 But also other Gulf countries like Qatar are in the best position to mediate, to act as mediators and intermediaries because their relations with both Washington and Gaza are pretty good, and even very good as far as Qatar is concerned. It is a role that makes them known and in a way prosperous. But the Emirates as well as the Qataris, although they seem very active, will soon come up against several things, at least in the first days or first weeks of this next Israeli ground operation. Firstly, the survival instinct of Benjamin Netanyahu and his general staff who are for the moments without any kind of concession, and then they will come up against this sort of potential spiral of alliances, will-has-bola or Syrian groups go to war or not, etc. And if this spiral is set in motion, the UAE, Qatar, even Saudi Arabia alone will not have the means to intervene. All right. Bestia. Thank you very much indeed. Bestia and Bori. They're over in Dubai. Ruth and Alon still with us in the studio. If I could ask you, first of all, Alon, about the situation in the West Bank. Dozens of Palestinians affiliated with terrorist groups have been arrested in recent days. Is that enough to keep a lid on the situation? I think, I will not say stability, but a security situation that controlled 100 percent, but I can say that we can notice that there is a kind of escalation and motivation for terror attacks in some districts, especially in the south of the West Bank. But I think that, relatively, is under control by the IDF forces and also a little bit by the Palestinian Authority, the security apparatus. There is still some kind of cooperation, is there? There is still coordination. I would say, day by day, there is kind of conversation and so on in, I would say, low level, not the highest one. On the tactical level? Yes, the practical. On the ground, head of commanders of battalions and so on, tactical, of course. But I think that you can feel the tension over there, on air. I think that tomorrow or day after, maybe, while the IDF forces will enter Tugasa and the boots on the ground will be something that implement in Gaza Strip, I think that the inspire or the negative atmosphere will be in the West Bank much than now. I think that... You think it will get worse? Yes, of course, it will get worse. And I think not just in the West Bank, but also, for example, in East Jerusalem, I think... When you say it will get worse, you think... A motivation for attacks and maybe more of that, maybe, I would say, violence by the people, friction on the checkpoints, on the roads, on the junctions and so on. So I think that the main mission of the IDF is to balance between, or if you want to separate between the war in Gaza or the situation in Gaza and the West Bank, not to compare and not to join the situation, but also to continue control those areas without involving. All right. We're going to head to Jerusalem now. Our Owen Altman is at the Knesset, where MKs were forced to run to shelters earlier amid a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza. Owen. Yeah, two sirens went off here, Laura, having all of us go to a protected space, including, of course, the members of parliament themselves who were in the plenum at the time for the opening of the winter session at the Knesset. By the way, usually a festive ceremony here with bands, with excitement, with a sense of celebration, with political theater, too, with calling out in the middle of the speeches from those who were at the podium. None of that today, of course, an entirely different atmosphere, and you're absolutely right, Laura, punctured by the fact that sirens went off and even the members of parliament themselves had to get out of their chairs and go to a protected space. We were there with them, of course, members of the media as well, a sign of the times and, of course, a contrast between what Hamas does, shooting rockets at civilian populations and what Israel does, trying to get on with the business of democracy. All right. I think that, on one hand, we have to act according to the interests of the state of Israel and to the goals that the government or the security cabinet sets for this war. On the other hand, we can't deny the fact that we are right now, for example, supported big time by the United States, including in very practical terms, including the warships that we see by chance, cruising not far from our shores. So I think that we have to take to a certain extent the public opinion or the position of different leaders around the world into consideration, but this is not a guidebook for us. We have to have this dialogue and to explain things like, for example, a very simple example. Everyone's talking about humanitarian aid. Does anyone really believe that a 75-year-old or a year-old old lady in Gaza or Han Yunis or Rafiq will see anything from this aid? This is direct supply of provision to Hamas. Everyone understands the first thing about regimes of that kind, understands that it won't go to the population. So when we are talking about humanitarian aid, we have to ask who's going to distribute it, how do we make sure that it's not support of Hamas and the last but never least, we have hostages, including children, women, people who were wounded during that terrible raid. What about them? So, Laura, there you have, just catch up the viewers. That was Yuli Edelstein. He is the chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and someone with a vast amount of experience in Israel's system, both inside this building, inside the Knesset and also inside the government. It's going to be the job of him and his committee to essentially exercise parliamentary oversight over the government as it conducts the war. Of course, he is part of the coalition and he is much, very much part of the coalition but also is meant to have that sense of independence. What we were asking him there is the question of how much Israel should pay attention and be attuned to international public opinion and changes to it. Earlier on, we had heard actually from opposition leader, Yair Lapid, who very pointedly and very bluntly said Israel shouldn't care because it was our children that were killed, our children who were massacred and it's up to us to do what we feel we need to do without worrying about what the rest of the world thinks. What I think we heard there from Yuli Edelstein was a bit of a more nuanced answer. Again, understanding on the one hand Israel's need to go full speed ahead with its plan and to achieve its military objectives but on the other hand recognizing I think the reality that international public opinion is part of the mix and being attuned to the views and the interests especially of Israel's close allies and partners is going to be important. Basically Laura, this is a debate that's getting started that's going to intensify. That's going to be a very painful debate for this country because people feel so very strongly about what happened and about what needs to be done and about what they've experienced emotionally. But on the other hand, there is this reality and the country is going to have to confront this very, very difficult question and I think we just heard Yuli Edelstein, someone again with decades of experience in many, many different government and parliamentary positions giving I think as thoughtful an answer as he could in trying to start to tackle it. Alright, thank you very much. Owen Altman there up at the Knesset where he's been speaking to Israeli politicians and the MK's are back in Jerusalem. They are working this country getting back on its feet even as it continues to identify and bury its dead following the worst atrocities committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust just 10 days ago. Country still reeling from that but moving forward as well. We'll talk about Hezbollah next because the threat from the north persists. That's next. Stay with us. Don't go anywhere. Israel is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us we don't want to do, we just don't know anything. Entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. Israel is at war. Make an investment in Israel bonds. It is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel. Visit IsraelBonds.com and invest now. Made For Me, a unique concept in Israel. Custom made men's fashion to your measurements. Made For Me, designer of all your events. Schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il. Official dresser of I-24 News. You're watching I-24 News. We're coming to you live from Tel Aviv on this day 10 of Israel's war with Hamas. The IDF has now contacted the families of the 199 hostages who are being held in Gaza. The vast majority of them are Israelis but many other nationalities are also being held including at least 13 Americans, elderly people, babies, young children, women all among the hostages. Well in Gaza after days of airstrikes Israel is expected to launch a ground offensive and half a million Gaza residents have moved south and there's pressure on Egypt now to open the Rafa crossing. The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is here. He'll be attending a security briefing with Israeli leaders tonight. The death toll in Israel now stands at 1,400 with many more wounded following that terrorist onslaught by Hamas in the south of Israel on October 7th. In Gaza the Hamas controlled Gaza health ministry says more than 2,700 people have been killed. That figure though does not distinguish between civilian and terrorist deaths. The UN's refugee agency UNRWA inside Gaza tweeted earlier that men in trucks had stolen medical aid and fuel. They later deleted that tweet without giving any explanation. And of course Israel's still on high alert on its northern front amid threats from the Iranian backed terrorist group Hezbollah which has said it is ready to respond to any actions by Israel. Well here in the studio with Wasserman Lant, former MK and former Israeli envoy to Egypt and Colonel Alan Evyatar, Palestinian affairs expert. Thanks for staying both of you Ruth. I want to come to you because you were in Egypt for several years, weren't you? As an Israeli diplomat. There's a lot of pressure on Cairo right now from the Americans but from others because they control the only border with Gaza that doesn't go to Israel. And there is a lot of pressure on them now to open it and take refugees. They are refusing to do that as of now. First of all I understand on the one hand the fear, the Egyptian fear that exporting the Gaza problem into its own borders is something that may remain with them for a very long time. And the reason why they think that is because refugee camps of Palestinians have been in place rather than rehabilitated since the establishment of the state of Israel. So UNRWA which is supposedly an organization needing to rehabilitate these refugees, take care of them, create sustainable sources of income for them, provide them with food and housing and jobs and employment. There is an interest on the Palestinian side to maintain these refugee camps. For example the one that exists in Nablus in the Palestinian Authority really controlled by the Palestinian Authority by Abu Mazen and his leadership. And the Egyptians fear that these kind of camps, these refugee camps are not temporary but that they will remain in Egyptian or on Egyptian soil for... Such as in Lebanon for example where Palestinians are not allowed to work in many cases, even if they're third generation Palestinians they've never set foot in Israel. Exactly, so there is an actual maintenance of these kinds of refugee camps and that's what the Egyptians fear and they don't want it. They don't want to import the Gaza or the Palestinian problems into its own borders understanding its complexity. On the other hand, there is a need here for an international coalition. This is not an Israeli problem. The Israeli civilians were massacred, yes, raped and carnaged and we were kind of an excuse but this is an attack against humanity and the region. Like the US Defense Secretary himself said, how much is worse than ISIS? First of all it's worse than ISIS and this is more reminiscent of the Holocaust rather than anything that we've seen in recent years. That is exactly the reason why countries that seek stability, that do not want extremism, like Egypt for example, need to be on board in an international coalition and unfortunately there is no choice but to give a hand, lend a hand in saving currently the population in the Gaza Strip that is civilian in order for Israel to be able to wipe out Hamas because Israel is not having carnage, rape, murder, beheadings, anymore to its own people. This is not going to happen anymore. This is something that has been of the past. A red line has been crossed and this is not something that the Israeli government has any risks going forward. I can agree for sure and also I can add that what we have seen in Gaza Strip is the representative of Iran. Hamas is the long deputy or branch of Iran behind the border of Israel. Hamas is the point. So while we are dealing with the representative of Iran and it doesn't matter that they speak Arabic and not Iranian or Persian, Persian it means that the military problem is for the Israelis. It's our business, the military but the political problems and the civilian problems and so on isn't in the international yard, not in the Israeli. Well, quite. I mean, and as Ruth pointed out, this is a problem for everyone. And there was an international coalition put together to destroy ISIS in Syria. Exactly. And as you say, we are not the only ones fighting Iranian proxies. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates has been fighting the Houthis and the other Iranian proxy in Yemen for many, many years causing the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe. I mentioned myself, you know, 20 years ago we realized during this week indication of existence of Daesh, you know, that ISIS, sorry, that Hamas is ISIS and so on. I can remember myself 20 years ago in Gaza Strip. I was, I found over there, you know, some papers of Falkaida, if you want. Okay, of Falkaida. I'm sorry to interrupt you. I'm going to have to, because I'm sorry, just one second. We have to go to Starrot because we don't have very long with Jonathan Regev, our correspondent who's there. Jonathan. Yes, this is the road on a Monday evening and we're, believe it or not, we are in the main road of this city. As you can see, completely blocked. There is actually a checkpoint right there behind us. This is a city of what say 25,000 people. I think that at the moment, tens of people maybe are still here. Everyone else is gone. Up until the weekend, there were still not a lot of people, but there were still people who were here. But following the weekend and as an organized evacuation process was put into place, practically the entire population left. Very few people are still here. And this is the reality in Starrot after a terrible, terrible week, which began with that Hamas infiltration, Hamas terrible terror attack, which killed so far 1400 in Israel. Quite a lot of them here in the city of Starrot. It didn't end there, of course. Starrot is usually the first place that gets barrages of rockets, some 400 rockets or so already fired to the city in the 10 days that have gone since that terrible terror attack. And of course, the expectation of more to come if there really is a ground invasion of more rockets to come. That is why we can say that practically the entire city of Starrot, tens of people still here, mostly the city is empty. And yes, this is the main road of the city on a regular Monday evening. We'd have plenty of people, cars, life in the city. None of that is to be seen right now. Yeah, it's really eerie to see the seeds behind you. Jonathan, absolutely deserted city, an absolute ghost town. I mean, there we go, one car, kind of breaking the silence. But it's a city that has suffered so much. After speaking to people, do you think people will move back there? Will Starrot ever be the same again? People will move back if Starrot will be the same. It will take a very long time. Perhaps we're not seeing here perhaps the same scenes of devastation as we're seeing in the communities even closer to the border fence, such as Berry, such as Kfar Azar, where we see practically so many houses torn apart, burnt. So all these communities, they're all included, will eventually be rebuilt, but will they return to the situation that they were before the October 7th massacre? Maybe so, but it will take a very, very long time. All right, Jonathan, thank you. Jonathan Regev there in Starrot, one of the towns worst affected by the Hamas atrocities of October 7th. Well, the United States has warned the Lebanese Iranian Bacteriast group has bollard not to join the war. There have been several exchanges of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah and also Hamas, which is also based in southern Lebanon. Some of its factions are in southern Lebanon. Well, according to an analyst, the group has some 60,000 fighters and has increased its stockpile of missiles from 14,000 in 2006 to tens of thousands. Now there are fears within Lebanon about the damage and new war with Israel and possibly the United States as well could inflict on a state that is already on the brink of complete political and economic collapse. Lieutenant Colonel Sarit Zahavi is the founder and president of the Alma Research and Education Center and the Hezbollah expert. Thanks for being with us, Sarit. First of all, how do you interpret what we've seen in recent days in terms of Hezbollah's willingness to get involved in this conflict? I might say that my feeling is a little bit different from what I hear from most experts here. And I truly hope that I'm wrong and they are right. I hear and it's an option that Hezbollah has a dilemma and Iran has a dilemma whether to open the North and Front, especially after the assistance we are getting from United States and the U.S. carriers that are on their way to this region. But I feel that what we must learn from what happened in the Gazian area is that we are not dealing with countries with the same logic as we are. We are dealing with terrorist groups led by Iran. Iran is the mastermind. And it looks like Iran made up its decision to execute its campaign, multi-front campaign against the state of Israel. It has published its intention in the past long before this war. And I think there is a strict plan of how to get Hezbollah into this war because if Hezbollah was not interested in war, he wouldn't have launched rockets six months ago, 36 rockets that were launched from Lebanon, and everybody said it's Palestinians. It is clear that Hezbollah was behind this. All these incidents up north, including one an hour ago, not far from where I live, shooting missiles, infiltrations, anti-tanks, there is a small war here in the northern border, very small, that in regular terms it would have brought Israel to different retaliations. And people still think that Hezbollah has a dilemma. I think that Hezbollah's mission now is to drag Israel into war, and that way Israel will be blamed, and not Hezbollah will be blamed. Meanwhile, they haven't succeeded, but they have been trying to do that in the past year, not just since October 7th. This is my point of view. That's why I'm so worried as a resident of the galley. We feel that the situation here is escalating every day, and thinking we'll go crazy over here every day. And yet I can say that the IDF here is prepared. We see the presence of the soldiers here, and it gives us a lot of sense of, you know, I can't say security because we don't feel secure, but I can say a sense of hope that the massacre that happened in the south cannot happen the same way in the north. Not while the reserves are here. Well, let's hope not. And the U.S. has sent the world's largest aircraft carrier in a strong show of support for Israeli. Does it warn Hezbollah not to get involved in the conflict? Is that an effective deterrent, do you think? Again, I don't believe anymore in the strategy of deterrence. I believe in deeds. That's it. And I think that we must make sure that once the U.S. carrier will leave the area and once the reservists will go back to their wives and children, we are not going to stay here sleeping with the master on the other side of the border. And that's why wards and carriers are not enough. Iran, we all have to make sure that Iran understands the message. And until now I haven't seen any evidence that Iran understands the message. The expressions that are coming out from the Syrian foreign minister, from Nasrana, from the Iranian foreign minister are messages that promise war if Israel will do that and if Israel will do that. Well, it is clear that Israel will fight Hamas now to get back the 200 kidnapped people and to eliminate the capabilities. So what all of us expect exactly? Do you think it's a mistake for Israel to go into Gaza? Is it a trap so that Israel becomes bogged down in Gaza, leaving Hezbollah free to attack from the north? No, I can't say that. Because I think that IDF is also aware of the option of two-front war and IDF is prepared. We see this as I've said. We see this physically. We see the soldiers here. We don't feel the area is empty as it was before the massacre. The reserves are fully recruited. Is this a risk? Is this a challenge? Yes, it is a challenge. Is it going to be easy? No, it's not going to be easy. But I think that if it will get to this point, and again, to the feeling that Europe knows that it's almost unavoidable, if it will get to this point, it's better that it will happen while we have the reservists here and while the IDF is prepared here than in a situation that everything is quiet and there is nobody to protect us. Sorry to Harvey. Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, we can go to the northern border now. Our Robert Swift is there. Robert, what's the latest? The latest is that just over an hour ago, there was small arms fire from the Lebanese side of the border. It's understood that this was small arms fire against IDF surveillance towers. And the Israeli military responded with artillery fire. And about the same time, there was also yet another anti-tank missile launched against an Israeli armor. This coming on the eastern side of the northern border. There was no casualties in that incident. Again, the IDF responding with artillery and we have to say that as we've been moving around this area, we've been seeing the Israeli artillery corps redeploying assets, moving a number of vehicles closer to the border, possibly to beef up the amount of firepower that is able to pour over that border where and when it wants. All right, Rob. Thank you very much, Robert Swift there. Ruth, if I could get your reaction to that, Sarit, to Harvey, paint a pretty terrifying picture. If I could sign my name under every single word that Sarit had said, I would do this right now. I just need to make sure that the world understands we had a paradigm that if we are okay more or less good to some degree with the Hamas. Qatar continues to send money to the Hamas. More or less, there is sort of quiet from Gaza then everything will be okay. We didn't imagine in our worst nightmares the massacre that would take place. I fear that there is another paradigm vis-à-vis the Hezbollah. And I agree, there is one mastermind in this scenario and this mastermind Iran is using Lebanese, Palestinians, whoever they can in order to forward completely irrelevant goals to these Lebanese and Palestinians. We are talking about Iranian goals, not the Iranian people, the Iranian leadership, the Mullah leadership in Tehran. These mullahs, I don't want to call them something more blunt, they are against the West, the relevant liberal world, any kind of moderation. And I fear that what Sarit had said that they will not sit quietly back and fear the kind of potential retaliation, that they will try and continue to poke the bear. But if the bear is not willing to be provoked, they will attack, because that is what they're all about. This is their plan. They say it. They say it. They say that it will begin with Gaza. It will continue in the West Bank. They've been provoking the West Bank with Hamas and Islamic jihad for years. They've been trying to provoke Arab-Israeli citizens, those who have issues pertaining to crime and violence. This has been proved by the Shin Bet. They are doing this with Hezbollah. They are doing it via Jordan, because Jordan is not strong enough to prevent them. They are using Qatari money, and Qatari is dancing on two weddings. The United States needs to make sure that the Qatari's choose a side. The world, unfortunately, needs to choose a side, because it's the good ones opposite the bad ones. Well, the United States has very clearly chosen a side. Should we be reassured by the presence of the Americans when it comes to Hezbollah? This is the reason for the visit of President Biden. I think in the weekend or something, or before, maybe two days, this is the reason of the President Biden's speech or visit, and this is the main reason for the existence of the American weapons, right? We are talking about very significant... So it means that this is kind of an element or symbol, but more of that, I think that this is the reason or the background for the existence of the Americans here, and I think that it's not just the Israeli problem as well. It's bigger and worther than the Palestinian one. Well, we have to deal with the Iranian and in the northern front, they are much bigger and stronger than the southern. We are speaking about Hezbollah, but also Syria. In Syria, we have a lot of Iranian militias came from Afghanistan and other places in the Middle East. We don't care about them, but we have to remember that those two countries, they are not countries, they are area of terror, Lebanon and Syria together. This is the long Iranian branch in the northern front. So this is the challenge, not for the Israeli one, Israeli state, but also for the American and maybe for the West as well. And Laura, they are waiting for us to go into Gaza. They are waiting for the ground troops to go into Gaza. Hezbollah. Maybe it's also a question of a trap or miscalculation if you want. Is it a mistake to get bogged down in Gaza? It's not a mistake. It's not a mistake. Just needs to be taken into account. Yeah. And I'm sure it has. I think that the ground forces that will enter Gaza or fight over the Israeli ground forces, this situation will increase the tension in the north immediately, but we have to remember that we are not alone. I hope we are not alone in this struggle. The rockets fired by Hamas are bad enough, but these rockets, they're not precision missiles, they just fire a bunch of them at a part of Israel, and they don't know where they're going to end up. Hezbollah has precision guidance. It's kind of a GPS in those missiles. The location of those missiles, we are speaking about 150,000 missiles, right? Quite different from the... We could hit Israeli infrastructure which could cause significant damage. Of course, of course. And for a long run or so, a long distance. I think that this is not just a military challenge. It's kind of... It should be a challenge for the Western coalition, not just for... Exactly. As we saw with Daesh, ISIS. Kind of, yeah. A few years ago. But more complicated because Hezbollah is the real government or regime of Lebanon, right? ISIS wasn't the... And you've seen Lebanese... Government of Syria. ...fleeing in droves. They don't want to see their country destroyed. I mean, their country has already been destroyed... Yes. ...to a certain extent by Hezbollah. But I think that their, I would say, leadership is not the Lebanese, but it's Iran, it's in Tehran. The fact that Iran... This is the address. Exactly. That was in Tehran. Completely. They were ruled by Iran, not negated by Russia. And behind everything... Funded by Qatar. We can find the extremist Islam. Just some news that's coming in the last few minutes. The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, says at least six British citizens were killed in what he called a Hamas pogrom. Ten British citizens are still missing. And the Israeli Health Ministry has now confirmed that more than 4,100 people were wounded in Israel since the start of the war. Israel's health ministry has also strongly condemned the UN again, the UN's health agency this time, because it has strongly criticised Israel over its strikes on Gaza. I mean, we've seen this story many, many times before, haven't we? The world trying to hold its attack... I want to illustrate... ...and destroying its enemy. In short terms, how the Israeli society feel. We feel that we had a second Holocaust. Okay, this is the... To summarise the feeling, it's second Holocaust. When we have to collect the Hamas, it's more of that, right? It's not just a military question. It's a nationality question, it's ideological, and so on. You know, it's quite crazy. I was interviewed by an Indian channel, a national Indian channel, and a Palestinian counterpart was interviewed at the same time. And he was saying that there are no confirmations. Yeah, they're really trying to... ...regard back on what happened, aren't they? ...regarding the beheading of babies and rapings of women. And I want to be gory for one second. We don't usually go into those kind of details because we have respect for the families and the horrors and the atrocities that have already been suffered. But there were not only rapes, there were gang rapes again. I want to stress the inhumanity of these actions. It wasn't anything that just happened. This was planned. They were atrocities. Meticulously planned atrocities. They had a booklet. President Halsock showed a booklet with all the... And this is the important thing because the planner is Iran. Yeah. All right, then we're going to take a short break. He's on the proof. Thank you very much. Thank you. We'll take a short break. We'll stay with you live here at I-24 News. Don't go anywhere. 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured. And the war with Hamas continues. We bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived, and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on I-24 News. A particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year. We've come out here to claim for the rain. At this moment global warming is affecting Bolivia, and not only Bolivia, but all over the world. And we need rain for the embryos. The Fakita Reserve, we have the right ingredients, and we have to do the job. And then if we have the right ingredients and we do the job, the Fakita can be protected. Made For Me, a unique concept in Israel. Custom made men's fashion to your measurements. Made For Me, designer of all your events. Schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il. Made For Me, official dresser of I-24 News. Good evening ladies and gentlemen. So this is I-24 News, we're coming to you live from Tel Aviv on this day 10 of Israel's war with Hamas. 199, that is the number of hostages who are being held by Hamas in Gaza. The vast majority of them are Israeli, but many others are being held including at least 13 Americans. After days of airstrikes, Israel is expected to launch a ground offensive into Gaza. Half a million Gaza residents have moved south and there's pressure on Egypt to open the Rafa crossing. The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, is in Israel. He'll be attending a security briefing with Israeli leaders tonight. The death toll in Israel now stands at 1,400. The number of wounded has passed 4,000 following that onslaught by Hamas terrorists in the south of Israel on October 7th. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says more than 2,700 people have been killed in Gaza. That figure does not distinguish between civilian and terrorist deaths. The UN relief agency in Gaza, UNRAT, released an official statement this afternoon saying that it had received reports that a group of people with trucks, saying they were from the Ministry of Health, stole fuel and medical equipment. A barrage of rockets were fired at Central Israel and Jerusalem this afternoon, forcing members of the Knesset who were there for the first time since the recess to flee to shelters. In the last hour, the head of the Shin Bet Security Agency, Ronin Bar, has said that he takes personal responsibility for the lack of an early warning leading to that murderous assault by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7th. Israel is still identifying and burying its dead following those atrocities at the weekend. We've been hearing the heartbreaking stories all week. And I'm joined now by Gladys. Gladys visited her 94-year-old mother on Saturday in Kibbutz-Berry, where some of the worst atrocities happened. Gladys, your daughter is missing. Is that right? My daughter Trelit is missing since Saturday. The last sign of her was 11.23 in the morning. That's my daughter. I'm so sorry, we're looking at pictures of your daughter Trelit now. So you were notified today, were you, by the IDF that she had been taken? Actually, about two days ago, the army talked to us and they said that they could find a sign of, twice, a sign of her phone, her cellular, inside Gaza. So they think she's being held right now inside Gaza? How horrendous. How horrific. Her boyfriend, Dore, was murdered. We just find out today that there was no sign of him and I was in contact with his parents all these days since last week and today I was told that they found him dead. Gladys, I'm so sorry. It's been ten days of sheer hell. I can't imagine what you're going through. How are you just getting yourself through day to day? It's very hard because for me, the event is not like we came out from the shelter after 22 hours with my mom, my hair keeper, my son who is 25 years old and me who were in, it was a holiday in Israel. We went to visit my mom and it just started from nowhere and one of them never had something like this before and I just, I don't know how we came out alive after so many hours with no oxygen or water and I can't believe I'm alive really because even after the IDF rescued us, we were shot by terrorists during our way. They shot her here in your elderly mother? They shot my mom in the back of her head and my son. They're okay, but it's very hard. My mom, she's 94 years old. She wasn't healthy before. Actually, I stayed in her keyboard for almost three months because she wasn't feeling well and I helped her keep her and I was living in another keyboard in this area for 15 years. We lived in this area for many, many years. Since we arrived there, we had war after war after. It never stopped but something like this, I couldn't believe it can happen and I'm still in shock. I'm sure you are. In 2008, my daughter and me, when she was two years old, were hit by a missile, living in Bury for a few months and she was injured in her leg and were post-traumatic in any case and this is like something that... We can see pictures of Trelit there. She looks like an absolutely lovely, she's a beautiful girl. Can you tell us a little bit about her? Yes, she's a very happy young lady. She has lots and lots of friends. She's very loved by the others. She's a kind human being. She always helps friends. She likes life and she loves her family. We love her very much. She started like she finished school now in the summer and she was starting her life in Bury. She started to work with babies there and she just met her boyfriend a few months ago and they were much in love, very much in love. And just... I'm so sorry, Gladys. I'm so sorry this happened to you and happened to your family and we all pray for you and we all hope that there will be a happy ending to this. God bless you. Thank you, Gladys. Take care of yourself and your mom too. And your son. Thank you. One of the many, many heartbreaking stories that we've been hearing. Danny Ayalon is here with me, former Israeli ambassador to the US. Danny and Grisha Yakupovich. I'm sorry Grisha, I was mispronouncing. Thank you very much. You're the former head of the Civilian Department of Kogat at the IDF. We're still hearing these horrible, horrible stories day after day. It's hard, isn't it? Yes. I heard something which is horrible in itself but it's true. They said the Nazis in comparison were sterile. They gassed people. It was efficient murder. It was efficient murder, industrial, you know, from afar but they were not butchering people like they do, like they did here. And you know what? Even when you butcher an animal, whether it's a cow or it's a chicken, you do it when they are dead, not when they are alive. So what we see here, it's not only, I don't think we have seen it in the annals of history and this is where it goes back to Israel's determination now with the legitimacy of the entire world, I mean the decent world, I'm not talking about those who are now siding with Hamas, which is just incredible. But mostly with the support of the United States and President Biden has proven himself to be a Churchill. And what we need to do is a Churchillian answer to the Hamas in Gaza just the way that the Nazis were dealt in World War II. That means the goal... Yeah, the goal should be very, very specific to demilitarized Gaza and to render the Hamas no longer as an entity and the goal should be, or the call now should be, just like in 1945, for unconditional surrender. Now I don't kid myself that the Hamas will unconditionally surrender just like the Nazis didn't. But we will get to the bunker of Icheh-Esinwar and Mohamedev just like the Allies got into the bunker of Hitler. And at the end of the day, after you neutralize and demilitarize Gaza, the next step, and we cannot stop before the next step is done, and this is very important, Laura, is to de-Hamas Gaza. To de-Hamas Gaza just like the denatification of Germany. You have to build from the scratch. And just like Germany today, beautiful country, great people... You think that's possible? Well, it's not going to be overnight. It didn't happen overnight in Germany. Here, we also have a problem of a culture in Germany which belonged to the ethos of Western civilization. And before Hitler, they did have a democracy. Here, they never had democracy, and their ethos is ISIS-like jihadists. So it's going to be much more difficult, but it is doable because what we should do is not occupy Gaza. I mean, we should just do away with Hamas and then probably give Gaza to some kind of effective and official international body. Not like the NFL, which has proven itself to be completely useless. Right, but there'll have to be a new architecture controlling Gaza and building it from scratch. And I think once this is done, the sky is the limit. You know, Laura, they have a most beautiful seashore. Yeah. When we left Gaza in 2005, we thought and we said, let's turn Gaza into a Singapore. But of course, Hamas took over, and you know what happened. But still, this dream, this vision should be alive and well. Again, it's not overnight, but this is should be the, I would say, the strategic goal. This should be the vision. And we do have the, you know, the world with all to accomplish it again, not tomorrow, maybe a few years. But we need also to pull together the international community and also the Arab countries. It's very important that the Sunni, moderate Sunni Arab countries, who have a stake in defeating Hamas and defeating ISIS because they are after them as much as they are after us to do it together. Grisha, to what extent has Israel diminished Hamas's capabilities in the past 10 days? We know, I think it's eight senior commanders have been confirmed to kill. I think another one was killed an hour ago, the head of the intelligence. Well, I really, I really cannot answer this question properly. What I would say is that it will take time. And the only way to deal with that is ground attack, entering to Gaza and walking from street to street, house to house, road to road. This is the only way to... And they're living 70 meters underground? In some places it's 40, in some places it's 70. The aquifer in Gaza is very high. So we know that the layer of the heart's wall, the rocks is something like... In some places it's 70, in some places it's 60. In some places it's even 80 and 100, it depends. So yes, they are there. That's why it's going to take time. The mission is going to be complicated, it's not going to be easy, but I think that we are determined to do it. And we just hear, Yahya Lapiti is the latest politician to say that Israel will destroy Hamas without listening to the international. This is one of the most important things, when the unity government says something like that. This is a very important lesson. I know, I know, I know. He's not part of the government. He's the opposition, but he's supporting the government from the outside. This is unity. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you, Grisha. Well, usually in past wars between Israel and Hamas, there has been significant international pressure on Israel to stop bombing Gaza after just a few days, which means that in the past it has never been able to completely destroy Hamas. Adon Levy is the spokesperson for the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel and he joins us now. Adon, you've been – thanks for being with us. You've been working hard to get the crimes of Hamas out to the world. Would you say that in the mainstream public sympathy remains with Israel 10 days on? There is a huge amount of international sympathy with Israel now in the wake of the October 7th massacre. And unfortunately, the flood of information that continues coming out of Israel, the reporters who are being taken to see the scenes of the atrocities in Bari, Kfar Azar, many journalists on the ground are doing very important work, pushing the news out. But we're under no illusions that as the fighting progresses in the Gaza Strip, despite Israel making every effort to minimize and avoid civilian casualties, the narrative in the international community will shift as people begin to forget the atrocities that happened on the 7th of October. And our job, and I think the job of every friend and supporter of Israel around the world, is to remind everyone that this wasn't just another Hamas terror attack. This wasn't just another of many atrocities that Hamas has committed against our people over previous decades. This was the world's worst terror attack after 9-11. The death toll is now half of 9-11, not in scaled up for population in absolute terms. We're talking about the single largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, forms of violence that remind us not only of ISIS, but of the darkest periods of the Holocaust. Hamas death squads that went door-to-door butchering people incinerating whole families with thermobaric weapons. I've seen on your channel as well gruesome reports as well of a pregnant woman who had her belly sliced open and then the baby stabbed. I mean, we're talking about true acts of savagery. This was Israel's 9-11 and we're still in September. Right. And I mean, many in the international media seem to be clinging on to this idea that this is like previous wars between Israel and Hamas. Are there any signs there starting to see that it is different this time that Israel is not going to stop until Hamas is destroyed? I think from the beginning actually we saw the tide turning in the international community right on Saturday morning just as details of the atrocities were beginning to come to light, a flood of condemnations from around the world and the rhetoric shifted. I think in the past whereas global leaders said that Israel had a right to defend itself, this time they said it has a right and a duty to defend itself because they understand exactly what Israel is saying. Hamas, a violent ISIS-like terrorist organization has genocidal ambitions for the Jews, eliminationist ambitions for the State of Israel, but it's going to come for the West next. And I think that people are looking at the horrifying scenes that we're seeing on campuses around the world, on the streets of London, of Paris, the chance of from the river to the sea and understand that we're dealing with a very dark, twisted form of terrorism and extremism that is going to hurt the international community. On a scale of what we experienced on Saturday, we don't use the phrase crime against humanity likely. It was not only a crime against human beings, this was a crime that murdered, abducted, injured members of 42 nations. I mean, this was a crime against humanity in every respect. And I think the international community understands that and that's why the rhetoric we've seen from world leaders this time has been different in really expressing their solid, forthright, unwavering support for the State of Israel's right to defend itself. And aside from the extent of the atrocities, we've also seen a very large cache of weapons that Hamas managed to get into the south of Israel, machine guns, all kinds of guns, RPGs, rocket launchers, thermobaric weapons, all used against civilians. What does this mean for that narrative that we've had in the west for so long, you know, these sympathizers with Hamas and with the Palestinian cause that Gaza was an open-air prison, that Israel was keeping people in a prison. I mean, the prison guards, clearly, we're not doing a very good job, were they? Well, indeed, we're about to see the accusations against Israel and the international community shifting. People who claim that the Gaza Strip has been under siege for 15 years will now claim that Israel is laying siege to it. People who claim that the Gaza Strip has been under occupation will now accuse Israel of occupying it. And people who say that Palestinians in the refugee camps were refugees are now going to accuse Israel of making them into refugees. The accusations in the international community are going to shift against Israel because it very rarely gets a fair hearing. But what comes next is clearly that there are going to have to be much tighter restrictions on what comes into the Gaza Strip. Because for many years Israel tried to impose whatever restrictions it could on allowing rockets and allowing pardon me, materials that could be used in order to build rockets into the Gaza Strip. And clearly, Hamas was able to evade those restrictions and build a truly terrifying war machine. And in whatever comes next we expect the international community to understand after Hamas, after victory, after we would destroy this awful ISIS-style terror organization that the Gaza Strip can never be allowed to host such a barbaric terror organization with a capability to launch attacks against Israeli civilians. The Gaza Strip can never have that capability anymore because the state of Israel simply cannot exist in this region in the Middle East