing, this is fine by them they don't need much more but Hezbollah is a different story this is Lebanon and the focus is on Gaza but the problem is there but Hezbollah doesn't want to go into a scale war because Hassan Asrallah first of all doesn't know how it will end and maybe his own life will be on the line and also Iran doesn't want a conflagration now so what we see is a limited conflict northern Israel that is the Galilee district against southern Lebanon and you don't see missiles hitting Haifa or Tel Aviv or Israeli strikes in Beirut both sides play by a certain set of rules and because many residents on either side of the border are no longer there it's a sort of a game a very little game if anyone gets hurt but it's a playground and this goes on when the fighting goes on in Gaza during the ceasefire pause there was no fire there so Hezbollah is going through the motions Israel again is going through its own motions this is the secondary show the main event is still in Gaza but the fact that Hezbollah is there on the border is not something that can go on well when you say Hezbollah there are two levels one is the rockets and that can be arranged through an understanding the other one is the so-called Radoan force which is the commando the equivalent of that was the Nukhba that Hamas sent over the border on October 7 the Israeli settlers there cannot live with Radoan at the doorstep and on some cases it's really the doorstep when they open their window they see a fence and across the fence this is Lebanon already when Americans tell us look at the lessons we learned in Afghanistan and Iraq and so on it wasn't the city of Mexico and Canada attack them for us Lebanon is Canada and Gaza is Mexico yeah meanwhile most Israeli women were released from captivity but 137 hostages are still in Gaza and some of them are pretty young their fathers are fighting for their release here's their story it's now Hanukkah and we are still stuck in Simchat Torah when Guy went to the party he said to me Dad tomorrow I'm coming back from the party I'll help you dismantle the sucker he didn't come back from the party and it's still standing here waiting for him to come back so he can help me dismantle it Guy is 22 years old the charming boy, such a charmer everywhere he goes people fall in love with him in a second he has lots and lots of friends and he's missing we miss him very much Guy went to a party one day four friends went and none of them came home two were murdered and two were kidnapped at noon I already saw a video of Guy who was inside Gaza they look frightened there scared actually from the moment the negotiations stopped and the fighting restarted how did you feel I knew that Guy was not supposed to be released in that round because they only talked about women and children but I hoped that when that round was completed they would go let's say to the older people and after that to the young people and it would continue like this until they released everyone I mean that's what I imagined and once they returned to fighting it was a very big blow how do you manage to function on a daily basis? with a lot of help not sleeping, not eating in short, not functioning my wife and I would work two jobs each we just left everything we are currently 100% busy getting Guy back nothing else matters what I want to hear is that my child is coming home I want to see a slide on TV that says the kidnapped have returned this is what I want to wake up to in the morning tomorrow we keep imagining him coming back to us imagining the phone call we get in the middle of the night telling us I don't know the IDF suddenly found him they found a room with some prisoners and they call us and the officer tells me there is someone who wants to talk to you and I hear Guy he says dad and we shout Guy to him and run there and we become a family again his name is Alon Shamariz we have no new information about him our Alon is the third son in the family 26 years old a cheerful, happy, kind hearted boy Alon along with Ido and Yonatan they were a trio those three did everything together spent time together, travelled together we miss him very much how does your everyday look like? during the day I am busy with public needs and at night the sadness comes and my wife sat and cried during the day slowly we managed to get her out of it she started doing interviews started public activities and that's how we spend the day do you have a message that is important for you to convey? we are a kibbutz which pursued peace we are the people who came to the border we were patient and drove them to the hospitals in Israel we employed Palestinian citizens in our kibbutz, in our factory and we took care of all their needs we gave them equal treatment like any other worker we don't deserve what they did to us do you feel that there is someone else there to talk to you on the other side? I have no doubt, not everyone is Yaya Sinwar I want to ask of the return of the hostages during the pause if it gives you something to hope for or is it a different matter? look, first of all I am happy for everyone who returned on the other hand I am very very angry with the decision makers in our government everyone should have been released already yes? do you feel that the government is not doing everything to bring them back? I don't trust anyone in our government no one Asa's son is sitting in the tunnel my son is sitting in the tunnel my son has no oxygen my son has half a pizza a day I want my child here tomorrow Doron is a veterinary nurse she is a good girl with friends many friends the only thing we know since she was kidnapped is the voice message we got four days later from her friends we were also in Doron's room and saw what condition it was in compared to the other rooms remained relatively intact it was a mess because they turned it over and searched and rummaged it but its condition and the voice message she left gave us some sort of hope to hold on to what does everyday life look like now? everyday we wake up to a new hope with every message on the phone we jump up maybe there is some news, good news that maybe Doron will come back and what is the hope now? in this round it will happen because if it doesn't we don't know how to go on do you have an important message to pass on? when Doron returns we have to take care of her help her recover we have a mission as a family as a society to help her as much as possible to Guy if you happen to hear me I want to tell you that we love you very much we miss you very very much and we are doing everything to bring you home we will never give up on you and soon we will be together families of Israeli hostages are meeting President Biden in the White House right now and we are expecting some words from them momentarily meanwhile the devastating story of the Mounder family from Kibbutz near Oz with us now is Itai Raveev member of the family thank you very much for speaking with us Itai you lost your cousin family members were kidnapped some released and your uncle is still a hostage in Gaza we can't even imagine what you've been going through tell us about it it's definitely crazy it's almost 10 weeks now and we still can't understand it completely my cousin Rui was murdered on October 7th like you said four family members were kidnapped and thankfully three were released Keren and Ohad the nine year old boy with the glasses that I'm sure everyone saw his video running towards his death I also met him already a couple of times and it gives me hope for the future hoping that Abra his grandfather will be released as well Abra has the 79th birthday last weekend on Friday in captivity and we must remember that even though over 100 hostages were released there's still so many more hostages over there and we must continue pushing and keeping it as a top priority for everyone both in Israel and the entire world anything you can share with us about the condition or whereabouts or anything you know about your uncle in captivity hostages were released in the tunnels of Gaza it doesn't get too much food it doesn't do anything all day it affects his mental state as well we know that a lot of people were released from the people that were held with him so we are sure that he didn't contribute to his mental health seeing so many people getting released then suddenly hearing the war comes back on it's probably not a good thing for you when you were in captivity and we know that he's injured he was injured when he was taking a hostage when he was kidnapped and we know that he doesn't have time he's not in a very good health regardless of being in captivity just even before that and we need to do everything to bring him back home as soon as possible On the more positive side how was the reunion with the three family members the little boy was like he captured all of Israel Amazing Honestly, I'm just starting to talk about it and I'm smiling it's great to see them back home with the family and with friends every day their house, Karen and Ohad they live in Falsalla so they return to Falsalla and every day they have family and friends visiting them Ohad slowly getting back to school his friends he's been getting Sony presents from just anyone possible and trying to adjust to reality but this reality is not good because we've been living it for over two months now but they are slowly getting to know this reality and facing the horrible truth of everything that happened and we're as family and as Israelis in general helping them to adjust to this new reality as much as we can Right What can be done in order to release more including your uncle what are your thoughts My thoughts I'm not a politician or a military person but they saw what was the best way to release more than a hundred passages and it was with deals and releasing some prisoners even though it's not good but it brought us our family members back and it reunited families back together so I think this is the best cause of action unfortunately we saw just in the last week what happens when we try doing other stuff and even though I will support whatever brings my uncle back and everyone else back personally I think the best way would be to make a deal some sort of deal I don't know what it would entail but I think this is the best way Let's hope for the best Taira Aviv, thank you very much Thank you Amir Oren here in the studio this is a very complex situation for any government any military and there are no easy solutions here No it's very complex it's a very simple principle should be hovering over it all everything must be done to release the hostages everything doesn't mean political concessions regarding Jerusalem or a withdrawal but a tit for tat an exchange Israeli permanent representative to the UN the other day held a sign saying Yahya Sinwar's number in Gaza this is an empty gimmick because Sinwar would say fine you want a ceasefire let's have a ceasefire right this moment ah you want the hostages that we have to talk about but Israel has gambled and lost two weeks ago when it broke the ceasefire Hamas broke the arrangement leading to the ceasefire Israel decided not to accept the change in the deal with Hamas offering several elderly men instead of women Israel said no this is unacceptable you breached our contract back to fighting two weeks have passed no hostage has been either released or rescued and there's a constant fear for their well-being there are reports that maybe some sort of negotiations are in the background there are CIA director Bill Burns was in Qatar obviously there are contacts but the proof is in the pudding and we haven't seen any yet okay now to London a project by the families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and a British advertising agency had