when it has such violent ISIS-like terrorists with the abilities to commit mass atrocities against Israelis living mere meters from our houses. Elon Levy, thank you very much. Thank you. Well, back with Danny Eyalon and Grisha Yakovovich in the studio. The media war is an important part of this, isn't it? When it comes to the world putting pressure on Israel to step back and halt its operations, no sign that could happen this time. You're asking me or Danny? Yeah, Grisha. Well, I think it's one of our failures, unfortunately. We were prepared in the air, ground, at the sea and on social media, on public opinion. I think that we did a bad job. We need to improve. The problem is that the whole world is based on what they see on TV or reporters that report some of them pro-Palestinians, some of them calculate numbers and it's wrong to do it. Let's compare it to the Second World War. How many people died from the group of the allies and how many people died from Germany? From Germany, something like eight million people comparing to, I don't know, one million civilians. It means that we committed crimes against the Nazis. Okay? So it's the same thing here. Okay? This is not the Holocaust. This is a modern Holocaust. Okay? This is not a Holocaust spread all over Europe. This is a Holocaust inside our state. And this is why it's so different. And ISIS, excuse me alone, it's a compliment. But ISIL, it's worse than ISIS. Danny, you are the former Ambassador to the United States. Some encouraging surveys coming out today which show public opinion, despite these noisy rallies that we've seen in the streets of some American cities, public opinion is very much in line with the American leadership right now. Israel must defend itself. Yes. And this really gives me hope and trust in human nature, you know, that decent people know what's going on and know what should be done. And certainly they are with Israel. Whoever is not with Israel today is really against humanity as a whole. And I believe that what we see in Gaza is not a divide between Israel and Hamas, or Jews and Jihadist Muslims. The divide is between Western civilization and Jihadist culture. This, it was what we see. And this is why this war has to be decisively won because this will have an impact on the entire world. And this is why we see the United States coming to our side so squarely and so quickly and because they understand. It's a global war. It's a global war. We saw it with the ISIS. We saw it with Al-Qaeda. We saw it on 9-11. We saw it in Afghanistan. And we see it in Syria today. And Iran is the mastermind. Iran is the mastermind using their proxies. It's Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. They have the Houdis in Yemen. They have, of course, the militias. The Shia militias in Syria and in Iraq. They have the, we mentioned Houdis in Yemen. We mentioned, of course, they are in Libya everywhere. And who is behind Iran? It's China. China is supporting Iran enormously. By buying oil. By buying oil. By signing a $400 billion transactions deal with them for the next 25 years. Right. Because Iran has been some of the harshest sanctions ever imposed on the regime. The complaint has been that they haven't been enforced. Exactly. Exactly. And this is China mostly and Russia. So today, we have a clear divide between China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and all those terror organizations. And on the other hand, you have the United States-led world. The free world. And the free world? Absolutely. Absolutely. Grisha, what do you think of the position of Arab leaders, as Danny pointed out? I mean, those countries are involved in conflicts with Iranian proxies as well. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have been fighting the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen for several years, causing one of the world's worst humanitarian catastrophes. But they're in a difficult position, aren't they? Because they can't be seen to condone suffering of Palestinians. On the same hand, a lot of them would privately very much like to see Hamas completely wiped from the face of the Earth. The Sunni coalition, the majority of the Sunni coalition is a pro-Israeli coalition. But they are in a dilemma. I can understand it. I disagree to that, but I can understand because we are in a situation that countries, entities should take a stand. And they are not doing that. They see the suffer of the Palestinians at Gaza. And they cannot just... But do they blame Israel for that? Or do they see that Hamas also has a hand in that? In Turkey, I do see that they blame Israel. They blame Israel as well. Not the leadership, not the leadership. Some ministers have already heard. We saw the one Sun, didn't we? Yes, yes, yes, yes. That was one of the events. Saudi Arabia declared, I think, that they are stopping the normalization with Israel. They said they're freezing it. They're freezing it, yes. But it will come back on the back door, as I said, I think, two days ago on the interview that we had. Let's see. I think it's all... Eventually it's all about how will be the situation in Gaza and what will be our abilities to draw a clear line between innocent people, civilians, and dealing with terror. We assumed at the beginning that we can just enter to Gaza and start war. But it looks like we are moving a little bit back to May 2021 and we are trying to manage, let's say, the damages, okay? Yeah, damage limitations. It's not the PR. It's like fighting. It's like, you know, walking tiptoes on eggs again. Walking on eggshells. Walking on eggshells. That's a better definition. Thank you. And this is what I understand that is going to happen now. So it's not going to be a collaborative destruction of Gaza. It's going to be way more targeted with more intelligence. And we will need to improve our intelligence abilities and to bring it to us, you know, superiority. And just very briefly, what do you see Gaza looking like in the future? Well, it's so difficult to say something like that. But, you know, when you have a goal to eliminate Hamas to that they will not be the ones who will control Gaza, it means you also need to think about the day after and to see who will actually control. And on the other hand, we don't want to occupy Gaza again, so we need to find a very creative way. Again, maybe I've said it yesterday, maybe with a third party, an Arab coalition that will be efficient enough to do. Well, they don't seem keen to take any refugees. So we'll have to see if they are interested in ruling the Gaza Strip as well. But yeah, a lot to talk about. Let's take a break. We'll be back right after this. Stay with us. Israel is at war. Make an investment in Israel bonds. It is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel. Visit israelbonds.com and invest now. 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you firsthand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on I-24 News. It generates this random body that kind of looks like a sponge and it evaluates its behavior. 24 News. We're coming to you live from Tel Aviv on this day 10 of Israel's war with Hamas. 199, that's the number of hostages who are being held by Hamas in Gaza. The vast majority of them are Israelis but many other foreign nationals are being held including at least 13 Americans. After days of heavy airstrikes Israel is expected to launch a ground offensive into Gaza. Half a million Gaza residents have moved south and there is pressure on Egypt to open the Rafa crossing. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is in Israel meeting with leaders tonight. The death toll here in Israel now stands at 1,400 with many more wounded following that onslaught by Hamas terrorists in the south of the country on October 7th. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says more than 2,700 people have been killed in Gaza, a figure that does not distinguish between civilian and terrorist deaths. Well, I'm joined in the studio by Danny Ayalon, he's the former Israeli ambassador to the United States. Danny, in the last few minutes Israel's envoy to the UN said, we're not thinking about who will govern Gaza once it has destroyed Hamas. It's too early to start thinking about that perhaps but it's interesting that they're talking about it. It's a slogan. It's okay to say that it's time of war. You need to speak clearly and sometimes you speak from the gut but of course we have to think about it. We have enough people that can finish the war the way we need to finish the war but also to start thinking strategically what is the day after going to be and for that you need to create already task force of interdisciplinary people and agencies who cannot only think but also organize. Do we need to bring in NATO countries? Do you need to bring in Arab countries? Do you think of a new architecture? All these things have to be well thought out. We won't have time. There is no time to plan but to be ready and this is not the main effort. The main effort is on the field but that does not obviate also planning and this is what should be done. This is what a serious government and effective and able government can do. All right Dad, stay with us. And of course we've been hearing the horrendous personal stories of people affected by the atrocities carried out by Hamas in the south of Israel 10 days ago. I'm joined by another of those voices now, Liel Cohen, his best friend's brother, Al-Qa'na Bobot, I believe was kidnapped by Hamas. He's one of the 199 people being held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Thank you for being with us, Liel. Tell us your story. Thank you for having me. On this horrible day, we find out, our friend, find out that his brother Al-Qa'na has been old hostage, not by the government and not by any authority. We saw it on a social media on a video. Now his brother went to that peaceful music festival to celebrate the holiday, to enjoy the moment with his friends. Celebrate life, actually. That's what we're doing. We're musicians, we're producers. We come with peace. And in that horrible day, we find out that Al-Qa'na has been held hostage. And what we're seeing right now, the things that are the most frustrating us, for the first few days, the entire world and the media will stand with us, telling the story about the family that has been suffering about the situation that has been going on. But right now, after 10 days into the war, you start to see things like our Israeli our Israeli defense force making their the needs proportional. It's reasonable to attack this way. And I want to ask the world, it's reasonable to hold so many people, so many families if you have 2.2 million people in Gaza. How they can hold so many people bring back our hostages all, bring them back. Do you want to have a conversation? Do you want to make, oh, it's reasonable or it's proportional? It doesn't make sense. None of those things make sense for us, for the family. We want people back home. Well, quite. I mean, there's one British commentator put it, Douglas Murray. He said, you know, you want a proportional response? Okay, find a city around the same size as Deloitte and go in and gang rape women, murder their children and torture as many civilians as possible. That would be a proportional response, essentially, wouldn't it? 100%. If the government, all those communication channels were like, we're waiting for answer. What will be the strategy? How are you guys tackling it? How are we going to bring our people back? We need a plan and we need to have a plan in place. The media cannot say, oh, this need to be reasonable. It cannot be this way. Almost. We all want to have a communication bring our people back. We can't suffer anymore. This is put us in a place like mother don't sleep at night. Like family are broken, devastated. This is not like a regular situation. Hamas shooting few rockets into Tel Aviv. The idea is reaction. We have like devastated family broken into pieces with understanding that they don't know what's going on with their beloved people. And they're holding kids. They're holding kids. They're holding old people. They're holding a girl with autism. They're holding disabled people. I mean, it's unspeakable. I just want to point out to viewers, just Liel. I just want to point out to viewers, we're playing a very disturbing video on the screen right now. It's really hard to look at. But I understand that Elkhana's wife wanted this video to be shown. This is footage taken by the terrorists. This is Elkhana, yes. This is Elkhana with the blonde hair. Yes. It's horrible to see. It's horrible to see. I'm not sure how much we can take of that. I mean, this is just a this is just a tiny glimpse, isn't it? Into some of the horrific suffering inflicted upon upon people by Hamas. Yeah, and the most important and the most important part of all of it, of this video. You know, you're talking about people that really like they are the gem of our country. They support peace. They support music. They support equality. They are freedom. Like they support freedom. They support like be happy and happiness and dancing and enjoy good loving their families. Yeah. People who love life people being out. I mean, how are you getting through it, Lea? What is keeping you going? Actually, the community here in New York, it's incredible. So there's so many beautiful and incredible people joining forces in state by Israel and helping us. And this is very important message that I would like to send to everyone. If you're focusing on doing good on supporting one another it's going to take you away from this war. We need to be united and we need to focus on positivity and now we can help one another to go through those difficult times. This is the only way we're going to be able to win this war. It's not about we understand all the government and the military part but it's between people how we bring hope to the table how we're standing by each other how we can basically deliver a message that we unite that there is hope inside us and we want to see better days also for the Palestinian neighbors and first and foremost to our families and our soldiers and the people that's right now in the film and making sure they have everything that they need in order to keep doing what they're doing. Absolutely, Liel. Thank you so much. We hope for a happy ending to this horrific story for Elkhana really, really hard. Lots of love to his family and love to you. Keep going keep strong. Thank you for talking to us, Liel. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Some news in a few minutes ago Netanyahu has been speaking with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. What do you make of that, Tani? Only on humanitarian issue. There is no discussion with Putin for any geopolitics or politics or what's going on. He is not a legitimate interlocutor not only because after what he did in Gaza but also we see this anti-Semitic slur coming out of Russia state-owned television. So only if he can be instrumental in helping the... What he did in Syria? Well, what he did in Ukraine. Oh, yes, of course. And also the anti-Semitic remarks of his state-owned television. And his entire I would say his entire approach he is supporting all the bad people whether it's Iran or Syria Assad who butchered his own people and Hamas. Okay. Thank you, Tani. I think we're joined on the line now. No? Okay, one second. Okay, the Soroka Hospital in Bersheva was one of the main medical centers treating the wounded. The number of wounded has been confirmed at 4100 now. Our correspondent Uri Shapira has been to see one of the biggest hospitals in Israel. Take a listen. Soroka Hospital in Bersheva seems quiet now. More than a week after the horrific slaughter Hamas perpetrated in southern Israel. On Saturday, October 7th the situation was completely different. Around 8.10 a.m. we were told of a mass casualties incident. The meaning of that is that we had to call all the units in the hospital. I texted all my staff and said, this is war. This message saved us because we had everyone we needed. We managed to treat 670 people and what is more amazing is that in the first 18 hours we treated 600 patients. Here in the trauma room there are usually six beds and sometimes when there is pressure we can set 12 beds. On Saturday, we managed to treat 120 patients in severe condition. Physicians say that one of the biggest challenges they had was in treating wounded who were evacuated to the hospital only after many hours. Something that made treatment much more difficult. Patients arrived after long, long hours and it dramatically affected their treatment. We accepted patients in the afternoon and even later when the hour written on their arterial tourniquet was 6 a.m. Despite the difficulties, staff at the hospital are determined to continue their hard work even under severe physical and mental pressure. My personal feelings are very clear. We are out and no hesitation. We are in a state of war. The hospital staff is very strong. Most of us live in the south. It is very clear to us that the country needs us and that we are the medical iron dawn of the south. It is not just a cliche for us. We are fully in it. As our 24 news leaves, the team encounters singer Amir Benayoun singing a song for the patients and the crew about angels who are setting tables for the king. Perhaps a tribute to the angels in white who saved so many people in the last few days. There you are, the good doctors of Israel coming together to treat so many wounded people here after that terrorist onslaught. Well, I'd like to introduce Colonel Pelina Sharif Barouk, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies. Thank you for being with us. Let's talk about the latest military developments then. Still waiting for that ground offensive to Gaza. Israel has killed many Hamas commanders at this point. Are you confident as to where we are ten days on? Well, I think that what the Hamas did clearly don't have to maybe repeat it again, but it's crimes against your crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and it also proved that it is a military threat of the highest degree. Almost, I would say, an existential threat at least to parts of Israel. In fact, it conquered part of Israel because as long as people can't go back to their houses, so this means that it is still endangering also Israel, not allowing Israel to apply sovereignty in this area. So, clearly, we have to fight it and we have to dismantle its military capabilities. We cannot stay, we cannot leave this enemy at our border. So, at the moment, the forces, mainly the Air Force is working hard to destroy as much of the military infrastructure of the Hamas as possible and what we have to understand is that the military infrastructure of the Hamas is all within civilian infrastructure. It's not that they are military bases somewhere outside. Its houses, its schools, its mosques, its hospitals and its tunnels under all the civilian buildings therefore the attacks are targeting this military infrastructure which causes, of course, a lot huge damage to civilian infrastructure because it is used, but legally, and I'm a legal international law expert, we have to understand that once a civilian object is used for military purposes, it becomes a legitimate military objective. What Israel is doing is completely in conformity with the laws of armed conflict or international humanitarian law. The Israeli ambassador to the UN says we're not thinking about who will replace Hamas after the war but it's inevitable, isn't it, that Israel will be thinking about what Gaza can possibly look like after this because it can't look as it has done in the past 17 years, can it? No, we cannot. We have now understood that our main misconception was that we thought that Hamas is a rational actor, that Hamas has the interest at least part of the interest of the population in Gaza, that it can be deterred. Now we understand that Hamas is ISIS and with these kinds of organizations you have to uproot them and this will take time and what will be after that is very difficult to know and I think we shouldn't we should low our expectations we cannot at this point of time now already plan what will be the day after Hamas. We have to at the moment eradicate this enemy like coalition forces eradicated or try to eradicate ISIS and what will be after they are eradicated will be better for Israel, it will also be better for the Palestinians in Gaza because Hamas is also the enemy of the civilians in Gaza, it is using them as shields it is the... Sorry to interrupt, the UN agency UNR, a refugee agency in Gaza tweeted today that essentially Hamas government had stolen their fuel and medical aid fuel and medical aid which is supposed to get to civilians they later deleted that without explanation because they will be murdered by the Hamas they are just putting it on the grid yes, clearly the Hamas all the money that was entering there in order to rebuild the Gaza Strip the civilian infrastructure went to the military infrastructure and everything went to the military capability this is very expensive this operation they don't care about their people and even I would say the opposite, they have an interest in many civilian Gazans killed because they believe that will put more pressure on Israel to stop that's the game that we always play isn't it, okay, but it's true, unfortunately absolutely, Shaniina stay with us because as if this was not enough Israel is also on high alert at its northern border another terrorist organization is just across the border this time it's Hezbollah also backed by Iran the United States is here it has sent significant military support including the world's largest aircraft carrier it has warned Hezbollah not to get involved but Israel is very much on alert in the north we can go there now, our Robert Swift is at the border Rob, where are you, what's happening that's right, the skirmishes which have been taking place here on Israel's northern border have continued at pace this afternoon with small arms fire from Hezbollah forces being directed towards Israeli observation towers as well as yet another anti-tank guided missile being fired across the border at an Israeli Merkava tank unlike the incident yesterday which resulted in Israeli casualties there was no killed or wounded in the Israeli vehicle and the IDF has retaliated with artillery we've seen artillery units moving around the area a number of howitzers moving into position presumably to beef up the amount of firepower that Israel can apply on Hezbollah and there's some concern the fact that the small arms fire which I mentioned being targeted at observation posts there's concern that this may be connected with an attempt to essentially blind Israel's eyes to a certain extent to make it easier for Hezbollah to infiltrate the border but as of yet that seems to have been unsuccessful all of those attempts at infiltration have been foiled and of course we've seen civilians fleeing north inside Lebanon a country already on the brink of economic and political collapse some are warning that Lebanon simply would not survive a war with Israel and the United States indeed I mean for a number of years now people have been warning that the collapse of Lebanon its economic situation has been catastrophic for years but it's possible that a war against Israel could be the thing that pushes it over the edge and while you know Hezbollah is a massive organization with a great deal of support from within the country Lebanon is made up of many different demographic groups and not all of them support the organization many means so yeah there will be some support there but it's also worth bearing in mind that on the Israeli side of the border that civilians have also been fleeing with communities along the border evacuated today as a result of the continued pressure that communities here are feeling from Hezbollah there's 28 communities many of them are villages that we've been broadcasting from in the last few days alright and people are being told stay away for now you can come back when it's safer now is not the time to be in these northern communities and some of them are very very close to the border on it there was some of them that we were standing in and were literally 100 meters from the border so yeah some of them are rifle range let's say across the border and so you can understand why the IDF would want to take these people away from that immediate danger well thanks very much Robert Swift is up there on the northern border Paninish Shavid Baruch is with us in the studio it's horrifying to look at it now how this has been allowed to develop you know analysts have been warning for years haven't they you can't let a terrorist group control a border but that is essentially the situation we're in Hezbollah has guided missiles 150,000 of them I believe in Israel this is a very worrying situation if and when Hezbollah will join the war yes it's worrying but we are ready for it I think the civilians in Israel also already understanding that if Hezbollah does enter they are prepared for heavier rockets which will be more difficult but we we still have I think the upper hand we have a very strong military we are now prepared they are not going to surprise us and we have the US that is backing us and I think other countries too because once Hezbollah enters and Hezbollah is completely backed by Iran and Iran in general is meddling here and pushing things I think the world will understand the western world and also the Saudi countries, moderate Saudi countries will understand that this is not just Israeli Israel's fight this is whether this axis the evil will prevail and it will eventually get to them so I think they will find very strong and united Israel against them but also united and I believe strong coalition against them and I think that would be a huge mistake if the Hezbollah on the part of the Hezbollah if it enters the fight and I think also the Lebanese people really don't want that to happen and Hezbollah is not very popular in Lebanon and that will be their falling in Lebanon too so it would be a grave mistake on their side I mean Danny we've had so much solid support from the US President Joe Biden to the mayor of New York Eric Adams I mean very strong support from the United States but they too in the US misjudged the situation didn't they they also allowed this to develop on Israel's borders oh yes definitely you know after the Second World War sorry the Second Lebanese War in 2006 there was a resolution by the UN Security Council 1701 which specifically prescribed of Hezbollah not being on the border and keeping a safe distant this was not the case we have Hezbollah on our border right now against the UN resolutions and defying the very unifil force which is right there so definitely we have been in a mode of containment in a mode of absorbing everything that they were just doing to us but no more I think and this is what we discussed earlier Laura that what will happen in Gaza will determine the entire fate of the Middle East and beyond and this is why we have the Americans so much behind us because the Americans in recent years they have been trying to pull back from the Middle East haven't they right going back to President Obama with his pivot towards Asia right there's not much support inside the United States for intervention in the Middle East is that all changing now as well I hope so and you just mentioned that there is a new poll in the United States showing a great support for Israel there is a saying here if you don't go to the Middle East will come after you so the U.S. will have to continue and be here and it doesn't mean just boots on the ground it has to be a political support it has to be strategic support and I think this is what we see and actually the United States have been starting understanding that there is a new shift and there should be a new shift in the region when they really encourage the Saudi Arabians to come up and to have some normalization with Israel of course this has been you know scuttled now by Hamas and probably the timing of this attack also had something to do with the the rapprochement that is planned with Saudi Arabia the Iranians by the way just two days before the war started the Iranian Raisi the president of Iran said out loud warning the Saudis not to start a political process with Israel he said don't gamble on the wrong horse so this had also something to do with it but no more what about Qatar how long can Qatar Qatar are how should I say it I'm trying to think very politely and politically correct the Qataris are in bed with everyone with Iranians with the Saudis with Israelis with Hamas with everyone else and this is the reason that to be there in order to mediate in order to do things I have no trust and no respect to the Qataris nor to their state owned El Jazeera which is again an anti-Semitic which is still broadcasting from Israel by the way the Mossad has advised that it shouldn't be absolutely absolutely and we are going to have to end it we'll leave it for the next time that's it for this hour do stay with us 199 hostages being held in Gaza that's now being confirmed by the IDF military offensive continues in the south everyone braced for an Israeli ground offensive into Gaza do stay with us on I-24 news we're live from Tel Aviv we've got all the very latest for you don't go anywhere thanks for watching stay in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped help us we don't want to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity and unity and unity I was literally part of the team that opened this place some ten years ago it was dramatic to come in here post construction blow the sawdust off the table and get to work building the first broadcast for the channel even with all the experiences of that first year and being here ten years later everything we've done since nothing compares to the tension filled news period of that summer of 2014 all leading up to the ground invasion of Gaza day seven under rocket sirens rocket attacks where there'd be one person left to control room me sitting there seeing the newsroom clearing out the corner of my eye and continuing to talk to the camera about the moment we are in real confronts Hamas in and around the Gaza Strip I've been exposed to the conflict for many years but something about that summer was so much more unsettling than anything ever before maybe something inside me knew that there was more coming the big night came the night at the IDF ground invasion of Gaza we were here until well after two in the morning covering that exhausted and I went home I think it was by 7 a.m. already the IDF was calling me one of the mobile reserves here sending them off to the war we got those phone calls and by Friday night we were already told power officers we'd be inside Gaza in 48 hours and you're going from one minute you're in your job you're in your normal life the next minute you're being sent off to war a collective experience that somebody had that summer it's a fully unique experience for me covering the war telling the story to the international audience covering those soldiers to the next day being one of those soldiers out there in the front lines I mean truly it's given me perspective that I've carried with me here ever since on covering this conflict I'm Saqib Iqousdan I welcome to this special broadcast on I24 news I'm Khaled bin David at this moment as I'm speaking to you air raid sirens are going off in Tel Aviv we're looking at a live feed there of the city these alerts are going off in south Tel Aviv and Jaffa east Tel Aviv in the city center in the neighboring towns of Givitayim and Ramat Gan so right in the area that I'm speaking from to you from if you're watching this on your television in the Tel Aviv area you better should be oh we're seeing an interception a live interception there you saw a flash there and the screen go up in the clouds that was the iron dome system we may be hearing some booms at least in the studio soon these are live pictures from Tel Aviv there you go you could see it that is the iron dome interceptor going into the clouds right above us right above us here in Tel Aviv oh you just saw it live that was an interception we heard the explosion here in the studio so it was in the skies above us we're hearing another explosion here in the studio so we are looking at the area there of south Tel Aviv now we're looking at a full screen there of Tel Aviv it's eight o'clock in the evening here which has been a time in which Hamas has regularly fired at both 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. this evening they have been rocket fire throughout the day we've had multiple sirens here in Tel Aviv air raid sirens we also had one rocket hit in the neighboring town of Halon a woman was lightly injured there we had rocket fire also in Jerusalem I should say it's day 10 of Israel's war against Hamas I want to go straight to my guest here Alon Tal he's a former member of Kineset for Benny Gantz's then blue and white party professor and chair of department of public policy of Tel Aviv University now of course he is still affiliated with the National Unity Party and alone unbelievable we're here in the studio we just saw on our screens a live interception here and I have to say this is a day maybe not coincidence Anthony Blinken is here Lloyd Austin the US defense secretary the Kineset opening Hamas seems to be trying to make a point here yes I think it reminds all of us just how absolutely insane our accepted reality it is that Israel that we have been doing rocket attacks now for so many years and I think what's changed since a week ago Saturday's attack is that there's a broad consensus in Israel this is not a normal that is intolerable anymore and that we're going to stop it and so it's just a reminder of give us more motivation as we head off into the coming military incursion alright so when we know what's happened with these rockets in Tel Aviv we did see it looked like at least interceptions of rockets but if you have any reports of any rockets landing here in the Tel Aviv it will bring you that but it's not just central Israel it's not just south Israel it's not just Hamas rockets it is also the north of Israel Chisbala continues to fire and other terror groups from Lebanon continue to fire over Israel's northern border and Israel today announcing the evacuation of some 28 communities there within a few kilometers of the border to our correspondent Robert Swift he is in northern Israel and Robert now the north like the south has become a fire zone and of course a big job evacuating communities right there along the border that's correct for days now there's been sporadic skirmishes along the border here and that continued again today with Chisbala forces using small arms fire to attack Israeli observation towers along the borderline also for the second day in a role-fired anti-tank guided missiles this time they did not cause any casualties unlike their attack yesterday their attack on an Israeli Mercava tank was unsuccessful but again demonstrating the capabilities that Chisbala has now the IDF has responded with artillery fire to both these situations and we've seen a lot of movement of IDF artillery pieces moving around moving closer to the border likely showing that the Israeli Defence Forces are bulking up the amount of firepower they can bring to bear on Chisbala now as you said there has been an evacuation here today some 10,000 citizens were removed from 28 communities those closest to the border it's those within about 1.2 miles of the border just for our audience to understand these are those that are immediately on the doorstep to the northern border but there are many communities that are still quite close and there's still a risk to them and that explains the large presence of IDF here as they prepare for the eventuality that whether or not Chisbala will enter this in greater numbers alright Robert Swift there we're here it looks like I can see sirens behind you police sirens unfortunately we don't know what may be happening there alone but a reminder this is a multi-front war we just had sirens in Tel Aviv we actually saw live some of the interceptions of rocket fire from his Bollar and some of the perhaps some of its proxies as other terror groups in the north and of course the south continues to be under assault a multi-front war perhaps Israel is going to be forced to fight I think we're all recognizing that we're in the middle of a Middle Eastern drama that to some extent what we're seeing unfold is Iran's openness or deep deep concern about an Israeli Saudi peace agreement and when they saw this moving forward rapidly I think they called in their proxies and said do it you need to stop it and although there's not confirmed evidence of this but the assumption is as they said to the Hamas when the sword is sitting just above your neck then we'll call in our friends in Lebanon so I think that's what we're seeing now that we are witnessing and I think we're in the middle of something so let me ask you about that and for those who don't know you're one of the better known American immigrants who are all lean to Israel you're one of the founders somewhat say the founder of the environmental movement in Israel what do you think America's posture is going to be I should say we have some reports as I said Anthony Blinken the Secretary of State is here today Lloyd Austin is here we'll have some quotes from them later talk that President Biden but may come perhaps even Wednesday make a visit there but how far is America willing to go when it comes to getting involved in this conflict well I think that President Biden has proven his personal commitment to Israel and I think his abhorrence visceral abhorrence of what took place the massacre is really manifested in the strong positions he's taken there's also a political dimension here let's remember that Biden is looking to the 2024 elections the American hasty exit from Afghanistan remains a subject of criticism things are kind of stuck in Ukraine and in supporting Israel he's supporting a winner and according to recent polls a country which is enjoying very very strong support across the United States I think I was something like 71% identifying with his only 8% expressing dissatisfaction I think he's making a smart move politically but mostly it's a ethical state alone stay with us we're going to jump down okay we have the briefing from the idea spokesman let's take a listen the idea continues to get prepared to the rest of the discussion of the war this part of this all the different departments are currently in drills and other practices ahead of the next phases of the of the war on the northern front in recent hours we've seen several several of incidents of a fire from the Lebanese territory into Israel Hezbollah is funded and directed by Iran wants to distract us from the war in Gaza but our focus continues to be the war in Gaza we have a strong army that knows how to act and fight in two fronts at the same time and even more on its own by land, by sea and by air we are fighting in a responsible manner the defense minister has approved the evacuation of northern residents immediate proximity to the border the goal is to release or liberate this territory and protect them and to minimize any risk we continue to hold ongoing situation assessments with the rest of the communities but at this point in time there is no need for further evacuation but we are getting ready for potential further evacuation if and when needed this time we are operating in full coordination with the U.S. U.S. Secretary of State is being briefed on the state of the war and also another carrier, Eisenhower is making American carriers making way to the area the partnership between the U.S. and Israel is not just in woods but in action so far we have updated 199 families of those being held hostage we are sharing the pain of the families we are with them together and we continue to bring them full information that we have on their loved ones it's part of the efforts to locate the missing the forces are searching on both sides of the border and we are investing excessive efforts to complete the assessment over the state of the abductees and to get as much information as needed on their status in recent days the public is very responsible the fact that the public is adhering to home front command orders is giving us strength to continue to adhere and update and get updated on the home front command orders these orders are saving lives and are allowing us to continue in the war, in the battle and minimize the damage back home in the coming weeks we will all have to maintain some sort of life routine alongside the war and it is all rooted in one thing our resilience as a society it's time for questions is the coming we did report as I mentioned earlier that U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in Israel today meaning with top security officials including Defense Minister Yov Galant along also with course U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken here's some of the comments that have been made Defense cooperation and U.S. support in the Pentagon in the White House in the Congress ensure freedom of operation and enforce our capabilities in fact today we will receive the second aircraft carrying essential munition to the IDF as the U.S. Secretary of Defense I am here in person to make something crystal clear America's support for Israel is ironclad and I extend my deepest condolences to the Israeli people for those killed or wounded in this terrible slaughter by Hamas I'm also here in solidarity with all the families still living the waking nightmare of not knowing the fate of their loved ones and we will continue to coordinate closely with Israel to help secure the release of the innocent men women and children in the clutches of Hamas including American citizens Well let's go to our senior U.S. correspondent Mike Wagenheim in New York he's at the United Nations we'll get to that in a minute Mike but first we have Anthony Blinken here we have as we just saw the Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reports of another possible visitor U.S. President Joe Biden totally unconfirmed but a lot of reports of speculation he could be here later this week Reports say the White House is debating whether to send the President here into what is essentially an active war zone Biden postponed a trip planned trip to Colorado today instead he stayed back at the White House in order to participate in national security related meetings the White House said he met earlier today with his national security advisor Jake Sullivan director of national intelligence and his CIA director Bill Burns to essentially try to get a lay of the land of what is transpired and what is possibly to come whether Hezbollah will become more active in the conflict potentially Iran as well and to judge in part whether it's even safe to fly to Israel in the region here in order to show solidarity with Israel whether he should possibly as Blinken is doing partake in additional meetings with regional actors so this is all very much speculation at this point as to whether Biden will visit Israel and discuss within the White House right now today whether it's prudent to do so and whether it's safe to do so at this particular time Right and Mike not speculation is some of the movement there in the United Nations on the Israel Hamas conflict and some play actors some developments there certainly not I would say to Israel and certainly maybe not to Washington's liking under way It really depends on your point of view when it's particularly to Israel or Washington's liking most of the time but what we're seeing here later on today 6 p.m. Eastern time there'll be a vote on at least one resolution possibly two related to the Israel Hamas war right now Brazil has tabled a resolution Russia has its own resolution as well that it once voted on Russia will also offer amendments to Brazil's resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire Israel doesn't want that not because it's for humanitarian purposes but just doesn't want to ceasefire at all right now immediately as it tries to carry out its military operations against Hamas it is all but certain that Washington will veto such a resolution if it is in fact voted on later today again Brazil will get first crack at it it's the Security Council president for the month Russia may call its own resolution for a vote but all of that will not transpire until later on tonight that Security Council meeting will be open which means all statements will be on the record we could hear from a number of actors both inside and outside the Security Council and we do expect certainly that Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Giladour Don will offer his own point of view later on this evening as will the Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour probably a number of other interested actors as well will voice their concerns for what's happening in the region before the Security Council goes to vote on at least one resolution probably in the late hours tonight All right Mike Wagenheim at the United Nations thank you for that I just an update according to the Magandavida dome emergency rescue medical rescue service there's no reports of injuries or even a rocket fall in the Tel Aviv area from that last flurry of rockets that you watched live on your screen and that were to have been intercepted by Iron Dome or fallen in open territory well it's another city a city much more under fire from Gaza over the past week has been Ashkelon or Mary McAuliffe is down there in that town and Mary Ashkelon still something on the front lines along with those Gaza border communities what's been the day down like down there in Ashkelon which of course as we perhaps move in the next phase of this war a ground war really just about 10 11 I believe kilometers north of the Gaza Strip this is a city very near the Gaza Strip in fact it's the largest city that hasn't been evacuated near the Gaza Strip it's just just over four miles right in that direction behind me and before those sirens went off in Tel Aviv we saw that projectile go up entering exiting out of the Gaza Strip and we could tell from the trajectory of it and the speed of it likely headed to central Tel Aviv of course moments later hearing that explosions overhead as the Iron Dome did intercept that missile here in Ashkelon it's been a bit quieter in recent days but the city has really been pounded by rockets over the past week or so there's over 1,000 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into the city of some 180,000 people many residents have left the city we're in a building now where many residents have not remained here and most have gone to safer parts of the country they are still dealing