to pull the campaign today our UK correspondent Jonathan Sashadati is with us to explain what happened a UK advertising company has breached an agreement and decided to take down images of kidnapped Israelis they had been contracted to carry the adverts on their electronic billboards for two weeks but declined to do so after just six days now spokesman for London lights the company said that in discussions with the metropolitan police about community safety concerns regarding billboards site advertising the campaign regrettably had to be finished they had taken the decision to cease advertising on community cohesion grounds they also pointed out that they had previously carried similar adverts about the hostages back in October but this time they had received so many threats and so much feedback through their website that was against the adverts that they felt they couldn't carry on because it was causing some form of disunity in the community the Israeli embassy who say that they alongside the hostages and missing families forum in London had placed these adverts though the billboard company denies that the Israeli embassy is the client say that they had been planning to run this digital campaign to show the images of the kidnapped by Hamas who are still being held in Gaza but that agreement was broken by London lights and that's obviously very distressing to them community cohesions you said right exactly community cohesion so really from my perspective this seems like a terrible example of a concern that many Jews have in the UK at the moment which is that the police seem to think that their job is to maintain community cohesion at any cost that means that if some group or individuals decide to threaten with violence the easiest way to keep community peace and cohesion is simply to back down if you're not doing the thing that upsets them into violence then the violence maybe won't happen but of course if what they're complaining about is a completely legitimate foregrounding of a humanitarian cause like the hostages being held by a terrorist group in Gaza then you can see the problem there that means that a commercial company felt unable to fulfill a contract it had taken on according to a campaign very much like one it had previously done so they say it's not their ideological disagreement that has got in the way of this no it seems that there were threats that there was some form of even possible violence though the Metropolitan Police say they won't talk about this to me and that seems to be what's caused the company to back down which means that many Jews are left in the UK and non-Jews are like feeling that violent groups bullying intimidating actions that people back down on their values back down even when what they're doing is entirely legal and justifiable and the police are really there to try and keep the peace at any cost yeah quite amazing and this comes as yesterday the Homes Affairs Committee heard evidence in a special hearing about policing the recent anti-Israel protests what have we learned from that yes indeed yesterday the Home Affairs Committee in the Parliament heard from assistant commissioners such as Matt Twist who said that the impact on the Jewish communities in London has been particularly acute at this time from those protests with huge rises in anti-Semitic crime he said that the police have over 800 open hate crime cases with over 6,000 hours of officer time going to be needed to investigate all of them indeed the police chief said that arrests for offences related to supporting or glorifying terrorism are in unprecedented numbers in the last two months compared to the last decade and he pointed to an overarching picture of a concerning environment where people are energized towards potential support for extremist ideologies this is something that obviously again is concerning the police though it's not entirely clear why this is happening if they're concerned and if the public are concerned many in the Jewish community are pointing the finger at the police saying they're not doing enough the police clearly feel that legally and under the obligations of what they're meant to do they're not able to do enough but the advisor to the government on extremism said that he felt there was an unprecedented amount of extremist or tending towards extremist material coming out of mosques in the country and that he didn't feel that changes in the law or policing alone would be enough to counter that so all of this extremely worrying and creating an environment of real concern among people in Great Britain Right Jonathan thank you very much for that from London, Amir It's no laughing matter but it begs for a revival of either Monty Python or yes minister the way British bureaucracy rather than fight the extremist gives into them Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu promises while speaking to soldiers who keep on fighting in Gaza let's take a listen I want you to deliver the message to all soldiers we will continue until the end until victory until Hamas is destroyed let there be no doubt about this it is important this is a message I want to reach every soldier There are two war rams bringing back the hostages even precedes what Netanyahu said if this is all he said the families will respond they are insisting the families of the hostages to put this as first priority all the time because this is achievable the other one victory quote unquote what's victory how will we know that we won as Henry Kissinger once said declare victory and get out right well that was a senator 10 years before Kissinger but you are right so many things yeah so many things were attributed to Kissinger we know that just I remember remember that a week ago when he passed away thank you very much Amir Arun we are going to take a break now and when we come back more special coverage here tonight 24 days