at the hospital here they still have at least eight people who have been injured in the past week's event they still are working around the clock to treat those as well as the other injured who are coming in from the area we've had just about three alarms go off today and no reports of any of them falling inside the city but of course it is still that panic and that worry from many of the residents who are living here and feel they can't really go too far away from a shelter so they are remaining closer to home while this is unfolding but we've also heard from those inside the city the local municipality workers the mayor today blasting members of the Israeli government for not doing enough to help the residents here they say they should be evacuated and they should be under the same site of plans that have been given to the Gaza border community so these assistance packages these financial grants also bringing some of these evacuees to central Tel Aviv and putting them in state sponsored guest houses they say none of that has happened here in Ashkelon but Ashkelon is very much a Gaza border community. Alright that certainly is Mary McAulay stay safe in Ashkelon thank you for that now as we said a little earlier today today's opening of the winter session of the Knesset was interrupted by a rocket alert in Jerusalem that sent the MK's there scrambling into the shelter but the proceedings that continue with speeches by Prime Minister Netanyahu and the opposition Yael Lapid our own ultimate was at the Knesset and he spoke there with Likud representative Yuli Edelstein. I think that on one hand we have to act according to the interests of the state of Israel and to the goals that the government or the security cabinet sets for this war on the other hand we can't deny the fact that we are right now for example supported big time by the United States including in very practical terms including the warships that we see by chance cruising not far from our shores so I think that we have to take to a certain extent the public opinion or the position of different leaders around the world into consideration but this is not a guidebook for us we have to have this dialogue and to explain things like for example a very simple example everyone's talking about humanitarian aid allowing humanitarian aid does anyone really believe that a 75 year old or a year old old lady in Gaza or Han Yunis or Afiyah will see anything from this aid this is direct supply of provision to Hamas everyone understands the first thing about regimes of that kind understands that it won't go to the population so when we are talking about humanitarian aid we have to ask who's going to distribute it how we make sure that it's not supported Hamas and the last but never least we have hostages including children women people who were wounded during that terrible raid what about them? And so with a sort of long talk and alone of course the party you were a member of Knesset with and now in a sort of new format is now in the government Benny Gantz joining the government with the rest of his party mates a lot of questions being asked about this new government which is open today in the Knesset formally the opposition leader Yael Lapid declined to join the government he said today at the party of Knesset for Benny Gantz to join the government is this government going to be able to function to run the war after what happened after what we saw happen a week ago? Well I think we can all agree that the legitimacy of this government and the public confidence in this government took a major hit 10 days ago and yet we have a war that we're going to have to run and so we in the party in Benny Gantz in particular we face with the dilemma do we let the party run or do we bring two former chiefs of staff of the IDF and put them in that war cabinet room and Benny Gantz didn't think twice he didn't think about the political consequences although he's already paid a significant political price once for joining another Netanyahu government he said look this is what Israel needs now and I think if what we see not that this is a time for polling but the Haban polls conducted would suggest that a vast majority of Israelis are extremely relieved that those smart and reasonable and strategically experienced men are in the room and helping us reach an optimal outcome in this impending war. Alright I want to go back to a bit of the briefing that we heard from rare Admiral Daniel Hagaari of course I think the major piece of information that the IDF put out today was a confirmation of that they had contacted 199 families meaning at least that many number of hostages and upper number worse than some of fear which is on so many levels both traumatic for Israel on a sort of national social level but it also is going to complicate this military operation that Israel is going to undergo once it goes to the next stage of the war. Absolutely we've never faced a situation with this number of hostages and civilians and so it makes it much complicated and on the one hand the government has a mandate and a responsibility to neutralize the Hamas threat on the other hand we need to bring these people home and it has to be a paramount objective. I believe that at present what has been done certainly in terms of engaging international agencies and providing this humanitarian corridor which Israel has done and Israel has contrary to reports and has absolutely provided water for this trip these kind of steps are important in creating an atmosphere where at least we can begin to raise these issues but Israel finds itself going to face very very difficult dilemmas in the coming days and these are going to be brutal weeks ahead of us. Right and of course that's the question how much latitude the international community more specifically let's say the United States is going to give Israel in an operation to rescue its hostages to achieve its goal of taking away the military capabilities of Hamas which might involve a well invasion of the Gaza Strip heavy civilian casualties among the Palestinians which may be unavoidable how much latitude will Israel have do you think from at least the United States. Well I think the fact that the United States has weighed in heavily and said we're going to stipulate our support on making sure that the I would say airing on the side of humanitarian concerns and Israel has respected those concerns I'm delighted I think it's important because this is not the kind of military operations going to be over in a couple days we're going to need the oxygen of a several days in order to protect our own. I think even by saying several days you're perhaps understating things. No it's going to be weeks of course it's going to be weeks this is a complicated thing even though there's you know 360,000 Israeli soldiers who have been drafted and maybe 20 25,000 local fighters but Israel faces the possibility of coming into areas even after they've had more than half of the people of Gaza leave where there's going to be collateral damages and we as a country which does not want a humanitarian crisis in Gaza never had a war with the Gaza people do want to try to minimize that extent we can however this time it's different and this time we're going to finish the job I think there's a strong consensus that our unwillingness to confront the kind of threat that Hamas posed has had an unbearable opportunity to continue all right well certainly there is that determination throughout Israeli society in all sectors to get the job done but as you said it's going to be a hugely daunting task on many levels on on the military the the political and the diplomatic professor alone Tal thank you for joining us on I-24 news and stay with us we'll keep broadcasting we'll be back in a few minutes and we'll be testing even through rocket alerts and rocket fire above our heads which you just saw about a half hour ago stay with us over 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 news it actually starts from scratch and the way that it works is it generates this random body that kind of looks like a sponge and it evaluates its behavior vestment in Israel bonds it is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel visit israel bonds dot com and invest now made for me a unique concept in Israel custom-made men's fashion to your measurements made for me designer of all your events schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il made for me official dresser of I-24 news good evening ladies and gentlemen officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity welcome back to this special broadcast on I-24 news well Israeli authorities have now placed a death toll from Hamas's deadly rampage last week at at least 1400 people victims but of them only about half have been identified so far at Israel's medical forensic center dozens of new bodies are coming in every day in the hope to identify them many of these bodies are burnt mutilated and bring them to proper burial whereas our aerial also on reports some of the corpses are in such bad condition may never be identified and please be advised some of the images that we are about to show you are disturbing it's been nine days since the horrific slaughter in the community surrounding the Gaza Strip and the dust is still settling but at Israel's national medical forensic center examiners are working around the clock to identify as many of the 1400 bodies and at times it's an impossible task here are child you cannot see what is there again go another one and this when we separated it we see that there are two people there at least we don't know how many people are there so these people were sitting in the room and they were not shot because we don't see any metal fragments there but they were burned because they were not shot this is like a primatorium they just were burned in the security room and this what is actually left from them I don't know if you will be able to take DNA from these samples because they are very child you can see here two spines another one two spines and you can show two ribs two sets of ribs and this is an adult with a child sitting together and hug sorry another hugging the child the first one and Dr. Nachman thinks it might this metal wire that you see here might use to tie two bodies together and they will burn like this since last Saturday the center's examiners have checked over 950 body bags some have the remains of more than one body of victims from the border communities, the desert music festival and security forces so far there are about 500 bodies that were identified and there are still close to 300 bodies that remain unidentified and new ones keep coming in we are getting samples from the deceased we are sampling them for the right amount of material that we need to extract DNA for then we will start to create a genetic profile and compare it to the family members who wait for the answers many of the bodies have bullet wounds some also in the hands as the victims were trying to protect themselves in their final moments burnt babies, headless bodies some of the bodies are in such bad condition that they may never be identified so this is a baby mattress just by addition by the size of the spot it seems that he was bleeding or he or she were bleeding in the bed I never saw anything like this this is heart wrenching because you can see innocent people that were just butchered and people that were shot where they were tied people that were burned to death people that were tied together so this cruelty I think that you cannot imagine anything like that with a ground invasion looming and increasing international criticism over Israel's response there is also a growing movement of people denying that Hamas terrorists committed such horrific acts of violence and torture but hundreds of people from first responders to the medical examiners at this center have seen it all you've seen this pictures of dead bodies and also babies you've seen it and I don't know how many were decapitated and so on we see people without heads but things have happened just to deny it didn't happen you saw the pictures, you see the bodies it's here you can tell yourself any story that you want and you can believe it so if you don't want refuse to believe that this happened even though you see the pictures you see the videos you see the signs it is all recorded well disturbing images indeed and facts there let's shut down to the city of Steele Road right on the Gaza border and our defense correspondent Jonathan Reghev and of course Jonathan Steele Road evacuated first time in its history and a ghost town that's what it looks like from here absolutely deserted Kalev I'm standing in the main street of Steele Road and it's not a major city but still a town of some 25,000 people at 8pm on every other day this city would be bustling with traffic now we're seeing a very rare scene a car three hours and this is what the road is like again this is the main street a bit further away from the place where I am usually the restaurants open shops open but you can see this is what it looks like down there a little bit to that direction a checkpoint and that's it out of a town of 25,000 I think that possibly 100 maybe 200 people are still here maybe elderly people who simply refuse to leave they're saying we're staying here yes we have families up north and they have invited us but this is our place and we want to stay here but the town is deserted everything is closed I think this is what a ghost town looks like the sounds that we are hearing and them that we're hearing quite a lot of artillery that is constantly constantly pounding the nearby Gaza Strip it's a ghost town but still we'll come alive again so say it's inhabitants who have temporarily let's say for quarters Jonathan Regev thank you for that now those who prominently speak out on behalf of Israel in the public arena usually have to deal with some form of retaliation from its detractors and its enemies also during this past week but few have generated more attention and blowback and I mean literally even in the form of death threats and physical attacks than Yosef Haddad he's the CEO of the Together Vouch for Each Other he's also a young Israeli Arab who served bravely in the IDF and he continues to advocate on Israel's behalf including in Arab speaking forums where I think a few others dare to tread and Yosef thank you for joining us but let me ask you first of all because you've been the ones who have been speaking out especially in those forums I just mentioned about the true nature of Hamas something that has been denied in many of those arenas that you've presented yourself what do you have to say now the last thing that I want to say I told you so and this is not the moment and it's not the time to do that but for six years I've been calling on everyone to understand that the threat of Hamas is serious and that Hamas is no different from ISIS and on the 7th of October 2023 we literally saw what the terrorist organization ISIS Hamas is capable of doing I mean I was shocked and still shocked just like any other Israeli and it should be like any other person in the world and unfortunately the anti-Israeli propaganda activists the pro-Palestinian propaganda activists are literally doing as much as possible in order to just draw a different image from the reality I've seen even a reporter remember which channel from Gaza saying that the IDF beheaded 10 babies we were never went inside Gaza where is the proof, you're asking us for proof okay so where is the proof that the IDF beheaded 10 babies and further than that El Jazeera is literally disrespecting every citizen of Israel they uploaded the photo of the burned baby on his bed and they said it's faked and it's generated by AI and in fact it's actually a dog who does such thing you're not only disrespecting us and disrespecting the death but you are actually showing to the world that Israel is lying that everything that happened here did not happen and that Hamas is not a terrorist organization so in fact Hamas is the media unit sorry El Jazeera is the media unit of the terrorist organization Hamas and therefore El Jazeera is a terrorist organization or part of a terrorist organization how can we allow such thing and why they're still here so those are the things that right now we're saying I think that if Israel, if the government and if our leaders understand the severity of this situation because we're now we started good people are finding more understanding towards us and accepting actually that's what I was going to ask you and I wasn't to elicit and I told you so but to ask you is if any of the people you've debated these issues with or confronted with in these public forums have come to you in the past week and say you were right so yes there have been and even further than that I can tell you about the Arab Israelis some of the people who were against me literally threatened me and sent me hateful messages they contacted me and said listen we thought that Hamas conquered the south and while we thought this we kept seeing the footage on TikTok, on the social media and we said no no no we don't want Hamas to be our authority we want to be under the Israeli authority and that was something unbelievable to hear from people who were against me even and by the way if I can complete the picture about the Arab Israeli society the vast majority of the Arab Israeli society are shocked and condemn every act that Hamas did of course there are extremists of course and I've seen it all on social media even bragging and smiling and laughing about it and I know that the Israeli police arrested them as well but the majority of the Arab Israeli society are against it and condemn it and I'm very happy and further than that many of the Arab Israelis are actually donating and volunteering and helping the soldiers and the residents of the south but if we go back to the activists the anti Israeli activists and social media and others who are trying to deny it and further than that they're echoing the message of the terrorist organization Hamas now I start saying that we the civilians people the citizen of Israel we can do as much as we can with our limitation you know but if the government does not interfere we're going to lose that battle and very soon the international pressure would be even bigger and there is a solution point someone from the government in front of the media, international media and refute the lies of the terrorist organization and media such as Al-Jazeera every day, conference every day and take even footages from Al-Jazeera that they spread and talk about it and show the world that they're lying otherwise we stand no chance when it comes to what we call the Hasbar explaining what's going on Right the public diplomacy so stay with us of course one of the ways to counter that is for people who are experiencing this terrible suffering right now to tell their own story as we say many Israelis are trying to cope with the fear and pain of having had their family friends taken captive into Gaza or unaccounted for but for Shira Chavron a young woman it's not one or two or three family members it's ten members of her family who are missing or I believe to have been held hostage by Hamas terrorists we're talking young people who are currently all abducted on October 7th from their home in Kibbutz Berry and Shira Chavron joins us now from Strasbourg, France Shira first of all tell us a little about your family maybe not all of the ten but certainly some of the family members who have been unaccounted for or believed to be taken hostage Yeah so you're right for me the list is very long I'll tell you a little bit about them my family is the most precious thing to me we lost contact with ten of the members on Saturday morning the age range is between 67 to 3 year old my cousin's daughter my aunt for example she found the NGO called Fair Planet who helps people in Africa working to prevent to stop the hunger problem the hunger problem in the world my other aunt Lila she works with the people with the PTSD who live in the south of Israel and suffer from the situation on a daily basis my uncle is a handicapped man who has an auto-immune disease his caregiver Paul was murdered we found out a couple of days ago in the attack and it's just and you have a Holocaust survivor as well correct your grandfather no yeah my grandfather who on these days I say I'm thankful that he's not allowed to see this horse that happened to his home that he found it and to his whole family you know right Shira was there any message from your family during the incident or it's just simply not known what has happened to them they we did know they're hiding in the their shelters we do know for a fact that one of the houses there are two houses with my family in them one of them you know Hamas terrorists broke into and managed to get them out and kidnap them we know that the houses were burned down and you know bombed and we know that from just videos that was seen after but we have as I said no info we just like you know try to gather the pieces and because we don't have a clear one yet right I want to give you a chance to say what message you might have for the Israeli government and also since we're an international channel and we've just been discussing some of the disinformation that's being put out there about the conflict in Gaza what is your message to the to the world to the international community yeah so for me you know I can say that my family are also European citizens German, Austrian Italians we consider this situation to be a humanitarian crisis and therefore the world is also responsible this is why I'm here in Strasbourg at the moment we're talking to a representative of the EU and we try to ask them to put pressure on the right leaders to get the sign of life to get them to see the red cross to get them to see a doctor and eventually to get them out and to keep this at the agenda eventually and don't let those faces be forgotten right can I just imagine your shirt we showed the picture but I see that is the photograph of your family is it right now that you're wearing on your shirt there yeah yeah it is it unfortunately is now in a whole different context because almost third of the people you see here maybe more are not with us right now at the moment and we don't know if they're safe well this is just shocking to hear this Shira Haran thank you for joining us we wish of course the safe return of your or your family and we wish you the best there as you go abroad trying to get them to tell their story so you talked about countering disinformation and propaganda about Israel I mean when you hear a story like that it's just unbelievable and I think we need more like this of course from anyone who's capable of doing it we're not like them by the way if you look at it once we strike because Hamas launched from a populated area the first thing they do is not even saving their own people filming their own people they want to spread the messages before even they tweet them in Gaza that's what we're doing we don't do that we ask first we think first of all about our own people before we start the propaganda tool so you know anyone who has been in that horrific place and that massacre that terrorist organization Hamas did and can speak and want to speak it is very important but only if it's possible mentally and if the person is ready to do that otherwise we first care about the wellbeing of our people let me ask you as an idea veteran and I mentioned you fought bravely and were wounded in combat the army is facing an unprecedented task and also Israeli society is facing the unprecedented task of having to also to make its own sacrifice for the sake of the security of future generations I mean how do you feel confident about on both those aspects about the army but also about the society that's going to have to stand behind them I'm going to start and end with the same sentence we are going to win and now let me explain to you why since this horrific attack happened on us I've seen the Israeli society getting united like I've never seen it before Jews and Arabs from the right wing and the left wing if you're a secular or religion everybody stepped up and said we want to defend our country we want to defend our freedom and our democracy and we don't want to be controlled by a terrorist organization and we've seen it throughout the entire Israeli society and therefore the Israeli society already won despite the sorrow despite the fact that we're mourning and we will have more time to mourn we need to be focused on winning the war and when it comes to the IDF let me give you a story of the Gulani Brigade back then in 2006 I fought in Lebanon and my brigade, the Gulani Brigade specifically 51 we suffered for a lot of losses a lot of losses we got out of Lebanon for a few hours and our commander spoke to us and said we got hit but the spirit of Gulani never dies and the brave soldiers of Gulani never back up never, we went back we fought and we won that's why Hezbollah was intimidated for so long Gulani Brigade suffered a lot of losses in the south on October 7th many of the Gulani soldiers are sending me messages and videos of them they say that we are hurt but we are also prepared and when they're going to give us the order to go into Gaza we are going to win that's the spirit of the IDF and that's the spirit of the Gulani Brigade and I'm telling you I am positive 100% we will win all right, well that's some of that fighting spirit is going to be needed in the difficult days ahead I want to just jump down to Mary McAuliffe and Ashkelon Mary we were just minutes ago speaking about the cries from Ashkelon for more aid for possibly even evacuation there is some news to report here this evening that's right, Kalev so today in terms of rocket sirens we've only had about three today which is less for residents who have been living here in this community there are over 1,000 rockets that have been fired here at this community as we've been talking about since Gaza some early estimates say that's about 25% of all rockets that have been fired have been fired right here that's because it's very near the Gaza border and it's also a major target it has a major power plant which helps supply some of Israel's southern areas as well as many residents who are simply living here so it is a high value civilian area and certainly the residents here have been burying the brunt of that we're just about four miles from the Gaza border right behind me and many of them have decided to leave the city the residents here because they're just they continue to see here these rockets being fired towards their community today we heard from the government the local government calling on the Israeli government to do more to try and protect and to evacuate the residents here he was saying today he said in the Knesset meeting that there are only 40% of homes in this area have shelter sorry 40% of homes do not have shelters in this area so while the vast majority of people in this area do have shelters they can run to 40% is a huge number of residents here who simply have nowhere to go when a rocket alert happens and as I said and as we've been discussing that happens quite often okay there in Ashkahn Mary McAuliffe thank you for that we do have an update during that rocket alert that we carried live from here in the studio US Secretary of State Tony Blinken was at that time at the Tel Aviv IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv called the Curia and he had to go down to the shelter doing that rocket fire now as we mentioned there was the opening day of the Knesset the winter session the debut of the new Israeli government the emergency unity war government we heard from both Prime Minister Netanyahu and the opposition leader Yashatid party leader Yael Alpid let's listen to a bit of that and I have a message also to the don't test us in the north don't repeat the mistake humans made because today the price you're going to pay is going to be much much heavier President Biden said in English don't do it and I say to you the same in Hebrew beware this long time mistake will not repeat itself you cannot live side by side of a murderous terrorist organization there's only one way it can end we are going to bring back our hostages and there will be no Habas in Gaza it's going to take time it's going to necessitate us to use a lot of force if the world doesn't like it well it won't like it the children of the world were not murdered it's our children who were murdered I just want to update on a report that appeared in the U.S. publication The Held in Brussels official John Kirby saying that the being quoted as saying the Egyptians or saying that the Egyptians have to be willing to have the rafiah gate open the border from Gaza into Sinai on the Egyptian side and have a flow of human traffic to get through that and we're in discussions with them about what that could look like so even though publicly Egyptians have said that they would not be willing in any circumstances to allow that it appears that there is some discussion about that and Joseph we're going out to break in a couple of minutes on that theme of unity there in the Knesset today there's still an opposition but at least on one goal as you said before both government and opposition seem focused on one goal and united on that one goal although there was a disturbing moment when there was a moment one minute of silence for for the people who were killed and butchered by Hamas the Arab party the members of Knesset decided to abandon it and go out of the parliament despicable and I'm ashamed that they are part of my community all right but as you said many as you're hearing different views in that many different views among the public the majority of the Arab society that they think otherwise 100% all right Joseph Haddad vouch for each other as your CEO and of course anyone who follows media and Israel on social media and general media knows your presence there we're going to go out for a break but just briefly update you of course I've had this evening rocket attack on central Israel on Tel Aviv we do have the US Secretary of State Blinken meeting now in Likuria there is a security cabinet meeting also taking place there now stay with us we'll be back at the top of the hour in just a little over three minutes time with more on our continuing coverage of Israel's battle for its life and for the lives of its citizens against Hamas in the Gaza Strip we'll be right back no surprise the transition to parent-hood can be transformative for anyone with a new baby but what kind of mark is it leaving on the brains of new parents there are dramatic physiological, hormonal and neuronal changes in the body and the brain that accompanies parent-hood much like the changes that happen in the brain when picking up any new skill like learning a new language or mastering at the moment the brain also changes when becoming a parent it's what scientists call experience-induced brain plasticity and Professor Adi Mizrahi is doing some of his own digging into this at the Hebrew University's Edmund and Lilly Safry Centre for Brain Sciences the region of the brain called the amygdala it becomes more sensitive in the mothers when they hear baby sounds in short all these senses get a boost to help a mother interact with her baby smell and sound to very strong stimuli are the areas Professor Mizrahi is focused on in his lab but does father-hood have the same impact on the brain and bodies of men levels of testosterone which is the male hormone which is correlated with male-like behaviors like aggressiveness and things of that sort it goes down when the male becomes parents as Professor Mizrahi says each and every one of us has a parent or two parents most of us will become parents one day and as any new parent knows having a baby provides opportunities for enrichment, learning and stress experiences known to transform the adult brain Israel is at war make an investment in Israel bonds it is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel visit israelbonds.com and invest now 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on i24 news that is victory victory over the Hamas governance and its threat on Israel once and for all welcome to our back to this special broadcast on i24 news I'm Kalev Ben-Divide just that we have some breaking news there are air raid sirens going off just in the last couple of minutes in the Gaza border area communities from that we have had rocket fire throughout the day and we had rocket fire just an hour ago here in central Tel Aviv of course those who were watching saw live interceptions of the iron dome system during that broadcast now we have in studio with us a member of Kineset Danaluz and we have, well before I introduce this guest let me paraphrase just a bit of the introduction among the very first deaths that were made public from that Hamas assault on October 7 was that of Ofir Lipstein head of the Charnegev Regional Council he was killed in a firefight with the terrorists when he rushed out into the ongoing attack to defend his community now he has been eulogized since as a hero, as a dedicated public servant and maybe the biggest compliment as a true mensch we have here in the studio his brother Daron Lipstein thank you for joining us of course Daron first of all a word about your brother he's all soul and he's a leader in his area and representing the country all over the world true Zionist who were voting for peace dedicating his life for peace building industrial centers and working every day to create peace between Israelis and Palestinians in his area a true believer in the future of Israel and the Jewish community and it is said and the circumstances of his death as much as we know I know it was the first first name that I heard first specific name that I heard that came out exactly he was called to save his kibbutz because terrorists arrived from the air he ran into the safe room took his weapon and started to fight and he was fighting something like 50 to 75 terrorists on cars that came into the kibbutz and shot him and he did his best but it was not enough it took hours until the military and the army arrived and we lost few people in our family his mother in law was killed few minutes later his nephew the son of his wife brother was killed in the youth area and his son was missing his funeral is going to be I believe this Wednesday this Wednesday at 4pm and as you can see it's been 10 days until now since we got the formal approval to bury him in Israel and I still hope that his legacy for peace in this area will be the future of our and he certainly made his memory a blessing we should just note that while you were talking were alert sirens going off in that same region along the Gaza border I was there on Wednesday and I saw what's happening and what they have done on one hand tremendous heroism we heard an inspiring story on the other a tremendous loss this country has suffered a huge blow and a huge responsibility on the government to try to steer it now going forward maybe before I speak about that I do want to say that I also met Ophir three weeks ago he showed me around the towns that he was responsible for and I just want to echo what was said by Doron his incredible vision he refused to live in a place where the terrorists dictated how they lived and so he wanted to create community centers he wanted to create life student activities is actually a college there and so he had student activities he really had even bike paths that took me because there were even bike paths that you don't usually see in these types of communities but it was important for him for there to be quality of life and he also had a vision for peace and me and him worked in the same political side right but first of all he had a lot of vision of peace for internally with an Israeli worked with everyone from both sides but also when it comes to peace with the people from Gaza he actually he didn't have any illusions about Hamas right he knew who they were but he was as I think you tried to say he wanted to create an industrial center where people from Gaza could come and make a good living and then go back in order to try and create cooperation and this vision for peace was really really incredible and something that might interest people from the diaspora jury that might be listening right now he was hoping to retire from public service in the next few years I think in another five years he said and to dedicate his life to education of the Jewish diaspora Zionist education for the Jewish diaspora I told Doron if I may say here also that I want to try to find to find a way for his legacy to be remembered in that subject it was something that was incredibly important for him the connection between Jews in the diaspora and Israel and I hope that we find a way really to remember his legacy and I'm going to come back to you on the government a bit I do want to jump up to our correspondent who is on the northern border Robert Swift Robert are you there because there are some reports of some of the sounds of at least fire in that area along the northern frontier what can you tell us that's correct first if we look at the Damascus area where it's been reported that there has been airstrikes airstrikes that are being attributed to Israel Syrian air defenses are understood to have fired and four days ago there was airstrikes against Damascus airport and against Aleppo airport both of which were attributed to Israel there's some speculation that this may be attempts by the Israeli military to intercept weapons shipments as they come from Iran through Syria and to Hezbollah now here on the border itself there's been reports in the last hour of possible infiltration around the community of Matula that's one of the communities that have been evacuated today and there have been a number of security incidences there for the past several days there's reports of explosions there but the actual possible infiltration has not been confirmed and I could also say that ourselves we witnessed from where we're standing a series of explosions also about half an hour ago which appeared to be further to the west Matula is on the far eastern end of Israel's northern border and we're a lot closer to the western end and witnessed several explosions which appeared to possibly be artillery in the air that's the situation at the moment all right, Robert Swift there in northern Israel we're purposely not giving his exact location for obvious reasons let me go back to Dan this was the first day in the Knesset first with the session for this new emergency unity government obviously there's going to have to be a reckoning for the government for what happened last weekend but that's going to come later in the meantime the question is moving ahead is the challenge is facing this government now on two levels both in engaging the war in Gaza but also dealing with the situation of those Israelis for example who are living in those communities along the Gaza border who have been living in the on the northern Lebanese border we're hearing calls now about Ashkelon the people of Ashkelon saying this new government going to be able to function and meet those challenges on both those levels listen the unity in the people of Israel has never been as great as it is today everyone from all parties is really engaged in trying to defeat this horrible enemy whose face was unveiled and where I'm talking of course about Hamas an enemy that reminds us of the worst types of regimes that the world has ever seen we're comparing it to ISIS I think it also reminds us of pictures we've seen in the Holocaust and things that the Nazis would do and this is exactly the type of regime that we need to fight and the only way to fight this type of regime is just to eliminate it and I'm talking of course about the regime Israel is a law abiding country we abide by international law we'll continue to do that but when we're talking about the regime of Hamas this is the only option we have on the table because there's no other way for Israel to move forward and so this is something we owe our people and this is something that we will do this is something that the Prime Minister said again today and the whole people of Israel the opposition leader also right now Yair Lapid who didn't join the coalition said the same message the whole people of Israel is united in this sense and this sense of unity is felt in the battlefield you have soldiers from merits and soldiers that voted for Ben Gvir that are fighting side by side and everyone in the middle of course that are fighting side by side against this common enemy and I think that the western world also is quite united in this when saw this enemy when it comes to the actual citizens of Israel and some of the problems that we have seen because I mean we have to say to be honest we were surprised with this action and also the extent of the destruction is something that Israel didn't know before the amount of people that were dead and there's still some people that are waiting to hear what happened to their families I want to say from here that's the people that work in these places to identify the dead and when it comes to the home front they're working day and night they're working very hard and they deserve our credit they're doing everything they can in order to get to results and I believe we will get to the question of economic aid and for the relocation on the communities that's on the governmental level that's going to happen I support of course giving help to people who have gone through this tragedy or who are affected through this tragedy whether it's because they were asked to leave their homes of course they need to be compensated the government asks you to leave your home then you need to be compensated for that and again politics you need to get to discussions before you get to a decision it's normal I know that there were discussions and committees right now I believe we'll get to decisions quite quickly because everyone understands the urgency of this all united and trying to there's no opposition coalition just on paper some of those discussions were understandably heated in the Knesset today I mean let me let me ask you what would your brothers say what would he be asking I could ask you just what you'd be asking for if he was here with us now as the head of the Shahr and Egev regional council what would he be telling the government right now so the first thing he will say is those people that over there needs a security this is number one they will not go back before we take care of the Hamas to the same situation that they had to experience for 20 years now and this is very important because if they are not there then Ashkelon is the one to get the heat and if they are not there then so this is now the problem of everyone and I agree with you we are united and the solution so far came from people from citizens I think that the government is a little bit behind aftershock what we call and citizens are helping each other and are giving hands and it's amazing how much support we received from other people from regular soldiers that were in the kibbutz and told us what is happening and searched for my brother and for the son of my brother and I think that this is one area that we are all united in our goals and what we need to do in order to live in peace in Israel the second way is to have a vision for the future what we would like to have here after the winning of this war and it is clear that we will win but we want to live in peace after that this is where I think that we still need to define kind of the new purpose of Israel what we want what people are calling the day after but obviously the focus is now winning the war but yes there will have to be thinking going towards the day after now you spoke about the support that's been given this sport also coming from outside from Jewish communities from supporters and from the United States especially we have here Secretary of State Blinken who is right now I believe in the IDF headquarters on Tel Aviv the defense secretary Lloyd Austin talk of President Biden coming to Israel perhaps Wednesday that has been confirmed our reporter says it's still under discussion that would be quite a trip so there's no question that the US has thrown its full support buying Israel's war with Hamas but we have to ask what exactly that entails and what would be the initial cost for Israel perhaps in the future of determining policy well our correspondent Ari Levin-Waldman takes a look at what America has brought to bear in the Gaza conflict a US carrier strike group carries enough firepower to level a small nation the Biden administration has sent two of them to the Mediterranean as a show of force to support Israel we move to US carrier fleet to the eastern Mediterranean and that region and made it clear made it clear to the Iranians be careful each strike group has close to 70 warplanes thousands of troops and a host of missile support boats and destroyers the United States has made its interest clear this war between Israel and Hamas's murderers must not escalate into a full regional war America's credibility is on the side proving it is still a major player in the Middle East and will back its allies when the worst happens it's also a message to Russia and China to keep out of the region what we're actually doing including the deployment of these aircraft carrier battle groups again not to provoke anyone but to send a very clear message of deterrence that no one should do anything that widens this conflict in any way against Israel from any other direction the United States has also thrown the might of its arms industry behind Israel with rapid resupplies of ammunition we heard from what the Israeli leaders about what is needed and in munitions we heard about precision guided bombs we heard about iron dome replacement we heard about 155 millimeter mortars we heard about JDAMs and many other things and not just munitions the diplomatically support Israel and maintains a crucial security council veto to keep the UN in line but this support comes with a diplomatic bottom line a set of lines Israel must not cross the Biden administration has demanded Israel lift the siege of Gaza and restore water to the strip something Israel has done despite Hamas's atrocities the US says Israel must minimize civilian casualties and should not re-occupy Gaza and maintain the ability for a two state solution going forward restraint may be a bitter pill for Israelis still shocked by the brutal massacre of Israeli civilians but American support will be critical on the battlefield and beyond I just want to clarify according to reports Israel has restored the supply of water to the southern Gaza strip which it has urged the civilian population in the southern half of Gaza to seek refuge in the southern half of the Gaza strip reports of course we've seen confirmed of Hamas terrorists trying to prevent many of those civilians from seeking shelter down there Dan so let me ask you to respond first of all the US the support has been remarkable that is by the way the map was showing the red line there in Gaza is where the population go the US has been supporting that deserves comment but again as our correspondent says the US is also for example I won't say demanded but has is working towards ensure for example with Egypt this humanitarian quarter it's talking about ceasefire so this government is going to have a very difficult task of balancing keeping the support of the US while trying to carry out its aims and meeting while meeting those demands or conditions but sensitivities of the US listen I think you're right in the first section of what you said that the US support was absolutely incredible it's true that in the past the current coalition not the current the previous coalition and the Biden administration sometimes had respectful disagreements but he completely stepped up he's a friend of Israel he made it clear his support is heartwarming and you can also see that it comes from his heart and I want to say also to the American people that we also see that the support is beyond partisan lines we see it on both sides and it's heartwarming to see it from both sides after saying this I'm not sure that I agree with the equation that you posed because Israel wants to follow international law Biden request that we follow international law because the United States it's a fact that they have put pressure on Israel in the past in terms of certain aims in the Gaza strip going at certain places you can really just tell me if we start seeing those pictures of and there will be civilian deaths that is what happens when you're fighting an enemy and they will but when they do that there will be mounting international pressure that might have political impact in the United States even on President Biden you're definitely right I believe that at the end we're hearing very clear messages from Biden that he will let Israel defend itself and that he accepts Israel's mission to remove Hamas completely understand that Hamas is like ISIS Hamas's actions that we saw remind us of images that we saw in the Holocaust and therefore this type of regime is not a regime that you can negotiate with it's not a regime that you can accept it's not a regime that you can weaken it's a regime that you have to eliminate and the way to do this we must do it according to international law we want to do it according to international law but we have to do it aggressively by the way not just because of Hamas but because our actions have to ring very clearly also in Lebanon and in Tehran in order to make sure that these things don't happen again in the future so we'll do it clearly we'll do it according to international law aggressively if there will be disagreements with the United States I think that they will be within this context where we both are committed to international law and therefore I think that there will be disagreements that we will know how to manage they might happen they will probably happen even I'm willing to say but we'll be able to manage them because we're two countries that are dedicated to the international law all right I'll come back in a minute Tehran I do want to go back to Sterot because and our correspondent Jonathan Regev and Jonathan it looks like even though even though Sterot may be a ghost town it looks like Hamas still considers it a prime target yes and I read an alert Siren about 10-15 minutes ago first one we've heard in hours and we're hearing of a direct impact in a house here in the city no casualties which makes sense since practically all of the homes here are deserted so no injuries as far as we're hearing but yes a direct hit in the city what is happening here is true for all of the Gaza border communities they're all practically deserted and yet there are constant barrages here we have to say that among all of the Gaza border communities Ashkelon is the one mostly targeted especially now at this time since Ashkelon with more than 100,000 people living there even if there are mass evacuations there's still a large number of people still in the city that is why Ashkelon is targeted more than Sterot more than the Gaza border communities but they're not spared themselves as we just heard here 10 minutes ago all right Jonathan Regev there and Sterot thank you for that Don I do want to go back to you because we had to go still I wanted to say that my brother used to quote Einstein who said there's no necessity to do the same thing and hope for different results and air strikes and what we're doing right now was something that we did for many years this is the time to do something different something smart something that will protect our citizens and will replace the Hamas regime this evil force let me ask you about the miracles that is seeing already we're seeing and there are going to be civilian casualties we reported on them here but those who are framing it in the still in the context of Hamas as a fighting a war of liberation your brother was and people like that wanted to live in peace with Gaza and I would say so many of the people I know a prominent peace activist Vivian Silver who was in Gaza we think me have been taken into hostage in Gaza and so certainly that message has to get out about people like your brother becoming victims while trying and promoting a kind of coexistence with the people of Gaza this is what unites us all I saw a quote says free Palestine from Hamas right and this is the only thing that will help the civilians the good people in Gaza to help us free themselves from Hamas because those are minorities who control them and make them hostage like our hostage people and this is the time to really clean this area and make it a better place to live in for them and for us Dan we have about 30 seconds so I do want to give you a final response about peace active is the party in which most people a large number of the people were killed was a party that was actually right next to Gaza and calling for peace people were dancing for peace and so this is the part in where so many of the people got killed the people that speak about that narrative forget one very basic fact which is important civilians do get killed in wars but Israel does everything it can to spare civilians on the other side everything we see it right now when it's calling for people to move to southern Gaza the Hamas target civilians they targeted Ophir unfortunately who's a civilian but they target always civilians and even as you speak and there's rockets that are coming remember that every single one of these rockets the goal of Hamas is to kill civilians with these rockets women children elderly civilians and so that's the main difference between Israel and Hamas. Alright Dan is a member of Knesset of the Likud body and Daron Lipstein Lipstein I'll remind the brothers funeral that will be held this Wednesday stay with us on I-24 news we're just going out for a brief break we'll be back in about three minutes with more of our coverage of Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip www.madeforme.co.il Made for me official dresser of I-24 news Good evening ladies and gentlemen is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking more than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped help us we don't know what to do we just don't know anything including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity I started working on I-24 news in 2013 that same year as part of the documentary series the reportage inside I traveled to Argentina to interview Fiscal Alberto Nisman who had determined in constitutional memorandum of understanding between Argentina and Iran signed by the ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner who was related to the attack on the AMIA in 1994 which left a salary of 85 dead and more than 100 injured all the material we worked on on January 18, 2015 an impactant event occurred Fiscal Alberto Nisman was found dead in the bathroom of his apartment in the head and what everyone was asking was a suicide or an homicide the Supreme Argentine Court dictated that it was a murder the only solution is to bring them here what is behind this so interesting story a terrorist movement international constellations search for the truth will we ever know the truth? in the last 7 years for the magazine News24 in Spanish which is broadcast on I24 News I made more than 40 reports related to the issue AMIA Nisman Iran a topic that has all the documents for an international channel of news like I24 News keep investigating until one day the truth will be revealed in the Gaza Strip just some updates we have had a flurry of rocket sirens and attacks both in the Gaza border area city of Ashkelon and here in Tel Aviv as well we even heard the we just got to see live on air the interceptions by the Ayan Dome also reports of fire across Lebanon border this evening we don't have any detailed information on that so it was a day of military activity here in Israel and in Gaza and it was also a day of political and diplomatic activity Secretary of State Anthony Blinken here I believe he's still here US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was here I believe he has now left the country and of course the opening of the Knesset Winter Session, the parliament with the first time the new government emergency unity government in place joining us in studio in Mayar from a deputy head of the Israeli National Security Council and director of command is for Israel Security and Owen Altman, our senior diplomatic correspondent there's so much to go on so many multiple fronts to talk about let's just talk about the current situation in Gaza Israel continuing its air campaign the question on everybody's mind is when will that goal have been achieved what would be the goal of that air campaign what would trigger for example the next stage of the war which we've already heard from the government would be on three fronts land, sea and air the operation itself had started already what we see air strikes this is part of the operation itself it's some kind of first step before sending ground troops into the area ground troops will go in depends on different questions first of all the results of the air strikes secondly the diplomatic circumstances and there are many many other issues that are part of the decision makers decisions when exactly it will happen more than it there is a question mark about to which areas ground troops will go in the prime minister said already that there are three main goals to the bigger operation first of all to get rid of the Hamas governing Gaza the second one is to make sure that the Hamas will not have any operational military capabilities and the third one and it's not according to this line it's to try to find the people that were kidnapped into Gaza in the minute that the authorities will realize that everything is ready including you know they train the soldiers that are going in they will give the order to send ground troops I would add to it that some ground troops are already in Gaza but for now it's not well have made incursions into Gaza occupying permanent areas of Gaza no I didn't use the term occupied I used the term went in we don't speak about tanks we don't speak about heavy vehicles but some special forces were there already and I believe that the other units that make sure that once we go in we'll have good enough information for it gentlemen we're going to come back to this discussion in studio but since we are talking about what is happening down there the military side let's jump down to southern Israel and speak with one of the soldiers who's taking part in these military preparations we've been talking about he is reserve staff sergeant Idan from the Golan we cannot for security reasons identify him more than that Idan thank you for joining us first of all I want to tell you you've made you've done some traveling a little bit lately maybe just explain how is it what brought you down there your path to southern Israel now and back in your uniform first thanks to having me so the thing is that on the chat but I just see on Telegram lots of video where why are we done where are you I actually live in Mexico in the past two years I live there and I just opened my phone for me on normal day checking and getting so much message on Telegram and I start to see horrific stuff horrific video unbelievable things that I will never be able to think that can happen I start to see on my group from the reserve that everyone have to come as fast as they can to the base so it was what we call here in Hebrew that's an emergency call from the army so when I see that I had the opportunity not to come but I was feeling that I have to because first that's my team that's the people that I've been with them all the army and then after in the reserve some part of them so I jump on the first lane that I find that's the place after that I take the first flight straight to Paris when I arrive in Paris I didn't have any flight to Tel Aviv yet so then I start to check the contact contact of contact and then I get some phone call to call Elal because it was I think the only company that fly there at the time so after I negotiate about 5 hours with lots of different people from the security, from Elal from everyone I get the opportunity to enter straight to the plane but I was on the seat bit the seat of the of the flight attendant and then after during the flight they find me a seat normal seat and then I arrive in less than 30 hours to Israel, 6 hours after I was at my unit base where I get my arms and the rest of my my package, my arm the best then I arrive straight to my unit in the south then we start with the military Let me ask you something, Golani is famous for its fighting spirit in the IDF but it suffered a blow on last weekend many of the soldiers that fallen were Golani I don't know what the situation is with your particular unit but how is the morale, the spirit among you and your comrades and arms there There is something in Golani that I don't know if you can find in any other brigade especially in the Israeli army is that we are always ready we've been trained to be ready all the time no matter what so the morale is ready high happy I don't think is award but ready I think is the award I do want to ask you Adhan you know that you're facing without going to specifics which of course you can't but you're facing the IDF is facing an unprecedented challenge now in Gaza there is a determination to in a sense sort of finish the job you talked about Golani individually I believe you're someone you were an immigrant to France you came to Israel if I'm correct about that and I want to just ask your feelings now on the eve of what could be a very serious operation there First of all I've born in Israel it's true I grew up but I made Aliyah when I was 18 so I came back when and I always feel a lot more Israeli than French so it's complicated to answer you about that then about the the future I cannot say anything I don't know but I can say I want things we're ready to do what we have to do All right Staff Sergeant Idan whatever it is you're going to do we wish you a safe return back to home and we wish you all you and all your comrades safe return good luck Thank you The fighting spirit of the Golani and of the IDF still there even though we have to say the army and the Israeli society suffered a tremendous blow I think that most of the Israeli population part of some kind of depression these days based on what happened mainly because of the fact that it was a huge surprise and of course the figures of people that lost their life and people that are still missing it's some kind of a shock to the whole Israeli society but I think that there are some benefits even and the main benefit is that now going into operation hopefully we will not have to go to an operation in Lebanon as well but the military and the civilians are ready now to do the job without any question because after the Israeli population the Israeli soldiers are part of it so the results of the Hamas the last Hamas attack there is no doubt there is only one thing that needs to be done is to make sure that nobody in the future will be able and will have any kind of capabilities to hit the Israeli population again We've been talking about the military side of things but of course the government the civilian government has to direct that military you were in the Knesset today where this new emergency unity government made its debut on the parliamentary stage what was your impression and what was the morale of the spirit there in the Knesset what you saw well first of all very different than the standard this was the opening of the Knesset's winter session which by the way Kalev if you think back just a month ago was supposed to be a tumultuous event for an entirely different set of reasons think about the protests we were expecting this was the winter session that was going to kick off a new drive potentially on judicial overhaul legislations and all the protest of course none of that was there and on the other hand the opening of a Knesset session is a festive affair all 120 members of Knesset are usually there they're often banned not always at the level of the swearing into a new Knesset we've seen plenty of those in recent years because of our elections but even so the opening of a new session is a festive event none of that today none of that today there was only the formal opening inside the plenum and the speeches as required by law and then the building down and the members of Knesset went home you are leaving something important that would have ruled that festive atmosphere and also even if it had been there of course we had two sirens while we were there and all of us including the members of Knesset themselves walked out of the plenum and we're in the hall next to nearby so you see all of them including the ministers in many cases the members of Knesset members of the media the parliamentary assistants and stuff all of us milling around right for 10 minutes while we waited for it to go on it happened during the business of the of the winter session opening during the plenum right so members of parliament they're at the podium had to step down so another surreal moment and one would imagine of course this was a picture that Hamas wanted the world to see although on the other hand of course dramatizes the difference Hamas firing rockets at a billion population centers turning on the business of democracy we are getting some sirens quite close to us gentlemen now we're hearing that there are sirens in Tel Aviv our staff members I'm going on coming to you now live while the air raid sirens are ringing out in Tel Aviv we will stay in the studio and continue to broadcast sirens all over in both Tel Aviv and some of the neighboring communities such as Bat Yam, Halon often just minutes after the sirens go off we sometimes hear the booms of either rocket interceptions or unfortunately sometimes impact of rockets hitting the ground we will bring you any updates as that happened in Amar this new government many different features from previous governments where you have to go back quite a ways to perhaps define it one of them is this new war cabinet that has been established three men talking about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was a former senior top senior commander of the IDF and Benny Gantz the former chief of staff and defense minister plenty of experience there is this formation of the government going to be sufficient to carry out the operation with the goals that you've described that you've set out I think that this kind of new organization if I may means that these five people it's not only three of them we're hearing I'm just going to interrupt you there we just heard the sound three booms of some three booms we're looking at a live feed of the skyline of the Tel Aviv area I'm not seeing usually sometimes we see at least the iron dome interceptors go up but probably already had I should say it's also with some cloudy there's some clouds out tonight so we'll bring you more information as we have it we have just heard two or three booms might have been interceptions sounded like interceptions you probably know so certainly interceptions so that would be good news we'll bring you any more are you interrupted by this these five people two of them are observers I should mention it doesn't matter because this kind of a crew it's not a formal one they don't have any legal authorities are in the hand of the subcommittee the cabinet subcommittee for security and foreign affairs and that organization what we call the cabinet the defense cabinet took almost the only decision that they need to take formally and this is the decision to declare a war once it was done already the five people it doesn't matter who are the three that formally have to vote and the other two don't take the legal one they as a group are the best five people that we have in Israel to lead such kind of operation but having said that they will deal with the security and defense operation I think that we need to mention that the other half of the story is the whole scene of the civilian activities and I'm not so sure that the government is doing the right job on that. Well, let me ask because there were some heated scenes in the some of the committee meetings some of the mayors for example mayor of Ashkelon some harsh charges against the government I'm not talking about what happened last Saturday but what's happened even in the days since then how the government has reacted to dealing with those what we call frontline communities and having to deal with even what we're dealing with here tonight. Yeah, obviously a lot of disagreements about who should be compensated how how quickly and it's going to take a long time for this to be sorted out and by the who should run it and how it should be managed these are operations that correct if I'm wrong each of our don't really ever just want to interrupt these those aren't visuals of the interception that was a tell of it just a short minute ago I'm sorry. Of course I don't know that has any precedent really on this scope of this substance. Kaleb it's the fact that so many people in Israel just don't feel like the government is in touch it took so many ministers so long to actually go and visit the communities that were hit by the massacres and there's just a sense that the government isn't stepping up the way the military isn't the civil society is by the way a couple points about the speeches themselves inside the plan and because again by law the prime minister speak the speaker of the parliament of the president the prime minister and a different kind of atmosphere usually in an atmosphere like that we have we have members of parliament calling out in the middle of the speeches essentially taunting the person on stage and argument of course none of that today there was a kind of unity of purpose between Netanyahu's speech and Lapid's speech and we did hear Netanyahu I think for the sharpest coming words coming out of his mouth about the definable measurable objective of this war to end the Hamas control over the Gaza Strip it's something that Netanyahu personally I think is saying for a long time maybe because it's going to be hard to achieve and he didn't want to commit himself to achieving it but I personally think that taking that step and actually making a definable measurable commitment to the public is really really important to win to win back public trust also it actually came from opposition leader Yair Lapid I think it's going to be interesting for foreign viewers to hear this saying point blank very bluntly that Israel should ignore international public opinion what did Lapid say in his first phrasing but not too far away from the actual quote it was our children who were killed it was our children who were massacred and it's we who have the obligation and the need to take the steps that we feel we need to take to change the situation even if the world doesn't like it I actually asked the chairman of the foreign affairs and defense committee Yuli Edelstein afterwards about that and he had a much more nuanced answer saying essentially on the one hand that's true on the other hand Israel is a very broad reality listen and be attentive to international public opinion and particularly the views of Israel's close allies and partners of course the United States foremost among them so there is this debate that's getting started among the politicians and within Israeli society it's a wrenching debate because people here feel so very strongly and so fearful and so vulnerable and so angry and so determined to take action to take care of those of those emotions but at the same time Israel's going to have to meet and take it to account in terms of planning the military operations and all the rest. At a moment I want to come to you in a minute I just want to jump down to Ashkelon and our Mary McAuliffe she's at Barzoloi hospital I don't know from that vantage point if you can see the rockets going over Mary I should report we had these rockets intercepted above Tel Aviv no reports of injuries or the rockets landing but certainly we've just been discussing Ashkelon and certainly many people are leaving the city but it now calls and perhaps calling for a total evacuation of a city of over 100,000 people that's right Kolev we're beginning to hear much more from the local government here in the city calling for more aid from the central Israeli government who were supposed to have been evacuated the same they should be evacuated from the city they continue to have so many residents throughout the city having to duck for cover to go into bomb shelters throughout the day four different times throughout the day from the morning until this evening and they said that only 40% of people in the city are still living and they don't have shelters in their houses which means they have nowhere really safe to run to they just go to the stairs well in the bottom of their buildings but many residents are still very fearful and very scared living here and so they're calling for more aid from the central government to help them and not just to evacuate them to call for that evacuation order but to also give them some of the hotels in the north the central Tel Aviv and other areas that are a bit safer for them to live to and also these grants that I've been giving to members of the Gazan border community they're saying we're just four miles from the Gazan border here so how is this not considered a Gazan border community? All right Mary McCall up there at Basel Le Haas when I said thank you for that and then I want to go back because you wanted to weigh in on this issue of the role of the United States in doing casualties in Gaza accelerate and Israel has to take this war to the next stage how far will America that support go from the United States? I don't know about the American support I can speak about the way how Israel see the international community view about it including the US I can't believe that the head of the opposition have said or the public opinion worldwide or we don't take by consideration what the foreign government think about it I think that he meant even if he said something similar to it that we will take it by consideration but in the end of the day Israel will have to take the decisions that we believe are the best decisions for our national security and when we speak about the results of this operation we don't speak only about the short term the situation we don't speak only about achieving something that will exist for the next few months we understand now that what we saw from the Hamas it's something absolutely different and the results and the conclusion is that we can't live again with military capability next to our border and it means that the only solution that we can have and we can achieve is to get rid of the Hamas military capability and to make sure that the Hamas will not control the Gaza Strip and the priority list when you discuss all the elements before taking decisions the view from the outside view is part of it but it will not be the leading part just to get the exact quote I've been able to pull it out about the chance I have to hold this a bit close to my face if the world won't like it so it won't like it it's not the children of the world who were murdered our children were murdered okay right well I brought to mind a little by David Ben-Gurion's famous comment Um Shmoom Um being the Hebrew word for the UN it's certainly part of the Israeli mentality for decades this war in particular is going to bring this question to a head if it already has right but of course by the way speaking of the United States reports in the Israeli media that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was in the Curious still here in Tel Aviv doing this list alert and he had to again take shelter but of course it's the US it's really the US's opinion it's even more than it you know we hear information that President Biden might come we've reported been reporting that on Wednesday and this is something important why because it means that he comes to make sure that the Israeli activities will follow the American policy as well it's kind of a polite way to make sure that we take the American view at least by consideration I want to thank Reserves IDF Colonel Itamar Yer for joining us and of course our senior correspondent Owen Altman we want to leave with a little bit of a different look here because we've talked about the international attention the war here in Israel is gaining it's also sparking social media debates in many areas including among celebrities the entertainment field and internationally known athletes now some are using their platform to promote peace well others to promote propaganda on a cult set it breaks down how the war is impacting even the global world of sports as a war rages between Israel and Hamas the worldwide sporting arena is becoming a battle ground of its own famous athletes are taking a stance in the brutal massacre of Israeli civilians and the following attacks by Israel in the Gaza Strip Tunisian tennis star took to Instagram posting a story stating what Palestinians have been going through during the last 75 years is indescribable and ending her post with the hashtag free palestine this sparked a strong response by the Israel tennis association blaming Jebore for supporting a quote murderous terrorist organization she's not the only athlete in the line of fire Real Madrid legend Karim Benzema sparking flames with his post on X all our prayers for the inhabitants of Gaza who are once again victims of these unjust bombings which spare no women or children former Israeli goalkeeper Doudou Await responding to Benzema in five languages Hebrew, Arabic, French, Spanish and English calling Benzema a quote big son of a bee and while a war of words has broken out between athletes off the field some organizations are speaking out the NBA as a whole posting their solidarity for the people of Israel boxing champion Floyd Mayweather is even going beyond empty words on social media sending his private plane to Israel full of food protective vests and critical supplies for Israeli soldiers according to a source close to Mayweather a clear sign of solidarity with the Jewish people and it's the war between Hamas and Israel escalates it will be telling to see which athletes use their platform for peace and which just add fuel to the social media fire that wraps it up for me today but please stay with I-24 News we'll be back in about three minutes with our live coverage of Israel's war against Hamas it's fight for its life and it's fight for the lives of its citizens stay with us Israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped help us we don't want to do it we just don't know anything entire families including babies children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity this particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt we'll be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year the global is affecting Bolivia not only Bolivia but the whole world and we need rain for the embryos Vakita reserve we have to write ingredients and we have to do the job and that if we have the right ingredients and we do the job that the Vakita can be protected come to the special broadcast here on I-24 News we continue our rolling coverage day 10 of the war that was forced Hamas terror the opening of the Israeli parliament's winter session today began with a minute of silence commemorating over 1400 Israelis who were slaughtered and was also interrupted twice due to rocket fire towards Jerusalem and central Israel one of many barrages of rockets today the latest one only short minutes ago in the north Hezbollah opening fire and idea of positions who in turn attack the source of the shooting in Lebanon underlining the question on Hezbollah's desire to get in or stay out meanwhile the IDF continues to get ready for ground operation and the Gaza Strip while dozens of Hamas military headquarters and water launch positions were destroyed by air the head of Hamas intelligence in the Hanunas Brigade eliminated but with Hamas leaders knowing they are dead men walking will it make them even more radical than they are well judging by the fact that they are actively preventing Gaza civilians from evacuating despite idea of please that seems to be the case and more so in relation to the battle to freeze really hostages 199 families officially notified their loved ones are held captive in the Gaza Strip all of this maybe no boots on the ground but yes feet on the ground US President Joe Biden might very well Israel as soon as the day after tomorrow but where a clear line of light is drawn evil begins before we get here in studio with all the analysis we start a broadcast in the field we're heading to our Mary McAuliffe down south in the city of Ashkelon Mary airstrikes are seen as you know the pre-gaming so to speak IDF forces ready to go but it might take a bit longer meanwhile the home front command as we call it the battle over the lives of so many people who are injured during the massacres Saturday continue so the fight for life on all fronts that's right Ellie so we're here at Barsley hospital in Ashkelon it's just over four miles from the Gaza border and of course that means it is the main hospital to receive patients coming from those border community areas as well as of course from those attacks that happened well over a week ago we're here in Ashkelon we've heard a number of different rocket sirens overhead throughout the day this has been the situation for residents in the city ever since this began 10 days ago continuing to run to shelters and continuing here at the hospital we continue to see the hospital staff working really around the clock to try and provide care to some of these residents here eight Ashkelon residents who are still hospitalized in serious condition here three people have died here in the city but as these hospital workers continue to work around the clock to try and save lives dealing with both soldiers as well as just residents and civilians most of them civilians here there are a number of people in this area who have also been trying to lift the spirits and to provide some comforts we'll go over here and show you they're bringing food and we'll bring you and talk to one of the residents here he is a British citizen but a resident of Ashkelon for a long time now and so just tell me this is Jeff tell me exactly what you're doing here why did you come out to the hospital well I realized that I had to do something to help here obviously I'm 50 years too old to be on the front line but then this was the next best thing to come down here and give some back up to the report to the military the staff in the hospital the ambulance crews it was I realized I had to do it I couldn't sit at home not do anything I decided to stay in Ashkelon and not to go back to the UK at the start of the war Israel's made me very welcome I've been here I've built up a lot of loyalty to Israel and it was the only thing to do I couldn't have lived with myself if I'd gone home it's really amazing what you all are doing and we can attest to it we've seen the impact that you guys have had just being here to providing food and providing coffee and tea to all the workers and the injured patients here some now the mayor here in Ashkelon is calling on the government to try and evacuate all the residents to have them flee to safer parts of the country do you want to leave or do you think they should stay here I certainly don't want to leave that's a very difficult question to answer without any thought but obviously none of us knows what's going to happen over the next few days or the next week or so but I would have thought the thing to do is to stay that we should stay and carry on doing what we're doing thank you so much Jeff so that's just one of the many voices who are here in the city and one of the many residents who are saying we don't plan to leave despite the sirens Mary McAuliffe down south at the Sorocco hospital in the Barzilla hospital excuse me in the city of Ashkelon the desire to life is stronger than all else thank you very much for this Mary McAuliffe we're staying down south moving to the city of Sderot more or less military zone at this point in time I-24 New Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regev standing by there Jonathan the targeted killings continue targeted assassination still in slow pace but it is clear that this is high on the Israeli to-do list that's correct every time that a Hamas official pops up from the underground Gaza basements and tunnels where they are they're killed but it's clear that the highest ranking officials are still there and it seems they have no intention of popping up the cause of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza I think they were way too premature and if they're true for Gaza itself they're especially true for the underground Gaza the people there have enough fuel enough electricity enough water they can stay there for weeks and weeks and here in Sderot just about an hour ago took another direct hit we can still see the remains of what has happened here last Saturday for example this truck right here behind me as you can see just parked outside and you can see the various bullets that have hit its back part there you can see it and this is one of many cars we've been driving around the city of Sderot all day and it's as difficult as it is to say it this is a common sight many cars and trucks and homes in Sderot look like this a reminder to the terrible terrible massacre this city and the surrounding communities witnessed just over a week ago and Jonathan briefly before we let you go I think that we need to meet our terminology to an extent because as we speak there are tens of thousands of Israelis displaced refugees in their own country and we're hearing those terms of refugees displaced in the context of what is happening on the other side of the border and we'll get back to that in a second here in studio but we need to stress tens of thousands of Israelis refugees Exactly and we're constantly hearing about Palestinian refugees a tragedy we all agree we don't want to see anyone misplaced but I don't see anyone in the world speaking about Israeli refugees and there are hundreds of thousands of them because from the northern southern communities where we are and the northern communities where everybody up to two kilometers from the Lebanon border had to be displaced no one ignited the war here in Sderot or in the other southern communities or in the northern communities on the other side and people have needed to flee their homes and there are now refugees let's see someone in the world speak about it I don't hold your breath Exactly Jonathan we are not holding our breath we keep on going that's the only way thank you very much and joining us now here in studio Major General in the reserves Mr. Eitan Dango coordinator of government activities in the Palestinian territories Mr. Dango thank you as always for joining us I do want us to talk about the IDF essentially begging no other way to put it begging Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to relocate to move to evacuate themselves and Hamas actively preventing them from doing so some report that they're even taking their car keys and that obligates to do so and Cairo is not budging so how do you see this arena evolving first of all it's a very clear direction that we are on a war and on the war you have to behave much more shortly without expanding your activities with all this kind of human talent but according to the law international law concerning wars what has been done is by the IDF is warning the population to evacuate themselves to the south part of Gaza in order to save their life because it's very clear that in the north part of Gaza where we have 1.1 million people who are living it's half of the population of Gaza who are living in the middle of life with the Hamas with the underground tunnels using the rockets and all the tunnels they prepared against centuries of the Israelis it's a mix they are taking the population and are using them as prevent or defend their life in the front human shields you're right what has been as I know for now was published that between to 500,000 people to 600,000 or move to the south or change their place from the north part in this area of Gaza city to schools and places while the international community like UNRA or other kind of movement from the United Nations Red Cross etc can organize themselves and we have a very close contact with my experience with this organization that we know exactly when the most of the population are there but the behavior of Hamas shows one thing Hamas by its defend is where fighting with by in a situation of entering together by make a lot of let's say as we say a carpet of defending themselves fighting etc for many years but according to the fact that the goal of this operation is to destroy Hamas to be active as a terror organization with Jadislamic in the future we are not very important also maybe we will talk later about the goal of this operation I think that we will have to do it in situation that Hamas also preventing the population to move on the other and I want to say that in the last 48 hours the world of human itarian is raising by many people you just made equal to the fact that in Israel thousands of people evoke from their home refugees in their country with a lot of bloodshed some of them under the threat they have now on the north the world is not never will be able to make it balance I think that we will have to continue with this way also by the way in Lebanon we identify and evacuate of population from the south area of Lebanon towards the center or towards Beirut area they have a lot of experience what happened in 2006 as well so for now it looks like Hamas also under pressure because Hamas I think is prepared himself towards such entry of IDF it is not coming yet and I think by the way there is a lot of recommendation so by many experts we can call them to advise when to enter etc the IDF continue with its readiness continue with offensive strike continue to destroy structure of Hezbollah to destroy command and control areas in order to make much and much more easy this hard step of ground movement or deployment in Gaza so what we are seeing now from air is again some sort of pre-gaming ahead of the ground operation but we do need to say that with all humbleness we do not know what Hamas prepared for IDF forces once they are in because Hamas took it into consideration I think that as close as we are towards maybe the next step you see that there is a change by the air strike that is coming to serve this ground operation right okay Major General Dangot here staying with us of course all throughout this broadcast but as we speak the efforts to identify more and more bodies still under way Israeli authorities have placed a death toll from Hamas's deadly rampage last week at 1,400 Israelis but of them only about half have been identified at Israel's medical forensic center dozens of new bodies come in every day in the hope to identify them and bring them to proper burial but as our real answer on reports that 24 news Middle East correspondents some of the corpses are in such horrendous condition that they may never be identified and please beware some of the images that you're about to see are very disturbing It's been nine days since the horrific slaughter in the community surrounding the Gaza Strip and the dust is still settling but at Israel's national medical forensic center examiners are working around the clock to identify as many of the 1,400 bodies and at times it's an impossible task and the remains here are child you cannot see what is there again go another one and this when we separated it we see that two people there at least we don't know how many people are there so these people were sitting in the room and they were not shocked because we don't see any metal fragments there but they were banned because they were not shocked this is like a crematorium they were banned in the security room and this what is actually left from them I don't know if you will be able to take DNA from these samples because they are very child you can see here two spies another one two spies and Dr. Nachman can show and two ribs two sets of ribs and this is an adult with a child sitting together and hug sorry and now he is hugging the child the first one and Dr. Nachman thinks it might this metal wire that you see here might used to try two bodies together and they were banned like this since last Saturday the center's examiners have checked over 950 body bags some have their remains of more than one body of victims from the border communities, the desert music festival and security forces so far there are about 500 bodies that were identified and there are still close to 300 bodies that remain unidentified and new ones keep coming in we are getting samples from the deceased we are sampling them for the right amount of material that we need to extract DNA for then we will use that to create a genetic profile and compare it to the family members who wait for the answers some of the bodies have bullet wounds some also in the hands as the victims were trying to protect themselves in their final moments burnt babies, headless bodies some of the bodies are in such bad condition that they may never be identified so this is a baby mattress but just by addition by the size of the spot it seems that he was bleeding he or she were bleeding in the bed I never saw anything like this